THE RACING The Midwinter season is at its height. Here we check in with Golden Gate (complete with capsize, rescue and recovery) and Jack Frost, then head down the coast to Monterey and Marina del Rey — all in one day! Then it's back up to the Estuary and Berkeley. We end with the Corinthian Midwinters. The first leg took the fleet from the start off GGYC's clubhouse on the San Francisco Marina to a weather mark, Blackaller Buoy. Due to an ebb maxing out at close to 3 knots, boats went out into the middle of the Bay rather than working the Crissy Field shoreline. About halfway through the first leg, Nice Rack, sailing in PHRF 2, caught a stinger, capsized, and sank partway. Just one rack and the top of the mainsail remained visible to the rest of the sailors racing past. Arcadia had started 5 minutes later, in PHRF 3. "After our start, the wind increased and switched left, more to the west," reports Gordie Nash, skipper of Arcadia. "We saw Nice Rack capsized again not very far from the GGYC starting area. Again, we had voice contact and got a thumbs-up, 'We are OK.' After we passed them, Ruth heard a crew member say, "We may be sinking." Ruth called the race committee on VHF 71 to report that they had capsized. This was to inform the committee what was going on and not a call for assistance or reporting a dangerous situation. "After the race we learned that two
other racing boats had stopped to offer assistance. That was when we learned that apparently a watertight opening must have failed and water flooded the boat's interior." Nicholas Grebe's Santa Cruz 37 Wildcard, which had been sailing in PHRF 1, stopped racing, put away their sails, and circled around. Their well-prepared crew fished out the three Nice Rack crew, Steve, Nick and Patrick, using their Lifesling. Jack Peurach's Farr X2 Shake & Bake did likewise, and picked up the skipper. The Coasties and an SFPD marine patrol boat also responded to the scene. We heard the sirens of first responders speeding down Marina Boulevard, but paramedics did not stop at GGYC to check out the crew, who, wrapped in blankets, encircled a table at the clubhouse; they thought they were only in the water for about 15 minutes, with no apparent injuries. "We were just happy to be in the right place at the right time to help," commented Nick Grebe, the skipper of Wildcard. "I was thoroughly impressed with how well the crew handled the recovery. All that training and safety gear really paid off! I do think from now on we might practice
While the fastest boats started their second leg, from Blackaller Buoy to Blossom Rock, 'Nice Rack' (far right) took a tumble.
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SLACKWATER SF
Capsize at Golden Gate Midwinters Race 3 in Golden Gate Yacht Club's Seaweed Soup Series was held in gearbusting conditions on January 6. The cold front that blew through brought little actual rainfall but plenty of big, blustery breeze. With short ebb chop, you might compare it to summer sailing in the Slot. The difference was the intensity and shifty nature of the gusts and the wind direction, with lots of south in it. Before any of the divisions had started, the crew of the Gary Mull-Gordie Nash "hybrid" Arcadia spotted the capsized Martin 243. "Arcadia sailed around Nice Rack. We did not know if this was their first capsize or what number the crew was recovering from," reports Team Arcadia. "We watched them recover and start sailing. After they were upright, we did have voice contact. The skipper, Zhenya, waved and made it clear they were OK. The weather and wind may have been acceptable when they left the harbor, but we knew the forecast was not going to be kind to a high-performance boat like a Martin 243 that has a very big sail plan."