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.