LGYC Challenge Race

Saturday was the big race—the Los Gatos Yacht Club Challenge. I was the skipper representing Los Gatos Yacht Club (the host and challenging club), Jeff Smith represented NASA Ames Sailing Club (who won last year), and John Draeger represented Sequoia Yacht Club.

We had our first practice on Sunday and a second practice with our final crew on Wednesday. I was traumatized on Sunday, and Phill was traumatized on Wednesday, but we made it to the big day. (Click those links for details!)

After the beer can race on Wednesday, I had done some analysis of which boats had won, placed, and showed in the seven races I'd tracked this season. It turned out that M5 seemed like the fastest boat, M2 the next fastest, and M7 the slowest of the three but faster than the others in the fleet. So I had called Spinnaker and asked for those three boats for the race on Saturday... and told Rich I wanted to start out in M5.

I showed up around 9am with rigging tape and pliers, and checked out the boat. A short time later, the guys all showed up, and Phill started tuning the rig. I found out from Mike that they'd had a diver clean the bottoms of all of the boats on Thursday, so we were golden on that angle and didn't have to clean them ourselves. Kerry, Florin, and I went off to the skippers meeting at 10am and left Phill and Norbert to tune the rig.

The first thing I did at the skippers meeting was to check with John and Jeff, the other skippers in the race, to see if it was ok for Phill to tune the rigs on all three boats to be the same. They agreed that that would make the boats more equal and said to go for it. I called Phill and told him to go ahead and tune all three boats while I was at the meeting.

In the meeting, we found out the start/finish line, the course, the flag signals, horn signals, how to protest, what happens in the case of a delay, and what we were to do between the races. The committee boat would anchor just south of channel marker 3, and that would be the start/finish line. The course was out to day marker 12, rounding it to port, then to race marker Y, rounding it to port, and then back around the committee boat, leaving it to starboard and over the finish line. We headed back to the docks after the meeting, got all the paperwork squared away, taped up the turnbuckles after the adjustments were done, and got on our way.

On the way out the channel, we continued to strategize about the start, the finish, covering, best positioning, and so on. When we got out there, we had about 20 minutes to practice some tacks and gybes before the start. Then we positioned our boat near the committee boat and got ready for the start. Arrrggg... we were over early! So was John in M2. Jeff took off like a shot! We tacked back over the starting line and then back over again for a second start. Arrrgggg... we didn't realize that we had to round the committee boat to restart, so around we went and started that race for the third time!

Amazingly, we passed John in M2 on the way to marker 12 and nearly caught up to Jeff in M7 near Y. We had two GPSs on board, and we knew we should be able to see Y about 1/4 mile away, but we couldn't see it. When we were almost on top of it, we saw Jeff round where it should have been, so we did the same... and caught up to M7 very soon after. Sailing side-by-side back to the finish line, we talked and concluded that the mark had either sunk or drifted away. We crossed the finish line at the same time. John finished about a minute later. Although we were willing to concede the race to Jeff, because we believed he would have won if the marker had been there, the race committee decided to throw out that race, so we were starting over.

The race committee decided to change the course (smart move!) and start the next race about 15 minutes after John finished. The new course would be out to 12 (rounding to port) and back with the same finish as in the previous race. They decided we should continue to race in the same boats.

We did some maneuvering to determine the point of sail and best sail trim for the first leg of the race and some estimates for the second and final leg. The time clicked by quickly, and the race began. Again, we started early! This time, we knew we had to go around the committee boat and start again, which we did. We were in great form, got great speed, and caught up to Jeff around marker 12, leaving John in our dust. We rounded about the same time, and then we took off and took the lead. Stan calls this picture the decisive moment when we passed M7.

I've never seen anyone do what Phill did next. We had a flood tide, so we were surfing the waves on the downwind leg. Each time we surfed down a wave, Phill tugged hard at the main sheet (2-to-1 instead of 4-to-1), which resulted in a huge push from the waves. I swear there were a few times when we got pushed 20+ feet, and the boat speed exceeded 8 kts! That's on a boat with a hull speed of about 6.5 kts!!!

We won that race with Jeff sliding in behind us by 20 seconds. John followed 4 minutes later.

