We made it up to the start area with plenty of time, so tied up to one of the nice new docks at the GGYC and got the boat rigged up for some racing. On the motor over to the start we could see the breeze was already nicely filled in around Treasure Island at around 10 knots. On the starting area it was already blowing around 12, and we could also see that there was little to no breeze on the northern side of the bay. This determined our course for the day, we would go counter clockwise: TI, Red Rock, Blackaller.
We set up for our pursuit style start, set the kite and were off heading towards the middle to take advantage of the remaining flood. We didn't see too many people follow us choosing to go the other route, but we soon saw the Farr 30 set the kite behind us and we knew the race was on. We got around TI smoothly and started to work our way North on a tight reach. Everything was progressing according to plan. Even better, we could see the folks that went the other way parked at the exit of Raccoon Straits. Then, we caught up to the fleet ahead of us and the wind hole blocking our path. The solid Westerly dissipated around the Berkeley pier. We could see a wind line on the north and the shore side so we tried to head to that. The Farr 30 stayed on the west side as they eliminated the lead we had and separated for us. So now a waiting game to see who will get the new breeze first.
The first sign of the bad things to come was seeing the guys on Raccoon take off on a new NW breeze. That wouldn't bade well for us going CCwise. It will transform the TI to Red Rock race from a beam and broad reach to an upwind leg. While the clockwise folks would get a dream downwind run. Our only hope at this point was for the clockwise folks to find a wind hole around TI. But that didn't happen. In any case, we still had a race in our hands with the folks going CCwise with us. The Farr 30 and Farr 36 both got ahead and rounded Red Rock ahead of us. At least, we could bare away and set our kite again. In our rush to get up and going I called for the setting of the A2. Had I thought about it for a second or two, I would have probably realized that it was a pretty tight reach and the A5 would have been a better call. But we set the kite and started reeling in boats, passing the Farr 36 and gaining some back on the Farr 30. We couldn't hold the angle to Raccoon Straits and were forced to drop the kite halfway down the leg.
The entrance to Raccoon Straits delivered on our own personal, special gift. Our own private wind hole. Even though we were following the line of the Farr 30 in front of us, we magically ran into a wind hole that had plenty of breeze just a few minutes before. I lost my cool momentarily as folks behind us, particularly the Farr36 tacking the corner tight, squeezed by in better current and just got away. After a frustrating beat through the Straits we finally punched in to the breeze and the reach across the Bay to Blackaller. We were reveling in the now breeze conditions on a white sail reach. We caught up with a few Moore 24s in front of us and got to the mark around some boats. A bit too congested for the conditions.
This time we set the right sail as it was now blowing 25+. A couple close encounters in challenging conditions while jibing down the city front. A hundred yards or so from the finish line we blew the vang during a jibe, but managed to keep things together (most importantly the rig) through the finished. We quickly dropped the kite and jury rigged the vang to get us safely home. Finished a little after 1:40, on course for less than 3.5 hours in a beautiful January day in San Francisco Bay. We didn't get the results we had hoped for but were pretty satisfied with the performance.
The results are still not in, so hard to tell how far back from the leaders we ended up. We also had some GoPros on board so there should be some footage in the near future. Look for updates here.
Here is our non-winning course (counter clockwise):
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| JetStream's 2013 counter clockwise track |
