Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The Last Post

Stacey sailing S'AGPAO


This will be our last blog post here.

Yesterday, our lovely sloop S'AGAPO was purchased by a wonderful guy from Maine.  This week she'll be heading across the country by truck and will spend the remainder of the winter in a barn being spiffed up and made pretty for her spring launching.

Her new home will be on Mount Desert Island, Maine and we look forward to seeing her sailing Maine waters this summer.

Good bye, S'AGPAO.  We love you.

Stacey & Beau


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Fall Cruising on the SF Bay

Now that the America's Cup has run its course, the Big Boat Series has swept up the last of the big westerly winds, and the StFYC Stag Cruise had drained the harbor of a quarter of its boats, it was time to take our little S'agapo out for some well deserved "cruising".

With the spinnakers all stowed ashore and a forecast of light winds and 80 degree temperatures, we headed up to the San Francisco Marina.  Utterly surprised to find that there was a Bridge to Bridge running event going on we struggled to sneak into the parking lot.  Eventually, we managed to get S'agapo stripped of her various covers, hang on her jib and back her out of her slip into a complete and utter calm.  Looking at each other, Stacey pointed out that we could just power up the channel to our yacht club and have lunch.  "Great idea!" I agreed, and off we went.  Having traveled about two hundred yards we successfully tied S'agapo to the dock and spent a lovely hour at lunch while watching the occasional cats paw of wind try to develop on the Bay.


Eventually, the wind decided it was going to avoid the afternoon westerly that had been forecast and locked into a lovely northerly breeze of about ten knots.  With the light #1 and a full mainsail, S'agapo sailed herself nicely towards Sausalito with the city of San Francisco in the background (Picture to the right).

Stacey and I found it amusing that some of the sailors who joined us on the bay were finding it difficult to trim to a breeze from this direction.  The westerly winds so dominate the days of sailing in the center of San Francisco Bay, that some folks were trimmed for a beat as they headed out west under the Golden Gate Bridge with the wind broad on their starboard quarter, while others were flummoxed as to why their sails kept back winding.  With the wind coming out of Richardson's Bay, S'agapo was greeted by flat water that let her fly along, pointing higher and sailing faster than our normally bumpy San Francisco Bay will allow.


Once we had the sails up and trimmed, the crew headed below to strip off the jackets and vests we were wearing and shift into warm weather gear for our Indian Summer sail.  With OttO driving, S'agapo were free to wander a bit and take some pictures.  It's always a somewhat new perspective to stand aft of the backstay and watch OttO drive, I so rarely trust him to do the job right now; he isn't aging gracefully and occasionally decides a ninety degree turn in called for.   Stacey emerged in warm weather cloths, ready to "cruise". (picture on the left)

Over the last year, with commitments to kids, granddaughter, racing and parents, we've only had a few days of cruising and this was a tremendous reminder of why we love it so.  S'agapo is such an easy boat to sail and she gobbles up the miles so effortlessly that we really should cruise her more.

Our promise to eachother is to allocate more time to just sail the boat.  We'll see how that goes, as the calendar is already filling up for 2014, but it's a good goal to aspire to.

As we beat towards Sausalito we spotted our old friends Ted and Jim aboard the old kiwi IOR battle wagon Inca.  The guys have kept INCA in perfect condition, and it's always great to see her parting the bay with her narrow bow and tumblehome.  Sadly, I only had my iPhone with us so the pictures aren't what we would have liked.  But we were able to email Jim and Ted the iconic shot of Inca framed by the Golden Gate Bridge, every boat owner needs on of these.

We swapped tacks with Inca as we worked our way up into Richardson's Bay and as the afternoon wore on it became clear that our northerly breeze was fading away.  Crossing tack once more we waved good bye to the guys on Inca and bore off for San Francisco.

