thelog.com Dock Lines With Capt. Nicole


Beer Can Races grace San Diego Bay Wednesday evenings


The Log • June 5 - 18, 2015 • 15


More than 100 sailboats in nine classes gathered in San Diego Bay for the opening of the Wednesday evening summer Beer Can Races on May 27.


By Capt. Nicole Sours Larson If you’ve ever paused, like me,


along Harbor Island on a summer evening and wondered why there were so many sailboats darting about San Diego Bay, wonder no more. Being a powerboater, I knew nothing about the sail racing world. When offered an invitation to observe the summer races’ kickoff aboard the media boat I jumped at the opportu- nity to learn more. What you’re witnessing Wednesday evenings is the Beer Can Races, a San Diego institution dating back 36 years. That’s when a group of sailors got together over a few beers and decided to start their own series of weekly casual summer “beer can” sailboat races as many other coastal cities had done. Beer Can racers, both women and


men, are passionate about their sport, I discovered. The new races quickly gained popularity and growing partic- ipation, with the competition soon overshadowing the social aspect. After about a year the Cabrillo Racing Association formed and became chief organizer, providing needed structure as the racing became more serious, explained Commodore Mark Clements. While San Diego’s version began in 1979, other series preceded them. San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club’s Beer Cans date to 1965 and Corona del Mar’s at the Balboa Yacht Club began in the mid-1950s. The founding of each series began – of course! – over a few beers. Traditionally Beer Cans are held on


a mid-week summer evening for 10 weeks, with racing starting after work and finishing before dark. Each week a camaraderie-filled post-race party features food, drinks and the week’s trophy presentation, rotating around San Diego’s marinas and waterfront restaurants. Friendship and fun are as essential to the Beer Cans as the com- petition. “One of the biggest and most


important aspects (of the Beer Cans)


is to invite guests along to participate. It’s an opportunity to share the love of yacht racing with friends and family,” Clements said. Following the final race two tro-


phies are awarded, one for the best of all 10 races and, for participants who’ve missed a few, for the best of seven.


This year’s Bear Can Races kicked off just before 6 p.m. May 27, an evening featuring calm seas, clear skies and light winds following a day of intense May Gray. The media boat delivered me close enough to the starting line to observe the teamwork involved in racing sailing yachts. Crews hauled on their sheets as they tacked to make tight turns around markers on their designated course, while on some boats crew members dangled their legs over the sides to reduce heeling. Captains had learned their boats’ assigned courses only 5 minutes before each race’s starting gun, Clements said.


While awaiting pickup at the Bali


Hai dock I chatted with Brian Buffalo, crewing on the Sea Maiden. He explained that boats don’t have to participate in every race, but lose points for missing races, and that crew members can change from week to week. Beer Can sailors’ skills and experience vary from novice to top- notch, with many sailors like himself having competed at the Olympic level. Larger, higher performance ves- sels, he said, can have as many as 20 crew and sail a longer course than smaller boats. “Some of the best sailors in the


world are here Wednesday nights,” Clements said, including internation- ally-ranked sailors J.J. Isler, Russell Coutts and current America’s Cup winner James Spithill, with four-time America’s Cup champion Dennis Conner a regular participant. This year 125 sailboats, with most


from 24 – 60 feet, are competing in nine classes over 2 – 16 mile courses. Next time you see massed sail-


boats on Wednesday evenings, just remember to think “Beer Cans.”


Coast Guard From page 7


As responders assembled, graduate student Natalie Phares quickly organ- ized a volunteer bucket brigade. Seven hours after the discovery of the spill, she was surprised to find her small crew alone on the sand a half-mile east of Refugio State Beach, where the spill occurred. Aside from a couple of boats skim- ming oil from the surface, she didn’t see any other cleanup effort. Williams said agencies had a play- book to follow including having a cul- tural monitor on the beach so workers didn’t accidentally trample on arti- facts. Workers faced challenges early on. Cleanup was suspended at one point on the first day because of high tide and choppy waters. While there were lights set up on the beach after dark, they created shadows. Though there were many volunteers willing to help, the government could not use them until they got proper safety training. Rancher Mark Tautrim headed to the beach about 1 mile east of the pipeline break after learning of the spill and was relieved to encounter an unspoiled stretch of surf and sand. But that would soon turn to disap- pointment — several hours later he returned to the same spot to find what he called “globs and globs of oil.’” The following day, Tautrim saw people trying to mop up the beach


without protective gear _ some were in shorts and flip-flops. He didn’t see professional cleanup crews until two to three days after the spill. Steve Calanog, deputy on-scene


coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said: “It’s easy to say it didn’t happen fast enough if you don’t realize what it takes to respond to an oil spill.’’ On May 29 there were 1,200 people on scene including 600 tasked with cleaning up the beach. There is extensive preparation and planning for potential oil spills along the California coast, where a 1969 oil platform blowout and spill on the same stretch of shoreline helped spawn the modern environmental movement. Plains’ response plan alone is over 1,000 pages of detailed information on how to quickly and methodically react. Plains officials and emergency


workers had gathered at a fire station near the site on the day of the spill to train for that very emergency. Plains said in a statement that after


the release was confirmed, the com- pany immediately activated its emer- gency response plan and moved ``critical resources’’ to the scene. “We train regularly for situations such as this, hoping that they will never happen. However, in a real event, no one is fully satisfied with the speed of response,” the company said. as quickly as possible.


Capt. Nicole Sours Larson photo


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