Wind Jammer Wammer

[Photoboy]

The 2013 Edition of The Windjammers is almost here! (Crap, where my summer go?)

http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/7015

NOR

[BobJ]

I thought we were going to run the WJ deets in the Jazz Cup thread, so they have something to read whilst stuck in the muck.

You organized types must all be bean-counters or something.

[BobJ]

You read it here first: I'm jumping on a J/105 Saturday morning (no time to prep my boat) and Maxi is swapping his papal vestments for a caveman outfit and safety glasses.

[Prince of Whales]

There's a new Geico ad campaign tryout?

[Photoboy]

Wasn't the Windjammers always held on a Friday in years past?

0900 is aweful early ifin you ask me...it's foggy and windless outside right now...

[Thing-Fish]

Yes, it used to start Friday so as to let people spend Monday with their families.

Now it starts Saturday so as to not people burn a vacation day from work. Or else call in as 'sea sick'.

So the SH Div is down to only 7 starters??

I'm guessing one of the J/105s will get the Santa Cruz Bowl... and in the SH division the faster boats will grab the top spots.

[Photoboy]

Fly On!

[BobJ]

@Fish: Yeah, sorry about that. Seven is still pretty good.

The Saturday start worked for me, otherwise I couldn't go at all. Splitting up the delivery with a stopover in HMB would have been nice, but you can't have everything.

Agree on the SH division. I had been hoping for a third. Maybe there will be enough next year to split SH into two groups (those who can finish before the wind shuts off and those who can't). I'll certainly work on that within SSS.

[Photoboy]

War Pony reporting from the fog. Decent wind at the start to get us out the G8 in the flood.

Now off South SF with wind 9 knots from the SW.

Peace out, Howe and Bags

[solosailor]

Early finish for the faster boats. We got in double handed @ 6:10pm.

[Photoboy]

Shana Bagley teamed up with Mark Howe on Mark's Farr 36' "War Pony" to double hand in this years Windjammers,
downhill (theoretically) race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Things started out a bit on the shakey
side, late to the start, vhf not doing what vhf is supposed to do, making check in an adventure and
downright icky conditions with poor visibility and drizzle. Thing got better as the day progressed and crews had
some stellar conditions for a while, anyways!

Here's Shana's report!





We have no idea how we did and, frankly, we don't care! It was a great race.


Decent wind at the start to slide out the G8 in the flood (which made us forget about the race start hiccup). The fog seemed to take forever to lift and made things soggy, including me (much love to my Dubarry Crosshavens). A steady 15-18 knots and the lightwind A-kite held like a champ- until the wind became a bit nuclear (which was NOT in the forecast BTW)- 30 knots steady.




The Pony was smoking along, with a good swell to give us a push in the proper direction.




The douse turned into a bit of a shit show as we forgot there were only two of us and these things take a little bit longer than when fully crewed. Nothing broke, no one hurt, and, after a few less than gentle reminders, we dragged its sorry wet ass (and which now smells a little less like 3-Mercapto-3-methylbutan-ol) inside the boat (admission from the bow - it's still not packed - post race beer(s) was more important).




Jib up and then the wind just died off of Davenport. Nuclear to nothing. Hoisted another A-kite and THEN the wind shifted to an unworkable angle. Jib back up, again...

And then, there was the kelp.

We heard there was some carnage on Condor, but we didn't see it and they smoked us handily (well done Jim and Buzz!). We did see a few spinnaker issues around us when the wind piped up, but they were too far behind to document.





It's all good we had a great time, and that's all that really matters. We made it in before the fiery red sunset. We had the best warm beer ever. Santa Cruz is where it's at (and, yes, Bryan Garner, I intentionally ended a sentence in a preposition).




Peace Out, Howe, Bags and one sweet War Pony

[Photoboy]

RESULTS!!!

[Rx]

Originally registered in the SH Division, we had a stroke of good luck when Bob J (J/92 Ragtime!) became buried at work with no time to prep his boat for the race – but enough time to crew on Racer X. A quick change of Divisions and we were ready to go.

Exiting the main channel we seemed to make great gains along Seal Rocks as the ebb was on and we were freed from the effects of the flood. We continued on Starboard for an extended period in 6 – 8 kts TWS and resisted the urge to tack to port and get off of the beach. Our patience was rewarded as the breeze slowly went right and we were lifted well out to sea. We stayed on a close hauled course through a continuing series of lifts and were then able to bear off, while still maintaining a course out to sea, hoisting the A sail around 12:30. Sometime later a big red Aso emerged from the fog astern as War Pony then scooted by us to leeward. In a building breeze of 12 – 14kts we continued out to sea as War Pony chose to gybe in. We continued out, but not as far out as some, before gybing toward the shore. The breeze continued to build…16, 20, 24 and finally 31 Kts TWS as we approached the Ano Nuevo buoy on port. A nice header allowed us to delay the dreaded gybe until we were close to shore, the gybe went fine and we headed back out. The breeze remained in the high 20’s for this leg and the sprit spent a lot of time underwater with extended surfing over the backs of the slower swells and a top boat speed of 16.3 kts. While waiting for the lull that never materialized we finally gybed for shore in 28 – 30 kts TWS and again all went well – “Thank You Bob J and Mary”. As we approached Santa Cruz the breeze dropped sharply followed by a big shift as the land breeze took over. We decided to head for the shore but kept well outside the kelp. We were surprised when we crossed tacks with War Pony and now understand that they found a hole along the beach near Davenport – what a day of extremes!

Congratulations to the Moore 24 Mas! as they corrected out to win PHRO2. Likewise congrats to all the SH finishers who must have their own war stories to share. For Racer X the two+ hours we spent on the edge with the big breeze made the weekend!

[Photoboy]

Windjammers Start Gallery is up, for what its worth...

Thanks for the write up guys!