As all of you know, sailing downwind in light air in "cruising mode" (no Spinnaker) is rather sedentary.  After a time both Stacey and I were yawning and lounging about in the cockpit.  The light wind, flat water and warm sun focusing us on why siestas are such a great idea.  Stacey did her best to keep us moving, but with the wind down to under five knots and the ebb tide pushing us westward at over two and half knots, we weren't going to go anywhere but out the Golden Gate.  Reluctantly we started up Yammi and began the slow process of going "pockety pockety pockety" home to the Marina.


With S'agapo washed and covered up, safe in her slip we joined the massive traffic jam that is 19th Avenue during the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert.  The second major SF event that we'd forgotten about!  Despite the traffic of tie-dyed drivers weaving a little, our day of cruising San Francisco Bay had been well worth the effort.


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

San Francisco Master Mariners Classic Wooden Boat Show

At the Master Mariners Classic Boat Show
At the kind invitation of Bill Belmont, of the Master Mariners Benevolent Association, we took S'AGAPO to the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiberon on Saturday afternoon.  Arriving on a beautiful post-card afternoon of blue sky and deeper blue water, we ran into many old friends and made a few new ones.

We had expected to be berthed next to Hank Easom's YUCCA, the beautiful Nick Potter designed 8-meter.  Unfortunately, Hank wasn't able to get YUCCA to the show so we found ourselves in the classy company of KATE II.  The two boats, shown in the picture at the right, were a wonderful study in contrasts.  With a displacement difference of over two to one, and interior volume and accommodations at about the same ratio, visitors to both boats were stunned that these two lovely ladies are almost exactly the same length overall.

Beau had the good fortune to crew aboard the Master Mariners Race a month ago, in which KATE II won her class and landed the Baruna Cup.  This day, as in the race, she was ably skippered by Dick Watts who is lavishing her with affection.  She looked terrific!

The day of the Boat Show dawned foggy, cold and wet - English weather.  But the steady drizzle and occasional bursts of wind couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of the exhibitors or visitors.

The Master Mariners Benevolent Association was organized in 1867 for the benefit of working sailors and seaman on San Francisco Bay; it uses the Boat Show as its sole fund raiser for all its good works and is a terrific organization.  They have a great web site here and serve as a tremendous guardian of our San Francisco Bay maritime history.  It was wonderful to see gaggles of kids running around building toy boats and munching on hambergers.  When the rain started to gently fall, they all gathered under a tarp stretched over their whaleboat's boom and played cards - a wiggling writhing mass of kids having fun!

The Master Mariners put together a great video of the Boat Show here: Master Mariners Video

We aboard S'AGAPO were stunned to learn that we were elected 2nd in the People's Choice category, and we'd like to thank all of the visitors who let us show off our boat and bask in their accolades.  If invited, we'll certainly return to what is a tremendous event.

Friday, June 14, 2013

2013 Delta Ditch Run & Return Delievery

The Start

With a starting area near The Brothers islands, which was a big improvement from the old starting area south of the Richmond Bridge, we found ourselves picking through the smaller boats awaiting their own signals.  That's us on the right with the Blue S2 flying sorting out a crash gybe to avoid someone who wouldn't start for another 15 or 20 minutes.... grrrrr..... ah well.  We got away cleanly (no splinters) and in the front of our class.

S'agapo was placed into the lowest handicap non-sport-boat class with Mighty Zamazan and a flock of Express 37 sloops.  With almost a two knot flood and only six to eight knots of true wind, it was light going at first and for those of you who know S'agapo - that's not our strong suit.  Even with the oversized S2 we were working hard to hang onto the Express 37s.  It was interesting to watch the lowest handicap sport boats, who had also started with us, as they reached back and forth in the light wind.  They were moving far more quickly than we but only slowly pulling away towards Stockton.  One of the crew joked that these guys were going to sail about 120 miles on a 65 mile course - that would prove to be a pretty accurate estimate.

With the wind holding below ten knots, the second and third and fourth classes started nibbling at our lead and we keep a weather eye out for the massive masthead chute of our nemesis, Yucca.  She is never off the pace and as we saw Hang and his team set after their start we knew it would be tough.

