DH Lightship

[Angry Dolphin]

https://www.jibeset.net/IYC000.php?RG=T001583133

Only 3 takers thus far?

[Carl Spackler]

Well technically, there are 6 people on boats and more on shore shooting guns and writing stuff on clipboards.

[buster_hymen]

They need to promote the event a little harder.

[Charlie Tuna]

Small club with little volunteer staff that probably has been more concerned with eviction than anything else.

[El Capitan]

Don't look now, but there are now 4 boats!

[Buzz Light Beer]

5!

They gots 5 now!

Can we get a 6th?

[Single Hander]

Count rises to 11, if forecast is good, there should be a rush.

[Carl Spackler]

That means 22 humans if my math is correct!

[Angry Dolphin]

https://www.jibeset.net/show.php?RR=...OC=r1&TYP=html

The E-37's rule supreme on corrected time!

[Photoboy]

Nancy And Rufless Earn Their Surf




2017 DHLS

In the wee hours of Saturday April 8th, a small but potent cold front rolled off the Pacific and into the Bay Area. With it, some very cold, unstable air aloft and a sizable 8-12 foot westerly swell. These conditions alone can discourage many sailors from leaving the dock in the Bay, much less outside the Gate. Through on top of it, lightning strikes, a pelting combination of freezing rain and hail, a counterproductive flood for the trip out and ebb on the way back and you have a plethora of excuses NOT to sail in the Island Yacht Club's 2017 Double Handed Lightship Race.

Not well advertised this year, as the IYC has had seen a decline in membership, and a trying time dealing with the threat of eviction from Alameda Marina as the new owner seeks to transform the Marina to a massive condo project, the energy needed to promote this year's event is understandably absent, as were the sailors who signed up for the annual two handed romp around the light bucket.


Making the trip for the umpteenth time, Patrick Broderick sailing his Wyliecat 30 Nancy along with Santana 22 owner and skipper, Jenifer McKenna. As they were rigging the boat in Sausalito, a menacing cell raced over the Marin Headlands and proceeded to dump painfully large cold pain along with 30 knots of swirling wind. "The nice thing," Pat says was we got a real good northerly push across the bay and were hitting 8-9 knots with little effort" . Arriving at the start area with another cell greeting the fleet of 10 boats with more large wind shifts and pelting rain, the duo joined the other 9 boats fighting a 2.6 knot flood, additional exposed skin destroying pelting rain and wild windshifts as they made their way to the Gate.

To add more fun to the mix, the Sea Gods added a small armada of vessel traffic in the form of 3 departing and 2 arriving ships and limited visibility! The entering and exiting ships forced the fleet to choose a side of the strait and stick to it, their fates and strategy handed to them.
"While the flood can be a deterrent" Pat notes "It can really smooth down the water, and aside from choppy section out past Bonita, things really smoothed out for the ride out the shipping channel and we really didn't feel the swell at all on the way out."

With the fleet split on the north and side sides of the channel, Pat and Jennifer were able to fetch the entrance buoy with just a couple hitches and rounded the mark about 12:25 PM, a bit behind the Express 37's but just in front of Rufus Sjoberg and Dylan Benjamin on the Melges 32 Rufless.


Photo courtesy Pat Broderick


With sun now shining and the wind now having clocked more to the NW, in the high teens and low 20's, Nancy was in her element surfing along at 15-16 knots during the peaks. They reached through the shipping channel in rapid fashion and were crossing paths with the Moore 24's as the Moores jumped into hyperdrive. " What was interesting, was watching their rigs disappear completely when we both would hit the bottom of the troughs"

Nancy would end up sliding under the Gate in company of 2 Moores and complete the day just behind Snafu ( Karl Robrock and Steve McCarthy) and just ahead of Pete Trachy and Andrew Hamilton on White Trash to a first in division.




With entry numbers down, the crew of Rufless were unsure if they were even enter if there was no suitable competition. Late in the week a couple boats had registered, the J-125 Can't Touch This and Azzura 310 Outsider. With competition secure, Rufus and Dylan went through the semi arduous task of getting the boat ready, even braving the hellacious storm that rolled through the Bay on Thursday to do so. On Friday night they noticed that one of the boats was no longer listed and on Saturday was disappointed the 2nd was a no show.


The two endured a rather painful ride over in the morning from RYC, taking storm cell after storm cell on the head and fighting the flood to boot. When asked if they considered bailing themselves after seeing the competition dissolved, Rufus exclaimed "NO WAY, we were fully committed, we were there so why not". The Melges 32' is not an upwind boat by any stretch of the imagination, and the duo had their hands full and then some on the way out. Forced to the south side of the Golden Gate Strait by the aforementioned shipping traffic along with the fleet of Moores, Rufless spotted the Express 37's (Jack Peurach and Mike Ayer on Elan and Nick Schmidt and Coline Gaillard on Escapade) a generous lead and rounded the Entrance Buoy well after them.

But after the beating cam a glorious ride that the 32 was made for. Flying the small kite, Rufless surfed to speeds of 17-18 knots and reeled the E-37's and surfed past them at the bridge and on to a 13:52:08 finish 1st boat to finish, yet yielding standings on corrected time. Sure it was a pain getting out, but the ride back in made it all worth while.

[Conan the Librarian]

Ya gotta want it!

[Prince of Whales]

Turned out to be a glorious day, hard to guess that from the early morning hours.

These spring weather systems can be befuddling!

[Aussie]

How Nancy did it at:
https://www.jibeset.net/gpsshare.php...7b214498cb5fb4
For more details here:
https://www.jibeset.net/gpstrackshar...3_1_1385763770
recorded in real time from the SPOT tracker on Nancy to Jibeset.net