race report
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 Into the Void. ©2013 norcalsailing.com |
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Droopy Vallejo 1-2
October 21, 2013 The Singlehanded Sailing Society's season, which started in January with the Three Bridge Fiasco, concluded this weekend. The singlehanded race to Vallejo is followed by a doublehanded race back the next day, from Vallejo Yacht Club to Richmond Yacht Club. On Saturday, the trick was to finish. On Sunday, the trick was to start.
On Saturday, 59 boats milled about in a mid-cycle flood at the start at the Berkeley Circle G buoy in very little wind. Gordie Nash's radically modified Santana 27 Arcadia and the Wyliecat 30s demonstrated that they could move in the zephyrs, but around the time for the first gun, the race committee noticed a wind line creeping toward the starting area from the north. So they called a 15-minute postponement, and the wind did fill enough for all the boats to get off the line.
Once heading for the Brothers Islands, the trick was to stay in enough wind but also find the fastest current to push you into San Pablo Bay. There the wind veered west a bit to allow a near perfect reach in near perfect 10 knots of breeze. Most boats stayed with white sails, although a few, particularly asymmetricals, were able to set spinnakers on the tight reach about midway between Point San Pablo and Point Pinole. The freshest breeze was out toward the Pinole shipping channel, with less favorable conditions closer to the shoal on the east side.
Off Mare Island the wind died for the first time while a fleet of tugboats cruised by plowing up the water, which made it difficult to keep the sailboats moving. Luckily the current was still flooding, and a new wind filled in right next to the entrance to the river. All the fleet needed to do now was go the couple of miles to the finish in what looked like enough breeze and current to push them home. Some made to to VYC before 3:00, such as the first multihull to finish, the F-24 Bobanja, and the first monohull, the Farr 36 War Pony. But a cruel trick was waiting for the rest, as the wind shut down only a quarter mile from the finish and the current turned around and started pushing the boats away. The boats that were only slightly ahead made it through the quagmire. "I was on the Mare Island side of the finish line and saw just enough leftover flood to push Starbuck over the line," remarked Stephen Buckingham, one of the lucky ones to finish, whose 30-ft Black Soo got the gun for the sportboat division. "The pack just over on the other side fifty feet away couldn't make it." Christian Lewis on the Catalina 42 Carmelita hit the slack, but caught a lucky three-knot puff that was just enough to carry him over the finish line. Some, like Dan Benjamin on the Wyliecat 30 Whirlwind, had only fifteen feet to go but never made it. "It was brutal having to watch them slowly move backwards from the race deck," said race chair Bob Johnston. Near the ferry terminal just downstream from the club, boats right beside each other were moving opposite directions.
Synthia Petroka on the Hawkfarm Eyrie was among those practicing their anchoring technique. While she was anchored, her knotmeter reported 2.5 knots of boat speed, and a 10-ft chunk of pier came floating down the river and hit Eyrie.
The stalwarts who held out until the 7:15 cut-off practiced their anchoring skills and light wind tactics in the building ebb. They fought hard, but in the end the ebb won.
The overall winner was the slowest boat on handicap, Summertime Dream, the Schumacher quarter-tonner skippered by Scott Owens. Singlehanding up on Saturday, he was the last finisher, at 15:26:28.
On Sunday, a building flood pushed the fleet upriver toward the Mare Island Causeway Bridge. Not all escaped unscathed. Some anchored, but many fired up the motor and dropped out, even before the half-hour postponement ended.
Of the 55 actual starters, many more gave up in Mare Island Strait, as they struggled to catch each little puff to make headway against the current. Again, anchoring helped.
Once out into San Pablo Bay, the remaining few found little wind until a nice fresh breeze filled in at Point Pinole. The flood turned to ebb and helped carry the die-hards toward the volunteers waiting on the RYC race platform as the sun set. Nine boats were able to finish before the deadline.
Summertime Dream kept sailing on Sunday only because they didn’t have enough gasoline to reach Richmond. They were able to finish at 18:17 and corrected out to first place overall again. The Vallejo 1-2 trophy meeting and season-end awards ceremony will be held at Oakland YC in Alameda on October 30. See www.sfbaysss.org.
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