Working It

Over 140 boats were entered in this edition of the Delta Ditch, and a half dozen folks sailed the course without entries just to entertain us all.  One of our favorites was Johnny Goldsberry who made the 65 mile trip aboard is foiling Moth.  Here he is passing us in complete silence, without a ripple and going like a rocket.  A few yards later he hit some weeds and flipped into the warming waters.  Not to worry, after swimming around pulling weeds off the foils he was up and flying again.  Johnny would pass us at least five times during the race and was always a joy to watch as he sliced through the water - swerving around the weeds and slower boats.

The Middle

The Delta Ditch has an interesting pace for a sailing race.  There is the excitement of the start, like all races, but then there is the 60 miles of gybes, twists and turns that make up The Middle.  It's here that the race is typically lost or won and this year was no different.  Until this race we had never sailed S'agapo next to an Express 37 and we were to discover that the two boats were almost exactly the same speed over the course of the next seven hours.  My good friend Bartz Schnider in Expeditious, shown on the left, swapped places with us at least a dozen times.  We would get a couple of boat lengths ahead and then Bartz and his team would come right back and pass us.  They would lead for a few miles and we'd get a chance to pass them.  It was rare that the boats were more than five boat lengths apart for almost the entire race and while we did finish just slightly ahead of Expeditious, we had no chance to save our time on them.  There were numerous periods of sailing side-by-side chatting about any number of topics and sharing the sort of camaraderie that the Ditch Run is known for.

The End

The final leg up the river to Stockton is almost always a beam reach, and this year was no exception.  After passing Tinsley Island the wind picked up to 17 to 20 knots, the most we'd seen all day, and things got a little more exciting.  Indeed, at one point we were getting more excitement than we really needed, as shown in the picture on the right.  My good friend Jeremy Leonard came by in his photo boat after the race (these are all his pictures) and jokingly offered to sell me all these negatives so "No one would ever know!"  We offered to buy him a drink and told him we'd be proud to print his pictures.  We all do this, or will do this, at one time or another.  It was only the third time S'agapo has ever spun out on me and I must admit it was a little surprise.  We weren't ready for the 30 knot gust that popped out from behind some cottonwood trees!  Next year, we'll be just a bit more alert in that section of the river.

We got S'agapo back on her feet, on the left, and proceeded to try and chase down Yucca (below).  Hank and his team had gotten past us at Benica but we'd kept them within a couple hundred yards for almost the entire race.  The two long slender boats made a pretty site sliding along the river, the sort of sight that gets the folks on shore and aboard the other boats smiling and waving.

We'll be racing against Yucca a lot now that S'agapo is berthed in San Francisco Bay.  It should be quite the site to see these two similar but quite different boats sailing against each other. The Ditch Run was a great preview of what I hope will be a friendly competition of long duration.  Of course, next time we'll have to win it.

We slid down to Stockton without further excitement, and were thrilled to be tied up and ashore for a Rum Punch at the Stockton Sailing Club.  These guys do a terrific job every year, hosing over 700 sailors to a great dinner and party after what is often one of the most interesting races of the year.  If any of you SSC folks read this - THANKS!  You do a great job!

Also a special thanks to my crew: Nick Burke, Chuck Hawley, Tom Lewin and Paul Zupan for doing a great job on S'agapo's first Delta Ditch Run.  You guys were terrific!!

Heading Home

There aren't any pictures of the rest of this trip; this is because most of it was in the dark and a lot of it was in truly foul weather.  After dinner and a rub punch from Mt. Gay, Tom Lewin and I hopped back aboard S'agapo at about 2030 hours and headed down the river, which is almost always upwind.  The tide had changed, we had a nice one knot favorable ebb, and the wind was a gentle 10 knots as our little 16hp motor pushed us along at six knots.  Tom was all smiles about getting home in time for his god-daughter's party on Sunday and I was looking forward to a couple of hours sleep after an early delivery to Richmond for the start.  

