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December 16, 2014
Since we know that California needs the rain but racers prefer the sun, special arrangements were made to produce rain on Friday before the weekend and Monday after the weekend. Wind, however, was… Read on…
December 8, 2014
The haphephobia began soon after the starts on a building ebb and a light easterly breezethat sent the fleets off to a windward mark by Fort Mason. As the lead faster boats picked their way along the piers to… Read on…
November 10, 2014
It was a tale of opposites for the first weekend of the Berkeley Midwinters – one day warm and sunny with a light breeze and the next day cold and foggy with a big… Read on…
October 20, 2014
There were three delays until the first warning horn sounded. Given the light winds, taking advantage of the continuing ebb current was an important strategy in… Read on…
October 20, 2014
It almost didn’t happen. There was so little breeze for such a long period of time… Read on…
October 17, 2014
Saturday morning offered promise for last weekend’s SSS Vallejo 1-2 Race. Halyards were clanking, Windexes were pointing, and the morning’s dew had already dried by 8:00 when I… Read on…
October 13, 2014
South Beach Yacht Club's Red Bra Regatta, an all-women race, was scheduled to start at 1300 hours. The race committee postponed the start, and the wind died while the ebb built… Read on…
October 9, 2014
The weather was clear, and a gorgeous sunrise greeted me. With the dead calm, there was much grumbling and reviewing of weather forecasts hoping for… Read on…
September 29, 2014
With the beginning of fall and shorter days comes the end of beer can racing…the races are short and sweet and followed by a grill-your-own barbecue. … Read on…
September 23, 2014
We saw three humpback whales feeding between us and Montara, about half a mile away. Pat II called, “Thar she blows,” while Pat I ranted about how much he hated sailing with whales while… Read on…
September 22, 2014
Of the 78 women who attended the Women's Sailing Seminar at Island YC, one was from New Jersey, one from Missouri and one from Washington… Read on…
September 15, 2014
On the morning of the last race of the 2014 International Canoe Worlds, the championship was down to the wire, with Mikey Radziejowski of Santa Cruz leading reigning world champion… Read on…
September 15, 2014
A kinder, gentler sailboat race happened on Saturday in comparison to the mayhem that is the Rolex Big Boat Series. Read on…
September 11, 2014
The StFYC Big Boat Series (Rolex has been the title sponsor since 2005), has been a highlight of the San Francisco racing scene since 1964… Read on…
September 8, 2014
Although Corinthian YC's Friday Night Races ended with the month of August, end-of-the-week racing continues into September on the northeast side of the Tiburon Peninsula. Read on…
September 1, 2014
The 2014 Jazz Cup started the same time as a heat wave over the weekend, and the 102 boats that raced blasted down to Benicia in a variety of wind and plenty of sunshine. Read on…
August 27, 2014
Sailors from Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and the USA are gathering at Richmond Yacht Club in preparation for the International 10 Square Meter Sailing Canoe (IC) Worlds Championship, which… Read on…
August 25, 2014
The International 110 District III Championship was held at Inverness Yacht Club over the weekend, and ten of the slender boats showed up on the line in unusual southerly, shifty, puffy winds in… Read on…
August 25, 2014
More beautiful South Bay weather on Saturday surprisingly went more north
than first forecast… Read on…
August 18, 2014
An old fashioned race to an old fashioned destination celebrated the age-old pleasure of a coastal jaunt up to Drakes Bay and back over the weekend. This year… Read on…
August 14, 2014
A renowned maritime artist and sailor based in Novato, Caleb Whitbeck passed away over the weekend. According to… Read on…
August 11, 2014
On New Year's Eve 2013, we visited designer Howard Spruit at his home/workshop in Santa Cruz. Here we bring you a podcast of our interview with Howard… Read on…
August 4, 2014
"Going into Point Pinole was brutal. It was nasty. We didn't crash, but…" Read on…
July 20, 2014
Sixteen Tunas came out for their National Championship Regatta in about even numbers from Santa Cruz Yacht Club and hosting Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club. Deb Fehr raced with her all-female crew in multi-color tutus… Read on…
