Big Freakin' Sails

[tonybinTX]

Originally Posted by blt2ski

YouTube - Blakely Rocks Benefit 2009

last weekend BFS here on the sound!:laugh er

Marty

Smokn! Hair on fire!

[smackdaddy]

Bluto - dude, that was just freakin' sad! A couple of those boats were going backwards - WITH A SPIN FLYING!

That definitely belongs in the LFS thread.

[blt2ski]

Please note,

I did not say it was a BFS in the BIG wind style. but a BIG freaken LONG sail as in 6+ hours to do what I should have done in about 2.5-3 hrs! We were going backwards t one time too! No wind, tide going the other way.......one can go backwards around here too! joys of saltwater sailing in a really large canal with upwards of 14' tide swings! altho saturday was 4-6' at the most in both directions.

[GeorgeB]

Smack, do you still want to hear about the DHF? Unlike Heatwave’s experience, DHF was the opposite of a BFS for us. David Sevais’ multi part write up on SA is an excellent recounting of what happened to them. For us, the two noteworthy parts were the start and the battle to get around Pt. Bonita fighting an adverse current, the “washing machine” (a.k.a. rip current), and a complete lack of wind, Oh, and throw in 30 to 40 boats with no steerage and close proximity to the rocks.



Looking back, the weather forecasts were pretty accurate for DHF. I’d been tracking the forecasts since the previous Monday and they (mostly) showed the 5kt component for race day. They also were predicting the 20 – 30kts for overnight, but were also forecasting an easing on Sunday (that never showed up). For most of the preceding week, there were Small Craft and Gale warnings for the Gulf of the Farallones. I think that when the forecaster reviewed his model, he detuned the upper wind speed predictions. After all, who’d believe a forecast that read wind speeds from 5 to 40 knots in the Gulf on Saturday. Anyways, we interpreted the winds to be a repeat of DHLS two weeks before. The lull in wind Friday night through most of the day on Saturday had a calming effect on the sea state where we had a few waves above 10-15’ feet, but were so long in period that we actually sailed beam to them for a short while across the Potato Patch without a problem.



In light of what happened to the DHF, The OYRA Duxbury Reef race was cancelled last weekend do to a lack of wind and a flood tide which would have duplicated the Farallones conditions. And I think someone must have seen or heard about the congestion of boats off of Pt. Bonita and deemed that it was potentially hazardous (now that everybody knows where the secret eddy lies.

I don’t think that the wind and waves were too much to handle on the return leg. Heatwave just had an extraordinary bit of bad luck having their keel fall off. It was the suddenness of going from exhilarating to treading water that is giving us time to pause and rethink our safety processes.

On a lighter note, summer is upon us and the schedule is filling up quickly, the first (1&2) and last (29&30) weekends are open for us in August as is mid-July. We may sail down to Monterey in September. Let me know your thoughts

[FairwindSD]

3/28 - San Diego Bay. Had a relative rip roarer of a sail with the wife this particular Saturday afternoon. I've had her out in mostly moderate stuff until this point, and usually with additional crew. Her main experiece being our 7 day BVI honeymoon charter, where we saw no more than 12 knots.

Anyone who's sailed in SD knows that variable 10 knots is the norm. We had a Catalina 34' out this day and it was blowin' 15 kts from the get go. We headed out off shore for about 2 hours in some seriously champaign sailing conditions, close reaching westward, in 15 kts and moderate seas. When she was ready, we tacked back and ran with the swell for a bit, which she loved helming, and dropped the hook behind the Zuniga jetty for lunch.

After a sandwich, beer(s) and nap, I prepared her for a sailing off the anchor drill. With her on the helm, we nailed it, beared away seaward and furled out the genoa for the sail back into the harbor. This is where the fun began.

When we rounded the tip of the jetty and tacked to port to head in, the wind kicked up to 23 knts, feeling like 28 on the face. With all of our canvas up it was clear that we were over powered and I had her head into the wind so I could throw in a reef. Well here's where things got dicey...

