A fun day of racing the 3BF with Kim aboard the WylieCat-39 CHECKERED PAST, rating 102. We started sailing downtide to the west so as to have right-of-way at the outboard starting buoy, then tacking to port to short tack the City Front going east, our plan to sail counter/clockwise to TI, RedRock, Crissy, and Finish.
The first leg was sailed in easterly breeze, 4-8 knots, viz about 1/4 mile and fog, and a strong ebb tide of 1-2 knots. Most everyone was polite as boats coming offshore on starboard often ducked port tackers going inshore, then received reciprocal courtesy on the next crossing. This is called "waving across" and is a simple act of courtesy that helps both boats avoid unnecessary, slowing, and awkward tacks. I only heard one instance of yelling, and only one ferry horn.
In the fog we went two tacks too far east past the Ferry Building, and crossing under the Bay Bridge to Yerba Buena overstood slightly. Everyone in our leading group honored the restricted zone around the CG Buoy Depot as we bore away downwind for the Berkeley Flats and Red Rock in winds of 4-7 knots. It was here I saw an interesting thing: RUFLESS, the J-125 and ultimate 3BF winner, went through our lee on a beam reach going 3-4 knots faster than our 3.5 knots. Wow! No wonder they beat the second place boat by 14 minutes. Good going guys!
The run towards Red Rock was mostly uneventful as boats with spinnakers would zip by our wishbone, cat (one sail) rig. We did pass one boat, a Cal-40. It seems her new owner, a long time Moore-24 skipper, had a brain fade and forgot what boat he was on. This resulted in he and his crew starting his new to him Cal-40 in the middle of 32 Moore 24's, not realizing until 4 minutes later what they had done. Whoops. They carried on and likely received a 20 minute penalty.
Another point of interest appeared at we rounded Red Rock to port against a strong ebb. There on the back (north) side was an Express 27 hard aground on the shingle beach. With sails down, they were attempting to heel the boat, which seemed to result in their boat be pushed further up the beach by the strong, ebb current...similar to another Express in the same place, the previous year. I hope they did not have too long of a wait to get off.
Sailing closehauled in the clear skies and now filled SW breeze of 10-15 knots towards Raccoon Straits was delightful and we were able to pick off some smaller boats who seemed overpowered. As we tacked to port to lay up the middle of Raccoon Straits we passed both an Express 37 and J-105 who had run aground, the Express 37 inside Keil Cove just west of Pt. Bluff. What was strange was neither boat seemed to realize what had happened for the longest time and just lay there on port tack, sails sheeted in, going further into the mud. A depth sounder and paper chart certainly would have prevented their situation.
We went right into Peninsula Point off Belvedere on port tack, made 3 clearing three tacks, and headed for Crissy in a now building flood tide. Life was good in the 12-15 knots of westerly until we noticed a large green COSCO ship coming our direction, outbound at 12 knots. It looked like it would be a close cross, but the wind lightened, we saw them begin to alter to port at Harding, and one long blast of their horn quickly convinced us and other boats in our vicinity to tack to port towards Yellow Bluff, and stay well clear. This avoidance, sailing at right angles to course, actually worked out well as we sailed into more wind and nicely laid Crissy as the outbound ship passed ahead and out the Gate.
The run home to the finish was eazy-peazy, finishing at 3:43 pm. Thank you Race Committee!
