Vallejo Yacht Club offers an active calendar of Club racing with about 36 races per season - enough to keep even the most avid skippers and crew happy. A full Season of racing includes 4 Midwinter races, 8 weekend Trophy races from Spring through Fall, and a very competitive weekly Wednesday Night series April through September. Wednesday Night Trophies are awarded for each monthly series along with overall Season Champions.
For 2009 we'll be racing 2 fleets - "A" (spinnaker) and "B" (nonspinnaker). Our boats range from 22’ to 40’ plus. Races start & finish off the clubhouse race deck with a first start for Wed night races at 1800 allowing ample time for most everyone to finish a workday and get their boat on the course. Typical races are 7-12 miles long, lasting ~ until sunset, after which we enjoy a buffet dinner (~$7) or cook-your-own burger/hot dog, and socializing at the Club bar.
With over 100 different courses around 16 marks and a wide variety of wind and current conditions, every race presents new and varied tactical challenges even for experienced skippers. With our "playground" at the mouth of the Napa River, the Carquinez Straits "venturi" at the top of the Bay, it’s not uncommon to encounter 2-3 current changes during the course of a 2 hour race. The Spring and early summer races typically find us battling closely spaced 4-6 ft rollers pushed up by a stiff 20-25 knot westerly over San Pablo Bay opposing a strong Ebb out of the strait. Expect some wet & wild rides! Short tacking up the rock wall is every bit as challenging as a beat up the SF City Front in a flood. Even heavier boats can catch a few surf rides if their willing to brave the spinnaker set on the run back to the leeward mark. Perhaps Jack London described it best in his Tales of the Fish Patrol:
"Here the Vallejo Straits and the Carquinez Straits rushed directly at each other. Through the first flowed all the water from the Napa River and the great tide-land; through the second flowed all the water of Suisun Bay and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. And where such immense bodies of water, flowing swiftly, clashed together, a terrible tide-rip was produced. To make it worse, the wind howled up San Pablo Bay for fifteen miles and drove in a tremendous sea upon the tide-rip. Conflicting currents tore about in all directions, colliding, forming whirlpools, sucks, and boils, and shooting up spitefully into hollow waves which fell aboard us as often from leeward as from windward. And through it all, confused, driven into a madness of motion, thundered the great smoking seas from San Pablo Bay. I was wildly as excited as the water. The boat was behaving splendidly, leaping and lurching through the welter like a racehorse. I could hardly contain myself with the joy of it. The huge sail, the howling wind, the driving seas, the plunging boat - I, a pygmy, a mere speck in the midst of it, was mastering the elemental strife, flying through it and over it, triumphant and victorious."
A favorite of our racing season is the annual Angel Island marathon. This race packs all the fun of a Vallejo Race weekend, and more, into a single day. Another August Classic is the Luna Race, always scheduled for a bright full moon lit evening with the start just before sunset and a finish somewhere into the wee hours of the morning.
All skippers competing for trophies must be members of the Vallejo Yacht Club but guest boats are welcome and encouraged to join us on an "unscored" basis and partake in the after race socializing. All races are free with no entry or signup fees. Anyone interested in competing or just crewing
is welcome to just drop by the club or contact our 2009 Fleet Captain Sail, Gordon Smith, for entry forms or contacts to skippers seeking additional crew. Most all skippers are frequently looking for permanent or occasional "fill-in" crew. Some sailing and/or racing experience is desirable but a strong desire to learn, a little natural aptitude, and a 6-pack can makeup for any lack of experience. It beats working!
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