The annual Vallejo race is one of the biggest events on the bay, promising a very relaxing spinnaker leg down on Saturday and lighter air upwind on Sunday. It roughly 20 miles each way, with the start Saturday on the Berkeley Circle and the finish at the Vallejo Yacht Club, returning the next day but finishing short of the Richmond/San Rafael bridge (same course but stops short of a full retrace). In between is a big raft-up and party at the club.
This year bode to live up to the usual reputation of a balmy downwind in shorts and a t-shirt, up until the point at which it came time to start and all of our (and NOAA's) plans went out the window.
Instead, we were treated to a brisk upwind under #3 in heavy (for the area) chop. One of the Express 27's few design shortcomings is the way in which water coming over the windward side fails to drain adequately. For those of us sitting aft, this situation was alleviated by Heather and Roger's kind failure to don foul weather gear (their regular pants being much more absorbent).
The race on the first day consists of four distinct legs. From the start line, the course runs upwind (by means of moving the starting line) to a turning mark near Angel Island and then turns toward the Richmond Bridge. The third leg is across San Pablo Bay and the fourth leg is up the channel between Vallejo and Mare Island to the finish.
Normally, the first leg serves mainly to keep people from setting spinnakers on the starting line. This time, it was just a beat leading to another tight angle (heavy enough breeze that we elected for a #3 though most of the fleet seemed to prefer their #1's). Passing under the Richmond Bridge was no help, nor was turning the corner at Pt. San Pablo. We got to play the current a bit, and should probably have stayed tight in along the Richmond shoreline. As it was, we traded back and forth splitting sides of the course to no clear advantage. We passed under the bridge taking Red Rock close to starboard (and observing a gentleman in a small multihull taking his luncheon on Red Rock). Allowing him to serve as an inspiration, a snack fortified us against the coming fast and wet leg. This portion of the race made us almost wish we had selected our #1.
From Pt. San Pablo across the bay, it was blowing well and the #3 was the right choice. We were unable to capitalize on the feeling, however (other boats tell us that they felt overpowered with the #1 but we couldn't gain effectively, perhaps due to our lack of a fifth body). We sailed pretty quickly, not quite hard on the wind to stay fast. Crossing the main channel just short of the corner into Mare Island/Vallejo, we were able to crack off but not fly the kite.
Reaching the Mare Island/Vallejo channel, we short-tacked up towards the finish with the Islander 36's and a few other larger boats. We weren't quite able to separate from some of the quicker PHRF racers, and stayed in close quarters most of the way up the channel. One Islander in particular seemed slightly upset with us for tacking under him only a boatlength or so away (seemed like a pretty lenient one design boat upwind spacing, because I certainly didn't want to tack right under his genoa and start gasping for air).
We lost quite a bit of distance here, staying clear of boats who had remembered to send in their registration forms. The previous beat and reach parades were much easier to just sail for speed and not tangle with anyone.
Our finish was not good, but every bit as good as we could hope to be scored given that we had lost the race on Wednesday evening (when the registration deadline rolled by to the peaceful sound of N+N snoring on opposite sides of the Atlantic as they napped on the job).
Sharp Shark-looking Elise
Height contest with Nathan
Ready to leave. Waving good bye to Monterey Peninsula YC
Hanging out with her buddies.
Transportation and Logistics Ground Services
Home!
I am a poor lonesome cowgirl...
Great Parking Job
We asked Elise to fasten her seatbelts
Jerry hauled her out all by himself
I couldn't go so I sent a couple of friends to swim along Elise. This is LongJohn, the Sperm Whale
This is LongJohn waving good bye because he spotted a giant squid 200 ft below
Lining up for the start
Crossing the start line!
Single-handed Tom
This is Choochoo, LongJohn's spouse
And Tico, Choochoo and LongJohn's 35-ton son
Feast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK. So, Monterey is due South right? I hope it'll get warmer and warmer.
Whoever sold me on this Southern destination was lying. It's freezing over here.
Getting out!
It is the Spinnaker Cup after all :)
Heather: "gi...mme...that...beer"
Great conversation with Mark back at the Saint Francis. It went something like that:
Happy Nat and Dizzy Elise
Seals have a strong sense of property. You will notice the "Keep Out" sign rather evidently displayed.
This is not meant to be a close up on Nat's shoulder but an insert of a U-Boat. We nearly sank after the attack but our energetic use of the bilge pump saved us from disaster.
Heather sleeping on the job
Ireland doing a fabulous recovery
Hanging on for dear life. Elise is very fast, it's quite hard to stay on board.
Stylish two-finger driving.
Well-deserved dinner
This is supposed to be a sea lion even though it looks like a larvae
Nat was NOT sleeping. She was looking closely at the spinnaker trim
Italy
Closely followed by Ireland and a bunch of unknown countries.
Matching lifejackets. Elise is a classy boat. Notice that Italy is BEHIND the French boat. hehe. A World Cup remake :)
Kate: "you missed a spot"
Line up for a cat walk
Finish Line. Well Done Astra!!
Red seems to be in fashion. This is true competition.
We made a little detour via the French Riviera. Kate demonstrating her new motto "I am just here for my looks"
Heather driving. May I suggest to lift up this cap? You might see better.
False advertising. This is NOT ice-tea
Note that Elise is well ahead of the rest of the pack. We really should have registered for the race...
An army of spinnaker royally deployed on San Pablo Bay
Worse than barium
Kate asked once looking at the TackTik: "is this our speed?" - the dial showed "208". Unfortunately we were not yet supersonic Elise; flying at over 200 knots. Trying hard though. Both Kate and Nat are focused on the shape of the spinnaker.
David and Goliath
(note: the formatting on this blog is very mysterious. Please go back to the blog in about 1 hr, I will have fixed the problems)
