DHF2011_Reports

Here's a brief (I know it seems long) account of "NANCY'S" 2011 BAMA Doublehanded Farallones Race.  I think it would be fair to say that Gordie and I had a great time. I also think it would be fair to say we had a tough time.

Prior to the Start we decided to hang around the Start Line since it was apparent those boats back in the normal staging area weren't going to get started against the unusual Flood and light SW wind.  So we motor-sailed around in front of the SfFYC looking for some ebb.  We found it right along the seawall - in about 15 feet or less of water - 20 feet off the rock wall.  The ebb band was only about 25 feet wide, but it was there.  Where in the heck did that massive Flood come from on a day when Max Ebb was an hour after our Start?  With all the runoff from the recent storms we figured it would be slam bam and out the Gate!

So, since the SIs allowed, we "dip Started" and headed back for the seawall.  We worked our way up to about the "H" beam West of the SfFYC when what little wind there was began to peter out so we jumped off toward the middle.  We manage to really "Start" by getting swept out past "X" and we on our way!  Like the other boats that got away, we worked our way out, crossing those current lines and sort of hopping from patch of wind to patch of wind.  Our goal was to get over to the Yellow Bluff area where we thought we'd find both wind and ebb.  But Yellow Bluff was not to be.

We began to feel stronger and stronger ebb as we got to the center, but that ebb began pushing us back toward the S. Tower. As the wind increased a little, we were able to sail toward the middle of the bridge and passed under it almost exactly an hour after we Started!  On the outer side, the wind filled in and we continued sailing toward the Marin shoreline.  We were making 9+ knots over the bottom, and about 3 through the water.

There were only about 10 or 12 boats that made it away from the Starting area.  At the bridge we looked back and saw the bay filled with sagging chutes around the Starting area, but we were at the Bridge!

The current increased steadily - as it was supposed to have been all morning - and we "hit" the Marin side West of Pt. Diablo - a little bit West of our Yellow Bluff goal.  We wanted to exit at Pt. Bonita, so made a few tacks to stay over on the North side and to stay in what we thought was the strongest Ebb.  We were  making 11+ knots over the bottom and 6 or so through the water.

After Bonita, we stayed N. and passed the first set of channel markers about half a mile North.  It was messy, wet, and we found quite a few square waves.  I managed to find more than Gordie when I was steering the boat.  I'm sure on one of the them the whole boat must have been out of the water since we just dropped straight down and we felt the concussion over the full boat's length.  Our speed over the bottom was good, even though the square backsides slowed us to almost a stop when we hit one.

We steered our way through the mess, edging further North as we went out and passed the Lightbucket about a mile to the North.  The apparent wind picked up and we began to see 28+ gusts, with the wind being something like 25 consistently.  There were more than few 30+ anemometer readings though.  After passing the Lightbucket, things began to settle down a little, but the wind waves increased and we "blew" through wind wave after wind wave.  During periods when the wind dropped to the low 20s knots, we thought we were going slow, but even then were making 7 +/- knots over the bottom.

As we approached the Island, we stayed North since we didn't want any "island" issues, which turned out to be providential for us.  Laying the Island on one tack is unusual, but that's what we did.  At the Island we finally began to crack off at little at a time.

I was telling Gordie about my BAMA race with Nick Sands on his Saber 402 "Escapade" -- about the roller furling line that parted on his boat just about the time we were halfway past the North side of the Island in similar conditions, when Gordie and I heard a loud "Bang!" on our boat and saw something fly off the bow.  The sail dropped about 3 or 4 feet.  Holy crap! Remember, we only have one sail.

At first we thought the halyard had broken and the wind pressure on the slides was keeping the sail up, but then we saw the main halyard stretching up at a sharp angle from the forward bullet block guide on the cabin top.  The turning block at the base of the mast had blown up. A piece landed in the cockpit, but the large parts missed us on the way by.  The boom was on the port side, the same side as the halyard and was holding the halyard more or less against the mast, but if we jibed the halyard would  have been at a straight angle from that bullet block to the masthead, which was angled back 3 or so feet from plumb due to the tension on the rig.  More Holy Crap!  Hang in there little bullet block. You were never designed to be a turning block for the sail, especially for a Wyliecat-size sail in 28+ knots apparent!

I went below, grabbed some line and a sail tie, hooked onto the jackline, and then went forward to see what I could do.  Gordie eased the halyard a little so I had some slack.  I rigged a line around the halyard and the deck fitting, but could only drag the halyard part way back down to the mast step.  Gordie continued to steer and when we were around the backside of the Island, came forward and we both pulled on the "tackle system" and managed to get the halyard down to more or less where it should have been if the "real" turning block had been there.

