Beer Can #16 - July 23

Once again, I was crewing on Smokin' J for the beer can race this week, but I had a bird's eye view of the start of the Merit race from about 100 yards up the channel. What a pretty start! Seven boats all in a row, all starting at roughly the same time. Very quickly, M7 and M1 forged ahead. Half a minute later, M1 screamed past us, and it looked like my good buddies, Skipper Norbert and Dave G were going to prevail. They were neck and neck with Skipper Nico on M7!

The Merits sailed up the channel, and we continued to tack and gybe, preparing for our start. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day with strong winds in the basin (about 18 kts) and most of the channel and lighter winds out on the bay (about 15 kts). As unusual as that is, it's been happening quite a bit this year. The ebb was just starting, so the currents were with us on the way out. The race was to day marker 12 and back.

We got a good start with Kerry at the helm and Skipper Stan doing timing and tactics. Steve was on the main, Jerry and I were on the jib, and Chris and Sean were rail meat on the upwind leg and were assigned foredeck and mast, respectively, for the downwind. We played cat and mouse with Iowa on the way up the channel and almost caught them a few times. Kerry navigated us brilliantly through some pretty big waves between the end of the channel and the mark and made a very good rounding. By the time we reached the mark, we had passed 3 or 4 boats and were doing great.

The downwind sail was less perfect. Chris wasn't ready to raise the spinnaker when we rounded the mark, and then when he did raise it, it was twisted. When he got the twist out, he realized that one of the sheets was rigged wrong. Ugh... We doused. Sean went below and got the chute ready to raise through the forward hatch. Meanwhile, Chris rerigged the sheets and halyard. They started to raise it again, but the rigging was wrong again. We doused again. This time, I was on deck, ready to release the boom vang if we started to broach, so I ended up playing turtle and holding the spinnaker by the mast while Sean rerigged the sheets.

We were back in the channel by this time and Stan was at the helm. We'd been passed by several boats while we headed down to try to fly the kite, and now the wind was too far forward to fly it. Stan said to wait until we reached the power towers, and the wind would shift to more of a beam reach. When we got there, we raised the chute, and it flew. But we were so close to the end of the race that Stan said not to bother lowering the jib. So we sailed along with both the spinnaker and the jib raised.

After all was said and done, we came in about in the middle of the pack... not bad for such a messed up spinnaker run!

The Merit race was pretty close and a fun race for those I talked to out on the deck of SYC after the race. Here are the results:

Place	Boat	Skipper
1	M7	Nico
2	M1	Norbert
3	M5	Peter
4	M2	Mike
5	M3	Hans

I hope to see you all out there next week! Please check my Picasa web album for pictures of the Santana (Skipper Kimi) and Cal (Skipper Cliff).

Ron Brown in Pacific Cup Race!

You may have heard that Ron Brown is racing in the Pacific Cup right now. He's one of the instructors at Spinnaker Sailing, co-owner and avid racer of Black Sheep (a 25' Beneteau), member of Sequoia Yacht Club, and all round great guy.

Ron is sailing for J World on a J-120 called J World. They left San Francisco yesterday (July 16) with a good lead all the way out the gate. Sandi Crane was there and shot some very cool videos of the start. Check them out!

If you'd like to follow the race, check out the Satellite Race Tracker. J World is in Div D.

Beer Can #15 - July 16

If it's Wednesday, I must be sailing!

This week, I was on M4 with Skipper Steve Skinner. It was just the two of us with Steve at the helm and on the main and myself on the jib sheets. The weather was warm, sunny, and breezy (maybe 12 kts in the channel), and I thought we'd have a nice, calm race on a warm summer evening.

We got off to a great start... until Kerry suddenly appeared on our starboard side and yelled out "Starboard"! We had to duck down to avoid a collision, and Steve ended up doing a 360, which made us very late over the starting line. Arrrrrggggg, Kerry!!!

