Turns out the CYC/TYC Friendship Race was pretty much of a success. TYC got 17 boats to the starting line and CYC had 12. If you figure an average of 6 crew per boat plus a number of non-racing TYC and CYC members who came for the party and dinner after the race, we probably had over 200 people there.

And what a great day it was for a sailboat race! It was sunny and warm (relatively, that is) as the fleet cleared the starting line in front of our beautiful white CYC clubhouse and headed for the weather mark at Yellow Bluff. The winds were extremely puffy with lulls at around 10 knots and stingers at 35 or so. From my vantage point aboard the J/105, Hokulele, entered by TYC members, Brian McInerney and Amy Grossman, it was a pretty sight as we escaped a luff from the TYC Moore 24, Frenzy, to leeward on the starting line and forced another TYC entry, the J/105, Joy Ride, over early. This is, no doubt, not how team racing is supposed to work, but in the heat of battle, it was every man for himself. So we got away from the line clean and never looked back. From Yellow Bluff we went to Fort Mason and then back across the slot to Harding Rock, Pt. Knox, and then to the finish in front of Corinthian.

Strangely, this jaunt around the central Bay didn’t provide any opportunities to use our kites. So with all white-sail-reaching there weren’t many passing lanes. Fortunately for TYC, Joy Ride somewhat recovered from having to re-start and passed a CYC J/33 who was in second place at about Fort Mason and went on to put another 2-1/2 minutes on them by the finish. This enabled Joy Ride to take a 2nd in the spinnaker division behind Hokulele who came 1st. Frenzy, corrected to 3rd, so TYC swept the silver in the spinnaker division. For those racers who thought this was an ideal J/105 course, I have to tell you that I didn’t complain when Dan Carrico chose it.

CYC turned the tables on TYC in the larger non-spinnaker division, as all three pickle-dish places went to CYC boats. John Nooteboom’s Cal 20, Tension II was 1st, followed by Jan Borjeson’s Basic Instinct and Julle Le’Vicki’s Smogen II. I got to tell you, when there is any breeze out there, John Nooteboom is invincible. When I used to race against John on my old J/105, as I crossed the finish line, I’d always take a look around. If I could see him anywhere on the horizon, I knew he’d get me on corrected time. And for good measure, I’d take another look when I got up to the clubhouse. If he had come around the corner of Angel Island by then, I was still dead meat.

Racers got back to the club between 1:40 and 3:30 – just in time to see Staff Commodore Bill Canada fire up his band, Night Train on the patio. Tons of CYC and TYC folks got to meet and BS each other, dance to the band, and otherwise have a great time. The outdoor barbecue got going at about 6 and served ribs and chicken to a bunch of hungry people.

During the first band break Dan Carrico, appeared from the downstairs race office holding the results. As we climbed the stairs and headed for the microphone I resisted the urge to find out who won the perpetual trophy for the best overall performance by a yacht club because I didn’t think my team (TYC this year) would win . After we awarded the individual trophies, Dan handed me the overall trophy, announcing that TYC had won it. Apparently TYC non-spinnaker boats did well in the places after 3rd, enabling TYC to squeak through on a tight one.

For all of us that had such a great time at that regatta, we can thank Dan Carrico. The trophies were beautiful (thanks also to Hans Roeben for making the solid teak base of the Lucite perpetual trophy), the committee work flawless, and the results worked out the way I was hoping (for this year anyway – next year will be another story).