I've sent the following to the competitors via jibeset, but might be worth posting here too minus a few things:

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Hello, SSS Farallones competitors!

Thank you for coming out to a challenging race. It was tough at the start and tough through the day, as evidenced by the five finishers.

From the RC perspective, you all stayed safe, which is the really important thing. I want to thank everyone who dropped out for telling me they were dropping out, and when they were in the bay --- that is extremely important. I would prefer more text messages --- those are a little easier to deal with --- but I am very glad to have any notice.

I know the start was really difficult with the ebb current and light winds. I did not want to delay the starts to wait for more wind, since a) more wind might not have come anytime soon; b) the ebb was predicted to get stronger before it started fading; c) the unhelpful-at-the-start ebb was also very-helpful-as-soon-as-you-started ebb; d) I knew you needed all the time you could get to reach the Farallones and return; e) delayed SSS Farallones starts could have run into the fully-crewed YRA Duxship starts; f) I'm told the SSS has traditionally frowned on postponements.

This is your chance to give me feedback on that, and the race in general. I would love to hear what conditions were like out there, for example. This year we enlisted the SF Radio Club to do roll call. I would like to hear opinions on that too.

It would be great if 2-3 people, finishers and non-finishers, are willing to talk about their race at the next competitor meeting. Please reach out if you'd be interested. Tell everyone about the conditions, your strategy, how you decided to keep going or not-keep-going, etc. Suggestions on how people can do better are always welcome. Everyone loves to hear that because it helps them next time.

On that note, some humble suggestions for starts like Saturday's with a lot of ebb. Once you've sailed around the start line to know what conditions are like, motor back up to Marina Green and hang out there until your prep: with the strong ebb, you are guaranteed to get down to the start line under sail. Boats are racing from the preparatory signal, so the motor has to be off no later than 4 minutes to the start. If you are not where you want to be at 10+ minutes to your start, turn on the engine and get far enough up current before your prep that you'll still be comfortably on the pre-start slide of the line until the start. If you do find yourself crossing before your time, you have to get back completely on the pre-start side of the line or you will be scored DNS or OCS, which will really ruin your race. Currents are usually stronger out by the A buoy than by shore, so coming in closer to shore to make progress against the tide often helps quite a bit.

Thank you very much for racing with the SSS. The SSS Farallones race has a 46 year history in the SSS pantheon, and we are glad you spent your Saturday as part of that tradition.

Richard, 2023 SSS Race Co-Chair