As we powered past Tinsley Island the wind picked up to about 14 knots, but hey.... no problem.  I drove for a while and Tom took the 2200 to 2400 watch.  As I turned the helm over to him we chatted about the 20 knot gusts and I checked the forecast, which was for winds fading during the night.... ya, right.  By 2400 S'agapo was bouncing along over five to seven food wind chop in what had now become an ugly night of 30 knot winds.  "I saw a gust of 44 knots about 10 minutes ago." was Tom's report.  "OK" I thought, "We're still in the channel where it's relatively narrow, while the ebb chop is steep we're able to go about three knots against it and the wind.  It's supposed to die."

As the next two hours passed the little Yanmar 16hp two cylinder engine howled along at about 90% of full throttle, and could only just keep us going about two knots through the water.  The knot of favorable current kept us making three knots towards San Francisco, but it was also taking us towards the more open Suisun Bay with a long enough fetch to make the trip "interesting".  A couple of times gusts hit us that simply blew the bow down.  Not a problem in the open ocean, but a big worry in a narrow channel.  Being someone who wears glasses, I couldn't read the wind instruments through the spray so my guess of 45 to 50 knot winds is just that, a guess.  

Finally, as 0200 approached, Tom stuck his head out the hatch and said: "Breezy!"  In the black of the Delta, surrounded by all manner of flashing red and green navigation lights for boats and airplanes, we were standing still.  The stars glistened above us quite calmly.  The howling engine couldn't move us upwind, as we'd managed to get to a somewhat wider bit of the channel where the longer fetch built the waves up to well over 10 feet.  We decided S'agapo just couldn't get us home that night.  Indeed, it couldn't get us to Antioch, which lay only a few miles ahead.  With some frustration we turned around and headed back up the river, flying downwind at 10 to 12 knots without any sails up and with the engine at about half throttle.  The hard won distance that we'd made to windward over the course of four hours, we covered in just over an hour.

Tom banging on the deck to wake me was my next memory. "The iPad says we're at Tinsley Island but I can see it." he announced as I stuck my head up into what was now "only" a 25 to 30 knot blow on the river.  "That's it in those weeds." I told him and was greeted by a rather dubious look.  "You drive!"   he said, and we both laughed.  For someone who hasn't taken a sailboat through the narrow and tule choked channel into the Tinsley inner harbor, it's always a surprise.  To do it after spending most of the night being bashed around and in a brisk wind, it's a real surprise.

Once in, we tied up to a friend's boat and hit the bunks.  In the morning we were graciously hosted by StFYC and the gang that were putting on the Fresh Crew Weekend, ran into all sorts of folks that Tom and I knew, and I managed to get Tom a lift back to SF with Kevin Reeds - thank you Kevin!  Tom didn't make the party, but at least he got home before all his clean cloths ran out.

I spent Sunday watching the wind blow; which stayed well above 30 knots on Suisun Bay.  Then mid-morning on Monday the weather finally changed.  S'agapo slipped her lines at Tinsley at 1000 hours and buddy boat sailed down the river with Chris Boome aboard Rhapsody.  Arriving in Pittsburgh around 1400 as the ebb tide stirred the Suisun Bay into a witches brew, we stopped for a great Mexican  lunch at Mecca and took a nice siesta.  The flood tide calmed the Bay and we took off with reefed sails for the long beat home.

Pulling into San Francisco at 0130 I reflected that this had been quite the weekend.  While the weather was truly awful on Saturday night, the warm hospitality at Tinsley had more than made up for it.  Tom and I also learned just what S'agapo and her tiny motor can actually do, knowledge I won't forget any time soon.

Beau

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Spring Changes: New slip, new rigging, getting ready for the Ditch

New Slip....

With the on-going rebuilding of the Santa Cruz Harbor, following the significant damage of the Tsunami of 2011, S'agapo was asked to find other accommodations.  In the middle of Made In Santa Cruz Race Week, S'agapo and I set off before dawn accompanied by four or five Express-37s for a boring power up the coast to San Francisco.

