Well, it's that time of year again. The annual race down the coast in what is usually a pretty wild ride. This year we finish in Santa Barbara, whereas last year it was Catalina. We are aiming for a better result than last year . You can follow the fleet for 277 nautical miles down the coast 2 ways: The committee provided, fleet wide transponder page that is delayed 4 hours, or the Spot transponder page which will show a live position of Shaman only. We'll be trying to update this blog via SSB email as well, conditions permitting.

We are going with 5 guys aboard this time. We have done it with as few as 4 and as many as 6, so 5 should be just fine. Joining me this year are Paul Sinz, Larry Duke, Kevin Clark and Nick Mason who is visiting from Australia. Nick had been living in the Bay Area for several years but moved home in 2009. Nick is very familiar with Shaman as he has done quite a bit of work on her in the first few years I owned her. Unfortunately Nick and I were never able to align schedules for him to join us on any racing, but he has a ton of experience on a huge variety of impressive boats. I can't wait to hear some of his stories from the Sydney to Hobart race. I've already heard all the stories from the other guys, many of them twice.

This year the committee has us slower boats in Division D along with the double handed boats starting on Wed, a day ahead of the rest of the boats. So far the weather is shaping up in classic Coastal Cup form. We should have moderate breeze to get us out the Golden Gate on a light ebb current, and out to the R8 buoy which must be left to port. This is the first buoy on the south side of the shipping channel coming into the Gate. Once off shore there will be as much wind as we could want. We may have to go as far as 30 miles offshore, but that is much closer than some years. Once we find good breeze of 25-30kts, we'll bear away and parallel shore.

Sometime before dark we'll have to make the call whether we are going to decrease sail area from the full size 1.5 oz spinnaker to the 2.5 oz shy kite. There is a good chance that in the wee hours of the morning we'll find ourselves a bit overpowered with winds in the 30s and a confused sea state. This is not a great time to be attempting a spinnaker change. As it is, since we'll want to be within 30 miles of shore, we'll probably have to gybe at least once during the night. We're going with a 2 pole set-up which allows for a much slower controlled gybe, but it's a lot easier with the smaller shy kite.

Assuming all goes well through the night, we'll carry the spinnaker all the way down past Pt Conception before heading east into the Santa Barbara Channel. This is where it can get tricky. After flying down the coast at speeds never intended for a Cal40, we most likely will experience a difficult light air finish. The winds blow down the coast from the NW and when they get to Pt Conception they accelerate around the corner, then form an eddy much like the water in a river after a bend. The stronger the offshore winds, the bigger and lighter the eddy. In past years we have hit Pt Conception with the GPS telling us we'll finish in 8 hrs only to have it be twice as long or more. I got some enthusiastic coaching from Panda over a few cocktails Fri night at EYC so I'm sure we'll be fine. At least that's what Dom said just before he bailed off the crew.

When we registered for the race we had 3 Cal40s in our class. Unfortunately Rodney on Azure had to withdraw since his oldest boy is graduating from middle school this weekend. Congrats RJ! That leaves us and Walter Smith's crew aboard Red Head to battle it out down the coast. We'll be paying attention to the other boats in our class and in the race, but it's really the other Cal40 that we want to beat boat for boat. Good luck Walter!

Check back tomorrow for updates from the water.