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.

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

Double Angle Regatta Report

The Double Angle Race started for us off of Santa Cruz Harbor on a gray relatively still day.  With the "gusts" reaching 6 knots, the wind was not what S'agapo enjoys.  After setting the light jib and doing a bit of practice upwind, we returned to the starting area where we milled around with 13 other boats leaving Santa Cruz for Moss Landing, along with a dozen and a half FJs and Lasers who were waiting for the West Marine Fun Regatta to start on the same line a few minutes later - it was crowded.

Setting up for the start we found that I had put us to windward of a wall of boats and Mistress Quickly did a fine job closing the door on us at the Signal Boat.  As S'agapo's long transom missed the Signal Boat by inches we spun a circle and started almost last.  The three minutes this cost us would matter later - darn!  But the wind had built to about a steady 6-8 knots by now from the SW and we were off to hunt down the other competitors.

The first mark, SCYC's Natural Bridges, is about 3 miles west upwind along the coast.  We are still sailing below our polars when hard on the wind, but with a lot of fussing with the tuning we did get within a few tenths.  More importantly, we were able to control "point mode" well for the first time and used it to good effect to catch and pass the Santa Cruz 40 Kokapelli the only other boat that rates with us.  Unfortunately, my poor start had put two J-105s and four SC-27s ahead of us and we struggled to get clear air as we all short tacked the shore and kelp bed.  Initially, there was more pressure off shore, so we followed the SC-52 Elixer out to sea and back in again at Pt. Santa Cruz (aka Lighthouse Pt.).  This proved to be the correct call and allowed us to pick up all but five of our competitors.  By the windward mark we had passed everyone but Elixer and the Hobie-33 Stretch.

With the apparant wind angle (AWA) at 50° we set the un-used Code-Zero and were thrilled as S'agapo heeled to 24° and took off at 5.6k of boat speed in 4.8k of wind.  Over the course of the next two hours we managed to pass Stretch - a non-trivial task in these conditions and with the superb crew work her double handed PacCup crew were exhibiting.  We also picked up a little on Elixer as she had trouble keeping her asymmetrical chute up with the wind this far forward.  The Code Zero really showed its value on this reach, it's a great sail.

As we rounded the M-1 mark in the middle of the bay and started the 11 mile run to Moss Landing, the fleet split with Elixer and Stretch going right and everyone else and ourselves going left.  We probably should have followed the leader and covered Stretch but the left seemed favored for both wind and direction, being 20° closer to the rum-line.  As we all came back together at the MI7 mark just before the finish, it was clear that Stretch had us by a boat length and Elixer had us by 12 minutes.

The Moore-24 Morphius rounded M1 a 1/4 mile before us, having raced up from Monterey, and we had a difficult time running her down.  Those Moores are fast in the light stuff and we never saw more than 6k of wind on the run to MI7.  She was also awfully well sailed!

At MI7 we were third boat for boat, of the Santa Cruz boats with one Monterey boat sneaking in just ahead of us.  As we rounded and headed up to the finish line, Matthias did a terrific job of rounding up the big S2 and getting it down.  That's a lot of sail for one man to coral.

We ended up in third boat-for-boat 29 minutes behind Elixer, and ninth on handicap fourteen minutes behind Stretch.  Stretch got a well deserved victory on handicap, they sailed beautifully.  These were clearly not our conditions, despite the best efforts of the Code Zero to overcome our normally poor light wind performance.  My crumby start didn't help either accounting for at least five minutes of the deficit.

The crew made me look good, as usual.  Thanks go to Tom Lewin and Matthias Kennerknecht who did all the "real work" while I lounged around somewhere near the back of the boat.  It turns out that three or four is more than enough crew for a light wind race, something that we'll keep in mind in the future.

Double Angle Race Coming Up

August 25th is the next edition of the long running Double Angle Race simultaneously raced from Santa Cruz or Monterey to Moss Landing.  This race has two fleets, starting at about the same time, who race to the same mark in the middle of the Monterey Bay and then turn and head to Moss Landing.

