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Farallones 2018

Here again are some suggestions I received from Bob Johnston years ago:

Well first, that's an average for the whole day and 15-25 is a broad range. The last time I looked it was going to be more like high teens out at the Farallones = a piece o'cake. It is forecast to get windier at the end of the day, with gusts as high as 31 knots. Therefore if you're not around the island by mid-afternoon you might want to head back, but see how it's going and how you're feeling.

On the way out, once the breeze picks up keep your sails flat - plenty of halyard tension, cunningham and outhaul on the main, halyard and sheet on the jib (grind it in flat). If you're still heeling too much you can reef of course, and also try to move the jib leads aft to open up the jib's leech a bit while keeping the foot tight.
On the way back you can ease everything some. A looser vang will help to keep you from broaching and of course, ease the mainsheet well out if it's getting broachy. If the jib is a little on the tight side (overtrimmed) it will hold your bow down better coming back, also reducing the tendency to broach. If you have an outboard jib lead (like out to the rail) use that - it will also want to led a little farther forward. This will keep the top of the sail from luffing when you ease it out on the reach home.

If that forecast (SAT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. NW SWELL 6 TO 8 FT AT 9 SECONDS. .SAT NIGHT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 4 TO 7 FT. NW SWELL 7 TO 9 FT AT 8 SECONDS. ) proves correct and the wave period is that short, it's going to be a bit sloppy. Remember though - just close up the companionway and turn around and it becomes more manageable/comfortable coming back. So keep going until you're not having fun anymore and then turn around. Hopefully that will be at the island!

Just a reminder on the rounding: You see the knob on the NE corner of the island from way off so it's pretty easy to plan to pass it at a seamanlike distance. Once you do that, don't bear off - hold a heading of 255 Mag (270 True) i.e. due West, even though the island tapers off to the south as you proceed along the north side. Watch for breakers off your STARBOARD bow. If you see any big ones, tack over and get farther North. Then don't bear away around the west end of the island until you're almost past it. Simply said - sail due West across the top, don't cut the corner.

Then once around and in the lee of the island (on the south side), use the head and get everything out in the cockpit you're going to want during the trip home. Then relax and enjoy the ride. It's nice to know the bearing back to the Gate since you won't be able to see it until you get closer in. Don't forget to turn on your running lights (I do it early), call in your approach to the finish and jot down your finish time in case the R/C misses it.
 
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In 1994 Robert Crawford raced his Ericson 32 in the Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race to Kauai in slightly more than 16 days. Fourteen years later, in 2008 he took a bit longer to get there in his Cal 20, Black Feathers: 19:21:15. He wrote a book about the preparation for and subsequent participation in the race.

Black Feathers is still berthed in South Beach harbor, impeccably maintained, clean as a whistle. I walked by Bob last Saturday, sitting in Black Feathers and preparing for another race. Which one? I asked. Well, Bob has a friend who has never sailed out the gate, so the two of them are going to sail out to the Farallones this Saturday, May 19. Not included in the race, mind you, because it’s a singlehanded race. But out there with the fleet. So if you see a small doublehanded boat, with #14 on its sail and in big numbers on her hull, that’s Robert Crawford on Black Feathers right there. With a friend. Out the gate again.
 

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Looks like a classic, prototypical Farallones Race on Saturday's menu, with west-southwest winds veering and building to 20-25 knts out near the Rockpile. Should be fun. Good luck to all, especially good friend RC on BLACK FEATHERS.

One tactical thought: for those finishing in the afternoon, before 6 pm, unless the South Tower is passed close aboard on starboard jibe, laying the finish under spinnaker is gonna be a challenge. This is because fresh southwest gusts (headers) come whistling down the valley above Crissey Field. A headsail sheeted to the rail is often a good alternative for the last 1.6 nm starboard tack sprint.

Disregard the above if you are on a Wyliecat, Freedom, E-27, Moore-24, O-29, or Cal-40, which looks to be a good portion of the fleet.

After 6 pm, the sea breeze begins to fade, the ebb increases, and a spinny should be just ducky if you have several extra pairs of hands: one for the tiller, a pair for the spinny sheet, main sheet, and vang, one for the binos, and another for the VHF radio mike.
 
sleddog said:
Looks like a classic, prototypical Farallones Race on Saturday's menu, with west-southwest winds veering and building to 20-25 knts out near the Rockpile. Should be fun. Good luck to all, especially good friend RC on BLACK FEATHERS.

