September 15, 2013

Pat Broderick, sailing his Wyliecat 30 Nancy on Saturday, filed this report:

Saturday's OYRA Southern Cross Race turned out to be to the OYRA Southern Buoy “Drag Race.” Due to AC racing on the Cityfront, the start/finish line was moved to the Corinthian Yacht Club. Raccoon Strait provided its usual fluky light wind and puzzling currents. Michael Andrews was sailing with me and we decided on a pin end start, with a quick tack over to port for a tack up toward Belvedere.

We port-tacked the other shorthanded boats and headed for what we hoped would be some ebb current near Peninsula Point. We found it with enough wind to keep moving at 3 or 4 knots. It didn't look good out toward Angel Island, so we tacked up toward Sausalito's Yellow Bluff and then the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, staying in the building ebb. About halfway up, the westerly filled in and we tacked over to starboard, still aiming at the South Tower. It took about an hour to get from the start line to the bridge.

We crossed toward Fort Point and tacked onto port before the South Tower, going under the bridge about mid-span. Another tack onto starboard and the "drag race" began. It was a starboard reach all the way to the South Entrance Buoy.

With the growing ebb and increasing wind speed, things got lumpy and wet until four or five miles beyond Land's End where the water began to smooth out. What began as a close reach evolved into a beam reach about halfway out. There were no passing lanes, just boat speed with the bow pointed at the buoy. The overcast sky gradually brightened up, as did our spirits, when we looked around and saw we were sailing with the divisions that started 5 and 10 minutes ahead of us.

Two of our faster competitors who owe us time eventually passed us, but we managed to keep them in sight as the yellow South Buoy appeared on the horizon. When the racers converged on it, things got busy, with boats preparing to round while other boats were on their way back. We rounded shortly after Whirlwind – the other Wyliecat 30, which was sailing in the full crew division.

The first half of the sail back to Land's End was a close reach. There wasn't much swell and the wind speed wasn't high, but once in a while we did catch a ride. Our spinnaker competitors couldn't set, and most headed north to get a better wind angle for doing that. We continued on a course directly for Mile Rock with the close reaching slowly opening up to beam reaching and then broad reaching as chutes began to blossom to the north. The longer a Wyliecat doesn't see chutes the better!

At Mile Rock it appeared there was still ebb in the middle, so we hung to the right side, steering for Fort Point. Wind velocity increased with boat speeds around 10 knots over the bottom. Several boats that were with us as we approached Land's End stayed out in the middle, and we gained significantly on them.

After passing under the bridge near the South Tower, we began to sail for Angel Island, planning to sail up the ebb relief cone on its west side. We could look ahead and see boats sailing in light wind near the finish, as well as dozens of America's Cup spectators going home, oblivious to the fact we were racing. It got slower and slower, but we continued sailing at around 3 or 4 knots toward Raccoon Strait, trying to stay in green water.

About halfway to Angel Island a northwesterly wind began to fill in from Richardson Bay, which helped the boats north of us first until it reached us. After passing Peninsula Point, Belvedere blocked most of the northwesterly for those boats to the north close to the Point, but we were far enough out that some of it reached us and we finished before those boats. In many ways it was a typical Raccoon Strait finish after a windy day on the ocean.

We found Racer X waiting for us after the finish, but Zsa Zsa, Moonshine, and Ragtime!, the other boats contending for division honors, were behind us. We're sitting in fourth place for this year's OYRA Series, with Zsa Zsa two points ahead of us. We're anxiously awaiting the results to see if our finishing ahead of them, along with some help from several other boats in the Shorthanded Division, will boost Nancy enough to get on the podium. Results, when they are posted, will be available at www.yra.org.

Our GPS track from the Land's End to the South Entrance Buoy and back is almost a solid line, with only a few deviations. The drag race was a two-way street for Nancy this year.

– Pat Broderick, Wyliecat 30 Nancy

Update: Nancy corrected out to first overall in the Southern Cross, and third in the Shorthanded Division for the OYRA series.