Double Angle Race Track

The winds, typically blowing from due WNW to W in the center of Monterey Bay, making this a much more even race than one would imagine.  The distances are about the same (26nm from SC and 22nm from Monterey) and historically winners come from either city.  The best feature is that it gets a lot of the Monterey Bay racing fleet together for what is a legendary party at Elkhorn Yacht Club after the race.  BBQ, Dancing, Band, inebriated sailors, what could be better???

The Santa Cruz fleet is sent from our standard starting area off the Harbor entrance westward to the Natural Bridges mark to the WSW about 2.7 miles, that short beat is the only upwind work in the race.  Leaving the Natural Bridges mark to port the fleet then starts tight reaching in the SW winds near the shore, the wind direction is altered locally from the normal west coast open water wind direction of NW or WNW by the curve of the shore.  As the fleet sails south towards the turning mark the wind veers and in the freeing breeze boats will set various reaching sails and ultimately spinnakers.  After leaving the MBARI M-1 research buoy to port we sail due east on a run to the finish just off of Moss Landing's Harbor entrance.

For S'agapo this will be the first chance to use the Code-0, that Pete McCormick at North Sails built us, in a distance race.  The race starts at noon, a time of day that can be plagued by light winds in August.  After beating up to and rounding the Natural Bridges mark, we expect the apparant wind angle (AWA) to be about 80° and the velocity to be less than 10 knots - perfect for the Code-0.  Over the first two miles the AWA should veer to about 110 and the velocity should increase to 15 knots and then up to as much as 20 knots as we sail deeper into Monterey Bay and the day develops.  By the time we reach the gybe mark (M-1) the wind could 25 knots and the Code-0 will have been replaced by the A3 heavy reaching asymmetrical spinnaker, provided S'agapo can carry the sail area.

Oversized S2 Spinnaker

Once around the gybe mark, we'll be flying the S2 large running symmetrical spinnaker.  Last winter we had Larry Tuttle at WaterRat extend the spinnaker pole from 10.9' to 14.7' and had Dave Hodges at Santa Cruz Sails make us a much larger symmetrical spinnaker.  It was precisely this sort of run that should let this sail pay for the rating hit we take to carry it.  The expected AWA at the beginning of this run is about 170°.  As the effects of the shore are felt we expect the wind to back to an AWA of 150°, still well within the sweet spot of the S2.

Once we've finished, it'll be time to limber up the liver and head over to the Elkhorn YC for the Rib Cook off and all manner of other entertainment. 

Commodore's Cup Race

Starting Line

I'm a little behind here, but a few weeks ago we joined a number of our fellow SCYC members for the annual Commodore's Cup Race.  Like all the very best races, this one was really an excuse to have a nice sail followed by an awesome party.

The Commodore decided that the format would be a pursuit race and our rating put us as second fastest boat in the fleet. It was quite relaxing starting a race without anyone around and allowed us to hit the line with full speed on port tack headed to the nearly-always favored right side of the race course.  Like many places along the California coast, the fast path upwind is to sail in on port until you nearly bump into North America and then tack out.

These are the first pictures of S'agapo with her new suit of sails.  The North 3Di looks much darker here when photographed looking toward the sun, but they are certainly gray.  The amazing thing about this sail cloth is the near complete lack of stretch.  The sail sets as it was designed and tugging and pulling on strings doesn't change its shape much at all.  You'll also notice that we have increased the dimensions of the main with a larger roach and full length along the luff and foot.  The jib is similarly increased in size to the maximum that will fit along the luff with the leach reaching the spreaders.

Fading wind near the Leeward Mark

In addition to the new up-wind sails we've added a larger symentrical spinnaker.  The original spinnaker pole was 10.3', the size of the "J" for S'agapo.  In races last winter it became quite clear that the boat could take advantage of a lot more sail area downwind and we turned to Larry Tuttle at Water Rat to extend our carbon spinnaker pole to 14.8' and to Dave Hodges at Santa Cruz Sails to build a new spinnaker that was cut for the significantly longer pole.  Both of these modifications turned out quite well.  The final step was to have Rocky build us some nice teak chocks to hold the pole on deck.