One tactical thought: for those finishing in the afternoon, before 6 pm, unless the South Tower is passed close aboard on starboard jibe, laying the finish under spinnaker is gonna be a challenge. This is because fresh southwest gusts (headers) come whistling down the valley above Crissey Field. A headsail sheeted to the rail is often a good alternative for the last 1.6 nm starboard tack sprint.

Disregard the above if you are on a Wyliecat, Freedom, E-27, Moore-24, O-29, or Cal-40, which looks to be a good portion of the fleet.

After 6 pm, the sea breeze begins to fade, the ebb increases, and a spinny should be just ducky if you have several extra pairs of hands: one for the tiller, a pair for the spinny sheet, main sheet, and vang, one for the binos, and another for the VHF radio mike.
Click to expand...

That't a lot of damn hands! I got two plus a tail and that's it. Something is going to have to go.
 
Any reports or stories from yesterday's venture seaward? You can only tell so much from the St.F.Y.C. webcam, buoy reports, and AIS. The Farallon webcam needed a lens cleaning.

Kudos to GREEN BUFFALO for F2F as well as overall winner. I think the BUFF is 54 years old this year.

Congrats to all finishers. Did anyone see BLACK FEATHERS, the Cal-20. out there?

And special thanks and congrats to the RC, who had finish times and results posted as it happened. What a concept, rarely seen.:D
 
From my perspective on the race deck yesterday, it's difficult to say much more than Skip said about what happened outside.
A couple of notes that may not have been noticed from online:

- It was blowing dogs off chains at the club - many hours of sustained 28knots with gusts to 36. From the buoy reports it was a little more reasonable outside though GREEN BUFFALO commented on a "brutal day". Chicken jibes seemed to be the best plan for those heading North after the finish.

- Sweet Pea finished with a broken boom. There's a story there, but I don't know it yet. Congratulations to Jan for a first in class finish despite the damage!

- Although GREEN BUFFALO is listed as F2F, MA S ROVER in fact finished almost precisely an hour before.
Unfortunately, Mark started at mark A, the St Francis YC line; the RC was forced to hand him a DNS and stand mutely while he smoked off toward the Gate.

Thanks to all for a safe and successful 41st running of the SHF!

Best,
DH
 
Here's a short race report.
I think I had a good start and a strong end but in between I was slow.
I once again trusted the forecast and didn't think through the what ifs. I started with the #4, which worked really well until I got out of the Golden Gate. Outside the wind speed came down and the swells were mixed. I didn't have enough power to sustain a good speed (mind you, I didn't know that at the time; that's a lesson learned gift from this race). Every time I'd convince myself to switch up the wind would come up and I'd wait. I shook a reef but stayed with the #4 all the way until I got around the island, where I shook the last reef and moved to the #3.
Looking at my track it is obvious where the strong ebb current was and I did lose time there as well by not staying center.
When I got closer to the Golden Gate the wind picked up and I started surfing. I think I saw speeds up to 14 kts and wind up to 32 kts (right under the bridge).
I rounded up a couple times, including when I first tried to jibe, which ended up in a 270 tack.
What else did I learn?
1. The dry suit works, except for chafing at the neck.
2. Celery sticks rule.
3. Cold pizza not so much. They're too bland. I'll have to augment the flavor.
4. I must be more aggressive or go cruising.
5. My mental strength is still very weak (read: I feel like a loser).
6. Even a very short trip in the cabin will lead to sea sickness.
7. I need to think through the what ifs. Here it was easy: have the #3 ready to go, rigged and everything. I need to stop trusting forecasts.

I had high hopes and came back home sad. Ultimately though it looks like I didn't do as poorly as I thought in my fleet.

Now, seeing Jim coming by when I still had about 2 hours to go ... I felt like going home: it's a good thing I could see the rock ...
 
DaveH said:
- It was blowing dogs off chains at the club - many hours of sustained 28knots with gusts to 36. From the buoy reports it was a little more reasonable outside though GREEN BUFFALO commented on a "brutal day". Chicken jibes seemed to be the best plan for those heading North after the finish. - Sweet Pea finished with a broken boom. There's a story there, but I don't know it yet. Congratulations to Jan for a first in class finish despite the damage!
Thanks to all for a safe and successful 41st running of the SHF!
Best,
DH
Click to expand...

