Capsize at Golden Gate Midwinters

Race 3 in Golden Gate Yacht Club’s five-race Seaweed Soup Series was held in gear-busting conditions on January 6. The cold front that blew through brought little actual rainfall but plenty of big, blustery breeze, with short ebb chop. You might compare it to summer sailing in the Slot. The difference was the intensity and shifty nature of the gusts, and the wind direction, with lots of south in it.

GGYC runs one midwinter race on the first Saturday of each month, November-March. In last Saturday’s race, the first leg took the fleet from the start off GGYC’s clubhouse on the San Francisco Marina to a weather mark, Blackaller Buoy. Due to an ebb maxing out at close to 3 knots, boats went out into the middle of the Bay rather than working the Crissy Field shoreline.

About halfway through the leg, Zhenya Kirueshkin-Stepanoff’s Martin 243 Nice Rack caught a stinger, capsized, and sank partway. Just one rack and the top of the mainsail remained visible to the rest of the sailors racing past. Gordie Nash and Ruth Suzuki’s Arcadia was close by, and they radioed the race committee to alert them of the situation.

Nicholas Grebe’s Santa Cruz 37 WildCard stopped racing, put away their sails, and circled around. Their well-prepared crew deployed their Lifesling and fished out the three Nice Rack crew, Steve, Nick and Patrick. Jack Peurach’s Farr X2 Shake & Bake did likewise, and picked up the skipper.

The USCG and SFPD also responded to the scene. The Coasties issued a UMIB (Universal Marine Information Broadcast) to alert vessels in the area of the hazard to navigation.

We heard the sirens of first responders speeding down Marina Boulevard, but paramedics did not stop at GGYC to check out the crew, who, wrapped in blankets, later sat around a table at the clubhouse. They thought they were only in the water for about 15 minutes, with no apparent injuries.

During this early leg, instruments on boats racing in the vicinity were showing 21-28 knots apparent wind speed. NOAA had forecast gusts of 30, and the worst of the weather was yet to come. During the second lap, the squall hit. One of the skippers mentioned noticing an apparent wind gust of 40 knots. Was it even raining yet? It was hard to tell, as there was so much spray flying from the short-period waves. Deep wakes from nearby ship and ferry traffic upped the discomfort quotient.

About a third of the boats registered stayed home; another half dozen, including the three mentioned above, dropped out. (We think that WildCard and Shake & Bake might be eligible to request redress.) A J/22 that did finish returned to GGYC with a ripped main.

We’ve reached out to the skipper and hope to have more details for Racing Sheet in the February issue of Latitude 38. The series will continue on February 3. Sign up or check standings at www.jibeset.net.