March 9, 2015

At Richmond Yacht Club's Big Daddy Regatta over the weekend the smiles on racers' faces reflected the good vibes and warm weather sailing that we are getting used to this winter. Saturday saw gentle winds in the 6-8 knot range and sunshine from early morning until the completion of three races each on three different courses spread out in the Berkeley Circle. "It's just like Long Beach only without the swell," remarked one of the racers back at the bar and, although it was a big hazy, at least no SoCal type smog was present.

Six Santana 22s raced on Saturday. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Eight Wylie Wabbits raced on Saturday. This one is Colin Moore's Kwazy. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

The crew of Erik Menzel's Bad Hare Day flipped for the Big Daddy. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

A run on Saturday in PHRF D. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Sunday morning dawned with a surprise for the Big Daddy Pursuit Race: fog. With conditions back to normal for the 70 boats racing around Alcatraz and Angel Island, the chances of a warm, light-air day looked slim. At the first start for the speed challenged at 1230 near Southampton Shoal, a wispy easterly pushed the slow boats to either Raccoon Strait or Alcatraz (your choice) and then promptly died.

A pileup attempts to start on Sunday. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

The rest of the fleet drifted towards Red Rock in max flood trying to inch up to line as the clock ticked down and minutes turned into more than an hour until the predicted westerly finally reached the starting area.

Kame Richards' Express 37 Golden Moon and Andrew Zimmerman's Olson 40 Divine Wind are finally on the move, with starboard tack favored, to Alcatraz. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

The usual 20-knot cold westerly built for everyone in the Slot, and a fast, fun, but wet ride between the islands was the reward for waiting it out at the start.

Joan Byrne's Olson 911S Heart of Gold tacks toward Alcatraz. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

By the time you reached the Richmond Riviera it was warm with light wind again. Those who chose a counterclockwise direction chose wisely as they were able to avoid a large hole that formed for the clockwise group about a mile from the finish. Nevertheless, it was Peter Stoneberg's ProSail 40 Shadow, a clockwise catamaran, that crossed the finish line first, just nipping the first monohull, the J/70 Prime Number, sailed by Mark and Anne Thomas and Peter Cameron, which went counterclockwise.

Shadow, sporting a stylish Prada screecher, crossed the finish line first. ©2015 Richmond Yacht Club

Back at the club, as the awards were winding down and the sun was setting on another beautiful day at the end of a great regatta with smiles all around, someone said, "Okay, it can rain now."

See results at www.richmondyc.org.