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Perfect Weather for Big Daddy

By Christine Weaver | March 13, 2017 | Point Richmond, CA |
On Saturday, the Express 37 fleet had some of the tightest racing on the Big Daddy Deep Water course.

© Seymour Dodds

The racers in Richmond Yacht Club’s spring classic regatta, the Big Daddy, lucked out with gorgeous heat-wave type weather but plenty of wind for proper racing. Saturday’s sailing started on time with three races on each of three racecourses: Southampton Shoal for the little guys, Deep Water for the big guys, and Olympic Circle for those in between.

Some of them have 8-ft keels, so the sportboats sailed with the big boats on the Deep Water course.

© Seymour Dodds

After Saturday’s races, sailors gathered on the docks and on RYC’s sunny deck to enjoy free beer. Awards (tool bags) followed, then dinner and a DJ.

The new Invisible Hand, sailing in her first regatta, snagged the startline pin, but fortunately no one was trying to start at the time.

© Seymour Dodds

On Sunday, a 70-minute postponement delayed the start of the pursuit race from Southampton around Angel Island and Alcatraz in the skipper’s choice of direction. Once it began, 73 crews enjoyed excellent sailing. Fresh off a multihull win in the SSS Three Bridge Fiasco (another pursuit race) Alan O’Driscoll’s D-Class cat HMB Boys & Girls Club went clockwise and finished first; Colin Moore’s Wylie Wabbit Kwazy went counterclockwise and beat the other monohulls — including Frank Slootman’s new Pac52 Invisible Hand — to the finish just outside the Richmond breakwater.

Invisible Hand was lookin’ good over the weekend. She was the second monohull to finish Sunday’s pursuit race.

© 2017 Seymour Dodds
Colin Moore’s Kwazy Wabbit topped 67 monohulls on Sunday.

© Seymour Dodds

We’ll have much more on the Big Daddy — and on Oakland YC’s Rites of Spring sailed on Saturday — in the April issue of Latitude 38.

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