race report
| home contact us movies galleries stories store |
 Nathalie Criou on the Express 27 Elise, as seen from the Olson 34 Red Sky, sailing in the ZYC Challenge on August 15. ©2015 ZYC Commodore Sergei Zavarin / ultimate-yachtshots.smugmug.com |
| ZYC Singlehanded Challenge
August 20, 2015 Singlehander David Herrigel, who sails the Wilderness 30 Domino, filed this report: This was a truly fun day on the water on August 15, with a great group of singlehanders, none of whom took themselves too seriously for this fun race. I got the email invite about a week beforehand, and since I had already wanted to go do some practice on the ocean that day, this seemed like just the ticket.
The collective group decided that a 1300 start would be best, to avoid the worst of the flood. We also decided that given a jam packed day of racing elsewhere on the Cityfront, we would start at Blackaller Buoy between what was variously described as the "old pier" and "the pier." As things worked out on the water the prevailing “group think” chose the fishing pier as the line, and after a general recall and a 20-minute postponement to allow everyone to arrive, we got started more or less cleanly. As I mentioned, I had already planned to use the day for practice, so my real goals for the day were to make a plan, stick to it, and try not to make any mistakes. The late start allowed me the luxury of taking the time to really examine the Sail Tactics forecast and current charts before I left my house, and that gave me the general game plan; I saw that the current favored the north side of the channel with a little early ebb on the Marin shore about the time we would be starting. Wind-wise it looked to be pretty light heading out to Point Bonita, with a later build from the northwest to 10-15 knots as we worked out to the Lightship. Coming back, the current favored fighting the ebb on the south side, with the most relief along the beach between Mile Rock and the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. I chose to start with my #1 genoa, which is frankly a huge sail that works well in the light stuff, but is more than a handful in pre-start maneuvers; it was also too much sail for the 13-15 knots that we were seeing just inside the Gate, but I knew it would be light and sloppy once we got past the Bridge and out past Bonita. I’m reasonably certain everyone else was wondering what I was doing starting with no headsail, but I got off the line cleanly and set out chasing the rest down once I got the beast up. As things worked out, the big sail was the right call, and in pretty short order I was rolling right along. Per the plan I took one tack from the South Tower to the north side of the channel along with Brian Boschma on the Olson 34 Red Sky and Nathan on Exit Strategy. Synthia Petroka on the Hawkfarm Eyrie, and Natalie Criou on the Express 27 Elise went south along with Phil Kraser on the Express 27 Wetsu, at least initially.
At one point I looked back to see a large car carrier heading out the Gate. I could see I was already across his bow, so carried on and headed for the cliffs. Phil made a dive for the north side as well but thought better of it and tacked back at the same time the pilot gave him a single long toot.
Eventually I ended up tacking back out as far as the middle of the channel, at least until my SOG would start to crash. Brian and Phil chose to hug the shore and must have found some early ebb, as they cleared Bonita ahead of me. Phil played it perfectly and hugged Point Bonita and rode the counter-current north, eventually playing the pressure of the current against the wind for a .5-mile lead. Brian and I ended a little south of Phil, but out of the worst of the flood and heading west on the north side of the channel. Synthia and Nat ended up in mid-channel in the worst of the current in lighter pressure. Brian dropped out about halfway to the first channel marker, claiming family obligations and the need to return the commodore to shore. Natalie went home as well. "I went home because of light frustration with the light air," she explained, "and wanting to take advantage of the 16+ and 25+ knots of breeze under spinnaker. This is my third time back out after shoulder surgery and a broken finger and I still have to dial into the boat again."
From there on I chased Wetsu’s transom all the way out the channel. We both stayed within 100 yards to the north of the channel buoys. About the second buoy the wind built as predicted to a solid 13-15 true windspeed. This was a little to much for my #1 and full main, but rather than change the headsail I dropped a reef in the main and carried on. This seemed to work well, and I began to gain on Wetsu which was still carrying a blade and full main. Eventually I passed Phil about two miles from the Lightship buoy. Faster and higher is always nice. I think the lighter Express was being pushed around a bit more by the bigger seas farther out, which accounted for my better angle.
I nearly made the mark in one tack, but eventually had to settle for a brief clearing tack about a quarter mile out. I rounded the buoy about seven minutes ahead of Wetsu, but was far from comfortable with that. The Express 27 is about half the weight of Domino, and I know from experience they surf earlier and faster off the breeze. In the front of my mind the whole way back was a memory from this year's Singlehanded Farallones race where, ironically enough, Wetsu came up from behind and had the gall to surf my quarter wake past me. No way I was letting a repeat of that happen this time. The key difference this time was that I had a larger headsail up (#1 vs. #3). I shook out the reef and prepped the pole and the kite when I rounded, but didn’t really have the angle to hoist until halfway between the last channel marker and Mile Rock. Phil made up quite a bit of time on the way back in, particularly when I hit the ebb current first. We both chose to stay just outside the south channel markers on the way in, to avoid any issues with several outbound ships. I could also see Synthia’s spinnaker coming up fast. The last phase of the race was really about which side to fight the current on. About the time I was next to Mile Rock I was very much by the lee, and the preventer I had rigged on the main was making it act like a giant brake. Time to practice my main first jibing; I’ve done this plenty from dead-downwind, but never with the wind at 150 from the wrong side. I eased the sheet and vang, released the preventer and remembered to duck! It worked like a champ. I then moved forward to switch to starboard pole. Easy-peasey, and now I was up to 7 knots SOG heading for the South Tower. I looked back, and by now Synthia and Phil were at Bonita, but still going slowly into the current. By the time I got to the South Tower, they were still more or less in the same place. From there I had a brief and completely predicted tussle with El Diablo, but just blew the sheet and let the main push me through to clear air. Once I retrimmed the kite, I had a great angle to X, and scooted right along averaging 9.5 knots SOG into the current. All in all a super fun training day, and for once I did everything right — well, mostly — to make my plan come together. That there was a trophy involved really paled next to the opportunity to sail on a truly fun and friendly day on the water. — David Herrigel, Domino, Wilderness 30 The winner of this year's Singlehanded Lightship aka ZYC Challenge is Domino with Synthia as a very close second. First place gets a take-home trophy, a watch, a framed picture of boat, and their name on the perpetual trophy for posterity. Second place gets a take-home trophy and a bottle of wine. Third place gets a take-home trophy. — Nathalie Criou, Elise, Express 27
|
