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New Boat 4 Sled
- Thread starter sleddog
- Start date
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Jonathan Gutoff
Member
Hopefully there is a cat in the design somewhere.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
oooh. that would be purty.
New York Yacht Club has its model room, not available to the public.
This thread has its model room, available to all. Bring it on..
Legendary TICONDEROGA. Designed as a cruising boat by L. Francis Herreshoff. Fastest and prettiest of her generation. 34 foot spinnaker poles.
CAT'S MEEOW Flagship of CBC
This thread has its model room, available to all. Bring it on..
Legendary TICONDEROGA. Designed as a cruising boat by L. Francis Herreshoff. Fastest and prettiest of her generation. 34 foot spinnaker poles.
CAT'S MEEOW Flagship of CBC
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Cover Craft
Member
Not exactly a yacht model
But a family heirloom. My dad grew up in Alabama during the depression as my grandad was a chemist working in Anniston. Among many other educational projects Grandad did with his 2 sons was this model of the CSS Alabama, the famous raider in the Civil War. From 1862 to 1864 she did a lot of damage to Union shipping and commerce before being sunk in France by the Kearsarge.
They spent a lot of time researching the ship, which must have been quite a challenge in those days. They were able to find an old sailor who had at least seen her , maybe sailed on her, don’t remember. The model needs a few minor repairs but it will have to wait until I retire.
Note the innovative retractable propeller, partly responsible for her reputation as a very fast sailor.
Another educational project... they built Lightning #204 and sailed it on lakes in Alabama and later in Ohio.
Both my dad and my uncle went on to become lifelong sailors and boat owners. So I guess I can say that I come by it honestly.
Tom (currently boatless)
But a family heirloom. My dad grew up in Alabama during the depression as my grandad was a chemist working in Anniston. Among many other educational projects Grandad did with his 2 sons was this model of the CSS Alabama, the famous raider in the Civil War. From 1862 to 1864 she did a lot of damage to Union shipping and commerce before being sunk in France by the Kearsarge.
They spent a lot of time researching the ship, which must have been quite a challenge in those days. They were able to find an old sailor who had at least seen her , maybe sailed on her, don’t remember. The model needs a few minor repairs but it will have to wait until I retire.
Note the innovative retractable propeller, partly responsible for her reputation as a very fast sailor.
Another educational project... they built Lightning #204 and sailed it on lakes in Alabama and later in Ohio.
Both my dad and my uncle went on to become lifelong sailors and boat owners. So I guess I can say that I come by it honestly.
Tom (currently boatless)
Tom,
Thanks so much for sharing your stunning family heirloom model of the ALABAMA. What a ship she was, and what a history during her two year career as an expeditionary raider sinking 65 Union ships, taking 2,000 prisoners and repatriating them without loss of a single life.
ALABAMA's speed was legendary, and she could outrun and outgun about anything afloat during her 7 expeditionary raids around the World using apparent wind created by her twin steam engines combined with reduced drag of a retractable propeller and massive sail area. During 534 days at sea ALABAMA caught and boarded 450 vessels.
It was only when the ALABAMA met the pursuing iron clad Union sloop of war KEARSAGE in the Battle of Cherbourg was the ALABAMA sunk. As KEARSAGE gybed to meet her opponent, ALABAMA opened fire. KEARSARGE waited patiently until the range had closed to less than 1,000 yards. According to survivors, the two ships steamed on opposite courses in seven spiraling circles, moving southwesterly with the 3-knot current, each commander trying to cross the bow of his opponent to deliver a heavy raking fire (to "Cross the T"). These life or death tactics make an America's Cup match race pre-start circling look like child's bathtub play.
The battle turned against ALABAMA due to the superior gunnery of the KEARSARGE and the deteriorated state of ALABAMA's contaminated powder and fuses. Nevertheless, an ALABAMA shot hit KEARSARGE's vulnerable stern post, the impact binding the ship's rudder badly. That shell, however, failed to explode. If it had done so, it would have seriously disabled KEARSARGE's steering, possibly sinking the warship, and ending the contest. No emergency steering in those days.
