We had a good fleet of boats and some fun battles throughout the race. The usual suspects were out with Ohana, Mintaka, Jazzy, the Mumm 30 and GP26 out for some fun. An the bay would deliver great challenging conditions again. The race started at the end of a light flood and lighter winds 10 - 15. It was the regular parade into Sausalito and hugging the North shore to get out to Pt. Bonita. Things lighten out a bit past the bridge as Jazzy lead the way, with a few position changes behind him with Mintaka, Ohana, the Mumm and ourselves exchanging tacks. Near Bonita it payed to get back into the channel as the current started turning and that allowed us to catch up a bit to Jazzy and Mintaka who had stretched a bit.
We rounded third behind Jazzy and Mintaka and soon started the downwind chase. The winds remained light and headed to the SF side for more pressure. Jazzy was sailing lower in the lighter conditions and got back under the bridge first, but with the wind increasing as we approached we were now in striking position. As we crossed the bridge, someone flipped the switch and we went from a mellow 15 knots, to an 'oh shit' 25 - 30 in a span of about 300 yds. The boat just took off and we were just trying to keep it on its feet. We wanted to stay in the middle of the bay so threw a gybe in full speed mode. The gybe went fine, but soon after we didn't react fast enough to a stronger puff and we did the unthinkable.... we broached the JS. It just doesn't happen often. We are still figuring out our 3 sail setup. On this stronger conditions we might not want to keep the bigger jib up as it interferes with the lower angles we have to sail. On the lighter conditions it is not much of a problem as we run higher angles. So while trying to recover from a broach, I could see our A2 disintegrating. By the time I called for a douse it was already in shreds. The conditions proved a bit too much for our .6 oz light air kite. $%&#!
At this point we had split gybes with Jazzy and they were screaming towards Raccoon Straits, probably hoping for the wind to drop a bit before trying to gybe. Behind us we could see the other kites coming with the GP26 looking really good. Well, we would have to clean up and set the A5 as we still had a bit of runway to go for the leeward mark. In the cleanup, the tack line got sucked through the clutch and Rob had to go below and fish for it. So it took a bit to get back up. But up went the A5 and as we adjusted to it we could see Jazzy running on white sails along Angel Island. We passed them a bit before YRA8 and rounded the leeward mark in first place. From here it would be a drag race to the finish as we could make it in one tack. Jazzy probably rounded about a minute behind us but kept gaining on us. With about 200 yds to the finish they overlapped us to windward and we did everything we could to hold them off and we crossed the line nose to nose, just edging them for the gun.
The whole crew was a bit disappointed with the breakage, but at least we had the consolation of first to finish and first overall.
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