August 20, 2013

Pat Broderick reports from the Wyliecat 30 Nancy on Saturday's SSS Half Moon Bay Race:

Ross Bliven and I sailed Saturday's Singlehanded Sailing Society's Half Moon Bay Race. This is a 24-mile race from San Francisco down the coast to Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay – with a jaunt around the Colorado Reef Buoy tossed in.

We started at Little Harding Rock, between Sausalito and Angel Island, at 10:20 in light wind, facing a building flood current. Our first task was to tack our way west to the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and then dodge in and out of the inlets along the Marin Headlands. At Pt. Diablo, we jumped off for the south side of the Golden Gate since our destination was Pillar Point, 24 miles south of San Francisco.

Once on the south side, we continued tacking out into the ocean inside Mile Rock and then past the Cliff House Restaurant. We continued a southwesterly course, facing a very unusual wind condition for boats sailing south. The wind was coming from the southwest, so instead of a run with colorful spinnakers, it was a close-hauled beat with numerous tacks as we attempted to make way against wind coming from the very direction we had to sail.

We stayed with the leaders, passing slower boats and maintaining a lead over most of our competitors for 18 miles down to the Colorado Reef Buoy, which is named for the Pacific Mail Steamship that wrecked on the reef in the 1860s. The wind began to clock around to a more westerly direction, so our competitors began to set their spinnakers. A Wyliecat has only one sail, and no spinnaker, so they began to gain.

Ross got a crick in his neck watching the tell-tales. ©2013 Pat Broderick

We turned in toward the entrance to Pillar Point Harbor at the north end of Half Moon Bay, with one competitor ahead and another close behind. Sailors will recognize that sailing a Wyliecat meant we could sail deeper toward the finish line than our competitors with spinnakers up. This allowed us to sail a shorter distance and get to the finish ahead of all the boats in our division.

At the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club Aawards dinner, we discovered that, although we finished ahead of the other boats, one managed to beat us when the handicap calculations were done. So, we settled for second place – and we were happy with that. We beat several other long-time competitors, boats that often beat Nancy in these races. After 4 hours and 50 minutes of racing, the winning boat beat us by about 1 minute and 30 seconds. The icing on the cake was that out of 55 boats competing in the race, we placed third overall.

Pat (left) and Ross were pleased with their red pennants. ©2013 Pat Broderick

We ate chicken at HMBYC, enjoyed great company, picked up our red pennants, and then spent the night sleeping on the boat. Sunday morning we awoke to the engine noises from the very large commercial fishing boat we shared a double slip with and soon discovered that Nancy was covered with particles of black soot from its exhaust stacks, but what could we say? After breakfast at the Ketch Joann restaurant, we headed out to the entrance and began our journey back to Sausalito with the Colorado Reef Buoy as our first mark on the sail.

Ross says goodbye to the Colorado Reef Buoy on the way back to Sausalito on Sunday. ©2013 Pat Broderick

After motorsailing for about an hour, a nice southerly wind came up and we enjoyed a wonderful run back up the coast, staying about 5 miles off the shoreline until we turned in at the Golden Gate. It was overcast and foggy most of the way, but the seas were flat and the wind pushed us along at about 7 knots, so we were happy sailors. We were even happier when we pulled into the berth at Clipper Yacht Harbor and got Nancy tied up.

The Golden Gate Bridge is there somewhere. ©2013 Pat Broderick

Then the "real" fun began. We spent an hour scrubbing black soot off the decks and cabin. But it was warm and sunny, and we knew we'd spent a rare weekend sailing to and from Half Moon Bay. We proudly wore our SSS 2013 Half Moon Bay caps as we hauled two carts loaded with sleeping bags, duffle bags, and the cooler up to the car.

– Pat Broderick, Nancy, Wyliecat 30

See our previous 2013 SSS Half Moon Bay Race report here.