July 28, 2014
We have plenty of water. Our biggest worry at this point is TP – we may run out… Read on…
July 28, 2014
The hot and thirsty crews in Corinthian Yacht Club's Friday night beer can race on July 25 might indeed have quaffed a lot of… Read on…
July 14, 2014
After a wave of boats finished in Hanalei, Kauai, over the weekend, the rest of the SSS Singlehanded TransPac boats are now trickling in one by one. Line honors goes to… Read on…
July 11, 2014
The Great Hawaii Migration has begun with four separate races heading west to the Aloha state at the same time. Read on…
July 10, 2014
One of two Moore 24s sailing in the Pacific Cup, Absinthe started Monday in the clammy fog that has persisted all week in San Francisco. Owner Dan Nitake and Tony English are her only crew. They've been checking in via… Read on…
July 8, 2014
The Pacific Cup focus has shifted from the PacCup Village to the PacCup starts. The Village at Richmond Yacht Club wound down while the cruising division departed San Francisco Bay on Sunday. Read on…
July 7, 2014
The wind was now in the low 20s, and the fleets were soon on their way from the Central Bay to the South Bay. Once the competitors passed 'The Rock', the spinnakers popped and the City of San Francisco waterfront was treated to a colorful display… Read on…
July 7, 2014
Three J/70s represented the San Francisco Bay Area as well as many crew members from Nor Cal sailing in several classes. The Melges 20 class had five boats, four of which were from SF Bay… Read on…
June 29, 2014
The Hawaii migration has begun. In contrast to the well-publicized Pacific Cup, the Singlehanded Sailing Society quietly sent off seventeen boats bound for Hanalei Bay, Kauai, in the 19th running of the biennial Singlehanded TransPac… Read on…
June 27, 2014
With one-quarter of this year’s Pacific Cup fleet in its two doublehanded divisions and many talented sailors, the competition is expected to be close. For two husband-and-wife teams ─ Bill and Melinda Erkelens and Jim Quanci and Mary Lovely ─ this year’s race brings together… Read on…
June 24, 2014
If there are two sailboats close to each other then it's a race. This year's Stockton Sailing Club South Tower Race was down to two boats. The windward mark is Blackaller buoy near the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by a return to the finish back at… Read on…
June 23, 2014
What does the Treasure Island Sailing Center have in common with Britain's Cowes Race Week Round the Island Race? They now both have a Round the Island Race. Read on…
June 19, 2014
Sunday morning the wind started to blow. We set up the course behind the point and had three moderate wind races in perfect El Toro sailing conditions. David Liebenberg and Patrick Tara traded the lead in all three races with… Read on…
June 17, 2014
“Roundings were pretty scary, as they normally are in over 25 knots. We tipped twice on the first downwind leg, but once all the other cats abandoned the race, we took it easy and didn't push our boat. But we still put the kite up – because it's…" Read on…
June 16, 2014
The OYRA Jr. Waterhouse start got off at 1000 using Little Harding Rock as the starting mark. The start was busy, but everyone got off well, although we thought the Race Committee had a great deal of optimism about wind… Read on…
June 9, 2014
With a moderate 11-16 knot breeze, a sunny 79 degrees and flat water, it was another of those "it doesn't get any better than this" days. Even the water temperature in the Redwood City turning basin was… Read on…
June 5, 2014
The new AC62 Class rule was released today and most of the rumors were true… Read on…
June 1, 2014
I bought a six pack and a bag of ice… Read on…
May 19, 2014
I now have a resolution to only abandon a race if there is blood pumping out of an artery or something. Read on…
May 19, 2014
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. Read on…
May 5, 2014
Closer to the Marin shore meant relief from the flood, but gusty wind and a couple of near round-ups. The predicted "mid-teen" wind had mysteriously built into the mid-twenties, with gusts… Read on…
May 5, 2014
While all of this bashing, running, beating and drifting was going on it was blowing like snot in the Slot all day long. And they said, "Can't we just have had a little more of the rational instead of the unsteady with our sailing relationships?" Read on…
May 1, 2014
