Cine-Yachts

SUN 4/24

You’ll have to venture over to the northern shoreline of the bay to see it, but Sunday’s Opening Day on the Bay at noon will be something to behold, off the SF waterfront between Crissy Field and Pier 39. The Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Association (PICYA) is sponsoring the 250-vessel festivities, with the theme “Movies by the Bay” — which means boat owners will decorate their boats to depict a favorite movie, say, Star Wars, or maybe Scarface (no, maybe not that one). Says Scott Croft of PICYA, “It’s the Rose Parade on floats.” — Kelly Vance

4/23, 4/24

Rope Burns and Broken Legs

Bullish on rodeo? You can still see one if you hurry

It takes an event like this weekend’s Broncs & Bulls World Challenge to make us realize that even though California is geographically in the West, it’s not really very Western anymore, in the old-time, pre-urbanized sense of a place where cowboys and cowgirls hop in their pickups and head off to dusty arenas for bull-riding showdowns. Almost all of the leading contestants in the National Professional Rodeo Association’s competitive categories (steer wrestling, calf roping, etc.) are from Minnesota or the Dakotas. In fact, Saturday and Sunday’s NPRA Challenge at the Oakland Arena is that body’s only California event this spring, which makes it something like one of the last gasps of a vanishing era, at least in these parts. Riders will try for $5,000 purses in Bareback, Saddle Bronc, and Bull Riding, and you can watch, tenderfoot. Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12-$35, with a Family 4-Pack for $40, from Tickets.com or 510-762-2277. – Kelly Vance

4/20-4/30

Rev Up, Young Drivers

Marketing campaigns of our times, Volume 653: Red Bull, the notorious European caffeinated sugar water that brought you the homemade flying machine competition Flugtag, is now taking aim at a demographic slightly younger than the usual swinging singles chugging vodka-and-Red-Bull in neon-lit bars. Namely, their little brothers and sisters. From now through April 30 at Lemans Karting in Fremont (45957 Hotchkiss St., 510-770-9001, LemansKarting.com), go-kart racers ages thirteen to seventeen can qualify for the Red Bull Driver Search , with a chance to compete in a junior-formula race in Europe in 2006. Ostensibly, it’s a way for novice would-be Formula 1 drivers to break into the big-time race-driving circuit. To learn more, visit GoKartRacer.com or www.redbull-juniorteam.com — Kelly Vance