race report
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 Annie Bliss rides the rail of the Hunter 40 Sir Leansalot out the Gate in Saturday's SSS Half Moon Bay Race. ©2012 norcalsailing.com |
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SSS Half Moon Bay Race August 27, 2012 If you ever wanted to do an ocean race without the hassle of too much wind, waves and long hours in the dark, and without assembling a big crew, then maybe the Singlehanded Sailing Society's Half Moon Bay Race is the ticket. It's only 24 miles from the Golden Gate to Half Moon Bay and the welcoming venue of the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club.
In most years it's a broad reach, with a short two-mile spinnaker run to the finish at Pillar Point. But during this year's race on Saturday, the fleet of singlehanders and doublehanders saw quite a bit of south to the wind, so you could have called it The Long One-Tack Beat to the finish.
Because of some conflict with the usual start line area on the Cityfront at Golden Gate YC and some other races going on there, the always-creative SSS powers-that-be found a new starting area at Horseshoe Cove on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge with the pin end of the start line a virtual GPS waypoint.
After the start the boats found good wind up of 15 to 17 knots all the way down the coast until about a mile before the finish, when the wind nearly shut down completely. Spinnakers were finally aired out for about the last half mile. Forty boats started and forty boats finished in what could be called a foggy but great day of racing. See www.sfbaysss.org for complete results.
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