Two boat testing. Wednesday July 30,2014.
We set out early for some two boat testing in the South Bay. Shawn was crewing for me on Capricorn and Phillip and Ben were on Aurora. The wind was up on the bay and that led to some nice chop and great conditions for training. The objective was simple, 2 tacks then we make adjustments to one boat. Two tacks and then we make adjustments on the other. We were trying to see how the 2 newest F18’s in San Francisco Bay performed against each other.
Shawn and I got out first and did a reach up the basin then turned back to shake out the boat. Boat speed was good and we got the kite out for a little bit and then relaxed in the turning basin while Phillip and Ben got out to join us.
We got both boats together and started out of the basin. We had to short tack a few times then we got a long port leg and began to test the speeds. Phillip was just a head of us and we were clawing ground back. We were almost even at the first stop off. Phillip made a couple adjustments and then we were off again. He took a nice lead and we were chasing. The wind was in the high teens with waves at 3 to 4 feet. This made for a wet rough ride up the bay but we were flying high and both boats very close in speed. Two tacks later I made a few minor adjustments then we were off again. It was a similar situation as the last two times. Both boats powered up and going there was no clear faster boat.
We got up near the bridge and set off on a nice downwind run. I was having a couple issues stuffing the bows in the back of waves and just couldn’t find the groove. Phillip got a nice big lead and we just followed. Luckily the Capricorn has a lot of buoyancy up front and we kept the boat upright. We got back down to the bottom of the racing area and put the kite away.
We started another upwind session and were pushing the boats to the limits. While the wind had dropped some there were still sets of large rollers coming down the bay. One set even got both hulls out of the water. This time both boats ran long tack legs and 2 tacks had us up near the bridge again.
This time we set the kites and we found the groove. Shawn and I were pacing with Phillip. The waves were a little smaller but we still had to concentrate on keeping the bow up. We went all the way down to the group of boats coming into the channel finishing the Wednesday night race. We reached across and both boats decided to call it a night.
We had to reach into the channel and avoid the boats still racing to finish. We hugged the edge then cut under a couple boats before setting the kite and tearing down the basin. We put the boats up and Shawn, Ben, and Phillip went to the yacht club for a de brief. I went home to take care of things there. We had a great day on the water and excellent learning opportunity.