Then we went back to the cockpit and tried raising the sail back up. We managed to get it most of the way, but the halyard "running" through three loops of rope created lots of friction and we couldn't get the sail all the way back up.  I think we lost 10 to 15 minutes in the process, but time flies when you're having fun bouncing around on the pointy end of a boat hanging on with one hand and tying/pulling with the other.  Did I mention the constant green water wash as each swell hit the bow? The period was about 10 seconds per swell. Six hits per minute!

Once we got the boat moving again and jibed onto Port and were reaching away from the Island I went back forward to secure things, but it was clear we weren't going to improve on what we'd done  A snatch block would have been handy, but we didn't have one, so labored on with what we had.  Putting the Cunningham on full helped with sail shape, and we tensioned the topping lift to hold the boom up and give the leech a little better shape.

The ride in was exhilarating, even with the jury rig!  Gordie's better at catching waves than I am, but seeing the knot meter hit 16+ as we surged along the swells, no matter which of us was steering was exciting.  Gordie managed to get the boat up and going more often than I did, but I had a few good rides.  We decided to just sail up the middle, so aimed at the Lightbucket, then for the N. side of the channel after we passed the pilot station.

It was "Wait for the top of the swell, and then point the bow down."  "Wait for the top of the swell . . . ."   "No, wait, the next one looks like the 'big' one ."  The boat's remarkable; we didn't bury the bow once, even on the largest swells, even at 18 knots. Nothing's more pleasing than the roar as 3 tons of boat surges off the top of the swell and you're looking at a solid wall of green at the bottom. Luckily the knotmeter and GPS were in our line of steering sight. Tom Wylie designed one hell of a boat!

We surfed along a few hundred yards North of the channel markers, aiming for the N. Tower.  We even managed to catch a few swells inside Land's End.  We passed under the Bridge about mid-span, sailed another quarter mile, then jibed.

The jibe was successful and the jury rigged halyard managed it okay.   We had our fingers crossed.  We called in and aimed right at the GGYC pin.  We were wet, weary, and wonderfully happy.  The gun went off and we knew we were official.

We had heard "Shaman" call in ahead of us and knew it was possible for us to beat Steve on time, but weren't sure we had done that.  Obviously we'd been watching "Green Buffalo" since around the Lightbucket and knew where they were. We knew we were ahead of the other boats in our division, but we also knew there were Moore's ahead of us since at least one close to us had gotten his chute up and disappeared in a rooster tail of spray.  And, indeed, 5 of them beat us.  I think the only other mono hull to beat us was the Schumacher quarter tonner  "Summertime Dream" that we'd been playing tag most of the day.  Even if we hadn't had the halyard excitement at the Island most of the Moore's would have beaten us.  On the way out Gordie commented it looked like a "Moore Day" and it certainly was! Especially with their chutes up on the way back in.

Then we hit 30+ knot headwinds on the way back to Sausalito. Life just isn't fair!   It was as wet sailing into Richardson Bay as it was out near the Island. All that's left of the halyard block is the base shackle.  I'll replace it with the strongest metal block I can find!  Don't want that to happen again for sure, especially in the middle of the ocean with 8 foot swells and 25+ knot winds!

Thanks to the BAMA Race Committee for putting on a great race. It is certainly one to be remembered.

