San Francisco Bay whipped up a significant flood tide which, together with fearsome 20-27 kt winds, made for a challenging weekend for the 19 J/105s that made it out to the western face of Alcatraz for a weekend of windward-leeward racing in the Sausalito YC J/105 Invitational on July 23-24. Unlike racing anywhere in the country where you need to sail upwind both legs, time the oscillations of the shifts and take into account a progressive veer or backing of the wind based on forecasts, here it was a case of advance planning. Before leaving home, skipper Bruce Stone reviewed the Sailtactics.com wind and tide forecast with his team on Arbitrage and announced, “We