Jetsream Racing - Estuary Noire from rob blackmore on Vimeo.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
SSS Half Moon Bay Race
It had been a few month since the last Singlehanded Sailing Society race. The race to Half Moon Bay is one of my favorites. As a destination race it gives the fleet a chance to socialize and make new bonds. This year was no exception.
As usual the anticipation to the race starts a few days early, and by the time we get together for the skippers meeting the Wednesday before the race, most skippers have been tracking the forecasts and currents for the race. Even though we had a favorable current to exit the Bay under the Golden Gate, the wind forecast though moderate had the wind blowing from the SW. Once you exit the bay, it is a left turn to the South to get down the 24 miles to HMB. The winds outside the Gate are normally from the NW - W, so this race is often billed as a nice reach or downwind race (though I can barely remember the last time that was the case). So the SW forecast had the fleet worried of an all upwind race.
This forecast was also ruining my strategy and my new secret weapon. I had a Code 0 built in time for this race. The guys at Doyle (mainly Andrew) worked late into the night on Friday to ensure the sail was ready. It would be a killer sail for a light air reach down the coast. We were ready for action, and by Friday most of the forecast had the wind clocking to the W in the afternoon. We took the new sail for a quick night sail just to make sure everything work and it was a dream in the light air of the Estuary.
After breakfast with Tom and Karl, we headed down to the boat. Tom will be sailing with me doublehanded, and Karl was heading on Outsider. We waited our turn for the Sportboats starts and we could see the early starters getting flushed out of the bay quickly with a nice breeze and a favorable current. We had a conservative start, even though port was favored with the SW winds, we planned to enter the line on starboard and go for a quick tack close to the pin end (what would normally be the boat end). We didn't win the start but it wasn't horrible either, and we joined the parade towards the Golden Gate.
We had enough wind to be fully powered up and started picking up some of the earlier starters. We played the shifts while keeping a close eye on Outsider and Wild-1 which were the competitors with ratings close to us. Outsider had taken an early lead at the start, but before exiting Seal Rocks we were back to even. With the forecast having the long term shift to the W, we wanted to protect the right hand side and stayed on the offshore side of most of the fleet. But all the way to Montara we didn't notice any persistent shift. We were still enjoying good pressure all the way to Montara, traditionally known for its wind hole. We tacked back offshore to the layline of the Colorado Reef buoy and then tacked back. Except that there was no buoy where my chart said it would be. So we started scanning the horizon and found the buoy, probably around a mile or so farther offshore. The bad news is that it was going to be more upwind work, but the good news would be that we would have to bear off further to reach the next mark, G1 on the HMB channel.
The winds started to lighten up as we approached the Colorado Reef mark. We kept having to tack back offshore to stay in the pressure. We had a tight battle with a couple of Express 37 and a J105. We got to the mark in front of this pack, just to be greeted by a shift. Not the shift right we had been expecting and anticipating, but a shift left with the wind now blowing from the South. The winds today will make sure that the whole of the race would be an upwind race. With the shift the winds kept getting lighter making it more difficult for us. Now we were averaging sub 5 knots, often dropping below 3 knots.
Halfway to G1, the wind, though still light, began its shift to the West. We quickly put up the new Code 0 and managed to keep the boat ghosting along. But behind us there was trouble, both Outsider and Wild-1 had begun to make significant gains on the lighter conditions and even further back we could see spinnakers popping up, meaning the folks in the rear were bringing the new pressure. We never got the new pressure but still managed to finish ahead of most of the fleet.
We took a slip at the marina, as we had a room at a hotel across the street (hard to sleep over on the JS). We were received at the slip by Eric from pressure-drop.us with some nice cold beers straight from the HMB brewery and some home smoked salmon and tuna. We went back to the HMB Yacht Club to catch up with the rest of the fleet and finished the day with dinner and drinks back at the brewery.
