Winter 2011 Squeegee - Sausalito Yacht Club

14
Women Skippers Regatta
Saturday started out calm with a cloud cover, but a
wonderful 10-knot breeze picked up in time for the
11am start to the 31st Annual Sausalito Yacht Club
Auxiliary Women Skippers Regatta. The first of the
three races was an up-down, twice-around-course in
the Knox/Yellow Bluff area of the Bay. The race was
sailed quickly and with few incidents. Even the women
skippers who normally don’t do this sort of thing were
able to manage the jitters and compete well.
The cloud cover disappeared just prior to the start of the
second race. And so did the breeze. A Blackaller course
was planned but the mark-set boat identified 4 knots of
breeze and almost 3 knots of current at Blackaller. That
was a recipe for a LONG afternoon. So, a shorter Yellow
Bluff, Harding, Knox, Finish course was selected. Even
then, one boat was swept inside of Harding and needed
to wait for the wind to return in order to make her way
back to Harding and continue the race. Others went
sideways past Knox. Several boats came within mere
feet of the finish line only to be swept backwards. It took
one boat 30 more minutes to finish.
The breezes were better again for the third race. It was
getting late in the afternoon, so an up-down shorter
course was done with breezes that held.
All racers were able to finish all races. They all had a
great time and want to do it again next year.
Definition of a yacht club:
An asylum for landsmen who
would rather die of drink
than be seasick.
From A Book of Burlesques
by H. L. Mencken
On the left, Ohana; in the foreground, Donkey Jenny who is the J105
Donkey Jack renamed just for this regatta.
Barbara Kavanagh, on the
left, led Gammon to a win
in the Non-spinnaker class.
Mary Richardson, on the
right, is President of the SYC
Auxiliary who sponsored
the regatta.
Starting line action.
Marika Edler, the winning skipper of Ohana, Spinnaker Class, with her
cast-of-thousands crew. Marika is on the right.