Racing and Seminar Preview
February will be the last (relatively) quiet month on the Bay Area sailing calendar before the big spring regattas of March start. RegattaPRO‘s Winter One Design Series wraps up on Saturday. Regular racing in Berkeley YC‘s Saturday and Sunday Midwinter Series concludes this weekend. A Champion of Champions race will follow on February 24.
Continuing but not concluding on Saturday will be Sequoia YC‘s Winter Series, Tiburon YC‘s Midwinters and Lake Merritt Sailing Club’s Robinson Memorial Midwinter on Saturday (call (510) 582-1048 for info). Island YC‘s Island Days and Santa Rosa SC‘s Spring Lake Series continue on Sunday.
Also this weekend, Half Moon Bay YC hosts the Londerville Cup for Cal 20s, Coronado 15s, and Lasers on Saturday and Optis on Sunday, in the protected, flat waters of Pillar Point Harbor. Continuing on down the coast: "Come down and race in Santa Cruz on Sunday, Februrary 10, for the next Laser Midwinter at SCYC," writes Hilary Walecka. "We’ve had good turnout and fun races so far — don’t miss it!" See www.scyc.org.
"Our position as I write is 9 degrees north," said Giovanni Soldini this morning aboard the Volvo Open 70 Maserati, which is 39 days out from New York on their way to San Francisco via Cape Horn. They’re setting a record pace, and are expected to arrive after the middle of next week, but we sure hope they arrive at the Gate during daylight hours! Keep track of them at maserati.soldini.it/?lang=en.
Vanguard 15 sailor Avery Patton urges fellow Vanguardians and Laser sailors to start working on crew, trailers, trailer hitches, and boats for April 6-7’s 20th annual Ski/Sail in North Lake Tahoe. "It is a scientific fact that every participant in Ski/Sail, ever, has been glad they made the trip," claims Patton. See www.skisail.com.
A US Sailing Race Management Seminar at Encinal YC will be held tomorrow from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Email for info. Also tomorrow, Monterey Peninsula YC is hosting Racing Mixer, 4-7 p.m., an opportunity to meet skippers and sign on as crew. See www.mpyc.org.
"San Francisco YC is again running two-day ISAF Safety at Sea Seminars," writes Ashley Perrin. The dates are March 16-17 and March 23-24. Valid for five years in the US and abroad for all Catagory 2 and Catagory 1 offshore races, this training includes four practical sessions in rig cutting, flare firing, in-water liferaft practice, and fire fighting. Special speakers will include Bryan Chong, a survivor of the Low Speed Chase accident, and members of the USCG and the Tiburon Fire Department. The certification graduates receive will count toward the 30% of crew (including skippers) requirement that we wrote about on Monday. "We are also doing radar and VHF courses," adds Perrin. Go to SFYC’s Training Sessions page and scroll down to ‘Safety Training Week’ for links to each class.