Why mess with what ain't broke. Breakfast at Ole's before heading out racing. As there was going to be a long downwind leg to this race we were packing light, so outside of a bottle water each, the only consumables on board would be the ones you packed up in your belly before the race. The race finishes right at the club docks so the cooler would be waiting for us there.
We had a better fleet of boats for this race with a couple of 1D35s, a couple of FT10s, the Henderson, a J90 and our JS9000. We had a clean conservative start with plenty of room to leeward as we still continue to struggle to point with the fleet. We sail a few degrees lower so its critical to keep some room. Our strategy was to work on covering the fleet. After a clearing tack to get away from the 1D that sailed over us we were back on starboard tack heading left. As we entered the deep water most of the fleet tacked north towards Angel Island. At this point we decided to stay on course as we were closer to enter the South ebb. At this point we were behind both 1Ds and the J90, which all tacked to port. We stayed on starboard with the Henderson and one of the FTs. We hit the layline to Alcatraz and decided to go back and consolidate with the fleet now that we were in the strong current. The Henderson kept going left a bit longer and that will pay off for them huge as the wind kept clocking left throughout the race. When the fleet converged near the GG Bridge, the Henderson had a strong lead, and we had made up for our deficit when the fleet split and now were just ahead of the leading 1D and comfortably ahead of the J90. We crossed a few tacks with the 1Ds around the GG and they eventually got ahead again. The Henderson rounded Pt. Bonita first well ahead of the fleet, and we were close behind the 1Ds.
It was pretty mellow around Pt. Bonita, compare to the other times this year that we sneaked our bow out. But still enough pressure to get a few surfs down a few 'smallish' swells. We were sailing hot keeping up our speed and doing what we could to connect with some of the faces. As we approached the bridge the pressure increased and the fun meter started recording high teens. We pull a 'windsurfing' jibe down the face of a wave just before the bridge. The boat accelerated throughout the jibe and the kite was in full trim as we exited. FUN!
Jetstream Racing - Second Half Opener from rob blackmore on Vimeo.
We were having a good run down the city front trying to avoid what was left of the ebb, but kept running into light spots. So we took one jibe out where we found better pressure and made our way towards Treasure Island. We had good pressure all the way to the Bay Bridge where it started to lighten up. We stretched our lead nicely on the windy section between the bridges, but now we could see the folks behind us getting bigger. We could only hope that the pressure would hold in the Estuary before everyone rolled down on us. We had to pull 17 jibes in the Estuary to make sure we kept our speed up. But the pressure held and we got the gun at the finish. Our competitors pushing hard behind us.
The great racing of the day was made even better by the hospitality at the club and the arrival of the family. Gave AJ a tour of the docks and the boats before taking him to the club pool for a little fun time. He then proceeded to spend the rest of his afternoon playing and wrestling with his future sailing friends.
Sunday we would repeat the day, but with a shorter race around Alcatraz, finishing back near the starting area.
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