The results are in, and though not great, not surprising as the race was purely upwind and our rating doesn't favor it. We ended up in 4th place in our Sportboats division and 15th Overall. But a good time was had by all. It was also the first ocean race we complete on JetStream and in the moderate conditions the boat handled very well.
As usual the anticipation to the race starts a few days early, and by the time we get together for the skippers meeting the Wednesday before the race, most skippers have been tracking the forecasts and currents for the race. Even though we had a favorable current to exit the Bay under the Golden Gate, the wind forecast though moderate had the wind blowing from the SW. Once you exit the bay, it is a left turn to the South to get down the 24 miles to HMB. The winds outside the Gate are normally from the NW - W, so this race is often billed as a nice reach or downwind race (though I can barely remember the last time that was the case). So the SW forecast had the fleet worried of an all upwind race.
This forecast was also ruining my strategy and my new secret weapon. I had a Code 0 built in time for this race. The guys at Doyle (mainly Andrew) worked late into the night on Friday to ensure the sail was ready. It would be a killer sail for a light air reach down the coast. We were ready for action, and by Friday most of the forecast had the wind clocking to the W in the afternoon. We took the new sail for a quick night sail just to make sure everything work and it was a dream in the light air of the Estuary.
After breakfast with Tom and Karl, we headed down to the boat. Tom will be sailing with me doublehanded, and Karl was heading on Outsider. We waited our turn for the Sportboats starts and we could see the early starters getting flushed out of the bay quickly with a nice breeze and a favorable current. We had a conservative start, even though port was favored with the SW winds, we planned to enter the line on starboard and go for a quick tack close to the pin end (what would normally be the boat end). We didn't win the start but it wasn't horrible either, and we joined the parade towards the Golden Gate.
We had enough wind to be fully powered up and started picking up some of the earlier starters. We played the shifts while keeping a close eye on Outsider and Wild-1 which were the competitors with ratings close to us. Outsider had taken an early lead at the start, but before exiting Seal Rocks we were back to even. With the forecast having the long term shift to the W, we wanted to protect the right hand side and stayed on the offshore side of most of the fleet. But all the way to Montara we didn't notice any persistent shift. We were still enjoying good pressure all the way to Montara, traditionally known for its wind hole. We tacked back offshore to the layline of the Colorado Reef buoy and then tacked back. Except that there was no buoy where my chart said it would be. So we started scanning the horizon and found the buoy, probably around a mile or so farther offshore. The bad news is that it was going to be more upwind work, but the good news would be that we would have to bear off further to reach the next mark, G1 on the HMB channel.
The winds started to lighten up as we approached the Colorado Reef mark. We kept having to tack back offshore to stay in the pressure. We had a tight battle with a couple of Express 37 and a J105. We got to the mark in front of this pack, just to be greeted by a shift. Not the shift right we had been expecting and anticipating, but a shift left with the wind now blowing from the South. The winds today will make sure that the whole of the race would be an upwind race. With the shift the winds kept getting lighter making it more difficult for us. Now we were averaging sub 5 knots, often dropping below 3 knots.
Halfway to G1, the wind, though still light, began its shift to the West. We quickly put up the new Code 0 and managed to keep the boat ghosting along. But behind us there was trouble, both Outsider and Wild-1 had begun to make significant gains on the lighter conditions and even further back we could see spinnakers popping up, meaning the folks in the rear were bringing the new pressure. We never got the new pressure but still managed to finish ahead of most of the fleet.
We took a slip at the marina, as we had a room at a hotel across the street (hard to sleep over on the JS). We were received at the slip by Eric from pressure-drop.us with some nice cold beers straight from the HMB brewery and some home smoked salmon and tuna. We went back to the HMB Yacht Club to catch up with the rest of the fleet and finished the day with dinner and drinks back at the brewery.
The results are in, and though not great, not surprising as the race was purely upwind and our rating doesn't favor it. We ended up in 4th place in our Sportboats division and 15th Overall. But a good time was had by all. It was also the first ocean race we complete on JetStream and in the moderate conditions the boat handled very well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)