April 21, 2014

Pat Broderick continues his series of ocean races – and his series of reports on them – with Saturday's OYRA Lightship aboard his Wyliecat 30 Nancy.

It was blowing nicely through Clipper Yacht Harbor when Pat Wertz and I arrived to prepare Nancy for the OYRA Lightship Race Saturday morning. Things looked good as we set up the jacklines and POB gear and suited up. We motored out and headed up Richardson Bay, stopping for a POB practice so our NCORC form would be signed off in case we were inspected. Then it was sail up and across to the St. Francis Yacht Club. It was apparent we'd have more wind than Island YC's Doublehanded Lightship, as we hit 8 knots reaching over and saw many competitors reefed down when we arrived.

The starting area was crowded with larger boats, which is good for OYRA, but we were thankful that we shorthanders started last among the monohulls. After a non-eventful start it took just 15 minutes to pass under the Golden Gate Bridge and 38 minutes to tack out to Land's End. The wind was dead on the nose in the Gate, so long tacks, keeping in the best ebb current, were the order of the day. As we passed Pt. Bonita, all the Division F boats were behind us and we were sailing in a mix of larger boats lagging in their divisions.

Most boats appeared to be staying close to the deep water channel, but we decided to tack north along with a few others. This is where we lost contact with our competitors, which made us nervous, but we kept going north – probably too long. The seas were confused, with a 6 to 8-ft long-period swell and large wind waves caused by the 20+ west wind. Steering was difficult, and we hit a few swells and took quite a bit of spray over the bow. It got very lonely.

When we finally tacked over toward the Lightbucket, few boats were with us and we saw and lots of sail much further south. It was one long tack out to the pin, and we arrived about half a mile south so had to tack up. On the way out we encountered Frank Slootman's R/P 63 Invisible Hand with 5 miles still to go, and then an increasing number of spinnakers on their way home. When we looked back we saw a few sails, but too far off to recognize. Despair. We figured we'd lost it with that long northerly hitch. We rounded the "SF" Buoy with Stephen Buckingham's Black Soo Starbuck and began the run back, quickly losing the red boat as they surfed off under their gigantic spinnaker.

We stayed north of the shipping channel, hoping for some surfing on those swells, but again they were confused and irregular. We managed quite a few 13-knot runs even so. The wind was probably in the low 20s and almost dead astern; not the best angle for a Wyliecat! A few spinnakers were ahead of us, but the view astern was pretty empty except for one blue chute. Again we had no idea where our competitors were and that lonely feeling returned. More despair!

Although the OYRA's Lightship Race is for full crews, they have a shorthanded division too. Pat Wertz was Pat Broderick's only crew on Nancy. Here, he's surfing a small swell, with the blue chute just a speck in the background. ©2014 Pat Broderick

Checking the current book it looked like the middle would be best, so after an outbound Chevron tanker got out of our way, we sailed up the gut, edging over toward the South Tower. We were adding about 2+ knots to the speedo if the GPS was correct. And sailing more and more by the lee. On a Wyliecat you just let the boom out beyond 90º to the mast, but begin to rock and roll a little; however, the speed stays up.

As we approached the bridge, we saw a fleet of large boats heading our way and remembered the Clipper Around the World boats were starting their next leg. One by one their colorful hulls appeared behind the South Tower and we realized we'd be sailing through them on our approach. They were heavily reefed and moving fast, but split with some tacking in front of us and heading for China Beach for relief from the flood and others staying on a course for the Marin side. We got close enough to wave but managed to stay out of their way.

Switzerland with a deep reef headed for China Beach. ©2014 Pat Broderick

PSP Logistics with a deeper reef headed for the Marin side, in the lumpy water of San Francisco Bay… ©2014 Pat Broderick

…and sailing out of the Bay. ©2014 Pat Broderick

Inside the bridge we performed a mighty "Wylie jibe" and headed for the finish line through the kite sailors and windsurfers. At the finish we got a horn, so we assumed someone had finished ahead of us, which was no surprise since we thought we'd lost so much time on that long northerly tack. Still more despair!

The sail back to Sausalito in 30 knot gusts was more than we needed after a tough day's racing. We put Nancy to bed, washed the salt off, packed up our gear, and headed back to Santa Rosa, still wondering how we'd done. When the results were published later in the day we were completely surprised to find out we'd finished first, overall and corrected. It was a pleasant conclusion to great day on the Gulf of the Farallones.

– Pat Broderick, Wyliecat 30 Nancy

For results see www.jibeset.net and for more on OYRA racing, go to www.yra.org.