Sausalito Yacht Club Kicks Off 2025 Midwinters
As we left the berth for the first 2025–2026 Sausalito Yacht Club (SYC) Chili Midwinter race on November 3, things didn’t look too optimistic. The four-knot true wind speed and ebbing wakes around pilings confirmed both predictions we’d been watching all week. Listening to the Golden Gate Bridge foghorns as we found our way down Richardson Bay out toward the Little Harding buoy added to our lowered expectations.
Using AIS, we found Mercury, the SYC committee boat, anchored between Little Harding and Point Knox. It wasn’t long before the race committee announced a postponement. There wasn’t enough wind to overcome the ebb as we drifted toward those Golden Gate foghorns.
Gradually the fog lifted, a westerly breeze began to build, and the RC announced they planned to get the race going. A combined start for Spinnaker divisions A and C was announced, along with a 4.9-mile windward-leeward once-and-a-half-around course, using YRA’s Hank Easom buoy as the windward mark and a temporary mark leeward of the start/finish line for the leeward mark.
Most of the 11 boats in the combined spinnaker fleets misjudged the ebb’s strength, and combined with a short start line, were over early for a general recall. The second attempt was more successful, and the spinnaker boats were on their way for a speedy beat to Easom, aided by the ebb.
In the meantime the nine-boat Non-Spinnaker Division started a shorter 2.9-mile, once-around Easom–temp–finish course. They, too, found the ebb helpful on the beat.
By this time a nice 10- to 12-knot wind filled in, making the race swift, even with the strong ebb. All spinnaker boats finished in less than an hour, and almost all non-spinnaker boats in less than 30 minutes.
Back at the SYC clubhouse, racers enjoyed complimentary chili and swapping tales of a race that didn’t look good at the start, but turned out to be a very good introduction to midwinter racing on Richardson Bay.
The next SYC Chili Midwinter race is Sunday, December 7.