We had a few concerns about increasing the spinnaker size this much, that the boat might have difficulty with control in high winds, but no problems have emerged.  We have yet to have an opportunity to really press her, but it looks like she's quite stable downwind.  Our first serious test will be the Double Angle and Windjammer's races coming up in late August.  Typically, the Windjammer sees wind speed well over 30 knots and we'll know by the end of that race if we've over sized the chute.

Lap Two

With the new sails came a trimming learning curve.  Fortunately, Trevor Baylis and his daughter, our Squirrel, came along and taught the rest of us a great deal about setting sails made from this new material. You can see Squirrel lounging on Stacey's Beach in the picture of us sailing downwind above.  The aft deck just seems to do that to the ladies, they all love it.

In the first beat we showed good speed and point and were extremely pleased with how S'agapo moved along with the new sails.  Our benchmark was the lower rated Sydney-38 Animal with which we could point and hold off.  We continued to show speed roughly the same as Animal until the second beat when we were decidedly slower.  The general consensus was that we'd picked up some kelp, but I'm blaming it on my poor sailing.  Kelp is just too easy a way out.  That said, we are moving closer and closer to deciding to put in a kelp cutter.

In the end we finished in the top quarter of the fleet, had a great time and headed back in for the party.  There is clearly a lot more speed in S'agpao that I haven't been able to tap into consistently.  More time at the helm and working on repeatable trim is required.  Downwind we're fine but upwind we continue to have bursts of impressive speed mixed in with extended periods of doing well but not great.

A special thanks to Trevor, Squirrel, Charlie, Synthia, and Peter for doing a great job as crew.

S’agapo Goes Cruising

Day 1 - Santa Cruz to Sausalito - 80 miles - After months of re-painting, re-varnishing, re-rigging, re-wiring, re-whatevering it was finally time for S’agapo to go cruising.  After all, I’d promised The Admiral that S’agapo would do a “great job” as a cruising boat for us and now it was time to deliver.  The 3Di sails went back into storage, and the cruising sails were bent on.  Food, water, fuel, cloths, pots, pans, silverware, coffee bean grinder, french press, kettle, a BIG ice chest, bedding, a sun umbrella, awning, and 4 rolls of paper towels were stuffed into the previously empty hull.  I couldn’t see the waterline go lower, but it must have!  

At 0430 in a dark wet fog and no wind S’agapo and I dropped the lines and started out of Santa Cruz Harbor along with a line of fishing boats who had the courtesy to light up great glowing balls of fog with all their deck and working lights, leaving me convinced that there was no way they’d ever see my running lights.  I was pleased to get a hail from out of the fog: “Have a great ride up to the City, Beau.” from a buddy who works a Salmon fishing boat.

By dawn we were powering NW about 2 miles off of Davenport into a 5’ swell with 6 knots of wind from abeam, the mainsail helping our little 18hp engine move us along at about 6 knots.  This would be the first “long” trip which required the use of the engine and I watched carefully.  It’s not clear that watching actually helps much.... the belts go around, the engine rocks a little on its mounts.... it’s noisy.... there’s not much else to report.  Still, I opened the engine room to insure that Pokey (Named for Gumby’s horse) was still in there banging away in his two cylinder samba.  Yup, there is was, dancing around on those soft Yanmar motor mounts.  Poketa-poketa-poketa....

After a week of watching it blow 20-25 from the northwest, here I was motor sailing in 6-8 knots from the west; I was a happy guy!!

Having no idea what Pokey’s fuel consumption really is, and not trusting the fuel gauge at all, I decided to take a break and pull into Half Moon Bay, 55 miles up the coast, to re-fuel.  Of course I had to re-learn that going too fast with the fuel causes the vent to burp fuel.  Why do I have to continuously re-learn somethings?  After washing up, and with a well topped up fuel tank, S’agapo and I headed out again into 8k of head wind and continued our motor sail.

