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| Doublehanded Farallones at BAMA | March 22 |
| Story |
| Doug Robbins and I had an enjoyable Donkey ride around the Farralones last weekend. It was a lot of fun having 12 Express 27s out there and to be racing in our own class. Here is how the day went.
Since the Express 27 one design fleet was a late addition to the starting order, we were the last fleet to start at 8:40 a.m. Forty minutes after the fast boats and 30 minutes after our normal starting time. Will Paxton must not have heard the news of our one design fleet and he strangely started in the PHRF start class with a 132 rating and #2 jib. He must have wanted to teach the J105s and Olson 30s a lesson or something. We were late in the ebb cycle so we went for the pin. We were a little early with 30 seconds to go and were in danger of being over but fortunately for us John on E-Type agreed that we were both in a precarious position and sailed down the line with us instead of pushing us over. Thanks John! We battled out the gate with El Raton, Ergo and Diane trading positions with each puff and wind shift in about 8-10 knots of breeze. El Raton took a little lead playing the North shore outside of the gate. The usual right shift as you approach Bonita seemed to benefiting the Rat. The forecast was calling for a Southerly but at this point it looked like the standard Northwest breeze was winning out. We went right since that seemed to be paying but whoops the lefties started coming. Exocet and Attack from Mars made some gains on the left side. The breeze was dropping to about 6 knots and the swells were making it rolly. Big decision time here: Do we play the right and pick up the usual right shift at Bonita or do we go with the forecast and play the left side and wait for the Southerly? We looked at the fleet ahead of us and saw most of the fleet on port tack. That told us that people did not like their angle on starboard tack and the left shifts were coming. Thus, we stayed on starboard and got to the left of the fleet anticipating more left shift. In addition, we were closer to the channel and the remnants of the ebb. Our hand bearing compass came in handy as were gauging against Diane and could see that we were gaining bearing and moving forward on them. The left was paying. Exocet must have figured out the same thing as they were right in our line with El Raton a little to leeward. The left shift continued and we finally flopped onto port and were almost laying the Farallones. Eventually, we crossed a big tide line and received additional lefty and got lifted right up to the layline. It was probably about 4 hours of a port tack fetch to the Farallones. It was helpful to be in the lead as we received the breeze first and stretched on Exocet. We rolled Will Paxton who could not keep up with his #2 despite starting 30 minutes ealier. I must admit that we enjoyed that! (Will, we would love to see you racing with us next year in the one design fleet). We were in good company rounding the Farallones at 3:00 p.m with a Hobie 33, J105, and a Express 37 who all started 20-30 minutes ahead of us. The Express 27 is a great boat upwind in 6 knots of breeze with big swells. We set the kite as soon as we could and were making good progress reaching in the 8 knot breeze. The breeze got lighter and at one point we were able to pass the Express 37 and J105 ahead of us. With our speed at 5 knots or less and 20 miles from the finish, it was looking like we could be in for a long night. Fortunately, by the time we got to the lightship, the breeze started building again up to 12 knots or so. Dark was approaching fast and the ebb was building. Decision time. We need to avoid the ebb over the last 15 miles. Do we head for the North Shore or the South shore? With the South wind, I was nervous about getting caught behind the cliffs past Mile Rock and running into a big hole. I wanted the North Shore. However, we could see Will and Exocet's spinnaker about a mile behind us. They were to the South of us. We decided to cover and stuck to the South but my stress level was high as we approached Mile Rock. The ebb was pumping big time. After rounding outside of Mile Rock, we made a right turn and sought tide relief. We found it and the wind held up all along the South shore. We even caught up to the Olson 30 that played the North shore. Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge with the lights of the Bridge lighting up our spinnaker was really neat. Night sailing is fun! The wind held up in the Bay and we finished around 7:45 pm. Exocet and others were only about 10 minutes behind. Even though the light conditions made for easy sailing, it was a long day and I was tired. I slept well that night. On Monday, I checked the results and saw that the Express 27s finished great in the overall results. For the second year in a row, we were the 2nd place monohull and Exocet was 4th. I don't know if we will ever win the thing overall, and it really is the luck of the conditions to win overall, but if we had not been battling the big ebb over the last 10 miles, the Express 27s could have cleaned up. The overall winning J90 finished before the ebb started pumping and probably sailed 3-4 miles less distance than the Expresses had to, but you can't take away anything from the Baylis family on the J90. They are tough to beat and deserved the win. That is the summary of the race. Here are a few tips for Ocean racing on the Express that the Swamp Donkey uses. 1) Watch the weather forecasts and the weather buoys. We kept our weather radio on to get the hourly readings at the Lightship and other buoys to see the trends. 2) Look at other boats to see the next shift and to see who is moving forward. A hand bearing compass works well to track competitors. 3) Keep weight low in the lumpy conditions. We always did great when someone was down below snoozing. When weight is not needed on the rail, keep it low. 4) Watch the GPS when you cross a tide line to see which side you want to be on. 5) Be lucky- it is often a crap shoot out there. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you won't. 6) Concentrate and pace yourself. If you are bored, you aren't concentrating and you are proably going slow. Rotate drivers as needed. Cheers, Scott Sellers Swamp Donkey |
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