Pat Broderick & Gordie Nash

Greg Hapa Girl Contour 34	We started off the day kicking the karma gods, on raising the main a Robin's nest fell out, with 4 little blue eggs, bummer. I think we were the only multi in the vicinity of the start line - but to get there I literally had to run the engine on the line until the 5 minute gun. Even with that, it was 8 minutes to cross the line. 1/2 hour later we finally got over to the ebb and re-crossed the line transit. Off to the races, just 2 monos ahead of us. We were slowly waterlined by the larger monos until about Bonita, where it started to get very lumpy. At the edge of the shoals, and still getting sucked out by the ebb we decided to reef, and this took way too long, injuring my crews back in the process. She told me on the way back she has a degenerative disc.... In the process of the reef, Tatiana literally blasted by us, flying off the wavetops. Really pushing hard. Still full main on Tatiana at that time. Looked really good. Back on board Hapa Girl, what was a long reef process, turned into a fubar when a quick ease on the jib sheet led to a lost jib sheet (self tacker) and in the waves we were in I decided at that point that it was time to head home. The wind died on the way back, we had to motor sail once we got to Bonita. Once inside the gate it freshened a bit, so we decided to swing by the RC for a wave - and off to home. The sail back near the ball park was great - tight reach, flat water, wind gusts to maybe 15. In one 15 knot gust we hit 15 over the water. fun. I need to figure out how to get my boat moving forward like Tatiana in those tough offshore conditions, while he was flying, we were wallowing.
Ray Wells Wingit F-27	The DHF started badly for us - after loading 8 gallons of gas, the starter pull cord broke. That led to a delay of 45 minutes and we shut down the engine off Fort Mason and fought for a place in the thin red line, ultimately spinning out to avoid a hazardous crunch. Everything was smooth sailing until needing to change head-sails and reef. By that time we were at the shipping channel, and the wind was still picking up. Last time WINGIT flipped was with a double-reefed main and the storm jib, in flat water. We flew the protest flag from the highest point (the cross-beam) for 18 months protesting God, so now I thought we probably shouldn't tempt fate. The weather was not as forecast, according to my crew Kostadin who was clearly uneasy with the situation, so we bagged it. Congratulations to Tatiana and thanks for the Spectra cord.
Ross Stein Race Deck GGYC	Tatiana was also the first boat to finish by over an hour. Congratulations also to strong multihull finishers Humdinger, Wahoo!, and Rainbow. From the Race Deck, it was a slow-mo start with half the fleet crossing the start line with spins up an hour after the gun in almost no wind and a strong counter-current. Given this, it was eye-opening to see the Moore 24 fleet cross the line in a tight scrum within about 30 sec of their gun-- clearly those boats are well sailed and so its perhaps unsurprising that they grabbed the podium corrected finishes. From a vantage point near the Palace of Legion of Honor, it very quite rough, windy, and foggy starting 1-2 nm beyond Pt. Bonita, and so I am sure the stories of the racers transitioning from ghosting to gales are going to be epic. Let's hear 'em.
Skip & Jody Trunk Monkey, Steve Waterloo Shaman, Phil MacFarlane 577 Wafi	http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?1325-The-Crews-Views-DH-Farallones-2011
Steve Waterloo Shaman	http://www.sailblogs.com/member/cal40shaman/?xjMsgID=168446
David Nabors Temerity	http://neversealand.downtothesea.org/2011/04/12/bama-doublehanded-farallones/
Pat Broderick & Gordie Nash NANCY	Here's a brief (I know it seems long) account of "NANCY'S" 2011 BAMA Doublehanded Farallones Race. I think it would be fair to say that Gordie and I had a great time. I also think it would be fair to say we had a tough time. Prior to the Start we decided to hang around the Start Line since it was apparent those boats back in the normal staging area weren't going to get started against the unusual Flood and light SW wind. So we motor-sailed around in front of the SfFYC looking for some ebb. We found it right along the seawall - in about 15 feet or less of water - 20 feet off the rock wall. The ebb band was only about 25 feet wide, but it was there. Where in the heck did that massive Flood come from on a day when Max Ebb was an hour after our Start? With all the runoff from the recent storms we figured it would be slam bam and out the Gate! So, since the SIs allowed, we "dip Started" and headed back for the seawall. We worked our way up to about the "H" beam West of the SfFYC when what little wind there was began to peter out so we jumped off toward the middle. We manage to really "Start" by getting swept out past "X" and we on our way! Like the other boats that got away, we worked our way out, crossing those current lines and sort of hopping from patch of wind to patch of wind. Our goal was to get over to the Yellow Bluff area where we thought we'd find both wind and ebb. But Yellow Bluff was not to be. We began to feel stronger and stronger ebb as we got to the center, but that ebb began pushing us back toward the S. Tower. As the wind increased a little, we were able to sail toward the middle of the bridge and passed under it almost exactly an hour after we Started! On the outer side, the wind filled in and we continued sailing toward the Marin shoreline. We were making 9+ knots over the bottom, and about 3 through the water. There were only about 10 or 12 boats that made it away from the Starting area. At the bridge we looked back and saw the bay filled with sagging chutes around the Starting area, but we were at the Bridge! The current increased steadily - as it was supposed to have been all morning - and we "hit" the Marin side West of Pt. Diablo - a little bit West of our Yellow Bluff goal. We wanted to exit at Pt. Bonita, so made a few tacks to stay over on the North side and to stay in what we thought was the strongest Ebb. We were making 11+ knots over the bottom and 6 or so through the water. After Bonita, we stayed N. and passed the first set of channel markers about half a mile North. It was messy, wet, and we found quite a few square waves. I managed to find more than Gordie when I was steering the boat. I'm sure on one of the them the whole boat must have been out of the water since we just dropped straight down and we felt the concussion over the full boat's length. Our speed