2017 Single Handed Farallones

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42 Single Handed Sailors answered the call
and sailed out of San Francisco Bay and into the fog this AM. Light winds are predicted throughout the day with a bit more breeze as they near
the Farallones. The sailors have until 0600 Sunday to complete the 56nm course around the stinky rocks. Stay tuned for reports as they filter in!

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Looking at the AIS Tracker: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...37.871/zoom:13

12:30 PM It appears that Green Buffalo, Freedom, Pork Chop Express have retired.

Sweet Pea, Hylite, & Galaxy are setting crab pots off of Fort Cronkhite .

Bandicoot is just past the approach buoy, Foxxfire and Six Brothers 1/2 way up the channel.



The current satellite indicates the may be some sun & wind out by the stinky rocks!

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Just in, Lenora Joseph Mannion's Hunter 33 has a too close encounter with a whale outside the gate and was taking on water.
She made it back to her slip at Gashouse Cove and is currently getting checked for damages.

Add Duramater and White Shadow to list of retirees..

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Yard work isn't looking so bad after all.

Actually, yes it is...

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13:30 PM Retirees

Escapade, Wetsu, Crane Wife, Domino, Jacqueline, Nina...

Currently 14 retirees, 27 still racing!

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14:10 Retirees

As of 14:10 the following have joined the headed home early brigade:

Nancy, Hylite, Galaxsea.

17 total retired, 25 still on course...

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14:50 Update

Geodesic III and Sweet Pea exit stage left...




Redsky sends visuals.. nice salmon fishing weather...

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16:00 Retirees

Nessie, Jou Jou, Riff Rider, Humdinger,

19 boats still competing...

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16:10 Evacuee list: Redsky, Elise.

17 left standing...

Oh look... A Gallery!

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17:50 crew of " we had enough, thank you "!!!


TIJD, Outsider, Raven, Dasein's Den, Pork Chop.

An even dozen still in it....

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Ma's Rover 1st to finish at 20:59:02

Foxxfyre had retired at 18:45-ish

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6 Brothers was 1st Mono hull, finishing at 22:31:19, Last finisher arrived at 00:17:06

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Race closed with 2 boats motoring home. Last finisher at 00:17:06. Bandicoot over Crinan ll by only 1 min 43 sec (06:26 AM)

42 - Boats started, 31 have retired, 9 have finished, and two are still racing. (2:26 AM via Rick Elkins at GGYC)

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Prelim results by division



Overall

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2017 Single Handed Farallones: A Grueling Test Of Patience




Mark Eastham, sailing his Corsair F-31, Ma's Rover was the 1st to complete the 56nm odyssey which was this year's SSS Single Handed Farallones. The 12 hour 24 minute and two second voyage was a vastly different experience than Mark other Farallones races, where he has finished in the 5-6 hour range.

"Those trips you are on edge because you are literally on edge, sailing in 25 knot plus winds and big swell" Mark explains "This year I was on edge because of the fog. Pea soup, horns blaring in every direction, no reference points no idea where the other boats are. All very disconcerting, thank god for the GPS!"

Mark doesn't sail single handed that often, and likes to give himself some practice days before these events to sort out the kinks. "Both the days I had set aside blew like snot, and I stayed tied to the dock, so I went into this regatta feeling a little ill prepared"

Mark would sail in the pea soup, riding the southerly 6-12 knot breeze all the way to the weather buoy where he was becalmed. "About three hours of nothing, but at least the fog had dissipated, so I could get my bearings. I had my screecher up earlier and had gotten a nice lift towards the Island, then had to drop the jib and lash everything down for a while I drifted, Then the wind filled in from the NW and I got lifted again towards the Island!" Mark would round the Island about 5:30 ~ 6:00PM and begin the long ride 27 nm back to the Gate.

Flying his asymmetrical kite, Mark would work his way in to the Golden Gate Strait just as dusk fell, noticing Amy Wells aboard her F-27' Wingit, getting closer and closer. "She was sailing her Symmetrical and had a more direct course, and she was reeling me in, little by little. Mark adds This is her second Single Handed Farallones win in a row, that's pretty impressive, She's the Queen of the Farallones!"

