If Ants is riding in the Delta tell him to motor over to Oxbow. Or we can meet at Mei Wah in Isleton.
If Ants is riding in the Delta tell him to motor over to Oxbow. Or we can meet at Mei Wah in Isleton.
Icky weather out there, finding work tedious ... I know! Let's look through all those old videos on the little camcorder. Here's one from summer 2019: https://vimeo.com/521656457
Seeking swag for the 2021 SHTP, I drove over to Alameda. First I went to West Marine and considered the following jackets: West Marine Third Reef, Helly Hansen midlayer and Gill. I considered driving over to Pineapple sails but when I called ahead Amy told me that they don’t carry Musto anymore, so I don't know if that brand is still in the running.
Then I went over to the UK Loft where Sylvain Barrielle was his usual charming self. Sylvain has been good to the Singlehanded Sailing Society. A sponsor of our race since 2016, he has ordered for us the sailbags that we hand out to our racers before they sail under the gate and over the rainbow. Here’s a photo of the bag from 2018.
Pretty cool, huh? Sylvain is ordering more for this year’s race. It’s not too late to sign up if you want one.
I was also looking forward to seeing Dominic Marchal and his doggies, but the doggies have already flown the loft to Long Beach! Gone. Gone, along with Dom's wife. And Dom will follow them all down south April 1. Did you already read this in Latitude? Well, I missed it.
But, wait! Who is this sweet young thing at the mammoth sewing machine?
It is Siena Woodyard, sailmaker in training. Siena moved to the bay area in October 2020. I asked Siena what she brings to the UK Loft, and she didn’t miss a beat: “enthusiasm, a fresh perspective and optimism”. She also knows how to sew.
Well, I didn't see anything, but I listened to Ben Shaw's Out the Gate podcast, the one where he interviewed Joe Balderrama, our Commodore. What is a podcast? I had no idea. So I went looking and found it on my iphone. Yup. It's in there somewhere and now I can follow the Out the Gate offerings. That was fun. You can do it, too. Joe was incredibly articulate about singlehanded sailing, the Club and sailing offshore. Go for it.
His interview of Jim Quanci was good too!
I mentioned to an E Dock sailing friend (another David) - that our next race takes us around the Sisters.
"Really? I'm surprised," said he.
Seems he gives the Sisters a wide berth because his understanding is that they're surrounded by mud.
Oh, dear.
So Mr Hedgehog and I decided to test the race. By the time Dura Mater and I exited Potrero Reach he and his boat were almost under the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. He's that fast. We're that slow.
Hedgehog the boat with her spinnaker up, and Dura Mater with her drifter and mainsail wing on wing sailed up to the Sisters in the south wind. This is what they look like.
They are off a quarry along the Marin shoreline, and six huge mooring balls surround them, meant for the barges that can be seen coming and going throughout the bay.
Except for a bit of 13' depth, everything was copacetic: 20+ feet deep and deeper still between the Sisters and land. So there you go. As Race Chair Tom Boussie noted, a bit of reconnaissance for you all.
Last edited by Philpott; 04-11-2021 at 08:33 PM.
Thank you Jackie and David for the recon. Before writing course to paper, I called the Tiburon Yacht club that still uses Sister's for a rounding. Many years ago, they hosted the Express 27 Nationals and I recalled this scenic rounding. Any faults for the SIs are on me as I drafted them with energetic input from my a few Richmond SSS sailors and my brain. One important thing was to have the slowest boats start early.
Tom is still in the driver's seat and I just wanted to take advantage of the energy of our enthusiastic sailors, so I decided to take a crack at drafting the SI and at the same time give Tom (and Jim our Race Officer) a breather. I have handed it back to Tom our Race Chair.
Last edited by Submarino; 04-13-2021 at 09:29 AM.