Spinnaker Cup Race to Monterey

May 31, 2010

Like salmon swimming upstream, the smaller boats racing in Friday's SFYC-MPYC Spinnaker Cup from SF Bay to Monterey Bay had to deal with a strong flood only to flop around and die in Monterey Bay due to of lack of wind. In between, they were treated to a steady 25 knots of breeze and fun surfing most of the way.

Elise in light air at the start. ©2010 Jennifer McKenna

Elise, an Express 27, sailed in the doublehanded division with Nathalie Criou and Heather Bowers. Nat described their race: "We started last and it took us five minutes to get across the line because the flood was so strong. We went for current relief on the north shore, then crossed over at Mile Rock. Then we picked a heading which would clear all points of land and get us out into the stronger wind offshore." They had 10-15 knots at Mile Rock, which increased to 18-19 when they set their chute, then built to 25-30 knots.

"We were averaging 11-12 knots of sustained boatspeed," said Nat, "hitting 14-15 surfing the waves. When we jibed at the layline for Monterey before midnight, we were in wind in the mid-twenties. Heather was trimming and I was driving when the spinnaker sheet jammed. We rounded up, then down, and it only took seconds to recover, but by then the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay and jib, and it took us forty minutes to clear it." The wind had gone forward in Monterey Bay, and died at a quarter past midnight, so once they'd cleared the spinnaker it took four hours to finish in two knots of wind at best. The breeze picked up for them just before the finish line.

On the other side of the coin were the fast, big, fully-crewed boats. They had a rip-roaring good time, with boats such as the J/125 Double Trouble, the Wylie/Kiernen 44 Ocelot, the R/P 45 Criminal Mischief, the R/P 78 Akela, and the Santa Cruz 52 Kokapelli2. Andy Costello of Double Trouble got the best of the others to correct out first.

"We had a great ride and pushed very hard the whole way," said Andy." We were just super fast all day. We were able to hang with the Criminals [Criminal Mischief] and Kokopelli2 for the upwind portion of the race, keeping them in sight while Ocelot trailed closely behind us. We set our A3 kite early just outside Pacifica and were able to reach comfortably at 110 degrees true in 12-14 knots of breeze making 8-10 knots reaching hard. We were suprised to see that we were holding our position against Kokopelli2 and Criminal, and that we had not been passed by Ocelot. The J/125 has tremendous reaching potential and really does well on this point of sail.

"We then peeled to the larger A2 since we had to run a little lower to follow our waypoint. As we progressed down the coast, the breeze continued to build and we peeled to the A4. Shortly after the breeze steadily built to 25 with gusts up as high as 29 on our instruments, and the last 40 miles was the best sailing we have done in a long time. We reeled in Kokopelli2 and passed them before Santa Cruz. Our crew was so stoked to be passing a 52-ft turbo SC52 in our 41 footer.

Kokopelli2 at the start. ©2010 Sergei Zavarin/http://ultimate-yachtshots.smugmug.com

"Ocelot had the afterburners on also, and we were locked into an all-out drag race with them. Neither one of us could break free. We sailed side by side for a good 20 miles pushing 20+ knots, and they were finally able to pull out a small lead but pushed a little to hard and wiped out. It was pretty scary as they rounded up into our path, but we pushed our boat up a little higher and they managed to regain control of their boat. We crossed their stern and headed out for more pressure. Ocelot went in towards Santa Cruz and that was the last we saw of them.

Ocelot (left) and the Schumacher 52 Cinnabar in the first leg. ©2010 Jennifer McKenna

"The last hour of the race was spectacular sailing - great waves, 25-30 knots of breeze. We pushed DT as hard as we could, and we reached a top speed of 23.7 knots on our GPS." It looks like the J/125 was the right weapon for this year's race. And it helps to have good crew. "The crew was fantastic Trevor Baylis called a perfect race tactically. Mark Breen, Cameron McCloskey, JV Gilmore and Mo Gutenkunst all rocked it. I'm calling this the perfect race in my book for now. It will be hard to top."

The late-comers arriving at Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club in the wee hours before dawn pondered a hot shower and some sleep. "The Race Committee was at the club all night," said Nathalie. "We called in two hours before we finished, and then again at the finish. We got a light and a sound signal from the race committee, and a water taxi came out to help us. It was very well organized. They had coffee, breakfast and showers at the club."

Results are posted at www.sfyc.org. A photo gallery by Sergei Zavarin is also available there. Photos from Cinnabar are available at Synthia Petroka's Picasa page.