Fake Weather Threatens Midwinters

Weekend weather forecasts threatened more torrential rains, 40-knot gusts, severe weather and a small craft advisory. We have alternative facts. Fortunately Corinthian Yacht Club was able to hack the Bay Area weather and slip in two days of classic, partly sunny midwinter racing between threatening storm clouds.

A significant ebb, reinforced by brown runoff, ruled the afternoons, causing a good number of individual recalls on the starting line off Angel Island and interesting strategy decisions on courses headed to Yellow Bluff off Sausalito or Blackaller Buoy off San Francisco’s Crissy Field. Breezes were comfortable to a bit light on both days with starts generally in sunshine and finishes under gray skies, with light rain on Sunday.

Thirteen classes competed for the win, and despite the always-present wind and current wild cards some perennial favorites landed the top spots. Hank Easom’s new Sabre 36 Serenade took a one/two and, of course, Kame Richards (who also sponsored Saturday’s keg of free beer) took two bullets on the Express 37 Golden Moon.

On Sunday the Division B start with the first mark at Blackaller showed the wisdom of starting toward the pin and heading straight to the Cityfront. This influenced a few later classes with their first mark at Yellow Bluff who headed toward the City but were often trounced by the starters who went straight to the Marin Headlands. Cinde Lou Delmas on the Alerion Express 38 Another Girl demonstrated this in PHRF 3 with a bold port-tack start toward the Headlands while watching the rest of her fleet sail off to oblivion on starboard. The result was a wire-to-wire, never-look-back win by almost five minutes. There were similar stories in many classes.

The ultimate lesson from the weekend is never trust the weather or the news or anything you just read. Ignore it all and go sailing on the weekend.