With an amazing stroke of luck, we had received a letter from the San Francisco Marina that after many many years on the waiting list we had a slip!!  Why, all those years ago, I had chosen to put my name on the 45' slip list, I have no idea.  The rebuilding of the SF Marina has increased the number of 45' slips significantly and we were lucky enough to be ready and able to move in.  S'agapo has a home!!

S'agapo before the GGYC
S'agapo will probably be moved to another slip at some point as the SF Marina is sorted out and completed.  But, for now, we're right across the channel from Golden Gate Yacht Club.  You know GGYC, they have a little trophy that's being contested in 72' catamarans later this summer.

We could not have been more fortunate.  We'll have ring-side seats, well if I go up the rig I will, for some of the best sailboat racing in the world.  Stacey and I are expecting to be out on the water for a number of the America's Cup events this summer, hosting our friends and family aboard S'agapo.

We've become inured to most of the attention that S'agapo receives, and Santa Cruz has become used to having her sailing the local waters.  We were quite unprepared for the level of attention she received when we arrived in the SF Marina.  In addition to a hearty welcome from the terrific guys in the Harbor office lead by Harbormaster John and his crew of Park, George, and Bennie, it seems that a significant number of tourists who rent bikes to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge stop on the quay to take pictures and hundreds a week are putting S'agapo in the foreground   Park and Harbormaster John have had dozens come into the Harbormaster's Office to inquire about S'agapo.

Our next trip is the Delta Ditch Race from Richmond to Stockton; a lovely downwind 65 mile sail to the warmth of central California.  That will involve loading all the racing sails, including three spinnakers of various types and a delivery jib for the beat home.  We'll be packing up the pots, pans, and extra gear and lightening up S'agapo to let her sail fast.


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Jack & Jill - a fun race for couples and families

John Buchanon and Dave Kitchen - Great RC work!
On Sunday our daughter, Elizabeth, and I raced S'agapo in the Jack & Jill regatta at Santa Cruz Yacht Club.  It is a terrific regatta that requires double handed sailing from the Jack and the Jill or as many crew as you can stuff aboard provided that only the Jack and the Jill are over 16.  Some of the Families had three generations aboard, we could only muster two (so far).  Two of our best Race Committee team members did a terrific job and oversaw perfect racing conditions.

The day was one of those "Perfect Santa Cruz Sailing Days" where the wind started at 13k and built to 20k before we finished.  The waves were only 3-4 feet high and there wasn't any fog anywhere near us.  It reminded Elizabeth and me of why we enjoy sailing here so much.

We went out early to practice a bit, this was Elizabeth's first time driving S'agapo in a race and she wanted some time to tune up.  It was one of my first times tuning both jib and main in a race and I needed the time to sort things out.  We decided that Elizabeth would "drive" and I'd do everything else - fair enough.  But by the time we'd practiced and backed down to clear kelp from the foils we were a little late for the start.

Alerion 38 - Surpirse
The strategy for the standard Santa Cruz beat from the starting area to the Wharf Mark is to head into the shore on port tack as soon as you can.  As we scrambled for the starting line due to our silly distractions we had the perfect opportunity to start at the Signal Boat end of the line with good speed and head for the favored side right away.  That's a nice way of saying we started almost last but going the right direction and moving fast.

On our first beat, your author failed to trim as well as he should have, we were slow and high.  In S'agapo going 5 degrees higher than anyone else but going a knot slower isn't the fastest way to the finish line, and we suffered a bit as the J-105, Vu Daje, hung on close to us.  We rounded the Windward mark in second place boat-for-boat but in terrible position on corrected time.  Both the J-105 right on our stern and the Alerion 38, Surprise, a half dozen boat lengths behind had us nailed.  We weren't holding the Sydney 38, Aboriginal, It was time to get moving!

