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  By the time we reach the gybe mark (M-1) the wind could 25 knots and the Code-0 will have been replaced by the A3 heavy reaching asymmetrical spinnaker, provided S'agapo can carry the sail area.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.