YRA HDA Spring 1

On May 22nd we had the first race of the HDA season.  We got enough interest from the Sportboats fleet to get our own division this year.  Hoping that a few more boats will join.

Forecast was looking very favorable with 15 - 25 knots in the bay for the afternoon racing.  Our preferable conditions.  Mark and Andrew joined me for the days racing.  The extra pair of hands would become a welcomed decision later in the afternoon.

We set off to our long slog from the Oakland Estuary to the Golden Gate Yacht Club.  Got there with plenty of time to spare and sailed around waiting for our start.  By the start time the wind was well into the 20 knots and the ebb had been building, throwing up a decent chop in the bay.  We had a pretty clear start and soon tacked away to the center of the bay to take advantage of the ebb current.   Crossed a few boats, and rounded the first windward mark (Blackaller) in third place behind some of the longer waterline boats.    Had a perfect spinnaker set and the race was on.  We took off in the fresh conditions and soon were leading the fleet.   We were averaging between 14 and 15 knots of speed, with both Mark and Andrew doing an excellent job with the kite.  Looking behind I could see one of the Tigers struggling with their kite, but the fast Antrim  27 with their blue kite was quickly approaching.   We rounded the Blossom rock (the leward mark) in first position and headed back to the second lap.   The Antrim was the only boat in our fleet we could still see and they were following behind about 80 yards.   We would need to keep a watchful eye on them for the second downwind run.  However, they had to drop out of the race due to an emergency and we were left to race on our own.   We had a strong second upwind leg averaging around 7.5 knots, with some favorable current.   Soon we were back at Blackaller and readied for the next downwind run.

Another flawless set and we were again off the races.  The chop had built significantly from the first run and we were now constantly getting water over the decks.    You could feel the boat accelerate on every puff.  On one of the strongest puffs we plowed into the back of a wave, throwing a wall of water over the decks.  The water knocked the crew back and I lost control of the boat and rounded up into a broach.   We tried to bring the boat back, but it wouldn't come up with the spinnaker up.  So with a quick release of the halyard we brought the boat back and dragged the spinnaker back into the boat.   We thought we heard a tear on the spinnaker so didn't reset.  As we were far ahead in the fleet we finished the downwind leg with just our white sails.

We now just had our final upwind leg to the finish.   The wind had continued to build and we were seeing gusts in the upwards of 30 knots, so we played it conservatively.   Got a gun at the finish and turned the boat around to head back home.  Pretty tiring for a 2 hr race.   Got some cold beers from our wet bilge and settled for our sail home.  Good day out onboard JetStream and a good start for the HDA season.

Results for this race:

SAIL #	BOAT NAME	BOAT MODEL	RATING	FINISH	ELAPSED	CORRECTED
9045	Jet Stream	Custom JS 9000	78	13:50:20	1:50:20	1:54:12
15	CentoMiglia	Flying Tiger 10	54	14:11:03	2:11:03	2:21:02
41	Wild One	Flying Tiger 10	54	14:17:22	2:17:22	2:27:50
24	Ilex	Viper 640 ODR	96	DNF
21	Head Rush	Antrim 27 CM	75	DNF
46595	Family Hour	Henderson 30	48	DNF