over the bottom was good, even though the square backsides slowed us to almost a stop when we hit one. We steered our way through the mess, edging further North as we went out and passed the Lightbucket about a mile to the North. The apparent wind picked up and we began to see 28+ gusts, with the wind being something like 25 consistently. There were more than few 30+ anemometer readings though. After passing the Lightbucket, things began to settle down a little, but the wind waves increased and we "blew" through wind wave after wind wave. During periods when the wind dropped to the low 20s knots, we thought we were going slow, but even then were making 7 +/- knots over the bottom. As we approached the Island, we stayed North since we didn't want any "island" issues, which turned out to be providential for us. Laying the Island on one tack is unusual, but that's what we did. At the Island we finally began to crack off at little at a time. I was telling Gordie about my BAMA race with Nick Sands on his Saber 402 "Escapade" -- about the roller furling line that parted on his boat just about the time we were halfway past the North side of the Island in similar conditions, when Gordie and I heard a loud "Bang!" on our boat and saw something fly off the bow. The sail dropped about 3 or 4 feet. Holy crap! Remember, we only have one sail. At first we thought the halyard had broken and the wind pressure on the slides was keeping the sail up, but then we saw the main halyard stretching up at a sharp angle from the forward bullet block guide on the cabin top. The turning block at the base of the mast had blown up. A piece landed in the cockpit, but the large parts missed us on the way by. The boom was on the port side, the same side as the halyard and was holding the halyard more or less against the mast, but if we jibed the halyard would have been at a straight angle from that bullet block to the masthead, which was angled back 3 or so feet from plumb due to the tension on the rig. More Holy Crap! Hang in there little bullet block. You were never designed to be a turning block for the sail, especially for a Wyliecat-size sail in 28+ knots apparent! I went below, grabbed some line and a sail tie, hooked onto the jackline, and then went forward to see what I could do. Gordie eased the halyard a little so I had some slack. I rigged a line around the halyard and the deck fitting, but could only drag the halyard part way back down to the mast step. Gordie continued to steer and when we were around the backside of the Island, came forward and we both pulled on the "tackle system" and managed to get the halyard down to more or less where it should have been if the "real" turning block had been there. Then we went back to the cockpit and tried raising the sail back up. We managed to get it most of the way, but the halyard "running" through three loops of rope created lots of friction and we couldn't get the sail all the way back up. I think we lost 10 to 15 minutes in the process, but time flies when you're having fun bouncing around on the pointy end of a boat hanging on with one hand and tying/pulling with the other. Did I mention the constant green water wash as each swell hit the bow? The period was about 10 seconds per swell. Six hits per minute! Once we got the boat moving again and jibed onto Port and were reaching away from the Island I went back forward to secure things, but it was clear we weren't going to improve on what we'd done A snatch block would have been handy, but we didn't have one, so labored on with what we had. Putting the Cunningham on full helped with sail shape, and we tensioned the topping lift to hold the boom up and give the leech a little better shape. The ride in was exhilarating, even with the jury rig! Gordie's better at catching waves than I am, but seeing the knot meter hit 16+ as we surged along the swells, no matter which of us was steering was exciting. Gordie managed to get the boat up and going more often than I did, but I had a few good rides. We decided to just sail up the middle, so aimed at the Lightbucket, then for the N. side of the channel after we passed the pilot station. It was "Wait for the top of the swell, and then point the bow down." "Wait for the top of the swell . . . ." "No, wait, the next one looks like the 'big' one ." The boat's remarkable; we didn't bury the bow once, even on the largest swells, even at 18 knots. Nothing's more pleasing than the roar as 3 tons of boat surges off the top of the swell and you're looking at a solid wall of green at the bottom. Luckily the knotmeter and GPS were in our line of steering sight. Tom Wylie designed one hell of a boat! We surfed along a few hundred yards North of the channel markers, aiming for the N. Tower. We even managed to catch a few swells inside Land's End. We passed under the Bridge about mid-span, sailed another quarter mile, then jibed. The jibe was successful and the jury rigged halyard managed it okay. We had our fingers crossed. We called in and aimed right at the GGYC pin. We were wet, weary, and wonderfully happy. The gun went off and we knew we were official. We had heard "Shaman" call in ahead of us and knew it was possible for us to beat Steve on time, but weren't sure we had done that. Obviously we'd been watching "Green Buffalo" since around the Lightbucket and knew where they were. We knew we were ahead of the other boats in our division, but we also knew there were Moore's ahead of us since at least one close to us had gotten his chute up and disappeared in a rooster tail of spray. And, indeed, 5 of them beat us. I think the only other mono hull to beat us was the Schumacher quarter tonner "Summertime Dream" that we'd been playing tag most of the day. Even if we hadn't had the halyard excitement at the Island most of the Moore's would have beaten us. On the way out Gordie commented it looked like a "Moore Day" and it certainly was! Especially with their chutes up on the way back in. Then we hit 30+ knot headwinds on the way back to Sausalito. Life just isn't fair! It was as wet sailing into Richardson Bay as it was out near the Island. All that's left of the halyard block is the base shackle. I'll replace it with the strongest metal block I can find! Don't want that to happen again for sure, especially in the middle of the ocean with 8 foot swells and 25+ knot winds! Thanks to the BAMA Race Committee for putting on a great race. It is certainly one to be remembered. Pat Broderick & Gordie Nash
Latitude 38	http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2011-04-11&dayid=568