After that race, the race committee decided that we should switch boats. It was too choppy out in the bay, so we went back in the channel and waited for the committee boat (which was actually Jeff's own boat, Ionsa) to anchor around marker 10. Then the other two boats came up behind it, each grabbed a line from the committee boat, rafted up together, and switched crews. One boat left, we took its place, and then switched crews with it. Now each crew was in a different boat. We were in M7, Jeff was in M2, and John was in M5. Then that boat left, and we rafted up to the committee boat, so I could use its head. So I stepped over to Ionsa, used the head, stepped back onto M7, and off we went.

Back out near marker 3, the committee boat anchored again and announced the start time for the next race (officially race 2 but actually the third race of the day). We unfurled the jib, and I took the helm so Phill could check out the rigging. Back in our positions, we went downwind of the mark and prepared for the start.

The start of the second race was perfect. We were in first place right from the start and seriously smoked our competition all the way through the race. We rounded the mark at least a minute before Jeff and about 5 minutes before John. Ahh... another quiet downwind leg with the knowledge that we'd win this one, too. We calculated the points on that last leg and determined that we would win the entire competition with those two wins, even if we lost the last race badly. We crossed the finish line, furled the jib, and waited for the other two boats to come in.

Eventually, they both crossed, and then the committee boat called us on the radio and told us that we'd won and that we didn't need to do the third race. Then Jeff called us and asked if we'd like to do a fun race to 12 and back with a beer can finish (channel marker 20 and the dolphin, an ugly brown piling on the leeward side of the channel). Of course, we all said yes, and off we went.

That was actually the longest race of all, but we won it, too... by about 1/4 mile! And John was about 1/2 mile away when Jeff finished. Here are the results of the two official races:

Race #1
Place	Boat	Club	Time
1	M5	LGYC	23:24
2	M7	ASC	23:44
3	M2	SYC	27:49
Race #2
Place	Boat	Club	Time
1	M7	LGYC	24:39
2	M2	ASC	25:51
3	M5	SYC	29:21

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to win this race. I'm honored to have been captain of a boat with such a talented group of sailors and am particularly grateful to Phill for sharing his extensive racing knowledge with all of us. I'm also honored (and floored!) to have beat such worthy opponents as Jeff Smith and John Draeger. Both of them have much more experience than I do and many more wins under their belts. I owe it ALL to my crew, and I don't think I could ever thank them enough for this thrilling experience!

The party after the race took place on C dock next to John Draeger's boat, Yellow Brick Road. Many thanks to him for hosting and bringing the food, to Jeff for providing the committee boat, and most of all to my favorite skipper, Stan Phillips, for making it all possible. Stan has mentored me and helped me improve my racing skills over the last year with the utmost patience and instructive guidance. He kept inviting me to crew for him on Smokin' J, even after I screwed up the spinnaker set twice in one race! Thank you very much, Stan! It's only because of you that I had the courage to volunteer for this race.

Now I've got my first trophy and am very proud of it. It will hang on the wall in my office for the next year, when we get to do it all over again.

Thanks very much to my friend, Alice, who came out to cheer us on. She took all of the pictures here of the apres race party. Thanks, Alice! I'll update this post and add more pictures when I get the official images from people who were on the committee boat and, hopefully, have some good action shots of the race.

An Evening Sail on Mike's New Home

I met Mike last fall at a beer can race at Spinnaker Sailing. He'd just finished his classes and had no experience. It was my first season of racing, too, but I'd been racing since April. Mike was the first person who asked me for guidance, and I realized how much I'd learned that season when I started giving him pointers. It felt good to be able to help out a newcomer instead of always being the newbie and asking for help and instruction.

Both Mike and I have sailed A LOT since then. In fact, Mike recently bought a 33' Hunter and lives on it now. He likes to take his home out for a sail a couple of times a week and invited Sandi and me along on Tuesday night.

We had perfect weather... nice wind, mild temperatures, and a mild flood. Mike's friend, Eric, who hadn't been sailing since he was a kid, joined us as well.

Basically, we motored out of Pete's Harbor, sailed up the channel and out to the middle of the bay, and returned the same way. It was a short but sweet sail. Thanks to Mike for providing us with a fun evening in the middle of the week and to Sandi for taking the pictures!

