March 10, 2015

After a 35-minute postponement, a nice westerly breeze filled in and this season's final Golden Gate Yacht Club Seaweed Soup race got underway on Saturday, March 7. All the larger divisions sailed a 9-mile course that included Blackaller, Harding Rock, Blossom Rock, Blackaller again, a turn around Ft. Mason and then finish. Smaller boats sailed an abbreviated 5.5-mile course from Blackaller to Harding to Mason and finish. Wind speeds ranged from the mid-single digits to mid-teens, enabling larger boats to finish in about two hours or a little more and smaller boats in about one hour. The westerly mostly held, clocking around to northwest then backing to westerly near the race's conclusion.

For the larger boats, the most interesting feature of the selected course was the reaching leg from Harding Rock across the face of Alcatraz, finishing with a run down to Blossom Rock. St. Francis YC was holding their Spring Dinghy Regatta just northwest of Alcatraz, with their starting line parallel to the course for the GGYC boats. All the GGYC boats were on starboard, while some StFYC dinghies were on port and some on starboard. Some starboard dinghies were leeward of the GGYC boats and some windward. Everyone managed to get through without any major problems, although a few non-US Sailing-sanctioned finger signals from several dinghy sailors expressed their reaction to the congestion.

For the big-boat windward leg from Blossom back to Blackaller, the current was changing from flood to ebb, with some boats staying well out toward the center and others short-tacking up the beach. They all seemed to reach Blackaller at about the same time. The smaller boats escaped this decision, sailing a straight-line course around their marks.

For the 2014-2015 GGYC Manuel Fagundes Seaweed Soup Regatta, four boats scored four points after one throw-out: Dorian McKelvy's J/111 MadMen; Scott Easom's Farr 30 Eight Ball, which won the Perpetual Trophy in 2011, 2012 and 2014; Gordie Nash's Santana 27 Arcadia, which won before in 2010 and 2013; and Peter Jeal's Folkboat Polperro. Since Arcadia bested the biggest fleet, the Perpetual Trophy went to Gordie Nash. Full results and more can be found at www.ggyc.com.

— Pat Broderick