WINTER RACING IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

[Bill]

Feb 16, 2003 - Oakland Yacht Club?s fourth Sunday Brunch regatta. Thought you all might like to see some photos, especially those of you living in the Mid-Atlantic states this weekend.

The race is conducted on the Oakland - Alameda Estuary and gets its name because OYC serves a great brunch before the race. The Ariel and Commander PHRF group started at 1:35 PM. One of the entries, Ariel #77 PATHFINDER, is skippered in the series by 85 year old Ernie Rideout. He and Ed Ekers are partners in the boat, but Ernie has cut back on his sailing and he now only races the OYC Sunday Brunch series.

[Bill]

The setting: Light winds, partially cloudy, air temp about 62 degrees and an ebbing tide.

PATHFINDER arrives a little early at the starting line which requires them to scrub some speed. From the shore, it appears a couple of boats get by, but PATHFINDER quickly takes back the lead. PATHFINDER has a plan for getting to the first mark and the other boats seem to be happy to just follow.

Although PATHFINDER is able to pull away from the pack during the middle of the race, the down side of leading is that you are the first one to find all the holes (no wind). Everyone else sees your problem and sails around the hole. The fleet did close the gap on the last leg but PATHFINDER still won by over five minutes.

[Bill]

The angle of this photo makes it appear PATHFINDER is being blocked by a boat on a run.

[Bill]

Sailing towrard the first mark.

[Bill]

Rounding second mark. Note other boats going wrong direction

[Bill]

PATHFINDER sets the spinnaker.

[Bill]

Sorry, no photo of the finish, but it would have been lonely . . .

[Theis]

Which one was the Ariel? Good pics.

[Ed Ekers]

Pathfinder is the boat sailing away from the mark after rounding it (port tack). You can see the mark about mid ship on the Coast Guard cutter.

We have one more race to go and if we pull off a win in that one Skipper Ernie will have completed his third Oakland Yacht Club series with straight guns. That's fifteen races in a row without a loss. Not bad for 85 years old and on the slowest rated boat of the class. What is even mope impressive in my mind is that all of the wins have been first boat to cross the line.........ed

[Theis]

Doing a little leg pulling Ed, but also playing the straight man so you could get in a couple extra extras a.k.a. kudos. And congratulations. I like the spinnaker picture in particular.