fauxboat
03-23-2024, 01:08 PM
A SSS skipper asked a question about how we end up in tough tides, and how the schedule is made.
There's a variety of reasons for that, and it might be worth posting them.
Location is a lot of it. At the macro level, we race in San Francisco Bay, which is notorious for tidal current.
At a smaller scale, we have chosen to run races in places of the bay that do not minimize current. The Fiasco starts right on the cityfront in a strong tidal current area. We are not changing that one. The Corinthian race started in Raccoon Straight where there is a lot of current, then moved to the cityfront where there is also a lot of current. We did move that start this year to Knox, to be in much less current than Raccoon or the cityfront. Round the Rocks has started at G for a few years. We did not move the RtR start this year, but probably should have to give bigger boats more depth, which of course also means more current. Etc.
Then there's schedule. Most races, including ours, have traditional dates. We do not change because of the current, we keep things as they were. So Fiasco always the last Saturday in January. Corinthian has not always been the last Saturday in February --- it was held in April back in 2012 and in March from 2013-2017, inclusive --- but it's been the last Saturday in February since 2018. Etc.
Even when a OA would like to chase days for better current, that's hard to do because there's on the order of 1,000 races to squeeze onto the YRA calendar each year, and races would conflict with each other even more than they do now if every OA chased the tidebook.
In practice, each OA has a "decider" that comes up with a schedule for their races and submits that to YRA. YRA combines the schedules, and then each OA's "decider" goes to a series of meetings to try to work out conflicts. (Incidentally, I was not the "decider" in for SSS.)
Then on the date itself, the race will have a start time that is also pretty consistent year-to-year instead of varying with the tide table. The RC would like to have as many people as possible finish in daylight, and the bay has a very frequent calm in the early morning, and those considerations are the same every year.
As a result, SSS races can have tough currents.
Thank you for racing with the SSS.
There's a variety of reasons for that, and it might be worth posting them.
Location is a lot of it. At the macro level, we race in San Francisco Bay, which is notorious for tidal current.
At a smaller scale, we have chosen to run races in places of the bay that do not minimize current. The Fiasco starts right on the cityfront in a strong tidal current area. We are not changing that one. The Corinthian race started in Raccoon Straight where there is a lot of current, then moved to the cityfront where there is also a lot of current. We did move that start this year to Knox, to be in much less current than Raccoon or the cityfront. Round the Rocks has started at G for a few years. We did not move the RtR start this year, but probably should have to give bigger boats more depth, which of course also means more current. Etc.
Then there's schedule. Most races, including ours, have traditional dates. We do not change because of the current, we keep things as they were. So Fiasco always the last Saturday in January. Corinthian has not always been the last Saturday in February --- it was held in April back in 2012 and in March from 2013-2017, inclusive --- but it's been the last Saturday in February since 2018. Etc.
Even when a OA would like to chase days for better current, that's hard to do because there's on the order of 1,000 races to squeeze onto the YRA calendar each year, and races would conflict with each other even more than they do now if every OA chased the tidebook.
In practice, each OA has a "decider" that comes up with a schedule for their races and submits that to YRA. YRA combines the schedules, and then each OA's "decider" goes to a series of meetings to try to work out conflicts. (Incidentally, I was not the "decider" in for SSS.)
Then on the date itself, the race will have a start time that is also pretty consistent year-to-year instead of varying with the tide table. The RC would like to have as many people as possible finish in daylight, and the bay has a very frequent calm in the early morning, and those considerations are the same every year.
As a result, SSS races can have tough currents.
Thank you for racing with the SSS.