July 1, 2013

While Island Yacht Club's Silver Eagle Race has been tarnished by low turnout in the last few years, at the heart of the race is a tactician's nightmare within a coastal race distance (without the seasickness) – one of the must-do races on the Bay. Started 38 years ago to commemorate the Bicentennial, the race used to be a 75+ mile romp starting and finishing off the Cityfront with marks at Coyote Point and the Carquinez Bridge. Nowadays, two courses are on offer. Course one is a 49.5-miler for the faster boats that goes around the Bay with the Petaluma channel entrance as the northernmost turning mark. Course two, at 31 miles, is for the speed challenged; they round the Brothers as their northern turning mark.

The Can O'Whoopass catches up through the Slot. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Only 13 boats signed up this year, but the diversity of the fleet ranged from Rocket 88, the fast D-class cat, to Can O'Whoopass, the 'slow' Cal 20. In the mix were sportboats like a Melges 24 and an Ultimate 24, and big boats like Savior Faire, a Beneteau 42, and Josie, a Dehler 39.

A mixture of big boats and sportboats moves slowly along. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

Out of the 13, only five were able to finish. One of the five was John Lymberg's Flying Tiger Wild 1. "It was a very long day as we fought Dan Alverez's JS9000 JetStream and the Melges 24 Rusalka from the start, all the way up to the Petaluma River channel, and back down past Pt. Richmond," said John. "With wind around the mid-teens, we had no trouble getting quickly around the first marks in the Slot, although we set our kite late on the second leg and fell behind. After a quick reach to Blossom Rock, avoiding most of the hole behind Alcatraz, we again set our kite and headed to the right side in order to avoid the hole behind Angel Island. As it began to get much lighter, we went further right in an effort to stay out of current and ride the dying breeze to almost nothing. We had passed the Melges 24, which stayed too close to Angel, then, hugging the right side, we also passed the sitting JetStream with her spinnaker luffing. There we sat, trying to ride the circling puffs out of the hole and attempting in vain to reach a creeping wind line that signaled the long awaited westerly."

Wild 1 in the lead... for now. ©2013 norcalsailing.com

"After a reach up to Red Rock," said Paul Sutchek, crew on the Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass, "a couple of big boats near us went deep, and that didn't work for them. As we passed Southampton and neared Red Rock, we caught up to all of the racers. Hell, this is good racing!"

View from the Can following the Corsair 31 Ma's Rover. ©2013 Paul Sutchek

Picture rushing through the Slot in the 20-knot stiff breeze to pulling up in zephyrs with multiple parking lots along the way, causing many restarts. "The folks on the island side got free first, but it quickly filled in to a let us loose too," remarked Dan of JetStream. "We followed the Tiger for a bit, and then broke to the right in search of more pressure near the Richmond Long Wharf restricted area. We're not sure everyone respected the restricted area, but saw no flags, and that one is a bit harder to prove unless you can get the right picture or have some witnesses. We quickly got in the lead again and led the fleet to the Petaluma Channel Mark in nice cruising conditions – flat water and 10-12 knot breeze. It was a good time to let the crew get some driving time. We got to PCM first and started to work our way back. We went right to try to avoid as much of the building flood as possible."

"The winds got lighter and would turn on and off multiple times, and we got caught at Point Richmond for over a half hour," said Paul on the Cal 20. Their division was given the shorter Course 2 to the Brothers instead of the Petaluma River. "As we neared the Slot again, we encountered 20-knot winds and thought finishing would be easy," continued Paul. "Nope – at Treasure Island it shut down again."

On the way to the South Bay marks, John on Wild 1 described crossing the Slot again. "The Slot really sucks. It's like hitting turbulence on an airline – you know it's coming and you just have to buckle down because there's nothing you can do but get through it." And once through? "Out of the frying pan, and into another big wind hole at the Bay Bridge. While we sat trying to will our boat beyond the bridge, a ferry boat pulled up from behind us, and some crazy ferry captain was jumping up and down, for some reason happy to see us and urging us on. I found out later he was my doublehanded partner and regular crew who had started working Saturdays."

Most of the boats quit right there under the Bay Bridge with what appeared to be no wind in the South Bay. Dan and the crew on JetStream had had enough. "We pulled the plug at Treasure Island at around 6:30 p.m. If the wind cooperated, there was going to be at least another three hours of racing, and if it didn't, who knows. It was an up and down race. There were multiple races in the race. If I look at them independently we did great, but if you put it all together, well, it would have sucked."

Wild 1 had better luck and finished to a hero's welcome at IYC. "Jibing our big white kite, we floated silently into the Oakland Estuary as darkness descended. We must have looked like a big white ghost drifting over the water. The breeze was steady but forward of our beam, and then became wisps between quiet holes as they slipped around buildings and structures on the right shore. It was eerie, and dreamlike," said John. "Finally, it was time to locate the finish line. Somewhere in the dark waters the crew saw a round shape ahead that signaled the pin. Somehow, we managed to keep our kite full as we drifted across the finish line. We all fist-pumped and let out victory yells, and suddenly we were joined by a dancing party of human shadows on the dock. The IYC race committee had come down to help us celebrate and then offered us hot food and drink in the club. At that moment, I knew that the race was worth every minute."

The Can could smell the barn while passing the cranes at the Port of Oakland. ©2013 Paul Sutchek

"We finished around 9:00 p.m.," said Paul on the Can, "and did a victory roll with the spinnaker up! We dropped the chute and went inside to meet the great people from IYC. As we motored home we gave encouragement to the two division A boats that we saw. We got back to San Francisco YC around midnight... an 18-hour day for us door to door."

So we recommend sticking it out until the end in next year's Silver Eagle, one of the classic NorCal races. See www.iyc.org for results.