We sailed main only toward the Harding Rock buoy, and watched as some boats doused their spinnakers and rounded the buoy as their leeward mark. Here, HEARTS IN MOTION and AY CALIENTE are approaching the buoy and HEARTS IN MOTION already has her jib ready for heading upwind. This may be the first time that HEARTS IN MOTION has participated in the Roles BBS, at least I don't remember seeing her in other races.
Here, she is dousing her spinnaker while approaching the mark.
She, along with others like this boat, were soon beating upwind toward the windward mark as others way in the distance were heading downwind behind their colorful kites.
v
We hung around Blossom Rock in case the next group of boats were headed toward that same leeward mark, and here come a couple of the lead boats. It turned out that they were heading further down the bay and not going around Blossom Rock.
Here a group of Cal 40 race boats are also heading downwind, either toward a leeward mark or the finish line of the race. This is the first year that there has been a separate Cal 40 fleet in the BBS.
Here, two more Cal 40s are passing us, sailing downwind behind colorful kites and looking good.
Here is the crew on one of the downwind boats with good focus on their trimming tasks.
It turned out that all these downwind boats were heading for the finish line so we headed toward where we could see the committee boat and soon heard the gun for the start of another race and watched as some of the larger boats in the fleet headed our way, beating upwind, like Samba Pa Ti here....
.... with her many crewpeople sitting on the rail to keep the boat as level as possible for maximum speed.
We soon spotted other large boats approaching us, like this TP52 and another large boat in the background.
As these large boats were beating upwind, most of the other fleets were heading for the finish line of the first race, like HEARTS IN MOTION here....
... and a boat named WILSON-- also a first time boat it seems to me.
Eventually, I spotted the J105 fleet heading for the finish line with RACER X apparently in the lead by quite a few boat lengths.
While watching the J105s heading for the finish line, I also spotted oher boats in other fleets motorsailing toward the start line, like GRACE DANCES here-- the boat that my friend Michael crews on. They had an upwind finish somewhere west of Alcatraz.
Here, three J105s are bunched together as they head for the finish line-- ONE TRICK PONY, JAM SESSION and ORION.
After most of the J105 fleet had passed us, I noticed that WONDER was one of the stragglers near the back of the fleet. She is usually much more competitive than that, being near the front of the pack.
Sometime later, we heard other start guns sound and other fleets began approaching us on their upwind beat, like SOOZAL here.
Eventually, LOW SPEED CHASE was blasting toward us with most of here crew on the rail.
While some of the fleets were just starting the second race, some of the biggest boats were already heading downwind toward their leeward mark, like VINCITORE here sailing on starboard tack....
... but then gybing onto port tack and heading our way, blasting downwind.
We made sure to get out of her way, and we passed starboard to starboard.
A short time later, MAYHEM blasted past us. Look at the size of her cockpit!
Here, two more large boats were bearing down on us and we were a bit uncertain where we should go to stay out of their way, not sure if they would be gybing before they reached us as VINCITORE and MAYHEM had done.
The nearer one gybed before she reached us, and the the farther one, the TP52 here, gybed after passing us.
A short time later, we spotted VINCITORE heading upwind again and passing a couple of the J120 boats that had just started their second race a short time before.
FLASH, another of the really big boats, had also rounded the leeward mark and was heading back upwind-- looking good!
In this photo, you can see the radical size difference between some of the boats in the race, FLASH on the right having a mast over 50 percent taller than her companion. They look so beautiful, both sailing upwind and downwind.
VINCITORE sailed westward on port tack until she neared the lee side of Alcatraz and then tacked toward the shore of the city.
Here on of the longest boats in the race, VELOS is heading upwind. She is long but has a short mast so her sail area doesn't give her that much speed and smaller boats can keep up with her. She is no match for the TP52s and other large racing sleds.
She carries between 20 and 25 crewmembers, and here most of them are on the rail.
DOUBLE TROUBE here by contrast, has a crew of only about 12. I can't recall seeing this boat in a BBS race before either.
Here one of the boats in the IRC fleet is heading for the shore of the city on starboard tack and is bearing down on us... but of course we are quite far away and getting out of her way.
Soon we were being passed regularly by boat of the IRC fleet, like this one sailing westward with her starboard rail in the water even with the crew on the port rail. She is LOOKING GOOD!!
This smaller IRC boat, homeported at Lake Tahoe, is heading for the shore of the city on starboard tack and also LOOKING GOOD... Well, they all look good, so I should stop making that comment I guess.
Most of the boats in the fleets headed for Alcatraz and then tacked toward the city before continuing to beat upwind, shifting between port and starboard tacks, like the boats here.
ROUGAROU here is heading weat on port tack -- another IRC boat that I don't remember from other BBS regattas.
While we slowly beat our way toward Alcatraz, sailing main only and concentrating on watching the race boats and staying out of the way, some of the boats were now heading downwind again, like these three here.
The lead boat, TNT often wins her IRC division, as I recall, and she blasts past us with both jib and symmentrical kite flying.
