Coyote Point Yacht Club

Wrong Way

The forecasted weather for Saturday was 12 knots at noon, building to the mid twenties. Friday was cold and wet. It took a gentle push from Sweet Grapes Skipper, and Tactician, Mark Green to get me to set an alarm clock to make it to CPYC in time to fight the flood and make it to the start line for Interclub Series Race 1. Boy would he live to regret that decision.

 At 9:00 AM, Saturday morning, Coyote Point was still cold but the sun was out and not a cloud in the sky. By our departure time, 30 minutes later, the marina was starting to warm and the forecasted winds had yet to appear. A leisurely motor up bay against the flood got us to the start line an hour early.  The start for Interclub racing is always at NAS-2 which is one of the buoys leading to the naval ships just south of the Oakland Estuary entrance.  But at Noon, the original start time, the winds had failed to appear so the race was postponed by 30 minutes. A gun announced the end of the postponement followed by the “A” course flag being raised. The race committee used the traditional method of setting flags to announce the course and after a quick check of the course by our tactician, he prepared us for a downwind start. Imagine his, and our, surprise when the four boats in our group crossed the line for a traditional windward start while we were pointed in the other direction and on the wrong side of the starting line. After a moment of embarrassment and some quick maneuvering we got around the committee boat and got started in the right direction. ( Not to rag too hard on “Wrong Way” Green but he was not the only CPYC skipper who got the course bass-ackwards that day! ) So after giving our competitors a minute or so lead we were off.

The race to the first mark was tedious with everyone fighting a 1+ knot current in very light winds. After an hour and 30 minutes we were approaching the first mark, placing  first over the water.  We were 100 yards from the mark when the winds died completely. A brief gust of wind provided enough momentum to get us around the mark and we prepared to raise our spinnaker for a downwind run to the bridge. Literally, at that moment the wind shifted 180 degrees. We tacked the jib, freed it from the pole lift line, the spinnaker guys, spinnaker sheet  ( are you starting to get the idea? ) and we were off. The foredeck crew actually cleared up the mess in under 30 seconds.

We were passed on the upwind leg by the Hobie 30 and several of the multihulls but managed to stay in front of most the fleet. The wind began to build and after two more legs we were hanging on for dear life being overpowered but too close to the finish to justify a sail change. We did get to see Vita Bella flying up behind us smoking the competition. We didn’t get to see much of the C-34 fleet except for a couple of close passes by Jet Lag in this up and back course.

 The results:

Group 1. Spinnaker   < 165    Sweet Grapes 2nd. on the water, 3rd corrected time of 5,

Group 2. Catalina 34               Jet Lag      1st of 12,

Group 3. Nonspinnaker <170 Vita Bella 1st of 5,

                                                     Zingara    3rd of 5.

Congratulations to Jack Verducci and Torin Knorr for 1st place finishes! We understand that Torin’s finish is being protested for the Nth time by a same member of the C-34 fleet that always give him a hassle.  All we have to say is “get a life” dude!

Sweet Grapes corrected out 1 minute 36 seconds behind the number two finisher. Hmmm, remember that start ???……   I would like to thank Mr. Green,  for allowing himself to be subjected to this public ridicule while still buying premium brew for his crew. What more can a sailor want?

Keep on sailing!

Jim Manishin, Regatta Chair

Warm and Sunny Who’ld Have Thunk?

What is it about sailboat racing that is so addictive? I really have no clue as Saturday’s club race could have been dull BUT this is Coyote Point and rarely are things all that they seem. The winds were light, the sky overcast and the weather cool. Luther and Torin were off chasing single handed dreams ( that really doesn’t sound right, does it? ) while the rest of the fleet prepared to do battle. What I meant to say is that Luther “Paradigm” our series leader, and Torin “Jet Lag” currently 3rd, were sailing in this weekends Single Handed Sailing Society race.

A new entrant emailed in his entry page prior to the race, Haro Bayandorian, of Sail La Vie, a Catalina 36 Mk II. Haro told me he has been at Coyote Point for seven years but hasn’t yet joined the yacht club. We missed him at the post race wrap up meeting, AKA, the bar, after the race but hope to see him again soon. If you see him on the docks say hello.

