Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Beer Can #8 - May 28

This week's beer can was very close for all of the Merits. Six boats went out, and we were all within a few hundred feet of each other at all times... with the exception of M3, who got way behind out near the mark.

The race was course 5—out to marker X and back. The winds were strong at the dock but pretty nice overall, around 10-15 knots most of the time with an occasional light spot. The water was flat until we were well out of the channel, and then we got some light chop in the deepest water.

At the start of the race, three or four boats went over the start line right on time, and the others followed. For some reason, M2 started pretty late but seemed to catch up with the rest of the Merits in the channel. It was a beam reach most of the way up the channel, with winds from the west.

I was in M7 with Skipper Viola and Dave P and Sandi as other crew members. We were neck and neck with M6 most of the way with M1 and M4 just ahead of us. When we got out of the channel, the pack disbursed a bit. We were solidly in third place with M1 and M4 still ahead of us and M6 dropping back. M2 and M3 were pretty far back.

We had a couple of GPSs on board and headed directly to the mark. M6 followed suit. We noticed that M1 and M4 were heading more toward the center span of the bridge and couldn't figure out why. Somehow M2 had caught up with the pack and was following M1 and M4. I found out later that the M2 crew didn't know where the mark was!

On our way to the mark, we got a header that forced us to change our course by about 30 degrees to the east. Along with fighting a strong flood the whole evening, that put us way further east than the boats in the lead.

When we got far enough out so the mark was about 130 degrees to our left, we tacked, and it was a good move. With the flood pushing us down, we headed straight for the mark and were able to round it without tacking again. After rounding the mark, we headed down and back to the channel.

On the downwind leg, at first, we were on a deep broad reach, so we used the spinnaker pole to hold the jib out... not wing-and-wing... just a starboard tack. We headed directly for marker 3, but the wind kept shifting, so we had to keep falling off (away from the marker) to maintain speed.

At some point in that downwind leg, M2 came from behind, passed everyone, and took the lead! We were all stumped at how they were doing it. (I later found out that one of the crew members, Peter, had gotten there early and cleaned the bottom of the boat! Ah-ha!)

We turned into the channel and had to tack several times until we got to marker 8, at which point, we were on a close haul for the rest of the race.

Here's the order in which the boats finished:
PlaceBoatSkipper
1M2Dave G
2M1Nico
3M4Hans
4M7Viola
5M6Vadim
6M3Roy

Here's a picture of the winning crew, along with the bird's nest they found in their sail!

THE WINNERS!
Great race, Spinnaker folks! Please check out my Picasa web album for more pictures!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Beer Can #7 - May 21

Cancelled!!! We're expecting gale force winds tonight, so the beer can race for this week has been cancelled. Here are some graphics that show what's going on...

From windfinder.com, showing close to 40mph winds at 3pm!





From real-time SF wind patterns with red arrows, which I've never seen before on this site!





I've never known Spinnaker to cancel, so these winds must be really strong! Hope to see y'all next week...

This just in... I just got a call from Kerry, saying that some people who showed up to race Merits this week actually went out on the big boats, since Spinnaker cancelled the Merit race. He said that the wind peaked at over 40 knots, steady at 30-35 knots. Apparently, Bad Puddy Cat had a mast failure. They had a rip-roaring time out there!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Beer Can #6 - May 14

More and more people are starting to turn out for the beer can races this year. This week, six out of the seven Merits went out, and the only reason it wasn't seven is because M1 has a broken boom. Mike told me that "The merit boom broke at a weak point in the boom created by the connector to the vang. With time, the rivets get corroded and it becomes weak there."

Ok, so I have to admit that I raced on Smokin' J this week, my all-time favorite race boat. Sorry... no pictures! But I did check out the Merits on their way out and got the scoop from all the skippers after the race. Here are the results in the order in which they finished by boat number and skipper:
PlaceBoatSkipper
1M2Nico
2M5Steve Stanley
3M6Roel
4M4Kerry
5M7Viola (the all-girl crew!)
6M3Mike Dvorak

Congrats to Nico for a great race! The first three boats actually finished properly. Viola's boat turned on their engine after the wind died, and then Kerry did the same, and they both motored in. Mike told me that "something broke on the motor on M3, allowing us to only make about 1.5 knots of headway down the channel." Ugh... His crew got back to the docks too late to join the apre sail festivities.

Next week, we're all looking forward to fair winds, even tides, and another great beer can race!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Beer Can #5 - May 7

I missed this beer can race due to a family emergency. Sorry!