Home	Opening Day on the Bay 4/25/21

Thanks to Commodore Swanson's valiant efforts, 6 loyal Islanders signed up to have an "Islander Class" in the Opening Day On The Bay Parade on Sunday, April 25th. Here's the illustrious team:

Boat	Owner & Crew	Sail #	Yacht Club
Bella Luna	Bob & Maria DaPrato	4469	Presidio
Kapai	Rick Egan + Bryce Egan and friend Reanne	438	SSS
Luna Sea	Dan Knox	420	South Beach YC
Tenacious	Anne Reinert
Vanishing Animal	Rick & Sandy Van Mell	11543	Chicago YC (Illinois)
Zingara	Jocelyn & Steve Swanson	484	Coyote Point YC & SBYC

The tradition of Opening Day goes back to the 1800s, when the drawbridge at Beach Road and Main Street in Belvedere was opened to allow arks and boats back into the Bay after over-wintering in Belvedere Lagoon. In 1917 the Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association (PICYA) started an annual celebration called Opening Day. It was cancelled completely in 2020 due to the new COVID-19 pandemic and was looking forward to a glorious rebirth this year. Here is a link to the Parade Route and here are the Skipper Instructions.

But, Mother Nature decided to throw her own curve ball. San Francisco's 2019 - 2021 two year span is the second driest on record. The last rain we had was about a quarter inch in mid-March, and the rain year ends on April 1st. So why not schedule the Opening Day Parade on the last Sunday in April? Because a relatively major storm was forecast up to a week in advance. .5 to 1" of rain for the North Bay forecasters said, with .25 - .5 for the general Bay area. And, usually, there's plenty of wind with that much rain.

So, one by one our intrepid I-36 skippers (some with significant input from their First Mates) decided discression was the better part of valor and elected to stay warm and dry. In the end our heros were Vice Commodore Rick Egan aboard Kapai, and Dan Knox aboard Luna Sea. They both braved what turned out to be a foggy, drizzle day with variable wind. Their mutual pictures are below, and links to the GoPro video that Dan took of the day. Though there are over two hours of video, Chapter 6 shows Dan passing St. Francis Yacht Club.

Here is Rick's assessment of the day:

Here are the photos I took yesterday. It was wet and cold but Kapai and Luna Sea prevailed. We came along side Dan and crew on Luna Sea off Pier 39 replete with lots of flags flying off his topping lift (looking good) and proceeded up to Anita Rock. I thought I would get lucky with the weather but a steady rain began to fall at 11:15 am and lasted until I tied up later in the day at SouthBeach. Luna Sea was the sole entry that sailed during the parade and had to weave back in forth in the procession to avoid overtaking the leaders. This was my first opening day so I had no idea how slow this procession is. I think the big power boats with warm inside steering were going as slow as possible in order to keep us out in the cold drizzle testing the integrity of our foulies. You will note that early pictures of Kapai had the requisite 2 foot parade number sign attached to the bow. Around noon these became sodden and simply blew off. Now unable to identify me the parade announcers on the live stream decided that Kapai was Luna Sea. Sorry Dan. Next year, higher quality signs! All the Best Rick Egan Kapai

Here is Dan's report:

Yes not a lot of rain but there was some. But it was not at all nice and it was not very well organized. People had a hard time getting in line by their numbers.

We were the only boat that was sailing. The wind was all over the place. 5 knots, 20 knots and everything in between. And the wind was mostly from the south, which was very weird. We just put up the main when we left Marina Village and sailed right out the estuary and pretty much over to Blackhaller and then back on a beam reach.

And for those of us that cowered before the dreadful forecast? Well, at my home in Mountain View, it never raind a drop or blew over 10 knots.

Here are the pictures and video links:

Dockside numbers	Burgee time	Kapai
Grey day	Luna Sea - flags	Luna Sea - foulies
Luna Sea - having fun	Flags fly	Parade time
St. Francis YC