Spinnaker Cup - at sea

Competition. Seagull is using its wings in lieu of sails       

  

That was the race course (and the upwind sail back. Day 1 post race: sail across Monterey Bay to Santa Cruz Harbor, Day 2, sail up to Half Moon Bay Pillar Point Harbor and Day 3 sail back to the St Francis YC)

From Norcalsailing.com

Elise in light air at the start. ©2010 Jennifer McKenna

"Elise, an Express 27, sailed in the doublehanded division with Nathalie Criou and Heather Bowers. Nat described their race: "We started last and it took us five minutes to get across the line because the flood was so strong. We went for current relief on the north shore, then crossed over at Mile Rock. Then we picked a heading which would clear all points of land and get us out into the stronger wind offshore." They had 10-15 knots at Mile Rock, which increased to 18-19 when they set their chute, then built to 25-30 knots.
"We were averaging 11-12 knots of sustained boatspeed," said Nat, "hitting 14-15 surfing the waves. When we jibed at the layline for Monterey before midnight, we were in wind in the mid-twenties. Heather was trimming and I was driving when the spinnaker sheet jammed. We rounded up, then down, and it only took seconds to recover, but by then the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay and jib, and it took us forty minutes to clear it." The wind had gone forward in Monterey Bay, and died at a quarter past midnight, so once they'd cleared the spinnaker it took four hours to finish in two knots of wind at best. The breeze picked up for them just before the finish line."


We really squeezed past the finish line, crawling in really really light air