J/Crew’s Chillin’ in Frisco

(Sausalito, CA)- The annual San Francisco Bay One Design Winter Series kicked off last weekend thanks to Jeff Zarwell's REGATTA-PRO race management and Sausalito Yacht Club. The local San Francisco Bay fleet of J/70s, J/120s and J/105s enjoyed sunshine and mild breeze on the first race day of the weekend series that sails on the second Saturday of each month- from November thru February.  The San Francisco Bay summer wind and fog machine has turned off for the winter and unless it's a storm front, conditions on the Bay can be delightfully balmy on the Berkeley Circle as they were this past weekend. Jeff provided this report on the first weekend of racing:

“It was typical fall weather, the forecast was for no wind in the circle until 12:30-1:00 when a westerly was to come in with 12-15 kts of breeze.  So, it was no surprise at 11:00 that an un-forecasted northerly (310 at 4-5 kts) was coming down San Pablo Bay, unforeseen by meteorologists.

The RC was in a quandary as to what to do.  With a westerly forecast in an hour and a half, there was good reason to believe any race started at 11:30am could very well end up abandoned as the northerly typically shuts down before the westerly comes in.

In postponement, Zarwell was driving around the bay looking for signs of a westerly developing ANYWHERE.  At the same time, everyone seemed to be sailing well in the light northerly with almost no current.  Looking up San Pablo Bay there were no signs of the northerly breaking down any time soon either.

Realizing the natives might be getting restless, the RC decided to roll the dice and get everyone sailing in the northerly, with expectations of having a 90 degree course change at some point during race 1.  All the fleets were started and the breeze was still holding.

Ultimately all six fleets had two challenging, yet pretty fair races with a northerly that never broke down.  That is until 3:30, well after the last boat had finished.  At that point, it did not shut down; rather it made a graceful swing over to the west.

All in all, it was a beautiful day, reasonably warm, flat water and that fall lighting that lets you know summer is over.

Looking forward to the next race in the series on December 9th. Let’s see if we can get more of you out there in December for some challenging light air racing!  It’s the best time to train new crew and keep you on your game during the winter months.”

According to Christy Usher, skipper of the J/70 CHRISTINE ROBIN, “two of the five J/70s that signed up for the series raced this past Saturday. As a result, it was a fun match-race between Tom Thayer's RAMPAGE versus my all-women crew on CHRISTINE ROBIN (Terre Layton, Dana Riley and Jessica Chase).  After sailing a few short races, both teams traded wins in the light and tricky conditions.”

And, Tom Thayer had this to say about the day’s racing:

“The day started out cool and over cast with a discouraging glassy look to the water.  So, after we rigged the boat, we got at the Torqeedo and slowly headed toward the racing area.  Our conversation on board was mostly jokes about the lack of wind.  But half way out the wind started to fill in, building to about 8 knots allowing us to practice our jibes and wind-on-wings on the way.  The racing was on!

Once we got to the race area, we searched for other J/70s, but could not find any.  So now, the jokes were about finishing first and last at the same time, port tacking the fleet, and general recalls. Fortunately, Christine Robin made an appearance just before the scheduled 11:30 first gun.  While it would have been great to have more boats, with two boats we could use the races to continue to refine our rig tune, trim settings, weight placement and driving technique in the light air.

The Regatta Pro/ Sausalito YC team, under the direction of Jeff Zarwell, did their usual great job of setting up a course.  Given the light air, we were given ¾ mile legs.  But the short legs allowed for more boat handling with course 4 (double sausages) for each of the two races.

Rampage got a good start in the first race.  We were able to use a high mode to force Christine Robin to tack for clear air.  But that was a mistake on our part because as soon as they were free to sail their own race.  Christy Usher and her crew found a fast, high mode that was devastating.  They went on to win the race by a large margin.

But we continued tweaking or boat, going to a sloppy loose rig setting for the second race as the wind died down.  We also got more power from the jib with a little less halyard tension.  And, we got even more aggressive with our weight placement.

The result of all of this was that we could come closer to hanging with Christine Robin in the second race.  They still beat us around the first windward mark, but we were closer.  They jibed soon after the mark rounding.  By doing so, we thought they were going the wrong way.  Despite our intent of staying with them to maximize the opportunity for two boat testing, we couldn’t resist the temptation to separate on starboard.  By the time we reached the leeward gate, we had made a substantial gain, that we were able to hold onto for the rest of the race.

So a successful day for both boats.  Christy had little experience at the helm before, and had to have gained considerable confidence with the excellent way she had the boat performing.  Rampage was able to continue up the light air learning curve, especially with our weight placement and luff tension adjustment.  And both boats ended up with a 1st and 2nd place finish (or is that first and last?)!”

The J/105s have the largest fleet registered with sixteen teams.  Leading after the first weekend was the duo of Colin Miller and Peter Baldwin on BIG BUOYS  with a 2-2 tally for 4 pts.  Sitting in second with a 1-6 for 7 pts is Sergey Lubarsky’s RUSSIAN ROULETTE.  Then, rounding out the top of the leaderboard is Phil Laby’s GODOT with a 7-3 for 10 pts.

Like the J/70s, there are five J/120s registered, but only two showed up for the first weekend.  It was a match race between Steve Madeira’s big green machine- the mighty MR MAGOO- and Timo Bruck’s white wonder- TWIST.  After two races, the Magoo Maulers took two bullets to start off their series well.

Similarly, the J/24s had a match race scenario between Jasper Van Vliet’s EVIL OCTOPUS and Richard Stockdale’s FROGLIPS.  It seemed the Froggers kept leaping ahead of the twisted up Octopus, taking two bullets to start their series.  For more San Francisco Winter Series sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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