Bullship Runs into the Lightship

The Bullship Race on April 22 started promptly at 9:05 on Saturday morning with enough of a northeasterly breeze for the 25-boat fleet of 8-ft El Toros to make headway against a dying flood. After staging out of Sausalito Yacht Club, the race starts off the Trident restaurant at the south end of downtown Sausalito and finishes off the spit at the entrance to the San Francisco Marina.

Winner Nick Nash commented, "The flood at the start hurt a little but not too bad. The way I went was kind of risky. It was definitely a flyer." He took four tacks to get to the westerly, then reached across the Bay, while the majority of the fleet went for the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and got stuck in a wind hole. By the mid-Bay the flood had switched to ebb, but there was still a narrow lane of flood on the San Francisco shoreline. "I knew if I got there I was good," said Nick.

While El Toros were scattered about in the Slot, the 51-boat fleet of the OYRA Lightship was massing off the Cityfront for their start off St. Francis YC. It was quite a sight to see 8-ft El Toros weaving their way through keelboats of up to 53-ft. By the time the back of the El Toro pack were approaching San Francisco, the Lightship was already in sequence. One sailor managed to do both.

"My biathlon wouldn’t have been possible without great help from a junior sailor at RYC, Wes Seifers, and the skipper of the lead cowship and commodore of RYC, Dick Loomis. Wes jumped aboard my El Toro as soon as I finished the Bullship, and Dick gave me a quick lift over to California Condor.

"In addition to the usual stress during one-design racing, I worried a lot about missing my Lightship ride. I had told the crew to sail without me if I was too slow. At one point a mile from the Bullship finish, I looked at my watch as saw 10:45. I was crushed . . . until I realized I was 1 hour, 10 minutes, and 45 seconds into the Bullship with a half hour to go before the Lightship start.

"As cool as it was to do the doubleheader, I hope the folks at OYRA and ETIYRA decide never again to schedule the two races on the same day. Kudos to Dick Loomis for escorting the tailender El Toro through the phalanx of big boats converging on the start line!" (‘Cowships’ motor alongside the sailors to lend assistance if needed.)

Besides first and second to finish, various other awards were given out on the lawn east of StFYC after the Bullship, including Clydesdale (first heavyweight) to Chris Nash; first maiden voyager to Chris Sullivan; Viejo (oldest finisher) to Art Lange, 75; Woody to James Savattone for first wooden boat; and Tailender to Barry Danieli for the last boat to finish.

For more on the Bullship, see www.richmondyc.org. For more on the Lightship, see www.jibeset.net.