Redwood Cup Race

Yesterday was the Redwood Cup Race, hosted by Sequoia Yacht Club. I was invited to sail on Melilani, Rich Butts's J105, a beautiful 32' racing boat. Stan was the skipper, Alex the tactician, and Paul, Niko, and I crewed. Rich had elbow surgery a few weeks ago, so he just came along for the ride.

We all arrived at the boat around 11am and took the next hour or so to rig it and practice spinnaker handling at the dock. We left around 12:45pm for the starting line (marker 20 in the channel) and got a chance to practice raising and dousing the spinnaker once and then got ready for the start.

We made a good start, crossing the line just after the official start time. The race was relatively uneventful... light wind at first, picking up about mid-afternoon. Honestly, I don't have a good sense of which boats were ahead of us, behind us, who we passed at what point, or anything, because I was looking at the telltales on the jib almost the whole time, trying to get that sail trim just right!

As soon as we rounded the mark, marker 12, we raised the spinnaker. The set was good, and we were able to furl the jib, which is a whole heck of a lot easier than on Smokin J, where we have to lower it and try to bunch it up in the bow pulpit and keep it out of the way of the spinnaker trimmer and out of the water.

Sailing down to marker 2 was fast and easy. We were getting up to 13 knots of wind at that point and moving at 5-7 knots. Stan turned into the channel at marker 3, and Niko and I did a perfect gybe (according to Alex). Yeah!

We were in the last leg of the race, sailing down the channel, when all of a sudden the spinnaker tack let go, and the leading edge of the chute was flapping in the breeze. At Rich's and Alex's instructions, Niko tried to lower the sock to douse the chute, but the sock lines were fouled, and he couldn't get it down. Alex handed me the spinnaker sheet and I took over trimming as he went up on the foredeck to help Niko. At some point, someone raised the jib. I was so focused on keeping the spinnaker out of the water that I didn't even notice who did that!

Alex and Niko brought the spinnaker all the way to the stern to get it around the jib and into the boat. But when they got to the stern, they realized that the sock line was free, so they had to bring it all the way back to the foredeck, and then they were able to douse it and lower it safely into the hatch. Phew! That was exciting!

While all this was happening, Alex kept telling Stan to keep sailing the boat, which he did, so we didn't lose any ground in the race during all that activity.

Later, when I asked Alex to explain what had happened, he said not to worry about it... that this sort of thing happens all the time and that since nothing broke and no one was hurt, it was no big deal. Ok then.

By the time we got the spinnaker safely down below and returned to our regularly scheduled roles, we were close to the finish line. We finished the race in the fourth position. Thanks to Stan for inviting me to crew for him, to Rich for having me on his boat, to Alex for always helping me improve my sailing skills, and to Paul and Niko for being such supportive crew members. It was another great day out on the bay!