New Doublehanded Farallones Courses

In a news flash of sorts, the Bay Area Multihull Association has announced that this year’s Doublehanded Farallones Race on March 18 will offer a choice of four courses, as follows:

• The Race to the Sea, aka ‘DHBL’, 8 miles to the COLREGS line between Point Bonita Light and Mile Rock
• The Race to the Bar, aka DHG7, 15.5 miles to ship channel buoys G7 and R8
• The Race to the Weather Buoy, aka DHWB, 39 miles
• The Doublehanded Farallones, aka DHF, the full 58-mile course around Southeast Farallon Island

"The intent," according to the Sailing Intructions, "is to provide a growth path for sailors in Double Handed Ocean racing through incremental steps in distance and requirements and to also provide options for skippers other than DNS or DNF as conditions warrant." Safety requirements vary depending on course, and some differences to NorCalORC recommendations make the DHF more doable for smaller boats than any other ocean race originating in San Francisco Bay — which does not mean the safety requirements are more lax.

Registration and the Sailing Instructions are now available. The ‘sweetheart deal’ entry fee of $60 ends February 14; the regular entry deadline is March 15, which is also the date of the skippers’ meeting, to be held at Oakland YC.

The awards for the 2016 race will be handed out at Aeolian Yacht Club in Alameda next Wednesday, February 15 (note new date). The bar, shirts and awards will be available at 6 p.m. with the trophy presentation at 7. To refresh your memory, Mark Eastham and Stephan Lesaffre on the F-31R Ma’s Rover were the overall winners. The plan is to review the last race and discuss the next one — sort of an unofficial pre-skippers meeting.

Overlapping with the BAMA meeting will be the awards presentation for the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s Three Bridge Fiasco, starting at 7:30 p.m. on the other end of Alameda at Oakland YC.