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This past weekend was our first race of the season. This race is called the Three Bridge Fiasco and is a great opener for the year. As the name suggests, this race is a bit of a fiasco. To finish the race, you have to go by the three main bridges of the San Francisco Bay Area; the Crissy Field 'Blackaller' buoy near the Golden Gate Bridge, the Island called Yerba Buena which is in the middle of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Island called Red Rock near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Boats can round all three marks in any order and in any direction, and with over 200 boats racing you can imagine the chaos.
The hard part, which is also the fun part, is figuring out which way to go; do you go clockwise or counter clockwise? During the week prior to the race there are a lot of discussions on which way is the right way, but ultimately the final decision has to be made prior to the start, depending on what the current and the wind are actually doing. This year, we decided to go counter clockwise, which ended up being the right way. We wished we could say that we had thought through all the different variables leading us to make the correct decision, but in fact our final decision was based on which way the Moore 24 fleet was headed?
Our goal for this race was to gauge how Le Flying Fish was tuned up, and the only way to do that was to compare our boat to identical boats. We found out that we are slow upwind and move at a good pace downwind. Of course, to make a true comparison our boat would have to be exactly the same as everyone else’s boat, but it isn’t since Le Flying Fish is set up for ocean racing - mast head light, solar panels, and other extra gears - and most of the Moore 24 in the Bay Area are set up for fleet racing.  Photo Latitude / LaDonna - © 2008 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.
Our most difficult moment was probably the first upwind leg, from the start at the Golden Gate Yacht Club to Yerba Buena Island, where the wind was fairly strong and constantly increasing and decreasing in strength. The extra gear and weight along with some of our sail inventory being way too old - an ancient n.3 headsail held together by some mighty strong cobweb - made this leg more difficult than it ought to be. Let’s not forget that we haven’t done a lot of sailing during the holidays, leaving us a bit rusty. So, we found ourselves behind the majority of the Moore 24’s. Rounding Yerba Buena Island was uneventful, we put up our spinnaker and took down our old n.3 headsail, this change of sails marking the beginning or our second leg.
For this leg, from Yerba Buena Island to Red Rock, the challenge was to find the path of least resistance. In other word, we were trying to find the area with the least amount of current going against us. We didn’t do too bad a job during this leg and managed to stay around longer and faster boats. However we didn’t gain enough to make up for our tough times during leg one. Rounding Red Rock, marked the start of the third and final leg, the spinnaker came down and the n.1 headsail came up as we started going upwind in light winds towards Raccoon Strait--- the n.1 is much bigger than the n.3.
With the n.1 up we seemed to be moving along quite well, and made good time to the mouth of Raccoon Strait where the wind and current gods decided to have a little fun with the racers. While everyone hugged the shore at the entrance of Raccoon Strait to get current relief from the flood, the winds decided to go light and became very variable in direction. This had for effect to let everyone pile up in one area, moving forward with a bit of breeze, only to be sent backwards by current and wind shifts. Initially, we too got caught in this area of chaos, but made the fortunate decision to cross Raccoon Strait and head for the opposite shore. Once on the opposite side of Raccoon Strait we experienced a bit more wind with more favorable currents, propelling us ahead of the group of sailboats that stayed on the other side of Raccoon Strait; actually, our main propulsion at this time was a counter current whisking toward the exit of Raccoon Strait. The decision to go from one side of Raccoon Strait to the other side was greatly rewarding, allowing us to pass some of the boats which we had trailed on our first leg. After having exited the strait we decided to make a beeline for Blackaller, the last mark rounding before the finish line.
By this time, the wind had gone very light, and a number of sailboats had decided to "wait" for us at Blackaller buoy. What a sight, all those boats parked unable to move while we moved ever so slowly toward them carried by nothing but a wisp of wind. The closer we got from Blackaller, the stronger the breeze became and we managed to round the last mark in company of many boats that had been parked. This last run to the finish was quite fun and exciting as we all drag raced our boats as fast as possible to the finish. This would have been a good time to be on shore taking picture of all those boats crewed by sailors looking like wolves going in for the kill.
After the finish, we put the boat in cruise control and enjoyed a nice easy going sail back to Alameda. That is until the wind shut down for good and the engine roared to life.
We finished 21st out of 33 Moore 24, and 58th out of 222 boats. As you can see the Moore 24 fleet did quite well as a whole. We also learned a lot about the performance of our boat against other Moore 24’s which was the goal for this regatta, that, and having a lot of fun. You can find more pictures of the race in the multimedia section. |
