Big Ocean Small Boat

From Bengt:

Happy New Year!

Jon and Kelly, your article from the NA’s have gotten a lot good press: http://j30.us/blog/?p=529#more-529.

Just back from sailing as foredeck at the 2009 j/30 North American championships in Westport Connecticut. For the second year in a row, we took 1st in the championship. This year we sailed the 5 race series in varied (mostly light) conditions to a (2), 1, 1, 2, 1 record. Which makes us 2-time North American champions, apparently…

We also won the best amatuer crew trophy, which is always a nice addition when there are pros on the course in other boats.

Of course the credit goes to Bengt, the owner-driver who prepped the boat (holy cow untouchable upwind speed), got the crew together (6-out-of-7 owner/skippers aboard), and drove a flawless race (4-for-5 nailing the starts).

What a great crew.

Everyone here is talking about shrinkwrapping their boats for the winter—making me very happy about our 12 month California sailing calendar!

Team Fuzzy Wuzzy

FW Tactical Computer

Tactics, Helm, Trim 2

Who let the O911 sailors into this club?!

Raced in the j/105 February midwinter regatta with Racer X. Had some great Peruvian food in the city afterward with Phillip and Nicole.

Sailed Encinal’s Jack Frost midwinters in Berkely Circle double-handed with Bob (it’s a fully crewed series, we are just being smart asses). Very light air, which was probably good, since we were a little out of practice on the controlled chaos of short-handed racing.

DNF’d the first race, ostensibly to fix our #1 Jib for the next go-round. 2nd in the next race, losing to a Tartan 10.

 http://www.encinal.org/pageResource/racing/2009/docs/JF_2008_SSR2.htm 

This is supposed to be the series with 5 or 6 911s on the starting line, but it was just us and Elusive, both from SFYC. I like the two-short-race format, however.

Raced the Great Pumpkin with Phillip, Nicole, Garth, and a few others aboard the j/105 Racer X. The Sunday Pursuit race, which goes  either way around Alcatraz and Angel island.

http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=1966  

• Finish: Thirtieth out of one hundred sixty four (164) finishers, 195 registered
• Wind Angel Island @ Fort Blunt: 20 knots, 25-30 knot gusts (National Weather Service)
• Max Ebb at Alcatraz 14:45 hrs, 2.4 knots.

Phillip must have really needed crew, because he told me I could take any position I wanted if I came out. Of course, I picked tactics, figuring that all I needed for that job was a stogie, a Mt. Gay hat, and the ability to bellow “RIGHTS!” at every boat within hailing distance.

Since the wind picked up to the usual washing machine near Alcatraz, I was calling “tactics” from the bow, with boots full of water, switching the akite hoist to starboard.

photo credit: George Gurrola

Ultimiately, the most important tactics were:

1. Go clockwise, choosing favorable wind (at the beginning of the race) over adverse current (coming through Racoon Straits at the end of the race).
2. Stay way out of the Angel Island wind shadow coming out of Racoon, but not so far North that you miss the fill-in on the way back to Richmond.

Among the competitors were Far, Far (the Cal 40 that crushed our fleet in the Transpac) and Silkeye, one of those Wylie 30’s that always seem to stroll around the course (like the dbl-handed Farrallones) without spilling the skipper’s drink.

Got a chance to crew (as Mast and “emergency” Bow) with the great team from “Fuzzy Wuzzy”, Bengt and Marie Johannson’s J/30, this time in the North American championships.

Our team was Bengt, Marie, Alan, Bob, Jerry, Jon, and Kelly.

http://www.j30.us/na2008/

We won the regatta (and therefore the NA Champs) with  [7], 1, 7, 5, 5, 1 and had some great sailing in everything from straightforward boat-for-boat dueling to intense ultra-light-air crapshoots.

We also won the best overall “all amateur crew” finish trophy, which seems a little redundant.

As usual, I was inspired by the skill and focus of the FW team. Both Bob (as tactician) and Bengt (as driver) were really impressive. Of course, Kelly took the “summer of love” prize by stacking the NA Champs on top of winning the 2008 Newport-Bermuda as navigator.

It was interesting how much more the East Coast 1D competitors sail the fleet, as opposed to just the course. In SF Bay, everything seems to be about currents, local knowledge, currents, wind, and currents.

Bristol YC

Light-air postponement

Bengt and Marie

Upwind competition
(credit:  Spectrum Photo)

Downwind competition
(credit:  Spectrum Photo)

Thanks guys, see you next year.

Paul from the Olson 911 “Plus Sixteen”, who was a huge help in our TransPac Campaign (giving us a #4 jib, as well as a ton of helpful advice) is racing in the double-handed division of the Pacific Cup.

Plus Sixteen Blog

Best of luck, Paul. Stay safe, stay sane.

Update: Paul and Tony have taken 2nd in the double-handed catagory. Congrats!

Day after our Angel Island boat camping trip. Went on a practice sail (around the bay, out the gate, halfway to Bonita, back down to Pt. Blunt) on Charlie, Eben, and John’s 911 “Elusive” with Don, the sailmaker from Quantum. Lot’s of interesting feedback on manuevers and sail trim.

Happened to be in Southern California for business, so I arranged to go down to Long Beach and pick up HKE up at AG and Gary’s after the LA Film Festival. Didn’t feel like hitting the George Michael concert with the rest of the Birthday celebrators, so I had a beer, a quick nap, then wandered down to Rainbow Harbor to visit my TP stomping grounds, almost exactly 1 year later.

Weird, weird. I only spent a week of my life here, but it popped back like a bright, coppery memory from college. If that makes any sense.

Didn’t see anyone I recognized. Didn’t stay for a drink.

A full day of SF sailing. Wore shorts from dock to dock, which was slightly bizaare in late June here.

Raced the YRA southbay race with the Brothers Marsh and Todd on Elusive. Pretty sure we got 4th, even though we were short-handed and about 0/8 in the smooth rounding department. Had a good start and a nice first two legs, anyways.

After the race, we ducked into Treasure Island and caught some of the “Summer Sailstice“. One thing is for sure: There is a lot of sailing (and sailors) in the bay area who are part of a completely different scene than St. Francis after j/fest. Ran into Phillip and Nicole from the j/105 Racer X and kept the vibe alive by riding the KLR up to Bolinas to watch some bluegrass at Smileys.