November and Midwinter Regatta Preview

New Midwinter Series

The beer-can racing scene is wrapped up for the fall, and our thoughts turn to midwinter racing. Northern California sailors have a plethora of options from which to choose this year.

New to the midwinters calendar this year are the Yacht Racing Association’s Shorthanded Sunday Series for doublehanders, starting and finishing at Golden Gate Yacht Club on the San Francisco Cityfront, and Spinnaker Sailing of Redwood City’s Winter One Design Series. The latter will begin on November 7, and the former on November 21. Ten Merit 25s have registered for the Redwood City series in two divisions: Spinnaker and Jib and Mainsail.

The Usual Suspects

The new series above will join the usual suspects that start in November, including (in alphabetical order):

• Benicia YC’s Frostbite Series, first race 11/13.
• Berkeley YC’s Saturday and Sunday Midwinter Series, first weekend 11/13-14. BYC’s Chowder Series has already begun.
• Elkhorn YC’s Chowder Cup Series, first race 11/7.
• Encinal YC’s Jack Frost Series, first races 11/6.
• Golden Gate YC’s 50th Manuel Fagundes Seaweed Soup Regatta, first race 11/6.
• Island YC’s Island Days, first race 11/14.
• Monterey Peninsula YC’s Perry Cup for the Mercury fleet, first races 11/6 (Saturday only).
• Santa Cruz YC’s Midwinters, first races 11/20.
• Sausalito YC’s Chili Midwinter Regatta, first race 11/7; and RegattaPRO Winter One Design, first races 11/13.
• Sequoia YC’s Winter Series, first race 11/6; and Redwood Cup pursuit race series, first race 11/20.
• South Beach YC’s Still Ain’t Over, first race 11/20.

November Is for Turkeys

Turkey-themed regattas in November include:

• Lake Washington Sailing Club’s Turkey Shoot Regatta for dinghy classes, with poultry for prizes, on November 6. LWSC is located at the Port of Sacramento in West Sac.
• Konocti Bay Sailing Club’s Turkey Cup on Clear Lake on November 20.
• Tiburon YC’s Wild Turkey Race on Black Friday, November 26. No turkeys are harmed to make the prizes for this one!

More Stand-Alone Regattas

Among other regattas in November are:

The Vanguard 15 Invitational, hosted by Bay View Boat Club on November 6. Fleet 53.

Richmond YC’s Amazing Grace Cheney Cup for women skippers on November 7.

The Big Sail, Cal vs. Stanford on the Cityfront at St. Francis YC on Tuesday, November 16.

We’ll have many more listed for your sailing pleasure in Calendar in the November issue of Latitude 38, coming out on Monday, November 1.