Famous painting of the Battle of Cherbourg by French artist Edouard Manet exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art..
ALABAMA's too rapid rate-of-fire resulted in many of her shots going high. Little did Captain Semmes of the ALABAMA know that the KEARSARGE had been secretly ironclad by wrapping her midships hull in 120 fathoms of anchor chain, disguised with black painted coverboards, effectively protecting from shots into the KEARSARGE's wooden hull.
A little more than an hour after the first shot was fired, ALABAMA was reduced to a sinking hulk, forcing Captain Semmes to hoist a white flag of surrender and send one of his two surviving boats to KEARSARGE to ask for assistance.
As they still sing in a legendary schooner shanty, "Roll Alabama Roll." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSoG216dTnY
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The below is from Webb Chiles, attempting completion of likely his last circumnavigation.
"Webb Chiles, 77, is about to sail from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for Panama and San Diego, in GANNET, his ultralight Moore 24, to complete his sixth circumnavigation and her first. Since leaving San Diego in 2014, GANNET’s daily runs total 25,028 miles.
Their intended course to Panama is east of the Bahamas and through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti.
Webb Chiles has never had sponsorship or shore teams. He goes to sea with no radio beyond a handheld VHF with a range of less than ten miles. He has contempt for crowd funding of other people’s dreams. Decades ago he found freedom by choosing to be independently poor. The key word is ‘independent’.
He and GANNET will depart when he sees a GRIB he likes, but no earlier than Wednesday, January 16. Once at sea he cuts ties to the land completely and receives no outside weather information. He studies the sky, the sea, and the barometer, looking for signs of change.
He hopes to reach San Diego in time to be with Carol, his wife, on her birthday in late April.
If you want to follow, GANNET’s Yellowbrick tracking page is: https://my.yb.tl/gannet
His website is: www.inthepresentsea.com
His online journal:
www.self-portraitinthepresentseajournal.blogspot.com "
"Webb Chiles, 77, is about to sail from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for Panama and San Diego, in GANNET, his ultralight Moore 24, to complete his sixth circumnavigation and her first. Since leaving San Diego in 2014, GANNET’s daily runs total 25,028 miles.
Their intended course to Panama is east of the Bahamas and through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti.
Webb Chiles has never had sponsorship or shore teams. He goes to sea with no radio beyond a handheld VHF with a range of less than ten miles. He has contempt for crowd funding of other people’s dreams. Decades ago he found freedom by choosing to be independently poor. The key word is ‘independent’.
He and GANNET will depart when he sees a GRIB he likes, but no earlier than Wednesday, January 16. Once at sea he cuts ties to the land completely and receives no outside weather information. He studies the sky, the sea, and the barometer, looking for signs of change.
He hopes to reach San Diego in time to be with Carol, his wife, on her birthday in late April.
If you want to follow, GANNET’s Yellowbrick tracking page is: https://my.yb.tl/gannet
His website is: www.inthepresentsea.com
His online journal:
www.self-portraitinthepresentseajournal.blogspot.com "
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This just in from Capt. Bob, bicycling near Kahuku Point, the most northerly point on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. An albatross is nesting and sitting on an egg nearby the bicycle trail.
These magnificent birds are much endangered, not only from ocean plastic, but also human interference. It will be interesting to see if this albatross can hatch its egg, given the nest's proximity to dogs, rats, mongoose, and humans. At least the location is roped off.
1/14/19
Good news from Capt. Bob on his bike on the N. Shore of Oahu near Kahuku Point. There are now at least 6 visible albatross nests in the area, with the females and males trading off on egg sitting duty. There is also a human guard, living in a tent, to protect the families. Thanks to Capt. Bob, you will be the first to know if there are hatchlings.
1125 nm miles northwest of Kahuku Point on Oahu, our own Liz Baylis is currently at the greatest albatross nesting site in the N.Hemisphere, Midway Atoll. Liz is one of a special few allowed to visit Midway, and is assisting with an albatross census, as well as helping clean Midway of oceanic plastic, which she reports is a a huge problem to the giant birds. We wish Liz and her team the best in their counting and cleanup endeavors.
