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!
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