23 of 39 entries finished yesterday's SHF. BLACK FEATHERS chose to sit it out. 41% chose DNC, DNS, or DNF. Everyone made their own decision, which is what singlehanded sailing is about safety and self sufficiency Many lessons were learned, experience was gained, and no one was hurt. This is all good stuff. PJ: don't be too hard on yourself! You did good. Respect.

One beloved competitor we all know originally felt her story may not have been worthy as she DNF'd. But she has relented, and here it is with her permission:

It was windy from the get go yesterday. By the time I got from Berkeley to the GGYC I was ​ quite wet already in my foul weather gear.​ DM handled the conditions well, but it was a lot of work to tack: lots of flailing jibs out there before they got reined in. At Mile Rock I tried to use the waves to help tack, but then another oppositional wave would smack me back the other way. I decided that I didn't have the stamina to do it for ten more hours, especially since it was forecast to increasingly get windier. But it's always fun to start a race and going out the gate on a sunny clear day like yesterday is wonderful by itself. Really fun surfing back in, although certainly not as satisfying without finishing a race. That was a hard fought race, and impressive sailing by anyone out there who finished. That Jan Hirsch is the nicest fella.

Once I came back in I tied up at the GGYC and watched the YRA race starting off the clubhouse. By that time there were winds gusting past 30 knots and the big boats (E-37 GOLDEN MOON, etc) were starting. Boy, were they getting smacked around! And it was flooding by then, too, so they came right over to the wall of the clubhouse to avoid the current. Yikes. That sound of expensive sails flapping in the wind!!! Great fun to watch. The St Fancy J 22 fleet was herded in from the bay because it was too windy. Well, theoretically. Probably didn't want to lose any future investment bankers.
 
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Email summary of the race I shared with my regular OYRA race crew yesterday...

Last week’s crewed Duxship helped... good training...

#3 to the rock (rounded 1pm… possibly the earliest I have ever been there)
Blew 20-24k to the lightship
And then a more comfy 16k-20k the rest of the way out.

Jib top for first 30 min after rounding (same as Duxship).

Then seeing a Wylie who was still heading out but not all that far back… it was time to raise the full size heavy chute which I flew to just before south tower (just like Duxship). I left the jib top up under the kite the whole way back so if things went bad with the chute I could more easily blanket it – and I was just too beat to want to drop and then raise the jib top “again”.

I think only two or three of us put up kites...

When I saw I had a shot at first monohull to finish – a once in a blue moon possibility for a Cal 40 - and after last weeks practice - I just had to fly the kite. I was also thinking about that J/120 that would be a rocket ship once she rounded the rock… only to find out when I got home the J/120 had turned around. I also saw a trimaran out there who was well ahead of me and I wanted to do my best to stay close enough to correct out on him – only to learn later he wasn’t in the race. In any case he was a good motivation to keep pushing.

Wind was all over on the way back 14k-25k.
Otto drove the whole way.
Almost shrimped the chute in front of the south tower... a good half of it was in the water… managed to get it back on board during a lull. Glad I got it down before entering the bay where it was howling.

Jib top to finish (just 30k :-))
Just like last week (though not as windy after the race as last week).

Finished just after 430pm… I think this is the earliest I have ever finished a Farallones race (50+ races around the rock). It helped it was an early 800am first gun and we had a ripping ebb out and ripping flood at the finish (at times saw 10k over the bottom in both directions).

Took all sails down behind angel island to avoid wrestling the jib top and main by myself on the Pt. Richmond lee shore. Yes learning from last week.
 
Hi,

Sweet Pea and I arrived a bit late, just in time to see Ma's Rover round the wrong buoy to start, followed by me frantically double checking the sailing instructions. I had started the Duxship with a reef and done ok, but it seemed a tad less windy this day so I decided to just roll in the heavy #2 Genoa a bit and go for it. Start went OK. Pointing was worse with the rolled Genoa but the incoming freighter made that pointless- I thought. I tried to speed to the north of the bridge to pass before its bow until I noticed it was heading to Angel Island on the left side of the shipping channel, so I had to tack and crossed the bridge close to the South tower.

