March 2, 2015

It was another fabulous day on Sunday, March 1, on the Berkeley Circle. There was a light and almost steady wind from the northwest and sunshine with a few picturesque clouds. It was a perfect setting for the final race of the Berkeley Yacht Club 2014-2015 Midwinters.

Fine weather and not a postponement flag in sight on Sunday. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

This event features all the first-place division winners of both the Saturday and the Sunday series racing against each other to determine the best of the best. This is the Red Division. Next to start is the Blue Division featuring all the second-place winners, and third is the White Division where all the third-place winners vie against each other. We were able to start on time (1300), send all around a windward/leeward 8-mile twice-around course and be on our way to the trophy party by 1515.

Tim Stapleton's Cal 2-27 Ypso and Charlie Brochard's Olson 34 Baleineau racing in BYC's Winners Race. The little boats in the background are sailing in Richmond YC's Small Boat Midwinters. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

A rare sight, crew aboard Bob Johnston's J/92 Ragtime! ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Congratulations to the Macfies of the Olson 30 Hoot! They were able to oust the prior two years' defender, Will Paxton’s Express 27 Motorcycle Irene by only 1 minute, 15 seconds. Third place, just 33 seconds later, was George Ellison’s 30-ft Schumacher Shameless. And, as a testament to the PHRF system, the next two corrected times were only 43 and 10 seconds apart.  Great racing!

Andy and Annette Macfie of the victorious Olson 30 Hoot. ©2015 Paul Kamen

The blue and white divisions were lightly attended. Blue was topped by Michael Whitfield’s J/24 TMC Racing and the White division was won by Mitchell Wells’ Soveral 33 Flexi-Flyer. Full results can be found at www.berkeleyyc.org/racing.

— Bobbi Tosse, Berkeley YC

Hoot won the Kirt Brooks Perpetual Trophy (along with some take-home goodies). Poor Kirt got his nose busted in a barroom scuffle. ©2015 Tim Stapleton