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The day after yesterday's 3 Bridge Fiasco, as viewed from the deck of the Capitola Boat Club. My responsibilities were elsewhere yesterday, including a birthday party, a visit by a 3.5 year old girlfriend, PT, and a boat inspection at Moss Landing.
Other than a bunch of nice pics, no report yet on the 3 Bridge Fiasco, except "it was a beautiful day, and we dropped out."
What I saw was from a different perspective, utilizing the St.Francis YC webcam with 20 second control, and AIS position reports of a dozen competitors running AIS.
The webcam at the start showed 8-10 knots of northerly wind with the ebb tide taking a preponderance of the 300 starters west to Blackaller buoy first. Much of the fleet looked under powered with non-overlapping jibs as they reached along on starboard tack for the first mile. It was hard to miss the split rigs, about 5, on the webcam, with the yawl SURPRISE front and center, as well as the ketch GALAXSEA.
After rounding Blackaller, it looked like the clockwise contingent split: some opting for Raccoon Straits, and the others on a long port tack beat for Pt. Blunt leaving Angel Island to port enroute to Red Rock.
AIS users I could track were Jonathan on PUNK DOLPHIN, Hank on SERENADE, Scott on ANOTHER GIRL, and Steve on ALCHIMISTE all having left Blunt to port and having a ding dong battle up to Red Rock in light and shifty N-NE winds and the last of the ebb. The boats that chose Raccoon Straits east bound did not seem to have done all that well. At one point, PUNKIE was doing 7 knots, and nearby ANOTHER GIRL making only 3.
On the reach/run to Treasure Island, it looked like SERENADE got around in the clear and was first home along the City Front ahead of PUNK DOLPHIN and ANOTHER GIRL. Who would bet against Hank? I'm guessing the wind faded as the afternoon waned. Did anyone see more than 10 knots of true wind speed or/or water on the deck? I kinda doubt it. Sunburn more likely. I also wasn't able to follow the counter-clockwise contingent except for WHITE SHADOW, that looked to be doing well.
Apologies to the many of you I couldn't see online: I know Hodges was out there on TIMBERWOLF, Gordie on ARCADIA, the usual fast Wabbits and approximately 30 Moore-24's, 18 Express-27's and an equal number of J-105's. Don't forget the Knarr. Contenders all.
Hope you too had a good day.
While at Elkhorn YC in Moss Landing I took photos of two distinctive and famous bows. If you can identify the design of the boats the two bows belong to, and then identify the competitor sailing her Hawkfarm with her dog as crew in yesterday's 3BF, you win a traditional CBC prize.
Here's the two bows:
1) (IOR design, competitor in first SHTP)
2)
3) And here's the girl and her dog in yesterday's 3BF, about to round TI:
Other than a bunch of nice pics, no report yet on the 3 Bridge Fiasco, except "it was a beautiful day, and we dropped out."
What I saw was from a different perspective, utilizing the St.Francis YC webcam with 20 second control, and AIS position reports of a dozen competitors running AIS.
The webcam at the start showed 8-10 knots of northerly wind with the ebb tide taking a preponderance of the 300 starters west to Blackaller buoy first. Much of the fleet looked under powered with non-overlapping jibs as they reached along on starboard tack for the first mile. It was hard to miss the split rigs, about 5, on the webcam, with the yawl SURPRISE front and center, as well as the ketch GALAXSEA.
After rounding Blackaller, it looked like the clockwise contingent split: some opting for Raccoon Straits, and the others on a long port tack beat for Pt. Blunt leaving Angel Island to port enroute to Red Rock.
AIS users I could track were Jonathan on PUNK DOLPHIN, Hank on SERENADE, Scott on ANOTHER GIRL, and Steve on ALCHIMISTE all having left Blunt to port and having a ding dong battle up to Red Rock in light and shifty N-NE winds and the last of the ebb. The boats that chose Raccoon Straits east bound did not seem to have done all that well. At one point, PUNKIE was doing 7 knots, and nearby ANOTHER GIRL making only 3.