Unfortunately, we were rated with our spinnaker and this was a jib-n-main race, so.... we weren't able to escape on the run like we usually do with our large chute.  The course from Wharf Mark took us to SC3 Mark off of Pleasure Point, on a broad reach.  Elizabeth began to get the feel of moving S'agapo through the waves and we started picking up speed.  The Alerion 38 is a tough boat to get away from without more sail area and she was still back there - too close.

S'agapo with Elizabeth Vrolyk at the helm
As we reached toward SC3 Sydnie Moore, who did a terrific job of organizing the regatta, snapped this picture with her cell phone.    It's always fun to see ourselves sailing and I remain struck by how little twist I was putting into the mainsail.  Hmmmm, I'll have to experiment a bit more with that.

When we rounded SC3 and headed back up to Wharf Elizabeth mentioned that she was pulling pretty hard on the tiller: "Too much weather helm, Daddy." and I set out re-trimming.  We had the J-105 two boat lengths behind us and going about the same point and speed.  It was time to do something different.  I eased the main traveler down more than normal to reduce the helm and eased the jib in-hauler to keep the slop open.  Then eased the jib sheet just a little for drive and S'agapo took off.  Elizabeth was getting about 1/3 of a knot better boat speed and with the greater flow of water past the keel fin S'agapo was still making about the same course through the water with her bow a few degrees lower.  It was exactly what we needed.  We finally started to really put some distance between us and the J-105.

Sydney 38 - Aboriginal
We rounded Wharf and headed down to Black Point Mark, then back up to Wharf and down wind to the finish.  We knew it would be close, but we'd no idea exactly how close as Aboriginal, a Sydney-38 was ahead of us boat-for-boat, and would correct out on us by a couple of minutes.  We were second but the J-105 was very very close to having us on corrected time, and she did by just under 20 seconds.  The Alerion 38 was far enough behind that we had no idea how we had done, we would later learn they had won the race.  The results were close and a pretty good indication that the ratings were close to perfect.  All that aside, we had enjoyed a tremendous day on the water.  It was terrific to be racing with my Daughter again after so many years.




Sunday, September 2, 2012

Windjammer's Race - San Francisco to Santa Cruz


S'agapo was making her first Windjammer's Race last Friday.  On the delivery up the coast I had a long slow slog as the little 18hp motor was not really up to the task of shoving S'agapo to windward against the large cross seas created by a hurricane off of Mexico interacting with the typical NW swell of the N. Pacific.  Fortunately, there was only ten knows of wind so the sails could help a little but the rolling was more like a ride at an amusement park than a pleasure sail.  The brightest spot was to turn the corner at Land's End and see the foiling Trimaran Hydroptere sailing out of San Francisco Bay.  The speed and power of that ocean going racer is stunning!

For more than 60 years the San Francisco Windjammers has sponsored a race on the Friday before Labor Day Weekend from the fog of the San Francisco summer to sunny and warm Santa Cruz.  Decades ago all manner of gaffers and even a few square topsail schooners raced the eighty miles south to anchor off of the main beach and row ashore for classic '20s style revelry.  They started after a leisurely lunch at the St. Francis Yacht Club and were certain of a night at sea in the long tall swells of the Pacific, slatting was a real possibility.  Once sailboats got fast enough to cover the course in a day, the start was moved up to Friday morning and the faster boats got to finish before the wind died in the evening.  A terrific idea is todays "modern" racing boats which are utterly bereft of real "accommodations" below decks.


After enjoying a quiet evening at the StFYC docks aboard, the crew arrived at eight to get us out on the water for our nine o'clock start.  The wind within the Bay was building from the twelve knots we found when leaving the dock to gusts of eighteen, so we set the heavy #1 and flattened out the mainsail a bit.  We were fortunate that the strong flood tide of over 3.5 knots pushed the competitors down the starting line and I was able to put us on the starboard end of the line at the gun following some egregious barging.  With the momentum of hitting the pin from a broad reach, we were able to hang with the large boats for a bit but slowly their greater size started to pay off and we assumed our place as the smallest and slowest boat in the "A" fleet.  Using our small size and shallow draft, we hugged the shore of Chrissy Fields and found some terrific counter currents all the way up to Fort Point, with over a knot favorable showing on the instruments as we passed Blackhaller.

