Daring Delta Ditch Run

If you asked the question, "How was the Delta Ditch Run?" you got answers that ranged from, "There was so much carnage," to "The boat lit up and got on a plane for 5-10 minutes, with water shooting out. It was pretty amazing."

The carnage began right at the start, including a capsized catamaran, and continued the whole way from Richmond to Stockton, the race course littered with casualties: boats running aground or losing rigs (or parts of rigs), exploding sails and man-overboard drills (we heard several tales of men overboard, but no women). Almost no crew member escaped the 67-mile race unscathed; most gave blood to the cause. First aid kits and tool kits were revisited frequently.

Those with wind instruments saw gusts into the low thirties, so this silver anniversary Ditch Run was not actually the windiest one in recent memory. We’ll have a longer report and more photos in the July issue of Latitude 38.

The Delta Ditch Run and Delta Doo Dah buddied up this year, with nine boats cross-registered. About half of those sailed in the Ditch Run’s growing Cruising Division, which was up to 21 from last year’s 15. Stockton Sailing Club hosted a BBQ for the Doo Dah on Sunday, which turned out to be a perfect, sunny, warm day.

Two sailors attempted a sort of Ironman Biathlon. Karl Robrock and Steve McCarthy sailed in the Coastal Cup, starting from San Francisco Bay on Wednesday and finishing on Friday in Santa Barbara. They packed up the boat, trailered to Richmond, and dropped into the Ditch Run, exchanging a Coastal Cup crew from SoCal for Karl’s wife Angie. Had they been properly registered, they would have placed second in the 25-boat Moore 24 division. We’ll have a report on the Coastal Cup here on Wednesday.