August 20th, 2015
We had 4 SoCal boats and 3 NorCal boats converge on Santa Barbara, AKA the California Riviera, for postcard perfect champagne sailing: Water temperature: 70 degrees. Air Temp: 85 degrees. Sky: clear and blue. Ocean: clear and blue. (No oil left from the spill 2 months ago) Windward/leeward courses with a leeward gate upwind of the start/finish area. West and south westerly winds; slight easterly current.
Saturday night pasta and salad buffet dinner overlooking spectacular beach and ocean scene from the Santa Barbara Yacht Club clubhouse on the beach. Raffle of t-shirts, hats, tablet and phone cases, hydration bottles, gear bags and other goodies. Silent auction of body armor, a Mirage Drive kayak, luxury nautical watch, etc. all benefiting the Make A Wish foundation.
Hobie Style Accommodations: camping in cars and decked-out RVs and toy trailers in the parking lot; this is the only time the City of Santa Barbara allows camping at any of its parks. Funny, all these Hobie sailors are now living it up in their five figure RVs, toy haulers, and camping rigs. One was reported to be big enough to haul 4 cats, plus a rag-top Mini inside! 30 years ago, these same Hobie sailors were living like hippies; sleeping in their beat up pickups with plywood camper shells and VW vans. Times they have a’ changed.
Someone commented to me on Facebook that the racing for me was “like shooting fish in a bucket” but I disagree! Winning the Weta fleet wasn’t easy. The bucket got bigger, the fish got a lot faster, and my aim didn’t get any better. As the races progressed, Marc got his boat and skills dialed in. Christophe hit his pace and seemed to really know how to get his new boat going. Brian proved that he’s fast upwind when he’s single-handed. Dan, who chartered a Pierpont boat, is definitely a contender upwind, but suffers off the wind a bit in the marginal to light conditions we had. Tom, chartering the other Pierpont boat, was impressive as a first timer. Give these guys 5-10 kts more wind, and us lightweights will be following new leaders.
Except for a stressful interaction Dan encountered with an F18 skipper barking for room at the mark, we generally didn’t have trouble or tangles with the other fleets.
The organizers thanked us for participating (our 8 boats made up 20% of the entries) and encouraged us to come again next year. The local Hobie fleet organizer also publicly invited us to join them at their big regatta at nearby Port San Luis / Avila Beach next April.
Saturday - Light breeze, 5 to 15 building through the afternoon
Race 1 - two laps port tack start not good, but recovered to win.
Race 2 - two laps regular start at the boat in clear air… another bullet, but my upwind angles and speed were a serious problem. I soaked like crazy on the downwind legs.
Paused on the water to loosening my rig a little, and found it helped with pointing and speed. The Gaastra jib is so flat, I think a little forestay sag gives it some more draft.
Race 3 - two laps? three laps? I got confused by the flags and horn sequence, and therefore gave everyone a 45 second head start. Next, I didn’t know the course was 3 times around so I attempted to finish just 2, then checked in with RC, found my error, and then went back to complete another lap. I had slid to 5th place by the time I learned of the error, but salvaged a 3rd by the skin of my teeth. Others who followed me (Marc?) to the finish the first time didn’t complete the course.
Race 4 - three laps in the best breeze of the day, but not a great start. Still, I was able to pour it on and increase the lead on every downwind. Hit my highest speeds (14 kts!) on the dash to the dock. Isn’t that often the case? Cold beer is quite a motivator.
Sunday – Lighter breeze, 3 to 10 building gradually with a lull and shift between 6 and 7
Race 5 - two laps almost late due to slow launch and sail-out. Tried Port tack at the pin again… not good. Tacked to Stbd behind others, then tacked to clear air on port and ran for the beach. This is key: port tack toward the beach and it becomes the “long tack”. Bang the corner and find you’ll get lifted a little on the layline.
Race 6 - three laps Marc boldly started on Port and easily crossed ahead of the fleet. I had a lateish start, deep in the in the middle of the group. Encountered more trouble in the group on the approach to the windward buoy, and under-shot the lay line requiring a couple of extra tacks. At the same time, a couple of Farr 40s crashed through our course and rounded our mark after casting their wind shadows on us. These “professionals” responded quite unprofessionally to my shouted request to avoid our race course. On the second windward rounding, we were all very close but I’d pulled ahead of a couple. Last rounding—I got a bit further ahead and kept the stretch to the end.
Race 7 - three laps Perfect start at the boat on top of all. Suffering upwind angles. All 6 of us rounding first time within 30 seconds. Second windward rounding similarly close. Last rounding—I got a bit further ahead and kept the stretch to the end. On a couple upwind legs after rounding the gate, we were pacing the 16s almost perfectly, though I think they could make slightly tighter wind/tacking angles.
By Bruce Fleming
