Photo by DeeDee Lozier
Photo by DeeDee Lozier
The Annual MMBA Regatta will be held on Saturday, May 29, 2004 (Memorial Weekend). 71 boats, ranging in size from 19' to 103', signed up for last year's race. The race starts off the City front at the St. Francis YC. It has a reverse start with last boats starting at 1300. Race is in the Central bay, finishing off the east side of Treasure Island about 1500. After the race, a majority of the boats congregate at the Encinal YC in Alameda for a raft-up. That night participants enjoy a dinner, awards ceremony and dancing. Boats that stay overnight also enjoy a breakfast Sunday put on by EYC and a potluck BBQ Sunday afternoon organized MMBA members.
Race packets were mailed to current members in late March. If you have not received yours yet, please contact us and another one will be sent ( mastermariners (at) hotmail.com ). I will attach the files on this page as soon as they are available.
There are photos of this last's regatta available from Mariah's
Eyes who contributed to June issue of "The Shellback", and also at the following sites: Chris Hammond & PaparazziH2O, and Jay Ailworth & "Strangebird". Dave Shuttleworth of the Treasure Island YC has a photo page of some boats at the 2002 finish, photos by a South Bay classic boat afficiando Dennis Moskovitz, and John Riise & Christine Weaver of Latitude 38 have some at the following link: 'Lectronic Latitude May 28 '02 & May 31 '02.
Below are links to 2003 regatta results, photos, and historical race results. Send in photos and stories to:
mastermariners (at) yahoo.com
This year's Regatta Chairman is Jeff Stokes, Vice Commodore. The Sponsors Luncheon will be held on Friday, May 21st at the St. Francis YC. For more information on MMBA Sponsorship you may email your inquiry and it will be forwarded to DeeDee Lozier, Sponsorship Chairman.
(You can also see a few pictures from 2001 taken by Gary Bergman of Orca at this link, and some 2000 pictures posted by the Golden Gate Tall Ship Society, and Simpatico's broken boom story.)
BACKGROUND: In keeping with a tradition that started in 1867, and was revived in 1965, the Annual Master Mariners Regatta is again scheduled to be sailed on the Saturday of Memorial Weekend. The regatta will feature 75 to 100 traditional sailing yachts and work vessels competing on close San Francisco Bay racecourses. As is tradition, the Big Schooners and work vessels only need to hit the marks with a potato to constitute a correct rounding.
Because of the dynamics of San Francisco Bay and the courses selected, excellent viewing of this regatta is available from 1130 hours to about 1430 hours along the San Francisco waterfront from Pier 39 to the Golden Gate Bridge and also on the Bay side of the Marin Headlands. The start of the regatta is signaled by the start of ALMA, a hayscow schooner built in 1891 and operated by the National Maritime Museum.
The fleet is broken down into 12 classes that crisscross the Bay several times as they thread their way past the prescribed marks to eventually finish near Clipper Cove on the Eastern side of Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands. Upon finishing, much of the fleet will proceed up the Oakland Estuary and rendezvous at the Encinal Yacht Club for the weekend.
Also in keeping with tradition, vessels are often sponsored by local maritime enterprises looking for bragging rights about the regatta. Vessels will display their sponsor's house flags and regatta flags throughout the weekend making the event very colorful and an excellent photo opportunity.
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