By Christine Weaver | August 23, 2021 | Vallejo, CA | 1
With the Great Vallejo Race start visible on the Berkeley Circle in the background, four Wylie Wabbits started the Wiver Wun on Saturday morning off the Richmond Yacht Club race platform. The wacing Wabbits were (left to right) Bad Hare Day, Kwazy, Mr. McGregor and (not visible in this photo) Keala. The Wiver Wun takes Wabbits up the Sacramento Wiver to Wio Vista.
We take a short break from preparing the September issue for press to post just a few quick favorite images from Vallejo Yacht Club and this weekend’s Great Vallejo Race.
The crew of the Freedom 38 Kyntanna exits the Oakland Estuary on their way to the GVR startline. Left to right: Jackie Philpott, Tammy Mercado, Carliane Johnson and Mary Mathieson. This is Carliane’s crew for the 2022 Pacific Cup.
The YRA canceled the GVR in 2020. This year they moved it from the initial, more traditional dates of May 1-2 to August 21-22. A fleet of 78 boats entered — about half the usual number. That’s fine, as social distancing is still necessary.
As we were about to climb across his boat, we got a wave from Andy Newell, skipper of the Santana 35 Ahi.
Although fewer boats packed into the harbor, there was still plenty of fun to be had visiting friends boat to boat.
They’re all wearing Kuai hats but they sailed the Melges 20 Boomer. Left to right: Dan Lee and David Lee (no relation), Daniel Thielman, and skipper Jennifer Canestra.
Hanging out on the Express 27 Hang 20, left to right: Jennifer McKenna, Ghaida Zahran (visiting from the Cal 40 Azure), Monique Selvester (visiting from the Olson 30 WYSIWYG), Robbie Murphree-Gabriel with Sparky, Thorne Butler (Robbie’s ‘racer-chaser’), and skipper Lori Tewksbury.
Joan Byrne’s Olson 911S Heart of Gold had a position of honor at the dock. (Early finishing boats get to tie up to the dock, not to boats that have arrived previously.)
The crew of the J/35 Jarlen also did well and got a slip. Left to right: Viktor German, Bob George, Jeff Dunnavent, Junette Kushner, Greg Winter, Eamonn Cribbens, Bob Bloom. Dr. Bob reports good wind the whole way — no wind holes.
Only three boats med-tied in front of the club this year. These are Ed Hoff’s lovely Davidson 44 Pendragon, John Arens’ J/109 Reverie, and John Clauser’s 1D48 Bodacious+ (with all the flags).
Some of the crew of the Express 37 Stewball did a little dance for our camera. Bob Walden (in the shirt with the sea stars on it), owner of the Cal 39 Sea Star, is chartering Stewball for September’s Rolex Big Boat Series. The GVR was a practice race for the crew, a blend of sailors from both boats. With plenty of breeze, Saturday’s race was a fast one, and Stewball finished at 1:30. The first finisher, Andrew Picel’s J/125 Arsenal, arrived at 1:05, taking only 2 hours, 5 minutes to complete the 22-mile course.
The arrival of Hurricane Henri and Hurricane Grace over this past week appears to have marked the escalation of this year's East Coast hurricane season.
Old s/v Stewball the racehorse was a fast finisher…is that like the story book version?
Will she race in the Jazz Cup in September to Benicia? Can she do it again number one?