My First Win!!!

Last night was my first beer can race win! I was hoping I'd win at least once this season, and I was able to pull it off after a really great start to the day.

First, a bit of non-sailing fun... This is my last week at Google, after contracting there for a year. Google requires contractors to leave for at least 3 months after being there a year, so I'm taking 3 months off, will travel some, and hope to do a LOT of sailing. Yesterday was my send-off lunch, which was great. I couldn't believe how many friends I've made there this year, and I hope to be back there working with them again in December.

Anyway, I decided to schedule a bike conference for 6 Googlers and myself, since I'd never tried the conference bike and wanted to before I left. So around 1:30, we went over and commandeered the bike, thanks to Mike who remembered the lock combination and John who agreed to drive. We took it down to the entrance to Shoreline Park and back around the long way and had a blast! People driving by gave us odd looks and raised their cell phones to shoot pictures of us as we passed by. What a hoot!

Ok, back to sailing... Later in the afternoon, I showed up at Spinnaker for beer can racing and discovered that only two Merits were scheduled to race. I was in Dave's boat, M5, with Sandi, John, and John, and GP was in M1 with one crew member. I've sailed with GP (see video in "Racing with GP, Kerry, and Dave" on a previous date), and he's a very serious racer, so of course I wanted to beat his boat!

We crossed the starting line exactly on time - 6:02:58. (Later, GP told us the new start time was 6:03:01 and that we had crossed the starting line too early, but we won fair and square anyway.) We raced out to the Y marker with M1 close behind us. The course was relatively unremarkable, except for the huge waves battering us around.

When we got close to the marker, I was at the helm, and Dave instructed me to go 100 yards past the marker before tacking. I didn't understand why we should go so far beyond the marker before turning and uttered a few expletives (shocking the crew I might add, adding a bit of levity to the situation) to express my feeling that we should round the marker as soon as we pass it rather than going 100 yards out of our way. Dave explained about how the current and wind would be better 100 yards out, but in the end I rounded close to the marker and headed back to the channel. Dave later told me that was the right decision after all. Heh, heh, heh...

After splashing through the big waves again for a while, we got back to the channel and kept a watchful eye on M1, as they were gaining on us the whole time. At one point, they were about two boat lengths behind us, and we thought they were going to pass us on the high side, which would have not only meant losing the race to them in the final stretch but losing the wind as they passed... the little wind we had, which was about 5 knots, if that.

We decided to go wing-and-wing part way down the channel, which was a good idea, because we gained a little speed. Just as Sandi was saying something about wishing M1 would blow a halyard or something, they went aground! Oh my god, Sandi is so powerful!

We watched for a minute to see if they'd get free right away and saw them start their engine. I wanted to press on, figuring they'd be fine with their engine on and lots of big boats coming down the channel with radios, etc. But Dave, nice guy that he is, wanted to go back and make sure they were ok. So we tacked and headed back. Just as we did, they got loose and started heading toward us, so we jibed (gybed?) and continued the race. At this point, we knew we'd won, because they'd started their engine. We were pleased.

At the apres sailing dinner, we were presented with the coveted plastic beer glass with the yacht club insignia. Sandi and I were the only crew members left by then, and she said I could take it home and she'll get the next one. I'll display it in a prominent place in my home and think of this fun race whenever I use it.

A bunch of us have a 39' Beneteau reserved for an all-day sail out of San Francisco this Monday, Labor Day, so tune in after that for more news.

Cheeseburger Regatta - August 25, 2007

The biggest fun race of the year was last Saturday. It was all Merit 25s, so there were no handicaps. There was a boat lottery, and we were assigned to boats with crews arranged by Mike at Spinnaker. My skipper on M2 was Kerry, who I'd raced with a couple of weeks ago. Also on our boat were my friend Sandi, Norbert (a BCC classmate), and Heli (who none of us knew but she'd just finished BKS).

As soon as we raised the sails, Heli informed us that she'd torn a huge hole in her pants and that we'd be getting to know her really well really fast! Sandi had some duct tape and took Heli down below to "patch her up". You can see the result of Sandi's handywork in this picture.

We got out to the starting line before anyone else and started timing drills... tacking back and forth to see how long it takes to tack and get back to the starting line. That way, we were able to time our start and pass the line right on time... which we did... exactly on time. We quickly took the lead and were so far ahead of all the other boats at one point that we couldn't imagine we'd take anything less than first place. Keep reading...

The course was to round marker 2 at the end of the channel, round marker 11 right in front of the main span of the San Mateo Bridge, round marker 2 again, and be the first boat back to the marina. After we rounded marker 2, still in the lead, we headed toward the main span of the bridge and noticed that M4 was heading almost directly east. We couldn't understand what they were doing, but we had plenty of wind, an ebb tide, and were speeding toward the bridge, so we didn't really care.