Being that she's a novice on the helm, staying head to wind was nearly impossible, so I aborted the reef, had her bear away, feathered the main out, and rolled in half the genoa. Still overpowered we headed in at hull speed, with yee haws coming from my helmswoman. I had attentive eyes trained on the Ballast Point puffs so that I could feather the main so ease the heel. We smoked in at hull speed and beared away further for a broad reach towards the city.

End result...a wife ready for more off shore travel, excellent.

[CharlieCobra]

Nice!

Marty, I remember well going backwards for four friggin' hours during one race.

[GeorgeB]

Drifted backwards for four hours in a race and it didn’t occur to you to drop the hook? On light air days, we carry our lunch hook and rode down in the cabin in a bag. When our GPS speed approaches zero, we covertly slip the anchor over the side away from our closest competitors and cleat it off to the midship cleat. That way, no one sees us riding the anchor. I don’t need a good set because I am still sailing and eventually, I need to trip and haul in anyway. My record so far is anchoring in 98 feet using 250’ of rode. Yeah, 2:1 scope, but who’s sleeping anyway. Another thing we do is to point the boat in the direction of the strongest flow so I have the least resistance and can hold my position in the lightest of breezes. Better that than point to the mark only to be flushed out to sea.

[CharlieCobra]

Too deep and I was dead in the channel. The water was too skinny to drop the hook.

[smackdaddy]

Originally Posted by FairwindSD

3/28 - San Diego Bay. Had a relative rip roarer of a sail with the wife this particular Saturday afternoon. I've had her out in mostly moderate stuff until this point, and usually with additional crew. Her main experiece being our 7 day BVI honeymoon charter, where we saw no more than 12 knots.

Anyone who's sailed in SD knows that variable 10 knots is the norm. We had a Catalina 34' out this day and it was blowin' 15 kts from the get go. We headed out off shore for about 2 hours in some seriously champaign sailing conditions, close reaching westward, in 15 kts and moderate seas. When she was ready, we tacked back and ran with the swell for a bit, which she loved helming, and dropped the hook behind the Zuniga jetty for lunch.

After a sandwich, beer(s) and nap, I prepared her for a sailing off the anchor drill. With her on the helm, we nailed it, beared away seaward and furled out the genoa for the sail back into the harbor. This is where the fun began.

When we rounded the tip of the jetty and tacked to port to head in, the wind kicked up to 23 knts, feeling like 28 on the face. With all of our canvas up it was clear that we were over powered and I had her head into the wind so I could throw in a reef. Well here's where things got dicey...

Being that she's a novice on the helm, staying head to wind was nearly impossible, so I aborted the reef, had her bear away, feathered the main out, and rolled in half the genoa. Still overpowered we headed in at hull speed, with yee haws coming from my helmswoman. I had attentive eyes trained on the Ballast Point puffs so that I could feather the main so ease the heel. We smoked in at hull speed and beared away further for a broad reach towards the city.

End result...a wife ready for more off shore travel, excellent.

Hey Fair - welcome to SN dude! And, more importantly, welcome to BFS. Nice write up. I'm telling you, I don't think there's a sweeter sound in God's universe than a chick screamin' "yeehaw" at the helm.

George - let's shoot for the last weekend in August. I'll start workin' the plans.

[blt2ski]

From what I understand, there is nothing wrong or illegal to drop a hook if your going backwards. Heard about that locally before in bigger races. I am also recalling a V70 doing that going into Boston harbor a couple of years ago. Wind died and they were going nowhere going up a river chanel, dropped the hook for 60 min or 6 hrs or so under a bridge, then the wind came up, the tide changed, and off they went to the finish some 30 mins away!

Around here the water can be 600+ deep in the middle of puget sound. I did not go backwards this time for too long, maybe 100' or yds. Do not have a gps to figure out the over the bottom speed at this time. Have to rely on the old fashioned take a sighting with compass!

Sometimes things just do not work right!

Marty