The 30th Annual Konocti Cup is history and a remarkable Cup it was. Read on…
April 29, 2014
Around 2:00 a.m. we were about six miles past Point Loma when we were hit by a micro-burst of at least 40 knots, which blew out the backstay with a loud… Read on…
April 28, 2014
A perfect Great Vallejo Race would be a fast drag race run to Vallejo Yacht Club and a nice gentle tactical beat back on the next day. Speed on Saturday and Brains on Sunday. In the 115 years it's been run it's had a variety of conditions, but this year may have been… Read on…
April 28, 2014
The Great Vallejo Race started like a lamb with no wind and postponements and went out like a lion with big winds and and waves. Read on…
April 21, 2014
It was apparent we'd have more wind than Island YC's Doublehanded Lightship, as we hit 8 knots reaching over and saw many competitors reefed down.… Read on…
April 21, 2014
Epic racing conditions greeted Formula 18 sailors for the inaugural Sequoia F18 Open. There was a little bit of everything in the four races: memorable gusts, tight starting lines, a few ebb-tide waves, fights with marks, a 360 penalty turn and a capsize to… Read on…
April 16, 2014
It seemed as if summer had arrived a tad early. Fog in the morning, strong breezes, steady wind direction, lumpy seas, sunshine – all the usual summer ingredients were on hand for… Read on…
April 14, 2014
It was one of those bipolar weekends weather-wise for this year's Big Dinghy Regatta hosted by Richmond Yacht Club: too windy on Saturday and barely windy enough… Read on…
April 10, 2014
We all had fun at the Corinthian – we were wetter than the people on the water. Read on…
April 8, 2014
The Santana 22 fleet had their annual spring tune-up in Clipper Cove on Treasure Island last weekend to do some practice starts and get ready for the racing season. Seven Tunas sailed on… Read on…
April 7, 2014
Seas were confused, and steering through the mixed swells and wind waves was difficult, especially as the wind increased further out. Eventually we were seeing mid-twenty-knot wind, with gusts into… Read on…
April 7, 2014
A new 8.2-mile course with a variety of upwinds and leewards challenged the fleet and tired the crews, but not so much to prevent a happy gang from staying late at… Read on…
April 7, 2014
The rule for the new ZYC Challenge: one person per mast. The course is either the Lightship or a Bay tour. On the last Sunday in March, heavy currents ruled in favor of… Read on…
April 1, 2014
The fifth and final race of Sequoia YC's 2013-2014 Redwood Cup series on Saturday had it all: stiff competition, rain, a huge ebb, decent wind, big gusts, and even a little bit of mud. Read on…
March 31, 2014
A great problem with these two fleets is overly-aggressive starters, creating difficulties for race committee. But the biggest problem for this three-day series was cosmically odd weather. Read on…
March 31, 2014
This year's SSS Corinthian Race had an eerily Three Bridge Fiasco vibe to it despite the rain and gloom. If you are the positive type, you raced with the same goal as the Fiasco – just try to finish. If you are the negative type you just stayed at home by the fire. Read on…
March 25, 2014
With technology enhancing our lives and making it better (with some dubious exceptions), it's no wonder that yacht racing would get in the act. Ray Irvine of Jibeset has asked for some help from sailors in this Saturday's SSS Corinthian Race. Read on…
March 25, 2014
Would you drop everything in your life to warn others about the state of our environment? Where you are putting your life at risk from chance encounters with rogue waves, slightly submerged debris from tsunamis, super storms or a host of other things that could… Read on…
March 24, 2014
While most racing on the Bay happens on Saturdays, Sunday is often reserved for the more friendly type of racing, sort of like going for a daysail with competition. Sausalito Yacht Club has resurrected such an event with the Jaws Pursuit Race starting and finishing off the clubhouse deck with… Read on…
March 18, 2014
It may have been the Irish whiskey waiting for the division winners or the great weather, as 22 boats crossed the start line, 13 in the spinnaker division and 9 in the non-spinnaker division to make this the biggest race in… Read on…
March 10, 2014
March madness has begun with three races in two days on San Francisco Bay. The weekend wind forecast looked dire, and sure enough Saturday dawned to perfect kayak weather… Read on…
