February 3, 2013

Oh well, you can't win 'em all (unless maybe you're Arcadia).

Golden Gate Yacht Club's penultimate race of this winter's Seaweed Soup Series got started an hour late on Saturday. As boats began arriving at the San Francisco Cityfront, a light northerly fluttered flags and registered 2-4 knots on wind instruments. Before the 11:30 warning signal, the race committee hoisted an Answering Pennant to signify a postponement, and things were pretty quiet for about almost an hour while everyone waited for the predicted westerly to fill.

Before and after the race, boats stop at Golden Gate YC for sustenance and beverages, and to collect or drop off crew. Saturday morning, boats tying up to empty docks west of the clubhouse were kicked out by personnel aboard a barge from San Francisco Marina. The racers were told they could only tie up to the new docks east of the club. Which were all strung up with caution tape at trip-wire height. Hopefully the club's commodore and the harbormaster can sort this out. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Suddenly, as if someone threw a big switch, the wind clocked around 90 degrees and piped up to eight knots. The starting sequence began exactly an hour late, and the racers were sent off on a proper windward/leeward course, with three laps for the faster divisions and two for the slower ones. The westerly held its direction, but never built to the predicted 15 knots.

Steve Hocking's Beneteau 45F5 Ohana, in PHRF 3, off on their first beat. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Just one race remains in this series, on March 2, to determine who will win the coveted Seaweed Soup Cup. So far, Gordie Nash's greatly modified Satana 27 Arcadia has won every race in PHRF 4 – Arcadia's throw-out is one point! Tied for points with Arcadia are Frank Morrow's IMX-38 Hawkeye in PHRF 3 and Chris Owen's Mottley in Catalina 34s.

Jim Hoey's B-Line is one of two 1D35s in PHRF 2. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

For complete results of Race 4 and series standings, see www.ggyc.com/race-deck/race-results.

Neal Ruxton's Yankee 30 Jam Jam in PHRF 4. ©2013 norcalsailing.com