One Gray Way to Half Moon Bay

June 28, 2011

"A slow gray day," was the mantra for sailors in the OYRA's One Way* to Half Moon Bay Race. While it was windy in the Bay all day on Saturday, once out in the ocean the best the fleet saw was light winds and a good swell to push them down the coast. Most were able to set chutes and enjoy a beam reach before turning to the finish through the channel, but the wind often clocked forward of the beam, making it hard to keep the kite going. It didn't matter if you went out a few miles or stayed close to shore as the wind was the same everywhere.

Ohana, Steve Hocking's Beneteau 45F5, sails past the Air Force missile tracking station at Pillar Point. ©2011 Jennifer McKenna

Jennifer McKenna racing on Nick Sands' Sabre 402 Escapade described the day. "It was overcast all day. It never did clear up. The wind really lightened up at the finish line."

Jim Quanci's Cal 40 Green Buffalo approaching the finish behind Dan Benjamin's Wyliecat 30 Whirlwind. ©2011 Kristen Soetebier

Richard VonEhrenkrook and Paul Sutchek on the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass, sailing in their first Half Moon Bay Race, in their first ocean season, thought they must have done pretty well. Turns out they scored the fastest corrected time. After sailing for 6 hours and 19 minutes (which was not the slowest elapsed time), they corrected out to less than five hours. They recorded 9.1 knots max speed, astonishing for a Cal 20, and 5.1 knots average.

"Richard and I worked over fifty hour weeks," said Paul. "I was up till 1:00 a.m. before the race. At 7:00 a.m. I woke up, picked up Richard and off to the boat we go. He had all ready dropped his truck and the trailer off at Pillar Point Harbor.

"Everybody wants to know, how did we do it? That's actually a hard question and the answer includes three days of watching tides and weather patterns, talking between ourselves about tactics, how to deal with the competition, what the weather is and how to deal with it, the course, the tides, and if anything is not working on the boat. Friday before the race, we tried to fix all known boat issues.

"Richard was the one firing on all cylinders this weekend. He had the pre-start plan and he also called the tack toward Mile Rock, instead of going to Pt. Diablo. We made up a mile on all the other boats with that one. We also played more of the north side than most, although Green Buffalo went just a bit further than us.

"After rounding the weather mark, we sent the chute up. The wind was abeam or forward of, and we didn't hold it for long. We dropped and then in 10 minutes sent it up again. On the long 19-mile 'run' toward Half Moon Bay, we played wind shifts, stayed on the wind line and kept the boat at hull speed.
The iPod was playing well and kept our spirits up!

"Staying calm and getting the most out of every breath of air, praying that the party wouldn't be over by the time we arrived, and trying to avoid getting totally burnt to a crisp were just some of the things we were thinking about as we were trying to finish the race while the wind was slowly winding down.

"We finished just after 5:00 p.m. It took over two hours to get our Can back on the trailer. We arrived at Half Moon Bay YC and had an awesome burger and sausage, sat by the fire pit, and wanted to do it all again."

Twenty-six boats started and 26 boats finished on what was called by one competitor, "A relaxing way to spend the day." Results are available at www.yra.org.

First singlehander to finish, Paul Nielsen's Culebra, an Olson 34. ©2011 Kristen Soetebier

*Since the race to Half Moon Bay is one-way, Half Moon Bay and Elkhorn Yacht Clubs hope the racers stick around to sail in the Boreas Race between those two clubs on July 2. In the olden days (before the nineties), the Half Moon Bay Race went both ways.