Hero Overboard

January 22, 2012

The forecast was for rain. But we got wind. A heck of a lot more wind than normal for a late January day on the San Francisco Bay.

I’ve been sailing on Akyla since early October. Over the last few months, the windiest day I’ve seen was 12 knots, with gusts up to 15kts. Okay, maybe it’s been a little windier than that, but not by much. Today, we were in for a treat.

I awoke to sunny skies, and mild temperatures in the low 50′s; my record of having good (fair) weather every time I sail is still intact (I’ve only seen true rain once, and only at the very end of the race—knock on wood). When we arrived at the South Beach Yacht Club, we could already feel the gusts. By the time we got out of the harbor, we were glad we had seven people aboard—a fairly heavy crew for Akyla during the winter. We were early; the start for the SBYC Island Fever series is just a few hundred meters from our slip. We took the time to sail around, feel the wind, test the sails, and make some mistakes. Notably, and the most unfortunate, was that on one of our early tacks, when I went to put on the running back stay, it was inadvertently wrapped around the pole holding the Go Pro camera. Off the Go Pro flew, like the hero it is, into the Bay. An enthusiastic round of swearing followed. Of all the things that probably could have gone wrong today, this was the most minor. I felt horrible, but I couldn’t dwell on it. We had sailing to do.

Our warm-up continued, and so did the wind. Increasing from a steady 15kt with gusts up to 30, to a steady over-20kt wind with gusts up to, well, really strong gusts that sent the boat healing 45 degrees over, and then slamming back down again, testing our balance and agility on the rail. And we weren’t even racing yet!

With fifteen minutes to the start, we made our way back to the harbor, marked the line, and waited for the 5-minute warning signal and the course flags. For the last few months, all the SBYC race courses have occurred just outside the harbor. But today, with winds out of the west at up to 30kts and an ebb, the race committee decided to have some fun with us, and raised the flags for course 13—Alcatraz Island, skipper’s choice of rounding. A tack called and then delayed caused some confusion in the cockpit, but the gun went off, and we were racing, leading the fleet out of the start together with Jolly Mon and Wild 1. Akyla normally doesn’t sail all that fast relatively on the upwind legs, but we held right with Wild 1, trailing only Jolly Mon by about a minute. It was definitely the fastest upwind leg I’ve seen on that boat, despite struggling a little with jib trim in the increasing wind. Just a couple of tacks got us around the island, and we prepared to set our chute.

Despite the strong, gusty winds and the six-foot swells coming down on top of us, we raised the masthead spinnaker, our plan being to cheat the current and perhaps the strongest of the gusts by hugging the shoreline on the way home. Our kite flyer dealt with the tricky conditions spectacularly, keeping us safe, and moving fast. With each gust, we could literally see the boat pick up speed relative to the shoreline. My hand was on the vang, ready to depower the main sail to avoid a round-up if necessary. It was. With one particularly strong gust, I blew the vang, but it took a split second for me to realize there was a butt on the line. The sail didn’t depower and we did round-up. Fortunately our kite flyer and skipper were on their game, and made a quick recovery. The entire sequence took not more than ten seconds. (And though I shouldn’t admit to noticing this—while racing one’s focus should always be wholly on the boat—out of the corner of my I saw that the piers were full of people on this sunny, blustery day, and we gave them a damn good show.)

We put the jib back up as we crossed under the Bay bridge, but the lee of San Francisco did not inhibit our kite, and we flew it nearly to the finish line, dousing only just before we entered the cove. Wild 1 tore their main sail on the upwind leg, and were casually cruising home while we broke away from Jolly Mon running downwind. We finished with the gun, winning the race outright. Win or lose, this was a really fun day of sailing, but it sure felt good to win.

By the time some of the other boats finished, we were already done putting Akyla away. We headed up to the club to collect our pink flamingo and celebrate our win. We now stand second in the series, with two more races to go. We’re sure looking forward to more racing, and lots more wind!

Filed under: California,Sailing,USA