2016 SSS Round The Rocks

[Photoboy]

Neck and neck at the finish for Ma's Rover and California Condor...who would prevail...

Stay tuned for details!

[PSutchek]

So , how'd the Can do ?

[Wet Spreaders]

Results not up yet. I'm really curious because I totally lost track of everyone in the light air and also because we passed Angel South and East rather than Raccoon (forecast was for crappy pressure in the straits, but better current - we bet that chasing wind would be the right choice, plus I was sick of bobbing around helpless).

[Hanno]

Results are up now.

[Photoboy]

Results Linky

[Photoboy]

Sorry for delay in report... will get one up tomorrow with all the purdy pics with circles and arrows...

In the mean time, I did get a gallery of select built... Clicky https://h2oshots.smugmug.com/2016-Sa...ocks/i-SdLdgNM



Timo Bruck of the J-120 Twist had this to say about the afternoon:




"Yesterday's SF Bay Singlehanded Sailing Society Round the Rocks race with Fraser Novakowski on Twist Sailing.

Wind was 2-3kts at the start an the fleet split into two clumps. I think we did really well in the "clump 2" (stay in the fingers of breeze behind Angel Island) group, but the "clump 1" (drift over to Treasure Island; get the fresh breeze first) group had the winners.

Please don't ask about the jiggigly-joo near Harding Rock. After getting almost 10kts of breeze around Alcatraz, it shut down all of a sudden and we were still fighting 2kts of flood. I know we did some weird stuff to get around the mark, but I don't remember it being _that_ weird.

Rest of the day was pretty nice, but never really 11kts (and often around 6). Until our blast reach home of course, when we got 25+kts of wind and were doing 9.6kts of boatspeed with just main and jib. — at The San Francisco Bay."

[Photoboy]

Harding The Hard Way



106 intrepid short handed boats signed up for this years Singlehanded Sailing Society. An in the Bay, 19.3 nm event that originates on the Berkeley Circle, leaves Alcatraz to starboard,
Harding Rock to starboard, The Brothers to starboard, Red Rock to Port and on to finish in the Point Potrero Channel. Light winds at the start left some boats drifting on the flats while others
we able to ghost their way up towards Treasure Island into a slight westerly. The Multi's had the 1st gun and several of them escaped the hole and were looking good on the beat to Harding Rock.
For a while anyway. Well in front was Peter Stoneberg's Prosail 40' Shadow that looks like the odds on favorite to set 1st at Harding, but lightening winds and a steady, stubborn 2 knot flood was too much for the big cat. The winds for what they were worth, seemed to stay on the left side of the course, paving a way for the Express 27's and sportboats to work their way above the mark, with a generous overstand.






The luck few on the initial pulse that rounded Harding then rode the flood for all it was worth straight east, some setting kites and some not. Initially it looked liked either method proved equally effective. One of the early rounders, Buzz Blackett's Class 40 California Condor set their lightest kite and pulled away from the fleet, leaving Point Blunt well to port and went right to the edge of the flats to stay in favorable current and milk what little breeze their was.




Condor looking good in the North Bay with Mt Tam and cumulous clouds looking Kaneohe like.








As the morning turned into early afternoon, a second, more populous pulse of boats, tangled with the Harding Hole, riding high over the top after observing the fate of their predecessors, many choosing Raccoon Strait as a path to the North Bay. Why not? With the flood and expected westerly, it made sense. Until it didn't. The Raccoon can be stubborn as well, and what appeared to be a short cut turned into a park up for many, who saw their sails go limp as they swirled about in the current, making some easterly vmg, but not much. Slowly, the westerly filled from the back of the fleet and a tight parade of boats spilled into the North Bay.




Max Crittenden on his Martin 32 Iniscaw was one of the 2nd wind fortunate sons. Max, a long time single hander has recently purchased a home in Borrego Springs, to which he will be retiring
to next fall/winter. Max won his division (SH Spin 111-159) and has been a leader on and off the water. He planes on taking his boat south with him, but maybe if we protest loud enough, he will reconsider?




