Spinnaker Cup

See photos 570-595 for our fabulous start to the Spinnaker Cup

We participated in the Spinnaker Cup Race from San Francisco to Hawaii Monterey (got a little ahead of myself there!) on Friday, May 28.  We did the race last year on Tiki J and placed second in our division.  Prior to that I had not done the race since 2004 when we snapped the rudder off Pizote, a Santana 30/30 GP that my husband, Matt, owned with his brother Mark, several miles offshore from Monterey.  Before that Matt and Mark had racked up many division first and second place trophies in various boats over the years.  Sail number 295 in the photos linked above is Mark in the Catalina he bought in 2005.  (We sold Pizote after we had the rudder repaired.)

OK, so the race...  The pin end was definitely favored at the start but meant coming in on port tack.  We'd watched the prior three starts and had a good strategy lined up.  It was flooding so we'd come in towards the pin from the left side, sailing high and letting the current push us down below the pin just in time to round and head up across the line at the starting gun.  We had a man on the bow but unfortunately he did not realize we were in our start sequence and did not know that we were planning to duck below the mark, so he was not calling where it was.  Our tactician was calling for the driver to turn down but since the bowman was not indicating we were going to hit the mark, the driver stayed a little too high and we ended up not only hitting the mark but getting it wrapped around our keel.  There are over two dozen photos so I can only imagine this provided some entertainment for the onlookers!  You will notice I did not give any names above.  :)  Anyway, that kind of ruined our start plan and we were WAY late to the start.   Here is a cool picture of us going under the Golden Gate bridge.

Tiki J makes a run to the shore at the bridge. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

It is a long race so we started a watch rotation in the early afternoon.  I wasn't really sleepy when I was sent below but I "rested my eyes" for awhile.  My first shift driving was in daylight with moderate winds.  I had been trimming the spinnaker for Matt for the hour before which pretty much consisted of not doing much as he was driving to the sail.  When it was my turn to drive, the new trimmer was very actively trimming so I was trying to steer a steady course.  Staying on a steady course in the ocean is not easy, at least not for me!  The waves come in sets which are fairly regular but I did not find the rhythm easy to pick up on.  I was definitely counting down my hour and was very happy when the next person came up and I could turn over the wheel to the crew who had been trimming for me.  My last hour on watch I had no specific task and was able to enjoy the beautiful day. 

I can't remember the whole sequence of events as the 16 or so hours blended together.  I remember at some point we switched to the heavier spinnaker and at some point after dark (while I was below off watch) it was taken down when the driver began to feel overpowered.  The person driving at that time is absolutely unflappable so for him to say he was overpowered is major.  I believe the crew at the time said it was blowing over 30 knots.  I heard the commotion on deck and rushed forward to squirrel the spinnaker into the forward cabin, then promptly went back to bed for the rest of my off watch time.

I think it was when I came up for my second shift that we put a spinnaker back up.  We try to make sail changes at shift changes as there are more people up already versus waking people up.  We put up the heavy spinnaker and should have put up the light one as the winds were light by this time.  Since my second shift driving was not as windy it seemed a bit easier and I was not watching the clock hoping for my turn to be over quite as much.  The winds were fluky and it was hard to keep the wind on the correct side of the boat or keep the spinnaker full.  The driver after me is MUCH more experienced than I and he was having the same issues with the main wanting to flop over so I felt better about my performance.  After I went down at the end of my shift the wind lightened up quite a bit and we had a hard time making it to the finish.  I was down below with about a half an hour before my next shift when I heard the crew on deck discussing where the finish was.  There was a horn and then they were discussing whether the horn was for us and whether we had finished.  I heard one of them say something like "well there is nobody else around so we must have just finished."  Then the motor fired up and we went into the marina for the night. 

We ended up fifth, out of fourth by less than three minutes and out of third by less than twelve minutes.  We easily could have been fourth if we had pulled off our start strategy and there were other small mistakes we were kicking ourselves for that could have got us third.  I sure hope we do not miss a place in the Pac Cup by such a small margin as it is kind of depressing.  I am sure I will have fun whether we are first or last in our division. 

There was some discussion the next morning over whether the finish mark was in the GPS.  Matt insisted the  GPS had been set to "go to" that mark when he went off watch.  I checked out the GPS and found that the race instructions had the finish as 36 degrees 36.24 minutes N 121 degrees 53.11 minutes W and it was in the GPS as 36 degrees 36 minutes 24 seconds N 121 degrees 53 minutes 11 seconds W.  Subtle difference!  Have to watch that next time. 

Ugh well I have probably bored my two readers with the details.  And I probably don't even have them straight.  I really enjoy doing this race but it is tough as it means missing one of our yacht clubs cruise outs which are SO fun.  This year the cruise was to Sausalito for the first time and I heard rave reviews.  It is going to be a tough call next year for which to do!