Three Bridge Fiasco Outlook
"According to Wikipedia, it’s the largest sailboat race in the United States," Rick Elkins, the race chair of the Singlehanded Sailing Society, told the crowd gathered at Wednesday night’s Three Bridge Fiasco skippers’ meeting. "The previous race chair put that in there and no one’s taken it out." Tomorrow’s race for singlehanders and doublehanders garnered 361 entries; registration is closed.
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Because the sailors must choose their direction and order of sailing the course, much study of the wind and current forecasts occupies their minds during the days and hours before the start off Golden Gate Yacht Club.
"Persistent and strong high pressure over the western US will leave SSS Three Bridge Fiasco racers with offshore flow to contend with," predicts Sail Tactics’ Mike Dvorak. "The wind forecast has basically remained unchanged for the past three days, with an east-to-west pressure gradient generating northeasterly and northerly winds all day long. Our 1-km resolution Outlook forecast is showing moderate-to-light northeasterly winds in the morning and then moderate northerly winds in the afternoon with one exception, noted below. At this point, the odds of any kind of westerly/sea breeze developing in the afternoon look slim and would be weak at best."
"The real problem of the day appears to be getting around Treasure Island, with the Berkeley/Oakland hills blocking the northeasterly flow throughout the day," Dvorak points out. "Our Outlook forecasts show calm winds on the south side of TI until about 12:30-1 p.m. Even then, the winds are pretty light, conjuring visions and sounds of saggy, flopping kites. In general, winds will strengthen in the late afternoon and go more northerly but still could leave south of TI a dead spot. As always, the Sail Tactics 200-m resolution forecast will be generated around 7 a.m. tomorrow to make the most accurate forecast possible. In addition, our tide forecasts are updated daily with the latest Delta river flows that take into account recent rainfall."
We’ll see you out there!