March 4, 2014
The Richmond Yacht Club Midwinters concluded over the weekend with a calm, sunny Saturday and boisterous, cloudy Sunday. Read on…
March 4, 2014
Everyone should have at least two boats. And if you are thinking of getting a smaller boat to add to your collection or are new to sailing, you just missed an opportunity to test-drive some… Read on…
March 3, 2014
Aaaah, but which one? Read on…
February 26, 2014
The fourth Redwood Cup pursuit race took place on a beautiful, sunny day with more wind than any of the previous races. Twenty-one boats started the 8.87-mile course, two retired early, and the remaining 19… Read on…
February 24, 2014
Looking at the flags at Alameda Marina around noon before the start of Island YC's Sadie Hawkins Race for women skippers, observant sailors noticed more south than usual in the wind direction, and wondered if it would be a… Read on…
February 24, 2014
At last! After four months and 40 minutes the “normal” westerly showed up on the Berkeley Circle. At 1300 hours, the appointed hour of the start, the wind had yet to appear. But after a mere 40 minutes a nice westerly filled in. In fact, the nice westerly continued to build and was chased in by a fog bank. Truly, it seemed almost like summer! Read on…
February 17, 2014
The 2014 Corinthian Midwinters wrapped up on Saturday and Sunday, with Saturday's race and shoreside festivities doing double-duty as the Rob Moore Memorial Regatta, affectionately nicknamed… Read on…
February 14, 2014
Happy Valentine's Day, dearest reader! In celebration of the lovers' holiday, local sailing couples tell all… Read on…
February 10, 2014
San Francisco Bay Midwinters had a stormy weekend. Learn the fates of four of them here.
February 6, 2014
With the start of the new season, Sequoia Yacht Club reinvented the Singlehanded Series. Now, a doublehanded division has been introduced to the format to give more racers the opportunity to compete. Last Saturday's prediction of… Read on…
February 5, 2014
I arrived at Clipper Yacht Harbor to the sound of rigging slapping, wind whistling, and water lapping at floats. Lapping enough that the floats were wet. The wind was coming directly out of the southwest, right up… Read on…
February 3, 2014
With nothing but blue skies and sunshine, Saturday was the day to sail last weekend… Compare that with Sunday's conditions, when a rain storm blew in on a southerly that fetched up big seas on San Francisco Bay. Read on…
January 31, 2014
San Francisco Bay is an ideal playground for so many different water sports and commercial boats. I must express my appreciation to everyone who participated in the many different water activities… Read on…
January 28, 2014
We had an epic race. We rounded Blackhaller first, looked to the Gate and saw boats struggling in light air, so we pointed back up to the Cityfront, stayed in and got close to… Read on…
January 27, 2014
The Three Bridge has been on Jonathan's bucket list for some time now. The 24th January was Jon’s birthday, so why not try and win this thing for him. Read on…
January 26, 2014
It was a Dark and Stormy night. We've always wanted to start a story like that. Read on and learn how we got the chance.
January 23, 2014
In case you missed Wednesday night's Three Bridge Fiasco skippers meeting at Oakland Yacht Club, here's a recap. Read on…
January 21, 2014
The first boats attempted to cross the start line just after 13:30, desperately looking for any sign that might indicate a whisper of wind. The left side of the channel offered… Read on…
January 20, 2014
Sometimes guilty pleasures come in the form of knowing that you should be worried, but you just can't help enjoying yourself. Read on…
January 14, 2014
The Bay Area racing scene now has two weekends of midwinters completed in 2014, so we'd better get caught up before… Read on…
January 13, 2014
Rocket 88's first race was in Long Beach in 1987, but first she had to be measured to become an official D-Class catamaran. The measurer… Read on…
January 8, 2014
As the Rocket 88 build continued in 1987, some of the local Santa Cruz racers and builders started to show up at Howard Spruit's shop to see what was going on… Read on…
January 6, 2014
Santa Cruz boat building and racing has always been a community affair, and a prime example of that is the story of Rocket 88. In 1987 Serge Pond, a local sailor and owner of an old C-Class catamaran, decided… Read on…
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