THE RACING The Great Pumpkin Regatta shortens sail(ing), the YRA closes their season with BYC's Oktoberfest, SDYC's Lipton Cup slips north, Santa Anas spoil DRYC's Halloween Regatta, women skippers sail the Amazing Grace Cheney Cup, Seaweed Soup slowly simmers, fog descends on the Berkeley Midwinters, and El Toros race the Corkscrew Slough. Plus Box Scores and Race Notes.
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A Reefed Great Pumpkin Regatta Richmond Yacht Club's Great Pumpkin Regatta on the weekend of October 26-27 had to tuck in a reef to shorten sail. Actually, it had to shorten sailing to one day. Day 1 featured the usual three dropmark races in three separate racing areas for many, many PHRF divisions and one-design classes. As often happens, the westerly for the first race was mellow, then it shifted a notch south
While 'Arcadia' keeps the pressure on, 'Double Down' struggles with a busted spinny pole.
and built enough that some mayhem ensued. On the Deep Water course, closest to the Slot, puffs peaked in the mid-20s. For the second and third races on that course, the race committee set an alternate windward mark to the south of Race 1's mark. The Brooks Island course (formerly known as the Southampton course) Page 86 •
Latitude 38
• December, 2019
had a hole coming down four minutes into the sequence, so PRO Fred Paxton called for a postponement. His gang reset the course. Then the wind filled in a lot, so they extended the course for the second race. This racing area saw superaggressive starts. Among the day's mishaps: the Beneteau Vera Cruz hit the RC tug Buoy Toy, — it had to go to the boatyard. The Jeanneau Invictus and the Sydney Encore collided in a port-starboard crossing. The Henderson 30 Family Hour TNG lost the main halyard at the start of the first race and was out for the day. PHRF H only had three boats; one protested the other two. In the first downwind leg of Race 2, the Schumacher 30 Double Down broke a spinnaker pole during a jibe. During the last tack of the day, the Catalina 34 Carmelita snapped the radar off the mast. It hit one of the crew in the back. "Fortunately, he broke the momentum, so the radar didn't damage the boat!" quipped skipper Chris Lewis. While avoiding b arg e and ship traffic, the J/105 Vuja Star got their spinnaker caught in their rudder and tore it. "It was an expensive day," said owner Chris Kim. On the Olson 30 WYSIWYG, a crew was dunked halfway in the water — twice. And, a crewmember on the Cal 20 Baby Blue hit his head and was brought in to shore. That was just the normal day. At the awards presentation that afternoon, Paxton told the assembled crowd of sailors
that the Coast Guard had called him to see if they were going to race on Sunday. He said he'd make a decision at 9 a.m. and let everyone know. The forecast for Sunday, October 27, called for a gale — and winds up to 100 mph in the highest peaks. At 9 a.m., Fred hoisted the November over Alpha flags, indicating all races abandoned for the day. So the usual fun pursuit race around Angel Island and Alcatraz in either direction would just have to wait for RYC's Big Daddy Regatta in March. Sailors gathered in the shelter of the clubhouse for breakfast and a trivia quiz (see 'Lectronic Latitude on October 30 and November 1). The chatter around the tables was overwhelmingly supportive of canceling the race. Meanwhile, crews who had to remove sails, hoist their boats out, or deliver them back to harbors across the Bay struggled in the gusts. — latitude / chris RYC GREAT PUMPKIN REGATTA, 10/26 (3r, 0t) PHRF A — 1) Twisted, Farr 40, Tony Pohl, 3 points; 2) California Condor, Antrim Class 40, Buzz Blackett, 7; 3) Velvet Hammer, J/125, Zachery Anderson/Will Paxton, 8. (6 boats) PHRF B — 1) Nuckelavee, Melges 32, Mark Kennedy/Pearl Prisco, 3 points; 2) Gentoo, Soto 30, Paul Dorsey, 8; 3) Swift Ness, J/111, Nesrin Basoz, 8. (5 boats) PHRF C — 1) Encore, Sydney 36 CR, Wayne Koide, 3 points; 2) Pegasus, Newland 368, Stephen & Patrick Lewis, 10; 3) Invictus, Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600, Nicolas Popp, 11. (6 boats) PHRF D — 1) Arch Angel, Antrim 27, Bryce Griffith, 4 points; 2) Rampage, J/70, Thomas Thayer, 8; 3) Kangaroo Jockey, J/70, Peter Cameron, 11. (8 boats) PHRF E — 1) Bullet, Express 37, Larry Baskin, 5 points; 2) Stewball, Express 37, Bob Harford, 7; 3) Carmelita, Catalina 42, Chris Lewis, 9. (5 boats) PHRF H — 1) Strange Magic, Islander Bahama 30, Mark & Carl Werder, 4 points; 2) Luna Sea, Islander 36, Dan Knox, 5; 3) The Shadow, Mull 30, Bruce & Gail Sinclair, 11. (3 boats) PHRF G — 1) Hoot, Olson 30, Andy Macfie, 4 points; 2) Heart of Gold, Olson 911S, Joan Byrne, 6; 3) WYSIWYG, Olson 30, Hendrik Bruhns/Guillaume Canivet, 9. (7 boats) J/105 — 1) Archimedes, Larry Levit, 8 points; 2) Vuja Star, Chris Kim, 8. (2 boats) SC27 — 1) Kasatka, Mark Voropayev/Rachel Cherry, 4 points; 2) Mistress Quickly, Evan Diola, 5; 3) Furthur, James Clappier, 10. (7 boats) EXPRESS 27 — 1) Wile E Coyote, Dan Pruzan, 3 points; 2) Peaches, John & Michael Rivlin, 6; 3) Dianne, Steven Katzman, 11. (9 boats) J/24 — 1) Downtown Uproar, Darren Cum-
