The short version: A predicted 40 kt downwind race with boats dropping outin the days before the race due to the predicted wind and waves turnedinto a 5-10 kt upwind race. Even the really quick boats finished in thewee hours of the morning.
Because of the feline-induced delay in getting to the boat, we were dressing ourselves and Elise for the race as we proceeded across the bay towards the Knox-area starting line (Golden Gate side of Angel Island).We had enough time (just) to get the sails in order, but were still setting up some gear as we went upwind to the bridge- bit of a loss on speed but Nat kept her in good control even with no weight on the rail.
At the start we had healthy #3 conditions for a doublehanded crew, though some other boats were carrying more sail. A shorthanded starting line is always an interesting place because the fleet is a mixed bag (full-crewed divisisions, because there are more participants, are usually able to give more even racing between comparable boats). In this case, we had everyone from Moore 24's up to Phillipe Kahn's Pegasus, rounded out withE27's, a Cal 40, and quite a few boats in between. Nat was driving and wehad a pretty clean start and good speed (handicapped by finishing the rigging as we tacked back and forth).
Starting at the committee boat end (towards Tiburon, with the line roughly parallel to the GG bridge), we proceeded to the right, towards the north tower. The goal is to stay in favorable current, but not get caught in the odd wind and current eddies off to one side near the Presidio Yacht Club. Last year I (with Jerry K, blame to me) made the mistake of watching Torben sail off to the north in Tivoli instead of following him.
There was reasonable breeze and a favorable current line there, as expected. The smaller boats did the same thing. Some of the larger boats starting after us broke off to the south as soon as they had a clearline. We missed one tack back in to the north because we were finishing off rigging the boat, and lost a bit. By the north tower, we were back against the shore. We stayed relatively close for another 1/2 mile or so.I think it was a net gain for that part of the race (against the boats close by but not entirely on the opposite, South, side).
In retrospect, I think the boats that immediately headed south might have had a slightly better idea. We headed over halfway or so out to Mile Rock, and then joined up for a close rounding at Seal Rocks. First,though, we dropped off Nat's beloved white bucket- her successor shall have a clip on her lanyard instead of a simple rope: as in other boat features, people are more inclined to do the safe+right thing when it's made easy by having the proper gear.
The wind there was already starting to die, and it was hard for us (or the other <40>
We made a pretty close rounding but stayed outside the steeper swells and breaking water inshore. After a good 15 minutes on a close-hauled heading making little headway (stbd tack), I got worried about the lack of progress around the corner and the dying breeze and bore off towards shore to get better speed. I knew we were probably giving up the chance at making the next point down the coast without tacking out again, but when your VMG is close to zero you need to do just about anything you can to keep moving. In the light breeze, Nat did some careful experiments in ballast positioning (aka sprawling out in the sun on the windward rail). In a long race, you take your rest when the chance presents itself. Being warm, dry, and in easy reach of the jib sheet is about as good as it gets for double-handed off watch periods.
I believe we benefited considerably against the doublehanders at this stage as a result of two decisions:
1) having cracked off
2) not trading back and forth between jibs constantly. We saw at leastone boat we believe must have changed sails four times before San Pedro. It would have been beneficial to change up once to the #1, but shorthanded the constant flipping back and forth is an awful lot of bareheaded sailing. Also, in the swells we were able to at least keep our smaller jib solidly full.
I had expected to tack right at San Pedro (or when a lack of wind inshore near the point became apparent) but we got hit by a massive header and saw the writing on the wall.
Other boats (including Red Sky) took the opportunity to go offshore a bit; we came back in when the wind swung back a little. I think that this next hitch in was a reasonable idea, but repeating one more time after that didn't pay off: one of the Moore 24's gained considerably.
At this point, it was becoming later in the afternoon with no sign of either freshening breeze or the southerly breeze turning around and pushing us in the expected direction under spinnaker.
As an odds-on choice, heading offshore and hoping for the more normal ocean wind patterns to be around would probably have been the best call. Unfortunately, that would have involved sailing perpendicular to our destination rather than more or less toward it on the shore.
I'll happily sail a mile or so for wind, but on what should be an overnight race you can only sail so far out of your way and not pay a steep entry fee to find out what's over there: an extra couple of miles when you're only creeping along to begin with is a lot of time to give upon a speculative call.
At 5 PM and 5:30, there was no sign of breeze. We checked out the buoy report, looked fondly over at Pillar Point and the delightful little village not quite visible yet, and made the call to head in for dinner.
As it turned out, that was probably the right move because the wind haddropped to almost nothing by the time we got to the other side of thepoint (where the harbor entrance is). We ghosted in under sail (always nice when you don't have to put out the engine) and tied up next to a fewother dropouts.
For Pac Cup practice, we definitely made the right decision because we got a very nice spinnaker leg in back to San Francisco the next morning. As a final irony, one week later some boats were unable to get back up to SF because of the heavy NW winds we had been hoping for (they had stayed for a Santa Cruz event).
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