Corinthian Yacht Club Midwinters Battles the Ebb
January has been ideal for sailing, and last weekend there was no place better than the sunny Corinthian Yacht Club Midwinters. It actually started on Thursday night, when Kame Richards gave a talk at the skippers’ meeting to help everyone understand how to overcome the weekend’s ebb reinforced by melting snow from the Sierra. The snow is supposed to stay up there this time of year, but it’s been wet and warm so the meltwater is running out the Gate.
As always, lessons learned in “class” are often hard to apply outside the classroom. Kame shared a cool online tool from the Bay Area Sea Kayakers website that really helps you visualize the current. Despite the pre-race help, it doesn’t tell you where to point the boat to successfully run the Saturday course, crossing the ebb to Blackaller buoy. Many boats held high enough to land at the buoy, while many others found themselves swept toward the Gate and forced to drop kites and close-reach to make the buoy.
Current predictions help, but they don’t show you where the wind will be. That’s part of the puzzle that makes racing the Bay so much fun. Do you round Blackaller and reach off to Crissy Field to get out of the ebb as you head toward the Phil Perkins buoy off Fort Mason? Or do you stay farther off the beach where you have more breeze to help you sail into the teeth of the ebb? Every boat found its lane to sail right up to the wind hole off Fort Mason. Fortunately, the wind returned with enough force to get everyone around and heading home.
The great thing about a race weekend is the party between race days. Instead of sailing home after the race on Saturday, the fleet all pulled into the CYC docks for a party. It was better than watching the Niners. Corinthian provided a timely Nordic theme as the on-the-water warriors came ashore to don Viking helmets for music, drink, food and festivities, and if you did it right, collect a daily trophy.
Sunday was similar, so all the lessons from the Thursday-evening current talk and the Saturday race could be applied to perfection. Except it’s never that easy. Competitors force you to go where you don’t want to go; someone takes a flyer that undermines the confidence you had in your pre-race strategy; and the wind doesn’t care what racers want. The wind was enough for some good sailing, but every midwinter race needs a wind hole to restore hope to those who fall behind. The powerful ebb slowed the boats and caused one race mark to go rogue and head for the Gate. Racers picked their way through the on-the water, mini-golf-course obstacles to find their way back to the finish line to complete a two-race, weather-friendly weekend of midwinter racing.
After the winter wrangle, the eight class winners were:
PHRF 1 Jeannette, Custom Frers 40, Bob Novy EYC
PHRF 2 Lucky Duck, J/90, Dave MacEwen SFYC
PHRF 3 Rhapsody, Sabre Spirit 36, Laurence Pulgram SFYC
J/105 Cal Maritime/USA 46 J/105, Dennis Deisinger StFYC
NSPN 1 Q, Schumacher 40 Custom, Doug Wilhelm SFYC
NSPN 2 Abba-Zaba, Tartan Ten, Ross Tibbits and Michelle Farabaugh SFYC
PHRF 4 Lilith, Wyliecat 39, Tom Paulling RYC
PHRF 5 Salty Hotel, Express 27, John Kearney CYC
We have another weather-friendly weekend of midwinter racing ahead at South Beach Yacht Club, Sequoia Yacht Club, Berkeley Yacht Club and the Coyote Point Yacht Club. If you’re out there sailing, send some pics and a story to [email protected].
You can find a link to the BASK current guide and many other weather resources and Bay Area webcams on our weather page.