On the reach/run to Treasure Island, it looked like SERENADE got around in the clear and was first home along the City Front ahead of PUNK DOLPHIN and ANOTHER GIRL. Who would bet against Hank? I'm guessing the wind faded as the afternoon waned. Did anyone see more than 10 knots of true wind speed or/or water on the deck? I kinda doubt it. Sunburn more likely. I also wasn't able to follow the counter-clockwise contingent except for WHITE SHADOW, that looked to be doing well.
Apologies to the many of you I couldn't see online: I know Hodges was out there on TIMBERWOLF, Gordie on ARCADIA, the usual fast Wabbits and approximately 30 Moore-24's, 18 Express-27's and an equal number of J-105's. Don't forget the Knarr. Contenders all.
Hope you too had a good day.
While at Elkhorn YC in Moss Landing I took photos of two distinctive and famous bows. If you can identify the design of the boats the two bows belong to, and then identify the competitor sailing her Hawkfarm with her dog as crew in yesterday's 3BF, you win a traditional CBC prize.
Here's the two bows:
1) (IOR design, competitor in first SHTP)
2)
3) And here's the girl and her dog in yesterday's 3BF, about to round TI:
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Tom P.
m/v PACIFIC LOON
Hello Sled, We hope the PT is going well.
In the spirit of letting others participate in your quiz, I will resist jumping in with the answers (this one is way too easy).
There should even be extra points for the name of the dog.
I was part of the race committee for 3BF and will provide some perspective from the SSS/GGYC Race Deck.... stay tuned.
Tom
In the spirit of letting others participate in your quiz, I will resist jumping in with the answers (this one is way too easy).
There should even be extra points for the name of the dog.
I was part of the race committee for 3BF and will provide some perspective from the SSS/GGYC Race Deck.... stay tuned.
Tom
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Cover Craft
Member
Those look like the bows of an Albin 30 and a Moore 24 with snout added on. (That would make for a directionally challenged catamaran!) And of course that’s Eyrie sailed by Synthia and Rreveur.
Tom
Tom
Congrats COVER CRAFT Tom....You got it all, even Synthia's dog's name, Rreveur spelled correctly.
However...a second prize remains. The reddish IOR boat was later built by Albin of Sweden. But it is not technically an "Albin-30." It was designed by a young Peter Norlin and #1 of this popular Swedish class raced against IMPROBABLE in the 1971 SORC, winning Class E (small boat class). It was also high point boat on SF Bay in 1973 against some very good competition.
So, if it's not an Albin 30, but was built by Albin, what is it? DAZZLER, you are allowed to answer.
Extra points for the name of this yacht's skipper in the 1978 SHTP, probably one of the toughest singlehanders you've never heard of and first to circumnavigate with a Cal-40. I once saw him washed overboard in a 15 foot breaking wave, swim to his now skipperless circling Cal-40, throw an arm and leg over the rail, and pull himself aboard. I asked him how he knew to do that? He said he'd practiced that pullup "just in case." Good Grief.
And yes, that's a light blue Moore-24 with a sprit. I thought the sprit would throw you off. Wrong! You guys and girls are good. PHILPOTT, I have your CBC burgee award, currently one of a kind, ready to be hung from your rafters or flown from DM's starboard spreader when you are visiting Monterey Bay local waters.
PS...is a Moore 24 with a sprit and asso faster DDW in big breeze than a similar Moore with a symmetric and pole? I say NO, because all the sail area is to leeward on the sprit boat and it would be too unstable and out of balance. Don't ask how I know this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLYDq4PEJRM I rest my case.
PS2 Webb Chiles on his Moore 24 GANNET looks to be in a race for survival 75 miles off the northern coast of FLA. He's in the northern quadrant of a 1003 Mb Low with 30-35 knots of North wind. That wouldn't be too bad for a Moore 24 heading south except for one very significant fact: There's 3-4 knots of Gulf Stream current flowing northward against that wind. The square waves created by this conflict can be ship killers. Webb is currently drifting west at 2.5 knots, I would imagine under much reduced sail or bare poles. Hold on Buddy!
