A Wintery Weekend Report

In the wake of a winter storm, a weekend of mixed weather offered a variety of conditions for sailors on Bay Area waters.

Seaweed Soup on the Cityfront

On Saturday morning, some last rain squalls blew through, leaving rainbows behind. The northwesterly on the Cityfront had already cranked up well before the start time and built through the afternoon, challenging racers in Golden Gate Yacht Club’s Seaweed Soup Series to keep their boats upright. Death-roll oscillations were the norm on the windy dead-downwind run from Harding Rock to Blossom Rock, but all of the boats that made it out to the race course were able to finish.

Richmond Small Boat Midwinters

Sunday was another story, with bright-blue skies and sunshine that felt warm depending on your particular patch of the Bay. Over by Potrero Point, Richmond YC’s El Toro fleet enjoyed a perfect westerly.

Meanwhile, just around the corner, the racers on Keller Cove endured a chilly northerly.

The bigger boats on the Southampton course got in a full day of racing too.

Sausalito Chili Midwinters

But, meanwhile, in Sausalito… “December’s Chili Midwinter ended with three bangs and an abandonment,” reports Pat Broderick. “The optimistic boats arrived at the starting area to find fickle winds, sometimes out of the northeast, backing and clocking from north to east — when there was wind. The Sausalito YC race committee tried several course possibilities, keeping the mark boat running back and forth for two hours before calling it a day.”

To see a comprehensive list of midwinter series available to racers in the greater Bay Area, check out our Calendar. We’ll have more on this weekend’s midwinters in Racing Sheet in the January issue of Latitude 38, to be published on December 28.

Out for a short-day sail