SHF 2026 - Why Memorial Day Weekend?

[Nathan Bossett]

I don't see any other threads discussing it, so I'll ask: For SHF, why choose the date of one of the biggest ocean races (Spinnaker Cup leading into Coastal Race Week)?

Even for people who don't want to do both, you've still got situations for people with families: why ask people to burn a family three day weekend for a one day race?

 

[fauxboat]

Okeydoke, I'll answer these and then ask for counter-suggestions to keep in mind for next time.

Constraints, as I saw them:

1) The SSS Farallones race has been held between May 11 and May 31 in 14 of the 16 years I can readily check: 2012 and 2020 (covid) were the exceptions. To stay with that tradition, I looked for a date in that range.

2) The SSS board's guidance is to schedule ocean races on days with favorable current at the start, so all racers, not just the low handicap ones, can at least have a good shot of getting under the bridge. That rules out half the Saturdays on the calendar.

3) I try to schedule the races roughly a month apart so racers and the race committee have time after the race of the month to prepare for the next race of the month. Fiasco is traditionally the last Saturday of January, which was a late date this year. That's pushed Corinthian to Feb 28 (4 weeks after Fiasco), Round the Rocks to March 28 (4 weeks after Corinthian), and Sort of Singlehanded to April 25 (4 weeks after Round the Rocks).

Given those constraints, I ended up scheduling SH Farallones on May 23, 4 weeks after Sort of Singlehanded. At SFB1201 there's a 2 kt ebb predicted at our expected first start of 0800, building to a 3 kt max ebb at 1000. Racers have ebb until slack at 1419, and then flood until 2011 to carry them back in the gate. If the wind cooperates, the tide should help many boats complete the race.

Non-constraints, as I saw them:

1) I recognize there are other competing attractions, just within NorCal racing, but I've become resigned to some conflict because it's unavoidable. We had 905 race-days on the 2026 YRA calendar when it was finalized in December 2025. Every Saturday from March to October had multiple races:

Saturday Races
2026-03-07 7
2026-03-14 6
2026-03-21 8
2026-03-28 5
2026-04-04 5
2026-04-11 7
2026-04-18 4
2026-04-25 9
2026-05-02 6
2026-05-09 6
2026-05-16 8
2026-05-23 5
2026-05-30 4
2026-06-06 9
2026-06-13 5
2026-06-20 5
2026-06-27 9
2026-07-04 4
2026-07-11 7
2026-07-18 9
2026-07-25 9
2026-08-01 7
2026-08-08 4
2026-08-15 5
2026-08-22 6
2026-08-29 5
2026-09-05 8
2026-09-12 5
2026-09-19 7
2026-09-26 7
2026-10-03 9
2026-10-10 5
2026-10-17 7
2026-10-24 6
2026-10-31 3

YRA expects there will be another 100+ race-days added to it before the year is over, creating more conflict.

2) Memorial Day falls on an early date this year, and SH Farallones landed on that weekend. Which might be a bad thing for some people, or a good thing for others. On a high-handicap boat SH Farallones is a very long day, and some people will want to recover on Sunday, much like Sunday is a recovery day for many Spin Cup racers. I didn't worry about it one way or the other, on the belief that if some people liked Memorial Day weekend and some did not, it would roughly cancel out.

Hope this helps.

Out of curiosity, which date would you have preferred? How would it have done against the constraints above? Are there constraints on the list you'd feel "unconstrained" by?

 

[solosailor]

Yeah, bummed when I saw that as well....... tough choices.

 

[Nathan Bossett]

Out of curiosity, which date would you have preferred? How would it have done against the constraints above? Are there constraints on the list you'd feel "unconstrained" by?

Trying to walk the line here to give feedback without, hopefully, coming off as being personally critical:

I think the Memorial Day weekend is the single worst possible choice in and around May with the possible exception of conflicting with DHF. Even the Great Vallejo Race probably has less overlap with the shorthanded ocean racer scene and issues with other things people might have going on such as family events, at least the crowd I run with.

This is also a Pac Cup year and a lot of boats use Monterey as a dress rehearsal, so that's also a problem for Pac Cup crew even if they'd prefer SHF to the Spinnaker cup.

I heartily agree with the choice of Saturday rather than Sunday to allow for cleanup/recovery.

The slowest boat I've ever done a Farallones race in was probably a Cal 9.2 (not SH) and I'm sensitive to the high rating boats issue, but getting back after midnight on a light air day didn't kill me while if I had a spouse and kids trying to do a solo event on this weekend might

For spacing out races, I've always felt that a couple of weeks is enough; I would put something like a month gap between SSS races way way way down the priorities list. Current is obviously significant, as you say particularly so people don't have a "didn't even get past the bridge" experience, but personally I'd rather push the boundaries on "in May" than conflict with events with the same audience plus holiday/family/etc. issues.

We'll see how the attendance is; it may prove me totally wrong. Thanks for putting it on!

(edit to add the Pac Cup/Spinnaker Cup part and the response to your comment about spacing+currents)

 

[fauxboat]

No worries, voicing an opinion is how we let others know our viewpoint.

Thanks for sharing yours.

Good luck at whichever race you do.

 

[fauxboat]

ps. Pushing to June 6 would have put SSS SH Farallones on top of YRA Crewed Farallones.

Opinions on the goodness or badness of that as a choice?