midwinters in berkeley

It's not really a 'Circle' anymore, but the racing venue west of Berkeley Marina, known as the 'Olympic Circle' or 'Berkeley Circle' serves up windy-tonukin' conditions in the Slot for serious summer racing and casual beer cans. During the winter, the Slot goes into hibernation, the conditions are (usually) pretty mild, and Berkeley Yacht Club and RegattaPRO run winter races there. "The original design of the Circle centered on XOC," explains BYC's Bob Gray. "One mile due north was A; one mile east of X was C; one mile south of X was E; one mile west of X was G. B, D, F and H were at 45° off the preceding letter's line. Each letter was set one mile from X. The original metal ball buoys were anchored in place with really heavy railroad wheels and big chains. The metal balls had to be removed when power boats kept running into them and we were told to get 'soft' buoys." The vast, shallow shelf of the Circle has silted in. AOC and HOC's locations are now too shallow for keelboats to navigate. The circular mark arrangement was used in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Picking the mark that was most directly into the wind as the fi rst mark made the start upwind. Triangle courses were popular in those days; now windward/leewards are de rigueur. Over the past few years, BYC has transitioned to using infl atable dropmarks. This was made possible by 2011's acquisition of a 19-ft runabout, which was christened the Bobbi Tosse in honor of the longtime race chair of that name. "I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that, for many, many years, I kept urging anyone who asked that we not acquire such a boat," said the human Bobbi Tosse. "I worried that we wouldn't have the money and people to properly maintain it. Until last year, we only used it to set missing marks. Since the Circle marks have been disappearing regularly, this kept the launch quite busy. This season becomes only the second year we've played with drop-marks only. I confess to being royally spoiled by the ease of working with a mark-set boat." On the morning of January 10, the Bobbi Tosse refused to start. "After dillydallying trying unsuccessfully to get the darn thing started, we stacked the three blown-up marks on Windance and went off to set the course and ourselves," recounts Tosse. Windance is the Gulfstar 41 used for race committee. "As the appointed hour of the fi rst gun neared and we still had ourselves, our start-fi nish line buoy, and L to set, we announced the problem on the VHF, along with the

pending postponement. Will Paxton on Motorcycle Irene immediately offered to set L. A sight I won’t soon forget is the Express 27, with main and spinnaker up, sailing away, bright yellow buoy in tow. How else would one know which direction was truly downwind?" The center cockpit Gulfstar is a liveaboard owned by Tom Tazelaar. "We've been lucky to have Tom think that powering from Fortman Marina in Alameda, hanging out at the club dock during the regatta, having 10 or 12 people tromp all over the boat during the racing, and then powering back to Alameda in the dark and cold is a fun thing to do," said Tosse. The Gulfstar makes a great race committee boat, heavy and stable. The anchor holds well, and she carries a lot of people. "If you have to go out in a big chop, it's a good boat to be on," said Bob Gray. Metropolitan Yacht Club of Oakland started the Midwinter Series in 1957. In 1982, MYCO's Kirt Brooks told Bob Gray that he needed him for race committee. Gray replied: "But I'm racing." Brooks countered: "I've looked at the race results, and you're in no danger of winning." MYCO partnered with Berkeley YC in 1984. "Bobbi came into the fold with that move," said Gray. "We ran protest hearings just about every race day. Protest committees were generally me, Paul Kamen and Sam Goldstein. We used to get four to fi ve protests every weekend." Now they are relatively rare. "Everyone's older," said Gray. "Not enough protesteron," added Kamen, who started hearing protests in the '70s. "BYC already had a monthly winter Chowder Race when we went in with MYCO on the Metropolitan Midwinters," said Paul Kamen. "So the Chowders were downgraded to a beer-can-style weekly race, aimed at the entry-level racer. They continue as a weekly Sunday afternoon event running all winter, a nice complement to the Friday Night Races, which run every Friday evening all summer long. There's no entry fee for either Chowder Races or Friday Night Races, and BYC is pretty informal about having a PHRF certifi cate — till you start winning, that is!" MYCO was located at Jack London Square. "It was a large facility with the marina directly in front with nice (for that

A pair of Open 5.70s return from the windward mark in the Berkeley Midwinters on Saturday, January 9. RegattaPRO's Winter One Design race can be seen sprawled out in the background. — All photos Latitude/Chris except as noted.

