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Thread: 2020 Three Bridge Fiasco

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    3,485

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    Dura Mater and I enjoyed our day together. And it was a long day. Once again we were on the wrong side of the start line at our start time. My fault, not hers.

    Our only hope was to raise the spinnaker. I wasn't sure that was allowed, and there were a lot of boats up there already, but what could go wrong, right? So up it went, and then I realized that I would need to gybe in order to avoid the pin. Forget about all those other boats. So I did. Good thing there wasn't a lot of wind.

    Then we were fine, and already pointed toward Blackaller, so off we went. We met up with quite a few other boats over there, but civility won the day and we all circled to port and starboard without smacking into each other.

    After that it was a slow slog toward Red Rock, in the hope that we could make it up there before the flood pushed us back. Alas, we couldn’t. Instead, the north bay looked like this, which created a Zen state of mind:

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    But what was this? Woo hoo! I forgot! That’s where your berth is, DM! And so there we went. And it was all good.
    Last edited by Philpott; 01-26-2020 at 09:58 PM.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    43

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    A few pictures of the finish area are on Flickr.link


    16:33 hr Antrim 27 IO first monohull to finish

    IMG_3168_DxO


    16:34 hr Extreme 40 ShadowX first multihull to finish

    IMG_3187_DxO_4500


    Open 8.5 m Mama Tried

    IMG_3215_DxO



    Marstrom Seacart 30 Hammer


    IMG_3241_DxO


    Sabre 36 Serenade

    IMG_3271_DxO_4500



    J70 Kangroo Jockey

    IMG_3292_DxO_4500



    The start area pictures will trail.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    43

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    Express 27 Bombora, a happy skipper

    IMG_3318_DxO

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,688

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    I can't match Philpott's beautiful sky and water shot or the sharp, professional images from Slackwater, but here are a few.

    Can of Whoopass was one of the first starters and had nice breeze heading east towards YBI. I would see him later, leading the fleet up to Red Rock:

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    Surprise! also got a good start and headed for YBI. Racing full-on in the fog was dicey (Hi George!) but we did well until everything stopped south of the Bay Bridge. Then it was "Hound of the Baskervilles" time, with boats drifting eerily in and out of the dense fog:

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    The Wabbits are a cwazy bunch, if for no other reason than their boat names. The only finisher in their fleet was Bad Hare Day. Other Wabbits wacing were Kwazy, Wasta, Keala, Covfefe and Furrari, who looks like she could use a visit to the speed shop:

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    Last edited by BobJ; 01-26-2020 at 09:35 PM.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,688

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    The dreaded (and restricted) USCG terminal was dutifully absent of sailboats. I just missed the corner of the restricted area (yes, I checked my GPS track) but as the current shifted from flood to ebb, I began to get swept towards the bridge abutment at YBI. I thought I might clear it but finally had to start the engine. I would learn later that all the other singlehanders also withdrew, except for Truls on the F27 Raven. I'm not surprised - sailing in light air and poor visibility takes a lot out of you, especially when you know there are 300+ other sailboats out there in the fog.

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    In company with the lovely Wylie 33 Constellation, I motored up the Bay. Before long I came upon Sleddog and Kim Desenberg, sailing Checkered Past... another boat name with a story? Kim built many (all?) of the Wabbits mentioned above, when he owned North Coast Yachts in Alameda.

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    I have several more photos of boats racing in the fog but if you were out there, you already know what that looks like!
    .
    Last edited by BobJ; 01-26-2020 at 09:57 PM.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    609

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    Excellent day on the water, especially for the new all carbon A27. That new build seems to have a slight increase in mainsail area over the standard A27.

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  7. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    224

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    We saw Jim and Buzz sailing the boat on Friday before the Fiasco. Great first finish for a brand new boat. If Outsider didn't have the Barge Incident would she have been in the hunt?

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    54

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    Taz and FUGU, both single-handers, stuck it out till the bitter end after a southerly filled in around 4:15 PM and allowed the two of us and about 10 other folks still anchored near the Richmond Long Wharf to start sailing again! 2 hour 45 minutes, until the cut-off, should be enough time, right? Almost. Crossed the finish line at 7:02 PM, no applause, no horn, and soon, no visibility!!

    Great Day!!! Thanks RC for your great work this year! From my perspective it seemed to be the smoothest run TBF in a while!!

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Berkeley
    Posts
    112

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    We had a great day on Circe. Had a nice sail to YB Island. But then just could not get around the tip. We even tried to go south to avoid the “hole”. But the wind just died and we drifted north on the tide. Great day! Good to else everyone out there.

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Fremont, CA
    Posts
    157

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    Posted to BAMA list originally. Is everyone wearing “adequate personal flotation” in the photos above?

    “ Congratulations Truls! A great accomplishment.


    Chis and I initially thought to go clockwise. We arrived at the starting area almost an hour early. It did look like, as we were motoring out, that first starters going CCW toward Yerba Buena were well powered and had a sailing breeze. We motored most of the way up to Blackaller, and it looked very light, both close to shore and close to blackaller.


    As we came back to the starting area, many similar boats were setting up west of the line, presumably for a start toward Yerba Buena, and we decided to do the same.


    It does seem like, in retrospect, Red Rock first was the winning hand, although I will be curious to hear what the experience was of those who went to Blackaller first.


    The southerly was decreasing as we started and sailed to Yerba Buena. The ebb was coming on, as well, a little earlier than expected, I believe. We were probably one of the last boats to make it under the Bay Bridge. Many of the earlier monohulls had gotten around before us, and they were in very light wind north of the eastern span. The monohulls near us when we got to the bay bridge were not making good progress.


    Although we had a non-ideal start, light wind, low boat speed, a couple minutes late, we were able to substantially close the gap with Roshambo and Khimera. They were using mostly screecher upwind, and we were using the jib.


    Once we got around Yerba Buena, the wind was so light, and we were gradually headed on port tack gradually being turned toward the estuary. It made sense we should be able to tack onto starboard, set screecher, and reach up toward the eastern span.


    We were in for a long day, but we were close to some of the boats similar to ours with great prospects to pass dozens of boats on the trip to Red Rock. Just a few minutes later, we found out it was not a long day after all.


    With the motion of the tack, setting the screecher, down with the jib, we lost all boat speed and drifted too close to the black coast guard buoy tender moored at the southeast corner of Yerba Buena.


    This circumstance required a relatively quick decision to start the motor and move away, we turned on the radio, called 72, and withdrew. The radio traffic on channel 72 with boats calling to withdraw was impressive.


    Close to the estuary, we motored in, put the boat away.‘

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