Wednesday Night Woodies and Beer Can Racing Season Draw to a Close

One of the fantastic things about these two photos of sailing the Bay, sent by Brock de Lappe, is that they were taken on two different Wednesdays, just one week apart. The sad part about these photos is that they’re the last couple of Folkboat Wednesday Night Woodies and beer can racing events out of the St. Francis Yacht Club. The Corinthian and Island Yacht Club Friday beer cans end tonight, though several other clubs carry on through September, with Sequoia Yacht Club running their beer can series until October 4 and Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club ending theirs on October 11. You can see all the Northern California beer can racing here.

The other thing we always notice in the stunning photos of evening beer can racing is that the racers tend to be the only boats on the Bay. Obviously, you don’t need to race to experience an evening sail like those pictured here, but as always, the simple act of signing up to race tends to get you on the water when you otherwise wouldn’t make the effort. If you signed up to race on evenings like this and came in last every time, it would still be well worth it.

As race editor Chris Weaver wrote on Monday, there are still plenty of other races to sign up for in September. They range from low-key to intense, plus inshore and, Andy Newell reminded us, offshore. The last race of the YRA offshore series is on Saturday, September 9.

Fall is one of the best times to sail the Bay, and there’s a lot more to sailing than racing. If signing up for something helps, you could sign up for the “I Heart San Francisco” day on the Bay when Antenna Theater draws a heart over the Golden Gate Bridge for a Sunday, October 1, tribute to Tony Bennett.

We’re sad to see the beer can racing season winding down, but fortunately, California sailors still have many good days of sailing ahead.