The Golden Gardens Sunday strollers must have wondered what possesses soooo many people to sail such small boats in the middle of winter.
What don’t they get?
It was a not-so-cold January day last Sunday, with the puffy southerlies delivering a few challenges along the way and a bit of a current-vs-shift puzzle. It seemed like we got in about 2500 races, but it was more like 10.
RS Aeros and Lasers both showed up in healthy numbers (8-10), boding well for Frigid Digit and spring and summer sailing.
Race committee Dalton Bergen and Doug Stumberger set great short and long courses utilizing a windward mark close to the breakwater, an open water start/finish line, and a few longer races to the Meadow Point buoy. They even threw in a few downwind starts. All in all it made for really fun racing and a dynamite practice session.
The downwind starts were a great departure from the usual. What was particular fun was everyone arriving at the first mark together. Generally speaking, it was all very orderly!
Another interesting element was the raft of noisy sea lions that seemed to offer very rude and loud advice to us racers. (Yes, I did look it up and when they’re in the water a group of sea lions is called a “raft.”)
Kudos to Duncan Smith for providing excellent food after the event…he even went all-out with vegan options that all of us enjoyed…not sure if we left any for the vegans. Thanks Duncan!