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| Vallejo 1–2 at Singlehanded Sailing Society | October 10 - 11 |
| Story |
| Story by Jason Crowson
SSS Vallejo 1-2 race report This has always been one of my favorite races to do, mostly because the weather this time of year, but also because of the low key nature of the event. For those that are not familiar with this event, you race to Vallejo singlehanded on Saturday, and race back double handed on Sunday. A fun raft up, dinner and camaraderie at the docks is always present after the racing on Saturday. The weather did not disappoint on Saturday as we saw sunny skies and a pleasant 5-10 knots of breeze the entire way. This year we had 6 express 27’s sign up which meant we were scored in our own class although we still started with all the other sport boats. Wetsu nailed the start at the pin end, while Moxie stayed down at the committee boat hoping for a little current relief. Turned out the better breeze out in the channel overcame the adverse 1 knot of current. The boats that went high after the start also benefited from being able to set the kite early, while I tried to hold the kite up on a very tight reach to get up and around the restricted area marked by the red #2 buoy. I made it around but would have been much better off with the Genoa up as the wind was basically on my nose. Dianne was the first to get to the San Rafael Bridge with Wetsu and Great White close behind. Moxie and Elise were taking the lower road still trying to stay out of the little bit of ebb tide that was flowing. Eventually, Moxie and Elise appeared to be making ground on the inside and Dianne gybed over to come and cover us. Wetsu and Great White stayed out in the channel and when they gybed to go by the Brothers islands, they scooted right past the three of us on the inside. The reach across San Pablo bay was light and fairly tight most of the time. Dianne managed to get back in front of Wetsu and Great White, while several position changes occurred between Wetsu, Moixe and Great White. Close to Point Pinole the wind appeared to really back so Wetsu gybed out to the channel followed by Moxie. That soon proved to be a bad move as the wind went back forward and Dianne and Great White were sailing away fast! I decided to gybe back and “try” to reel them back in. It should be noted that gybing single handed is no easy feat. I am not sure how the other boats do it, but on Moxie I have a line that runs around the boat through four blocks and is tied to the tiller on each end. This way, in theory, I can steer the boat via this line from anywhere on the boat. This works great up to about 8 knots of wind. And when the boat gets moving the jerks on the tiller move the boat all over the place. You can usually tell when someone is getting ready to gybe because A) there is nobody at the helm, and B) the boat is tracking off towards shore or somewhere else it shouldn’t be going. Then, you see someone diving back for the tiller, throwing the main over and trying to get the kite unwrapped and working again. Certainly entertaining for the rest of us to watch, at least until it is your turn to gybe. As we passed the fuel docks in Rodeo I was looking for some way to get Moxie back in to the mix with Dianne and Great White who were well ahead by this time. I forgot about the change in the tide and stayed on the inside which only made the lead boats extend even further. As we entered the Vallejo Channel it was pretty much a parade with Dianne taking first, Great White in second and Moxie in third. Way to go Steve and Rachel!!! Sunday was forecasted to be a little more wind and the overcast clouds certainly made things look gloomy compared to the nice blue skies on Saturday. As usual, the wind was light and fluky in the Vallejo channel which always makes for interesting starts. I was fortunate enough to have an excellent crew onboard Moxie (my girlfriend’s first race ever) so I choose to not break out the kite and to stick with the Genoa at the start. Moxie and Great White started low in the channel close to the yacht club. The rest of the fleet started up close to the docks on the other side of the channel. This proved to be very good for Moxie and Great White as we extended on the fleet as they sat in the usual holes of wind at the top of the channel. Still, I had to contend with Great White popping out their kite while we tried to hold them off with the Genoa. We would get very happy as the wind went forward and we could hear their kite collapse as we scooted forward. Then the wind would back off and Great White would come charging up on our heels. This continued all the way out the channel until they finally had to douse the kite. Still, we were sailing out into quite a lot of breeze with our Genoa while Great white looked much more balanced with their jib up. We decided to play the current lines and hold on to the Genoa as long as possible. Things were actually looking good for a long time as we would pull ahead in the lighter moments and still hold our own in the puffs. But it was only a matter of time before I had to figure out how to get rid of that big Genoa and get the more manageable jib up. My options were to send my girlfriend forward on her first sailboat race with the boat all heeled over and waves splashing over the bow……..or hand her the helm and do the dirty deed myself. In an effort to save my relationship, I went on the foredeck and began the bald headed sail change. It took a bit longer since it has been years since I had to actually do this myself, but I got it done. When I had everything cleaned up and the boat sailing again, we tacked and started to head back out to the channel to see how much ground we had lost to Great White. As would be expected, they were now ahead of us by a few boat lengths. The wind was real shifty so I played a couple of shifts and at our next crossing we were bow out on Great White and calling for starboard as they came at us on port. We split off a few times from Great White and Dianne, but basically were in about the same position to the San Rafael Bridge. Next we were trying to locate the red buoy #2 that we needed to leave to port before heading for RYC and the finish line. The wind was getting lighter and I was wishing I had the Genoa up again. Nobody else was changing so we didn’t bother either. As we rounded the mark and bore off to RYC it was just enough to put the spinnaker back up. But that meant a little more work and some more flopping around on the foredeck. I waited until Great White rounded the mark and put the kite up before I hoisted our kite, all the while hoping they wouldn’t want to go through the trouble either. But of course they were in full race mode on Great White, so up our kite went. They were bringing more breeze with them and closing fast, but in the end there wasn’t enough runway and we were able to hold them off with Dianne just behind Great White. The scores ended up with a three way tie for first with all of us having 4 points. Luckily, taking the first on Sunday gave us the tie breaker and first for the regatta. It was some very close racing and a lot of fun as usual! |
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