May 19, 2014

While Corinthian Yacht Club was hosting a two-day Women's Sailing Seminar for mostly novice sailors, more experienced gals were racing out of nearby Sausalito YC on Saturday. One last minute entry brought the fleet to 14 boats.

When the sailors arrived at the clubhouse for breakfast and a skippers meeting at 0900, a light breeze from the north fluttered the flags. About an hour later, the light flutter came from the south before the flags slackened, awaiting the westerly to fill. And fill it did. Although the starting area and the first leg to Yellow Bluff had moderate conditions, the wind would rage in the Slot, and the wave action would simulate the sea state common with an ebbing current, even though it would be flooding all day.

"There's wind out there," PRO John Cashman advised the sailors at the skippers meeting. "A small craft advisory for 11:00 a.m. through tonight."

Suzanne Lee and Jennifer McKenna discuss strategy before the start on Zingaro. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

After a brief postponement, Division A (PHRF 200 and below) was sent off on a 9.9 mile Bay Tour course. The Catalina 30 Adventure and the Farallon Clipper Ouessant were late to the line and Adventure T-boned the wooden Ouessant. "It sounded like a gunshot," said Julia, crew on the Santana 22 Meliki, which was nearby, winding up for their start in Division C at the committee boat end of the line.

Adventure hit Ouessant at the start. ©2014 Sergei Zavarin

Ouessant tangled with the RC boat Mercury's anchor rode, and a second postponement ensued. Ouessant has a hole in her side and will miss the Master Mariners Regatta next weekend.

A view of the entanglement from the bow of Mercury. ©2014 Sergei Zavarin

As Division C got going on the same 9.9-mile course, the Freda B was waiting in the wings for her start. The 78-ft gaff-rigged schooner, a charter fixture on San Francisco Bay, was sailed by all women.

The first leg was upwind to a temporary mark set east of where the permanent Yellow Bluff mark used to be, thus avoided the fluky gusts that pour down the Bluff. From there, the course went downwind to an R4 shipping buoy (aka YRA 8) beyond Angel Island's Point Blunt. Even heavy boats were surfing, getting a good push from the flood and the building waves. But what goes down must come up, and the long final upwind leg is where things turned nasty. The waves, wind and current were now in the sailors' faces. And ships were everywhere. "We got freaked out by the heavy metal," said Meliki's Julia.

The Santana 22 Zingaro and Cal 20 Just Em fell off to duck a southbound ship, and found the beam reach so much more tolerable that they continued on around the east side of Angel and through Raccoon Strait to get to the finish line off Sausalito YC.

Sally Clapper and crew on the Cal 20 Just Em appeared to be racing a Melges 20 in Raccoon Strait, but the Melges was actually returning from SFYC's Elite Keel on the Berkeley Circle. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

The older skipper of the other Cal 20 suffered from hypothermia during the wet bash back and got a tow from a crash boat, thus dropping out.

The Santana 22 Pip sailed between Point Blunt and its buoy, an area restricted by the Coast Guard, so rival Meliki flew a protest flag. Pip continued on, hugging the south side of Angel Island and so beat Meliki. Back at the club, friendly chatter between the two crews resulted in Meliki not filing a protest: No restricted areas were mentioned in the Sailing Instructions, and the YRA Standing SIs were not referenced.

The Meliki girls, skipper Deb Fehr, Julia Siudyla, and Genevieve duLac, sailed the entire race in tutus, even while wearing much-needed foulies. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

Back at the club, spirits were high. When asked if she had fun, one crew member paused and replied, "I enjoyed the company of my fellow sailors very much." While the band played, the barbecue was fired up, the skippers enjoyed free champagne and the crew free beer, Freda B finished last amid a flurry of horns.

Here comes the Freda B. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

The awards ceremony followed. Marika Edler of the Beneteau 45f5 Ohana won the perpetual trophy for SYC and overall, and Meliki won for fastest all-female crew. Framed photos taken by Serge Zavarin were awarded to the top three boats in each division. Three tickets to Freda B were among the prizes for the division winners. Regatta chair Deana Maggard said, "We hope to have more boats in the 'exhibition class' next year."

The perpetual trophies. ©2014 norcalsailing.com

Find complete results at www.sausalitoyachtclub.org.