sounds like it's pretty fun out on the bay! glad to see this boat doing well.
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roguetoaster we're waiting for your contribution here...
Simon
Current Cars:
-1966 Lotus Elan
-1986 German Car
-2006 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
Make R3V Great Again -2020Comment
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So am I. I bought, or should I say, signed the contract, for a 35' slip near me.roguetoaster we're waiting for your contribution here...
Have missed out on multiple boats that would suit, and am still looking.
Still have two smaller power boats, one with twin engines.
Also waiting for your boat pics, homie.Comment
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Last month we did the Belvedere Classic, put on by the San Francisco Yacht Club. Its a classics race, and we had 4 Birds show up, one of which I've never seen off the dock, let alone under sail. The start was the worst organized start I've ever seen. We had two groups in the race, the fast, big boats, and the small boats. The sailing instructions stated, the second race will be a rolling start after the first start at 12:20. Okay, so, is that a 1 minute after, 5 minutes? How big is the gap between starts? (There was no clarification on this before the race.) So, the first race starts, and I'm guessing that it will be a 5 minute spacing between starts. We are covering Cuckoo (the fastest boat in the Bird fleet.) and about 2 minutes in, a gun goes off. Was that the 1 minute gun? No, it can't be as we are 3 minutes out... Cuckoo and Oriole are close to the line, we peeled off as we had what was thought to be 3 minutes to go... Bang, another gun goes off with two minutes still on the clock... Cuckoo, Oriole and a few other boats that were close to the line head off to the first mark. We are two minutes from the line still... Perfect. We started 2 minutes late. The rest of the fleet crosses the start and heads off toward the first mark. Kittiwake was a little ahead of us, I chose to try and take the route that Oriole had taken, and as usual it backfired on me. We went backward further. Kittiwake rounded the first mark well ahead of us probably 2 minutes ahead, with Oriole 4 minutes up on them, and Cuckoo another minute ahead of Oriole. I was less than happy about it. We hit the downwind stretch that spanned from Ft Baker all the way down to a buoy between SF and Treasure Island. We had Hummingbird going well, and we were making up ground on Kittiwake. By the time we reached Blossom Rock (the second mark) we had caught Kittiwake and overtook them rounding the mark. The next leg was a reach up to channel marker "R4" that sits in the middle of the slot about a mile east of Angel Island. We were chewing into Oriole and Cuckoo's lead quickly. They sailed a strange line, we straight shot to R4. At R4 we were about 6 minutes behind Oriole and Cuckoo, and close enough to see where they were going. This leg of the race was interesting as it took us back south around the bottom of Alcatraz, and then west to the last mark. Now, getting around Alcatraz can be easier said than done, especially on a flood tide, however we were on an ebb. The big boats rounded R4 and pointed back down to SF, the Birds however went due west to Pt Blunt, the southern tip of Angel Island before turning south (riding the ebb west before turning south. Game on.. We pointed west pointed very high into the wind and essentially put the boat on her side. We bucked our way through the building chop bringing the gap to Oriole down the whole time. Kittiwake decided to give up and go home, we weren't sure if they had a problem or what the story was. All we knew is that they left the course and went somewhere else. (There was a worry that they had a serious issue and ran for somewhere shallow. This wasn't the case however. They simply didn't want to finish last.) We got out to Pt Blunt and turned south. We had made up another 30 or so seconds. The tight reach to Alcatraz was a wet ride, but Hummingbird was flying. At this point the Birds had caught the fleet of big boats at Alcatraz, (showing they made a mistake by pointing south to SF rather than west to Pt Blunt like we did.) We passed Alcatraz very close, and tacked north as soon as I thought we could clear the Alcatraz bell buoy on the west side of the island. (There are rocks between it and Alcatraz so you don't want to try and sail through there.) We were now dicing with a "Yankee one Design" one of two on the bay that on paper should have been faster. We overtook them, but couldn't put them away and eventually they got back in front of us. We were chasing hard, but at the final mark Cuckoo and Oriole still had a good lead on us. At the finish, we were about 5 minutes behind Cuckoo, who won outright on corrected time. We ended up 4th. Had we not had the horrible start we had, it would have been a close race between the 3 Birds. We sailed the boat well, and didn't make any serious mistakes, aside from the start, that was more bad luck than a mistake.
Here is the video. https://youtu.be/6t-kU4p8aVw
In two weeks we have the last to YRA races, then Oct has the last races of the season, two classics races and one pursuit race. It should be interesting. I think I finally have Hummingbird dialed in and now its all about tactics (or the lack thereof.)
Will'59 Alfa Romeo 101.02 Giulietta Sprint
'69 Alfa Romeo 105.51 1750 GTV (R.I.P)
'69 Datsun 2000 roadster Vintage race car
'88 BMW M3Comment
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