November 1, 2013

Just like baseball, every season must end eventually. The Singlehanded Sailing Society held their 2013 season-ending meeting to give out awards for 2013 and talk about the plans for 2014. The awards section of the evening started with the overall trophy for the light air Vallejo 1-2 held on October 19-20. Scott Owens, the current caretaker of the Schumacher 1/4-tonner Summertime Dream. Scott didn't have enough gas to get home, so he and his crew had to be patient and stick it out in Sunday's drifter.

Scott Owens with his keeper and the perpetual trophy for Vallejo 1-2. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

In the SSS an overall win comes with a lot of pride, as there are so many excellent sailors you are competing against in a variety of conditions and boats. This years champions are:

• Darren Dowd and Chris Lewis on the Corsair F-31r Roshambo in Doublehanded Multihull
• Dave Morris on his Corsair F-27 Three Points in Singlehanded Multihull
• Gordie Nash and Ruth Suzuki on the modified Mull 27 Arcadia in Doublehanded Monohull
• Dan Benjamin on the Wyliecat 30 Whirlwind in Singlehanded Monohull

All are repeat champions, although this was Dave Morris's first season with the trimaran – he was last year's Singlehanded Monohull champion on the Wylie 31 Moonshadow.

An AWOL trophy was resurrected. SSS Commodore Jim Quanci (left) presented the Spirit of the SSS award to previous commodore Max Crittenden. "He was always there when I needed him," said Jim. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Next year's schedule will have a few changes and surprises in store:

Three Bridge Fiasco (the biggest race in North America): January 25
Corinthian Race: March 22
Round the Rocks: April 26
Singlehanded Farallones: May 17
Singlehanded TransPac start: June 28
Half Moon Bay Race: September 13
Vallejo 1-2: October 11-12
Plus, the SSS will add a new ocean race and overnight anchor-out to be sailed in conjunction with the OYRA Drake's Bay Race on August 16-17. The plan at this point is to start the SSS fleet after the OYRA on both days.

Because of some other races going on at the Golden Gate Yacht Club, this year the start and finish lines and schedule were shuffled to accommodate the hoopla at that club. But next year all will be back to normal again. For more info on the SSS, see www.sfbaysss.org.