Rounding Land’s End on the south side of the entrance to San Francisco around 1600, the wind finally began to build.  A few hours earlier I’d hoisted the #2 and managed to get the boat speed up to 6.5k.  Now on a broad reach in 15k we were moving nicely at 8 knots and headed towards one of my favorite bridges.  Of course, as we got within half a mile of the Golden Gate the wind speed went to 20 and then 25 and finally 28 knots, but it was all good with S’agapo bopping along nicely at 12 knots.  

The VHF had squawked earlier that: “Unit 53 will transit Deepwater Channel at 1530 headed outbound from Oakland.” so I knew that a big ship would be going the other way  out the Golden Gate just as S’agapo and I headed in.  We reached up to the north side of the channel and got out of the way.  It was pretty windy over near the North Tower and by now the breeze was a steady 27-29.  I was enjoying watching the big ship come at me when I realized that he was already moving REALLY fast and throwing a BIG bow wave.  OK, no problem, I sail with all the hatches shut and dogged anyway, I have my tether on.... but it is going to get really wet.  

S’agapo lifted over the first swelling of the bow wave and pretty much flew off of it, I guess I was going a little too fast.  She dove down into the trough and I realized that there was NO chance she’d lift over that second steep bow wave swell.  “OK”, I said to myself, “this is going to REALLY wet.” as S’agapo’s bow disappeared into the oncoming wave about 4’ below its top.  “Shit! This is going to be....” BLAM the wave came down the deck and parted at the mast.  “Hey, my mast has a bow wave!” I was thinking as I heard a big BANG noise and the boom swung up to about a 45 degree angle.  A quick check showed that something in the vang had blown up.

There was nothing to do for it.  We were between the north shore, which is steep, deep and rocky, and the hull of the freighter heading out.  Just have to keep going straight and not spin out.  That turned out to be interesting as the lifting of the boom allowed the leach of the sail to wrap around the shrouds and start pushing the masthead to windward.  Fortunately, S’agapo doesn’t develop much helm when she heels, so other than looking really dorky we just kept sailing dead down wind between the shore and the ship while I pulled the main sheet in to get the sail off the spreaders.

After that, the last two miles of the trip was boring.  It turned out that a small shackle is used to terminate the primary dyneema line for the vang and it simply wasn’t up to the task.  It’s an easy fix, stronger shackle, but now I ponder what is the next weakest link.  The Admiral was on the dock waiting for us when we tied up at 1615 hours and we had a lovely dinner at Le Garage; a terrific French restaurant at the Schoonmaker Pt. Marina in Sausalito.

Day 2 - Sausalito to Tinsley Island - 60 miles - With the full crew aboard now, we headed out and left Sausalito at 0900 hours.

Motor sailing in a 7 k following breeze through Raccoon Straits, so named because you can still see the little bandits swimming back and forth from Angel Island to the Tiberon Peninsula on calm mornings.  I guess everyone has to commute to work, even raccoons.

With a 14 k south westerly showing up the engine went off and the #2 headsail went up.  From then on it was 50 miles of lovely running in winds from 12 to 25 knots which are always from dead astern.  Funny thing running up the San Joaquin River, the wind follows the river almost all the time, even though it’s not obvious why it should.  Those who’ve sailed the Delta Ditch Run and raced this river will know what I’m talking about.  Except for the bit just past False River, where you beam reach for a while, it’s all DDW in ever increasing heat, Heat and HEAT! 

