Single Handed Sailing Society Corinthian Race – Great day on the bay

by pressure-drop.us on 27 Mar 2017 With mostly sunny skies and a nice NW seabreeze in the low teens at the start of the race, course one is selected by the officials with whistles, horns and guns... And 18 nm tour of the Central Bay....

From the Start, to Little Harding buoy (G “1” Fl G 4s), leaving it to port, then to Blossom Rock buoy (GR “BR” Fl (2+1) G 6s BELL), leaving it to starboard, then to Crissy Field (Blackaller) buoy (yellow cylinder 'C' 0.2 nm E of Fort Point), leaving it to starboard, then to Southampton Shoal (Iso R 6s 32ft 6M BELL), leaving it to port, then to Little Harding buoy, leaving it to starboard, then to the Finish.

With 131 registered short handed boats, the Single Handed Sailing Society's Corinthian Race is the paper clubs second favorite event, after the ever popular three Bridge Fiasco. With five Single Handed Divisions and and seven Double Handed Divisions, the 18nm course provided just enough distance and variety to keep things interesting, and its place on the schedule, this year late March, enjoying ocean winds as opposed to tricky and unreliable zephyrs.

Greg Nelsen, fresh off a Double Handed Farallones race win, adds another pickle dish to his collection, winning Singlehanded Sportboat Division with an elapsed time of 03:20:37 on his Azzura 1000 Outsider. A pending protest should render that the fastest monohull around the track. Stay tuned...

With the remnants of the the early flood, most boats mad short work of the downhill ride to Blossom from the starting area in Raccoon Strait and then hit the City Front to ride the building ebb up to Blackaller. For the lead fleets, the wind and currents worked out well as the managed to get around Blackaller and get back across the central bay before the ebb really got rolling. For the waterline challenged and lacking kites, things were a bit more challenging.

After sailing deep onto the Berkeley Flats the lead boats still had decent enough winds to get around Southampton and then ride the currents back up little Harding. The smaller / bigger rated boats got more ebb and lesser winds as the day progressed, making for a bit longer day, and a very challenging finish swimming like a migrating salmon against the river running through Raccoon Strait. As the delta between the first to finish vessel, Peter Stoneberg's Prosail 40' Shadow, 02:29:11 and the last boat to slip over, Jan Hirsch's Islander 30-2 Sweet Pea 06:18:33, clearly demonstrates.

Yet with the abundance of sunlight, interesting cumulous clouds passing overhead, and shorthanded challenge combined, followed by entertainment a plenty viewing other boats finishing off the CYC race deck, cocktail in hand...