Latitude 38 June 2012
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Latitude 38 Latitude VOLUME 420 June 2012 WE GO WHERE THE WIND BLOWS JUNE 2012 VOLUME 420 GREAT VALLEJO RACE — Saturday morning, May 5, dawned clear, with a light breeze blowing from well north of west. As the fleet of 199 sequence took an hour and fifteen boats assembled for the annual Great minutes to complete. Vallejo Race, everybody seemed resigned The multihulls, led by Alan to the fact that this traditional run to O’Driscoll’s Half Moon Bay Boys the lower Napa River was going to be and Girls Club continually bumped anything but that. up against the now-fading north- westerly. Urs Rothacher’s BridgeRunner, odds-on favorite for first-to-finish honors, parked up in a particularly big hole which dropped her down the rankings. “We worked the middle of San Pablo Bay, got behind, and ran out of racetrack in the end,” said crewman Matt Noble. In company with the multis were the lightest and fastest monohulls, which included Peter Krueger's J/125 ALL PHOTOS LATITUDE / ANDY EXCEPT AS NOTED EXCEPT ANDY / LATITUDE PHOTOS ALL Double Trouble; Aboard 'Bodacious+' rail riders hang out on followed by Dan Thiel- the low side in induce heel, while waiting for man's R/P 44 Tai Kuai; the breeze to fill in. two Farr 36s, Gary Re- “We were ready to sheet the jib out delberger's Racer X and to the rail for a close reach up San Mark Howe's War Pony; Pablo Bay,” said Arbitrage's Bruce Stone and overall corrected-time “which isn’t a good thing on a J/105.” winner Gregory Dyer’s However there were two positives; the Melges 32 Intruder. “We day promised to be sunny and warm, sailed well, but condi- tions really favored us too,” said Intruder’s Chris “We did our first Vallejo Shepherd. As the afternoon slowly Race in 1964. This is what progressed, the NW wind GOOSE helps keep us young.” gave way to a solid 18-knot westerly. The Hughes 48 'Iolani' gets a close shave from Within an hour of the shift, a parade of the Tartan Ten 'Topgallant' as they short-tack boats filled the Mare Island Strait and up the east side of San Pablo Bay. and a generous flood current would almost everybody finished well before boost the fleet along even if the wind the end of happy hour. With the fleet On a mission to travel across the didn't fully cooperate. safely rafted up within the confines of the marina without touching a dock, we Among the 26 divisions were one Vallejo Yacht Club Harbor, music blar- stepped aboard Rick Wallace's Colum- multihull division, 11 PHRF groups, and ing, blenders blending, battle flags and bia 36 Bosporus II, whose entire crew one design fleets of Express 27s and 37s, sailors a-chatter, the sun slowly sank was adorned in those cheap Mexican J/120s and J/105s, not to mention an beyond the now-defunct Mare Island sombreros one finds in dollar stores in out–of–nowhere, blast-from-the-past Naval Shipyard and the party was on. celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Captain fleet of 11 Islander 36s. The entire start Rick Wallace joked that his crew were SUPERMOON SAILING PARTY this race!” Now, what to do with this condom in my hand? Up in the parking lot, VYC race orga- nizers had pulled out all the stops with a big party tent where the rock 'n' roll cover band Alibi was to play later in the evening. Just to the south, vendors were selling oysters on the half shell, barbecued meats, and corn on the cob, while inside the club the bar was staffed by about a dozen beautiful women, all dressed in black tank tops and tight Battle of the red chutes: Class winner 'Mintaka our first Vallejo Race in 1964,” said 4', a Farr 38, gets shadowed by the Beneteau Telford, “This is what helps keep us First 35 'Raven', which placed second. young.” He added another first place “still good friends after all those jibes.” flag on Sunday. Over a margarita he talked about the Before we could make our way current USCG safety stand-down. “We’ve back to dry land, and after more been around the SE Farallon 12 times offers of free drinks than we could WWW.NORCALSAILING.COM with this boat and it’s still going strong,” possibly consume, we stumbled said Wallace. “And this penguin has been upon a smiling Linda Salas aboard the In the light air conditions, competitors like around with us every time.” added crew- Catalina 30 Huge. As she handed me Ruben and Robbie Gabriel actually had time man Kenny Duffy. The cute little stuffed what looked like a condom she said, to chat with