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Windsurfing Fleet 18 is organizing this race in memory of Glenn Taylor
who passed away in the fall of 2017.
Glenn founded Fleet 18 and pioneered windsurfing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The first annual race will be held on Sunday, April 22, 2018.
Location: Ryan Lagoon, Foster City (details below).
Parking and launch area is located
between Foster City Parks & Recreation
(650 Shell Bldv) and the Vibe Teen Center.
Equipment: Any type of windsurfer, any size sail.
Approximate Start Time: 1 PM
(please arrive no later
than 12noon to allow sufficient time for rigging your board and chatting
with your windsurfer friends)
Race Format: The race comprises two legs.
There
will be a single start for the first leg with the finish
at a beach at one end of Ryan Lagoon (see map below).
The race committee will record the finish time for each racer.
The return leg will be started no sooner than 1
hour after the last racer finished the first leg with the racers
starting in
reverse order of their finish times for the first leg (aka reverse
pursuit race).
Trophies: A trophy will be awarded to the winner of the first leg and the winner of the second leg.
In addition a perpetual trophy will be awarded to the racer with the best COMBINED time of both legs of the race.
Race Course and Details: This race will replace the
Fleet 18 traditional season-opening race known as 'Blue Boar Beach Run'
(for
reasons only a few of us will remember, if only vaguely). Please find below
details of both the race itself and
the accompanying social event in Glen
Taylor's own words, in a write-up he shared in an e-mail in the fall of
2015.
Entry Fee: An entry fee of $10 per contestant covers the beverages (beer and water) served during the mid-way social and the trophies.
Mid-Way Social: Please invite your non-windsurfing
friends to join us at the mid-way social which takes place at the beach
near the south end of Cutter Lane, off Beach Park Blvd, and bring your
favorite snacks to share.
Content of Glenn's E-Mail of October 2015 (slight edits in italics)
The course is shown on the map below. The
starting line is near the boat ramp end of the main lagoon ("1" on
map).
One buoy is placed near the gazebo (at "2") as a windward mark,
usually rounded to starboard.
The Shell Blvd. bridge can be taken in any
manner but the Foster City Blvd. bridge must have its piling
nearest
Hillsdale Blvd. (the NW, or left, side) taken first, then the
piling on the south east side taken second.
The course then continues
back into the main lagoon and into the south end of the lagoon without any
further buoys
to the finish on a sand beach near the south end of Cutter Ln
as indicated on the map.
A three minute whistle toot start sequence is conventional.: 3 whistle
toots at 3 minutes, 2 toots at 30 seconds, one toot at the start.
The return leg "unwinds" the first leg, going the reverse direction around
all bridge pilings and buoy "2" and
finishing across the starting line
of the first leg.
The line is placed to indicate the path and is about
3.8 miles long. The tacks required likely add another mile to the distance.
At "4" on the map there is a small grass & sand area
with a wood picnic table (near the south end of Cutter Lane).
The
first leg of the race ends on the water/sand line or when someone's board is
within a foot of it
and their feet are off their board and on the lake
bottom.
The time that the first sailor arrives at the beach at "4" is recorded.
The times of each subsequent finisher are recorded and the differences
between their times and that of the first finisher
are calculated while
beers and water is available and the snacks everybody brought are
shared.
After the time differences have been computed and the party foods and
beverages have been diminished
the last person to finish at the sand / shore
line is encouraged to start the return race.
When they
start the clock begins for the second-to-last finisher to begin. The
time between starts is the difference in times
between the first leg
finishes. This process continues until the first-to-finish starts.
Typically the wind for the first leg is lighter than that for the second at
which time it is sometimes 20+ kts.
The biggest challenge
in this race, however, is dealing with the very complicated shoreline
bordering the course.
Apartment buildings, bridge pilings and
gaps where roads end beside the water make the wind erratic.
There are a few dogs in back yards that will bark at contestants, but in
over the more than twenty years this race has been run,
no dog has swum to a
sailor's board in an attempt to bite. It is a good idea,
however, to give the dogs "searoom"
and tack away from them 5 yards or more
from shore near them.
The seawalls have obstructions at their bases which in
many places will kick up a 2' foot centerboard.
Clearance for the
walls of at least 5 feet is suggested.
If someone wishes to attend the party in the middle of the race but NOT sail
the race they should drive east on Beach Park Blvd.
and turn right onto
Cutter Lane. Each leg takes about an hour to sail.
The whole event should be over by 5PM.