THE RACING This month we feature the mysteriously appealing Three Bridge Fiasco. Then we wrap up the Berkeley Midwinters and the Perry Cup. Plus we check in on the Mott Midwinters in the North Bay and the Redwood Cup in the South Bay. Since the RegattaPRO Winter One Design and Corinthian Midwinters concluded in February, we've printed their results in Box Scores. And we finish up with a quick note about March's Doublehanded Farallones.
Gate Bridge, Red Rock just south of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and Yerba Buena/Tresure Island at the Bay Bridge — but not necessarily in that order! With the race date, January 30, falling near a half moon, the currents were less overpowering than is often the case. But, after a couple of rainy months, the ebb was more persistent than predicted. Breeze at the start came and went repeatedly, favoring some and frustrating others. A vast wind hole stretched from the Richmond Bridge south past Southampton Shoal, trapping many a competitor. Red Rock was nicknamed 'Red Lot'. "Oh, I see: 'Red' means stop," quipped one Moore 24 sailor. Then a lively westerly, in the teens, came up on the Cityfront in the afternoon. The Wylie Wabbit Jack, which had started at 9:49, returned to GGYC first, at 2:09. The last finisher, the Catalina 30 Bay Wind, made it around with almost an hour to spare before the 7 p.m. deadline. Jack's Bill Erkelens had a last-minute change of sailing partner. His wife Melinda broke her foot a few days before the race and was given a boot to wear and told not to sail. "Keith Stahnke filled in and sailed very well! Keith is a good sailor who knows San Francisco Bay better than most and was very fun to sail with," said Erkelens. "The overall plan was to choose a diBill Erkelens (hanging out on the trap) and Keith Stahnke finished Janurection that kept us ary 30's Three Bridge Fiasco ahead of 289 other boats. moving. Starting midfleet with plenty of bigger boats behind Despite — or perhaps because of — puts a demand on avoiding any prothe above quirks, this year's race topped longed transitions. previous editions with 368 entries (a tie "The wind looked light but solid going with 2011), 326 starters, and — most up toward the Golden Gate Bridge, so amazing of all — 290 finishers. we started off in that direction. We went The 21-mile course is a wide-ranging out to the best ebb after the start, then Bay tour that takes the racers from the took a fat layline into shore to get around startline off Golden Gate Yacht Club, Blackaller. We then looked down toward to Blackaller Buoy near the Golden
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Record Three Bridge Fiasco There's no question that the Singlehanded Sailing Society's Three Bridge Fiasco is the most popular yacht race in the West, if not on the entire continent. The real mystery remains: How can such a fiasco be so popular? Consider everything it has going against it: It's in January. Only one or two people are allowed on each boat. The winter currents on San Francisco Bay often overpower the breezes. Unless there's a big storm of course. The starting area is a mishmosh crowd of 300+ boats ranging in size from 19 to 65 feet, with one, two or three hulls. The pursuit format starts don't occur at orderly five-minute intervals; rather boats start at seemingly random times in random directions. (Is that boat in your way racing, or can you politely request that they clear the line? Who knows.) The marks are defined in the Sailing Instructions, but not the order or direction of rounding.
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• March, 2016
The always-entertaining — and informative — Moore 24 start in the Three Bridge Fiasco. Turn the page for more photos from January's epic pursuit race.
Fort Mason and it still looked light, so we went toward Red Rock." They sailed low under spinnaker to keep their options open to go through Raccoon Strait, the north side of Angel Island, or past Point Blunt, the south side. "We started seeing building breeze in Richardson Bay, so we went pole forward and up toward the new wind. It filled, and we jib-reached into and through the Strait." They stayed low along the shore of Angel Island before cutting across to the Marin side and drifting through the brief wind shadow of Tiburon's final point. A jib fetch to Red Rock followed. "The last of the boats ahead sailed high above the layline, getting lee-bowed by the ebb. We sailed low to reach the cone of Red Rock and then sailed up once in the cone. The boats ahead that sailed high needed to go bow-down to reach the Rock, and the ebb pushed them down behind us. We got a lucky puff to get around Red Rock and had a light-air kite reach with ebb behind us to the Slot. We stayed in the channel for max ebb. The boats behind that went high got stuck under Point Blunt, and the boats that sailed low had to wait a long time for the filling wind from the southwest." Jack found only a small hole behind Yerba Buena Island, then beat up to the cone of Alcatraz, across to San Francisco's Gashouse Cove, then on to the finish. Sailing with Melinda, Bill had previ-