However...a second prize remains. The reddish IOR boat was later built by Albin of Sweden. But it is not technically an "Albin-30." It was designed by a young Peter Norlin and #1 of this popular Swedish class raced against IMPROBABLE in the 1971 SORC, winning Class E (small boat class). It was also high point boat on SF Bay in 1973 against some very good competition.
So, if it's not an Albin 30, but was built by Albin, what is it? DAZZLER, you are allowed to answer.
Extra points for the name of this yacht's skipper in the 1978 SHTP, probably one of the toughest singlehanders you've never heard of and first to circumnavigate with a Cal-40. I once saw him washed overboard in a 15 foot breaking wave, swim to his now skipperless circling Cal-40, throw an arm and leg over the rail, and pull himself aboard. I asked him how he knew to do that? He said he'd practiced that pullup "just in case." Good Grief.
And yes, that's a light blue Moore-24 with a sprit. I thought the sprit would throw you off. Wrong! You guys and girls are good. PHILPOTT, I have your CBC burgee award, currently one of a kind, ready to be hung from your rafters or flown from DM's starboard spreader when you are visiting Monterey Bay local waters.
PS...is a Moore 24 with a sprit and asso faster DDW in big breeze than a similar Moore with a symmetric and pole? I say NO, because all the sail area is to leeward on the sprit boat and it would be too unstable and out of balance. Don't ask how I know this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLYDq4PEJRM I rest my case.
PS2 Webb Chiles on his Moore 24 GANNET looks to be in a race for survival 75 miles off the northern coast of FLA. He's in the northern quadrant of a 1003 Mb Low with 30-35 knots of North wind. That wouldn't be too bad for a Moore 24 heading south except for one very significant fact: There's 3-4 knots of Gulf Stream current flowing northward against that wind. The square waves created by this conflict can be ship killers. Webb is currently drifting west at 2.5 knots, I would imagine under much reduced sail or bare poles. Hold on Buddy!
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BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
Regarding the red Norlin design, I spy a chine aft so I'll guess it's a Scampi 30. A quick survey of the SHTP historical results revealed one in the 1978 race named Mach Schnell, skippered by Hans Vielhauer.
I have a brief story about that SF Bay Scampi 30 from 1973. As a young sailor, I crewed on a boat who raced against it in YRA. I'll stop by later to post a bit more.
I have a brief story about that SF Bay Scampi 30 from 1973. As a young sailor, I crewed on a boat who raced against it in YRA. I'll stop by later to post a bit more.
Winner, winner chicken dinner to BobJ for the Scampi with an aft chine. Cover Craft Tom gets the Mahi Mahi 1st prize.
And yes, it was Hans Vielhauer pulled himself back aboard his Cal 40 CHAPPARAL after being washed overboard when a close out set tubed the Ala Wai Entrance (Honolulu), broaching CHAPPARAL mast horizontal. The audience gathered to watch the surfers of the South Swell gave him a big cheer as he then safely entered the harbor. There's film of this someplace. Marianne?
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Cover Craft
Member
Aaarrrggghhhh, The old grey cells ain’t what they used to be. I was trying but couldn’t shake loose “Scampi” even though I knew the builder. And technically I misspelled the dog’s name because I don’t know how to find a circonflexe on the iPad!��. I think I only qualify for partial credit on that one!
Regards to Tom, Bob, and Synthia, with all of whom I’ve been in contact this week.
Regards to Tom, Bob, and Synthia, with all of whom I’ve been in contact this week.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Another year, another Fiasco
2019 Three Bridge Fiasco
After starting with the ebb I immediately turned around and headed for Yerba Buena Island. Once I had raised my pretty drifter Dura Mater and I clung to Fort Mason and then Pier 39 because I knew we had to get around YB before the flood. We were in good company: it seemed like half the Moore 24s on the west coast passed us. Those sailors were focused and their sails were perfectly trimmed. They didn’t even look around at each other, but kept their eyes forward. There was enough wind down near Blossom Rock to cause DM to try to round up a few times. That poor drifter! But it was up already, so there we were.
Then we were over there in the southwest corner when the wind died. Dianne squeaked by us but lots of boats were just becalmed, and we for sure lost steerage. At one point DM was pointed toward Red Rock. A big Catalina was next to us and the skipper called over “Hey! You’re going the wrong way!” My reply? “It’s the Fiasco! We can go any way we want!” It was funny but not really.