All went well as we kept heading up toward the eastern span of the bridge to take advantage of the ebb. We notice a boat much further west than us, heading for the western span of the bridge and thought it was M4 taking a different course. (We didn't find out until the race was over that that was M1, and M4 was way behind us.)

We were pretty confident that we could maintain the lead... until... we got close to the bridge and tacked about 110 degrees to head directly for the mid-span and hit a dead spot. We had NO wind at all! We were seriously dead in the water and couldn't move for what seemed like an eternity but was probably a minute or two. We turned in different directions, trying to catch any little breeze, but nada. Finally, we drifted out of the dead spot and caught a little wind and started to move.

Meanwhile, the boat we thought was M4 had rounded the marker and was heading back to 2. We rounded the marker next and headed down, setting up wing-and-wing sails, just as the boat in front of us had done. We watched them the whole way back to see what they were doing, and then followed suit, if they seemed to be moving faster. There was very little wind at all... maybe 4-6 knots, so we were trying to capture any small advantage we could.

When we got close to marker 2, we noticed the boat in the lead was fiddling with their spinnaker pole and trying to shift their jib to the port side to prepare for a beam reach down the channel. They lost a little time while they were fiddling... time we gained on them as our sail change was flawless. Thank you, Kerry!

We chased that first boat all the way down the channel and gained on them every step of the way. We crossed the finish line second by only about 4 boat lengths. Pretty good, since they'd timed us out at marker 11, and we were 3 minutes behind them at that point. If the race had been another half mile long, we might have won!

It was a really good race, though, and we all had a blast! At the BBQ afterwards, our crew and a few others decided to charter a "big boat" together on Labor Day and have a nice leisurely sail together.

Stay tuned for more postings soon.........

Racing the J/29

All summer, I've been sailing and racing Merits with a Santana mixed in once. I'd been wanting to get on bigger boats and finally did last Wednesday... the coveted racing boat, Smokin' J!

I'd connected with Stan on the Sailmates crew list earlier in the summer and met him a few times on the docks and at the apres sailing drinks and dinner festivities, but I'd never gotten to sail with him. Finally, he skippered the J/29 this past week and selected me as one of his crew members. What a wild ride!

Rather than try to describe the experience myself, I've posted Stan's post-race crew debriefing here, because I couldn't have said it better myself.

"Conditions were challenging on Aug 15, with weather data for SF airport showing wind speed of 24 mph and gusts to 35 mph at 6 pm. My GPS shows we covered 14.6 miles (9.5 mile course, plus distance to the start line and extra distance tacking) at an average speed of 5.7 kts with a top speed of 8.7 kts. Victor saw higher speeds on his GPS. I was very pleased with the effort of every crew member to accomplish efficient tacks, gybes and sail changes while we were crashing through steep waves and heeling at extreme angles. I can only remember one other race that crew on the bow were submerged under green water (Monica did a great job holding on and smiling even as she was alternately air borne and submerged!). Smokin' J seemed to come alive once we got the sail trim balanced. She was responsive to featherweight pressure on the helm, and sliced through waves going upwind like a race horse. (There was surprisingly little hobbyhorse motion). Downwind, we surfed under the main alone prior to the start while changing sails, and several times during the downwind legs the warp drive kicked in. What a night!"

This was a big challenge for me, because it was the biggest boat I'd crewed on yet, had somewhat different rigging, much larger sails, and the wind and sea conditions were rougher than I'd ever experienced. I'd been used to (read: spoiled by) a roller furling jib, but we had to rig the jib by hand... and then change to a smaller jib, as well as double-reef the main, when we got out in the bay and realized we were way over-powered. I loved it, though! It was a really fun time, and the crew was great! We even got a chance to relax and get to know each other a bit on the last leg of the race, when we were speeding down the channel with perfect sail trim.

The same crew will race the J again next week, with a couple more crew added for weight. I'll be sure to post my experience after that race... and look for another post after the Cheeseburger Regatta on August 25!

Racing with GP, Kerry, and Dave

One Wednesday night, I got to Spinnaker and was told I was on Howard's boat (one of the Spinnaker instructors I'd sailed with before). My buddy, Dave, caught me on the dock and said come sail with us! So I ditched Howard and crew (sorry Howard!) and went off to get M1 ready with Dave, GP, and Kerry.

GP and Kerry are serious about racing. We trimmed those sails perfectly, and it paid off! We passed the starting line along with four other Merits and were quickly in first place with two other boats only a few feet behind us. We sailed neck-and-neck all the way out of the channel, hugging the red markers on the left to keep M3 from passing us upwind. Somehow, they did get ahead of us, though, just before we got to the S marker.

