July 30, 2015

This year's OYRA DuxShip Race was nearly picture perfect. The race started out with a nice westerly wind coupled with a light ebb to flush the boats out beyond Point Bonita. Nancy Demauro and the South Beach YC volunteers on StFYC's race deck efficiently got the race underway, and 15-20 minutes after they started most were beyond the Golden Gate Bridge and on their way to Point Bonita. The only glitch was an incoming tanker, but everyone played by the rules and tacked early, avoiding any toots from the ship's bridge, a real professional job for a group of amateur racers intent on getting out to Land's End quickly.

Larry Baskin's Express 37 Bullet at the start. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Between the Bridge and Point Bonita, most boats stayed out in the middle, taking advantage of the modest 1.5-knot ebb and flat water. At Bonita the fleets divided, with some boats continuing out, looking for more pressure, but most tacking up the Bonita Channel toward the first mark on the course, the Duxbury Buoy. The Four Fathom Bank continued the nearly perfect race with moderate wind waves and a 3-ft swell that didn't slow boats down.

As the race up toward Duxbury continued, boats faced a northwest wind coming almost directly from the Duxbury Buoy direction. Almost all the boats in the first three divisions stayed close to the Marin shore, heading for the layline to the buoy, but the last-starting shorthanded division played a covering course, sailing a tacking duel out and then up. The result was numerous crossings, some close enough for concern as boats with similar speeds tacked up toward the mark. Pat Broderick's Wyliecat 30 Nancy is carrying an experimental OYRA tracker and recorded more than a dozen tacks before reaching the mark. Craig Page's Santa Cruz 50 Hana Ho, on the other hand, also carrying an experimental tracker, recorded half as many tacks and sailed a course staying near the shoreline before tacking for the mark. As the overall results show, sticking close to the Marin side paid off for the first three divisions.

At the Duxbury Buoy, boats rounded and set a course for the Lightbucket, 6.6 miles to the southwest. The northwest wind provided spinnaker reaching for the symmetrical chutes, but almost ideal conditions for asymmetrical sails. With flat water and wind in the mid-teens, this leg provided relief for trimmers and a quick romp down to the Lightship.

The final leg from the Lightship to the finish provided an almost dead downwind run with wind speeds dropping from the higher teens into the lower teens as boats approached Land's End. The early-arriving big boats encountered the end of the ebb, while later-arriving slower boats enjoyed the early flood. Again the trackers show the earlier-arriving Hana Ho taking the the south side and the later arriving Nancy sailing up the middle. An outgoing tanker offloading its pilot at the Lightbucket provided some entertainment for the late-arriving racers, but again everyone behaved and no toots were sounded. A modest swell allowed for some surfing/surging, but mostly it was a drag race toward the Golden Gate.

Paul Disario's Olson 911 Plus Sixteen returns to the Gate. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

As boats approached the Golden Gate Bridge, wind speeds increased into the high teens and the Devil at the South Tower took his toll on several wild spinnaker jibes, including at least one boat flying its chute on the halyard to the finish line. Just to make things more interesting, in addition to the usual kite boarders, a large sailboard race was being held in a direct line between the South Tower and the finish line, so incoming racers got a chance to play dodge ball with speeding gnat-like boarders intent on doing well in their own race.

Max Crittenden had some issues with his spinnaker on the Martin 32 Iniscaw. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

All starting boats finished this nearly perfect edition of the DuxShip. The final results demonstrate that sailing a inshore course north before tacking on the layline panned out. Boats with similar speeds in the full-crewed Division 3 which stayed inshore beat the multiple tacking shorthanders in Division 4 by 30-40 minutes or more. A special thanks to the SBYC crew for providing a fun, nearly perfect day out on the Gulf of the Farallones.

— Pat Broderick