Just off Benica we saw a tractor tug headed our way, he was in a hurry.  All tug boats make big bow waves when they rush around, and this one was making a particularly large one.  I’d warned the Admiral that there was a big wave coming and as it got close she emerged from making lunch below.  Before she could get the hatch closed the darn wake hit - this was not a good trip for wakes!  About two feet of water went over the bow, over the cabin top and into the cockpit.  The main companionway managed to swallow a few gallons and Stacey burst out laughing.  “Wow, that was a LOT of water!” she exclaimed.  Her first cruise was proving her to be a perfect sailor - they don’t melt when they get wet.  I took a little while to sponge all the water out, but it was warm and brackish.  We were fine.  The tug skipper never looked back and if we’d been a small open boat we’d have been swamped.

We arrived at Tinsley at 1645 and managed to get our 6.5 foot draft over the bump that guards the entrance, just.  I didn’t mention it to the Admiral but we did plow a little grove in the mud going in.  With all the hatches open, it was now 98 degrees, and hoisting the new awning we bought from Trevor Baylis we popped open a nice Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay and declared the trip officially over for the day.

Days 3 & 4 - Tinsley Beach Party - ‘Nuff said - it’s all a blur...  Hopefully, I didn’t do anything too foolish....

(S’agapo in “cruise mode” tied to the Sail Dock at Tinsley Island.)

Day 5 - Tinsley Island to Benica - 36 miles - Getting back upwind in the River is a process of leaving early enough to get to windward through all the narrow bits, like Old River/False River and New York Slough, under power before the wind builds.  If you sleep in it can be painful - hundreds of tacks.  At 0800 we pulled out of Tinsley and headed downriver, which is up wind almost all the time in the summer.  We had a nice calm ride in 4-5 knots of wind through all the narrow bits and right on schedule the wind built to 14-16 as we exited the northwest end of New York Slough and we set the full main and #2 jib.

There is a channel that my kids called the “Secret Passage” years ago which runs from just west of the northwest end of New York Slough to the north side of Suisun Bay.  Its real name is Suisun Cutoff and it passes to leeward of Ryer Island.  This allows you to hold a port tack in a lot of breeze, typical for Suisun Bay in the afternoon, without waves much higher than six inches - very cool.  Exiting the Secret Passage you find that you’re under the lee of the north shore and there still aren’t any really big waves.  By contrast, beating out the main river channel along the south (lee) shore of  Suisun Bay is almost the definition of painful, especially in an ebb tide.

We gawked a bit at the Ghost Fleet, ships that the US Navy stores here in case they need them to re-fight World War II or some other ancient conflict, as we sailed by.  Like everything else along this path we use the bulk of the old rusty ships to block the waves and give us a nice flat Bay to beat across.  The wind had built to a typical 25 knots by this point and we were thankful for the protection.

Pulling into Benicia at around 1600 hours we hit the showers at the Marina and then had a short walk over to 1st Street and up to Venticello’s for a terrific Italian meal.  For those of you who can stop by Benicia, it’s a great little village that was once the Capital of California.  They have a Jazz festival and various other fun activities all summer long.  The marina is new, safe and clean.  A great stopping point about half way back to San Francisco from the Delta.

Dave 6 - Benicia to Sausalito - 28 miles - OK, clearly everything had been going too well.  We were due for something to go wrong.  When I stuck my head out the hatch in the morning could hear the wind blasting through the marina.  Halyards slapping, masts moaning and S’agapo gentle heeling as the wind pushed against her rigging.  The wind on deck was about 15 but the masthead instruments reported 25 to 30 up at altitude.  This wasn’t going to be pretty, the tide was ebbing at a couple of knots through the straits and running opposite this breeze!  

The Carquinez Strait, which Benica is right in the middle of, is the only outlet for all the water that falls on the California central valley and the west side of about 600 miles of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Also, there is a darn good tidal current running back and forth through this half mile wide opening between the Delta and the Sea.  Above it is a slightly wider canyon that hosts all the cool marine air that is desperately trying to refill the air in the Central Valley that has lifted due to over heating.  This was going to be a “Really Big Day” as my Dad used to say, satirizing Ed Sullivan.

