Crew:
- Nat: helm, main trim and during maneuvers except tacks headsail trim
- Kathy: trim and pit (Kathy had never sailed on Elise, or an Express 27 for that matter before)
- Heather: seconding Kathy during tacks and foredeck
We all kind of did tactics and strategy. So this was a Ladies' Club today :)
Our overall strategy:
First, before the race, we had looked at wind and current conditions for the day and had discussed and made a joint decision about which way we were going to go around the course. At the Big Daddy, you can choose to go round the mark whichever way you want, so long as if you go CW, all the marks are left to starboard and if you go CCW all the marks are left to port.
We decided to go CW (eg. Alcatraz first, then Angel Island down Raccoon Strait) for two reasons:
- Current: it was still ebbing really badly round about lunchtime (we made it to the start area just in time because we were fighting the current) so we would be pushed toward Alcatraz, kind of sideways by Angel Island - we know there is a nice little eddy that pushes you right around Alcatraz on the South side and the current would be a little less as we would cross over on our way to Angel Island and it would either be slack or flooding as we knew we would be in the lee of Raccoon Straits and to the finish. If the wind stayed southerly, we would also be on a nice reach with the spinnaker up, able to get a hot angle AND sail the shortest course to the line. That's what we wanted if the wind was to get light.
- Wind: with a CW course and a Southerly, we would be upwind in the first leg only, and in highly favored current. As soon as we cleared the Eastern point of Alcatraz, we'd be on a reach, then downwind/reach all the way to the finish, all of which are must faster points of sail.
We reasoned that this course would enable us to sail what we consider the shortest distance. We didn't want to do very many tacks as we knew they would be slow since we were very short-handed and we did three of them total, one at the start line which could have been avoided - and if we can go to the finish in a straight line rather than having to gybe many times, sounds faster :)
The start:
We were on the line when the gun went off but didn't have clean air, so it wasn't a perfect start, we let one boat come to windward of us, sneaking through. So we tacked immediately toward Angel Island to get clean air. We noticed a bunch of boats, well, a lot of boats opted to go CCW as they were clearly heading for Racoon Straits. We couldn't think of anything that had changed since we last discuss this so we sticked to our plan and headed for Alcatraz
Leg 1 - from start to Alcatraz:
As planned, the current was really pushing us toward Alcatraz which was great since we were short-handed and with no weight on the rail, it is a little harder to point like the other boats under the genoa. We had between 9 and 11 knots of wind and I kept trimming the main, playing with traveler and backstay to keep the boat speed around 6.3 or 6.4 knots. I wasn't paying attention to the other boats. Kathy and Heather were though and they called the tacks, as well as current lines - looking at the boats ahead, they saw a couple of nice lifts coming our way which made us decide against tacking at some point. I really focused on driving on the upwind and I could see that when the main was too tightly in the boat speed would drop, I could see the exact amount of backstay to put by just looking at the speedo and I kept looking at the telltales on the genoa (seconded by Heather who could see the top of the sail) to make sure I wasn't pinching. We had really good boat speed the whole time.
We arrived really close to the island, caught the eddy that we knew about and were propelled around the island - we started on a reach. Our spinnaker was on the wrong side, so we hoisted it without the pole, then gybed around the island and then attached the pole.
Leg 2 - from Alcatraz to Angel Island:
If you ask me which boat we passed, or crossed coming the other way or where the other Express 27s were, I couldn't tell. We just sailed our race, regardless of the moves the other boats decided to make. We had a plan and we sticked to it because we didn't see a reason not to. The assumptions we had made got confirmed. Tactically, we looked at boats around us, left right, ahead, to pick up new cues on current and wind, but that's about it.
The wind was still just about 7 to 10 knots, however, by sailing a reach and basically pointing pretty east, we were ranging on the Angel Island point - we rounded close to it. A little too close. We had anticipated a hole because the island would block the wind, however, looking at the few boats ahead of us, they didn't seem stuck in a big hole, so we had decided to keep sailing in a straight line and head up for the other side of the channel. We could see wind (ripple of the water) in the middle of the channel for sure and boats with full sails. This hole came and we didn't react fast enough. Golden Moon (Express 37) was right next to us, saw this coming and gybed to get out of it super quickly.
Fortunately it didn't last very long and we were soon on our way, within probably less than a minute. Golden Moon was way past us by then though of course, about 1 min ahead - they will stay about 1 min ahead the whole time, so that's where we lost big time.
Leg 3 - from Angel Island to the finish:
The wind got really light so Heather and Kathy played the pole and the spinnaker sheet constantly. We kept a very hot angle, heading for the finish line - we knew the current had shifted and we could see the boats ahead behind pushed right to left - so we wanted to come well up current of the finish line, not to have to tack and finish upwind to make it. Conveniently, it also meant sailing on a reach which was the fastest point of sail. Wait, that was actually part of our plan.
The wind died to nothing for a while, past Angel Island, there was a big hole but it crossed the entire race course so there was no way around it. So much so that we dropped the spinnaker for a few minutes as the genoa is faster when the wind is under 1.1 knots...As soon as it picked up again, maybe 2 minutes later, to about 4 knots...we hoisted the spinnaker again. We stayed hot all the way to the finish which we couldn't see because by then, it was raining very heavily and Richmond was in a thick fog. We used our GPS to make sure that we were still up current and up wind of the line.
Kathy and Heather were still very actiely managing the spinnaker. Heather would take the weight of the twing off to help the spinnaker fly, and Kathy, now adjusting both pole and sheets because Heather kept her weight to leeward and moving around would have slowed us down, skillfully played both to keep the sail full. We lowered the pole tip and started flowing the spinnaker like a big jib.
Verve sailed lower and had to drop their spinnaker and sail upwind to the line.
Right on the line, we had a J105 and a Benetteau right by us...unfortunately they were coming from behind and stole our air (that's the problem with behind ahead in the downwind part of the race), we couldn't come up any further. We crossed the line in a drift, as close as possible to the favored end (remember our 'shortest distance' strategy) with two boats stealing our winds, both faster - they beat us to the line with an overlap...that was a close call.
Golden Moon was by then dropping its spinnaker and heading into Richmond, probably still about 1 min ahead of us.
Heather was a rock star foredeck - she tirelessly adjusted things. We gybes a few times, particularly in Racoon Straits as the wind at some point turned 180 and clocked North, before becoming South again. she put the jib up, then down 2 minutes later as the spinnaker was up again. She moved her weight constantly, she helped fly the sail.
Kathy was a super trimmer - she constantly played the sheet and kept the spinnaker flying. She gybed the spinnaker by holding both sheets. Upwind, Kathy would trim in the jib and Heather would tail and skirt. It was clearly slower than the boats that would be fully crewed. Given the circumstances, it was still pretty fast if you ask me!
It was really hard to keep it full during gybes because the wind was so light - both Kathy and Heather worked together to avoid wraps - a great pair.
Overall, it was a fun race - I really liked that we decided about a strategy and we were clear on the reasons why it made sense to us and so long as the situation wasn't challenging our assumptions, we just sticked to it. We did look at other boats, currents and winds to see if we had to fine tune it of course.
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