race report
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 A patch of counter-clockwise Pumpkineers in the windy gap between Angel Island and Alcatraz. ©2013 norcalsailing.com |
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Shades of Pumpkin: Sunday
October 29, 2013 Sunday's Great Pumpkin pursuit race couldn't have been more different from Saturday's buoy racing. It didn't even seem like the same weekend. For starters, the flags at host Richmond Yacht Club were blowing from the south instead of fluttering from the north. Turns out an early season cold front was blowing in, taking most folks, sailors and weather prognosticators alike, by surprise. At least there was no postponement. The reverse order start got underway on time at noon with the 'slow' boats, Cal 20s, leading the way.
The wind had blown most of the night, whipping up frothy peaks on the water around the course, which took the racers from the start near Southampton Shoals, around Angel Island and Alcatraz in either direction, and back to a turning mark and upwind finish near the Richmond Harbor breakwater. It seemed strange, on such a rough day, to be hunting the pumpkins dropped by the race committee around the course. Besides that, the trivia quizzes got wet. Among the most memorable moments for Dale Scoggins aboard the Open 5.70 Frisky was "Almost losing David Maggart overboard when he tried to scoop a pumpkin on the leeward side while we were jib reaching across the slot between Angel Island and Alcatraz. He was able to hold onto the traveler and pull himself back aboard and get to the high side without even blinking. Needless to say, he was soaking wet the rest of the day."
"After rounding Alcatraz," continued Dale, "we set the spinnaker on starboard jibe and Frisky just launched toward Treasure Island at warp speed. After we jibed onto port, we noticed only three boats still ahead of us and to leeward: the Hawkfarm El Gavilan, a Wylie Wabbit, and a Cal 20. Planing Frisky all the way to the finish with the three of us sitting as far back as possible on the windward side of the boat was a blast! In fact, I was having so much fun, I honestly forgot all about the leeward mark. We rounded behind Colin Moore's Wylie Wabbit and were able to close reach to the finish." And they finished second! Richard VonEnrenkrook of the third place monohull, the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass, called the Open 5.70s "shredders."
Southeast of Alcatraz, the Ultimate 20 Uhoo turtled. "We came around Alcatraz and saw a capsized boat with three people on it," said Sergei Podshivalov of the J/105 Javelin. "We dropped our spinnaker and pulled the first person off. She was in bad shape, but we revived her." The others were picked up by the San Francisco Police boat. "We dropped out of the race," said Sergei, "but there were no complaints from the crew."
A short little finish line was set up between two committee boats. The first 100 boats to finish had a nice clean time of it, as the line was skewed so that everyone would finish on port tack. But then the wind shifted, making the line square to the wind, creating chaos and at least two collisions. The C&C 29 Siento el Viento (on starboard tack) T-boned the Farallon Clipper VIP (on port tack). Fortunately for the wooden VIP, Siento's pulpit absorbed some of the impact. The Olson 30 Lively was sandwiched between two bigger boats. "We were the one ounce of meat between two big sourdough rolls," said crew Suzanne Lee.
See www.richmondyc.org. Some of Sunday's results are still being sorted out. We've posted photo galleries from the entire weekend here.
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