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It was Windy

A

AlanH

compulsive typist
For this years Vallejo Race I took along complete sailing newb crew. Well, he'd sailed skipjack 14's as a kid in Newport harbor and been out on a party cruise or two on Chardonnay, out of Santa Cruz. I think he's still a newb. We got to Coyote Point Friday night about 7:00 and did this and that on the boat to get ready to go. After doing all of this and most of that, we walked over to the breakwater to see just how windy it was before heading out.

Whoah.


Whooooaaaaaahhhh. 35 knots? 40? More? It was HONKING. I've never seen waves and chop like that on the Coyote Point breakwater, and it's 2 - 2 1/2 hours of that, straight to windward to get to the City. We've all seen more wind, sure, but for me, only when a huge storm blows through in the winter.

Once before, the night before a race I've said: "Maybe not", and gone to sleep, to try again at 5:00 in the morning. That's what we did. We snoozed on the boat for 6 hours, got up and tried again at 5:00 AM. It was better but leech flutter in the remaining...oh... 27 knots?... of wind destroyed the leech of the mainsail and it split from leech to luff. Oh, well. That was a hell of an introduction for my crew.

We continued under headsail only, and what was amazing was that less than two hours later and 8 miles up the Bay, we were ghosting along in little wind ripples and <5 knots of breeze, thinking about firing up the outboard. sheesh.
 
Well, Tchoup spanked us pretty hard on Saturday 'cause I muffed the call on how much damage the current was going to do after rounding Point Pinole. That was a big mistake. Flood plus runoff added up to probably 3 knots of current on some of the channel markers out in main river. whoooiiie. I saw Georg/Taz at dinner and he put it well...."that's when you say *what are we doing HERE?*". So we headed for the breakwater/rock wall that separates the channel from the wildlife sanctuary behind it. My crew tried to drive us onto the rocks, once. I got a bit tense at that.

Then on Sunday I wuz smart and stayed on the fast side of the river right after the start, but then screwed up the spinnaker set after I saw Steve had set and was catching us fast. Pfffft. However, the rest of the day went pretty well, so we saved our time, which was fun. We were within slingshot distance of Kynntana for a whole lot of the day. Well... if you had a really good slingshot.
 
Also, having now set and futzed with the spinnaker on the Wildcat, I think I'm convinced to stick with symmetrical and not go with an assy. If I don't make hare-brained mistakes, this kite is really easy to handle.
 
AlanH said:
...However, the rest of the day went pretty well, so we saved our time, which was fun. We were within slingshot distance of Kynntana for a whole lot of the day. Well... if you had a really good slingshot.
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And if not a good slingshot, then a better PHRF rating. Congrats on the great finish! It was tough. We weren't sure where you were on Sunday and Kynntana sure could have used that South Bay wind on on both days. Next year, I'm going to petition for a "non-spin shorthand cruising" division ;)
 
Gamayun said:
And if not a good slingshot, then a better PHRF rating. Congrats on the great finish! It was tough. We weren't sure where you were on Sunday and Kynntana sure could have used that South Bay wind on on both days. Next year, I'm going to petition for a "non-spin shorthand cruising" division ;)
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We could stay with you in the lighter stuff but once we got close to the Richmond San Rafael Bridge you picked up ground on every tack. I think Kynntana likes 20 knots. I meant to come by on Sat night and say Hi, but I think you guys headed elsewhere for dinner and snoozing.
 
AlanH said:
We could stay with you in the lighter stuff but once we got close to the Richmond San Rafael Bridge you picked up ground on every tack. I think Kynntana likes 20 knots. I meant to come by on Sat night and say Hi, but I think you guys headed elsewhere for dinner and snoozing.
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She LOVES 15-20 knots! The bigger the wind, the better. Please come by the boat next year. This is our annual cruise out with friends so we always make a big dinner on the boat, do a lot of dancing (and more drinking) at the club, then make a big breakfast in the morning, also on the boat (hence, why I should be in the cruising division). We even had our HMBYC friends on Green Dragon (a Cal 20) tied to our stern this time, so it was perfect -- no long walks from the far side of the marina. We also fed leftovers in the morning to a couple of other straggler friends so there is always plenty to go around. Great racing, great sailing weather, great venue, great band, great food and great fun!
 
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