Boat Delivery and Gromeeko Round the Island Race

On Friday, Skipper Stan, John, and I met at Spinnaker Sailing first thing in the morning and sailed Smokin' J up to San Francisco in preparation for the race the next day. We prepped the boat, rigged the head sail, loaded up the porta-potty (which no one ended up using), and got underway around 10:30am.

It was cold (50-ish), cloudy, and the wind was pretty strong, so we never did raise the jib. We sailed on the mainsail the whole way. For the most part, we had NW winds, so we tacked now and then but nothing strenuous. The swells were only a few feet high, but they were pretty close together, so it was a constant struggle to steer against the waves. We took turns at the helm, although my turn ended abruptly, at one point, when I couldn't keep the boat from rounding up.

All in all, it was an uneventful trip, and we arrived at the Golden Gate Yacht Club around 4:30pm... a 6-hour trip. We had arranged for a limo service to pick us up, but since we couldn't really predict our arrival time, I told them we'd call them an hour before we want to get picked up. Unfortunately, that message got confused, and the driver showed up at 4pm and had to wait an hour for us to arrive and then secure the boat and check in at the yacht club. It sure was an easy ride home, though, with someone else driving us through rush hour traffic.

On Saturday, Skipper Stan, John, Larry, Norbert, and I met at Spinnaker Sailing and all drove up to the city in my car. We were headed to the Golden Gate Yacht Club for the Gromeeko Round the Island race. This race is sponsored annually by the Los Gatos Yacht Club in honor of George Gromeeko, who was a charter member and very active in the club. Our Skipper Stan was the defending champion, having won this race on Smokin' J for the past two years, so the pressure was on!

We met the last member of our crew, Marianne (George Gromeeko's daughter), at the Golden Gate Yacht Club and started prepping Smokin' J. It didn't take long, since we pretty much left everything set up the night before.

It was a gorgeous day for sailing... much warmer than the day before - high 60s - and sunny. The wind was blowing NNW at about 12-14 knots with light chop on the water. A perfect racing day!

We were away from the docks by 10:30am. Our start time was an hour away, so we took the extra time to practice tacking and gybing and timing our start. Several of us were sailing together for the first time, and a couple of crew members hadn't sailed for a while, so we needed the practice.

Astrea (a Beneteau 37) started first, at 11:30:00, we started at 11:32:30, and Brainwaves (a J-35) started at 11:35:30.

We rounded the first mark to starboard at Harding Rock and worked our way around the back side of Alcatraz (not slowing down as much as we thought we would). All three boats remained in the starting order.

The wind came up strong on the south side of the island as we headed down to round the second mark to starboard at Blossom Rock. At that point, Astrea was still 3 minutes ahead, but Brainwaves was just one boatlength behind us. As soon as we rounded the second mark, we hardened the sails and headed up toward the cityscape on a close haul while Brainwaves split to the right, away from the city.

Our wonderful tactician, John, had printed out and laminated current charts for every hour of the day. It was clear that the strongest currents were close to the cityscape, so that's where we headed. We seemed to gain a little on the first pair of tacks, which convinced John that he had selected the better side of the course. However, this advantage did not hold up.

Stan says "In retrospect, I think we went too far toward shore on the second tack, into lighter wind and lighter current, possibly even an adverse eddy behind obstructions, as when next we approached Brainwaves, they were ahead."

We crossed the finish line one minute and three seconds after Brainwaves, followed about 10 minutes later by Astrea. What a lovely day it turned out to be for a quick and very close race!

After the race, we all gathered on the docks for a vodka toast to George Gromeeko and the winners of the race. That was followed by a delightful luncheon sponsored by George's wife, Bunny. Thanks to Stan for including me in such a great experience!

 

A description of the trip back to Redwood City from Norbert, since I had to drive my car back and missed the downwind sail home:

It was nice, fast, and overall relaxing. We had too much wind until we reached the San Mateo Bridge, so we had to ease the main regularly (even with the backstay tightened and traveller all the way down to leeward). Looking back, a reef in the main would have been the better option, I think. Anyway, we made it in 4.5 hours, and one GPS recorded a top speed of 10.5 knots (not sure how accurate that is).

Check out my Picasa web album for more pictures.