Epic Delta Ditch

Last Saturday was JetStream's inaugural Delta Ditch Run.  I had done the race previously on other boats but never taken mine.  The race is generally a downwind run from the Northern San Francisco Bay, up the Delta through the San Joaquin River into the city of Stockton.   About 65 miles.  Navigation is key to this race as there are mud flats hidden outside the marked channels and knowing what corners to cut is critical to do well.  Though sticking the boat in the mud could easily end the day.  I had been stressing about the navigation and memorizing and documenting as much as possible.  With a short crew of just 3, we can't always have someone focused on navigation and with the predicted strong winds the twists and turns will come very quickly at us.

For the race we had our regular crew with Andrew and Rob.  Andrew would be the trimmer, a long day on that spinnaker sheet, and Rob would do everything else while I drove.  I think at the end Rob ended up with the more demanding job, both working the pointy end, preparing the boat for the many transitions in the race and navigating us to the finish.

The start of the race was pretty hectic.  We didn't have a stellar start and were a few seconds late.  It was a downwind start and soon everyone was working to get their kites up.  We started at the pin on the leeward side in order to be able to cleanly bear away and set and we were off to the races.  With boats broaching in front of us, we chose a low line to stay clear of the mayhem.  With solid 20 knots and some flood current to help us along we were soon in San Pablo Bay making our way to Vallejo. 

Into San Pablo Bay there was a lot of South component to the breeze which make it impossible to hold the big kite up and stay clear of the Pinole Channel.  At this point we were even with the J125 Double Trouble leading the fleet out to Vallejo.  Over the protestation of the crew I called to switch down to our Code0 to come up on the course.  It was a good call.  DT below us carried the kite a bit longer but had to drop to white sails, same with the rest of the fleet behind us.   As we passed Pinole Pt. the wind started to clock back and we went back to our A2 leading the fleet into the Carquinez Straight.   By this point the wind had moderated back into the teens and DT, the Melges 32 and the Sierra 26 were charging hard behind us.  As we got under the Carquinez bridge DT had snuck ahead and the Melges and Sierra continued their chase through Benicia.

Into Suisun Bay the winds continued to stay on the lighter side the Melges had gotten in front of us and the Sierra was close approaching.  As we tried to stretch the edges of the channel to reduce the number of gybes we were always paranoid about the mud flats.  Rob did a great job keeping us in deep water.   Two of our close competitors wouldn't be as lucky.  The Sierra found the mud on the Northern edge of the channel, though after a few minutes they were able to free up and continue racing.  For DT the encounter with the mud on the Southern edge will end their day.  The wind and current pushed them into shallower water and they eventually had to use their engine to free themselves.  Through the Mallard Slough it was just the Melges leading the way (thankfully with strong local knowledge of the Delta) with us matching them gybe for gybe all the way through to Sherman Island.

The winds have kept of building from the latter part of Suisun Bay onwards and we were now clocking some good speeds over the water.  We were soon approaching a notorious mark of the course, Marker 19.  This section of the course looks like an upside down U, which forces a few sail changes and transitions.  We thought we could hold our smaller kite, but we had killer puffs coming over Sherman Island into the mid 30s.  The water in front of us was churning white and some of the multihulls ahead were in pure survival mode.  So down comes the kite and we are back to white sails as we reach up the back side of Sherman Island.  This was a crazy reach with winds now in the high 20s and 30s.  These are pretty good conditions for the JS and we were able to get ahead of the Melges again and leading the fleet of monohulls.  Around the top of the inverted U there are opportunities to cut some corners and reset for a short downwind section.  But without the lead of the Melges we decided to be conservative and stay in the channel.  We also didn't have a good chance to prepare for this transition and weren't prepared to set the small kite on the top section.  So we chose to reset the Code0 again.  It helped, but the boats behind us who got to set made up some ground on us.  We were still neck to neck with the Melges, but we had some issues as we came down the backside of the inverted U and they got ahead again.

We had an opportunity to catch them again when it was time to reset the big kite for the start of a long narrow downwind section to the finish after Prisoners Point.  Give the ferocity to the winds we had just experienced we decided to go back up with the A5, but as we entered the narrow channel the winds subsided.  We had to go back to white sails while we set up to reset the bigger A2 and by then the Sierra got back in front of us.  It is good to have all the options on the sails.  But managing all those sails with just 2 crew and a 3 foot wide foredeck showed some limitations.  It is something we will plan better the next time around.

This next section of the course, the final stretch, worried me a bit.  I wasn't sure how competitive we could be on a 300 - 400 ft channel doing gybe after gybe downwind against boats that could square back their symmetrical spinnakers and just go straight down the river.  But we built a significant cushion on the reachy legs of the course to hold them back.  The Farr 40 behind us made a strong push to catch us into the finish but they ran out of course.

@ Slackwater   At the finish

We were the 3rd monohull to cross the finish line, with the Melges 32 and the Sierra 26 in front of us by only a couple hundred yards.  It was a really fun battle with those two boats, exchanging places multiple times during the race.  We had completed the race just shy of 6 hours and were very satisfied with our performance.   Both Andrew and I had cramping arms, and Rob was both mentally and physically exhausted from all the demands we put on him.  It had been a good race.

Thanks to Rob and Andrew for a great race and helping delivering the boat back the next day.  That was mostly a 12 hr hate mission.  But I'll leave that for another post (or not).  Need to find a road trailer before next years race.