Another Wild Weekend
With the first start at 8 a.m. you’d think the racers in the Singlehanded Farallones could at least get out the Gate on the ebb without struggling against big wind and bouncy chop. But no such luck; the day was windy from start to finish. Most competitors reefed their mains, some deeply so, and deployed small jibs or partially furled genoas. Seeing the writing on the wall (actually the weather forecast), 10 of the 38 solo sailors signed up didn’t show up. Of the 28 who did venture out, five dropped out. One more started at the wrong club (St. Francis Yacht Club instead of Golden Gate) and was thus scored DNS. The round yellow buoys off those two neighboring clubs do look a lot alike when you’re alone and have your hands full. We’ll have the story and results in the June issue of Latitude 38.
Chris Ray, a photographer and volunteer at StFYC, was all set to take pictures of the US Match Racing Championship Area G Qualifier, held on Saturday and Sunday in the club’s J/22s. "Congratulations to the race committee and judges for getting the regatta in at all given a really strange weekend of weather — 30 knots of breeze at Anita Rock at 6 a.m. Sunday morning? Whoa. I understand we didn’t have a lot of breakage, which we certainly could have had, and that injuries were minor, thank heaven," he reports. "There was too much wind to safely drone," he adds.
Nicole Breault and her crew won all but one of their seven races to top the leaderboard over seven other teams.