Drakes Bay Thanks & Photos

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I'd like to thank all the volunteers that helped with Drakes Bay -- this was the largest team since Three Bridge Fiasco -- because we could not run races without you.

I'd also like to thank all the racers who were focused on safety, and having a fun weekend.

Last but hardly least, Captleasure asked me to take some photos, which I discovered are still stuck in my outbox. So let me upload them here.

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St Francis YC was kind enough to let us use their race deck both days, even though they were hosting the US Sailing National Wingfoil Championships. (And St Francis Wingding.)

Visibility Saturday morning was fine at the surface, and no shipping traffic ws expected until 1145.

Racers headed out the gate under a heavy marine layer.

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The wind was a bit light -- I seriously considered postponing when we were ~10m out from the first warning --- but boats had enough to move.

Because we did not have many boats, and I opted for smaller classes, boats had plenty of room to start. This might be Eight Ball #8 doing a practice run shortly before her start.

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The Drakes Bay team was on station by 1553, which freed me up to trek north. Conditions at Drakes were windy, but sunny and pleasant. Most boats chose to anchor well east of the finishing area. Here's what it looked like at 1745 when I got there.

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On Sunday, crewed boats from the YRA DB race started finishing at 1401, and a steady stream of YRA and SSS racers continued until 1640.

The PRO for the US Sailing National Wingfoil Championship reached out to me to know when Drakes Bay finishers were coming in, so he could consider that as he planned his starts. Minimizing interaction between the events helped both races, but it was still very considerate of him. We still had Drakes Bay finishers come through the wingfoilers, and vice-versa, but avoided the bad cases like a still-tight pack of wingfoilers on their first leg arriving off the race deck as a Drakes Bay boat was about to finish.

Here's Sun Dragon #33070 about 10-15 seconds before their finish.

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Here is Eight Ball #8 about 30s away from her finish.

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And here is Akumu #44 about 40s away from the finish.

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If anyone else has photos to share, please post.

We do plan an in-person meeting on Wednesday September 4 at Oakland YC. If you raced this race for SSS, please come to OYC and share your stories.