October 22, 2013

The Sausalito Yacht Club Twin Island Series is a three-race package spread over the entire summer/fall sailing calendar. The first race this year was on April 24, the second on July 20, and the final race this past Saturday, October 19. The usual course is from a starting line near YRA K (on the west side of Angel Island) to a temporary mark at Yellow Bluff. From Yellow Bluff, boats have the option of rounding Alcatraz and Angel Islands in either direction and then return to the temporary mark at Yellow Bluff. The final leg is from Yellow Bluff back to the finish line off the SYC clubhouse in downtown Sausalito. This year Race #2 was an exception, going around Angel Island and Red Rock instead of Alcatraz due to the America's Cup racing on that side of the Bay.

Those who have sailed this series over the years refer to the races as the "3-Start Races." The First Start is the start, with flags and guns and yelling. The Second Start is what happens behind Angel Island, how to play the wind shadow against the current. And the Third Start is the final leg from Yellow Bluff back to SYC. Often the third Start is the "real" start with the faster boats slowing down and the slower boats catching up.

This year's third race was no exception. This is one boat's Twin Island Race #3 story.

Saturday's race began with a short postponement while the light westerly wind built in. Once the gun went off, the two divisions, spinnaker and non-spinnaker, flopped over onto port and everyone began beating toward the turning mark against the 3+ knot ebb. Like most boats, we banged the corner and tacked onto starboard with a large allowance for the incoming current in order to get around the temporary mark and its current-driven wake.

After Yellow Bluff almost all the boats opted for a "anti-clockwise" rounding, heading for Alcatraz first. The several boats that chose Raccoon Strait and a clockwise course ended up in the DNF file before the race was halfway over. The wind built into the high single digits as we sailed toward San Francisco, staying high on Alcatraz to avoid being swept down on the island. A few chutes blossomed when boats finally turned down toward Alcatraz. The flood seemed light, so we began a reach down toward the Rock, passing it close to port. (What are those white "Do Not Enter" buoys on the west side of Alcatraz, anyway?)

The jibe east of Alcatraz and the island's wind shadow resulted in a light wind period with the current helping push boats toward a wind line north of the island. Once clear of Alcatraz, we decided on a middle approach to Angel Island, with several other boats taking a much wider tack and two going inside. At this point, our Wyliecat 30 had been passed by the J/105s, the large Beneteau, the Sabre 40-2, and the Hanse 34. But I reminded the crew it was a handicap race, and we weren't doing so badly, except for the Hanse!

Then things went light behind Angel Island. The boats that went in close began to lose way against the early ebb while those of us taking the middle profited from the remaining flood. The boats that swung wide enjoyed more wind, but sailed a longer distance. After a frustrating drift we finally got into the wind coming through Raccoon Strait, the second boat to enter the Strait, behind one of the J/105s. Everyone else was caught in the building ebb and lack of wind. The Second Start had begun!

Three long tacks took us through Raccoon, and after we exited, we continued on port across the mouth of Richardson Bay to the layline for the temporary mark out at Yellow Bluff. We could see the J/105 ahead, and Nick Sands' Sabre 40-2 behind. The rest of the boats were still back in Raccoon somewhere. And the wind was picking up, reaching 20 knots apparent when we rounded the temp at Yellow Bluff. We thought we might have it in the bag!

It also looked pretty good back in Richardson Bay, so we followed the J/105 on a straight course back to the finish, forgetting about that Third Start. It didn't take long for our optimistic assessment of things to fall apart as the wind proceeded to die. And then all those sails we'd left behind in Raccoon Strait began to appear – and get larger. Seeing us flopping around too close to shore, they rounded the mark and sailed back toward Belvedere and the middle of Richardson Bay where some wind remained. In the meantime we spent 45 minutes studying the Sausalito City Sewer Plant.

It was painful to watch spinnakers appear while we appeared anchored to anyone bothering to watch, and we were sure our competitors were doing just that. Finally we edged into the building flood along the Sausalito waterfront and began making progress. It was disheartening to hear the gun go off for the first spinnaker boat, and we were thankful we couldn't hear the horns for the next two finishers. But we were making progress. Several of the boats behind us gave it up and began motoring in, but not us!

Of course, it was 4:30 and the deadline was 5:00. We had about a quarter of a mile to go, and the wind that had boosted the boats ahead of us seemed to vanish. Flat, shiny water lay between us and that elusive marker off the SYC clubhouse! Ever so slowly we moved in the right direction and finally heard our horn at 4:43:18, good enough for fourth place in the third Twin Island Race.

Four and a half hours to sail 10.4 miles! But it was good enough to keep us in second place for the series, so we were happy. Perhaps next year we'll remember that Third Start at Yellow Bluff and not be lured into thinking the wind along the shore will continue all the way to the SYC clubhouse.

– Pat Broderick, Nancy, Wyliecat 30

Results can be found at www.sausalitoyachtclub.org.

Pat brought his Twin island prize to Vallejo YC Saturday night, where he met Jim Quanci's Cal 40 Green Buffalo to crew on the Vallejo 2. ©2013 norcalsailing.com