Last SYC Summer Series Race of the Season

Saturday was the last SYC Summer Series race of the season. I'm not sure why they finish the summer series so early, but there you have it. I crewed for Stan on Smokin' J, as usual.

It was a gorgeous day... the perfect summer temperature (mid 80s) and sunny. There was no wind at all as we motored out the channel. It picked up a little when we were getting ready to start, and then all of a sudden, right at 12:30pm, the race started and the wind picked up to a steady 12-15 kts and stayed that way throughout the race. It was as if someone flipped the wind switch on! It was great! It was dead low tide when we got out of the channel around noon with a flood during the whole race. There were some waves for a while, but the swell was minimal most of the afternoon.

The course was crazy and long (9.61 miles). The start/finish was between channel markers 3 and 4. The course was out to S to 3 to 12 to S to 3 to S and finally back to the start/finish between 3 and 4, all rounding to port.

On the upwind legs, Skipper Stan was our tactition, Kerry was at the helm, Jerry was on the main, KO and I were on jib sheets, and Monica and Norbert were rail meat. On the downwind legs, Monica was foredeck, I was at the mast until it was made and then ran back and took the guy, KO was pit, Kerry did spinnaker trim, Jerry stayed on the main, and Norbert took the helm. It was a bit chaotic at times during the hoist and douse, but we made it work, flying the chute 3 times in all.

As for results, we did the best we've done all summer... came in second. Yeah! There are no more SYC weekend races until November. I'm really going to miss them...

Sorry... no pictures this time.

Three Bridges in One Day

Seven of us set out from different parts of the south bay, peninsula, and the city and converged on Sausalito for another sailing adventure. This crew was different in that only half of the "6-pack" was there... Sandi, Norbert, and I. Joining us was Curt, his wife Mihaela, Emily (who I met last year when we were both unemployed and sailing on weekdays and then took the spinnaker handling class together), and Una, one of my clients. This was Una's first time sailing. She doesn't know how to swim and is fearful of the water. I give her a lot of credit for getting out there and trying it.... and she loved it!

We chartered a brand new Hanse 35 with all the bells and whistles. She had a regular flaking main with lazy jacks and even had a self-tacking jib... a first for most of us. At first, we thought it was weird and didn't like that it screamed across the foredeck on a traveler-like track on its own. But after a while, we were really liking the fact that we didn't have to move it from side to side and retrim every time we tacked. If it was trimmed right before the tack, it was trimmed right after the tack. Pretty nice!

The day was cool, crisp, and sunny wherever there was no fog (which was about half of the bay). We had no particular plans when we started out with 12-15 kt winds and a strong flood. Norbert wanted to go under the Golden Gate Bridge, and Curt, Mihaela, and Una had never done that, so off we went. I gave Una my camera and crowned her boat photographer for the day.

It was a long beat directly into the wind and against the current to get there, but we eventually did. Since the wind and current were heading in the same direction, there were no waves to speak of, so it was a fairly smooth ride. As we've done in the past, we all screamed together under the bridge and then stopped when Norbert lowered his arm and quickly listened for the echo. It was faint, but we heard it.

Once we were outside the gate, it was really nice... no waves, no crazy eddies driving us in circles. So we went out a bit further before heading back. It probably would have been a nice day to sail up the coast, except for the fog and the ebb that would be flowing when we came back.

We sailed by the St. Francis Yacht Club, where six boats were getting ready for the start of the Pac Cup. This was the last division starting the race—the largest and fastest boats. (By the way, Ron Brown is about half way to Hawaii now in just four days!)

Next, we decided to head down under the Bay Bridge (and did the echo thing again, of course) to check out the Giants-Brewers game at AT&T Park. The wind picked up a bit, and Emily got us moving close to 10 kts on the downwind run. For those who had never seen the park from the water and full of people, it was quite a thrill!

After that, we headed back up under the bridge, through the slot, and behind Angel Island. As we crossed the slot, several of us talked about reefing. Curt (now at the helm) kept saying we didn't need to because we're almost to Angel, where we expected the wind to die down in the lee of the island. When we had about 22 kts and were still 15-20 minutes from the island, I decided we'd reef. It was actually quite easy, since all of the lines were rigged back to the cockpit. Still, Sandi went up to the mast to guide the process. It was the safe thing to do.

