2010 SSS Richmond to South Beach

Courtesy of Stephen Buckingham

On Saturday we had the continuation of the SSS race series with the Richmond to South Beach race.  This is the  penultimate race of the SSS calendar with the culmination of the series in a month time with the Vallejo 1-2 race.    I'm racing the series in the doublehanded division, but my crew couldn't make it this time and a last minute attempt to find a replacement wasn't fruitful, making Saturday a day for me and the autopilot to get to know each other a little better.  The forecast for the day was for a mellow 5 - 15 possibly going to 15 - 25 later in the afternoon, and most of the race would be in a light ebb.

Good start to the day with an early breakfast at Ole's in Alameda with Greg and Karl.  And then we were off to the long delivery from Alameda to Richmond.  I'm using a borrowed outboard while I sort out a replacement for my now defunct outboard.  It is an old 2-stroke 2-cylinder 4HP Evinrude.  It runs like a dream.  The 2-cylinders make for a very smooth and quiet ride compared to my previous 1-cylinder 3.5HP Nissan.  It was an uneventful delivery with a flat bay and minimal currents.

The start of the race is inside the Richmond breakwater.  We setup for the start in lightening conditions and we suffered a bit.  A few boats with genoas roll over us and we are sagging and falling behind.  Had to take a painful clearing tack to get on a lane with clear air and little by little started picking boats back up.  But the damage was already done.  Both Outsider and Flight Risk were able to stretch a few hundred yards ahead of us on the light conditions.  After clearing the restricted areas around the Richmond fuel docks, I set the kite and start heading towards The Brothers.  I start catching a few of the slower boats that started  ahead of us and soon join the procession of boats rounding The Brothers and heading back upwind towards Little Harding.

I head towards the right hand side of the course staying right of a current line under the Richmond Bridge.  SOG confirms that we are doing better on this side.  We finally catch Flight Risk after the Richmond Bridge.  I probably came a little closer than I should have, prompting Flight Risk to try to pinch me out, but we were able to hold our lane and get ahead.  I see Arcadia and Uno in the distance and focus on them as the main targets.  Can't tell where Outsider is, but hopefully we'll be back in contact again.  Keep playing the right hand side footing down a bit to avoid getting too close to shore and fall prey of any windholes.  As I approach Racoon Straights I get a glimpse of Outsider crossing on port from the left side of the course a half mile ahead of us.  Not good, we have some serious catching up to do.  We have a fast traverse of the Straights, first staying close to the Tiburon side and crossing over to the Angel Island side mid Straight..  I nailed the lay-line to Little Harding and catch a few more boats in the process, and we are off on a reach above Alcatraz towards 2NAS.  I was hoping the wind would have built up a bit more my now, but we were still sailing in about 10 - 12 knots.  We are still doing 8 and 9 knots on the white sail reach, but not the full potential of the boat had it been blowing 15+.

Here we start to reel in the Wylie Cats and some of the bigger boats, and I can now see Outsider and Sweet Jane ahead.  We set the kite around Alcatraz.  It is still a beam reach.  I try to keep the sheet on the ratchet only to have a bit more control of the kite, but after a few minutes I'm spent and my driving is suffering, so I give it a wrap around the winch and settle down.  I'll probably get some snide comments from my crew, but the winch works better when singlehanding the boat.

We are able to sail a bit higher and hold the spinnaker quite a bit longer than Outsider and Sweet Jane.  We significantly cut their leads, with Outsider maybe a quarter mile ahead and just behind Sweet Jane as we round the last mark and head towards the finish.  This area of the South Bay is notorious for shifty and gusty winds, but only the shifts materialize and the winds stay on the moderate side.  It turns into a cat and mouse game, playing the shifts and trying to make some gains.  But I'm unable to get ahead of Sweet Jane and we finish in that order for our class.  Outsider, Sweet Jane, Jetstream.  The resutls aren't yet in, but I think I still corrected over Sweet Jane.  But Outsider, finishing around 5 minutes ahead should have covered his handicap.

A good, long day on the bay.