Well, there were four SF 30's out for the SSS East
Bay-Estuary Race. Peggy Sue (Laser 28) went doublehanded, I
sailed solo, Halcyon (911-S) went doublehanded, and who was
that other 911-S? I never did get close enough to see. *g*
Let's see...B-o-r-d----...
The start was in light air off the Richmond YC race deck, and the fleet headed up to the Brothers in about 5 knots of wind and about that much current, too. I lost the 911-S's right away, but had Peggy Sue in my sights (albeing distant sights) all the way up to the rocks. A dumb move on my part (cutting it too close behind the Brothers and getting in a huge wind hole) and a sloppy douse let Peggy Sue get away from me, so I started out on the windward beat among a bunch of unrelated boats....though one of them was my old International H-Boat. It was nice to see her again.
Once past the Richmond-San Rafael bridge I stuck pretty
close to the Marin shoreline, and dueled it out with
"Eyrie", a Hawkfarm and "Starbuck", a Black Soo. I tacked
over into Racoon Straits early, since I noticed that boats
further up the Strait were getting lifted, bigtime, and made
up a bit of time on folks right there. As I tacked over into
the strait, I settled in about 50 yards ahead of a
doublehanded J-29, "Audacious".
Then it was trim it in and hold on for a while, and both the
J and I were using 150%s...I held even with them all the way
up the strait. When we tacked over to move out towards
Little Harding, who should appear, 100 yards ahead but Peggy
Sue! At any rate, it made for a good chug to Little
Harding...Peggy Sue, me, and this J-29. I'd left the Hawfarm
"in the dust" so to speak in the Strait. The J-29 made up
time on the tacks, as that 150% is a stinker to trim in when
it's blowing and my tacks weren't pretty. I slipped ahead
of Peggy Sue going around Little Harding, but not for long.
The reach down towards the Bay Bridge was a burner. I had a bit too much sail up with the 150%, but Peggy Sue was flying her working jib, and had better control so she gained time on me. I watched them do a great set a little before Pier 39. My subsequent set, a little AFTER Pier 39 was a dismal failure, the chute twisted on the way up and decided to tie itself in knots around the spare jib halyard.
So, that was THAT...and I watched Peggy Sue chug away while I sat on tyhe foredeck and cursed (loudly) and unwrapped my mess. Good job, you guys!
However, we all sailed into the hole of holes under the Bay Bridge. Bewteen a big ebb and the total cessastion of wind, the door closed on the vast majority of the fleet well before the time I got there. I believe the only 30-footer to finish was "Starbuck".
At any rate, I had a great day, had a blast chasing Peggy Sue around the course, hung in there right with a J-29, a couple of Santa Cruz 27's, an Express 27, and had the Hawkfarm in my pocket until the wind died.
I've sailed with that J-29 three or four times now, and even though they rate at 119, I manage to be able to hang with them, boat for boat. So maybe we should think about inviting them to join the SF Bay 30's. I think I'd support that decision.
Alan Received on Mon Oct 1 12:37:26 2001