It’s Raining Races
The driest February in more than 150 years gave way to leonine March, and the return of rain to parched California. That the rain fell on San Francisco Bay racers on Saturday the 7th, and is predicted to fall again this weekend, presents only a minor discomfort to the dedicated weekend warriors who frequent the Bay.
California Dreamin’
Nicole Breault of St. Francis YC and her crew won all of their matches to win the second stop of the three-event 2020 California Dreamin’ Series. StFYC hosted the second stop in J/22s on March 7-8 on the San Francisco Cityfront. See complete results here.
Breault topped Dominic Bove, also from StFYC. Matt Whitfield of Penarth YC in Wales finished third. San Diego YC hosted the first stop on February 1-2, where Breault finished in second place. The series will wrap up at Long Beach YC in Catalina 37s on April 18-19. The winner of the series will receive an invitation to the 2021 Ficker Cup, a qualifying event for the 2021 Congressional Cup.
Seaweed Soup at Golden Gate
Golden Gate YC’s Manuel Fagundes Seaweed Soup Regatta sailed in light air and heavy ebb on Saturday. Though the boats got a thorough soaking in the morning, the actual race only received a few light sprinkles. Sailing various courses up and down the San Francisco Cityfront, the GGYC race did its best to stay out of the way of their next-door neighbor’s match racers.
Big Daddy Regatta
On the waters from Richmond to Berkeley, Richmond YC’s Big Daddy fleets waited to start their races not due to the presence of water falling from the sky but due to the absence of breeze. Once the wind filled in, the race committees on three courses ran three good races.
On Sunday, the rain held off — and so did the westerly. But enough breeze made the scene to start the pursuit race sequence near Southampton Shoal on time at 12:25. Fluky pressure and building ebb challenged the 80 boats to make a clean start. Once again the good ol’ westerly filled in early enough to get everyone around the course by 4:30 p.m.
We’ll have much more on the Big Daddy and Seaweed Soup regattas in the April issue of Latitude 38. To see which races might get damp this weekend, check out our Calendar.