The big slug of boats fanned out quickly across the North Bay, and as the majority slipped past Red Rock, the two leaders of the race, Condor and Mark Eastham's Corsair 31' Ma's Rover
both emerged from the Richmond / San Rafael Bridge headed south. It was gonna be a slow speed drag race to the finish!




We caught up to the pair just as the were in the last stretch just past the Long Wharf no fly zone. Condor had taken a decisive lead and was sailing a great circle route so they could deploy the kite for a Hollywood finish for their home crowd working the finish line at RYC. But the devil is in the details, and as luck would have it, the snuffer jammed 2/3rds of the way up, and despite their best efforts, stayed that way for a good 200 yards. All the while, Ma's Rover, sailing a more direct line, snuck underneath and claimed the 1st to finish honors!



Congrats to Ma's Rover!


Be back in a tad with more images and credit where credit is due....

[Photoboy]

Father and son Douglas and Lyndon Bailey on dad's J 105 Akula approach Red Rock. Nothing like sailing double handed with one's offspring!




Bill Gardner & Will Matievich sailed Bill's F-27 Peregrine Falcon to multihull glory in the DH Multi Division!




"Seldom Seen" Dan Alvarez and A guy that sounded like Robert Blackmore make a rare appearance on Jet Stream



Self steering stick guru Brian Boschma getting in shape for the manly feats competition for next years Festivus Festival





Nick Schmidt & Coline Gaillard aboard the Express 37 Escapade could not be happier!



Always good to see Nicolas Popp & Jacques Benkoski on the Sun Fast 3200 Dare-Dare




Jasper Van Vliet & John Pytlak on the J-24' Evil Octopus enjoying sausage and brewski as the exit Racoon Straight!
They even gave the hard working photog a birthday brewski on the anniversary his annual circumnavigation of the sun... Thanks Guys!




These two need no introduction, but it is noteworthy to note that Dick let Paul have some tiller time and they won their division.
If this bromance is to blossom, making everyone feel equal will go along ways...




Ron and Oliver Kell were the fastest Express 27 in the 12 boat strong one design fleet.
Where are all the Moore 24's?




And last but not least, the one and only Jay-Bob, a week removed from tax-season wasteland had recouped enough to sail his J-82 Ragtime to victory in SHspin 108 and under

[Photoboy]

...and a special shout out to Natalie Criou, who sailed her Express 27 Elise to victory in the Single Handed Sportboat class!

Watching her run through a gybe all by her lonesome was amazing...

[DeathSpear]

It wasn't a day for JetStream. We toughed it out in the morning light zephyrs as we saw our competition walk away on us. Had a great recovery into Alcatraz playing the cone hard. We also had a great leg into Harding, taking guidance from the large windvane that Shadow provided. Had the layline nailed until the last boatlength, when we encountered a 60' beautiful yatch that was blocking our way to the mark. Not knowing what they were doing (they had like 20 people on board) I wrongly decided to go below them to round the mark. Just as I did that they also turned towards the mark completely blanketing us and making us almost hit the mark as we now missed it. Turns out some other race also had Harding as a turning mark going the other way... great. It only took us an hour to get back to Harding. There went our race. We fought a little more and caught up some boats through Racoon. But as we got level with Richmond we could see our competition near the Brothers already, so we cut our loses and decided to have dinner with the family.

The irony of sailing back home in 15 - 20 knots of wind in the central bay while we were racing all day in sub 10, didn't go unnoticed.

[Aussie]

Round the Rock tracks can be found at:
http://www.jibeset.net/gpsshare.php?...19c970b374e8f1

The track for Nancy was recorded by Jibeset in real time using a SPOT Trace device on Nancy set up to provide track points every 5 minutes. From time to time the SPOT device fails to provide data – why is being investigated. This results in an incomplete track for Nancy.

Tracks can also be recorded in real time from Delorme devices.

The tracks for other boats were recorded on a GPS device and uploaded after the race.