This is one of my favorites events on the Bay. Single Handed Farallones is one of my favorite ocean events and the Delta Ditch Run is one of my favorite inland events. One day I might even try it single handed although that would be very tiring as there would be no respite as no real sea room.
Above, getting out of the harbor - there was enough wind to just sail to the start - another perk of a small boat that I like. Unless there is no wind, Elise does not see her engine - everywhere she goes and everything she does, she does it under sail - and that would include anchoring and docking.
The race counts over 350 starters and is the largest race in North Amerca. Boats of all sizes will meet. Sailors of all kinds, all levels of experience will take the start. It is a short-handed race so only two types of crew will be there: double-handed or single-handed. Since my recently developed love for single-handed sailing, this is the category that I choose to compete in.
The Moore 24 fleet is a highly compettive one and many boats showed up for the race. You can cross the start/finish line in any direction. You can go around the course in any order and in any direction so long as you hit each of the marks which you can round any which way you want.
This makes this race a very tough one as strategy plays a large role.
There were 4 Express 27s single handed on the line which was great for me. Archimedes was among them?
Tough decision. The ebb made me want to to Blackaller first but then ruled out TI as the second mark given the extra distance so I went off to Red Rock - it turns out that TI was a pretty good bet as the first mark despite the ebb. A lot more downwind as basically my race ended up being Upwind, then reachy then immediately back to upwind, then upwind then reach immediately back to upwind, then upwind (loose beat) then upwind to the finish...I did have favorable currents though all the way up to the final leg - and still managed to stay in ebb along the city front for about a 1/3 of that. Really tough choice.
Going up and down the start area... and trying various sail trim to figure out a good one to take me to my first mark
I sail with a #2 when I am short-handed. I found that I go mostly as fast as with the #1 up even in light air and it is much easier to tack the sail. It also allows me to keep it up for higher wind speeds than wth a #1 given that I have no weight on the rail.
I go upwind and another Express (in the double handed decision) decided to go downwind to TI first clearly.
Leaving the dock on a beautiful morning.
At the start, an asym boat kept trying to force me down (an open 570). I shouted 'leeward' and wanted to force them to take my stern as I knew that they wouldn't go up wth their kite up. They shouted back 'we have started' and I shouted back 'I am starting in 30 seconds and right now I can't get to the line because of you - basically we were both racing and I had rights. They ultimately let me go but that made me late to the start by about 40 min.
Trim looks ok, I opened up the sail a bit to power the boat a bit more as the breeze to strat with was pretty steady after the first mark. At the mark, a boat much bigger than Elise just blasted through on starboard tack. The only problem? I made it to the three boat mark way before they did so starboard or not, they had absolutely no right to cut between me and the mark (I was one boat length or less from the mark by that time). I had to emergency tack away from them, they tack way past the mark since they couldn't tack into me. I didn't protest much like I didn't protest at the start. Too many boats to go by. Otherwise I would protest. This race has a lot of less experienced racers so rules of the road are less known to them.
I raced Wetsu to Red Rock then lost track of them. The wind lightened up A LOT after Raccoon Straits and I was struggling to even round the island. I took the most outside circle to get clean air and searoom as I was single handed (Vs the double handers). I put the kite up at Red Rock for about 5 min as it forced me down and I would not have been able to sail up high enough to avoid the restricted area at the fuel dock. So I took it down and headed up.
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