Single-Handed HMB 2011 - The Race

I started late, typical of me, so I just charged through the start line, a bit tired from a late work night on the Friday.

Nice breeze on the way out of the gate - the windmill of the wind instruments up the mast is missing cups so I am not sure that my reading on wind speed is accurate. Enough for the #3 jib which I had chosen for the start.

The autopilot seemed to be working at the start but really wasn't needed very much. It was ebbing and most boats picked the middle of the channel before veering left toward half moon bay.

The wind was westerly which meant that basically, most of the race was upwind.

Right after lunch time, and just as I was finishing my lunch, the wind picked up even more and I decided to take a reef in. It was also the time when the autopilot connections decided to play a little game on me. I walked up to the mast to tuck in the reefing ring and get ready on the reefing line when I heard 'diiiiiiiiiiing, I just ditched you' signal from the autopilot, telling me that some connection between the display and the main autopilot was severed.

I reset the whole system (using the bungee to drive the boat), and at times (as it happened several times during the trip), I just fumbled with the wires and it would start again...

I ended up heaving to to take the reef in, which only took a min or so. The boat speed wasn't different on the meter but the boat was definitely heeling less, so we were probably making a lot less leeway. I caught up Taz! and pass the last two boats (the slowest) boats in my division, but I didn't manage to put enough time between us to actually beat them on corrected time. Still good and feeling great about myself and boat speed knowing that I was late to the start and that I caught up with them before the great 'light wind' equalizer.

The wind became light as the afternoon advanced and I dropped the jib for the genoa. I saw some boats heading offshore, but it wasn't clear that they had a ton more wind and with such a short distance, it would have to be really worth it. I had plenty of wind where I was

Still going upwind with the genoa

After we cleared Moss Beach (see buoy on the photo), the wind veered sufficiently to the North to allow me to host a kite on a tight reach. Wind speed had dropped significantly by then (at about 8 to 9 knots according to my meter) - of course, this was the time the autopilot decided to shut down completely. The bungee was becoming mroe and more useless as it was a little too stretched by then and many turns were not cutting it anymore.

So putting the kite up meant

1. getting off the harness (loads of boat around and it was very light air)
2. rush to the bow and clip the bag
3. back to correct steering
4. rush to the boat and connect the sheet
5. back to correct steering
6. rush to mast to get halyard and to the bow to connect it / remove velcro
7. back to correct steering
8. rush to mast to get pole out
9. back to correct steering

All the other controls, including the halyard were accessible from the cockpit which made it super easy without an autopilot. Kit (met at dinner) suggested to run a line all around the boat and connect it to the tiller so that the boat can be steered from anywhere. It is not self-steering, but it can certainly make it easier to do maneuvres forward without having to rush back, since small corrections are usually just fine.

And remember that sleeping is usually always possible if the weather allows, even if the autopilot is not working. You can always heave-to. If the weather does not allow you to heave-to, then you probably don't want to be sleeping anyhow...

Hosting the kite

Reaching under spinnaker

Unfortunately, the wind nearly completely died when we got to HMB. I dropped the kite which became too drooly and chatted with Phil (Wetsu) who was right next to me. We were slowly drifting to the finish line...and trying to get the apparent wind created by the swell. The wind was moving forward, probably a really really light land breeze so I heated up, move to weather of all the boats bubbling right by me and headed toward the finish. I caught up several boats that way...including Wetsu and Thumper but didn't manage to get back to Taz! A lot of these boats were not in my division though!

SF and HMB during the summer...