May 20, 2018

Boats sailing Sausalito Yacht Club's first Spring Sunset race on May 8 faced a stiff flood with a moderate more-or-less west wind. The Race Committee set up a classic Richardson Bay windward-leeward course between Yellow Bluff and Point Knox. No one was over early as the current pushed boats back and down the start line toward the pin as the evening races began. Two spinnaker and two non-spinnaker divisions totaling 19 boats participated, with the spinnaker boats sailing twice around the 'hot dog' and the non-spinnaker boats going once.

At the Yellow Bluff end of the course, swirling, shifty winds, along with swirling, shifty current made rounding the temporary buoy an interesting exercise in tactics. Stay out where the wind was steadier and face the flooding current head on. Get into the counter-current forming along the Marin bluffs and face wind that changed direction and speed rapidly. Most boats elected to sail the local knowledge course after they started, quickly tacking onto port, sailing toward the Sausalito sewer plant to the layline before tacking for the Yellow Bluff temporary mark. Instead of a layline, they found a maze of calms, blow your socks off bursts, and whirlpool-like current changes. In the meantime the boats that stayed out made steady, but slow progress against the current.

The slim second spinnaker division followed the same pattern, but some non-spinnaker boats saw what was happening and tacked along the rhumb line to the mark on their once around race. Others didn't and suffered.

The run back to Point Knox began with steady west wind for boats staying out in the stream, but began to wane as boats approached the start-finish line, which was restricted. After passing the start-finish line, boats slowed down as the surface wind approaching Angel Island lifted. After rounding the leeward mark, non-spinnaker boats headed for their finish while spinnaker boats began their second trip around.

Most spinnaker boats opted to stay out for their second lap, but found later-occurring confused wind and currents swirling as they approached the Yellow Bluff mark. The final run was much like the first, as was the second Point Knox rounding. The general consensus was that the SYC Race Committee selected a very interesting course that demanded careful attention. And a bit of luck. Three Spinnaker A Division boats finished with 1 second separating them.

See www.sausalitoyachtclub.org for info and results. The next race will be on May 22.

— pat broderick