Practice for the LGYC Challenge Race

I'm skippering a boat in the Los Gatos Yacht Club challenge race on June 28. There's one skipper/crew from each club. I'll be representing Los Gatos Yacht Club, the club that's challenging Sequoia YC and NASA Ames Sailing Club.

We'll start in Redwood City and take out three Merits from Spinnaker Sailing. We'll raft up out there between races and do two mid-bay crew transfers, so each crew can do all three races—one in each boat. This strategy removes any specific boat advantages, so the crew actually wins the race, not the boat.

My crew is Norbert (my frequent sailing buddy since BCC a year ago), Kerry (my frequent sailing buddy since the Cheeseburger Regata last summer), and Phill (who I'd never met or sailed with but recruited through a mutual acquaintance).
Norbert sailed a lot in the Netherlands when he was growing up and throughout his adulthood, spending a couple of weeks a year on a boat. He started sailing in the bay last summer when he took a BCC class at Spinnaker, which is where we met. He does mostly pleasure sailing, although he's raced on Smokin' J a few times this year, did the Cheeseburger with Kerry, Sandi, and me last summer, and we've managed to drag him away from work for a couple of beer cans this year.

Kerry's been sailing for 3 years with a mix of beer can racing and pleasure sailing in the bay, off Santa Cruz, and in France, and he's raced on Smokin' J a couple of times this year in the SYC races on weekends.

Phill owns a Merit 25, has been racing it out of Berkeley for 8 years, and was champion in the one-design races there for 5 out of those 8 years. He says he went pleasure sailing once but didn't really like it. He's definitely a die-hard racer.

Sunday was our first practice together. Everyone thought I was crazy to think we needed practice, but they humored me. I knew we'd have to figure out the best position for each crew member and help Phill get oriented to the South Bay. What I didn't know was how much Phill could teach us all about racing Merits.

Phill started teaching us about tuning the standing rigging right at the dock. On our way out the channel, we practiced tacking and gybing a bit, and he started teaching us about weight distribution and how to really use weight effectively. In fact, using weight effectively was the single biggest lesson I learned from this whole experience... and believe me, I learned a lot!

So in the channel, we had maybe 18-20 kts of wind. I insisted on reefing. Out in the bay, it was around 25 kts with pretty good size waves fairly close together, so I was glad we were reefed. Phill said he'd never reefed a Merit in the bay before. Wow.

When we got out in the bay, Phill took the helm and main, and he decided to try positioning me in the front-most rail position, then Norbert, then Kerry, and Kerry would manage the jib. We had to hike out as far as we could, so that only our butt cheeks were on the rail... legs out and arms, head, and shoulders reaching out over the lifeline. Phill said to huddle close together to make ourselves into a sort of sail to catch more wind. We did and it worked. Wow.

We did a few tacks like that. On each tack, because I was in the front and Norbert and I couldn't both fit under the boom, I had to cross the bow in front of the mast, getting whipped by the jib as it was coming across, and get situated on the other rail by the end of the tack... and the tacks took only about 5 seconds! I felt slow, clutzy, and got very wet. I also got very banged up in a short period of time. So I asked Phill if we could try some other positions.

Next we tried Kerry and I sharing the jib sheets. I'd release and tail on one tack and he'd grind, and then we'd switch on the next tack. We both had to end up on the rail facing out. I felt really slow, so I tried to speed it up, but the waves were pretty big, and we were heeling quite a bit, so I kept slip sliding around. At one point, I actually fell backwards into the cabin! Fortunately, all that tacking had caused all of our gear bags to land on the floor, so I fell onto the bags. All I could think of was that it was cushy... thank goodness! (What I didn't realize until that night was that I'd banged the backs of my knees really hard against the bottom of the hatch and the backs of my arms against the sides of the hatch, and I was really badly bruised all over.)

At that point, I asked Phill to just drive straight for a while (no tacking) so we could talk. I told him that this type of racing was way too intense for me... at least in the strong wind and big wave conditions we had that day. I told him that I wasn't having fun at all, that I felt really incompetent, slow, and clutzy and that I felt like I was holding back the crew. I also felt like I was getting hurt and that if I kept doing what I was doing, I was either going to go overboard or get seriously hurt. I had already talked to Norbert about this on the rail, and he said he was loving it. I knew Kerry was, too. So I told Phill that I was thinking about replacing myself on the crew with someone who was more agile and could keep up with the intensity (not to mention all the testosterone flying around!) and do a better job than I could do.