The excitement did not end for Mark after entering the Bay. With darkness no upon him, the winds picked up substantially as they tend to do, manhandling his big kite in the dark and trying to lay the mark was a beast. " I buried the port ama and center hull 3 times in the process. That's something you don't like doing even with a full crew in the daylight, much less in the pitch black sailing solo" Mark would finish just before 9:00 PM and head to an empty slip at the SF Marina, completely spent.

"Sailing for another hour back to Richmond in the dark just didn't seem prudent". Marks next race will be the Full Crewed Farallones where he hopes for another 1st to finish.




For Amy Wells, the Single Handed Farallones is time alone with the boat, something she doesn't get to do enough of. She grew up sailing with her father Ray Wells on the boat and it has become an extension of her family. The natural ebb and flow of the boat just feels right when sailing and Amy truly enjoys time on Wingit. This race, being just her 2nd Single Handed Farallones and 2nd overall corrected victory makes the achievement even more incredible.


Amy sets her limits, with 6-7 sea state and 15 knot forecasted wind as her cut off point, the criterion for both these has happened in the past two years. And even though winds were brisk at the start, they mellowed out considerably by the time the fleet got to the gate where they would be enveloped in dense fog. Using all of her senses in the dense stuff, Amy says she actually smelled land and tacked away when visibility was nonexistent. That visibility did not improve much until nearly 1/2 way to the Islands. " I finally spotted Truls over on Raven and sailed up by him" Amy reflects "We still could not see the Islands, so it's nice to have some reference"


After ghosting around for an hour and 1/2, Raven had had enough and fired up the outboard and headed back. "As Truls motored past, I showed him the box of cookies I had just opened, and indicated I would be okay. Light air is fine with me and think of it as just another challenge" Wingit would round the Island well behind Ma's Rover but Amy soldiered on.
She was 1/3 way back to the gate before seeing her 1st monohulls still heading out, and sailing her old worn out 3oz symmetric kite ( it's all she has left in the quiver) Wingit slowly reeled the bigger Rover in. "Mark had to sail a lot of angles to keep his kite working, but I had just enough wind to keep my kite full and sailed a short course" Amy explains.


Amy would reach the bridge shortly after 21:00 and that's when things got interesting. Overpowered, and needing to drop the kite, she unclipped, and mistakenly pressed the standby button on her autopilot, (1st time deploying it in the dark ) and moved forward for the douse only to have the boat quickly round up. More excitement than she would have desired, but Amy has the leeward douse down and soon got things back under control and rushed past the finish line at 21:25:16 quick enough to correct out ahead of Ma's Rover by 23 minutes and change.

The SSS Race committee, already having had a long day at the GGYC would find themselves waiting yet another hour plus before they would get any more customers. In a late night flurry, Chris Kramer would sail his Columbia 32C Six Brothers through the finish line at 22:31:12 to claim 1st monohull honors. Juan Tellez would follow on the F-27 Cumbia to complete the multihull finishers, followed shortly thereafter by Ludovic Milin's J 120 Saetta and then Nathan Bossett aboard the Figaro 2 EnvoleE for division 03 honors.








As the big hand and little hand both neared the 12 on the chronometer, a pair of WylieCat 30's, Al Germain's Bandicoot and Don Martin's Crinan II would finish within 1:38 of each other 23:47:50 and 23:49:33 respectively to take 1st and 2nd in div 04.







Credit Joe Balderrama for the 1st in class, last boat to finish, sailing his Express 27 Archimedes at 00: 17:06.



The RC would remain on scene through the night and greet the sunrise as the deadline came and went at 0600, sadly with two boats still on course, Friday Harbor the Beneteau 323 sailed by the 86 years young Ryle Radke and Brett Suwyn's Cavalier 39' Althea, both determined to finish but were sadly denied They would remain there even after the whistle blew and the contestants were forced to fire up their motors and call it quits, making sure they got past the Gate and safely in the bay





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