As we arrived at the flood, or should I say FLOOD at the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge the adverse current was measured at 3.8 knots and S'agapo struggled to find every bit of relief down current of the Tower.  Eventually, there was no place to hide and we had to simply slog through it and leave the Bay.  One amongst us, Sharon, hadn't been under the Bridge expect on an aircraft carrier and enjoyed the ride from near sea level tremendously, wet as it was.  This year Mile Rock and her lighthouse were a mark of the course to be left to port so we hunted down the current relief from that obstacle and were free of the tide for a few hundred yards.  From the Rock to Lands End and then south towards Pacifica the in coming tide was unrelenting with between two and three knots of adverse current and a fading wind.  Some relief was found by sailing further west onto the relative shallows of forty feet atop the South Shoal and staying out of the deeper South Channel were some of our competition found even stronger adverse tides.


Once south of Pacifica the wind died down to under ten knots and veered to due west allowing us to set the Code Zero and get S'agapo moving again.  In ten knots of wind at sixty degrees apparent wind angle, she'll make six and a half knots through the water, so we were still making good time.  Sadly, the much larger "A" class sloops were fading into the fog ahead with large overlapping headsails and much longer waterlines.  Eventually, the wind diminished to between five and eight knots and stayed there for a long long long time.... zzzzzz......  It is always hard to keep the crew focused when the wind is light, and more difficult if it's a San Francisco or Santa Cruz crew that spends most of our lives sailing in wind speeds over eighteen knots.  We tend to think anything under ten knots is a reason to either delay or abandon a race.  Here Synthia keeps S'agapo moving in the light stuff with the Zero in tight and the boom on center-line.

Eventually, about ten miles south of Half Moon Bay, all our assumptions were proven wrong as the wind backed to the southwest and we were forced back to the 105% light #1 jib.  This jib is the largest we can carry with S'agapo's large spreader rig and it was painful to watch an Express-37, who we own more than 25 second a mile to, sail past us with their 150% genoa catching the five knot puffs.  The only compensation for this was that a J-109 which had hunted us down in the light right reaching was attempting to stay ahead of us beating.  Each time they came out from the beach on port tack they would tack ahead and to windward of us only to be unable to point with S'agapo and slide back to leeward.  We had similar boat speed but S'agapo was out pointing the J-109 by at least fifteen degrees.  Late, in Santa Cruz, the crew of the J-109 were to hunt us down and ask how we could sail so high.  "Well, we don't go all that fast, but we go high."  was one crewman's answer.  Our only option given our sail plan.

As Pigeon Point slowly crawled up under our lee side the wind finally veered to a gentle ten knot northwesterly and we were able to set first the Code Zero and then after an hour the S2 symmetrical chute.  Once able to set the symmetrical we immediately reeled in the Express-37 that had passed us earlier and started to slip along well.  At this point we made a major strategic error.  The wind had veered to almost north by northwest and we were able to gybe to port.  Following much discussion I decided that the wind was certainly going to die before we made it to Santa Cruz.  Also, the weather forecasts had been almost entirely wrong all day, but everyone of them had shown more wind and northwesterly wind off shore.  So I made the call to gybe out when we were at Año Nuevo rather than carry on down the shore.  That was a bad choice, more on that later.

As you can see in the picture on the right, one wonderful advantage of having a boat designed with the cockpit in the center of the boat is that the crew can actually use it while racing.  There's no need to hover on the side decks as those are actually too far forward for the weight.  In the picture Paul is keeping us moving and Warren is trimming.  The over-sized S2 was a wonderful sail for this race.