Now we were in between two other boats in a staggered pattern, all on a port tack, and needed to tack left, keeping the marker on the port side. We were locked in, and none of us could tack until the last boat in line tacked. So we kept on going!

After a few minutes, the boat in front told us (because we were all within speaking distance) that they were going to tack. We noticed that the boat behind us was falling off, so we told them we were going to tack, too, and the first two boats started tacking. When the third boat saw us tacking, they changed their minds and tacked, too! But there wasn't enough space between them and us, and their bow collided with our transom and swept past our engine. It was a light tap -- no damage -- but both boats were disqualified from the race because of it. Damn it!

After that tack, we didn't lose much time. In fact, fairly quickly we regained the lead. Our sail trim must have been perfect, because we got so far ahead of the other boats that there was no way we could lose the race. If only we hadn't been disqualified! Our crew knows we won, so it doesn't matter that we didn't get credit for winning.

Here's a very short movie of the race:

The other boats are so far behind us you can hardly see them!

Racing(?) on a Santana 22

I've been Beer Can Racing every Wednesday night since BCC. One race night, all of the Merits were spoken for, so Dave (one of the Spinnaker instructors), my friend Sandi, and I took out a Santana 22. The winds were really light, and it was just plain silly out there. It took us forever to make the course, and we came in way behind all the other boats, even though our handicap allowed us to leave the starting line ahead of everyone else.

I was at the helm on the way back, and Dave took down the sails in the channel and wouldn't let me start the engine. He had me sail in "by pole"! Never heard of that? Neither had I! It means that we sailed in with no sails and no engine. That means we had no power! Oddly enough, I was able to take it in all the way to the dock that way... escruciatingly slow! It did make that last boring part of the trip more interesting, though. Thanks for that experience, Dave!

A glorious day of sailing!

After BCC, we were required to go out sailing with our classmates with no instructor on board before skippering a boat on our own. Norbert, Noel, Gary, and I happily arranged an outing a couple of weeks later and had a great day out on the water.

It was a gorgeous day... bright sunshine without a cloud in the sky, about 80 degrees on the water, about 12-knot winds, and low slack conditions, making it an ideal day for sailing. We got out of the channel and all looked at each other and said "Where should we go?" Since no one had any particular destination in mind, I suggested that we go try to find the S marker out near the San Mateo Bridge. Did any of us have a chart indicating the locations of the markers? No. But we went off on our S marker hunt anyway.

I remembered in some of the races that people said to count 6 towers to the east of where the bridge hits land on the eastern span. We did that and headed for that sixth tower. We sailed and sailed and sailed and got very close to the bridge but never found that S marker. We found some other markers that we later identified as X and possibly Y, but no S. (I now have a chart of the bay that I keep in my sailing duffel and have it with me at all times!)

Since it was still early and we all wanted to stay out longer, we decided to be brave and go under the bridge. We followed the south side of the bridge west to the mid-span, since we were pretty far east by this time. I'd been at the helm most of the morning, so I handed the tiller off to Norbert to take us under the bridge. He did a spectacular job of lining us up and getting us through with only 4-5 tacks.

On the north side of the bridge, we decided to try to find markers 8 and 8a and maybe go to Coyote Point, which we'd heard was a fun destination in the south bay. What am I saying? It's the only destination in the south bay besides our home base! We sailed north for another hour or two, munching on the crackers and hummus and drinking the sodas that Noel brought. Nice touch, Noel! We were loving the unusually warm weather and mild conditions out on the bay.

We never did make it to Coyote Point, because I had plans later that afternoon and was already going to be an hour or two late. So we headed back under the bridge -- piece of cake going south -- and back to the Redwood City channel. We even rigged the sails wing-and-wing for a while on the way back.

The next day, I plotted our course on Google Earth. (Yes, this is where the geekiness comes into play.) If you'd like to see where we went, you can download my KML files below. Download them all, if you want to see all of the placemarks and our course. If you just want to see our course, only download the last one.

M7 at the dock (placemark)

Redwood City Channel (placemark)

Eastern South Bay (placemark)

San Mateo Bridge (placemark)

North of the Bridge (placemark)

Our Course (path)

After you download these files, double-click each one to launch Google Earth and play these files.

Note: You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to play these files. You can download Google Earth free!

Basic Coastal Cruising

My BKS certification allowed me to crew on boats up to 20' (22' at Spinnaker) in moderate wind and sea conditions in familiar locations. I decided I wanted to know more about the boats, navigation, tides, currents, weather conditions, and to be able to skipper a larger boat, not just crew. So I signed up for Basic Coastal Cruising (BCC) classes in July.

