race report
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 Dan Alvarez's JS9000 JetStream sneaked by Greg Nelsen's Azzura 310 Outsider at Mark 25 to win Sportboat PHRF 90<. ©2011 norcalsailing.com |
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Swell Jazz Cup September 4, 2011 The Windjammers cancellation was the Jazz Cup's gain. Friday's race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz was called off due to concerns about the giant south swell, fetched up all the way from a winter storm in Antarctica. With Santa Cruz a south-facing harbor still damaged from March's tsunami, it just seemed like a bad idea to bring a bunch of raceboats into the harbor, even if they could even make it in safely past the break. So Saturday's Jazz Cup picked up a few last minute sign-ups. We heard they even waived the late fee for the Windjammers orphans. The Sabre 402 Escapade was among the boats that signed up at the last minute. The crew was already together, so they took the opportunity to go racing anyway. "Once we got past the Richmond Bridge it was a glorious sail the rest of the way," said one of the crew.
The day started with fog, and fortunately not the one knot of breeze that was forecast. Instead the westerly was fine for the start north of Treasure Island and the rounding of the first mark, YRA 7 aka red buoy #2. The pin end of the start and port tack of the short windward leg were heavily favored.
As the fleet sailed out of the fog, the wind lightened up and the foulies came off. A ship, moving slow with two tugs, crossing the channel from Angel Island to the Richmond Long Wharf, had to make their way through the bulk of the fleet, taking the wind from some sails and blowing five horns at least twice.
After some frustratingly light air sailing to get to the Richmond Bridge, the sailing perked up in San Pablo Bay. The wind came forward enough that some boats dropped their spinnakers in order to sail a shorter distance over the course. Once in the Carquinez Strait the breeze came from behind, causing the usual jibing duals between competitors. The wind and the flood current were stronger in the left to middle part of the Strait. A lot of asymmetrical sportboats got mixed up with the heavy symmetrical lead mines at the end which made it even tougher to find a lane.
The configuration of the finish confused some of the racers. You haven't had any marks to round since YRA 7 way back in San Francisco, and now you have several in quick succession: green buoy #25, where you go to a reach and hope you can carry your spinnaker, a temporary buoy where you harden up to a port-tack beat, another temporary which places the finish directly upwind from you, a stand-off mark that looks like one end of the finish line but isn't, and the finish line itself, between another temporary and the pier. Seemingly placed there just to confuse the out-of-towners is a mooring ball with a light on top that has no meaning on the race course. A lot of gains were to be made at green 25. If you made it past without traffic you were golden, and if there were any other boats around and it became a mess.
Because the starts go off in order of slowest divisions to fastest divisions, the competitors get funneled temporally as well as geographically at the finish. Further complicating the funnel effect is a shortage of water, both horizontally and vertically, on the north side of the finishing area off the shore of Benicia. (Defiance, a Santa Cruz 40, unfortunately ran out of water in the vertical dimension, which rather delayed their finish.) All this makes the finish the most chaotic part of the race. The powerful flood, also funneled in the Strait, added to the challenge this year.
Rocket 88, Ian Klitza's D-class catamaran from Santa Cruz YC finished first and retained first overall honors after the time-on-time calculations were figured in. Alan O'Driscall's D-class cat Beowulf V (which is listed as sailing for the HMB Boys and Girls Club) came next. The first monohull, Ben Landon's Thompson 650 Flight Risk out of Richmond YC, came next.
The finish looked like starts with port tackers trying to squeeze in at the pin. Pity the Benicia YC race committee, as groups of five or ten boats were fighting it out, short-tacking and finishing overlapped, within moments of each other.
Benicia YC gave the racers a friendly welcome, with mellow steel drum music on the lawn, generous drinks and a buffet dinner, followed by a raucous dance band. Pity the poor confused sailors that Benicia Marina put on docks with locked gates. Getting to the bathrooms was a challenge, let alone getting to the party! Benicia and South Beach YCs co-host the event and vie for the Jazz Cup trophy. South Beach handles the start. Although several BenYC entries tried for it this year, the trophy went to perennial favorite, Mike and Lorianna Kastrop's Catalina 30 Goose of SBYC. Complete results are available at http://jazzcup2011.sailspace.net and can be sorted by overall standings or divisions. For a time-lapse video from onboard the Antrim 27 E.T., see our Movies page.
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