Phill was fantastic. He asked me a lot of questions to try to figure out what the problem was for me. He said he didn't want me to quit and wanted to find a way to make sure I was having fun, too, without sacrificing our ability to win the race. We talked for about 20 minutes and then invited Kerry and Norbert into the discussion. They'd been listening all the time, so they knew what was up. They helped me explain the level of intensity (or lack thereof) of the races we usually do, and they all agreed that I shouldn't quit and that they wanted to find a way to make it work for all of us. What great guys! I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to sail with all of them.

So next we tried having me stay in the cockpit and always release and tail the jib sheets and Kerry always grind. That worked out pretty well, except that when Kerry was grinding, his weight was on the low side, not on the high side where it was really needed. So the boat was heeling too much at the end of each tack. Phill had told me from the beginning that we needed 5 crew members, not 4, and now I could see why. So we went back into the channel to practice where there wasn't as much wind, and we could see that it was going to work out better, if we had one more person.

So when we ended our practice session that day, we decided to practice again at the beer can race on Wednesday—to get some practice with other Merits and to get a preview of the other skippers in the challenge race on Saturday. We started making phone calls right there on the dock to people we knew who might be able to practice with us on Wednesday and race with us on Saturday. As it turned out, no one we asked was available both days.

To find out what happened next, check out the racing blog I write for Spinnaker Sailing for beer can race #12. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I was really busy!!!

Sailing Out of Santa Cruz

The core group of people I sail with most of the time (now calling ourselves the 6-pack) decided to sail out of Santa Cruz for a change. Kerry chartered We're Out of Here from Pacific Yachting, and off we went!

It was a hot day and had been an extremely hot week with record-breaking temperatures all over the bay area. The fires in the Santa Cruz mountains were still burning, so there was smoke in the air. We were all glad to be escaping the heat out on the water with a nice, cool breeze. We all applied sunblock and hoped for good wind.

The docks in Santa Cruz wind around quite a bit, so Kerry motored us out of the marina slowly. As soon as we got away from the docks and other boats, up went the sails, off went the engine, and we were sailin'!

We had really nice wind and sun for a while and started sailing up the coast about a mile offshore, taking turns at the helm. Then the clouds started moving toward us from the north, and we all suited up in foulies and warm clothes. Although we were sure it was still about 90 degrees on shore, we were cold.

Sandi was at the helm when the rain started. What? Rain in June in northern California? Unheard of, but there it was. The rest of us huddled under the dodger and left Sandi out there by herself! Every once in a while we saw lightening and then counted off the seconds until we heard the thunder. The storm was at least 15 miles away.

To be safe, we started listening to what people were saying about the weather on the radio and tuned in to the weather channel for a while. It seemed like heavy thunderstorms were slowly making their way down the coast and would be lingering off Santa Cruz for the rest of the day and evening. The weather channel said that mariners should make their way to safe harbors. We considered it, but it was still only early afternoon. So our skipper, Kerry, decided to sail in closer to land to wait it out for a while and see what happened. Listen to the thunder in this video clip!


As we got closer to land, the wind died off. So we floated around for a while and watched the clouds. Kerry called Marc, the owner of Pacific Yachting, for advice. Marc said things looked ok and that he was taking a class out shortly and didn't see any reason for us to come back in. So we headed out again under the thunder clouds.

I steered us straight out away from land for a while and was catching a nice fresh breeze as we passed through a band of thousands of black birds, many of whom were just sitting on the water and others who were flying north above the band. As we crossed the band, they disbursed and flew out of our way. A short time later, the wind died completely, and we ended up bobbing around in 2' to 3' swells with no wind about 2-3 miles out. Ugh...

At that point, we decided to head back to shore and drink the wine that Kerry had gotten from his father-in-law's vineyard. We motored back until we hit some wind and then sailed the rest of the way back to the marina. We lowered the sails and motored in, all the while stripping off the layers of foulies and warm clothes, because we were back into sunshine and summer weather! The clouds and rain (which had turned to hail at one point!), were still right offshore. Where there was wind, there were clouds, rain, and thunderstorms. Where the weather was sunny and warm, there was no wind. We just couldn't have both.