Soon PHOENIX was approaching-- another boat that may have been in her first BBS regatta.
Most of her crewmembers were relaxing as she blasted downwind toward the leeward mark.
The crew of RESOLUTE all looked more focussed as she approached.
ZAMAZAAN is a boat we see in all the BBS regattas and here she is blasting downwind toward the leeward mark.
The crew of LOW SPEED CHASE all look very focussed as she approaches.
As we continued beating toward Alcatraz, I spotted the 1D35 fleet starting to pass the island on their way toward the shore of the city, like SWEET SENSATIONS here. She may have been the lead boat.
I love this photo of VELOS as she sails downwind behind her colorful kite.
A bit later, I spotted the J120 fleet heading downwind, and eventually spotted GRACE DANCES seemingly in the middle of the fleet somewhere-- but I can't be sure of her position.
Her crew seem pretty relaxed as she blasts downwind.
Mr Magoo was a number of boatlengths behind. She seems to have lost much of her previous competitive edge as she seemed to be always in front or near the front of the J120 fleet in previous year's races.
Here, ZAMAZAAN is sailing back upwind after rounding her leeward mark.
Here, a bunch of the J105 fleet is marching downwind toward the leeward mark, and looking very colorful.
ZAMAZAAN tacked before she reached Alcatraz and was heading for the city on starbard tack, her port rail submerged in part.
She seemed not to have enough crew members on the rail to keep her more balanced.
Soon we spotted more of the IRC boats headed downwind toward the leeward mark like these four here, including AY CALIENTE-- the boat with the chili peper on her kite.
We were nearing Alcatraz and watched as some of the boats in the IRC fleets sailed past the island, like VELOS here...
... with her port rail almost buried also.
She was followed by this IRC boat SWIFTSURE, among others....
... and looking good with virtually alll her crew on the starboard rail so she isn't too heeled over.
Eventually, we managed to tack our way southwest of Alcatraz so that the boats beating upwind were mostly behind with the sun shining on them for better photography, like the shot of the Cal 40 heading for the city with the beautiful SF skyline behind her.
Here that same Cal 40 is beating upwind along with a couple of boats in the J120 fleet.
This boat is nicely balanced with crew on the rail as she blasts our way...
.. and we can spot her name-- WAR PONY-- as she passes astern of us. Another boat that seems likely to be a first-timer in the BBS regatta, as far as I can recall.
I eventually spot the 1D35 fleet heading downwind, and among them, boat neighbor ZSA ZSA here, looking good as she blasts downwind. Unfortunately, she is most often at or near the back of the fleet.
Another of the IRC fleets followed the 1D35 fleet, including the boat HAWKEYE that my friend Olivier crews on.
This IRC boat passed close to us and we were in position to get this close up shot of the crew as she flashed past.
In the distance, we could now see that many of the boats had rounded the windward mark and were heading for the finish line in front of the hosting yacht club-- the St. Francis.
We continued beating out way slowly to the southwest, toward the finish line, and watching all the magnificent racing, like these two 1D35s heading upwind toward the windward mark.
I eventually spotted neighbor boat ZSA ZSA beating upwind along the cityfront...
....and passing us-- that's owner Stan in the reddish hat and holding the tiller rod.
This lovely blue-hulled race boat passed us as she blasted upwind with crew on the rail.
As we reached the finish line in front of the yacht club, the first of the 1D35 fleet boats were approaching the finish line, DIABLITO being the second of the two.
A bit later, we spotted IRC boat BODACIOUS heading upwind toward the windward mark.
Here's ZSA ZSA heading for the finish line.
A bit later, HAWKEYE.. the boat that Olivier is on... was headed our way.
Here, two of the IRC boats are nearing the finish line.
Eventually, I spotted HAWKEYE heading for the finish line-- that's Olivier in front of the mast....
... and she was now finishing the race ahead of BODACIOUS, even though she was earlier quite a few boatlengths behind her as they beat upwind.
She was also behind this last-to-finish of the IRC boats earlier. I had dinner with Olivier later that evening and he told me that both of these boats radically overshot the windward mark and so HAWKEYE was able to sneak in front of them to round the mark first.
After the last boat finished the race, we headed out toward the middle of the bay, still sailing main only, and eventually doing a chicken gybe and heading for home port on starboard tack, pulling out the jib to full for max downwind power.
The city was enjoying clear air and brilliant late afternoon sunshine as we sailed between pier 45 and pier 39-- pulling in the jib so we could sail direct downwind. I put on the bow lines as we sailed downwind to be prepared for landing as I intended to sail into the marina as far as possible to minimize use of forward gear on the
Flags on the end of pier 39 were fluttering in a breeze of about 10 knots as we sailed past the end of the pier.
We sailed into the marina with main only, and managed to sail about 1/3 of the way up the fairway before needing to put the transmission in gear to motor the rest of the way to our slip. It felt great to have spent over four hours on the bay and to have watched some great racing and all the fantastic race boats!
