race report
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 The bucolic finish line of Drake's Bay Race I. ©2011 norcalsailing.com |
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Drake's Bay Race: Race of the Flies August 21, 2011 After a light air race to Drake's Bay on Saturday, Ray Minehan's Santa Cruz 50 Emily Carr was the first boat across the finish line at about 1640 hours. The NOAA predictions for the ocean were pretty accurate: SW winds to nine knots with a 4-6 foot sea swell. The only bit of wind was in the first part of the race. "Getting out of the gate proved to be lumpy affair as usual," wrote Tom Watson of his race on the Triton Darwind, "as we found ourselves overpowered with the genoa and we tucked a reef in."
After finishing, Emily Carr made a tight turn around the race committee boat and headed back out to sea, as the race committee invited them onboard for cocktails, but they said they had other commitments on Sunday so had to get back home. A few other boats did the same, some sailing but most motoring, as the wind never did really come up. The next finisher came into view about 10 minutes later. Wayne Lamprey's red Quest 33 Rhum Boogie, pictured at the top of the page. Most of the rest of the fleet followed around 1700, grouped surprisingly close after such a long race in light air. After Rhum Boogie came the J/105 Poseidon's, the Sydney 32 Relentless, 1D35 Zsa Zsa, Antrim 27 Always Friday, Beneteau First 10R Split Water, C&C 37 Maggie, Beneteau 45F5 Ohana, J/92 Ragtime! and Santana 35 Ahi. The RC got a little break, then at 1715 the Express 27 Elise appeared, followed by the Catalina 36 Seabiscuit and the Cal 39 Sea Star, then the Hinckley 42 Tahitienne. So far all the boats came in on white sails. Then came two with spinnakers up. The wind had clocked around in the bay from a westerly to a southwesterly making reaching chutes a possible sail choice. The first of these was the Gibsea 42 No Ka Oi. The second was the big Nauticat 43.5 Galaxsea, with skipper Daniel Willey singlehanding. But wait, what's that little boat on white sails slipping in between Galaxsea and the point? It's none other than the 'slow boat' of the fleet, the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass, demonstrating good boat speed as usual. They finished at 1750. Considering their finishing place on Sunday as well, they may very well have won the whole weekend overall.
The Hinckley 38 Mimicat, carrying a spinnaker, also passed to weather of Dan on Galaxsea, while the singlehander went up to his bow to douse his spinnaker before finishing. At 1800, after all the other boats were in, the race committee hailed Darwind, Tom Watson's 28-ft Pearson Triton. Tom answered right away, reporting that he was 1.74 nm out "according to the computer." Darwind finished at 1831, and corrected out over the other boats in the Shorthanded division on both days. See Tom's blog, www.thepinkboat.org for more on Darwind's race. The plan for the Drake's Bay Race is to anchor in the sheltered cove, spend the night, and race back on Sunday. Some boats chose to raft up for party facilitation.
Others had the party come to them. A red kayak paddled out to meet the red Rhum Boogie, bearing a big bag of groceries. The J/105 managed a crew change, and no one had to swim.
Jonathan Kaplan was the crew who came off the boat. He reported that the race was, "Lovely, interesting. We carried a chute for a lot of the race. The wind died in the middle of the day. It was a close race; a lot of boats finished together." Jonathan was only racing the one day because, "my family hall pass only goes so far. I was going to swim in, even had a wetsuit, but this was better." The finish line is close to the old Lifeboat Station pier at the end of a one-lane road, which made the crew swap possible. "Rich Pipkin and his wife, Mary McGrath, have been sailing with me for this series," said Bob Johnston of the J/92 Ragtime! "Mary was away this weekend, so Rich and I doublehanded. Rich barbequed tri-tip, then we took it over to Galaxsea and had dinner with Rob and Kristen of Tiger Beetle (who cruised in) and Dan. Dessert was turnovers with ice cream. I could get into this yachting thing. Drake's Bay was beautiful and quiet, disturbed only by the happy chatter from the raft-ups Saturday night. A perfect weekend!
If anything Sunday's race was even lighter. "Sunday was a day to persevere," said Bob, "but there was enough breeze to keep Ragtime! moving. The early part of the day was spent chasing patches of catspaws and trying to guess whether to be inshore or offshore. We favored a bit offshore, while staying in touch with the boats inside. Most eventually came out to our line. The boats who went offshore early had to sail lower and slower as they continued south, since the westerly never really filled in. It has been a strange summer. For results, see www.yra.org.
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