After cleaning up the boat, we all sat down and relaxed with a bit of wine. Our friend Ron was taking a class there, saw us, and stopped by the boat for a drink and a chat. Eventually, we made our way over to the Crow's Nest for dinner. Sitting upstairs on the deck was a perfect combination of warmth, sunshine, and breeze. The food was good, and the company was great, as usual. Just another pleasant day out on the water with good friends. What could be better?

You can see more pictures of this day in my Picasa web album. Thanks to Sandi for the pictures of the birds and relaxing on the boat after our sail.

Sequoia Yacht Club Summer Series Race #4

Saturday was the 4th Summer Series race on Smokin' J. The wind was out of the west at around 10-12 knots—strong enough to move us around on the upwind legs but light enough for the spinnaker really make a difference with our speed on the downwind legs. High tide was at noon, and the race started at 12:30pm, so it was pretty much slack at the start and ebbed during most of the race—not a big factor overall. The sun was shining the whole time, and it was warm enough for shirt sleeves.

Skipper Stan's crew was Sandi, Norbert, Ann, and me. We all got there early to set up the boat. I started rigging the spinnaker for a starboard-side set, but since I didn't know the course, I didn't complete the set-up. I also repacked the spinnaker, because it wasn't packed correctly the last time it was used.

When Stan returned from the skippers' meeting, he drew out our course and posted it on the cabin wall. The start was between channel markers 3 and 4, then up to day marker 12, out to race marker S, down to race marker Y, back to 3, back up to S, and back between 3 and 4 for the finish. We had to round some of the marks to port and some to starboard, and it was about a 7.5-mile course.

Stan confirmed that we'd do a starboard set on a port tack for the first downwind leg, so I finished rigging the spinnaker halyard and the pole. It was good that I'd just done all this in a beer can race only 3 days before, so it was all fresh in my mind.

Stan made the position assignments and strategized our course. For the upwind legs, Sandi and Ann would be on jib sheets, I was on the main, and Norbert would take the helm after Stan got us started. For the downwind legs, I would do foredeck with Sandi on the mast, and Norbert and Ann would do pit.

We motored out the channel, practiced some tacks and gybes, and started timing the start. It was a good start, along with Kapalua, Primordial Sloop, Yellow Brick Road, Linda Carol, and Sweet Pea. We headed up to 12, rounded it to port, and headed out to S. As we did, I brought the spinnaker up and started getting it ready.

We were on a close haul and the jib was tight against the rails, so I was having trouble grabbing the lines where I'd attached them (at the top of the bow pulpit) to attach them to the spinnaker. Norbert came to my rescue and sat out on the bow pulpit, detached the lines, and handed them down to me between the jib and the lifelines. I was literally lying on the bow all the way forward with my arms up under the jib. (Next time, I'll rig the triple one stanchion back, so I can get under the jib more easily.) As soon as that was done, we rounded S to starboard and hoisted the chute. It filled immediately, and we lowered the jib without a problem. We were flying!

We flew down to Y, doused the sail perfectly, and rounded Y to starboard. Since I was tired, Stan changed the assignments for the next downwind leg. I went below to repack the chute, and Norbert rigged the sheets for the second set. He would do foredeck, and I'd do pit. The trip back to 3 was short and sweet. We rounded it to port and headed back up to S.

We rounded S to port and raised the chute without issue. Phew! Packing the chute in close quarters can be iffy. That set lasted all the way back to the finish line and down the channel. We did gybe twice as we turned through the channel... both good gybes. And we were able to relax at that point.

When we got back to the yacht club, we learned that Kapalua had rounded one of the marks on the wrong side, so they were disqualified from the race. Their tactician, Ron, told us that if they'd gone back to round it correctly, they'd have lost the race anyway, so they just kept going.

When all of the finish times and corrections were calculated, it turned out that Primordial Sloop won in the spinnaker class. Yellow Brick Road was a minute and 20 seconds behind her, and we were only 11 seconds behind Yellow Brick Road. So we missed second place by only 11 seconds! I thought that was damn good!

Once again, I had no time to take pictures during this race. These are pictures from other days out on the water.

Great race, friends! I'm already looking forward to the next one!