Corinthian!

The annual Corinthian race is the 2nd big race of the Singlehanded Sailing Society in the SF Bay. It is almost the same distance as the Three Bridge Fiasco (18mls vs. 22mls), but has a prescribed course zigzagging across the Bay (and avoiding the wind holes behind TI and around Red Rock!). At least that ensures that you're not constantly fighting the current but can also enjoy some down current speeds in between! Start is off the beautiful Corinthian yacht club house in Belvedere, across the Bay from San Francisco. There are 4 divisions (multihull, non-spi, spi, sportboats), with sub divisions for PHRF rating, double-handed and single-handed crews. We started in the Doublehanded PHRF 162 and above division. Constance rates at the top of that group with a PHRF rating of 165. On the East Coast I had 186, but of course the West Coast usually has stronger winds which favor our boat.

Corinthian YC in Belvedere

The day started early for us, leaving Coyote Pt marina at 6:30a, motoring against a growing  flood tide to be at the starting line in time. Just the day before was New Moon (solar eclipse in Europe!) and the tide currents were predicted to be monstrous. Which made me a little concerned, given that this time of the year the winds tend to be fickle! With more than 100 boats signed up for the race it was pretty crowded in the starting area. Also, the location in the Raccoon channel is very tricky, with big currents and shifty winds. Our original start was scheduled for 11:15a, coincidentally the time of max flood within the channel. Sure enough, the inflatable mark for the starting line drifted off so the start got postponed by 15min. Fine with me, as there was little wind and it seemed to be slowly building.

We got off to a great start, just off the club house outside the main channel, so I was trucking with the center board up all the way into Belvedere cove. At depth of 6ft this is a no go zone for all the deep draft boats! The trick is not to get becalmed in the cove, so you have to find a compromise between enough wind to keep moving and staying out of the channel to prevent getting swept backwards by the current. We finally cleared the headland ahead of plenty of larger boats from the previous starter group that had to stay in the channel. I plopped the CB down and off we went skirting the channel edge over to Richardson Bay.

All telltales flying, slightly off the wind, that's how the T34C likes it!

We stayed maybe a little too long on the Sausalito side, almost everybody else had already tacked over and was slowly disappearing towards Alcatraz on the way to the next mark at Blossom Rock. But at least that gave us some safety margin against being swept past the mark by the flood tide. In the end we could even set the gennaker to reach the mark!

Rounding Blossom Rock. © 2015 norcalsailing.com

After rounding Blossom Rock the next mark was Blackaller close to the Golden Gate all the way up against the current. We had to short tack along the waterfront, that actually went pretty well and we were able to pass a couple of boats. Counted 19 tacks on this leg! While being busy with tacking I had totally missed that the gennaker was set up for the wrong side. Took me a while to clear out the lines and meanwhile we got passed by everybody who had planned better and had the Spi running earlier. Bummer!

Unfortunately, the next mark off Southampton shoals, all the way across the bay behind Angel Island, was almost exactly dead down wind. That works pretty well with the symmetric spi, but the gennaker really doesn't go below 150deg wind angle, so we had to gybe a couple of times. Lost some more time with our abysmal 50% gybing success rate :) But in the end we kind of figured it out, so I have high hopes for the next race! I'm still learning the optimum angles, I believe I have to keep a gybing angle of about 75-80deg to get the best VMG.

The next mark rounding was again abysmal, the jib sheets had themselves tangled with the spinnaker halyard which I had uncautiously spread around the foredeck (was concentrating on packing the spi so we wouldn't lose it!). That took us another couple of minutes to figure out, but soon enough we were back under way going at great speed towards our next mark, Little Harding Rock. By now the wind had increased to 20kn so we also needed to tuck in a reef. Also, the current had switched and we were racing at 8kn over ground!

Towards the finish. Constance on the inside. © 2015 norcalsailing.com

Rounding the last mark before the dash to the finish, we discussed if we should just keep the gennaker down and sail with the jib & main for the remainder of the race. In 20+kn it seemed a bit risky to put it back up, but then I saw how everybody seemed to slow down in Raccoon channel. By now both of us were super exhausted. Since we didn't have anything to eat the whole day except some cookies I was running really low on fuel. On top of that, I was getting cramps in my hands, so it was quite an ordeal to get the spi back up. Anyways, we got it up and reeled in a pack of 20+ boats parked in the ebb current just a few 100m before the finish line. I had this genius plan to scoot into Belvedere cove out of the current and pass all these boats on the inside. Great plan with one flaw: there was really no wind inside the cove. Or rather it came from all sides. So back and forth I was gybing the spi to get the speed going. Meanwhile I was so exhausted that I couldn't even make a fist any more, so in the end I was merely clawing at the cloth to bring it over to the other side. Very pathetic, but in the end we finished! Due to all the mistakes we made, we didn't make it to the top of our group, a hapless #4 with 9min behind the leader. Still not too bad! Overall 40 out of 56 in the double handed monohull division. I'm glad we finished and didn't come in dead last!  

Race recap on jibeset!

The best crew of all!

Gennaker!

I can't believe what a difference the new gennaker makes. Setting up is much easier as you don't have to worry about the pole, same with setting and dowsing. Since the area is somewhat smaller (750sqft vs 880 sqft on the big symmetric spi) it stays easier to handle even in big puffs. It also helps that the main projected area is lower compared to the symmetric spi. The boat doesn't go into a death roll downwind, but I still get down to 135deg apparent, and up to about 60deg apparent wind angle. What I haven't figured out completely is gybing, that still has a success rate <50% meaning I end up with a twist or some stuck lines most of the time. Also, not closing the halyard shackle results in the spi come crashing down and the halyard zipping up :-( and me later on climbing the mast to retrieve it back..