We put the first reef into the main and left the jib on deck as we motored out and heeled to the brisk wind.  It was pretty nutty, but not too bad, where we were.  I set the jib.  After sailing up to the bridge where we could get a look at what the San Pablo Bay had in store for us I was getting more and more dubious about today’s run.  The current and wind were making a real mess of the Strait just beneath the bridge and S’agapo scooped up three or four big waves and sent them well aft across the cabin top.  Finally, we managed to sail up to just off the mouth of the Napa River and I climbed up on the boom to have a look at what was ahead.

OK then.... this wasn’t nice....

I went back to the Admiral, who was steering our little bucking bronco up wind in this mess, and said: “I think we should go to the Vallejo YC and hang out.”  Her reply was: “I’ve got a meeting tomorrow at the office and I have to be there.” (She may be an Admiral, but she’s not an experienced cruiser yet.)  “Sweetheart, I’ll put you in a towncar from the Vallejo YC and you can make it to your meeting, but you don’t really want to do  20 miles to windward in to this mess.”  About then I got some help from a particularly strong gust and a wave top that blew right off and smacked the Admiral in the face.  “Well, maybe your right.” she said wiping the salt water out of her eyes.  We turned around and hit 15 knots broad reaching into the Napa River.

As we mounted fenders and mooring lines while doing lazy circles in the Napa River just off of the Vallejo YC, a pair of sailors in a small boat motored out to tell us we were welcome to come in and could they give us a hand.  Nice guys!  Very typical of the Vallejo YC.  We tied up at the guest dock, put the boat away and started looking for Admiral Approved transport back to Sausalito.  After a call to her office, she decided that they could deal with the mess at work without her (YA!) and we wandered down to the Front Room for a nice lunch.

(Tied to the Vallejo YC guest dock - dawn on Day 6)

Day 5 Rev 2.0 (aka Day 6) - Vallejo YC to Sausalito - 26 miles - We got up early, to catch the last of the outgoing tide, only to discover that we were well stuck in the mud at the guest dock.  The good news - the wind had quit.  We did manage to get afloat by 0800, lost the ebb and fought a flood all the way across San Pablo Bay, oh well.  It was a lovely sail with 8 to 14 knot winds, flat seas and patchy photogenic clouds.  We had a great time.

As we sailed past the Brother’s Lighthouse the sun came out and we were treated to post card views of Angel Island and Marin.  The beat up Raccoon Straits was picture perfect with blue skies, 15 knots of wind and only a little flood to fight with.  A flock of Opti sailors rushed over to wave at us and examine S’agapo and we were snug at the dock back at Schoonmaker Marina in Sausalito by 1530 hours.

The Admiral hopped into her car and headed off to our house to get ready for the work world while I cleaned up the boat and then headed back over to Le Garage for a great dinner of French style steamed mussels and a good Pouilly Fuissé.  Life was good, but..... there were a lot of little things that were bugging me about the way that S’agapo was working.  While sucking down the the mussels and with the PF, I made a mental list.  1) the motor was starting reluctantly  2) there was something weird about the way the alternator was eating v-belts  3) we’d been bouncing around - algae in the fuel?  I started developing a plan.  It is ALWAYS a bad idea to develop a plan while drinking a bottle of Pouilly Fuissé - always.  But, that’s what I did.

Day 7 - 1st Work Day - Sausalito - The first task was to diagnose the fuel and electrical issues, well the first thing after washing out all the wet cloths and gear from the previous few days.  A quick sample from the bowl of the RACOR filter indicated algae in the fuel and a tiny bit of water, the filter could be clogged.  The failing v-belt was another matter.  About every 10 hours the belt would turn up too loose, I’d tighten it and 10 hours of powering later it’d be too loose again. As the King in The King and I would say: “It was a puzzlement.”  

