| We participated in the Three Bridge Fiasco Race! This is a annual short handed race in the SF Bay, the goal is to pass 3 marks. One is next to the Golden Gate ("Blackaller"), the Red Rock Island next to Richmond Bridge is #2, and Treasure Island next to the Berkeley Bay Bridge is #3. So you really pass only underneath one bridge, the Bay Bridge. It's called "Fiasco" since you can pick any sequence and direction. That also holds for the start/finish line. So it's very confusing at the start with boats going all directions. The other thing which makes it interesting is that every boat gets a unique starting time based on rating. Slow boats go first, and the starting time is such that theoretically all boats should end up at the finish line at the same time. |
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| Constance under way (blue/white spi) |
We spend the night before anchored at Aquatic Cove, which is only a short distance from the start line at the SF Yacht Club. Forecast was for 10-15kn from the West, one model had higher gusts in the late afternoon. Our goal was really to finish, for that we needed to be at the finish before 7pm. The other thing to consider when picking the course is the tidal current, which is enormous around here. So the start was at the tail end of the flood, so I decided to go upwind/upcurrent first to the Blackaller buoy and then head clockwise for RR, then TI, then finish. We got a good start and were able to catch some slower boats in front of us. After rounding the mark, there were 2 options: Going through Raccoon strait (between Tiburon and Angel Island), or go around the southern end of Angel Island. I looked into Raccoon and it was total glass with no winds whatsoever. Getting stuck in there when the tide turns around is quite a disaster, so we opted for going around Angel Island.
But first the spi had to go up! That was somewhat of an issue as I got too excited and managed to totally mess up the hoist with the sheet pulled into the jib furler, the sock wrapped around the pulpit, a huge disaster on the foredeck. Took me 30min to sort it out while we were passed by a couple of boats. Once we got it up we went nicely down the Bay, but then all of a sudden the wind died and everybody just stopped, drifting slowly with the tide. We were parked there for 45min, while everybody who opted for Raccoon caught a nice breeze and went off never to be seen again. That was quite ironic. We eventually started moving again and rounded Red Rock around noon, seeing the whole fleet already sailing towards Treasure Island.
After the Red Rock it was downwind reaching, but it started to gust in the 15-20kn range so first we didn't put the spi back up, having enough speed and angle with the main and jib. Eventually the wind calmed down and I put the spi up again. That unfortunately didn't last long and we saw boats wiping out in front of us. Scary! So down with the spi in a hurry and not too late, thankfully. Next thing was a huge gust of 25-30kn that hit us square but we were able to ride it down. Once behind Treasure Island you could see boats rounding up, and struggling very badly to get upwind. So we tucked in a reef quickly and sure enough, once back in the full breeze the wind was howling with sustained 20kn and big puffs in between. Also you could hear people retiring from the race via radio. Meanwhile the ebb tide was running full speed and with the wind going in the opposite direction the sea build up quite impressively. But the Tartan 34C is just fine for these conditions and it took us under reefed main and jib just another half hour to get to the finish.
Finished at 3pm, way ahead of my initial expectations! But also unfortunately last in our fleet as everybody else who was out there withdrew from the race apparently.. So out of 40 boats that started in our fleet we got position #31, 9 boats didn't finish. Overall only 6 boats from the whole fleet (365 boats) finished after us, and about 90 boats retired early. So I guess that's a statement for the hardiness of the Tartan34C! After the race we still had to go another 15miles back home, with the winds still all the way up. We were safely home at 6p. What a day! A total of 44miles sailed, nothing broke, but totally sore! And next time I will give the Raccoon strait a better consideration :-)
Race report from Norcal here
Race results from Jibeset here
