JetStream Racing

JetStream Racing

Monday, October 24, 2011

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Yankee Cup

The Yankee Cup is the culmination of the HDA series.  It's an invitational race for the top places of the various divisions raced throughout the year in the hopes to declaring an overall champion for the season.  As such, the boats lining up for the start is a very eclectic combination.  This year the roster included a 1D48 at the top of the fleet with a C&C 29 marking the other end of the spectrum.   The rating spread was 186 between the two afore mentioned boats, with the 1D48 at -12 and the C&C at 174.  On JetStream we rate 63, putting us as one of the fastest rated boat for the race, though nowhere near the 1D48.

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Since this race was late in the season, the weather is not as predictable as in the summer.  With Rob having more important things to do this weekend, Andrew and I decided to go out doublehanded as the forecast was for winds on the lighter side.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got under the Bay Bridge at 9 am and there was already a nice breeze filling in the Bay.  We would be racing in the central bay, between the Berkley Circle and Harding Buoy.   There will be some transitions in the tides during the race, going for a full flood at the start going to slack later in the day.  Particularly in the area we were racing, understanding the currents for the day would be critical.  I recently got a 6 month subscription to Tidetech as part of the Big Boat Series contest from Pressure Drop and would put their current models to good use.

The Yankee Cup would be a 3 race regatta.  The first race was a short 4 mile race to Mark 21 and back.  Had it not being for the flood it would have been an upwind fetch to the mark.  We had an ok start and got caught in some traffic.  We wanted to avoid tangling up with the bigger boats, but still were forced to take a clearing tack soon after the start.  There weren't many tactical options on this race and the extra tacks cost us a bit.  Upwind we do suffer, as we see equally or slower rated boats sail past and away from us.  But luckily there was enough breeze on the day for us to be able to make up our rating on the downwind legs.  It was a fetch back from the windward mark back to the finish.    We were able to catch up to Jeannette on the downwind leg and pass them just before the finish line to finish 2nd in the first race behind Bodacious.

To compete with Bodacious the rest of the days we would need to have clean starts, maintain clear lanes and avoid tangling up with other boats, as any boat on boat racing would mean time given to Bodacious as they were sailing pretty much on their own.

The second and third races had us sailing to Harding and back.  A longer race with more opportunities for strategic racing.  For the second race in a full flood our plan was to head to the East side of Angel Island and hug the South-East corner to avoid the worst of the flood.  The only question was when to tack over to Angel Island.  Ideally I wanted to arrive at Angel Island on the a 3rd of the way up on East shore to ensure we got good pressure close to land.  You have to time the tack and try to account from the drift of the current.  Once  you make the tack you are committed as taking an intermediate tack in the middle of the current would be disastrous.   I went a little too early and ended up father North on the Eastern shore that I would have liked too.  This might have been the difference between 2nd and the 4th place we finished on.  On this race we had a great upwind battle with Shameless (a Custom Schumacher 30).  They were just ahead of us when we got to Angel Island and we would be attached by a string all the way to Harding.  We traded a few tacks, we both misjudged the layline to Harding in the strong flood, and when we rounded Harding they were still just ahead of us.  The winds had lighten up a bit when we rounded and we couldn't get the boat into full plane mode.  So it took us some time to catch up to Shameless and even though we closed the gap with Jeannette we finished 4th.

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The last race would be a repeat of the second.  Except that by now our current models were showing slack water towards the South Bay.  So instead of the Angel Island route we took on the second race, we would stay on starboard tack until we were even with Alcatraz.  This will have us splitting with the fleet, as the rest took the Angel Island route again.  I often don't like to split with the fleet, but the only chance we had of beating Bodacious would be sailing to the best data we had as opposed to just covering the fleet.  Bodacious was forced out at the boat end of the line, while we had a perfect clean start towards the pin end with Jeannette to leeward of us.  It felt a little lonely heading to the left all by ourselves, but sometime later we could see Golden Moon coming in the same direction.  They were on a different start five minutes behind us, but it helped our confidence to see Kame coming in our direction.  The move paid off, by the time we reached the layline for Harding both Bodacious and Jeannette were within striking distance ahead of us with the rest of the fleet behind us.   By now the wind had increased to around 20 and we had a blast of a downwind leg, holding some 16 knots and topping off at 19.  We would go on to correct to first place in the last race, with the top 3 boats all within a minute of each other.

I wish we could have joined the festivities back at the club and congratulate the winners in person, but other commitments had us rushing back to Alameda to put the boat away.  But it was a hard, fun day in the water.   Andrew did the job of two fantastically

Bodacious won the regatta with a 1, 1, 3, we came in second 2 points behind with a 2, 4, 1 and Jeannette 3rd just 1 point behind us with a 3, 3, 2.  Full results available on the YRA site.