Sun started to break through the gloom as we moved offshore and I rationalized that this was an indication that the "normal" northwesterly winds were coming.  They are typically strong (over twenty-five knots) and accompanied by clear skies.  Wrong again, when the sun got to us the wind stayed light and we gybed back to port pole to avoid doing any more unnecessary miles.  The race course from San Francisco to Santa Cruz makes a slow and steady left turn around a series of points with the early part taking sailors out on a south by southwest course followed by a turn to southwest, south, southeast and finally east southeast.  As a result, any distance sailed to the west puts one on the outside of the curve and the shift that follows the coast line and costs many more miles than you want to pay for unless there's stronger wind offshore.  There wasn't.

As we sailed the new rhumb line to Point Santa Cruz (aka Lighthouse Point), we noticed that the boats on shore were starting to move, darn!  The wind had filled along the shore.  With the boat now settled into a grove and moving well we were committed and decided a dinner of Synthia's wonderful pepper and goat cheese appetizer and cold but tasty sandwiches was in order, along with an entire bag of Fig Newtons.  It was getting dark but the wind was building rather than dying as it normally does.  Things were looking up.

Then the moon came up!


None of us had remembered that this was a Blue Moon.  It lifted up over Point Santa Cruz and hung orange and full just over the land and below the shoreline cloud layer - we were stunned!  None of us had seen anything like this.  The moon shining below the clouds ahead and the sun setting behind the offshore clouds astern - it was breath taking.  It nearly made up for being so far behind, nearly.

With it truly dark, we started to sail on port gybe with ever increasing winds.  I snapped this iPhone picture when the wind was reaching fifteen knots and things were starting to get interesting.  Once the moon was over the clouds and had climbed just a bit more than where it's shown in the picture, S'agapo was sailing right up the silver highway of light and our blue spinnaker was illuminated as if it were day time.  Then the wind built!

I couldn't stand it any longer and played the "It's my boat, so I get to steer." card.  It was just one of those once in a lifetime situations.  The swell was about six feet high, the wind had built to twenty knots and was still climbing, S'agapo was moving along at ten to eleven knots surfing, and it was time for the Davenport Pressure Zone to kick in!  Kick in it did!!

Over the next hour the wind built to thirty two knots and the chop came up atop the swell so that S'agapo  could hop on the waves and just stay on them.  We were now regularly holding ten knots and the surfs were taking us to thirteen and fourteen.  This was all in beautiful moonlight under a canopy of stars.  At one point Paul, who was trimming the chute and grinding it as we hopped on the wave, said: "We really should trim in the main a little but I don't know if we'll spin out."  "Trim on," I responded "Paul, I'm steering with two fingers, we can take a lot more that this."  We ground the main in hard, vanged it down and hit a few fifteen and sixteen knot wave rides.  Even more fun, a nice thirty eight knot gust arrived along with a flat spot and S'agapo took off plaining.  "We're going over this one!" I announced to everyone and sure enough we climbed the back of the wave ahead and thundered down the face of the wave ahead.  When we got to the dock the instruments said we'd hit twenty one knots, it must have been that ride!  All this with Sharon standing the hatch just watching and most of the crew calmly sitting in the cockpit.

All great rides end, and this one did just west of Point Santa Cruz.  The wind dropped, then veered to the north northwest and eventually to the north, dropping to two knots.  We set the Code Zero again and were able to lay the finish line off the pier.  Our last mile took an hour and a half.

After stowing Sagapo and putting her in her slip, we headed up to the Santa Cruz Yacht Club for the traditional clam chowder.  That and a few Dark-n-Stormy drinks made all those hours in the light wind fade away and only the outstanding run in the moonlight remained.  We even told those who'd finished hours ahead of us that they missed the "Best part of the race".  We even believed it despite our second from last corrected time finish.

There are only a few moments when sailing reaches the level it did sailing up the silver highway of moonlight at twenty knots with a great crew and a good boat.  I'm thrilled that I got to live through one of them.

The Crew:
Synthia Petroka - bow, helm, trim, appetizers
Sharon West - trim and grind
Paul Zupan - main and chute trim, helm
Warren Pelz - jib and chute trim, grind, and helm
Charlie Roskosz - trim, pit, superb advice that I didn't listen to
Beau Vrolyk - MFO