Exciting OYRA Duxship Race

April 26, 2010

Wyliecat 30 sailor Pat Broderick tells the story of what initially looked to be a mild Duxship Race on Saturday. "I took a camera," he wrote, "but things were just too wet to get it out." The 'Duxship' takes ocean racers out to the Duxbury Reef buoy off Bolinas, over to the Lightship buoy, and back into the Bay.

The OYRA Duxship Race began with light wind at the start and a building ebb along the City side on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. We cleared the South Tower by enough yards, then joined the boats ahead by tacking over onto starboard and heading for China Beach. Some boats went way in, almost to the San Francisco shore, but about halfway over, we noticed that we were being set by an ebbing current and that a few of the bigger boats that had stayed in the middle and were further out had some wind, so we tacked over and headed toward Pt. Bonita - after all, we were going north to Duxbury, not to Half Moon Bay.

We tacked several times, trying to stay in either what appeared to be about a 1+ knot ebb and/or the wind, which was blowing spotty and light. We were trading tacks with some of the faster boats in our division and a few from the divisions ahead. Our average speed was 2-3 knots. The light wind lasted until Pt. Bonita.

As soon as we cleared Bonita, the wind blasted up to 15+ and right out of the NW. It was a long slog with multiple tacks up to Duxbury. By Bonita some of the boats behind had caught up with us, and the larger boats, who got the wind first, began moving away. On the way to Duxbury the wind moved into the upper 20 range until it reached 30+ - sometimes 35 knots apparent. The swells were large and mixed and sometimes close together. We buried the bow several times, with white water cascading back over the deck. But most of the time I was able to steer through them without that happening - as long as they were far enough apart for the boat to recover before the next one arrived.

There were plenty of boats with us as we rounded the Duxbury buoy and quite a few behind us, but we weren't able to identify who was whom. We rounded Duxbury about 1315, giving it a wide berth.

Then the fun began. It was about 6.5 nm down to the Lightbucket. Our average speed for that leg was 10+ knots, with some bursts into the 14-15 range. We passed quite a few boats that had rounded Duxbury ahead of us and left some that were either with us or close behind. The apparent wind was in the 25+ range on a beam reach for most of the way to the Lightbucket, and the boat performed as designed, with the mast falling off to leeward. Most of the time we were using a third or less of the sail area. We thought it was Wylie reaching at its best; little did we know what was in store for us on the final leg.

At the Lightbucket we 'chicken jibed' [came about by tacking instead of jibing] since the wind was up, as were the swells, and my mainsheet-wrapped-around-the-outboard jibe in the SSS Corinthian wasn't something I wanted to repeat. Especially 11 miles from sanctuary.

Then the real fun began! As soon as we had the boat back under control following the 270º turn, we began to fly. We stayed in the shipping channel, reaching along the southern edge. There were breakers on the Potato Patch, and we didn't want that much fun. Come to remember it, there were a few breakers in the shipping channel, too. We began catching the swells as they rolled under us with the wind was a beam or slightly aft reach with the apparent speed in the mid-20s.

After we hit 18.4 knots on the GPS, my crew, Walter George and Leah Pepe, stopped commenting about how fast we were going if it was under 16 knots. The swells were probably 8-10 feet, with higher ones now and then, and sometimes in multiple sets. Leah kept an eye on the swells, calling them. I didn't try much fancy surfing, just a little 'heating up' if the swell felt like that would work. That continued from the Lightbucket to Mile Rock.

It was pretty much a beam to maybe 140º reach. I tried not to sail low enough to make it into a run and certainly not low enough to sail by the lee, a real no-no in a catboat as any Laser or Finn sailor will tell you.

The boat steered like it was on a railroad track. We only had one sort of round up when I misjudged a swell that came in at an odd angle around Buoy #4. That got us wet, but we recovered before the next one and got back on track. The bow wave was sometimes higher than the deck, and we left a rooster tail behind us. It was exciting, and we passed several larger boats that were struggling under full mains and jibs.

At Mile Rocks we dodged in along the south side, staying in the brighter water. The wind moderated to the mid-teens, but we were still making 7 or 8, and sometimes 9 knots over the bottom. We saw several spinnakers marching up the middle against the ebb, but we were making a positive speed by staying south of the dark water scud line. We jibed inside the South Tower, called in our expected finish to the South Beach YC Duxship Race Committee, and finished at 13:45:28 - 5 hours and 50 minutes of fun!

War Pony, Mark Howe's Farr 36, won PHRO 1. ©2010 Erik Simonson/http://pressure-drop.us

It had to be one of the most exciting days of ocean racing in my memory. The legs from Duxbury to the Lightbucket and then into the bridge were the funnest I can remember. And to top everything off, the outboard started on the third pull when we ran out of wind off Sausalito on the way home.

- Pat Broderick, Wyliecat 30 'Nancy'

In case you're not familiar with her, this is Nancy (from the much lighter Lightship Race in March). ©2010 Erik Simonson/www.h2oshots.com

Nancy came in fourth out of ten boats in the diverse PHRO 2. David Britt's Split Water, a Beneteau First 10R, won that division. Jim Quanci's Cal 40 Green Buffalo won PHRF 3, and John Kernot's Moore 24 Banditos won the shorthanded division and took first place overall with a corrected time of 5:12:15. Chip Megeath's R/P 45 Criminal Mischief finished first with an elapsed time of 4:05:28. Complete results are available at www.yra.org. See more photos from the last leg of the race at http://pressure-drop.us.