When we got behind the island, it didn't totally block the wind, like it usually does, but it did subside a good deal. So we shook out the reef and debated where to go next. It was still early, and since the wind had picked up so much during the afternoon, we decided to head up to the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge, where there's often not enough wind to sail. Of course, we did the echo thing again and made it a three-bridge day.

The reach up to the bridge was pleasant... probably 15-18 kts directly from the west, as it was all day. A mile or so north of the bridge, we saw the East Brother Lighthouse B&B, a lighthouse on a rock off Point Richmond that was turned into a B&B.

After that, we decided to head back to Sausalito, since it could take a couple of hours to get there. We headed out through Raccoon Strait, into Richardson Bay, and back to the marina. It was another wonderful day on the water on a really lovely boat.

After buttoning up the boat, Emily headed home and the rest of us headed over to our favorite Sausalito restaurant, The Spinnaker, for another great meal seated right by the window before heading home. Nothing like eating right by the water after a full day on the water!

Check out my Picasa web album for more pictures by Una. Thanks very much for so many great pictures, Una, and for taking a chance with us. I'm glad you enjoyed the ride so much!

Ron Brown in Pacific Cup Race!

My friend, Ron Brown, is racing in the Pacific Cup right now. You may know him as one of the instructors at Spinnaker Sailing, co-owner and avid racer of Black Sheep (a 25' Beneteau), member of Sequoia Yacht Club, and all round great guy.

Ron is sailing for J World on a J-120 called J World. They left San Francisco yesterday (July 16) with a good lead all the way out the gate. Sandi Crane was there and shot some very cool videos of the start. Check them out!

If you'd like to follow the race, check out the Satellite Race Tracker. J World is in Div D.

Prop Wrap and Other Tales

Jean, Alice, and I met in San Carlos and carpooled up to Sausalito. It was warm, sunny, and we had good wind. The day couldn't have started out better. Norbert and Jean's friends, Katrina and Hans, were all waiting for us at MSA. I checked in quickly, and we headed down to the boat with our sail bags, overnight bags, sleeping bags, and several bags of food.

Jean and I checked out the boat (Carita, a 32' C&C that I'd sailed a few times before), Alice stowed the food, and we got ready to leave. Norbert was on the dock, ready to release the dock lines on the starboard side and walk us out. I asked Hans to remove the port side dock lines. As soon as he did, he got back on the boat, but I didn't look to make sure he'd done it right. That was my first mistake.

I started the engine and started backing out of the slip. Norbert hopped on board, and then the engine died. I started it again, it stayed on for a few seconds, and then died again. By this time, the boat was out of the slip, so I started it again, put it in forward gear and tried steering. I had no steering, and the engine died again. The wind was pushing us toward the boats in the slips off our port side, so everyone on board rushed to the port side and held us off from bumping the other boats, the dock, and the tall posts at the ends of the dock fingers. Now a lot of people had come out to watch, including one of the people who works for MSA, Lucas.

I told Lucas that the engine kept cutting out and I had no steering and asked if he could help us. As soon as he boarded, I noticed that the dock line was still attached to the starboard stern cleat. It was tight, stuck under the boat... prop wrap... ugh... Apparently, Hans had untied the line from the dock but didn't make sure the line was brought up onto the boat.

Lucas cut the line and then was able to turn the wheel and unwind it from the prop. Eventually, he thought he'd removed it from the prop, so he started the engine. It sounded ok, so he got off onto the dock behind the boat and asked me to put it in reverse, then neutral, then forward, then neutral, then reverse, and went on like that for a few minutes. He watched and listened. Then he got back on the boat and drove us out away from the other boats and tried going in reverse and forward. He said it didn't sound right, so he brought it back to the slip, turned off the engine, and said that he thought someone should look at it before anyone takes that boat out..

So off I went to the office to see if they had another boat available. For the same price, they had a Pearson 32 available. They use that boat for BKS classes, so it's pretty old and bare bones... hanked jib, no self-tailing winches, etc. I asked if they had anything bigger available, and they did—Naniloa, a Caliber 40. It was a beautiful, fairly new big boat with all the bells and whistles. The charter fee was quite a bit higher, but I decided to go for it to save the day..

Off we went... back to Carita to pack up all our stuff and bring it over to Naniloa. That took a while. Jean and I got there first, and she suggested that she and I check out the boat before everyone got there. We started and got finished about the time everyone arrived. Once again, we loaded everything on board, and Alice took charge of the galley..

