THE RACING

Georgianna/Ludwig Ward; 6) Wet Spot, Moore

24, Mike O'Callaghan/Denis Mulligan; 7) Peaches, xpress 7, o n i lin o n earne

Outsider, Azzura 310, Greg Nelsen/Todd Olsen;

9) Flight Risk, T650, Ben Landon/Blake Davis;

10), Leading Lady, 1D35, Andrew Lindstrom/ eoff o e 5 oats

DOUBLEHANDED MULTIHULL — 1) Bottle Rocket, SeaCart 30, David Schumann/Trevor Baylis; 2) Ma's Rover, F-31, John Donovan/Cam Tuttle; 3) Greyhound, F-22, Evan McDonald/ Sarah Rahimi. (4 boats)

Full results at www.jibeset.net

Big Daddy Mild and Wild

A lack of wind for buoy racing on Saturday and a lot of wind for Sunday's pursuit kept Richmond YC's Big Daddy racers on their toes on March 11-12.

Jasper Van Vliet, William Pochereva, Ellie Tubman, Bri Biller and Brian Rosensteel on the J/24 Evil Octopus won the monohull division of the pursuit race.

"There was certainly a lot of fortune involved," observed Jasper. "There always is in this race. William was using the Saildrone app, and it was showing a potential strong and late ebb right along Angel Island. We got to the course early and went to Angel Island to verify the current was there. So we decided to go clockwise.

"Our nor mal average boat speed on a J/24 is 5.4 knots or so. This time we never dropped below 6.4 knots the whole way around the course.

"The ebb pulled us all the way to the cone of Alcatraz — we only did three tacks in the Slot. When we came around to the west side of Alcatraz, the flood kicked in, and the kite reach to Raccoon Strait was manageable. In fact, we got her planing, briefly hitting 10 knots. J/24s don't plane, so that was pretty exciting."

— latitude / chris

RYC BIG DADDY, 3/11 (3r, 0t)

PHRF A — 1) 'io, Antrim 27, Buzz Blackett; 2) Swift Ness, J/111, Nesrin Basoz/Reuben Rocci; 3) Destin, Landmark 43, Romeo Uriarte. (4 boats)

PHRF B — 1) WYSIWYG, Olson 30, Henrik Bruhns/Guillaume Canivet; 2) Reverie, J/109, John Arens; 3) Joy Ride, xpress 34, Cindans. (4 boats)

PHRF D — 1) Son of a Son, J/70, David Fried; 2) Heart of Gold, Olson 911S, John Byrne; 3) Ahi, Santana 35, Andy Newell. (5 boats)

PHRF E — 1) Junta, Mark Allen, Ultimate 20, 5 5 points Impulse, Ranger 26, Dean Hocking, 9; 3) Breakaway, ltimate 0, o n Wolfe, 5 boats)

ALERION 28 — 1) Zenaida, Fred axton, 4 points Dream, Ernest Galvan/Kirk Smith, 7; 3)

Allegro Non Tropo, Jim Titus/Bill Claussen, 8. (5 boats)

EXPRESS 27 — 1) Motorcycle Irene, Julia axton Under the Radar, Greg Felton/Sammy Shea; 3) Bombora, Rebecca Hinden. (7 boats)

J/24 — 1) Hotwater, Anthony Jacuzzi, 6 points Evil Octopus, asper an liet, 7 3 Flight, Rosanne Scholl, 8. (4 boats) 4 o finis ers 5 oats

W W T 1 Just a Hare, Marcos McGee/Drake Jensen; 2) Kwazy, Colin Moore; 3) Mr. McGregor, Kim Desenberg/John Groen. (6 boats)

RYC BIG DADDY SUNDAY PURSUIT RACE, 3/12

MONOHULL — 1) Evil Octopus; 2) The Flying Tiger, oore 4, a n Seifers 3 Kwazy; 4) Bluebird, Moore 24, Ryan Georgianna; 5) Bombora, xpress 7, e e a inden Abigail Morgan, xpress 7, on ell 7 Impulse; 8) Ahi; 9) Under the Radar, xpress 7, re Felton/Sammy Shea; 10) Sweet De, Alerion 28, Christian & Denise Kramer. (60 boats)

