Jonathan Gutoff
New member
That wasn't much of a delay. Thank you race committee.
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Corinthian Race Buzzzzzz
- Thread starter Wylieguy
- Start date
That wasn't much of a delay. Thank you race committee.
solosailor
New member
Yes, thanks for the fast results !
solosailor
New member
They did, the multihulls. Though yes, the faster boats starting early would have spread the fleet out a good bit more. The SSS until recently has always gone slow to fast starting order.
solosailor
New member
South Hampton to Port and no Blunt.... either way around Angel Island.
Lightspeed
Willpower
I remember a little bit of a crowd at Blossom over the past 6-8 times Lightspeed did this race but being on the race deck as RC I am wondering with the same start times as in the last several years what some of you that have done this race in the past caused the pile up at Blossom? Combo of wind & current?. RC is happy to consider a start change in future years but I would like to do it for the right reason and not compound the problem if this year conditions were unique....
Jonathan Gutoff
New member
It was a combo of wind and current. Everyone was compressed as the wind filled in. I remember a CYC midwinter when it happened and recall the Mull 82 Sorcery came charging in crashing into the melee. It was a mess.
solosailor
New member
Yeah, I got a nice bent stanchion from betting pinned between Sorcery and another....... and then the little Thompson sportboat ran their bowsprit and hull up over my stern and deposited their foredeck gal in my cockpit !
Getting pinned by SORCERY has all the subtlety of being runover by a freight train..here she is in full glory: https://www.facebook.com/ArtemisYac...4665614608041/733559980051934/?type=3&theater
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solosailor
New member
I had the pleasure of racing a Puerto Vallarta race with Jake and his gang a few years before he passed on. One of my favorite team slogans..... "My drinking team has a serious sailing problem."
The Smokester
New member
...and that would be Angie, all around sailor extraordinaire, who works at Tradewinds Sailing School in Richmond CA.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Is that particular sailing skill taught at Tradewinds, or is it considered On The Job Training? Maybe part of a self-defense module?
oldensloh
New member
Description of incident during Corinthian Race
Cal 40 Shaman was running dead downwind under spinnaker on starboard tack, traveling at about six knots. We were about ten boat lengths from Blossom Rock, in about 15th position in the fleet, slightly ahead of a large group of boats. We raised our 155 genoa and doused our ¾ ounce spinnaker, continuing on a straight course. I disengaged autopilot and began hand steering. Michele Logan, crew, moved to the leeward side and started to place the genoa sheet on the primary winch. At this time, we were clear of other boats to windward, and there were several boats to leeward. We had a clear path to the mark, which we were to round to starboard.
About ten seconds later, I observed two boats sailing parallel with each other on port gybe, on a heading approx. at a 100° to 110° angle relative to our course (350° or thereabouts). The leeward of the two boats was the J109, Andale. He was steering a course to pass about 10’ astern of Shaman. I estimate his speed at seven or eight knots. We were about 200’ to 250’ from the mark.
When Andale was about half a boat length to starboard of Shaman, he initiated a rapid gybe maneuver.
Andale’s bowsprit entered Shaman’s lifeline just forward of the starboard pushpit, under Shaman’s lower lifeline. It immediately contacted the forward vertical part of the pushpit, eventually causing it to bend about 6” outward and 3” aft. The impact also bent Shaman’s aftermost starboard stanchion about 6” aft and stretched her starboard lifelines drum tight.
The impact caused Shaman’s Spinlock tiller extension to separate from her tiller, pulling the socket out of the wood, which caused Shaman’s rudder to turn hard to starboard. Because I believe Andale’s rudder was also hard-a-starboard, both boats began an immediate, slow 360° circle which lasted about 30 to 45 seconds.
The boats were fully engaged, with Andale’s sprit entirely crossing Shaman’s after deck, above our stern hatch, during at least 270° of the turn. The momentum of the 11,000 lb. J109, with building breeze of about 15 knots on her mainsail, made it impossible for me to stop the turn.
As Andale’s bowsprit continued to pivot aft, the end of the pole rotated so that it was under the seat in the port corner of Shaman’s pushpit. At that point, I was concerned that the pole was going to contact Shaman’s backstay and cause her rig to fall. I moved aft onto the rear deck, kneeling to the port side of Shaman’s stern hatch, and attempted without any success to push the sprit out of Shaman’s after deck. I was concerned about avoiding getting my hands or feet pinched.
After the mark rounding, we realized that our genoa was wrapped around the headstay in a counterclockwise direction, and the port genoa sheet had gone under the boat and become lodged around the rudderpost. This shows that we did indeed complete a full circle in a clockwise direction while Andale’s boat was entangled with ours.
After we lowered the sail and nursed the sheet out from under our boat, we headed in the direction or Richmond, passing Alcatraz on our port side. We then called the SSS message line and informed the RC of our intention to withdraw from the race and of our intention to file a protest against J109 Andale.
I have subsequently been contacted by the owner and person at the helm of Andale, respectively. In their phone calls and email, both apologized sincerely and promised to “make Shaman better than before the incident.” Their attitude has exemplified the best Corinthian spirit of racing.
This was a very unfortunate accident caused, in my opinion, by a spit-second error in judgment by the driver of Andale. It is very fortunate that no rigs fell and that no one was hurt. In my almost 50 years of steering and crewing on raceboats, I have never been involved in a collision of this magnitude.
This crash has caused me to lose a bit of sleep. Although I did nothing wrong, I feel terrible that my large, heavy dinosaur was stomping on smaller competitors in the manner of the 1969 animated film called Bambi Meets Godzilla. https://youtu.be/BXCUBVS4kfQ
What is really fun is getting bashed on the race course, and then getting bashed on internet forums by the likes of Peter Rowland and Pat Broderick. One anonymous poster on PressureDrop even suggested that it was a hit-and-run and that I left the scene of an accident. Just great!
