Yellow Fin is a J105 that is 'in charter' at OCSC. It's a favorite of mine. Often, the Got Wind and Water gang will charter it and enjoy a romp in the wind with the kite skipping us over the waves. Such was in fact, the 117th sail of 2009.
The 'Usual Suspects', 7 of my closest friends, all of them Got Wind and Water members, chartered the boat and worked our way up wind to Red Rock before turning the corner and reaching off to the Corte Madera Channel Marker. Sailflow uses it as a continuous feed to report wind strength and direction, and we thought it would be fun to sail by. We raised the kite and blasted off towards Paradise.
Paradise cove that is.
From there we jibed our way back to Berkeley.
On that particular day we had the perfect amount of wind, even if the sea state was less than orgasmic.
On the Sunday of the BYC chowder race, for my 119th sail of the year, we didn't think we'd have much wind to make Yellow Fin go.
We got out the race sails and bent them on.
Leaving the Berkeley Marina it looked promising. We took a moment to feel out the depth of the channel behind the middle entrance in the breakwater. It turned out that we didn't learn enough. Or perhaps we just zoned out, drunk a little too much of the fun and let it go to our heads.
The race itself was wonderful. With flat water and around 14 knots of wind, finding our way from the starting line to Olympic Circle Mark 'G' was a joyful balance of beauty. Any little adjustment made for an immediate feedback from the instruments and we worked our way past the front of the fleet. Only a trimaran was ahead of us.
Setting the kite at 'G' we reached off towards the offshore end of the Berkeley Pier ruins. There we jibed on a perfect fetch to the 'D' mark, the green #3 day mark to the north of the pier.
The wind carried us past and onward towards our objective.
A shift in direction resulted in a quick douse of the chute and a close hauled fetch to the entrance. As we neared the breakwater, we passed the tri and ignored our experience.
The boat came to a sudden and complete stop as the keel buried itself in the muck. The tri worked its way between us and the breakwater. It stopped until the crew pulled up the centerboard and it continued on its way to the finish line.
It took a little more work on our part. Perhaps a lot more work, including red lining the engine, and hanging a crew member from the boom to get us on our way out of the mud to a DNF.
Observers on the shoreline applauded our efforts, but the race committee could only wave. We were 'that close' to getting the gun, only to cross in last place.
All in all though, it was a fun ride around the race course, with gentle but firm wind and flat water, the boat traveling at the speed of fun.
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