2013 Three Bridge Fiasco

The biggest race in the US.  365 boats entered for this version of the race all racing either single or double handed only, run by the Singlehanded Sailing Society of San Francisco.  There is a lot of anticipation and this year was no different.  Rob will be returning to crew for JetStream.  I spent a bit of time crunching some numbers to see if there was a strategic advantage on which way to run the course. For a Westerly breeze, running the course counter clockwise showed a slight advantage for our start time and the angles our boat likes.  But it wasn't a deal breaker, so conditions at the start would ultimately determine our course strategy.

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):

JetStream's 2013 counter clockwise track

2nd Half Opener

This year's 2nd Half Opener provided great conditions for JetStream.  With Rob and Andrew as crew we set out to defend our win from last year.  We hung in there for the upwind leg to Pt Bonita and then let the boat do its thing for the run down to Encinal Yacht Club.

Here is another great video production from Rob.

2012 Silver Eagle

The Silver Eagle is an inside the Bay 50+ mile race.   It is the first time I do it and the first outing for JetStream.  It should be a favorable race for us as it has plenty of reaching and downwind legs as we criss cross our way around the Bay.

The regular crew of Andrew and Rob were out for the race as well.  The top move of the day was Rob perfectly executing a body drag.  He had previously threatened with a scuba diver back roll, but this time he would execute what I will call the 'Rob Swing'.  From the leeward rail, enter the water with your feet towards the bow.  Making sure the boat is traveling in excess of 8 knots, while maintaining a strong grip on whatever is available, submerge yourself chest deep.  The force of the water will swing your legs under you and back towards the stern of the boat with sufficient force to enable you to get one leg over the rail.  If you are strong enough to hang on and any of the crew is willing to lend a hand you will be back on the boat in less than 5 seconds, fully refreshed and without slowing the boat much.


Back to racing... 


The day started with a bit of a rush with only minutes to spare to make it to the warning signal on time.  Decent breeze at the start.  We started with our new #4 for the short upwind leg to Blackaller.  We played the shore side tightly and were the first mono to round, one of the big cats had passed us already.  We immediately set our A2 for the run to Little Harding (there was a bit of South in the breeze) and we stretched away from the rest of the monohull fleet.  By the time we hit Little Harding all the big three cats had screamed right past even with us doing low to mid teens.  The cats were flying.

We couldn't hold the kite on the leg from Little Harding to Blossom, and in a rushed douse shrimped it momentarily.  So we white sailed reached to the mark.  We rounded and set up our Code 0 to try to stay high and in the favorable current.  We stretched a little more with Outsider and Wild 1 chasing behind.  We had to go back to white sails as the wind increased a bit through the slot., but past Angel Island it was back to the A2 for the downwind run to the Petaluma Channel.  The wind lightened up a bit and we started getting a bit concerned with Outsider and Wild1.   We  ended up cutting the lee of Red Rock too close and gave some of the lead up.  On the remainder of the run in 12 - 15 we managed to stay in front of Outsider.

On the way back up San Pablo Bay we headed to the deep water for the beginning of the ebb.  We mostly did a loose cover on the boats behind us and built up our lead.  It was a very pleasant upwind leg with the sun out and enough breeze to fully power up the boat, now with the full jib up.  We played the right hand side after the Brothers and that paid huge while Outsider and Wild 1 stayed on the Richmond side.  We were able to crack off early on our way to TI.  With not much of a wind hole behind Angel Island we were able to go across West of the Southampton shoals with plenty of breeze as we entered the slot.  It was probably low to mid 20s with a decent chop from the ebb.
We had a couple of trimaran pass us in this leg, they were fully powered on and moving fast.

We stayed relatively close to TI as the ebb was now building.  We had plenty of breeze as we made our way to mark 34 in the South Bay.  Set our A5 for the run to 2NAS, by this point we had built a decent lead.  As we were making our way back to SC1 we could see both Outsider and Wild1 setting kites as they rounded 34.  Another A2 set for the run to and down the Estuary.  Really nice breeze as well down the Estuary, almost caught back a few of the tris in front of us.  Didn't catch the tris, but still good for the monohull gun.

Great day out on the water, a little sore today.

HDA-2 video

HDA-2 Delivers

The second installment of the HDA series delivers another sleigh ride for JetStream.  This time we would start at Knox, peek our nose to the Pacific and round Pt. Bonita buoy back to YRA 8 East of Angel Island to finish back at Knox.  About a 17 mile run.

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.

2012 Delta Ditch Start

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.