When Blogs Collide

Sounds like an excellent soap opera. But it's not, it's a race...a super race. I am joining David over at Never Sea Land for the Big Daddy Pursuit Race. David has an Olson 34, Temerity, that is in training for the 2010 Pacific Cup. Part of this training apparently includes bringing sub-par sailors and their 8 year old daughters out for a race around the Bay.

The Big Daddy is a race I've always wanted to do. It's a reverse start pursuit race like the Three Bridge Fiasco but it starts over by Richmond then goes around Angel Island and Alcatraz and then back to Richmond. I'm pretty sure you can only go one direction but I don't know that for sure.



Since David doesn't have his own personal paparazzi (Zen, I have put a stamp on your thank you gift but haven't mailed it yet), I had to grab a picture of his boat sitting in the dock. We'll bribe some other racers to get some shots of us at the Big Daddy for the Temerity collection.

But there are two important questions. First, do you think both blogs will give the same account of the race (me for example: frickin' maniacal cap'n pooched up the start; him for example: how did that &*%#!@%$ guy make it all the way across one ocean and a third of the way across another?)?

Second question: what superhero am I going to dress as?

BMW Oracle's Big Fast Trimaran

I'm not usually a fan of just linking to other people's stuff (not when there is so much to write about myself) but this is very very cool. One of the guys (Squid) over at The Anarchy Challenge posted this picture of Dogzilla, with cutout closeups of some technical pieces of the boat.


You have got to check it out.

Aloooohhhhaaaa!!!!

Aloha means both hello and goodbye in Hawaiian. Whatever. Because what it really means is that I'm sailing to Hawaii again in 2010!

And this time I won't have to keep two blogs since the Captain already has his own blog...that's right I'm sailing to Hawaii on Valis! The Pacific Cup is slated to start July 5, 2010 which is only 507 days away though I'm currently involved in an internal debate over when to place that counter on the navbar. I'm thinking in a week when it gets under 500.

Valis is an exceptional boat, a Pacific Seacraft 42. Pacific Seacraft makes big heavy ocean going boats, the sort that tend to stick to waves rather than surf them; this will sound familiar to those of you that remember Oceanaire. It's my kind of racing. And, besides, Valis has a great PR history so she doesn't mind being written about:



Remember, this is the fun race to Hawaii so we are contractually obligated to have fun (it's on the waiver forms). Paul handled that with the shirts in 2008:


There will be more on this space regarding Valis over the next 18 months including plans to live-blog that will not be followed through. Aloha.

Edit: I couldn't wait to publish my 500 Days until Pac Cup article at the Examiner. Check it out.

That Red Hat

It's been a while since I've talked about the "Red Hat". I had the good fortune of a rum-drinking crewmate who didn't wear hats. I'm a hat-wearing sailor who doesn't drink rum. And you needed to go to a rum party to get the hat. Hello synergy!



So now I have the red hat and can wear it until it turns pink. And sailors can make fun of me!

How to Make Fun of a Sailor

New article posted at examiner.com: How to make fun of a sailor.

Quick synopsis: we're a quirky bunch and really deserve to get called on it. Feel free to click your way over there and subscribe to my ramblings.

Sailing with Phil

I've milked a week's worth of posts out of the Three Bridge Fiasco. Actually, more like a month given all of my pre-3BF ramblings. I love the race but the best part was sailing with my old Pac Cup friend. Not that he's old or anything...

I absolutely 100% could not have finished this race without Phil. He helped me sort out the spinnaker rigging, placing blocks, getting the pole set up, and showing me where to lead lines. Once underway, he trimmed the spinnaker while patiently explaining what he was doing. When my driving concentration wavered a quick "watch your course" followed. He taught me some light air tricks such as using the current and the spinnaker trimmed in tight to create apparent wind for yourself. He wore the pirate hat.


Not that he's a sailing saint or anything...I stocked the frickin' cooler with beer and he didn't finish all of them. Now I'm stuck with beer. He didn't take the tiller from me when it was apparent that I was going to kill us. And the pirate hat *is* on backwards.

But he did help me to point the boat. Christy asked earlier what his secret was. It is actually pretty simple and I bet exactly what you already do. Obviously, you trim the sails in tight (we did not go traveler up though) and then you point the boat higher than you think possible and you watch the telltales. You can ease into pointing up but the second you're too high you drop down fast. Repeat this process. And concentrate concentrate concentrate on those telltales.

I had always been taught to drop down to 45 degrees or so during a tack then ease back up as you pick up boat speed. But in light air, you're losing boat lengths every time you do that so you need to end up your tack at a very close-hauled point. Since we were fighting a current this was absolutely essential. Any time spent perpendicular to the current is lost distance.

I don't know if I explained it very well but it is all obvious when you think about it. I was just always scared to have that windex pointing that close to the front of the boat and have never spent that much time steering to the telltales.

