2018 BAMA Doublehanded Farallones Race

[captleasure]

Ahoy! Thought I'd share my experience from this weekend. 4th times a charm? No such luck. Sailed the San Francisco Bay Area Multihull Association (BAMA) Doublehanded Farallones race and was not able to finish. (again) We had a great start in light winds off Golden Gate Yacht Club with a building ebb carrying us out of the bay. Once we got into the full current we were doing 7-8+ knots all the way out past Point Bonita and into the shipping channel. It was pretty sloppy with the ebb colliding with the ocean swell but that subsided after the first hour or so to just the large ocean swell. The wind was coming out of the W about 10-12knots so we were tacking back and forth every hour or so making some progress, It built up enough to where we dropped the large head sail and had to start reefing down in the late afternoon then it lightened up again about 9 miles from the island. With the large swell pushing the bow down off the waves it was very difficult to point as high as we needed to. Being the persistent optimist and only one crazy enough to be racing a full keel monohull in a multihull race, we kept tacking back and forth trying to make forward progress. It was fun to see some of the boats with their spinnakers up after their rounding headed back. In the early evening we saw a solid black squall line headed our way and the wind built back up requiring us to reef down again to a double reefed main and working jib. Had some solid gusts pass by burying the rail in the water and giving us nice fresh water rinse from the rain. At about 1900 were still 5 miles from rounding the island and knew the math wouldn't work for us to finish by the midnight cutoff so had to pack it in. It was tough to give up so close, but it was the right call. Had a smooth motor sail back and passed under the GG bridge about 2330 Thanks to the race commitee and my crew Antonio García Martínez from the Westsail 32 Ayala for hanging in there and allowing me to keep going until the last minute!

Some pixs:https://cluster.co/i/AWVFBEL8
Some professional pixs: http://www.rockskipper.com/Sailing-...arallones-Race/Double-Handed-Farallones-2018/

Cheers,
Randy
W32 Tortuga
~~~_/)~~~
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