A Sneak Peek at March Racing

The San Francisco Bay Scene

On March 7-8 Richmond Yacht Club will host the Big Daddy Regatta, with fleet racing on Saturday, a party on Saturday night, and the usual pursuit race on Sunday.

On the same weekend, the second stop in the California Dreamin’ match-racing series comes to St. Francis YC. The club follows that up on March 14-15 with the Spring One Design Regatta and on March 21-22 with Spring Dinghy.

Preparation for the Singlehanded Transpacific Race and other Hawaii races continues on Wednesday, March 11, with a seminar  about Rigging and Sail Plans, with Ryan Nelson of Rogue Rigging, at Oakland YC in Alameda at 7:30 p.m. See www.sfbaysss.org.

Oakland YC invites singlehanded, doublehanded and fully crewed boats to compete in the Rites of Spring on March 21.

One of Island YC’s signature races, the Sadie Hawkins, is on the schedule for March 28. It’s a women skippers’ race on the Estuary for fully crewed boats. IYC’s fate is up in the air at the moment, however, as they’ve been evicted from their clubhouse in Alameda Marina ahead of the redevelopment of that property. We’ll keep you posted.

Another choice on March 28 is Sausalito YC’s Jaws Pursuit Race, which starts and finishes off the clubhouse deck in Richardson Bay.

Truls Myklebust, commodore of the Bay Area Multihull Association, writes, “BAMA has a few events coming up in March:

• March 14 — Live Crew Overboard Training.  Here’s your opportunity to practice live crew overboard recovery, with the safety of support craft on site and additional eyes on the person in the water.  For additional information, and for registration, please go to Jibeset: www.jibeset.net/BAMA000.php?RG=T005297370 (note: registration is limited to 15 boats).
• March 26 — Skippers’ meeting for the 2020 Doublehanded Farallones Race at 7 p.m. at Oakland Yacht Club.
• March 28 — 2020 Doublehanded Farallones Race. This is the 41st running of the classic Doublehanded Farallones Race. This year, the rounding of the island is allowed in either direction. Registration is on Jibeset: www.jibeset.net/BAMA000.php?RG=T002079021.”

San Diego Sorties

San Diego YC and Coronado YC will host the San Diego NOOD Regatta on March 20-22. See www.sailingworld.com/helly-hansen-nood-regatta-in-san-diego.

Also in San Diego, Silver Gate YC will again welcome classic beauties big and small for the America’s Schooner Cup on March 28. The regatta benefits the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.

Mexico or Bust

The 1,000-mile San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race kicks off the Mexico racing season on March 5. The race down the coast will serve as the first big regatta in an ambitious campaign by three families on the Volvo 65 Viva Mexico. The team plans to follow up with the Transpac Tahiti Race in May — and eventually The Ocean Race around the world starting in October 2021. You’ll be able to read more about that program in Sightings in the March issue of Latitude 38, hitting the docks on Monday, March 2.

The PV Race feeds into MEXORC on March 13-18.

The Banderas Bay Regatta continues the Mexico events on March 24-28, with friendly racing for cruisers.

We’ve listed a few popular events in this post, but many more populate the racing calendar. See lots more, including Midwinter series winding down and Beer Can races starting up, in the 2020 Northern California Sailing Calendar and YRA Schedule. We’ll update our monthly Calendar on March 2.