October 13, 2013

What a day.

It was conceived as a bit of an experiment, a regatta where the regular owner/driver is crew and the crew is the driver, and, thanks to some seriously stoked volunteers and some champagne sailing conditions, we can now say this concept worked marvelously.

Race Committee. ©2013 Peter Shumar

The racecourse was set up just outside the Richmond breakwater on Sunday, October 6. We had very short courses, of approximately 20 minutes each, sausages of course – because that's what we love. That way we were able to get eight races in. Twelve boats of 24 feet and under showed up (mostly J/24s), and we were all squeezed into a tight starting line. We also instituted a rule banning genoas for the non-optimized J/24s. Those genoas are notoriously hard to tack, and we didn’t want that to ruin the experience when all the crew would be in unfamiliar positions. It turned out to be a good call, and, after the breeze hit 12 knots, the optimized boats went down to the blade as well.

The Santana 22 Kitten (seen here with purple kite rampant) was the only non-J/24 in the regatta. ©2013 Peter Shumar

The twelve boats that participated effectively doubled the normal J/24 turnout.
The result was a very level playing ground where almost every boat was able to be in the top of the fleet at any given moment. We had exciting but friendly racing and some close crosses, but no cross words.

On the run. ©2013 Peter Shumar

One of the volunteers (Peter Shumar of Evil Octopus fame) had created a very special racing mark resembling the OPBYC logo of the rubber ducky. It is now our mascot. This one had room for some special refreshments that the Sailing Instructions required all boats to capture unscathed during the course of racing.

Trying to reach the rubber ducky. ©2013 Peter Shumar

At one point between races, there was a run on the refreshment mark. Of course at precisely that moment some clown got on the VHF and started a countdown. So there was a frantic scramble back to the starting line before the boats realized it was just a ruse. Nobody got too miffed about it because SI #16 had specifically stated "have fun," so getting miffed would be a rules violation.

Another run… ©2013 Peter Shumar

…to the mark. ©2013 Peter Shumar

The last race finished right around 3:00 p.m. and so did the breeze. Perfect. We had just enough time to drift over to the mothership for a raft-up potluck barbecue. The mothership, the Santa Cruz 50 Deception, there to help out and possibly to recruit future crew – (smart man that Bill Helvestine) and a runabout were anchored just inside the Richmond breakwater. We rafted up with about nine boats and had a good laugh reliving the day’s racing. We had to pinch ourselves watching the incredible sunset. Some folks even went for a swim! No, they weren’t drunk…well not all of them…well not that much anyway.

Mother duck Deception and her ducklings. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Aboard the raft-up. ©2013 Peter Shumar

New friendships were forged, old ones renewed. Respect was given to crew (it turns out most of them can drive just fine) and owners (thank you for owning a boat) and volunteers (who are also crew and owners) and sponsors (thanks JWorld and OCSC for lending gear and teaching folks how to sail). You all rock. Let’s do it again next year.

The winner in the Silver division was Luther Strayer's Optimized J/24 Little Wing. Winning the Gold division was Colin Lindberg's Non-Optimized J/24 Zenyatta. And the winner in the PHRF division was Kristy Lugert's Santana 22 Kitten.

– Jasper van Vliet, OPBYC

Go to www.opb-yc.com for more info, and see more photos here.