THE RACING Weirdness dominated Bay Area racing during late August through early September. Sailing under a shroud of smoke were the Windjammers and Jazz Cup. Politics threw the OYRA's Race #8 for a loop. More normal conditions favored the Mercury Nationals, the I-14 North Americans, the Moore 24 Nationals and BYC's Tri-Island Race. A wealth of Box Scores includes many beer can series results, and we end with a couple of quick Race Notes.
CHRIS HOFMANN
75th Windjammers Shut Out As the delivery crews for the Bill Lee 68 Merlin and the Santa Cruz 70 Buona Sera entered San Francisco Bay at sunrise on Friday morning, September 1, they were blasted with a 10- to 15-knot 80° easterly blowing out the Gate. These were early signs that this Windjammer Regatta from San Francisco to Santa Cruz would not be a typical one. That easterly died off quickly in the early morning, and by start time boats were riding the ebb out the Gate in the record-breaking heat that the San Francisco Bay Area experienced over Labor Day Weekend. The fleet did pick up a bit of a typical westerly for a few hours once outside the Gate, and the choices were to try to go outside for more of a building westerly, or try to rhumbline it down the coast to Santa Cruz. Merlin went outside and could see nice westerly wind out beyond the shipping channel, but was
'Buona Sera' arrives at the Golden Gate for the Windjammers Race on September 1.
never ever able to make it far enough offshore before the wind died altogether. Buona Sera took the inside route and held the early line-honor lead until the wind shut off altogether for her as well. In the end, the entire Windjammer fleet retired from the race, marking the first time in the recollection of old timers that no boat was able to make it to Santa Cruz without starting up the engine. The 2017 Windjammer Regatta joined both the Jazz Cup and Veeder Cup down in Page 108 •
Latitude 38
• October, 2017
Monterey in being unable to finish boats and declare a winner. Skunked in its 75th year, the Windjammers will try in 2018 to continue the tradition and great sailing that has served fleets well in the longest-running race on the West Coast. — chris hofmann Smokin' Hot Jazz Cup On the following day, Saturday the 2nd, an even denser blanket of smoke from distant fires smothered the Bay in the midst of several consecutive Spare the Air days. The air temperature in San Francisco would, like on the previous record-setting day, reach into triple digits. Several impromptu swim meets in the not-as-chilly-as-usual waters of San Francisco Bay would be held before the day was done. Doom and gloom hovered in the air along with the smoke: The forecast didn't bode well for the 30th Jazz Cup, a mostly downwind race from the north side of Treasure Island to Benicia, hosted by South Beach and Benicia YCs. The first divisions started on time, north to south, a reach, toward what the first mark, YRA 7, aka R2, west of TI. The nonspinnaker boats started first, at 11:05. The highestnumbered PHRF spinnaker boats were up next; just before their start, Richard vonEhrenkrook of the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass asked, "Which way do we start?" "South to north, windward start," was the answer from the race committee aboard SBYC's Anabel. This was not intuitive, as it put the mark astern of the start. The first two divisions had to come back and restart, performing a button-hook of the pin. The Answering Pennant went up at 11:22, and the RC picked up the pin. "At the first warning, the wind was 4-6 knots from the north," explains race chair Milt Smith of South Beach YC. "By the third division warning the wind was 0-2 knots." A boat in one of the divisions that had already started was still trying to cross
the line and couldn't find the pin. They were told to start with the next division. The divisions that had not yet started endured a long postponement while the boats that had managed to start drifted around at YRA 7, unable to make any progress against a building ebb. In the noon hour, crews began jumping into the normally cold waters of the Central Bay to cool off. It was no quick Danish plunge either; the refreshing water felt so good that many swimmers lingered. At 12:45, the RC announced: "There's a westerly filling in; we'll get organized and start soon." Reports Smith: "The wind built to 4 knots, clocking to the west, so we came out of postponement and got all boats started." The race was on! Crews could hoist spinnakers at the first mark, as intended, and carry the spinnaker on a headstay reach into the Southampton Shoal area. The westerly carried the boats to Richmond before petering out. Going to the Richmond side paid off, but in an effort to escape the ebb, a couple of boats sailed right alongside the ships docked at the Richmond Long Wharf, missing a mark on the course, Red 2QR. A common turnaround point was the Brothers. Once at Point San Pablo, racers could glimpse San Pablo Bay, and a scan of the horizon showed the pointlessness of continuing to 'sail'. Even those who normally stick it out bailed, and many crews went swimming again near Red Rock or in San Pablo Bay beyond the Brothers. A few boats managed to sail as far as the Carquinez Bridge and arrived in Benicia after dark. Others motored to Benicia YC; some took their boats home and went to the party by land. Rumor has it that one fast multihull sailed the whole way, but finished after the 7 p.m. time limit. The air at Benicia, where it's usually windy in the afternoon and early evening, was dead still. If it's possible for outdoor air to be stuffy, it was. The temperature in Benicia was about the same as it had been in San Francisco during the afternoon. "Several boats did come on to Benicia for the post-'race' party and Mount Gay Rum tasting," said Smith. Benicia YC had great bands playing to entertain the sailors, club members and guests, including a power trio for