passing competitors. doll looked ready to go around again, “Huge is the name of our boat. It’s named blue jeans. The entire complex was dressed in yellow foul weather gear with after the condom company!” I somewhat packed with sailors and fans, and there its hood up. nervously glanced at the other men gath- appeared to be well over a thousand Over on Larry Telford’s Cal 30–2 An- ered in the cockpit, but they appeared people partying down at what is one of tares hung a string of Vallejo trophy flags nonchalant so I figured this was normal the biggest shindigs of the year within that stretched all the way up the head- behavior. At this point Salas grabbed me the San Francisco sailing scene. stay and halfway down the back. “We did and whispered into my ear, “I f--ing love The greatest thing about the day was GREAT VALLEJO RACE — that there was little drama, and just about everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. The band finally cranked up, and after a long day in the sun, with a few drinks on and a brilliant 'supermoon' above, it felt good to loosen up on the dance floor. Overall this was one of the best Vallejo parties in quite some time — both on and off the water. With a reverse order start man- dated by the nature of Vallejo’s packed harbor, the faster boats, such as our ride, the custom Farr 40 High 5, were obliged to practice the same amount of patience that Saturday's last starters had displayed. As a racer, it was hard to be calm as boats cleared out with an 18-knot northerly piping up, especially when, from shore, we watched division winners take off under full sail. The wind beckoned and boats were setting off down the river, yet we weren't able to get underway for an hour, so there was nothing to do but hang out and wait. The best part, however, was that we got to watch the sport of sailing up close and personal as division after division set spinnakers for the run down the river. Telford’s Antares and Dr. Bob Bloom’s J/35 Jarlen nailed perfect starts, as did others. Scorecards somehow seemed appropriate, except for the fact that in just a short while our crew would have the opportunity to entertain spectators with our potential for amateur antics. AS NOTED EXCEPT ANDY / LATITUDE PHOTOS ALL probably passed us, but we slid through 44, Daniel Thielman; 3) Bodacious+, 1D48, John with minimal work on our way out into Clauser/Bobbi Tosse. (6 boats) Finally our time came to vacate what the Carquinez Strait and San Pablo Bay. PHRF 2 (PHRF 3-39) — 1) Racer X, Farr 36 now seemed like an empty marina, even Fun! ODR, Gary Redelberger; 2) War Pony, Farr 36 ODR, Mark Howe; 3) High 5, Custom Farr 40 though almost every slip was filled. Only Once we were clear of the constric- IMS, Joseph Andresen. (8 boats) a few of the multis and PHRF A boats tion and confusion, the sail was a quick, PHRF 3 (PHRF 42-66) — 1) Q, Schumacher remained. As we exited the harbor, race pleasant close-hauled affair without a 40, Glenn Isaacson; 2) Jeannette, Custom Frers fans and yacht club members bid us single drop of water on the deck. And 40 IOR 1-tonner, Henry King; 3) Quiver, Custom adieu and welcomed us to come back with reasonably consistent breeze all Nelson/Marek 36, Jeffrey McCord. (9 boats) next year, which I’m sure we will. We the way across San Pablo Bay and up SPORTBOAT 1 (60 & Under) — 1) Intruder, quickly turned High 5 up into the wind, to the finish off the San Rafael Channel Melges 32 ODR, Gregory Dyer; 2) Ragtime, Modi- got the main up, bore away, rigged the entrance, our team seemed disappointed fied J/90, Trig Liljestrand; 3)Wild 1, Flying Tiger 10 pole, set the kite and, with the familiar that we hadn't had time to finish the beer Meter ODR, John Lymberg. (8 boats) EXPRESS 37 — 1) Golden Moon, Bill Bridge/ report of the starter's shotgun, we were we’d packed for the weekend. Kame Richards; 2) Bullet, Michael Maloney; 3) Ex- off. No worries. We'll save it for the next peditious, Bartz Schneider. (6 boats) Within ten minutes we witnessed, YRA Party Circuit race, the Second Half J/105 — 1) Roxanne, Charles James; 2) Arbi- and became a part of, a massive clump Opener, July 28. Unfortunately the limes trage, Bruce Stone; 3) Jam Session, Adam Spie- of boats at the mouth of the river: small won't last that long. gel. (8 boats) boats, big boats, asymmetrical kites, — dave wilhite SPORTBOAT 2 (63 & Up) — 1) Arch Angel, symmetrical kites, no kites and a lot of Antrim 27 CM ODR, Bryce Griffith; 2) Rufless, 11: chatter.