Singlehanded Sailing Society’s Final 2024 Regatta Races to Vallejo Yacht Club
The Singlehanded Sailing Society ran their final regatta of the 2024 season on hot, sunny October 5-6. Richard vonEhrenkrook and his Cal 20 Can O’Whoopass won the singlehanded race to Vallejo YC overall on Saturday.
“Conditions were precisely as forecast, and exactly not so,” says Richard, rather mysteriously. “It therefore wasn’t the drifter expected, but a supremely technical race, demanding constant perfect trim, good decisions, and occasional good luck. Saturday’s start at the Bob Klein buoy (near Southampton Shoal) featured a decent 6-8 knots from the NNW, with the fleet splitting between port tack to Richmond, taken by Scott Easom’s J/100 Eight Ball and Bren Meyer’s Wyliecat 30 Uno, and hard left on starboard, looking for the flood lane, taken by Fred Paxton on the Alerion Express 28 Zenaida.”
“The Can was inclined, after port-tacking the fleet, to go left, but when Zenaida tacked and parked on the left corner, I decided to go right with Scott and Bren. That paid at Red Rock, with good pressure and a jet of flood. Hitting the Sisters side of the San Pablo Strait. along with Donn Guay’s Newport 30 Zeehond, and followed by the Santana 22 High and Dry, we found a weird, collapsing triangle of northeast wind, bouncing down between vast expanses of glassy water, to ride all the way to the northeast end of the Pinole ship channel, where we noted the speedys languishing in glass while feverishly attempting to get north and avoid the Carquinez Strait in the flood.”