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Pat Broderick of the Wyliecat 30 Nancy filed this report:
Saturday morning at Clipper Yacht Harbor in Sausalito offered promise for last weekend’s SSS Vallejo 1-2 Race. Halyards were clanking, Windexes were pointing, and the morning’s dew had already dried by 8:00 when I arrived with my overnight gear for the 2014 SSS Vallejo 1-2 Race. It’s been an annual event for me since 1985 with mixed success getting to Vallejo and back.
The sail from Sausalito to the Olympic Circle G start line began optimistically, too. Wind out of the SW at 10-12 knots, 7 knots of boat speed with the flood's help, and a layer of foulies as the Point Blunt buoy grew larger and greener. Could it be that a week’s worth of light wind forecasts would prove incorrect? It wouldn't be the first time this season that NOAA was wildly wrong about reality.
And then the 'real' reality kicked in. The apparent wind began to back off and tick downward from double digits to single digits to lower and lower single digits. Off came the foulies and on went the sunscreen.
Sixty-some boats milled around the start area, and when guns began to go off spinnakers blossomed in the southwesterly breeze, but boat speeds were slow, assisted mostly by the 3-knot flood. Spinnakers at the start are not a good sign for spinnaker-less Wyliecats which sail in the spinnaker class! Oh well, just point the boat in the general direction of Vallejo and hope.
An hour to the Richmond Bridge, another hour before turning into San Pablo Bay, and so it went. Max flood was 2:30 at Carquinez Strait, and, with the light winds, getting there before the tide turned was critical.
The sunscreen came in handy as the sun shined brightly and the temperature rose. Hydrate! Trim! Pee! The afternoon fell into a routine and dragged on. Around 3:30 the Blue Angels flew over on their way from Travis AFB to the Fleet Week Air Show, almost the most exciting thing to happen. Hydrate! Trim! Pee!
Spinnakers filled and flopped. Boats headed in every direction chasing wind feathers on the water. Jibs began to drop and motors turned on. Many boats turned an headed home instead of motoring on to
Vallejo.
As the current funneled into Carquinez Strait, the wind failed to keep up and the PHRF 111-150 fleet began to congregate as the boats still sailing approached the Mare Island Strait entrance. But why were all these slower PHRF 150+ and non-spinnaker boats also mixed in? They started last and were hopelessly behind at Pt. Pinole!
The westerly wind had filled in, and the boats furthest west benefited first, of course! Now the problem was getting into the Mare Island Strait, and many boats were on the wrong side of Carquinez Strait as they were swept past the entrance by the flood. Several were almost pushed onto the breakwater, and more exhaust water began to pulsate from transoms.
For those of us able to fetch the entrance, the reach up to the Vallejo Yacht Club finish line provided the best sailing of the day. There were wind holes, but always more wind on the other side, and the current helped. The Vallejo ferries coming and going didn’t! But, finally the VYC entrance hove into sight, and after 6 hours and 16 minutes I heard the horn. Of course I’d heard several Division F competitors call in ahead of me, so the excitement of actually finishing was tempered.
After negotiating the VYC harbor entrance with a very wide dredge barge occupying most of it, the raft-up went smoothly. It’s always amazing to me how boats with only one crew onboard manage to raft up so quickly and smoothly. I think it speaks to the kind of racer attracted to singlehanded sailing.
After the VYC taco bar dinner, race results were announced. In the PHRF 111-150 Division F, Tony Castruccio’s J/30 Wind Speed lived up to its name, finishing first. Then came the three Wyliecats –Dan Benjamin’s Whirlwind, Don Martin’s Crinan II, and Nancy! Those were all the boats that finished Saturday’s race in the F fleet: four out of fourteen.
Overnight was quiet in the VYC harbor, except for the dredge barge which created a stir when it moved out sometime very late. Halyards were ominously still. Sunday morning dawned equally still. After breakfast, the raft-up began to slowly break up, as if skippers and their now crew of one were reluctant to get out into the light wind. Since my crew canceled at the last minute there was only one reluctant skipper on Nancy. Just as boats began exiting the VYC marina, the dredge barge re-appeared and positioned itself in the entrance again, a wall of rusty steel squeezing out into the fairway.
As starting guns went off, the light southwest wind provided lots of opportunity for tacking down the Mare Island Strait. The hill at the end of Mare Island provided lots of wind blockage, making the turn into Carquinez Strait a very wide one, with mud for those boats taking it too wide.
In Carquinez Strait a light ebb optimistically whisked boats in the right direction after they navigated the flood that extended halfway across to the refinery. But once past the seawall, the ebb spread out and its effect diminished along with the wind. Long tacks back and forth from the ship channel to the south side resulted in minimal progress toward Point Pinole.
And it’s before Point Pinole that my race story ends. At 11:31, only an hour plus after starting, I turned on the engine and began motoring back to Sausalito. I calculated that with the growing flood, lack of wind, and lack of crew to help me I’d be very lucky to finish before the eight-hour deadline. I motored past the boats ahead that were floating on a glassy San Pablo Bay and watched as they disappeared into the hazy background. A total of nine boats did manage to finish before the deadline.
Almost five hours later, several gallons of gasoline lighter, and after a close fly-over by the Blue Angels (earplugs anyone?) I pulled into Clipper Yacht Harbor. My 29th SSS Vallejo 1-2 Race was over. More wind next time around?
– Pat Broderick, Nancy, Wyliecat 30
The awards for the Vallejo 1-2 and for the entire SSS season will be presented on Wednesday, October 22, at Oakland YC. For more, including results, see www.sfbaysss.org. For photos from VYC, see their Facebook page.
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