Wetsu

2010 Doublehanded Lightship

March 13, 2010

by Phil Krasner

The big drama of the event occurred the day before the start when the fleet was informed we couldn't sail past Bonita without an epirb or plb aboard. Those of us without had to scramble at the last minute and borrow. Thanks to Dylan Benjamin of the Dogpatch26 Moonshine for lending me his and thanks to the several Express27 competitors with extras for sharing within the fleet. The weather report was forecasting wind up to 20knots , and the last buoy report had it gusting to 25 at the bucket. With this information most of the fleet elected to start with #3 head sails even though it was light wind in the bay. My crew, Steve McCarthy and I, were happy to have a # 1 up and it helped us out ,especially sailing next to Witchy Woman who normally walks all over me. Position was still more important because El Raton led going out the gate by staying closer to San Francisco and getting some relief from the flood. The light wind was out of the north and somewhere close to the bridge everybody set there kites. El Raton maintained the lead on a tightly packed ,competitive fleet and started working their way toward Bonita , a place I normally like to end up. Not this day as anybody who ended up there was forced to sail deeper than those further south. Although we were probably still in adverse current we took a hitch south to stay in better breeze. Great White had gone south right after the bridge and passed us on that side. We tacked back and forth a few times looking for breeze and trading places with Elise . When we finally got out to te channel markers we had chipped away at most of Great White lead. At that point the wind had all but died except on the south side of the channel where Dianne ad Elise were.With an outbound ship bearing down on us, and next to no wind ,we at first started south , saw the wind dying there, thought better of it, dropped the kite and just tried to get the boat moving with the jib toward the north side of the channel. We now settled in sailing straight to the mark, although with our back and forth ,we had allowed Great White to extend their lead. Rachel and J.P. rounded first ,we were maybe a minute or less behind and just ahead of the Mini, Pocket Rocket. We didn't see any other Expresses near us so it was going to be a drag race with Great White. They pushed deeper than us and with a little more heat we headed just north of Bonita where we got a minute or two relief from the ebb. Intending to continue along the Marin shore for more relief, Steve didn't like what he saw happening to the pressure over there and decided we should push against the current in better breeze. South tower jibe , up the city front for relief , a couple more jibes, finish.

Phil