It seemed like forever that we were pinned there, really close up against the island. Good thing it’s deep up to the edge, because we were up to the edge. I’ve sailed over there lots of times, so it wasn’t being close to the edge that alarmed me, it was the impending flood, and the fact that our clock was ticking.
Finally we got around it and saw a whole lotta boats just north of the bridge with sails slatting. Poor things. It was a real wind hole up there, too. We sailed slowly further away from the Coast Guard restricted zone only because I thought we could avoid the flood a bit over there. Slowly slowly we sailed under the Bridge and inched toward the Berkeley Pier. There it was, so near yet so far away.
My garmin has the Bob Klein buoy as a waypoint, and we were 2.27 nm from it. I was hopeful. We still had four and a half hours to finish the race! I used the super special ranging technique and saw that DM and I were moving forward, albeit slowly. My garmin said that we would reach Bob Klein by 7:03 pm. That was an estimate that didn’t take the potential for afternoon wind into account, though, and I remained optimistic.
But then we began to lose ground. 2.27 nm to Bob K turned into 2.29 and then sped up to 2.36. We were going backwards, and much too quickly my get rich quick dreams began to fade. The wind was now straight out of the north. While I struggled to take the drifter down we got swept back under the Bridge, right toward the permanent barge anchored just below it. We avoided being swept into it by my excellent avoidance skills (yell, “Aaauuuggghhh!”, turn the boat around, face the foe and steer around it, breathing hard) and then there we were, on the south side of the bridge AGAIN, headed for Oakland’s outer harbor. The drifter was still half way up, and it was acting like a spinnaker, colluding with the wind to make it seem as though we were merely outliers and in fact part of the hordes of zippy boats with their spinnakers up, sailing south past the Coast Guard station.
I considered our options. They were bad options, but one was to follow the crowd back around the south side of Yerba Buena, heading from there back up and around Red Rock etc. Maybe I could argue that four times under the Bridge would equal once around the island itself (4x under the bridge = 1 island)? But then I remembered that our race chair was Vickers. He’s a stickler for detail. I might have tried it even so, except that I had one of Ray Irvine’s trackers aboard, and he would rat me out. He and the afore-mentioned stickler meet regularly at an undisclosed location somewhere deep down on the Peninsula where they refine sailing instructions like this one:
COURSE Three course marks are YRA 6 ("Blackaller" a yellow cylinder 0.2 nm east of Fort Point), Red Rock, and Yerba Buena Island. Boats shall round these three marks in any order and in either direction.
I mean, seriously. Who organizes a race like that? I am not making this up. It’s crazy, huh? Anyway, I think those Sailing Instructions are pretty darned ambiguous.
So I whined and cursed for wind, but it was clear that we wouldn’t recover from this one. As Dan Willey once told me, “For heavy displacement boats, if you can’t count on wind, current is EVERYTHING”. Daniel on the magnificent Galaxsea did finish this race, by the way.
So those are my excuses for not finishing the Fiasco this year. Now the only thing to do is wait for the results, which Jim Vickers has promised us. What do I want to know? Just how fast was FUGU and how did Summertime Dream stack up against Rreveur on Eyrie? I spoke with one singlehander who smacked into that barge, and got a text from another one who turned on the engine in order to avoid doing just that. Lots going on out there on a beautiful day sailing the San Francisco Bay while a good portion of the country was hunkered down in blizzards. Not able to finish a sailboat race? Cry me a river!
Thank you to Bobby Arthurs s/v Rosalita, for the photo of Dura Mater as we all made our way back to the barn.
2019 Three Bridge Fiasco
After starting with the ebb I immediately turned around and headed for Yerba Buena Island. Once I had raised my pretty drifter Dura Mater and I clung to Fort Mason and then Pier 39 because I knew we had to get around YB before the flood. We were in good company: it seemed like half the Moore 24s on the west coast passed us. Those sailors were focused and their sails were perfectly trimmed. They didn’t even look around at each other, but kept their eyes forward. There was enough wind down near Blossom Rock to cause DM to try to round up a few times. That poor drifter! But it was up already, so there we were.
