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Philpott
01-01-2011, 11:28 PM
What does this mean, please? "Buoy marking Anita Rock - leave to south". Just when I was feeling confident because I understood what "Course #54=EP, BYC-P, C-P" means!

jfoster
01-02-2011, 10:57 AM
What does this mean, please? "Buoy marking Anita Rock - leave to south". Just when I was feeling confident because I understood what "Course #54=EP, BYC-P, C-P" means!

This is one of the instructions in the
Singlehanded Sailing Society
2011 Notice of Race and
Standing Sailing Instructions

http://www.sfbaysss.org/2011/PDF/ssi11.pdf

14. RESTRICTED AREAS
A boat that violates any of the following restrictions shall retire or face protest and disqualification.
a. A boat shall not enter any of the following areas:
i. The area within 50 yards of the starting line, before its Warning signal
ii. Any area designated by the U.S. Coast Guard as prohibited to small craft
b. Boats shall leave the following buoys or other landmarks to the specified direction at all times. A boat violating this rule may not "unwind" to correct the violation; this modifies RRS 28.1.
i. H beam near St. Francis Yacht Club – leave to south
ii. Buoy marking Anita Rock – leave to south
iii. South Tower of Golden Gate Bridge – leave to south
iv. Buoy GR BELL marking Little Alcatraz Rock – leave to east
v. Point Belvedere buoy G "3" Fl G 4s – leave to north
vi. Point Blunt buoy G "3" Q G, Angel Island – leave to north
vii. Daymark Fl R 4s 15ft 4M "2" at the outer end of the Berkeley Pier – leave to east
viii. A line connecting the three buoys G "3" Fl G 4s (1/3 nm south of Richmond Long Wharf),
R "2" Q R (1/2 nm west of Richmond Long Wharf) and R "2CR" Fl R 4s (Castro Rock) – leave to east

OK, the SSS instruction is perhaps more terse than the equivalent YRA note

http://www.yra.org/ODCA/docs/SailingInstructions/ODCA_HDA_Spring1_2010_SIs.pdf

12.0 RESTRICTED AREAS
12.1 For safety reasons, lines between the following objects and the closest points ashore from them are restricted:
Anita Rock and any buoy marking same, vertical ’H’ beam off Water Quality Control Plant west of StFYC, bell
buoy 7 off the west end of Alcatraz, and Point Blunt buoy off Angel Island. . Above obstructions are not marks
of the course. The South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge must be left to the South at all times. Any rocks
visible at Mean Lower Low water immediately adjacent to Contra Costa County, Marin County or San
Francisco shorelines shall be left to shoreward, except for Mile Rock, The Brothers and Red Rock.
12.2 The above-mentioned areas and buoys are defined as obstructions. A boat that breaks this rule may not
correct her error per RRS 28.1 and shall retire.

The key is perhaps best explained by this sentence:

12.1 For safety reasons, lines between the following objects and the closest points ashore from them are restricted:

Please look at the chart between the Golden Gate Yacht Club starting line and the Golden Gate Bridge South Tower and the mystery may become clear.

John

Wylieguy
01-03-2011, 04:45 PM
The Anita Rock Buoy is owned and maintained by the Yacht Racing Association (YRA). The actual Anita Rock marker sits on top of the largest rock, but there is a ledge that extends in a northerly direction from that point. The offset buoy has existed for decades and should be familiar with everyone who sails on SF Bay.
The Anita Rock Buoy marks a "no sail" zone, just as the buoy at Pt. Blunt, the buoy at Castro Rocks, the marker at the Berkeley Pier, the South Tower, and the buoy at Little Alcatraz do. These mark danger zones with underwater hazards, and are considered an "extension" of the shoreline.
These marks do not usually show up in race course listings. They are usually listed in the Standing Instructions. Anita Rock sometimes is part of the "leave all SF (shoreline) Rocks to the south instruction.
There are a few keel boat races that do not restrict Anita Rock, but all YRA, SSS, BAMA, IYC, GGYC, and many other yacht clubs restrict it. If Anita Rock is restricted, the buoy is part of that restriction.
--- Pat Broderick, the now former YRA Chairman

Philpott
01-03-2011, 10:29 PM
So, to confirm, "South Tower of Golden Gate Bridge - leave to south" means: 1/ sail north of the South Tower; 2/ don't go south of this; or 3/ the area south of the South Tower is restricted (dangerous, off limits, verboten). Thank you, John and Pat.

Critter
01-04-2011, 11:33 AM
So, to confirm, "South Tower of Golden Gate Bridge - leave to south" means: 1/ sail north of the South Tower; 2/ don't go south of this; or 3/ the area south of the South Tower is restricted (dangerous, off limits, verboten).

Hi Jackie,

2 and 3 are pretty much correct. Hopefully in the Three Bridge you won't be sailing north of the South Tower! ;-) But yes, if you're sailing out the Gate you need to stay north of the South Tower.

Maybe it would be clearer if we wrote something like: You can't cross a line running from Anita Rock buoy southward to the shore. (That wording wouldn't work as well for the South Tower because it's so big we'd have to have two lines, one at the east end of its pier and one at the west end.)

Am I making sense yet?
Max

BobJ
01-04-2011, 12:42 PM
May I suggest you print out at least pages 6, 9 and 10, mark the restricted areas and take them along?

These take a minute to load. (http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/18649_BookletChart_HomeEd.pdf)

Wylieguy
01-04-2011, 03:39 PM
Here's a link to what is possible when you "take the S. Tower to the north." Yacht Sea was a Santana 22 whose owner crewed with me on my Tuna. He was very experienced, a good racer, and had safely navigated between Ft. Point and the S. Tower in the past, but on this day was taking a short cut back to his berth at Gas House Cove in the wrong conditions. He and his guest survived, as did the hull, although it was scrapped later.

http://photos.sfsurvey.com/sail1/imagepages/image3.asp

There are also rocks in there, as Diane Beeston's famous photo of Stormvogel sitting on one of them shows. She also has another photo of a mast sticking up out of the water between Alcatraz and "Little Alcatraz" as evidence that staying out is a good idea.

Pat B.

Philpott
01-04-2011, 03:45 PM
That is a scary photo.

Matt
01-05-2011, 09:14 AM
John Foster gave me this chartlet to post for Anita Rock. Hopefully, this helps the racers to know where it is and what to avoid.

Matt

Anita Rock Chartlet (http://sfbaysss.org/2011/PDF/Anita%20Rock%20Chartlet.pdf)

Philpott
01-05-2011, 12:05 PM
Thank you, everyone, for the clarifications. Study of the charts makes it very clear indeed why one wants to avoid those particular restricted areas. What interested me, too, was the language used: "leave to south", because I know that it will be used in other instances. The phrase seems unique to sailing. Also, restricted areas on the charts look very different from the water, especially as close to the H2o as Dura Mater sails.