By Christine Weaver | October 28, 2024 | Point Richmond, CA | 2
This year’s Great Pumpkin Regatta was held over the past weekend, October 26-27, with light air on Saturday and just about perfect wind on Sunday. In between, host Richmond Yacht Club threw a Halloween party. This year’s theme was Peace, Love and Pumpkins. We lurked around the party, keeping a camera handy to expose some of the fun.
Memo Gidley of the Elliott 1050 Basic Instinct and his daughter Emma dressed as chipmunks. (Upated: Acutally, those are beavers, not chipmunks. The Gidleys said the onesies come from Buc-ee’s, a chain of travel centers.)
Because this was, after all, a yacht-racing regatta, RYC called their costume categories “fleets.” Scariest was the first fleet off the line. No doubt because of the peace and love theme, only one entry started in this fleet, but we’re pretty sure they would have won anyway.
The family that sails together — er, reaps souls together? — stays together.
The doublehanded fleet — couples — was up next. As in actual sailing competition, this was a very popular division.
Craig and Ann Perez of the Express 34 Marrakesh always do an excellent job with their costumes. They won the doublehanded division. You can’t tell on account of those long bell bottoms, but they’re both wearing platform shoes.
The next fleet was Superheroes. This was another sparse division.
Sporting tie-dyed nylon tracksuits, Anne and Mark Thomas and crew of the J/100 Windsome bested the Harlem Globetrotter to win their division. (IRL, Globetrotter #45, by the way, is forward Moose Weekes.)
The big fleet to hit the starting line next was Grooviest.
Groovy hippie chick Nora DeGaa of the Hunter 37.5 Music accepts the prizes, a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate, from RYC vice commodore Ernie Galvan.
The Trippiest fleet rounded out the competition. The Deadhead and flower child on the left won out over the magic mushroom lady on the right. Andy Schwenk is in the middle eliciting audience reaction.
Next time nature calls, or your holding tanks is full, use the Pumpout Nav app to find the nearest floating restroom, pumpout or dump station. Download it today.
An informative, interactive sea level change website and the designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary provide tools and hope for the future.
We initially planned on making the sail down Baja and onward on our own. But with all the preparations and work we were doing, it was easy to push each fall departure back another year "until we were 100% ready."
Thanks for the great shots and for coming to our party!
Richmond Yacht Club did itself proud once again. That club is certainly ” Built for Fun !”