GOLDEN GATE YACHT CLUB P
erhaps it's true that the way to a sailor's heart is through his or her stomach (forgive the slight rewrite of the old adage). Apparently if you promise sailors seaweed soup they'll flock to the start line. Hey, it works for Golden Gate Yacht Club's Seaweed Soup Regatta. Having just completed its 47th edition, the midwinter series is named for Manuel Fagundes, a GGYC chef. (The seaweed is actually spinach.) Feed the weary, wet, cold sailors some hot food and they'll come back to the clubhouse and buy drinks from the bar. It's been a winning recipe ever since 1970. Despite competition from other Bay Area clubs, the five-race Seaweed Soup series still dominates the first Saturday of November through March. The season that just ended drew 81 entries. The first race, on November 4, got a nice westerly in the morning, but as the divisions went into sequence at 11:30, the wind began to soften, making it dif-
ficult to start against the flood, and the race committee threw in a postponement after the third start. The fleets sailed a close reach with spinnakers to Harding Rock, then jibed before or at that buoy in very light air. Most boats doused and went off on another close reach to the Blossom Rock buoy or a drop mark at Fort Mason, depending on their division. Those who carried kites to Blossom made out like bandits. The wind filled in again, the current switched to ebb, and it turned out to be a fast race. This is was the third year that Charles Hodgkins served as Principal Race Officer for the series. "I try and pick a course that will be a) fair, b) competitive and c) long enough for the racers to get a good sail in without being too long," he says. "I try and pick courses that are mostly windward/leeward so that the race is not a parade, as it would be if it were mostly reaches. If there is sufficient wind and
