John, Dan, Josh and I sailed John’s FT10 “Savage Beauty” from San Francisco Bay to Half-Moon Bay in the YRA’s annual race. This is typically a wild downwind ride in the 15-25+knots of wind that blows from the north down the coast. Of course, this year we had shifty 5-10knot winds from the south. HMB is south of SF. Go figure.
We got a good start and stayed with the other bigger, faster boats at first, but they slowly pulled away as we tacked back and forth towards the Golden Gate bridge. We got some fantastic action shots of Petard, Slow Speed Chase, X-dreams, and that damn red-hulled Quest 33, who shouldn’t have been able to sail as fast as he did!
The conditions were the same the whole day: light winds, fog, and lots of whales. At times we were stamping our feet and making as much noise as possible to keep them away from the boat! Whales and ultralight sailboats don’t mix well.
We arrived at the Half-Moon Bay parking lot, where the wind had dropped to almost nothing, caught up with a bunch of other boats we hadn’t seen in hours, and managed to finish third. Respectable!