MULTIHULL — 1) Bottle Rocket, SeaCart 30, David Schumann; 2) Flux, SeaCart 30, Jeremy Boyette; 3) 'Round Midnight, xplorer 44, i Waltonsmith. (5 boats)

Full results at www.richmondyc.org

Berkeley YC Midwinters

Finally, weather a man can race in. Women too. The final weekend of the (regular) Berkeley Midwinters Series on February 11-12 turned out sunny and not completely without wind. Saturday's race started out with a fickle wind starting from the northeast. Once we dropped the windward mark and the markset boat was good and far away, it shifted to nearly due east. So, we moved the windward mark (but not all the way) to the new wind. We anticipated that it might shift back, and we were right — it did. In the meantime the wind was ENE at about 12 knots, so an 8-mile twice-around windward-leeward course sounded just about right. After a short postponement, the racers were on their way to the bright green tetrahedron a mile from XOC.

Twenty-five boats competed for the Big #1 as the wind shifted north, then died, and then came back out of the west. Nesrin Basoz swiftly skippered the J/111 Swift Ness to first place in the Absurdly Expensive Division (PHRF <85). In the No Slouch Division (87-112), Charlie Brochard's Olson 34 Baleineau crossed the line first. In the Tippy Express 27 Division, super-genius Dan Pruzan's Wile E. Coyote took first. In the Big and Comfy Division (114-156) Andy Newell's Santana 35 Ahi took first. In the Less Comfy Cruisers Division (PHRF >159), the Merit 25 Chesapeake with James Fair and Bernard Price crossed the line in first place.

Superbowl Sunday's race started out downright glassy, which prompted yet another postponement while we waited for the wind. The good news was that we did not have to wait very long — we could see the dark water approaching from the west. When it arrived, about 10 minutes later it was good — that steady westerly that we all know and love. Races started. Boats sailed fast toward the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge in a steady 8- to 10-knot breeze. This time it was once around the course in honor of the Kansas City Chiefs.

In the Isiah Pacheco Fast Division, Donald Newman's Olson 30 Yankee Air Pirate crossed the line first. In the Michael Burton Kinda Fast Division, Richard Stockdale crossed the line first on the J/24 Froglips. In the Alerion 28 Division it was, once again, Fred Paxton and Arnie Quan on Zenaida taking first place. In the Patrick Mahomes Fast for a QB Division, Larry Telford — sailing in his 59th Midwinters! — captained his team to first place aboard the Islander 30-II Antares. In the Kelce Twins Doublehanded Division, Ethan Peterson etched his name in history skippering the Wylie Wabbit Hare-O-Dynamic to first-place glory. In the Harrison Butker

Kicker Singlehanded Division, Jonathan Gutoff's Laser 28 Stink Eye placed first.

The weather has been the big star of the series, and the final Champion of Champions Race was no exception. The forecast for Sunday, February 26, was ominous, with winds predicted to hit 30 knots in the gusts. With this being the final race, there would be no abandonment short of a National Weather Service gale warning. No such warning was issued, so the committee crew bundled up and motored onto the course. Dark, ominous clouds loomed to the southwest, with winds already a-blowin'.

Seven boats showed up, heeled over and struggling in the blustery weather Seven boats crewed by men and women who left domestic comforts behind to compete in a life-and-death struggle that can only be found on the Bay of San Francisco. As the start time approached, the wind and the rain abated, but this was not mercy. It was Poseidon's call to quiet reflection before unleashing a hellish volley of wind and rain to pummel the spirits of the hardened sailors as they tirelessly tacked upwind to the barely visible green tetrahedron.

The boats r ounded the windward mark and began their downwind leg toward the confusingly also green leeward mark. As the spinnaker boats passed the committee, the faces of the sailors said it all: "My God, we are alive." While the Latitude