So we brought up the rear all the way up the channel. As we got closer to the bay, the wind got stronger and stronger, and by the time we were on our way toward race marker S, our target, we realized that we probably should have reefed back in the channel. As we neared the middle of the bay, the waves got bigger and closer together, and the wind got stronger. Steve had all he could do to keep us moving through the waves. We were way too light for those conditions, especially without a reef.

So at some point, probably half way between 3 and S, we decided to head back. We were in last place by a long way, overpowered, and not able to get up enough speed to make good progress through the big waves. It was the right thing to do. The up side was that I could take pictures of the fleet as they returned, and Steve could go home early and make points with his wife! So back to the dock we went, which was a pretty nice downwind sail after we got out of the big waves.

So I have lots more pictures this week, which you can see on my Picasa web album. And I have the race results for you:

Place	Boat	Skipper
1	M6	Ron Wilson
2	M1	Nico
3	M7	Hans
4	M5	Kerry
5	M3	Viola
6	M2	Jeff
X	M4	Steve Skinner (abandoned)

Even though we didn't finish, it was a fun race and post-race festivities, as usual. I'm glad to see so many people out on the Merits this year! Great turnout!

Beer Can #14 - July 9

I missed it again! Arrrrgggg.... got caught up with a technical problem at work and had to solve it before I left for the day (which turned out to be 7:30pm), so I could deliver my work that was due that day. I have a new client and just started a new gig last week, so I have to make a good impression, you know!

Anyway, I hear tell that all 7 Merits and all 3 Santanas were out this week. I have no idea who was where, who won, placed, or showed, or what the heck happened. If you have the 411 about this week's race, please write a comment and associate it with this post.

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Thanks to Dave G for sending me this picture of his crew (CK, Curt, and Tara). Apparently, Curt's PFD inflated as they were taking down the sails. That's the second one this season! Kerry's was the first.

And thanks to Shirley Burek (often part of Jeff Smith's crew) for this really cool aerial photo of the race shot from her friend's Cessna.

See you next week for sure!

Beer Can #13 - July 2

This week's beer can race was fairly relaxed and fun for me. I was on the Smokin' J, so I didn't get a lot of stories about the Merit race. I do have the results, though, and a few pictures from where I was sitting.

Place	Boat	Skipper
1	M3	Jeff
2	M4	Viola
3	M1	Dave G
4	M7	Leslie
5	M2	Kimi

It was a balmy early summer evening. The wind was perfect—12-15 kts with gusts maybe hitting 18-20 kts. We had a flood tide with some rollers out in the deeper parts of the bay, but that was good for surfing back.

Stan took the helm for the start of the race and then handed it over to Kerry and shifted into his tactician role. I was on the main for the upwind leg, and Steve Skinner took the jib sheets. Monica was foredeck, so she was basically rail meat on the way out to S, the race marker we were headed for. Monica brought her cousin, Emily, and her student, Brian, who hadn't sailed much and not for a long time. Brian helped Steve on the jib sheets, and Emily pitched in whenever we needed her. Other than that, they rode the rail with Monica.

Kerry steered us through the rollers extremely well on the upwind leg and then rounded the mark perfectly, capturing the inside track and overtaking a Beneteau that was rounding at the same time.

That's when Monica came alive! Up went the spinnaker and down went the jib. Monica noticed that the spin halyard was inside the jib and corrected that quickly just before the hoist. She also loved the special ties I brought her to tie down the jib when it was not in use. Glad that was a hit!

On the downwind leg, Monica trimmed, I handled the guy, and Kerry handled the foreguy and topping lift. It was really nice to have enough crew to handle everything in the pit. So often this spring we've been shorthanded while flying the chute.

No gybes were necessary as we headed for the channel on a broad reach. Stan decided to douse early, around marker 8, I think. The douse went well except for my foot on the guy, but we corrected that quickly. Part way down the channel, a couple of other boats hoisted their chutes again, but Stan decided not to when Monica said she'd be swimming back if he did. All in all, it was a very pleasant evening and a good race. I believe we came in 5th out of about 20 boats.

When we returned to the dock, the Merits were all in. Here's what they look like after a race:Lame, I know... I promise to get all of the crews' pictures next week! Thanks to all who came out for this race!