I got the best email from him the next day. Obviously, he had fun but when his wife asked him whether we'd flown the kite he said, "hell yeah, 4 times!" Now that's enthusiasm, but then she asked, "and how many times in the Pacific Cup?" In our 21 mile race we set the spinnaker 3 more times than in our 2100 mile TransOceanicVoyage. See, I like sailing with Phil because he finds that as funny as I do.

San Francisco Sailing Examiner

I am the San Francisco Sailing Examiner.

About three months ago, the Seattle Sailing Examiner left a comment on Tillerman's blog; I have no idea what she said, I just knew that I wanted to be the San Francisco equivalent. You know, like a journalist.

Since I have 10 to 20 loyal readers of this blog, I need to make a distinction. This blog is about me and my sailing; the Examiner is about sailing in the SF Bay. You want to read about me (and my kids and my boat and the rivalry with O dock), come here. You want to read about how to find a crew position or where to anchor or who is the best sailor on the Bay, go to the Examiner.

And, please, click on those ads!

Leader of the Pack

Remember in my recap, how I talked about being in the lead pack of boats? Well, there's no way to prove that. You look at our somewhat pedestrian 200th place finish and say, "sure EVK4, you were up with the leaders almost halfway through the race? Sure."

Luckily I went Flickr-diving yesterday and found this.


That's us right up there at the front...obviously taken by someone still behind us. Though I am positive they passed us shortly after this shot was taken, maybe even one of the boats we almost fouled trying to get out of that current.

More to come on the race but I like this picture and thought I'd share it...click it for a slightly bigger view.

Three Bridge Fiasco: Blogger Division Results

The winner of the First Inaugural Annual Yearly Blogger Division of the Three Bridge Fiasco is: BreezeTrees on board his Laser 28 Firebolt!


BreezeTrees doesn't actually have a blog but is a loyal reader and friend of the program. I will be issuing him the badge as winner but will make a special concession to Valis as the winner with an actual blog and send him one as well.

Official Blogger Division Results

1. Breezetrees, 118, 17:24:38, recap
   
2. Valis, 169, 17:44:15, recap
   
3. O Docker, 183, 18:00:44
   
4. EVK4, 200, 18:42:57, recap
   
5. NeverSeaLand, DNF

The blogger division was an absolute success from my standpoint. Not just for the five racers but we had two bloggers shadowing the fleet aboard the J109, Knots Squared. As this particular blog is about me, I'm going to write about my interactions with the other bloggers in the order I saw them.

Lady Bug got to the starting line about an hour early so we had plenty of time to drift around, check out the scenery and eat doughnuts. Just as we were starting to get ready to think about how we were going to attack the start, a boat motors past and yells at us. By nature, I'm an angry man so I got ready to rumble until I looked up and saw a tall guy on a Laser 28 motoring by. Hey, that's BreezeTrees! We waved and then didn't see each other again all day. We didn't see each other because he beat us by almost and hour and a half! This was his first race with his wife and I'm happy to report they're still married...but kids, don't try that at home.

Next up was the super surprise of the day, Lady Bug's own personal photo boat came steaming into view, Knots Squared.

On board are Zen and Lady Zen, Captain John, and Admiral Anne (whose blog mysteriously disappeared). I awkwardly threw Zen the Z sign and he expertly threw it back!


Then we sailed and sailed and blah blah blah and finally made it near Red Rock. I was intently steering, Phil was wearing the pirate hat, and I saw a boat on port coming towards us. I looked over at the Dread Pirate Phil and said, "that boat didn't round Red Rock, where'd it come from?"; he said, "watch your course, sheesh" or something like that; so I countered with "I've been itching to protest someone, fetch me my red flag!" Then I saw them waving at us, WTF? "Mess with the bull and you'll get the horns", I thought angrily, clutching the red washcloth that I use as a protest flag. "It's your friends stupid!" Oh, hey, it's John and Anne again, this time they're under sail! Just one of those moments that make you smile, we exchanged some pleasantries and they kept sailing, obviously enjoying themselves.

Fast forward past the bridge/current/hours lost incident and we're getting back into the race on port tack trying to cross a bunch of starboard tackers. We're very very diligent about letting people know our intentions as we duck some and cross others but we cut it very very close about three times. I mean so close that you can feel the anger-waves emanating from the other boats.

We finally made it to our tack and bust over to starboard, heading towards Treasure Island. I see a Catalina 30 looking to take our stern on port...the skipper is yelling at us. I look over at Phil, "well after that last 20 minutes, we deserve someone angrily trying to hit us"...I figured it was someone doing the same to us after they tacked onto port...you know, to teach us a lesson. They passed about 10 yards behind us (might as well have been a mile after all of our close encounters) and I hear this doppler affect yell of "it's O doooccccccckkkkkeeeerrrrrr" as he sails away. Holy crap, now I recognize that boat. O Docker was the only participant that I didn't already have a face to the name and I missed my chance. He then stayed West of us all the way to TI, got through the hole faster and finished a solid 40 minutes sooner.

That was the last blogger I saw all day, never seeing David from Never Sea Land or Paul on Valis. I did encounter a few Pacific Cup buddies on the course and have listed their results (Valis is on both lists).

