I live on Harbor Island - I stand on the sidewalk 8' above San Diego Bay and watch the boats come by 50 yards away.
I stood there for almost three hours today and saw no racing.
I keep an eye on the ACSandiego website but it never seems to show start times for the race.
The other day I stood on the end of the Broadway Dock (AC city) and watched for 90 minutes in the middle of the day - never saw a race- just nine boats milling about
Sunday I spent three hours in my dinghy as close as I could get to the committee boat (at least it had a countdown timer going) but never saw any racing.
Maybe I am expecting too much after participating in or watching at least 500 sailboat races.