Join the New San Francisco Bay Navigator’s Race, August 9

Seeking a race format for S.F. Bay that would appeal to racers who want a novel sailing challenge, Evan McDonald from the Berkeley Yacht Club searched the Web for “unusual sailboat race formats.” Many of the results pointed to triathlon-type racing events with a single leg of sailing, but several results referenced the Prince Henry Navigator Race run by the Narragansett Bay’s Twenty Hundred Club.

The race appeared truly unusual: seven start lines, a course at the discretion of the sailor across a web of allowed sailing legs between navigation marks, and a fixed sailing time window for all boats, with the goal of sailing the most corrected miles within a time window. The race’s divergence from a standard set-course/best-time race format was extreme, but judging by the attendance at the Three Bridge Fiasco, Evan figured that Bay Area sailors might like the puzzle. The race format was imported and modified to fit the S.F. Bay racing venue, and the San Francisco Bay Navigator’s Race is the result.

The race generally works as follows (see venue map below):

1) Competitors may start at one of four starting areas. These include Paradise Cove, Aquatic Park, McCovey Cove, and east of Angel Island, north of Quarry Point.

2) Competitors perform a fisherman’s start — at anchor, with sails lowered, furled or doused (not covered), with all competitors belowdecks.

3) At the race start time, competitors emerge from belowdecks, raise sails, and proceed to the designated starting mark associated with their starting area. All racers start at a specific GPS time from within a starting area, with no warning or start line.

4) The choice of course marks sailed by each competitor after the starting mark is at the discretion of that competitor, selected from the list of allowed course marks, subject to the following constraints:

a) Only the allowed course legs may be sailed.

b) The sequence of legs sailed must make a continuous line from the starting area to the finish line. A discontinuity in the course sailed by a competitor from the start through the finish results in disqualification.

c) A leg may be sailed no more than twice, except the legs from each starting area to that area’s starting mark or from the finishing mark to the finish line, which may be sailed only once.

d) Sailing a leg in either direction counts as sailing that leg once.

e) Sailing any leg three times results in disqualification. A leg may be sailed twice, once, or not at all.

5) Competitors must finish the race by crossing the finish line within a one-hour finishing window. Competitors who fail to cross the finish line within the finishing window are disqualified.

6) The boat that sails the greatest corrected distance is the winner of their division.

If you want to try a new race format that rewards local knowledge of weather and currents, careful planning, and boat handling, give the S.F. Bay Navigator’s Race a go. You can register on Jibeset at the link HERE.