Singlehanded Farallones Wrap-Up

May 22, 2011

It's all over except for the crying. This year's SSS Singlehanded Farallones Race will go down as one of the roughest. "It was gnarly out there," says Stephen Buckingham on the Black Soo Starbuck. He bailed at 10:51 while bashing out past Pt. Bonita. "Coming back was fun though with speeds in the teens with a double reef in the main and the small jib up."

Bob Johnston on the J/92 Ragtime! sent in his report after a Sunday rest: "Let me shift the hose from the ibuprofen drip so I can type… I had a great start on port to head out into the spring ebb. Mike Maloney on the Express 37 Bullet gave me a pass so I wouldn't have to tack back in, commenting, 'Go ahead - it's going to be a long day.' Truer words were never spoken. It was a nice ride out to Pt. Bonita, comparing boat speed with SOG to stay in the flow while working up towards the hoped-for Bonita lift.

"The boats which had passed the corner were all flogging mains, many with reefs going in. When I got there I saw why - the change in wind and sea state was dramatic. I tucked in a reef, pulled on a lot more backstay, opened up the leech on the #3 jib a bit, and tried to get things stabilized for the long slog. The wind was high but the wind chop was the challenge.

"The aircraft carriers, Alchera, Twist (J/120s) and Tiger Beetle (N/M 45) could maintain height but the rest of us were forced to foot off a bit, which meant we probably weren't going to lay the island. The rounding of the islands was routine, just lots of wind and waves. That is still the ugliest lee shore I've ever seen. I got the shy kite ready to set but it would never be - the sea state and wind on the beam made for certain broaches all the way home, and I was already beat. But it was a great surfing ride home under white sails, hitting some 13s and 14s."

The first boat to finish was the trimaran Humdinger at 1533. Not bad, with an elapsed time of a little over six hours and 30 minutes. The first monohull was Timo Bruck's Twist. "We saw 20-24 knot winds heading out. It was a rough ride with lots of water crashing over the entire boat. But the J/120 is a svelte tank and didn't complain at all.

Twist in the home stretch. ©2011 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

"For the ride home we had 18-27 knot winds with some fun surfing. No kite though. I was tempted to hoist at the island, but the angle was a little bit hot, and I figured the wind was gonna build. That turned out to be a solid decision!
I was thinking the wind was gonna die once I got to the headlands (forecast for SF bay was 5-15, wasn't it?) and I'd have to hoist then. But there was plenty of wind. The first place boat in my division beat me by just 4 fracking seconds on corrected time! So many places I could have made up for that. Oh well, next year!" The first place boat Timo mentions is the Wyliecat 39 Lilith with Tim Knowles. Twist ended up in fourth overall with Lilith in third.

Dan Benjamin on the Wyliecat 30 Whirlwind came in second overall and it sounds like he had fun. "It was nail-biting racing all the way out because there were three Wyliecats in close quarters, each with a slightly different approach to the puzzle: one reefed, one sailing a little low, me sailing higher. Tim Knowles on Lilith led us around and was gone before I made the final turn toward home. Al Germain on Bandicoot, another Wyliecat 30, overstood his last tack and gave me an opportunity to sneak inside and around the end in front of him. Then the fun began! I am still getting used to the Wyliecat 30, having come from an Olson 30 and an Aerodyne 38, both very fast surfing boats. Whirlwind didn't let me down."

The overall winner was Humdinger, and it's been rare to see the first boat to finish correct out on top. But it seems to be a windy spring out there. Bob Johnston ends it with this, "Congrats to all who came out, even to those who wisely turned back."

We also filed reports on the start and mid-way through the race. For complete results, still preliminary at this point, see www.sfbaysss.org. Come one and all to the trophy meeting at Oakland YC on Wednesday, June 1, at 1930 hours, to cheer the winners and hear their war stories.