race report
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 The J/105 Racer X, Catalina 320 Even Keel, and Nonsuch 30 Capo Gatto sail past Alcatraz on the windy white sail reach from Marin to Blossom Rock in Saturday's SSS Corinthian Race. ©2013 norcalsailing.com |
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SSS Corinthian Race and More March 17, 2013 As the fog lifted right before the scheduled start of Saturday's SSS Corinthian Race, the light breeze died in Belvedere Cove. The Singlehanded Sailing Society threw in a 20-minute postponement to wait for the westerly. Enough breeze filled in to start the race, but by then the ebb had tapered off and most boats had a hard time escaping Marin in the building flood and unreliable pressure.
As always with races that start off Corinthian Yacht Club, the pin end was heavily favored, resulting in a collision between two boats crowding that part of the line. It would not be the only mishap during the race. Mike Mannix on the Catalina 38 Harp had a better idea – he started in the middle of the line, going around the mess and getting clear air. The startline inflatable mark suffered in the melee and became partially deflated. After the starting sequence concluded, the CYC crash boat, Corinthian Spirit picked up the pin to take it back to the club and pump it up for the finish. But wait! The F-27 Raven called on the VHF that they hadn't started yet. "We've had no wind and couldn't move." So Spirit stayed on station with the mark aboard. "I am the pin," said race committee volunteer Michael Moradzadeh. Raven was able to cross the line about eight minutes later.
"From the sheltered cove of the Corinthian Yacht Club it was difficult to see the conditions elsewhere on the course," said the SSS Race Chair, Bob Johnston. "Most boats experienced both feast and famine for wind. Bartz Schneider, our PRO for this race, successfully got the fleet through a brief postponement. SSS rarely has postponements, so many of our skippers aren't as prepared for them. We also rarely have protests, but we may hear a couple of them this time – but I haven't received them yet."
Once clear of Belvedere Cove, the fleet sailed into a giant wind hole. Some tried to sail straight across, closer to Angel Island. Others dived down toward the Sausalito sewage treatment plant, hoping to find some current relief close to shore. "Here's Parking Lot #1," remarked one frustrated skipper. But the westerly did fill in, and everyone romped across the Slot on a (mostly) white sail reach. At Blossom Rock, south of Pier 39, the racers hardened up their sails for a beat up the Cityfront to Blackaller Buoy just east of the Golden Gate Bridge's South Tower.
The long beat into the flood was hard on the shorthanded crews. Bubbles of warm air marked headers. Blasts of cold air were lifts. Added to the complexity of the leg was St. Francis YC's Spring One Design Invitational, sailing windward-leeward courses on the Cityfront. (Spring Keel seems to be dead.) The fleets managed to avoid each other for the most part, but one collision did occur when two SSS boats called for searoom at the shore and a Spring One Design Knarr didn't respond.
Another incident occured close to the Cityfront when one of the racers dismasted. Sal and Mary Balistreri on the Nonsuch 30 Capo Gatto came to the aid of the stricken vessel and helped her into the closest safe harbor at Golden Gate YC.
After Blackaller came the long run to Southampton into the second big wind hole in the lee of Angel Island. Once (finally) around Southampton, the fleet had to beat back up to Little Harding, the green shipping buoy east of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, passing Angel Island's southern tip, Pt. Blunt. "The beat from Southampton to Pt. Blunt was right on the wind and very shifty. The wind and chop built around Pt. Blunt," said Bill Gutoff, crewing on Scott Cyphers' new-to-him Ericson 35 Ergo." Then the wind died at the finish back at the Corinthian. Nevertheless, Ergo succeeded in winning their division. "We had one Three Bridge Fiasco-like fiasco when several boats of various shapes and sizes finished together," said Bob Johnston. "I was able to sort that out on the video last night and discovered a boat all of us missed – a Moore 24 hidden by two larger boats that were finishing overlapped. On the video, I caught a glimpse of the Moore's short rig and one digit of the sail number. From this and process of elimination with the other Moore 24 finish times, I was able to figure out the hidden boat and score them." First to finish the 18-mile Bay Tour, in three hours and small change, were reigning doublehanded champions Darren Doud and Chris Lewis on the Corsair 31R trimaran Roshambo. The only monohull to finish in less than four hours was the J/130 Ram, sailed by Robert Milligan and John Burr. Correcting out to win Doublehanded Monohull were John Kernot and Chris Chapman on the Moore 24 Banditos. Bren Meyer on Uno won the singlehanded monohull division. The singlehanded multihull division had only one starter and finisher, David Morris, on the Corsair F-27 Three Points. See preliminary results at www.sfbaysss.org. The trophy meeting will be held at Oakland YC on Wednesday, March 27. Be sure to go even if you were one of the many racers who didn't finish – you get a shirt anyway. You can find results of the Spring One Design at www.stfyc.com. For a gallery of photos from that regatta, see Ultimate Yachtshots.
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