2014 Fully Crewed Lightship Regatta.
I met Truls for the race early at Berkeley Marina on the F27 Raven. The rig was up already so we just had to put her in the water. Even though this was a full crew race we were double handing as no other crew were available due to the holiday weekend. We got in the water and unfolded the amas and got the jib on and furled.
We started the motor and began the long ride out to the start area. While we motored we got the screecher and spin rigged with the auto pilot on. With the downwind sails all on, we then raised the main and sailed into the race area. Truls chose to keep a reef in the main as the wind in the bay was in the upper teens and lower 20's. Truls checked in with race committee and we were ready to go. We reached back and forth while the first few classes went off then we were ready for our start.
There were only 2 multihulls racing and we lined up with the Corsair 37 and we both hit the line and took off on port tack to the Golden Gate Bridge. We were a few boat lengths behind and tacked back to Starboard. We took the last of the ebb tide along the north shore, and tacked as we hit the tide line. The wind had backed off a little and we shook out the reef. The extra power gave us an extra couple knots and we gained some ground on the 37.
We kept picking up monohulls as we went up and were trying to find the best tidal relief as the tide went from an ebb to slack to a flood. Out in the open Pacific the short chop of the Bay was replaced by large rollers. We were sailing well and the boat was making good time to the Lightship mark. We chose to go out to the left and come into the mark on port. We gave up some time on this strategy but were still in the running about 10 minutes behind the 37. We were coming in to the mark and I began to undo the straps on the spin. We rounded the mark and as Truls eased the jib I hoisted the spin and we were going back to the Golden Gate Bridge.
With the kite all the way up I started to lift the sock on the snuffer. We soon found out the snuffer line and sheets were fouled. With Truls driving deep I was able to get the sheet free and re rig it to the stern block. We were driving hard down to make up some ground and we drove the bows down. We got the sheets eased and turned down and saved it. However we did lose the lazy sheet and it got pulled around the bow and was trailing behind the boat. I had to go back out on the net and pull the sheet back up. Then a quick trip around the bow and we were ready for the gibe. We gibed with no real problems and kept a more conservative angle after the stuff on the previous run. After another gibe and with the wind down a little we began to sail a higher angle with more speed. Truls and I were starting to gel with the team work on the spin and helm and we were sitting in the high teens on boat speed.
With the flood tide we were making good progress back to the gate. We were on Starboard run and chose to go close to mile rock to make sure we were clear of the tanker leaving the bay. We gibed again and as we went under the Golden Gate Bridge the clipper round the world fleet was tacking out of the bay. We went inside the first 2 then gibed to head to St Francis Y.C.. We had to cross the front of 2 more of the clipper. Then we had a clean lane to finish the race. We crossed the line and got the finish gun.
The race over we were looking for a nice casual ride home then all heck broke loose. The Spin separated from the top of the mast and we ran it over. This caused it to go back around the rudder and spin us in the direction of the break wall. I was working to get the spin back on the net and Truls was working to get the boat back into the wind. I got half the kite up and had to go forward to release the tack line since the sail was completely under the ama. With the tack line free I got the sail completely back on board and we managed to save the sock and snuffer and the sail only got a small rip on the shroud pin. We now had to get the boat sailing again as we were drifting dangerously close to the break wall. We managed to get the boat in the right direction after a couple of tries and got the boat into safe water. We turned down and then noticed the pole was in the water with the screecher attached. I went to the bow and Truls got us head to wind again and we secured what was left of the pole.
With just main and jib we made our way back to Berkeley Marina. Somehow in the commotion we had broken the cleat that holds the center board in place off. The main cleat was damaged and had pulled out on one side. The connector pin had sheared off the bow sprit. The lines that hold the pole were completely sheared. We also had the small hole in the spin. We were both ok and considering everything that happened all at once it could have been even worse. We sailed back and then dropped the sails and motored into the harbor. We got the sails all put away and then folded the amas and put Raven back on the trailer. Truls was working to finish the boat but even though I offered to help he said he would handle it. I thanked him for the ride and the day was done.