2010 YRA Fall 1 Race

On Saturday, Andrew and Rob joined me for the YRA HDA Fall-1 Race. It was going to be a day on central San Francisco Bay, which in the summer means big winds. It didn't dissapoint. We started on the western edge of the Berkeley Circle. We had a fun sail up to the start (once we cleared Treasure Island from Alameda) with Andrew and Rob taking the boat on a power reach up the slot, the boat doing an easy 9 and 10 knots. Here is a short clip of that reach, showing off the new mainsail from Doyle. The mainsail still needs a bit of tunning for the upwind trim, though in this reaching shot it looks great.



Just before the start we notice that the rubber joint connecting the tiller to the tiller extension is split and only has a bit of rubber holding the whole thing together. Andrew gets to work and we do an 'ankle tape job' on it. I think we spent half a roll of tape. It was all a bit stiff but it held perfectly for the full race. In the conditions we were expecting, loosing the extension during one of the downwind runs could have been catastrophic. This is something I will be keeping a spare of in the boat from now on.

We got going on the first start with about 12 - 15 knots of breeze. In the sportboats class we could see the Antrim 27 "Head Rush" and Henderson 30 "Family Hour" and a small Viper. The Flying Tigers didn't come out to play, so our focus would be on the Antrim who always gives us a good fight.

During our pre-start we decide to go for the pin end as it was favored both in angle and distance to the windward mark, but I got distracted during the sequence and only managed to get a quarter of the way down the line before the start gun. Who do I see starting at the pin? the Antrim boat... So much for execution.

We started a bit behind the competition. We do a clearing tack to get a clear lane and quickly come back to join the rest of the fleet on starboard. On the beat from the start to Point Blunt we are trailing the Antrim, with the Henderson right on our heels. On the moderate conditions we are as fast as the Antrim but dont quite have the point. We manage to stay in touch. A bit of a problem with the main halyard slipping from the clutch costs us a few seconds, but Andrew and Rob quickly get it fixed. Near Angel Island we lee-bow the Antrim and with better speed and point manage to get in front. The rest of the way to Little Harding we play loose cover with the Antrim. We round the windward mark first on the Sportsboat fleet and with a perfect set we are off to the races.

We are averaging 12 - 14 knots downwind. By the time I look back and see the Antrim and the Henderson set their kites we are easily 300 yards in front. We focus on keeping the boat on its feet and looking for the downwind mark. On the upwind leg we spotted the downwind mark and decided at that point we wanted to be on port tack at Pt. Blunt. For a few seconds, while we struggle with the GPS we are heading to the wrong mark, but just in time we spot the leward mark and jibe for it. Right after the jibe we get a blast of wind and we are now barrelling towards the mark at 16 and 17 knots. Things are coming up real quick. Jib out and kite down... oh, why isn't the kite coming down... the tack line got a bit tangled up and in a few seconds Rob and Andrew had it all figured out. It was a good day to have 3 on board as this could have been a bit complicated if we were only double handling the boat. One last jibe to get around the mark for our second upwind leg and suddenly a BANG!

What was that? The mast still up, good, but the boom is skyed. We blew the vang on the jibe. All my fault as I should have been ready to release some of the main after the jibe. Worst of all the night before we had spotted some fraying on the cover of the loop holding the vang together and decided the the core was intact and it would hold for another day of racing. We guessed wrong. Not a big deal, we wouldn't need to vang for the next upwind leg and Andrew got to work on a jury rig for our next downwind run.

After rounding we start looking for our competition. We can only see the Antrim and they are struggling with their kite and go into a broach. It takes them a while to recover, they drop their kite and continue racing. We can see where the Henderson or the Viper are. We carry on the second upwind leg pretty much on our own. By now the current has turned and we are in a slight ebb so we can play a bit more towards the center of the bay. The wind is now building to the mid 20s so we start preparing for our next downwind ride. We really just come out for these downwind runs, they are a rush. We have a video camera on board, but there is just too much going on to get one of us to mess with it. I think it will be great footage, so need a way to mount it on the boat (or strap it to my head).

Off we go around Little Harding and set the kite again. This time we have a longer run all the way to mark D on the Circle. Quickly after rounding we figure out our initial vang jury rig is not working, so Andrew ties the tail of the main halyard to the boom vang strap through the bail at the base of the mast, and straight back to the winch. Grind it down and now we have a working vang. We now go into full speed mode and scream down the bay, holding 14 knots and bursting to the 17s in the gusts. Everyone is smiling and enjoying the ride. We nail our jibe angle to the leward mark (actually, we nailed all the laylines in the race), do a safe windward douse and head towards the finish line on a power reach. The boat holding 9 and 10 knots on white sails.

We get a gun at the finish line and head back towards Alameda. We were all hungry and thirsty after 2 1/2 hours on course, so we take it easy to make sure we empty up the cooler before we get to Alameda. We ended up covering 21.3nm on course on 2h27m for an average of 8.7 knots, not bad for W-L course.   A couple of things will need to get repaired, need a new tiller extension joint (plus a spare), need to fix the vang attachment (Andrew has a good idea to try out) and we blew one of the small spinlock cleats that needs to get replaced. Not too bad for a fun day in the water.

Race Results