Hi Tuna skippers,
Byte Size sailed the Great Vallejo race last weekend and we had a blast!
The start consisted of bobbing around with 172 other boats, waiting for the
start that was postponed twice due to lack of wind. On Saturday the slowest
boats start last and our start was postponed for almost 2 hours, so I was
convinced we were never going to make it all the way to Vallejo against the
ebb. But the westerly started filling in around 12:30 and by the time we
started (after 1 pm) things were looking great. The wind had shifted since
the beginning of the starts around 11 am, and we could lay the upwind mark
in one tack. We rounded after the Cal 20 “Can of Whoopass” but managed to
pass them right after the rounding. The leg to the Richmond Bridge against
the ebb was tricky, with a close haul on a nasty steep chop. I had the
feeling we weren’t going fast at all, but we kept up with an Express 27, so
obviously we weren’t doing so bad. At Southampton we got a 30° lift and we
decided to stay high and beeline it to the Richmond Bridge. A lot of boats
stayed low, trying to find some current relieve closer to Richmond, but our
speed was very good when compared to the bigger boats, so we happily
chugged along
with our competition down from us.
At Richmond Bridge we had passed a whole bunch of boats that had started
earlier in light winds. We stayed close to the shore to find some current
relief and hugged the old wharfs on Pt San Pablo in about 17 kn of breeze.
After we rounded Pt San Pablo we started looking longingly at our windex to
see if the wind angle was good enough to set the spinnaker, but
unfortunately, it was just foreward of beam reach. After about 10 minutes
we saw the two Cal 20’s the "Can” and “Green Dragon” rounding Pt San Pablo
and setting the kite. The wind had shifted a couple of degrees aft, so we
decided: “Let’s give the spinnaker a try!” More boats around us had the
same idea and for a while everyone looked great with their colorful kites
up. Then, the wind increased and boats started rounding up left and right.
There quite some mayhem around us, with flapping kites and boats on one
ear, and we had some small round-ups, too. The boats around us quickly
doused their spinnakers, but we kept going in what was now ~20 kn with
gusts of 25 and a steep ebb chop. I figured out quickly to steer down a
wave before it hit us and Thijs and Claire dialed the spinnaker trim, so no
more roundups. It was the most amazing sailing we’ve done on Byte Size and
we just kept surfing the waves. We hit a couple of waves off the wake of a
Laser 28, which was just epic! It reminded me of steering a Laser down
waves in big wind. The batteries in our GPS gave out, but I’m estimating we
hit some 12-14 kn over the water when surfing those waves. Byte Size
handled like a charm and I’m now even more impressed by her design. As Tom
Montoya always says: “Santana’s are sweethearts!”
In the Carquinez Strait we were sailing down wind and working down to avoid
a jibe. We doused the spinnaker just before turning into the Mare Island
Strait. You can’t win the Great Vallejo Race in the Mare Island Strait, but
you can certainly lose it with the windholes and current. We managed to
keep it together and finished after sailing 4 hrs, 7 mins, 55 secs, with
just a single tack! Now the wait was for the competition, because the “Can”
is always tricky to beat. When we saw them come into the VYC marina about
half an hour after us we knew we had a pretty good shot and the results
confirmed a first place, beating the “Can” by 8 minutes. And we had the
fastest corrected mono hull time of all boats! Everyone was all smiles
after the awesome sailing. Unfortunately, the other Santana 22 “Sail la
Vie” didn’t make the time limit and “Green Dragon” broke their rudder and
limped in under white sails and steering with the outboard prop.
My memories of the celebrations are happy and foggy, and the three of us
passed out on the comfy cushions of Byte Size (Thijs had to go back to fly
out early Sun morning). The next morning was painful and foggy, but after a
slow start (40 secs late on the line, yikes) we sailed a decent race back
in shifty conditions to earn a 2nd place, 2 mins after the “Can”, that was
single handed by Richard. Congratulations Richard!
Thanks to the RC for postponing the races until the wind filled in (which
certainly helped us!) and the Byte Size crew of Claire, Thijs, and Ramon
for an amazing weekend. And thanks to Gary Mull for designing such an
awesome boat!
Check out Norcalsailing.com for their report and some great pictures of
Byte Size.
Anna Alderkamp
"Byte Size" #801
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