Shorter offshore races, anyone?

[talonf4u]

I *really* want to go to Hawaii solo on my boat.

Turns out my employer and my wife have some opinions about the three-plus weeks off that'll take, to say nothing of the investment. The boat will get there, but it will take lots of either time or money to get it back.

I would love to have a slightly smaller target available to continue to test my boat and my skills while I assemble the pieces for the eventual Hawaii trip. Does anyone else feel this way? Obviously in the LongPac years, there's something to shoot for, but I'm having trouble finding a place to say, "I am going to take a week and race XXX" at the moment. Something in the 2-4 day range, maybe?

It would take perhaps a day or two to leave SF Bay, round a mark off Monterey, and return. Perhaps three days gets you to the 'corner' of California and back, maybe four to five days to round a Channel island and return?

I would think something in the 2-3 day range that was a few weeks before the SHTP would give those folks an excuse to go validate some gear as well.

 

[solosailor]

Are you trying to add another race to the SSS? I'd say the SSS schedule is already quite full. I think you would be racing alone on any course like you spoke about. First, even crewed boats skip offshore races that are close to a Hawaii race date. To much a chance of breaking something. Also, it would be near impossible to get folks to show up to a race that has multiple days of up-wind work at the end of a race..... have you ever sailed up the coast in breeze? You could do the California Offshore Race Week in late May but that is crewed.... don't think there have been even many doublehanded boats.

 

[Bombora]

check out oregon offshore

It's a similar round-trip race to what you mentioned. Columbia river to the mount of San Juan De Fuca, and back. Dip the finish and come home!
https://www.cycportland.org/

 

[tiger beetle]

Hi Talon -

In my experience the boats racing to Hawaii are in no position to go racing the 2-3 weeks prior TransPac start as you don't want to break anything; there's very little time remaining to repair whatever broke. I wouldn't expect many TransPacers to participate in such a race. Usually at the end of two years prep I'm buried fixing things and prepping food and everything else under the sun to consider for racing Beetle prior to the Hawaii race start.

According to Peter Hogg there exists a trophy at Corinthian YC for the "Ironman" race, if memory serves it ran from SF to Point Arena to Morro Bay and return - that would certainly give you 340 miles of offshore sailing! Perhaps Skip knows that race. Not sure I'd want to do that but it would fulfill your idea of a 2-3 day race relatively local with a couple of places boats could bail out safely if conditions deteoriated. If anyone is around at CYC or knows Peter, check the trophy or ask about that event. Apparently it fell out of favor when boats were not so comfortable pounding to weather overnight...

As opposed to an organized event, if you want to to trial your boat prior to a TransPac pop out the Gate and head for Santa Barbara Island and round it aiming back north to Santa Barbara Harbor - a wonderful place to arrive and you can have all kinds of conditions and navigation to deal with.

- rob/beetle

 

[talonf4u]

Oh, I certainly wouldn't propose for less than six weeks or so before the start--my angle on that anyway is it sounds like just the tune up I'd want. But I also enjoy bashing into the teeth of it just a little bit, too... so maybe I'm just a little out there.

Yes, the calendar is pretty full. Since I gotta drive four hours each way to go racing anyway, there isn't much of a time commitment difference between a one hour round the buoys race and a 24-36 hour overnighter for me.

I asked about racing the California Offshore Race Week doublehanded. Race organizers did not reply.

 

[everydaysailor]

Just my humble opinion but the out and back option seems alot more appealing than running down a foggy, ship littered coast singlehanded.
As for testing gear maybe go with 3 crew on CRW and see what your pilot can do. Try various sail selections etc and basically get a feel for the boat "understaffed". My plan was to do SHT 2018 but my wife stepped in and said "let's go doublehanded on Pac Cup and test everything". We let the pilot (EV 100) drive ALOT and would have let it keep going but we needed an additional 50 watts of solar. Plus the Express 27 is just too much fun to drive! If the stars align the little Express will be back in Hawaii this July.

 

[AlanH]

I usually try to schedule my SHTP Inspection about 3-4 weeks before the start. That way I have time to address anything big that appears. The three weeks before that are spent in a blur of "getting ready"...everything but the liferaft and the food. So no long offshore anything for this guy after the Singlehanded Farallones if I'm planning for a SHTP.

 

[BobJ]

I just got an e-mail from YRA about their various series for this season. I recommend OYRA for an already-organized ocean series of (as Chris J suggests) out-and-back races.

In recent years the shorthanders have been the largest division in OYRA (based on boats on the line). One year we had enough for two divisions (split by rating) and in 2016 there were enough to put singlehanders in their own division. I haven't raced this series yet with the "new" boat and I plan to do it this season, especially if the SHTP gets postponed again.

It would be great to field enough singlehanders to have our own division again.