Cal 40 Shaman was running dead downwind under spinnaker on starboard tack, traveling at about six knots. We were about ten boat lengths from Blossom Rock, in about 15th position in the fleet, slightly ahead of a large group of boats. We raised our 155 genoa and doused our ¾ ounce spinnaker, continuing on a straight course. I disengaged autopilot and began hand steering. Michele Logan, crew, moved to the leeward side and started to place the genoa sheet on the primary winch. At this time, we were clear of other boats to windward, and there were several boats to leeward. We had a clear path to the mark, which we were to round to starboard.
About ten seconds later, I observed two boats sailing parallel with each other on port gybe, on a heading approx. at a 100° to 110° angle relative to our course (350° or thereabouts). The leeward of the two boats was the J109, Andale. He was steering a course to pass about 10’ astern of Shaman. I estimate his speed at seven or eight knots. We were about 200’ to 250’ from the mark.
When Andale was about half a boat length to starboard of Shaman, he initiated a rapid gybe maneuver.
Andale’s bowsprit entered Shaman’s lifeline just forward of the starboard pushpit, under Shaman’s lower lifeline. It immediately contacted the forward vertical part of the pushpit, eventually causing it to bend about 6” outward and 3” aft. The impact also bent Shaman’s aftermost starboard stanchion about 6” aft and stretched her starboard lifelines drum tight.
The impact caused Shaman’s Spinlock tiller extension to separate from her tiller, pulling the socket out of the wood, which caused Shaman’s rudder to turn hard to starboard. Because I believe Andale’s rudder was also hard-a-starboard, both boats began an immediate, slow 360° circle which lasted about 30 to 45 seconds.
The boats were fully engaged, with Andale’s sprit entirely crossing Shaman’s after deck, above our stern hatch, during at least 270° of the turn. The momentum of the 11,000 lb. J109, with building breeze of about 15 knots on her mainsail, made it impossible for me to stop the turn.
As Andale’s bowsprit continued to pivot aft, the end of the pole rotated so that it was under the seat in the port corner of Shaman’s pushpit. At that point, I was concerned that the pole was going to contact Shaman’s backstay and cause her rig to fall. I moved aft onto the rear deck, kneeling to the port side of Shaman’s stern hatch, and attempted without any success to push the sprit out of Shaman’s after deck. I was concerned about avoiding getting my hands or feet pinched.
After the mark rounding, we realized that our genoa was wrapped around the headstay in a counterclockwise direction, and the port genoa sheet had gone under the boat and become lodged around the rudderpost. This shows that we did indeed complete a full circle in a clockwise direction while Andale’s boat was entangled with ours.
After we lowered the sail and nursed the sheet out from under our boat, we headed in the direction or Richmond, passing Alcatraz on our port side. We then called the SSS message line and informed the RC of our intention to withdraw from the race and of our intention to file a protest against J109 Andale.
I have subsequently been contacted by the owner and person at the helm of Andale, respectively. In their phone calls and email, both apologized sincerely and promised to “make Shaman better than before the incident.” Their attitude has exemplified the best Corinthian spirit of racing.
This was a very unfortunate accident caused, in my opinion, by a spit-second error in judgment by the driver of Andale. It is very fortunate that no rigs fell and that no one was hurt. In my almost 50 years of steering and crewing on raceboats, I have never been involved in a collision of this magnitude.
This crash has caused me to lose a bit of sleep. Although I did nothing wrong, I feel terrible that my large, heavy dinosaur was stomping on smaller competitors in the manner of the 1969 animated film called Bambi Meets Godzilla. https://youtu.be/BXCUBVS4kfQ
What is really fun is getting bashed on the race course, and then getting bashed on internet forums by the likes of Peter Rowland and Pat Broderick. One anonymous poster on PressureDrop even suggested that it was a hit-and-run and that I left the scene of an accident. Just great!
solosailor
New member
Thanks for the clarity (I was going to say rundown, oops)...... and for being a gentleman about the jumping to conclusions of some posters.
Steevee
New member
Ole' Blossom Rock continues its destruction... "several ghost rocks, or islands that once dotted the Bay waterscape but no longer exist. Blossom Rock, for instance, was a land mass submerged just five feet below water surface that for many decades wrecked destruction on any hull that trawled its surface. A ship captain noted in the early 1800s that it was possible to avoid the treacherous rock by precisely aligning the tip of Yerba Buena Island between two giant redwood trees in the East Bay hills and navigating thusly. When the two trees were logged in 1851, his directions were futile, and Blossom Rock became critically dangerous to ship traffic. In 1867, the top of the island was dynamited; a second, deeper explosion took place in the 1930s, to accommodate ever larger ships." an excerpt from http://theoaklandstandard.museumca.org/shellmounds-shipyards-and-exploding-islands
I'm sorry to here about all the damage done to boats and feelings. I hope you all work it out and continue to have fun on the bay.
I'm sorry to here about all the damage done to boats and feelings. I hope you all work it out and continue to have fun on the bay.
pogen
Sailing canoe "Kūʻaupaʻa"
I was involved in a very bad collision last fall. It was literally nauseating, and I lost sleep too. My sympathies for all involved. I hate to say it , but this makes me feel better about missing Saturday, bumpercars is my least favorite aspect of the sport, especially as a singlehander. I think the ocean racers are safer, at least they feel safer, as there is so much more elbow room.
Multisailor
New member
Some highlights from the race.....
[video=vimeo;160703358]http://vimeo.com/160703358[/video]
-MS
[video=vimeo;160703358]http://vimeo.com/160703358[/video]
-MS