race report
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 Andy Hamilton heads out to the Farallones on The Bar-Ba-Loot. ©2014 norcalsailing.com |
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Salty Singlehanders
May 19, 2014 It's that time of year once again. Time for spring winds, waves and the Singlehanded Sailing Society's Singlehanded Farallones Race. On Saturday only 21 out of the 33 boats registered started the 56-mile race that pits man (or woman) and machine against the elements in what can be a nasty slog to the Farallon Islands and back. The weather report for Saturday may have scared some off, but it was the waves at Point Bonita that turned many back. After a nice but windy beat from the start off San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club, the boats hit a wall of wind and waves just past Bonita. One by one boats started peeling around and headed back into the Gate.
"All week we watched the weather with somewhat conflicting reports. Most but not all the predictors dropped the 35-knot gusts, so it was looking okay," said SSS race chair Allen Cooper, who sailed his Passport 40 Krissy in the SHF. "From the Golden Gate Bridge to the east ship channel mark it was UGLY with 23 to 25-knot winds gusting to 30. There were confused seas from the meeting of a south swell generated by the Santa Ana winds in Southern California and the low pressure moving in from the north," continued Allen. "Then the wind laid down to 15 knots with short, somewhat choppy seas and even less wind for a while so it was a bit of a slog. Then, at around 1800, the wind picked up to 20 knots for me about three miles from the island and held all the way back to the finish line. It was a brisk trip back with moderate swells and four whales sighted."
Only nine boats finished because of the conditions, and although you would expect most of them to be the bigger more comfy variety, two Express 27s, an Olson 30, and the smallest boat in the race, Andy Hamilton's Made in Santa Cruz tough Moore 24 The Bar-Ba-Loot, did well. Among the finishers was Nathalie Criou on her Express 27 Elise. She reports starting the race with one reef and a #3 jib in about 18 knots of wind, which increased to a very gusty 20-25 knots by the Gate. "Most boats were staying in the middle of the channel to ride the ebb out, a bit complicated with the particularly dense shipping traffic that day." Nat saw 25 to 30-knot winds and a huge washing machine at Point Bonita, worse than during the Doublehanded Lightship. "My boat was all over the place, making super slow progress. It was impossible to make more than three knots close-hauled, so I had to foot off to get some boat speed. A nasty little chop would break against the hull and drench me. But I figured that the wave situation should improve vastly, so I decided to press on. (I also now have a resolution to only abandon a race if there is blood pumping out of an artery or something.) "Other boats seem to also be struggling and making slow progress. I saw a lot of boats turn around and heard the announcements on VHF. But Andrew Hamilton on the Moore just took off. "After the Potato Patch and near the Lightship, the winds stayed strong but the sea state improved a lot to a more regular pattern – more the up and down roller coaster I am used to during the windy Lightship races. I stayed north of the shipping channel as the wind was forecast to clock north. I only saw one boat going really south. About 18 or 19 miles out, the winds were a really comfortable 18 knots. I remained reefed but depowered everything else, and the boat was doing 5.8 knots over the water. A nice gentle swell and beautiful sun made for a fabulously pleasant sail." Elise reached the islands at about 1630.
"At the island I shook my reef out. I turned to a loose reach and then beam reach behind the island. Wind was in the 20-22 knot range then and I was pretty tired but really looking forward to the downwind." But the wind had clocked north by then, so it was a tight reach for Elise, nearly upwind on the way back to the Gate. "About 17 miles from the Gate, the wind died to almost nothing. I had three knots of apparent wind at one point. I put the kite up, but in this little wind I was making just as much progress as Verve (the other Express 27) without a kite just ahead of me. WTF? How can the wind just die like that? And then around the Lightship, also out of nowhere, the wind picked up again to 30+ knots!"
Now Elise was doing 14-15 knots, maxing out at 16 surfing down a wave. The swell was much more regular and friendly. Nat tried the autopilot and it managed to steer admirably in the swell with the pole squared back. "When I got to Point Bonita, I figured that the wind at the Gate must be in the 40s, since Bay winds were forecast at 30 and I was seeing 30+ where I was, so I decided to drop the kite there. It went down very nicely, not even one inch of it in the water. "And then... right at Point Bonita, the wind died to less than 10 knots. Other boats caught up, and we zigzagged between ships. Verve passed me at the South Tower. The wind increased to 30 knots again right under the bridge and turned to a reach, for a very tight reach all along the Cityfront to the finish." Elise finished at 21:10:19.
For results, see www.sfbaysss.org. The awards will be handed out on Wednesday, May 28, at Oakland YC in Alameda.
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