This weekend was a challenging and amazing couple days of sailing. First up was the annual "3 Bridge Fiasco" race on Saturday, which I sailed singlehanded, and then was a local Oakland Estuary race on Sunday which I sailed with a full crew. While US 101 never tasted victory this weekend, it was a very productive and fun weekend. I'm happy with our performances and can't wait to continue enjoying this steep learning curve that the Moore is providing. I'm having some issues with the new X-5 Autopilot, whihc I need to get resolved with Raymarine customer support, and I head up to Seattle on Thursday for my busy weekend at the Boat Show. It seems like this whole campaign has acclereated from a standstill to 90 mph in the blink of an eye.
US 101 right in the middle of a crowded one-design start. 30 Moore 24's were on the line on Saturday for the 3-Bridge Fiasco. I was one of only a couple singlehanded Moores though. The others were all doublehanded. Thanks to Rich Hudnut for the photo.
3-Bridge Fiaco was great. Shutting the motor off right outside my marina, I enjoyed a lovely early morning sail out of Alameda, watching the sun rise and sipping a hot cup of coffee. Making it to the startling line with an hour to spare, I hung out and closely watched the breeze change direction and strength. I eventually settled on my #2 jib and got ready for the start.
3-Bridge is a very unique, if not unorthodox race. The concept is simple. Start in front of the Golden Gate Yacht Club and go to each of the three bridges in San Francisco Bay, rounding a bouy or island at each one. You may cross the starting line in any direction, and you may round all of the 3 turning marks in any direction and any order that you want. With 330 boats in the race, and everuyone starting in a "reverse-handicap" pursuit style, all bets are off and the first boat to cross the finish line wins the race. I sailed in the Singleahnded division. I got a decent start in the race, and had okay boat speed up Blackaller Bouy, near the Golden Gate Bridge. Once around the bouy, it was off to the races, and over to Red Rock, which lies next to the Richmond- San Rafael Bridge. All of the other Moores were doublehanded and with the extra weight on the rail, they definitely had some upwind speed and pointing ability on me. I watched as most of the fleet went through Raccoon Straits (in between Angel Island and Tiburon). I chose not to go this way, opting instad for the longer route around Angel Island. This proved to be a mistake, but I thought that by sailing the longer route, I would stay in more consistent breeze. The boats that went through Raccoon Straits ended up having breeze the whole time.
Rounding Red Rock, I threw up the spinnaker, just as the Northerly Breeze decided to shut off. Sitting for 10 minutes with a big pack of boats, we all finally caught some breeze and took off. Only problem was that it was a building easterly breeze. Wiping out a couple of times, I finally got rid of the spinnaker and went back to the #2 jib. On a ripping jib reach from Red Rock to Treasure Island, US 101 held off 40 foot boats and managed to pass a couple of boats that should have been slightly faster. Again trying a spinnaker at the Bay Bridge, we managed to pass several boats before landing in the same big wind hole as about 30 other boats. Backing down under sail, and going behind that pack of boats, we crept over towards the Treasure Island shore and picked up some breeze and took off for the finish. I managed to pass my in-class rival "Taz!" on the way to the finish. Staying right behind me, Taz! managed to pass me back and win our finish-line drag race by 6 seconds! It was a thrilling finish and I love George Lythcott (owner of Taz) to death, so it was a fun finish.
US 101 sailed home about 80% of the way, only motoring when the breeze shut off entirely. In the end, we finished 6th in our class, and 10th out of about 40 overall in the Singlehanded division. Racing in the Singlehanded Sportboat class is humbling. I felt that I sailed a good race, but in a class where the difference between 2nd and 6th is 10 minutes, you start looking at how much time you lost in each bad tack, or not choosing Raccoon Straits, or being in the wront place at the wrong time when the breeze dies, etc...
US 101 sailing home from 3-Bridge. Thanks to Jon from Dark and Stormy and Sherry for the photo.
Sunday was a race in the Estuary and I had fellow Moore 24 owner Aaron Lee aboard, in addition to my regular crew. Aaron always has upwind speed on me in light air, and as such, he was able to teach me some of the subtleties of how to set the boat up for those conditions. It was definitely a positive experience, and with him trimmiing the sails and helping call tactics, I could focus on just driving the bnoat. Getting a good start in clean air, we worked our way to the windward mark, trading tacks with the whole fleet and with the other Moore 24 in the race, "Sparrowharwk". "Sparrowhawk" got by us before the top mark, and set their kite. Chasing them down on the downwind leg, we established an overlap and passed them at the leeward mark. Headed back upwind, we had to crash-tack while sailing through a fleet of Merit 25s and Sparrowhawk passed us back. So we began reeling them in again, and finally passed them on the next upwind leg. Nearing the finish, we held them off and put some boats in between ourselves and them, and they got stuck in traffic and bad air, so we pulled out a bit to beat them by a larger margin. 2 weeks ago, it was the same close batling for the first half of the race, and Sparrowhawk got the best of us. But this time, we came out on top. The only way to get fast before Singlehanded Transpac is to race against other Moore 24's every chance i get and that is what is so great about having a Moore in SF Bay. Thanks to Aaron, Walk and Alex for doing such a great job on Sunday.
Not from yesterday, but here's a pic from an estuary race a few weeks ago.
Back to working on the boat for a few days, figuring out what's wrong with the autopilot (I re-installed my tiller pilot for 3 Bridge...) and getting ready for a busy weekend in Seattle.
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