After more pondering, this time without the aid of good French wine, I was about to leave the boat for West Marine for more fuel filters when I saw a mechanic stepping off of the boat from Oregon side tied ahead of us.  What arrested my attention was that he was wearing a white shirt - not a spec of oil or dirt on it - and he’d clearly just serviced the engine of the boat ahead of S’agapo.  I had to meet this guy.  Stopping him before he could leave, I dragged him back to S’agapo for a “quick look”, he was in a hurry to get to his next job.  An hour later he left and I had found what I wanted - a REAL mechanic.

His theory, which I could test out, was that the batteries aboard were shot.  As Bill said, of List Marine of Sausalito, when Gel Batteries go bad they become an “energy black hole” and a high-output alternator, like the Balmar on S’agapo just eats up belts trying to fill the “energy black hole”.  A theory totally new to me.  So, the failing v-belts and the difficulty starting might have the same cause, interesting.  I got a battery load tester and gave it a shot - yup, the batteries were worthless. OK, I called ARC Batteries of Sausalito and three new batteries were scheduled for delivery the next day. Of course, no two batteries have exactly the same terminals, especially when the boat was built in the UK, had new batteries installed in France and I was now in the US.  So, after a bit of effort putting new ends on cables and getting the sizes of stuff sorted out, the new batteries were in.  Pokey started up first shot!  Not only started, really REALLY started.  Very Cool!

Now, onto the fuel issue.  It was rather late in the day so all I did was pull another sample, run it though a paper towel and stare at the black guck that was trapped there.  Yup, critters in the fuel, no doubt about it.  Now, what to do about it.... Clearly, I needed more good French wind and mussels.

Day 8 - 2nd Work Day - Sausalito - After a great breakfast at Fred’s on Bridgeway, I rounded up the guy from List Marine.  I got Hans this time and we headed down to S’agapo.  It turns out that he has a 3 cylinder version of Pokey on his boat and knows the design cold.  We went through all the filters and examined the guck in the clear bowl etc...  Results, a little tiny bit of water and a pretty good shot of algae.  

New v-belts installed, a couple of hours scrubbing the engine and engine room, and an afternoon ride to the fuel dock where the nice folks at Spaulding's Boat Works all trooped over to admire a “real wooden boat” and we were good to go home the next day.  It’s always amazing how little work seems to get done when cruising and how long it takes to do that little bit.... oh well.

Day 9 - Sausalito to Santa Cruz - 80 miles - There was no wind on the water in Sausalito as S’agapo left the dock, but the fog bank roiling over the Marin Headlands indicated a little wind on the Ocean outside the Golden Gate.  With Pokey banging away (When will those two cylinders agree on who’s going to fire when?) S’agapo and I set out towards the Golden Gate.

As always, there was more wind in the Gate than anywhere around, and after sailing in a lovely 15 knot westerly the wind faded to 8 to 10 knots from the south west as we made the turn at Land’s End.  The weather forecasts and buoy reports all indicated that it was still blowing a nice 15 knots from the northwest ten miles off shore, so I put S’agapo on a tight reach and started to diverge from the calm shores of Pacifica and Montera.  

By lunch time I was watching Otto steer and S’agapo slide along at a steady 7 to 8 knots in a beautiful 15 knot wind.  The sky had cleared and the water was that deep blue that you get once you’re in really deep water.  We’d worked our way west to a point about 10 miles off of Half Mood Bay and it was time to start planning the gybe to bring us into Santa Cruz without bumping into anything.

The topology of the mountains creates an interesting wind patten at various points along the California coast.  The prevailing westerly winds rub up against the mountains and were they are particularly close to the shore those mountains cause a compression of the wind and the related increase in velocity.  This occurs at Pt. Arena, Pigeon Pt., Pt. Sur and the biggest of ‘em all Pt. Conception.   Approaching Pigeon Pt. just down the coast from Half Moon Bay we had worked our way out to approximately 12 miles off shore, far enough out to be away from the worst of the compression zone (in theory), and also far enough out to allow a single gybe to take us into Santa Cruz.  Having raced down the coast previously, I didn’t want to be gybing in what could be 28 to 32 knots of wind single handedly while sailing near a lethal rocky coast.