The day started out well with good attendance at the skippers meeting. After the traditional argument over whether the Regatta Chair has the rights to mess up everything within his area: the course, the type of race, which way to round the marks, etc ….  All valid questions but since this is not a democracy and no one else is willing to herd the CPYC cats, the Regatta Chair got his way.

What was agreed on was an 11.8 mile course out to channel marker “6″, which is across from the airport, over to the birdcage, down to “8″ and back to CP.  Three boats were in the spinnaker class: Sweet Grapes, MIST and Vita Bella. Kudos to Captain Jack for flying his chute! Three boats were in the Non-spinnaker Division: Zingara, Hot Ice and Sail La Vie.

This month’s race format was a pursuit race. Which sends the slow boats out first and theoretically ally boats finish at the same time. All boats had start times ranging from noon to 12:30 and the winds were 4-5 knots. The sun cleared, the water was flat, all the boats were moving leisurely into a flooding current as we clawed our way towards the first mark. It was agreed that if the first boat did not make the first mark by 2:00 PM the course would be shortened. We just barely made it!  Most boats took a western track hugging the shore trying to get out of the current. Sweet Grapes chased the wind line towards the east.

Personally, I thought three boats had an advantage: MIST, Hot Ice and Sweet Grapes due to the conditions. It looked like I was correct when Hot Ice, being single handed by Mike Haddock, marched past most of the field to the west and when he tacked towards the mark was easily ahead of Sweet Grapes.  At “6″,  the first mark, Hot Ice was leading the fleet by at least 20 boat lengths. Mike would have had an even bigger lead but had to “crab” to get around “6″ as the current was flowing strongly at the mark.

MIST had decided not to fly their 150 due to its decrepit condition and flew a 110 jib instead, which was not enough to power the boat in the light air, they faded to the rear of the pack. Zingara and Vita Bella, both heavy weather boats were handicapped by the light conditions and were well back at the first mark. Sail La Vie will have to mail in a report since I could not see where they were in the field.

From “6″ to the bird cage was a reach and Sweet Grapes made some ground on Hot Ice. We were right on his tail at the rounding. But Hot Ice went wing on wing rounding the mark and Sweet Grapes took our time getting our spinnaker flying ( you would never think that this was a race? Errrrrr). Hot Ice built the lead back to 15 boat lengths by the time Sweet Grapes started to pick up speed. It might have been a Hot Ice day but the wind began to build to 12-15 knots and the spinnaker boats began to move up in the fleet.

Don’t you love it when you begin to hear the water bubbling off the transom as the boats begin to pick up speed! Best part of sailing. But I digress…. -

Hot Ice got passed going downwind. Vita Bella started to close the gap on the leaders. Zingara started moving well as the conditions turned in her favor. MIST, well they do have the best looking spinnaker in the fleet BUT today was not their day.

Sweet Grapes gybed their spinnaker and main before “8″ and was set to simply harden up for the final upwind leg. The final leg from “8″ to CP is always fun as the winds build because of the transition from downwind to hard to weather is always such a shock. Sweet Grapes with a crew of six was set up for this but Mike Haddock was fighting for control as the winds built.

The first, and only, reported injury of the day occurred when the person manning the pit aboard Sweet Grapes failed to secure the spinnaker halyard to a winch before opening the clutch. Can we say rope burns anyone? Now you know why this report is taking so long to type. But heck, we were winning so I guess that makes it worth it.

The final order of finish, hopefully correct as certain skippers neither reported in nor bought beers:

Sweet Grapes, 1st spinnaker

Hot Ice, 1st non spinnaker

Vita Bella, 2nd spinnaker

Zingara, 2nd non spinnaker

Mist, 3rd spinnaker

Sail La Vie , last seen at the skipper’s meeting ……..

What started out as a cold day turned out to be a delightful, sunny, warm sail.

Thank you to Former Commodore Steve for helping to set the start line with Ex “Beer Wench”, now “Golfer” Liz. A sarcastic thank you to skipper Mark Green for pulling in the temporary mark then retrieving the boat hook which he dropped in the drink while retrieving the former.

A special thank you to Vice Commodore Chuck for taking OD duties post race while your Regatta Chair went home to crash with his grievous injuries.

For those of you who sit home on a Saturday night instead of frequenting your favorite yacht club, shame on you! Bring something to Bar-B-Que and come join the festivities. We don’t bite much and would really love to see y’all……..

Jim Manishin, Regatta Chair