This page, clockwise from bottom left: BYC Race Committee stalwarts (left to right) Bob Gray, Bobbi Tosse and Betty Gray; John Gulliford's J/24 'Phantom' is leading Division C in January 9's BYC Midwinters; Bob Johnston's singlehanded windward douse on the J/92 'Ragtime!' in the January 10 race; doublehanders Ben Williamsz and John Lymberg on the Flying Tiger 'Wild 1'.

time) guest berthing," explained Gray. "The club lost its lease with the Port of Oakland and moved to another Port building at Central Basin. That building was inadequate, and MYCO moved again to the vacant Victoria Station building — rehabilitating it with volunteer labor — and eventually lost that, losing members with each move." "Kirt Brooks manipulated the MYCO fi nances to preserve his race budget," said Paul Kamen. "When MYCO was in fi nancial trouble, the Metropolitan Midwinters race budget was doing fi ne. Participation was way up and entry fees were more than covering expenses. For example, he could afford to give us starving college students from Cal Sailing Club a very nice free dinner at an upscale restaurant when we served on the protest committee. "The MYCO board was ready to raid the race budget to help keep their club afl oat, but Kirt considered the race program more important than fending off the demise of the club. By making the Midwinters a joint BYC-MYCO event, and setting up a joint bank account that required two signatures, one from each club, the race budget was beyond the reach of the MYCO board." Brooks passed away in 1994. Betty and Bob Gray joined BYC when MYCO collapsed in 1998, and they brought all of the MYCO race gear along.

On January 9 and 10, BYC gave all the divisions Course 1, an 8-mile, twice-around windward/leeward. "There was light rain and an agreeable 10-12 knots from the south at the start," said Tosse of Saturday's race, "and quite a few holes for the racers to suffer through." The southerly died, but the Olson 30 Hoot was so fast they fi nished before the course could be shortened. Division A got the full course, the course for the Cal 20 class was shortened to one lap, and everyone else was told to fi nish at the second leeward mark rounding. A zephyr wafted in from the north, turning the windward mark into a leeward mark and vice versa. Intermittent rain squalls blew through, but none did too much drenching or blustering. "Only two of the original 48 starters opted to retire," reports Tosse. At the instigation of members of the Singlehanded Sailing Society, Sunday's series is unique in offering shorthanded divisions for the second year in a row.

BYC's Midwinters aren't the only winter series in the neighborhood. RegattaPRO's Winter One Design sails in the deeper water west of the Circle on the second Saturday of the month. In 2002 Mary Coleman of the Farr 40 fl eet

contacted Jeff Zarwell to manage a winter series. "The purpose was training to keep crews and skippers sharp through the 'off-season' by trying to provide racing as true to summer racing as winter conditions would allow," recalls Zarwell. "For the second season we added the J/120 fl eet, the only one-design fl eet with a handicap even close to the Farrs. It was a good thing we added the 120s — only four Farrs participated that second season, as the sell-off had begun. "By season three the Farrs were down to three boats, the 120s were holding at seven, and I added the J/105s, which made a big jump in the numbers." By 2005 the Farr 40 class had fallen apart in Northern California, perhaps having fallen victim to checkbook wars. Zarwell added the Beneteau First 40.7s, Express 27s, and Melges 24s. "That allowed me to charter a real signal boat along with two support boats. "In 2008 or so I met Jay Hickman while we both worked at West Marine. Jay was interested in learning mark set. To say he was a prodigy is an understatement. Jay was an absolute natural. The next year Jay became the fi rst professional mark-set operator on the Bay. "I had been operating out of Sausalito YC, and SYC's Tim Prouty had volunteered a few times. In 2009 Tim suggested SYC sponsor the event by providing their signal and support boats as well as trained volunteers. I can't tell you what a relief that was." The series continues to focus on keeping one-design fl eets tuned up for spring racing. "To that end I think the program has been hugely successful."

January 9's edition of Winter One Design turned out better than the forecast had predicted, the breeze on the Berkeley Circle having fi lled slowly from the southeast at 5-9 knots. Racing got underway after only a 30-minute postponement. All classes completed a two-lap course for the fi rst race, but then the wind started to fade and the RC elected for a one-lap course for race 2. "For the smaller boats this wasn't quite short enough, and the breeze shut off completely, with most of the Melges 24s and J/70s within boatlengths of the fi nish line," reports the RC's Forrest Gay. "Many boats in those fl eets and in the J/24 class did not make the 10-minute fi nish window behind their fi rst fi nisher. A total glass-off at the end made for some true midwinter racing on the Bay." The RegattaPRO series will conclude on February 13 and the BYC series on February 13-14. BYC will also run a Champion of Champions Race for top fi nishers on February 28. See www. berkeleyyc.org and www.regattapro.com. — latitude/chris

ROXANNE FAIRBAIRN / WWW.ROXSHOTS.SMUGMUG.COM

This page, clockwise from top left: 16 Express 27s start the BYC Midwinters on Saturday, January 9; mark-set operator Jay Hickman cleans up after a RegattaPRO race; slow going for the J/105 fl eet in December 10's RegattaPRO race; another J/24, this one Richard Stockdale's 'Froglips', races with RegattaPRO on Saturdays and BYC on Sundays.