Once Santa Cruz could be laid with an apparent wind angle of 140 degrees, it was time to gybe.  The wind cooperated and was only blowing 18 knots when we gybed and everything was looking like it was going according to plan.  It was simply an epic day for a downwind sail.  I finished up the last of the lunch food, pounded down a bottle of water and got ready to start he “fun” part of the sail.

As S’agapo headed back in towards shore the compression zone made itself felt.  The wind speed increased steadily from the high teens to the mid-twenties, then the low thirties and finally hit a recorded peak of 42 knots.  That was plenty of wind - thank you.  The swell, already running at about 12 feet high, was joined by the wind chop now and it began to get a little more sporty. 

As the wind built, S’agapo started to move along briskly.  There were extended periods of 12 to 14 knots of boat speed and she was easily riding the waves for multiple minutes.  It was a BLAST!!  Then, as the breeze kicked up to the mid-thirties, it got to be rather NUTTY aboard.  

Poor stupid Otto (who really does need a brain transplant) was unable to steer the boat safely once the wind speed exceeded 25 knots, so I started to hand steer.  Also, this was just Way Too Much Fun to let Otto steer.  As each swell would lift S’agapo’s stern I’d turn down its face and start to surf.  The apparent wind angel would move forward as our boat speed would accelerate from 10 to 14 or 15 knots and we’d start to fly along.  It was Terrific!!  For at least two hours we never got below 12 knots and there were extended periods of 14 and 15 knots.

The wind speed started to move into the low 40s and it was time to pay attention.  By keeping S’agapo sailing deep she was upright and controllable.  But she was going a bit nuts.  When the large swells came along she would hop on them and just stay there, holding a the speed of the swell for many minutes at a time.  It was impossible to see the instruments as there was water flying everywhere.  Later, I’d discover that we’d hit a maximum boat speed of 17.7 and had covered 15 miles in the final hour - we were moving!

Four times we rounded up.  Twice it was because I misjudged a wave and let it spin me too far out of the fall line and twice it was because the rudder found itself protruding from the upwind side of a particularly steep wave and unable to get traction.  With each round up S’agapo and I got better at getting her back on her feet.  It required a lot of mainsheet to be eased and then she’d carve back down the face of a wave and be off again.  During one of these round-ups it dawned on me that it would be nice to have someone else aboard to ease the vang and sheet.  We wouldn’t have rounded up as often.

Typically the wind starts to abate and back as one approaches Santa Cruz.  Right on schedule as Davenport slipped behind us the gusts dropped from the low 40s to the low 30s, and then as we came up on Natural Bridges dropped again to the 20s.  It felt benign at 25 knots - boring really.  But the blisters on my right hand from the last three hours on the tiller told me that I’d probably really had enough for one day.

Just off of Pt. Santa Cruz, were the little memorial light house winks at you, I could see that the local sailors were feeling an easterly wind ahead and my wind died completely.  I started Pokey and cleaned up the boat as I powered in.  The day’s run was 82.6 miles with an average speed from dock-to-dock of 7.5, a peak speed of 17.7 knots and a peak wind speed of 42 knots.  Nice sail!

S’agapo did her job extremely well.  It was terrific to push her and see what she would do, something I wouldn’t have tried if I hadn’t sailed her sister ship Dido fully crewed on the Solent in similar conditions.  Sean McMillan did a great job with her design - he built a downwind flyer tough enough to take a bit of breeze.

Shifting Technologies - A new home on the Web

After fooling around with various "tools" to publish stuff, I've reverted to simply using a blog.  It's simpler, quicker and easier.  The old web site for S'agapo ended when Apple turned off the Moblie Me service and resurrecting it is too much trouble.  Stay tuned here for news on what S'agapo and her crew are up to.

The goal, after all, is to sail S'agapo - not to much about with web stuff.  To the right, a picture of a happy caretaker for our boat doing what he loves to do most - sail S'agapo.

Fair winds and smooth seas,

Beau