We left port at about 11:30 am, raised single-reefed main and headed out into the bay where a moderate wind and a light ebb current were encountered. The flags on the end of pier 39 were blowing in a breeze of about 10 knots or so as we
We sailed main only, gradually beating westward and watching as, in the distance, the race boats in the ragatta sailed out the gate rather than rounding a windward mark and then heading downwind with colorful kites flying. That was disappointing, but we were enjoying being out there, as was this large sailboat sailing downwind and passing us to starboard.
The city was under overcast skies.
This small Ericson passed us, heading downwind.
Eventually, the skies began to clear and patches of blue were appearing.
On one of our starboard tack beats toward the shore of the city, this sailboat was bearing down on us...
...but AVANTI passed well astern of us.
We spotted PRIVATEER heading home from the weather side of Angel Island so headed that way to watch her sail down the southern shore of Alcatraz with all her canvas flying.
We were about half way to the gate when we spotted the J120 fleet out on the ocean and heading for the gate with colorful kites flying.
The California Hornblower steamed past, returing from the gate and we headed northwest to try to get closer to the J120 fleet.
The fleet looked to be fairly closely bunched as they sailed under the gate...
... but a short time later, we saw that GRACE DANCES with my friend Michael as part of the crew, was leading the second place boat, Desdemona by several boat lengths.
Here's a brief video of them blasting downwind with GRACE DANCES seemingly increasing her lead over the Desdemona:
The next three boats appear to be nearly neck and neck here, but as this short video clip shows, Mr. Magoo is about a boat length ahead of TWIST and the third boat is quite a ways behind and not visible in the video.
DAYENU, in 6th place is way behind the others.
A short time later, I spotted the J105 fleet heading for the gate, very scattered over the ocean outside the gate.
We now had a bit of a challenge to dodge all these downwind boats in the fleet, and at one point, Blackhawk was bearing down on us...
...but we were well clear of her as she passed astern of us.
Here, four boats in the fleet were blasting downwind and all within a couple of boatlengths of each other. At this point, I could not tell which J105 was the lead boat.
This cruise ship followed the J105 fleet into the bay and steamed slowly eastward, heading for its berth at pier 35.
We continued beating westward, now waiting for the J120 and J105 fleets to come upwind toward the windward mark somewhere inside the gate. Meanwhile this OCSC sailboat named FLAMINGO was crossing the bay.
Sometime later, we spotted the J120 fleet beating upwind on the now-whitecapped-waters of the bay. This brief video clip shows that Desdimona has overtaken GRACE DANCES and is a few boat lengths ahead.
GRACE DANCES tacks and heads toward us with her crew on the rail keeping the boat on an even keel.
She is a bit more heeled over here, but looking good as she blasts toward the windward mark. I kept looking for an inflatable temporary buoy as the windward mark, but didn't see any, so assumed the mark was the small Blackaller Buoy about a quarter mile inside the south tower of the gate.
Indeed, that was the windward mark and I watched as each of Desdimona and GRACE DANCES rounded that mark and set kites to blast downwind again toward the leeward mark, or to the finish line in front of the yacht club if that was the last leg of the race. Desdimona was quite a few boat lengths ahead of GRACE DANCES at this time. It turned out that there were two more legs of the race to go.
Jolly Mon was way behind all the rest of the fleet, in 7th place, and had only 5 crewpeople on board which gave them a substantial handicap in itself. Her bottom was also not very clean as you can see here.
Sometime later, the J105 fleet passed us as we slowly beat upwind toward the windward mark with our main only flying.
JAM SESSION was first around the mark and looking good as she blasted downwind.
She passed astern of us, with her crw looking very focussed.
Sometime laster, Blackhawk passed us with her crew intent on maximizing boat speed.
Wonder passed us a short time later, looking good as she blasted downwind.
Unfortunately, Jobberwocky had a terriblly tight twist in her kite as she passed and her crew was desperately trying to untwist it.
We were at the windward mark when we spotted GRACE DANCES heading for the mark for the second time, and this time definitely in the lead.
She was following the 52 footer, named MAYHEM, the first of the IRC fleet of boats to approach the mark.
MAYHEM was looking good as she approached the mark, and here is a short video clip of her doing a gybe set of her asymmetrical kite after rounding the mark.
