THE RACING

Express 37 Nationals Berkeley Yacht Club ran the Express 37 Nationals on September 28-30. The venue was primarily the Berkeley Circle. The 12 entries included one from Southern California. All were prepared for the typical San Francisco Bay big winds coming in from the Golden Gate. Friday the 28th, Race 1: Eleven boats came to the start area, and the breezes did not disappoint. It was blowing about 12-15 from the southwest. This race was pr obably the most exciting of the whole event. Just prior to the start, Golden Moon and Elan collided and returned to the Berkeley Marina. Limitless was over early but did return and took a first at the finish. Stewball was last to the The 'Limitless' skipper, start line due Shawn Ivie. to avoiding the collision. They then managed a second place. Race 2: Elan determined they were out for the remainder of the regatta, but Golden Moon patched her hole and returned to join the fleet. Wind strength and direction remained similar to Race 1. Limitless picked up her second bullet. Saturday, September 29, Race 3: Mudshark had fixed her engine on Friday and was able to join the fleet. The weather prognosticators were all in agreement that we were doomed to light to nonexistent wind starting around 1 p.m., but there should be a light southerly prior to that. And, at the appointed start time of 11:30, there was a 5- to 6-knot breeze and we were able to get the first race in with only the last finishers having to suffer the almost-drifting conditions. Race 4: We delayed for about 30 minutes and moved the signal boat about a quarter of a mile to the west. Amazingly, there was a 10- to 15-knot westerly! The 15-mile distance race was on! Spy vs Spy grabbed a first, Golden Moon came in second, and the cumulative results were Page 96 •

Latitude 38

• November, 2018

now shuffled with many ties. Sunday, September 30, Race #5: When the signal boat arrived on station, there was a 4- to 5-knot southeasterly, southwesterly, westerly, egad, northerly(?) breeze. Then there was nothing. The Bay was all glass. Where were the fabled San Francisco Bay breezes? The Sailing Instructions stated there would be no race started after 2:30. We waited. Ta-da! At 1:15, a wind line approached from the Gate, and at 1:35 the race was on. The 10- to 13-knot breeze was fun to race in, but there wasn't enough time for the sixth race. By 2:30, the regatta was over. Golden Moon picked up first and Expeditious got the second in this last race. The ties were all broken. Congratulations to Shawn Ivie and crew on Limitless. This Southern California gang came north to show our locals how it is done! — bobbi tosse EXPRESS 37 NATIONALS, BYC, 9/28-30 (5r, 0t) 1) Limitless, Shawn Ivie, Seal Beach YC, 12 points; 2) Expeditious, Bartz Schneider, SFYC,

18; 3) Spy vs. Spy, Brendan Busch, TISC, 19. (12 boats) Full results at www.berkeleyyc.org

YRA Season Closer Corinthian Regatta The Yacht Racing Association has renamed its Weekend Regattas (ex-Party Circuit) for the hosting destinations. So, the Season Closer is now called the Corinthian Regatta. The races on September 2930 started and finished off CYC's Tiburon clubhouse race deck. Saturday's race took all divisions in the 33-boat fleet on an 18-mile course out the Gate, around the Point Bonita buoy, downwind to an R2 channel buoy east of Angel Island's Point Blunt, upwind to Little Harding, and back to Tiburon. In Div. A, Bob Novy's Frers 40 Jeannette, the Koides' Sydney 36 CR Encore and Mike Clarke's newish-to-the-Bay J/120 Shenanigans were glued to one another for most of the course. Shenanigans carried a masthead #1 genoa while the other two had fractional #3 jibs, which were perhaps an advantage for the short-tacking, close-quarters beat up the Marin Headlands against the

The 'Limitless' ladies were, left to right: Aisling Urch, Jenny Thompson, Angie Liebert, Jenna Kennedy and Collette Meyers. Also on the crew were Kelsey Tostenson (Saturday only) and a few dudes: Tim Anto, Duke Urch, Will Paxton and Richard Jarrett.

WILL PAXTON

MICHELE PROFANT

The Express 37 and 27 Nationals, the YRA Corinthian Regatta, the Joan Storer and Red Bra women's races, the Wylie Wabbit Nationals, the SSS Vallejo 1-2, the Leukemia Cup, Mercurys North and South, and the Jessica Cup are among the events we visit this month in text and/or photos. Beer Can Box Scores and Race Notes top us off.