I walked in the first day and discovered that Leslie Waters was my instructor again! I was in for some tough love again. By now, I'd run into Leslie a couple of times at club events and knew that all that yelling out on the water was nothing personal. He just wanted me to learn... and learn I did.

BCC was great! We had a great group of people in our class and had a really good time out on the water. Not only did we spend all of our time in the south bay (not in the channel, as we did in BKS), but we went under the San Mateo Bridge and north. That was quite an experience! Because of the strong currents under the bridge, you have to tack 4-5 times to avoid hitting the pilings just to get through. After we got through, Leslie put me at the helm and went down below for a while. "Just stay on course, Cheryl!" Ok...

Leslie came back up and shot these photos of us on the return trip.
Before BCC, I was terrified to get up on deck while the boat was moving. I had challenged my fear to the point where I could stand up by the mast, holding on for dear life, while we were in the channel and the boat was completely horizontal. But Leslie made me reef the main out in choppy water in the bay, heeling at about a 45-degree angle. Everyone cheered for me when I was able to do it! Since then, I'm much more comfortable walking around up on deck... not completely! But I'll go up there and do what needs to be done now without hesitation.

I passed BCC with flying colors on July 22, 2007.

Beer Can Racing

Once I'd finished BKS, I wanted more experience and wanted to get out of the channel and into the bay for some "real" sailing. Also, I figured out that the more often I sailed, the better I got at it, and the more relaxed I was about the whole experience. That's when I discovered Beer Can Racing on Wednesday nights.

Someone told me that Sequoia Yacht Club and Spinnaker Sailing jointly sponsor these races every Wednesday night. I just had to call in and sign up, and they put me on a boat with an instructor. I could crew free of charge, learn more about sailing, and have some fun out on the water. Sounded good to me!

The person who told me about this race said that the yacht club ties beer cans to the docks and buoys, and we have to race around and pick them up. They said that the boat with the most beer cans at the end of the race is the winner. I believed this story. Hmm...

As you can imagine, it turns out that's not true. It's a real race, and the boat that crosses the finish line first wins. The only beer involved is in the yacht club after the race! In fact, the yacht club opens their bar and dining hall to all racers after the race, where we can trade sailing stories and revel in comraderie after the race. They even present prizes (like plastic beer steins and caps) to winners, losers, boats with the most pick-ups, and anything else that strikes them at the time. A wonderful time is had by all who attend.



I started racing every week and haven't looked back!

Basic Keelboat Sailing

In April, 2007, I took a BKS class at Spinnaker Sailing in Redwood City, CA. We sailed 22' Santanas on Saturday and Sunday of two weekends in a row. Mornings were spent in the classroom, and afternoons out on the water. We stayed in the channel the whole time, so the winds were relatively light, and the water was flat.

The on-the-water part was much harder than I thought. I've been working out with a trainer at the gym for almost 5 years and have pretty good upper-body strength. But 3-4 hours of pulling ropes was more than I was used to. I went home after each class sore and tired, thinking I wouldn't go back.

Leslie Waters was my instructor, and he's very tough. He teaches more than the class level requires and makes you get it right. I now realize I learned a tremendous amount from Leslie, but it was tough going during the classes.

On the third day (the Saturday of the second weekend), I was exhausted and driving home when I checked my phone messages and discovered that my sister was in the hospital with a compression fracture in her spine. Needless to say, I missed the test the next day and didn't get certified.

After spending the next two weeks with family and getting my sister through surgery and finally back home, I went back and took the BKS test with Doug, another instructor at Spinnaker, and passed with flying colors.

I decided I needed to get some experience before taking the next level class, so I joined the sailing club at Spinnaker, got on some sailing crew lists, and let people know that I'm available to crew any weekend. I actually got some invitations right away and started crewing on Merit 25s with more experienced folks. That got me started with recreational sailing, and I discovered that it's much easier to just go out and sail than anything I ever did in my class. That class prepared me very well, and I was really starting to enjoy sailing.

Introduction

I've loved all sorts of boating and water sports all my life. I spent a lot of time on a friend's boat last summer and missed it when we stopped hanging out together. So I decided to get serious about sailing this year and started my first sailing lessons in April, 2007. Well, not my first lessons... I took lessons once a week for a whole summer at Shoreline Lake about 12 years ago. Those were 17-foot daysailers that could be handled by one or two people. It was lame compared to what I'm doing now.

Anyway, I'm a writer, a photographer, and somewhat of a geek, and I've been wanting to do a blog for a long time but never felt like I had anything to say. Now I do! This blog is my sort of journal of my sailing experiences. Unfortunately, I've been really busy all summer and haven't had time to start it until now. So I'll have to back up a bit to the spring and then catch up to the present.