2013 CYC Midwinters Race 1

[Photoboy]

A few frames from Saturday's CYC midwinters party circuit race 1...Full report and gallery to follow!





























Results

[Slackwater_SF]

Nice day. You flipped on the "nice weather" switch.

[Nick G]

Saturdays race was too long for many. RC should have kept us in the north side of their course options. Only enough pizza and beer for the big boats and quitters.

[Wet Spreaders]

We had a great time both days - fantastic weather and great CYC hospitality. Nice job all.

[Nick G]

Saturdays race was too long for many. RC should have kept us in the north side of their course options. Only enough pizza and beer for the big boats and quitters.

That may have seemed too harsh - we enjoyed the weekend and appreciate the RC's efforts on the water and the hospitality off. Always a fun winter event.

[Photoboy]

CYC Midwinters: Blossom Or Bust



Blossom Rock Buoy, appear to be made of unobtainium this past Saturday at the Corinthian YC's opening race of the 4 race mid winter party circuit.





James Bradford's Farr 40 "Bright Hour" shown in it's midwinter debut, correcting out over 11 other in PHRF 1




13 boats in PHRF 2 enjoy the downhill start








It was all sunshine and glory as the gun fired in the Knox area for the 1st race of the Corinthian YC's Midwinter Party Circuit this Saturday on SF Bay. Chilly overnight readings gave way to temps in the 60's and a 8-10 northerly breeze, combined with the remnants of flood tide. The obvious choice was to send the boat out to the Central Bay on a downhill start which probably left more than a few competitors jostling for their kites and scrambling to either get out of the way or get to the right side of the line before their 5 minute warning of out of the way of other starting.




As things got sorted and bigger faster boats in Multihull and Phrf 1 rode the northerly and dying flood on the 12.3 nm course 10, (Little Harding, Blossom, Harding, Blossom Finish) followed by the mid side mid raters on course 8, (Little Harding, Blossom, Knox, Sausalito, Finish (7.5 miles), all looked well. Only problem was as the lead boats neared Alcatraz, the wind died. A massive parking lot began building across the Central Bay,
and as late arrivals attempted to work the corners, the found those extra miles not providing much relief.





An hour and 15 minutes after their start and riding a very light southerly, Don Payan's
MC38, "Whiplash" ooched across Blossom on port and set her kite towards Harding. They and a bundle of other PHRF boats were able to make it around before the building ebb really took hold. The remaining fleets, PHRF 2 through Phrf 4 Express 37, Express 27, SF 30's, IOD's, J-105's and non Spin Phrf 1 suffered the greatest. Working for hours against the building ebb, the crew's worked the edges, looking for relief and enough breeze to get over the hump before they could ride the tide back to the wind line and finish.



We passed the mass of boats still working the currents as the clock was nearing 3:00 PM and asked a few boats if they had abandoned. "Nope still racing" was the call back. "4:30 cutoff time?" was the next question. "Yup!" was the consensus. By then there was some sign of hope as the northerly appeared to be building back, giving hope to finishing before the beer and pizza ran out.




The truly fortunate boats were the late starters in CAtalina 34, Phrf 5, Non spin 2 and Cal 20's that were sent on the 5 mile course 28, which, for the most part remained in the wind and took just about an hour to complete. Sometimes it pays to be the back end of the fleet!

Saturdays Results


http://h2oshots.smugmug.com/Sailing/...6907&k=2z6Z4fz