I unfurled the Genoa and made good speed out the gate, trying to take maximum advantage of the ebb. At Mile Rock I noticed that my Spinnaker bag was dangling outside in the water and starting to unfurl, so I went forward and wrestled with it for a good 10 minutes. This bag has a mesh bottom but it was still rock heavy wet as it was. Caught a couple of good waves while at the bow. After tying the bag up to the baby stay I went back, but noticed after tacking that I had tangled the bag into the jib sheets- so I had to furl in the genoa and clean up. All this cost me a good 10 minutes.

I tacked out to the Islands without a problem, in the company of Rainbow the multihull and some other boats. The islands were spooky as ever so I gave them a wide berth- a bit too wide, again. A daring little boat cut it much closer and then headed off towards Drake's Bay or so, maybe not even a racer. After the Islands I was on a beam reach. Sweet Pea made 7-8 knots of water speed under the 155 % Genoa and full main and my autohelm had trouble holding the course so I decided against hoisting. What a day! Rainbow the multihull passed me anyway and took off. I still made consistently 7-8 knots and sometimes hit 9, hull speed is 6.3, so not too bad. I was mostly hand steering.

The beam reach changed to a broad reach as I approached the Golden Gate. After Point Bonita I broached for the first time and furled the Genoa a bit. I was able to hold a deep broad reach until under the bridge with little struggle, so I opted for a straight line even though I lost about a knot over ground against the ebb.

I made it through the bridge. It was honking. Sweet Pea was almost dead down wind but the jib was still pulling. I put her on autohelm and started to bring up the traveler for that jibe. I knew it would be bad, but did a really want to do a chicken jibe 1.5 miles before the finish line? People had been calling in their finishes since I had switched to 69 at Mile Rock.

When I brought up the traveler the boat must have veered ever so slightly. The autohelm did not catch it (I like to blame the crew) and the main came over about 2 feet before the starboard traveler caught it. Violently. Next thing I noticed was that the last third of the boom was dangling freely from the topping lift.

First I tightened everything. The dangling stopped, the boom piece was held between topping lift, outhaul and reefing lines. I noticed that I was almost on course to the finish line. Sweet Pea was still making hull speed even with the suboptimal shape of the main. After a day on the water I really wanted to finish. But I knew I had to jibe once if I went through the finish line. The main sail looked undamaged, can I make it live through that jibe?

The autohelm still held her on course towards the finish. I tried to bring down the main but the halyard would not budge. I would need to head up against the wind behind Alcatraz or at the Bay Bridge anyway. So I tied up everything as tightly as possible and tried to sail a course parallel to the coast towards the finish. Fortunately the boom broke aft of the sheet. Switched to the other battery to be sure I the engine would start after the finish.

I jibed a bit before the finish, no more damage. Still making above 6 knots, that kept the apparent wind down a bit. I alerted the race committee that they would not be able to see my sail number. I was parallel to the cost now with the possibility to head up, away from the shore. The race committee counted me down as I passed.

I fired up the engine, maintained full speed to keep apparent wind down and furled the jib. Then I headed up and went for a small spot of wind relief behind Alcatraz. A passenger boat was nice enough to make room for me. Using every sail tie I had I was able to bring down and secure the main. Radioed the race committee to thank them and notify them that I was safe, not sure if they heard it from behind Alcatraz, and headed to Sausalito.

I had no idea where the other guys were in the race, so I was really surprised that we had won our division when I read Jackie's email.

Thanks everybody, in particular the race committee, for a great race!

Cheers

Jan
 
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The Sweet Pea is "...an annual climbing plant, growing to a height of 1–2 metres (3 ft 3 in–6 ft 7 in), where suitable support is available ... "

Jan's boom after Farallones 2018.png
 
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I have a Hobie 16 mast section you can have. It would be plenty strong. But you would need to mount the hardware. Not trivial.

Splicing the old boom would be an option. You could ask Glen Hanson at Hanson Rigging in Alameda. (510-521-7027). Buzz Ballenger in Watsonville (831-763-1196) doesn't usually do repairs. But might build you a new boom. Won't be cheap.

As you know, due to age of boom, position of main sheet in center of boom, and corrosion weakness of aft mainsheet block attachment, the mainsail leech strain on the jibe was extreme and the boom broke at its weakness. Good timing!
 
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