Then we were over there in the southwest corner when the wind died. Dianne squeaked by us but lots of boats were just becalmed, and we for sure lost steerage. At one point DM was pointed toward Red Rock. A big Catalina was next to us and the skipper called over “Hey! You’re going the wrong way!” My reply? “It’s the Fiasco! We can go any way we want!” It was funny but not really.
It seemed like forever that we were pinned there, really close up against the island. Good thing it’s deep up to the edge, because we were up to the edge. I’ve sailed over there lots of times, so it wasn’t being close to the edge that alarmed me, it was the impending flood, and the fact that our clock was ticking.
Finally we got around it and saw a whole lotta boats just north of the bridge with sails slatting. Poor things. It was a real wind hole up there, too. We sailed slowly further away from the Coast Guard restricted zone only because I thought we could avoid the flood a bit over there. Slowly slowly we sailed under the Bridge and inched toward the Berkeley Pier. There it was, so near yet so far away.
My garmin has the Bob Klein buoy as a waypoint, and we were 2.27 nm from it. I was hopeful. We still had four and a half hours to finish the race! I used the super special ranging technique and saw that DM and I were moving forward, albeit slowly. My garmin said that we would reach Bob Klein by 7:03 pm. That was an estimate that didn’t take the potential for afternoon wind into account, though, and I remained optimistic.
But then we began to lose ground. 2.27 nm to Bob K turned into 2.29 and then sped up to 2.36. We were going backwards, and much too quickly my get rich quick dreams began to fade. The wind was now straight out of the north. While I struggled to take the drifter down we got swept back under the Bridge, right toward the permanent barge anchored just below it. We avoided being swept into it by my excellent avoidance skills (yell, “Aaauuuggghhh!”, turn the boat around, face the foe and steer around it, breathing hard) and then there we were, on the south side of the bridge AGAIN, headed for Oakland’s outer harbor. The drifter was still half way up, and it was acting like a spinnaker, colluding with the wind to make it seem as though we were merely outliers and in fact part of the hordes of zippy boats with their spinnakers up, sailing south past the Coast Guard station.
I considered our options. They were bad options, but one was to follow the crowd back around the south side of Yerba Buena, heading from there back up and around Red Rock etc. Maybe I could argue that four times under the Bridge would equal once around the island itself (4x under the bridge = 1 island)? But then I remembered that our race chair was Vickers. He’s a stickler for detail. I might have tried it even so, except that I had one of Ray Irvine’s trackers aboard, and he would rat me out. He and the afore-mentioned stickler meet regularly at an undisclosed location somewhere deep down on the Peninsula where they refine sailing instructions like this one:
COURSE Three course marks are YRA 6 ("Blackaller" a yellow cylinder 0.2 nm east of Fort Point), Red Rock, and Yerba Buena Island. Boats shall round these three marks in any order and in either direction.
I mean, seriously. Who organizes a race like that? I am not making this up. It’s crazy, huh? Anyway, I think those Sailing Instructions are pretty darned ambiguous.
So I whined and cursed for wind, but it was clear that we wouldn’t recover from this one. As Dan Willey once told me, “For heavy displacement boats, if you can’t count on wind, current is EVERYTHING”. Daniel on the magnificent Galaxsea did finish this race, by the way.
So those are my excuses for not finishing the Fiasco this year. Now the only thing to do is wait for the results, which Jim Vickers has promised us. What do I want to know? Just how fast was FUGU and how did Summertime Dream stack up against Rreveur on Eyrie? I spoke with one singlehander who smacked into that barge, and got a text from another one who turned on the engine in order to avoid doing just that. Lots going on out there on a beautiful day sailing the San Francisco Bay while a good portion of the country was hunkered down in blizzards. Not able to finish a sailboat race? Cry me a river!
Thank you to Bobby Arthurs s/v Rosalita, for the photo of Dura Mater as we all made our way back to the barn.
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photo credit to Rich Hudnut sailing on J-120 Twist
To Cover Craft Tom, hold your finger on the e and ê becomes an option