Here in this short video clip, GRACE DANCES sets her kite and manages to pull out the twist in a hurry to begin her blast toward the finish line to take the gun in the first race of the regatta.
Her crew looks relaxed as they head for the fiinish.
We now start to see more and more of the IRC fleet of boats entering the bay, like Busting Loose and ASTRA here.
Busting Loose is blasting downwind on starboard tack here, while the 52 footer named Braveheart is in process of gybing.
This video clip shows Desdemona struggling with her spinnaker set after rounding the mark.
Chance and Mr. Magoo do much better with their kite sets as shown in this video clip.
We hung around the windward mark after all the J120 fleet passed, and eventually watched as the lead boat, JAM SESSION, approached the mark.
Mojo was approaching the mark on port tack here and would have to make another tack to round the mark.
RACER X approached the mark ahead of Mojo.
JAM SESSION was blasting toward the finish line to take the gun...
... followed by RACER X....
... and then Mojo in 3rd.
We continued watching the rest of the J105 fleet round the mark and head for the finish line and eventually spotted the distinctive golden yellow hull of Aleta as she entered the bay and blasted downwind toward the leeward mark.
Here's one of the J105 stragglers heading for the mark The photo seems to show she didn't lay the mark properly, but she actually did so it was just the camera angle, I guess.
We now headed for the gate, hoping to shoot the gate and return to the mark before more of the IRC boats approached the windward mark, and spotted our old pal ADVENTURE CAT sailing across the bay and heading toward us....
.. before tacking to head for the gate.
We gave up on shooting the gate at this time and headed back toward the windward mark when we saw some IRC boats headed that way. The first one, after MAYHEM earlier, was Soozal who is here headed for the mark on port tack.
She had to tack onto starboard tack to lay the mark....
... and did a nice spinnaker set to blast downwind toward the finish line.
ASTRA, a Farr 40 that my friend and boat neighbor Olivier used to crew on, eventually approached the mark on port tack.
After tacking onto starboard tack to round the mark, she seemed to ease out the main early and actually put the end of the boom in the water.
She was quite a ways past the mark as she finally started to set her kite.
Conversely, Scorpio was starting her kite set as she rounded the mark...
.... and was raising the kite right away...
... and then blasting toward the finish line after a textbook set! Looking good, Scorpio!
The very colorful RECIDIVIST later approached the mark on port tack also...
...then tacked onto starboard tack to lay the mark while preparing for her kite set.
Unfortunately, the mast man didn't get the kite halyard 'made' [i.e. all the way up] before the kite filled so she was not looking good as she headed for the finish.
Quite a few kiteboarders were out on the bay in the now strong winds and here two of them were racing each other across the bay.
Here, two of the IRC boats were approaching the mark....
... this Elan 40 boat first of the two to the mark....
... and also doing a poor kite set initially....
... but eventually getting the kite halyard 'made' to look good blasting toward the finish line.
Aleta's port rail was in the water as she approached the mark....
... and her pole was set and the kite ready to raise as she reached the mark.
Her kite was going up as she rounded the mark....
... but didn't get 'made' before it filled....
... and she had to backwind it to correct that...
.... before blasting toward the finish line, looking good.
Hawkeye, the boat that my friend Olivier would have been crewing on but for having to make an overseas business trip, was the last boat to round the mark, and for some reason, she was sailing jib only-- very unusual to see a race boat under jib only. Perhaps she had a main halyard failure.
Now that all the race boats were past the windward mark, we headed for the gate and sailed out against the light flood current between midspan and the north tower.. Our spectacular bridge was free of fog, but under a high marine layer.
We just sailed out a short ways and then came about and headed back inside, pulling the jib out to full for more downwind power. The marine layer was lowering over the bay as we blasted downwind with flood current assist.
Temptation, a former boat neighbor now docked at the San Francisco Marina, was sailing toward home port.
This small sailboat was heading west and motorsailing with just a bit of jib rolled out.
The east part of the city was in partial sun and shadow as we approached home port.
Pier 39 flags were fluttering in a breeze of about 15-20 knots as we sailed past.
I doused the jib while sailing past pier 35 and then came into the wind to douse the main, but the engine wouldn't start, so I had to arrange to be towed into port.-- bummer- after a lovely outing.
Thank you for taking so many good shots and sharing it! - a focused crew from Jam Session - :)
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