Official Pac Cup Buddies Division Results

1. Roshambo, 27, 16:55:53
2. Head Rush, 94, 17:16:02
3. Valis, 169, 17:44:15
4. Lady Bug, 200, 18:42:57
5. Moonshine, DNF
   

We're doing this again next year...maybe even for the Great Pumpkin Regatta in October so people, get your pens and tillers ready, it's sail blogging time.

Three Bridge Fiasco 2009 Recap

Me: "If I were a better sailor, we might have gotten through Raccoon Straits a bit faster. I should have seen that counter current coming."

Phil: "What are you talking about, we're in the lead pack!"

This was all true for about the next 30 minutes and I held dearly to that conversation. I looked at the leaders barely 100 yards ahead of us and I looked back at the hundreds of boats still behind us at the second mark of this very long race. And I was proud.



We had started well, setting the spinnaker right after crossing the line, executing a beautiful rounding, got up into what I now know is called a headstay reach until the wind clocked too much, doused and headed upwind for a while until the next shift, set the kite for a wonderful ride down Raccoon Straits, doused again as the wind shifted, then set the darned thing for the third time as we exited the straits.

Here we were, flying the kite comfortably, talking to fellow racers in the light winds, and keeping up with the leaders. Phil had the pirate hat on and all was good. We got to Red Rock, doused and tacked. Still good. But I wasn't pointing high enough in the light winds and the current was setting us back to the bridge. We had to tack again, and this time we were on port heading into a wall of starboard boats.

We had to tack again to keep from fouling a JS9000. Back closer to the bridge, we tried to tack back but the current was keeping my bow down, we were going sideways through the bridge. One last chance to not get pushed through, I tacked and of course, here comes another starboard boat. She said very calmly, I'm not turning and whoops, we have to take our medicine and let the current push us under the bridge. Now we're screwed.

On the wrong side of the bridge, we saw probably a hundred or more boats pass us as we clawed back up, trying to get current relief over by the shore. There was a bright side to all this, Phil very patiently taught me how to point my boat higher than I thought my boat could point. Somehow in almost non-existent wind we were making headway against a 3 knot current pointing at what seemed like directly into the wind. If he hadn't been with me, I'd be down in Vallejo still.

But we made it, we fought the current and won. Now to claw through the rest of the fleet on port. Two boats we passed within feet of their stern while one boat we passed within feet of what seemed like the largest sharpest bowsprit ever made.

From here it was drift calmly toward Richmond. I then broke the tension and suggested if we were still off Berkeley at 5PM, we could just turn left and head into the marina. Phil didn't really want to hear that but I think he agreed. Then we started noticing something weird. The boats ahead of us were over on their ears. WIND AHEAD!!!!

We patiently sailed towards it and were suddenly engulfed in a 15 knot super-wind, completely blowing the remnants of that conversation off the boat. We were going to make it. Our only decision was whether to try to go under the Bay Bridge in the construction zone or the "safe zone". The construction zone was closer, that made the decision easier.

We got under the Bay Bridge and then, suddenly, another parking lot. This one was bad. We had a mild ebb pushing us backwards but about .2 knots of breeze to fight it. We set the kite for the fourth time and just eked out every bit of boatspeed we could. We could see our windline about a quarter of a mile ahead of us. It was 4:30. The decision was made that if we could get to the windline by 5:30, we could still make the finish.

We'd had the radio on the RC's channel for the past hour or so and had heard dropout after dropout; all we had to do was finish and we'd beat those guys. But still, covering half a mile in an hour seemed pretty difficult when the speedo read 0.0. We were passing boats and the ones behind us seemed to be falling backwards so it must have been a rounding issue, we were at 0.049 knots maybe. I'm going to drag this paragraph on and on so that you can feel what it was like to go that slowly. The word for it is "interminable". We could see the windline and the few boats that were making progress through the hole would just take off as soon as they hit it. Somebody needs to shorten that island or put a tunnel through it so the wind can make it through. Then, finally, the wind switch was turned on as we hit the windline at 5:31!

We were able to hold the kite for a few minutes longer than we should as we saw our Pac Cup team-mate coming back from the finish, we realized it was worth missing the finish so that he'd see us fully spinnakericized as he passed. But it wasn't him...damn low light conditions. So we doused and started our uphill climb to the finish line.

It got dark right after we passed under the bridge. We stayed on one tack up to Alcatraz, tacked over to Ghirardelli Square, back out one more time, back into Fort Mason, then one last tack to the finish. I got out my flashlight and we headed right for the pin end of the line. A J80 passed in front of us, tacked over and we had a drag race to the finish. I lit up the sail, we heard two quick hornblasts indicating that it was a photofinish with said J80. And we were done!

We had finished the Three Bridge Fiasco with 15 minutes to spare! A complete and total victory.



Note: The blogger division was a success and a non-success, I saw a few of the other boats and didn't see a few. All blogger interaction will be covered in a separate post so I can give it its full due. But I will mention that both photos in this post are courtesy of Zen.