Three Bridges and Quite the Fiasco
The final day of January will mark one of the great sailing traditions on San Francisco Bay: the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s (SSS) Three Bridge Fiasco (TBF). Last year’s Fiasco featured a whopping 328 entries. With a little more than a week until the first signal at the time of this writing, there are 236 entries for the Fiasco this year.
The race is an exercise in chaos and fun, hence the name “Fiasco.” Boats have the freedom to choose which mark they sail to first, and which way to go around each mark. The pursuit race element of it all (staggered starting times) means that, theoretically, most boats will be crossing the finish line around the same time.
The TBF is the largest annual sailing race on the West Coast, and is exclusively for doublehanded or singlehanded racing. With that in mind, it’s important to have a plan and sail smart around all of the hundreds of other boats. With the first signal for the race just before 9:00 a.m., the first portion of the race will be sailed in an ebb, with the slack just after noon.
The SSS will be holding a Competitors’ Meeting on the evening of Wednesday, January 28, at Oakland Yacht Club at 7:00 p.m.
Stay tuned for more coverage of the Fiasco here in Latitude 38. Sign up to race here.
So much fun ,so little time. 😉 good luck to everybody, be safe out there.
Don’t know what tide book you are looking at; maybe last year’s? At 0900, it should be flooding, a little less than 1 hour after a 2.4 knot max at 0815 or so. There might be a hint of ebb onshore at the start, as the 6.8’ high tide is 0930. I would not expect a slack in the nearly 8’ drop to a -1.3’ low at 1631 at the Gate until around 1900. The whole game is getting around Red Rock by 1130 or so, as I see it.