On Saturday things started out pretty light in the morning, but by the noon start it was blowing about 15 through the slot. Since we were light, sailing with only 4, we decided to use our #3 for the short beat. Almost everyone else used their #1s. We were a little bit slow upwind, but the extra maneuverability helped us sneak past a few boats at the weather mark. I believe Exocet came around first, we were in the middle of the pack, but there wasn't much separation from first to last. Before the start, our tactician, Vallejo race veteran, Pete Rowland told us that is was important to get low so that we would't get caught in the Angel Island / Tiburon hole, so we dove down immediately and were sailing in a pack with Bobs and Peaches. Sunshine Express was a little behind and even lower than us. The rest of the boats were more or less sailing the tight reach rhumb line course. The boats up high were looking good early, and we got antsy when it seemed like we might have to jib reach just to lay the corner, so we reached up and established about a 50 boat length separation with Bobs and Peaches. This was a big mistake, because it got lighter and lighter as we approached the Richmond shore and the wind backed. Along with all the boats above us, we ended up having to gybe on to starboard to seek current relief, while Bobs, Peaches, and Sunshine were able to just reach up and keep their sails full (they may have taken a short gybe in, I’m not sure). They were in less current as well. I think Peaches came out in the lead with Bobs and Sunshine close behind as we neared Pt. San Pablo.

We ended up in a pack with some of the boats that went higher about 100 yards behind Peaches, including Exocet and Wile E. Coyote. There were a lot of boats from different classes together as everyone wanted to hug the shore for current relief after the point, and the wind shadow behind them brought some of the leaders back to the pack. There was a lot of gybing back and forth and positions changing place on this stretch as we sailed under the bridge and through all the anchored platforms in light wind. I believe Sunshine Express came out of this stretch with a nice lead, with Wile E. Coyote behind them as we came into Pt. Pinole. I’m not sure how they got ahead, but I think they may have just sailed in cleaner air and worried a little less about getting in shore. We managed to play things ok, because at Pt. Pinole we were leading the second pack as everyone turned right again to get out of the strong ebb, and start a long broad reach toward Vallejo. A few boats turned a little too far right, and ended up with their keels in the mud. We had a lot of J-105s around us, so when they threatened to go above us, we would just reach up a little higher. We had no depth sounder, but we figured they draw 2 more feet than us so we would be ok as long as they were near us. We had pretty good speed down wind as we rotated trimmers and drivers frequently to keep everyone fresh. Pete was getting thirsty by now, so beers came out of the cooler at this point.

We managed to sneak past Coyote and Sunshine by about halfway up this leg, but again we got antsy when Sunshine got up on our hip, and the rest of the competition was way up high and in shore, so up we went just to protect our lead. For some reason we slowed down a little, and Sunshine got closer and Coyote snuck right up behind us by staying lower as we came into the channel, and with the current increasing the whole fleet kind of compressed in behind us. Pete had told us that when to cross the channel over to the north shore was the critical decision. We decided to hug the right side of the channel and cross late to minimize our time in the current but we ended up in a big hole with a whole bunch of boats right on our tail along the dock. Coyote rolled over us and a couple of other boats slipped by. We had no breeze so we gybed out onto port. We took some sterns, got into clear air, and then decided we might as well just go across. We hadn’t seen Chimo all day, but there they were on the north shore already out of the current just steaming along. They had crossed the channel early and moved from second to last into first. Pete’s wife Angie was on Chimo, so this was a discouraging blow to our morale. They were going to be tough to catch, so now our goal was to just try and hang on to second. We came into the turning mark for the river about even with Wile E. Coyote (they carried there chute a little longer and rounded outside of us) and just ahead of Exocet. Exocet didn’t have anything to lose so they kept their spinnaker up on the tight reach up the river, and made big gains at times threatening us and Coyote, but in the end they couldn’t carry it all the way so they lost back most of what they gained in the transition to jib reaching. We got pushed up to the left by a big boat behind us while Coyote took the low road. I think there was a little better breeze on their side of the river (less obstructions), and they edged us out by about a boat length, with Exocet not far behind in 4th.

On Sunday the breeze was very light in the river and the ebb was going out at about a knot and a half. At times you could barely hold your position on the pre-start side of the line, so the key to starting was timing your approach. We decided to start down the line, after our experience with light air behind the buildings on the other side. We just wanted to be away from the other boats in good breeze. It was anywhere from a beam reach to a beat down the river. Exocet won the other end of the line, with Peaches, Coyote, and Chimo not far behind. We were feeling pretty good about our position but we ended up getting blanketed by an Olson 30, and also on the wrong side of a Ferry cruising up the river, so we were in 3rd or 4th. As the wind went forward a little toward the bottom of the river, everyone started having to tack off the lee shore and the fleet mixed up a little as the breeze was light and extremely variable. All the big boats were starting to sail through us, making things interesting. There was a huge tide line at the mouth of the river where it entered into the channel, so the key was getting across that quickly and into the good water (and apparent wind). Exocet and Coyote worked this out the best to launch themselves into a pretty good lead, with Peaches and us close together and Chimo not far behind as we started the long beat home.

The wind steadily built down the beat. We were trying to hug the right side short tacking along the channel marks initially, since we thought the tide would be stronger over there. We were slowing gaining on the leaders, at the same time Chimo was gaining on us. I think Chimo had boat speed on us, and us on Coyote. There also seemed to be a persistent header on starboard tack going toward the lee shore that Chimo and Exocet were exploiting nicely. Eventually we had passed Coyote, and Chimo, coming out of the left crossed us and tacked back toward the lee shore just above us. At this point we tacked back to starboard, while Chimo and Exocet continued to the left another 100-200 yards. At some point we turned on the GPS and realized we were pretty much laying the finish line on Starboard with the strong ebb, so we liked our position to leeward of them. They had gone to the left side well one too many times, but the race was still very close. We went into foot mode, as did Chimo, and eventually Exocet and things were very close, with Exocet still leading, us in 2nd, and Chimo in 3rd. As we approached Pt. Pinole a beautiful tide line appeared below us. We footed down across it and our VMG immediately went from around 7 to 8 and we finally popped through a now aggressively footing Exocet (as they saw us shooting along below them). That tide line sealed the deal for us, since it was basically a fetch to the finish from there. We were concerned that some boats may have passed us on the right side with better ebb, since we had overstood the finish by quite a bit. I’m not sure what happened to the guys over there, perhaps there was less breeze or a different direction, but we were at least ¼ mile ahead of Bobs, the 4th place boat.

Both of these races stayed interesting from start to finish, with frequent changes in position, and many important tactical decisions. The weather was great. The Party was fun. I think a good time was had by all! Except for Pete Rowland, this was our crew’s first Vallejo race. I think it is safe to say we will be back next year and for many to come.



Paul Deeds

Magic Bus #107