As soon as we were done checking her out, I was anxious to get started. I asked Jean to take the helm, and Norbert and I were in charge of the dock lines..

Just as we started untying the dock lines, Hans got off the boat and had a temper tantrum, yelling that he wanted to eat his lunch before leaving the dock and wanted half an hour to eat without the boat moving, and that if I was going to leave the dock now, he was going to go home, and he summoned Katrina to join him. Jean gave me a pleading and apologetic look, so I agreed to wait for Hans to eat his lunch, even though the rest of us were very anxious to get going. Katrina told him to come back on the boat and be quiet and that she'd get him his lunch. I'm not sure what he would have done about lunch if we'd left the dock at 11am, as planned. Anyway....

At that point, Jean, Norbert, and I decided to check out the roller furling main. I'd only used one once, and this one was quite different. Also, the boat was rigged for a staysail and spinnaker, as well as the main and jib, so there were a LOT of lines around the mast and foredeck. We took some time to figure what they all were for and to make sure we knew how to unfurl and furl the main.

Eventually, Hans finished his lunch and we got ready to leave. We untied the dock lines, I took the helm, and Norbert got ready to walk us out. Naniloa was in a slip on the last dock, so there was nothing behind us but open water. I thought it would be easy to just back straight out. That was my second mistake..

I started the engine, tested out the shift (which was very smooth), and put the wheel in the neutral position. Norbert walked us out and hopped on when the shrouds reached the end of the dock. I gave it a little gas and suddenly got the strongest prop walk I've ever felt. The stern was moving fast to the left, which pushed the bow out to the right. I tried to compensate by turning the wheel to the right, but I didn't quite make it. I heard something scrape the 8' concrete post at the end of the dock, and I knew that Jack, the owner of MSA was watching us from the motor yacht in the next slip. I put it in forward, turned away from the docks, and motored away. I was pretty sure I'd scraped the anchor on the dock post, and I figured that if I'd done any damage, Jack would have beckoned me back. So I just kept going and hoped the rest of our day would make up for the auspicious start.

The rest of the day was delightful, actually. We sailed around the back side of Angel Island and over to Pier 3 in Alameda to check out the party on the USS Hornet. It looked like a big party, but we couldn't hear any music and realized that we couldn't have docked there anyway, because the docks were much higher than our boat! They were made for battle ships and tankers!

So we sailed back to Sausalito via the back side of Angel Island again. Everyone had a turn at the helm during the day, including Alice, who is becoming a great little sailor! I took the helm when we got inside Richardson Bay and were passing the Spinnaker Restaurant. I felt I had to redeem myself by docking the boat perfectly. Well, Jack was waiting there on the dock when we arrived. Fortunately, I did dock it well. I was a bit further from the starboard side dock than I would have liked, and Jean and Norbert had to jump about 3 feet onto the dock, but I didn't hit anything, and I had the boat under complete control the whole time. Phew!

Jack checked out the boat and then quietly walked away. After turning off the engine, I went down onto the dock to make sure we were lined up well and securely tied up to the docks. Norbert told me that we'd hit the bow pulpit, not the anchor, as I had thought, and that Jack was looking at it to see if the encounter had warped it. We both checked it out, too, and we decided it was not warped... just a little more scratched up than it had been before. No real damage... phew!

As soon as the boat was settled, we had a champagne toast to celebrate the 4th, and set out a variety of appetizers/snacks. Jean, Alice, and I went up to MSA's BBQ and got some food for everyone and brought it back to the boat. Then we all ate, drank, and chatted until it started getting dark. Katrina and Hans left, and Norbert left shortly after them. Then the three of us gals got comfy and chatted while waiting for the fireworks to begin. Jean had brought sparklers, and we had some fun with those while waiting.

The fireworks were good but definitely not as spectacular as the KFOG Kaboom fireworks. We talked a while longer after they were over, lit some more sparklers, and eventually went to bed. In the morning, we all got up early, cleaned up the boat, packed up our stuff, and brought it all up to Alice's car. We drove over to the Lighthouse Restaurant for an excellent breakfast, walked around town for an hour or so, and then headed home. It was a really nice way to spend the holiday.

Please check out my Picasa web album for more pictures!