HDA Summer 3

The last race of the HDA series.  The course had us starting on the SW corner of Angel Island, we would head out to Pt. Bonita, across the central bay to YRA buoy 8 and back to the start/finish line.

Conditions started on the light to moderate range but strong enough to power us upwind against the current towards the Golden Gate bridge.  We only had two other boats in our division, the 1D35 Jazzy and the GP26 Peanuts.  With the small fleet we opted for a port start at the pin as we wanted to head towards the Sausalito shore for current relief.  We took the stern of the starboard tack 1D35 as we couldn't cross them.  It was a close upwind leg with the 1D35 ahead of us and doing a loose cover on us.  We played the shifts as we short tacked our way up to the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We continued our short tacking out the channel on our way to Point Bonita.  The winds got a little light and it paid for us not going all the way into Pt. Bonita Cove and as we got to round the point we were just ahead of the 1D35.  Here we made a small tactical mistake.  We were the starboard boat and we had the opportunity to force them to tack out into the current.  Instead, I chose to try to lee bow them (tack ahead and under them), but with their better upwind speed they were able to sail above us.  To make things worse, we were forced to tack out in search for clear air on the lightening conditions and into bad current.   They were able to gain about 100 yards on us, just on this move.  The wind continued to lighten around Pt Bonita and with the strong flood it was a struggle to get around the mark.

Jetstream Racing - HDA to Bonita (HD) from rob blackmore on Vimeo.

By this point, the Henderson who had started five minutes behind us was ahead of us as well, so the chase was on for both the 1D35 and the Henderson as we turned downwind.  A large tanker coming down the channel split the fleet, with the 1D35 and the Henderson on the South side of the channel while we were locked on the North side.  We also wanted the South, but we didn't seem to loose much by staying North.  Both the Henderson and 1D35 crossed the Gate ahead of us.  It had been sub-planning conditions from Pt. Bonita to the Gate.  But we got the welcome to the bay that we like, with the winds building as we approached the South Tower and we got the boat on its planning grove.  By the time we reached Alcatraz we had passed the 1D35 who had stayed on the city front side, and we were even with the Henderson who had gone North.  It was now a sprint to the leeward mark.  We had better speed than the Henderson on the freshening conditions and we were seeing boatspeed on the 15knot range.  We slightly overstood the approach to the leeward mark which caused us a short broach (doesn't happen often but it does happen).

We rounded the leeward mark first and now were on the last leg back up to the finish line.   It would be a drag race to the finish as we could make the line of a single tack.  The 1D35 closed the gap on the upwind leg but we were able to hold the off for the gun.   A great come from behind race for JetStream with Rob and Andrew doing excellent crew work yet again.

After our finish we could see the fleet from the SSS race coming through Racoon Straits on their way to Little Harding with our friend Greg on Outsider sailing singlehanded leading the way.

The wind was now in the 15 to 20 range so we decided to race back up to the Gate again for another downwind scream.  We had a great bridge to bridge run on our way back home to Alameda to cap off the day.

The Jazzy Cup

A labor day weekend tradition, the Jazz Cup takes the fleet from Treasure Island on a downwind slide to Benicia on the Carquinez Strait. Over 100 boats signed up for the race, and being on one of the latest starts we would have to get through most of the fleet on the way to the finish. The forecast was calling for light winds from the SW, but we were hoping the summer thermals would fill in and make for a more exciting race.

Rob and Andrew joined me for this race. We got out to the windward mark early and to check the angle to the next mark. We pulled out the Code 0 to try it out and it was perfect, we were screaming. The only problem with this choice is that it would require a bare headed spinnaker change further down the track as the wind clocks to DDW. We left the Code 0 hooked up and decided to make a last minute call on what to set.

We came back to the starting area and prepared for our start. We would have some larger boats racing in our division and it would be important to be able to hold a lane off the start. The pin was favored, so we chose a leeward position on the pin end of the line. We had a clean start and were able to hold our line until we got squeezed out by the GP26 to leeward and the Farr 36 coming over the top. We took a clearing tack and managed to get to the windward mark in the top 5.

On the way to the windward mark we could see boats from the previous start setting and holding their spinnakers. By now we know that if anyone can hold their spinnaker, so can we on the JS. So we switched plans and instead of starting with the Code 0 we will go straight to the A2. It was a tight reach and we could just hold our angle. Erik got a nice shot of us below:

This is a point of sail that the boat likes. While other boats struggle to hold the tight angle the JS just digs in an accelerates. We could sail a bit higher than the rest of the fleet and we were able to keep up with the front runners as we started passing boats from the previous starts. We chose the Richmond side of the course as the Tiburon side looked light. Here we started mixing it up with other boats and managed to keep the boat moving in the lighter conditions between Richmond and The Brothers. Past The Brothers we started the San Pablo Bay leg. Though we were staying on the inside, we could see Outsider, who earlier on had split to the West side of the course, now on better pressure and beginning to catch up. We took a painful gybe out get into the better pressure. This moved pay off, as by the time we converged with the boats that stayed on the inside we had made significant gains.


Jetstream Racing - Jazz Cup 2011 from rob blackmore on Vimeo.


Up ahead we could see a new wind line just before Pinole Pt. It was going to be a header with increase in velocity and we cold see some of the boats entering the new pressure struggling to keep their lane. This would be our opportunity. The leg from Pinole Pt. to the Vallejo Bridge was the funnest part of the race with the boat sailing in consistent 10 - 15 knots of boat speed. We were able to put some distance between us and the boats behind us while making some ground on the few boats ahead.

From Vallejo to Benicia it would be a more traditional downwind run (as opposed to the reaching legs across San Pablo Bay). The winds lightened a bit again and we were in a tight race with California Condor and Twisted ahead (the Farr 36 and the T650 though close were a bit out of our reach) and Outsider charging hard from behind. California Condor had a couple of bad gybes and we got past them, but we couldn't make the distance on Twisted. We had been able to hold off Outsider, but as we rounded G25 the got just ahead of us.

@ norcalsailing.com

From G25 to the next leeward mark it was another reach and we were the only boat in our group to hold the kite all the way to the mark allowing us to close the gap with the boats in front and sneaking past Outsider again. We would hold this position to the finish line and would end up as the 4th monohull to cross the finish line and would correct out as the 2nd monohull for overall behind the T650.

It was a great race and a significant improvement from last year. We stayed in Benicia for the awards and started our delivery back home around 10 PM to take advantage of the ebb. It was a pleasant motor home at night with a light breeze and a great moon. We got back to Alameda a bit after 2AM and was at home in bed by 3 and lights off.