2011 Vallejo Season Opener

This weekend Andrew and I raced JetStream on the Vallejo Season Opener. This year we got two Sportboat starts. We were on the fleet with the larger Sportboats including the 1D35, Flying Tigers, Henderson 30, Azzura 310, J90 and Hobbie 33. Saturday is normally a downwind ride to Vallejo, but this year we were welcomed by a Northerly that made it a beat to the Richmond Bridge and mostly to San Pablo point.

Andrew described the race quite accurately. Saturday we had three races, from the Berkeley Circle to the Richmond Bridge, from Richmond Bridge to Point San Pablo, and from San Pablo to Vallejo. We won two out of the three with the benefit of winning the last leg and taking a first in our division.

The first leg wasn't ideal as the wind settled from the windy delivery to the start line. In the lighter conditions we struggled with some of the bigger boats. We started on the right side of the course near Berkeley but with a remaining flood and more pressure on the left side boats, we cut our loses and headed left. We weren't doing particularly well until the winds really got light and we were able to coast, on a bit of private pressure, past the fleet on the West side of Red Rock. We were looking good at the end of the first leg.

After Red Rock it was still an upwind beat up to Point San Pablo. Here we split with Outsider. He tacked away and went right, and we stayed left. This turned out to be a mistake as we got caught on the center of the bay when the ebb started and the winds continued to lighten. We had to again made a painful crossing to the Richmond shore. Things weren't looking good under white sails, we weren't making any gains on the current. So we set our A5 spinnaker and sailed as high as we could. This finally got us to the current relief on the shore and we were again within striking distance from the leaders. But the winds continued to lighten and we encountered the main current. For the first time in JetStream we were forced to drop anchor just to hold our position and wait for the wind. We had a little food and drink. The wind made an attempt to come up and everyone started the beat against the current to get into San Pablo Bay. No one seem to be able to make it against the current between The Brothers and San Pablo Point, so most of the fleet worked their way down current of The Brothers to try to get some relief and get around from the West side of The Brothers. Greg on Outsider was the first to break free and he was gone... This was leg two and we weren't doing that hot. It would take us quite a while to get around The Brothers and even when we did, we just started sliding West as we couldn't gain any leverage against the current in the light air. At this point it was past 4 PM. We had expected to be tied up in Vallejo and enjoying some cold beers by this time. The large majority of the fleet, about 200 out of the 250 starters began to drop off. We almost called it of ourselves. Luckily for us, I didn't bring enough fuel to either motor home nor Vallejo from where we were. An even luckier, we didn't have any competitors motor past us and tempt us with throwing them a line for a tow.

Leg 2 - Red Rock to San Pablo

Out of nowhere at around 4:30, the sea breeze came in strong from the West. We put the big spinnaker up and started to make progress East towards Vallejo. The breeze continue to freshen and we were now screaming on a tight reach. Half way to Point Pinole we could no longer hold the big kite and dropped down to white sails to clear the point. Soon after we put up the smaller kite and we were off. We started picking up boats, the ones still racing and the others motor-sailing after dropping out. We could see two boats we normally race against in front of us. Outsider was closer and sailing with white sails, which made them a quick target. Then in front we could see the red kite of Head Rush, not in our fleet but a boat we have raced often against. They kept getting bigger and bigger, and soon we were side by side flying at 16 knots towards Vallejo. We played the south side of the bay to stay out of the deep water and the stronger ebb (with a sharp eye on depth, no need to repeat our encounter with the mud on last years Jazz Cup). We pulled a few fast gybes near the fueling docks before crossing over to the Mare Island side. A few more gybes and we entered the Napa River. We held the spinnaker a little longer but soon had to drop to white sails and beat up the river towards the finish line. We finished a couple of minutes behind the J90 Ragtime, but were able to correct out at the end to win the fleet.

Saturday Results

This trip across San Pablo was one of the most fun we've had, and well worth the wait and light airs for the first 4 hours of light airs.