Sailing Blog
Cloudy Vision on Day 1 of 32 Pre-Worlds »
September 16, 2010
Typically regattas are known for things. They are known for big breeze, great or bad RC work, and after Day 1 of the Pre Worlds, this regatta will not be shrouded in controversy like some events are known for, but fog. As teams gathered at the docks of the St. Francis Yacht Club, blue skies were already present and it looked like it would be a stellar SF sailing day. By the time teams pushed off however, the fog had started to roll back in and would thicken at the fleet of 28 Melges 32s made their way down to the starting area in the Berkeley Circle.
After a general recall in Race 1, the fleet got off to a clean start and made their way up the 2 mile beat in 11-14 kts of breeze. About a 1/4 of the way up, the fog thickened even more to the point where you could only see the boats immediately around you, and it felt like you were sailing in a circled enclosure 10ft in diameter. For teams who had coaches trying to get footage of other boats, if they pointed their cameras at a white wall for a few hours they would have had similar footage of the sailing today. On the Samba, we looked to be in decent position on the halfway up the beat, but once we got to the top mark, a huge right shift benefited the boats the crossed behind us early in the beat and extended right, and we found ourselves in the middle of the fleet getting bounced around and unable to get to where we wanted to be.
The fog would clear mildly throughout the race to the point where you could see the leaders and the marks of the course, and we would discover that our tuning partners from earlier in the year, RED, had jumped out to a massive lead over Bliksem in 2nd. The Samba would continue to battle it out in the middle of the pack and settle for a tough 15th place.
With the Pre-Worlds being part of the Rolex Big Boat Series, they often conduct the racing on seperate parts of the Bay for each race. The morning race was on the Berkely Cirlce and the afternoon race would take place on the City Front course. The Cirlce is relatively straightforward, but the City course provides a few more elements as Alcatraz becomes a big factor in playing the current, as well as the shoreline of the City when current relief is needed. Just prior to the start of race 2 the fog looked to be clearing and it was looking to be a fun, breezy race 2.
After a great start, we made the decision early to leave Alcatraz on the port side en route to our whether mark just off of the Golden Gate Bridge. Once passed Alcatras with Star and Bliksem on our hips and looking in great position, the fog rolled back in and we were now totally clueless as to the whereabouts of the windward mark. We did our best to stay in touch with the two boats around us, and once we could see the St. Francis Yacht Club emerging from the mist, we knew we were probably close to the port layline. After a close tack onto Starboard with Star at the top mark, we tacked on a thin layline, and quickly found out that while the rest of the bay was still in an ebb current, the top inshore portion of the bay had started to flood which promptly pushed us into the top mark…not a good look. With a quick 360, we hoisted and blasted off downwind with Bliksem, Star and now B Lin in front of us.
Once at the bottom mark, the fog had thickened even more and we would do our best to even get a look at the boats around us. After being on port tack for about 10 mins, our legs were getting numb and we began to question where we were headed after we lost sight off all the boats around us. All we could hear was the horns and honks coming from fishing boats and ferries who continued to blast around the bay despite total lack of visibility. Once we did finally tack over on to starboard after a very long period of time, we could hear the horn coming from the Golden Gate Bridge and figured we were close to the top mark. After a few minutes on starboard, we could see a clump of Melges 32s down to leeward a hundred yards or so, and we had clearly overstood, by a lot. We reached into the top mark on an angle that would not allow us to set which would allow 4 boats to get around us. With a quick set, we headed to the finish at the St. Francis Yacht Club in 8th place with Bliksem taking the bullet followed by Star.
Overall a tough, confusing frustrating day on the Samba as we never really got a good grasp on how we were going…or where we headed. Hopefully the conditions will permit for more of a ‘normal’ San Fran day tomorrow and we can hammer out a few quality races.
Standby for day 2. Results can be found at Melges32.com
Comment by Anthony — September 17, 2010
Mate! GPS! or iphone app costs like 99cents. you woulda been a hero.