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photo © nuttballmarineproductions
Saturday May 11th, aka Mothers Day Eve was a busy one outside The Gate, with 2 offshore events going on, individually.
The Single Handed Sailing Society's Single Handed Farallone got off to an early start, with 1st gun @ 0800 off the GGYC,
which was also being utilized by a swimming event with humans and a couple grey whales feeding. 40 boats in 5 divisions
were ushered out the gate in 5-8 knots of wind and a generous ebb that carried the fleet quickly out the gate, adding bundles to their VGM.
photo © nuttballmarineproductions
A tad later, with a more civilized 0940 1st warning off the Knox starting area, 27 fully crewed boats in 5 divisions worked their way out The Gate
in a tad more breeze but slightly less current for the OYRA JR Waterhouse race. Now generally, the offshore events try to remain separated
to avoid conflicts, but the available weekends and favorable tides this year made that option not an option, if you get my drift.
photo © nuttballmarineproductions
image©pelegicautosteering.lcc
The SSS crew instructions are simple: Out the Gate 27 miles past the Farallones and come back where you started, and don't get in commercial traffic's way,
don't go where you aren't supposed to and finish before we turn out the lights.
The JR Waterhouse courses are a tad bit bit more complicated. There are 5 courses from which to choose. They range from the short 21 nm Course 1 to the 51.1nm Course 4.
Course 5, 2 and 3 fall somewhere in between. And you don't finish where you started.
image©pelegicautosteering.lcc
photo © nuttballmarineproductions
This year, the OYRA boats were mostly on course 3, which went out to green shipping channel marker 7, then down to the Southern Approach Buoy,
then back up to the SF Entrance Buoy before heading back into the Bay, and down to the pier/ race deck for the RYC at entrance to the Richmond Riviera.
For the ones that did not get course 3, the boats of Division 3, they got course 1, just out to "Green 7" channel buoy and back in, same finish.
The day was on the cool side, cloudy most of the day with winds mostly in 8-13 knot range, and a very well behaved sea state, mostly in th 2-3' swell range
and winds nearing 18 after returning inside the bay. And for the Farallones boats, a nice flood had established itself strait down the channel making the return
a much less painful adventure.
photo © nuttballmarineproductions
image©pelegicautosteering.lcc
We could bore you with who done the bestest, or you can just click the link yourself. (Go Ahead, Click em already)
JR Waterhouse Results
SSS Farallones Results
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