race report
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 The Express 27s Peaches and Wile E Coyote sailed a mostly-one-tack beat up the rock wall south of Mare Island for current relief. Peaches won their division both days. ©2014 norcalsailing.com |
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Great Vallejo Race Report
April 28, 2014 A perfect Great Vallejo Race would be a fast drag race run to Vallejo Yacht Club and a nice gentle tactical beat back on the next day. Speed on Saturday and Brains on Sunday. In the 115 years it's been run it's had a variety of conditions, but this year may have been one of the best to meet that criteria. On Friday the weather forecasters called for a strong northwest breeze for Saturday and many racers were looking forward to a fun romp up San Pablo Bay to Vallejo. But when Saturday's starting sequence went off at 1000 in the Berkeley Circle, the weather didn't look very promising for the 149 boats that showed up to race.
After a short postponement and with a fickle, light southwest breeze, the race committee sent the first two divisions off to fight a building ebb for the long 21 miles to Vallejo. Then the wind died. It was looking dire for the RC and the boats waiting for the promised northwest wind to arrive. The clock ticked and after another two hours of postponement just enough breeze filtered in to try starting the divisions again.
Once half of the divisions were started, the northwesterly finally arrived at 1330, as wall of wind hit the boats, and within seconds they were off. Once around the windward turning mark they had a one tack beat to get into San Pablo Bay for the real fun to begin. After Point San Pablo the boats turned down just enough that some chose to set the chute. A building breeze, ebb and big waves created surf city all the way to Mare Island.
"That was the most fun I've ever had on a race," said Anna Alderkamp on the Santana 22 Byte Size. "We were going so fast and catching waves one after another." When someone reminded her that the Delta Ditch Run is coming up fast and perhaps she might be interested in that race she said, "I've never done it but after today maybe I should."
"The downhill run from Point Pinole was epic," said skipper Bob Walden of Sea Star, a Cal 39 from Berkeley Yacht Club. "Those were some of the biggest rollers I've ever seen in San Pablo Bay; terrific fun."
But not all the boats fared so well on Saturday. Marcus Choy's Cal 20 Green Dragon broke her rudder just before the Napa River entrance and had to limp in to the club. They were battling with Richard VonEhrenkrook's Cal 20 Can O' Whoopass."They would catch a wave and shoot ahead then it was our turn to surf and pull out in front," said Marcus. Then the fun stopped. They heard a thump and looked back to see half the rudder floating away. It had sheared off right at the water line. They were able to adjust sails while getting the motor ready, then used the prop to steer to the dock. Marcus called his wife, and she delivered a borrowed rudder all the way from Half Moon Bay. The buzz of adrenalin wore off as the rum was kicking in, and Vallejo YC hosted the Saturday night party amid discussion of lighter winds and maybe even some rain for Sunday's race back. The racers woke up Sunday morning under gray skies, and some drizzle fell before the sun came out. At noon the starts were off with a bang in plenty of wind to get out of the Napa River and into San Pablo Bay.
The weather forecasters were right about the lighter breeze, and although it was building as the day wore on it was nothing like Saturday's 25 knots. It was a tactician's dream, and if you played the wind shifts and current right you were rewarded with glory. And if you got it wrong, well it was a nice sunny day for a sail. And that's what it should be in the Great Vallejo Race. Brawn and brains and just about perfect.
Complete results are available at www.yra.org.
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