Sailing in Flip-Flops

November 12, 2012

You might think that the title of this story refers to sailing footwear. Not so. Saturday on the Berkeley Circle it was what we might loosely term "wind" that was doing flip-flops.

The crew takes a nap on Peaches during the long postponement. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Berkeley YC "race person" Bobbi Tosse reports on their Saturday race:
"After only 1 hour and 45 minutes of chasing cat’s paws (def: 1. A light air that ruffles the surface of the water in irregular patches during a calm), we elected to start the 56 mostly patient yachts on a short 4-mile race. At the time of the first starters, the wind appeared to be coming from about 90-95 degrees. As the start sequence for the nine divisions rolled on, the wind direction also rolled on, clocking right as it proceeded to its ultimate destination of about 240. (Earlier, during the postponement, we had observed directions of 270 through 20. Thus, we can say with certainty that the wind direction on Saturday, November 10, was “variable" (def: a: able or apt to vary: subject to variation or changes. b: fickle, inconstant).

The crew wakes up on Peaches. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

"Since the wind was now from behind the boats as they finished, we were ‘treated’ to a spinnaker finish with the sun directly in our eyes. We missed a couple of the earned first-in-division guns. (You later division speedsters really should be polite and wait for your turn if you want your guns!)

The Express 27 Magic Bus rounds the windward mark. A dozen of them raced on Saturday; four returned on Sunday. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

"The good news is that a race was run, all 56 boats finished, there were winners and losers, and the sun was shining."

A lovely day in Berkeley. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

"All it takes is A LOT of patience and drop marks," said Jeff Zarwell, who was running Saturday's two RegattaPRO races west of the Berkeley Circle. "Eventually you will get in two races – and we did!"

The patient RegattaPRO race committee aboard SYC's Mercury. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Halfway through the upwind leg of RegattaPRO's first race, the chutes came out. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

The biggest fleet for RegattaPRO was the J/105s, with 17 sign-ups and 12 starters. Phillip Labey's Godot came in second in both races, and therefore leads the series by a mere single digit over Walter Stanford's Alchemy, which got a fourth and a first. Six J/24s raced, their numbers bolstered by two Lake Tahoe boats that headed west for the winter. Darren Cumming's Downtown Uproar took two bullets in that division, the same scoring achieved by Dan Hauserman's Melges 24 Personal Puff and John Liebenberg's Antrim 27 Always Friday. The top two (and only) J/120s, Dick Swanson's Grace Dances and John Wimer's Desdemona, are tied for points.

Duane Yoslov's Nothing Ventured raced in the five-boat Melges 24 class. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Leeward weight on Bryce Griffith's Antrim 27Arch Angel. ©2012 norcalsailing.com

Sunday, Bobbi reports, was a different day. BYC runs a second midwinter series on Sundays, which gets about half as many boats as on Saturday.
"The ripples on the water were from real (but very light) wind," said Bobbi. "The 24 entries enjoyed an on-time start and an 8-mile course. The course to the NNW was a little bit reachy, but there were hardly any holes. And, again, the sun was shining. What a super place we all inhabit!"

For full results, see www.berkeleyyc.org/racing/midwinters/index.html and www.regattapro.com/regattas.html.