A Bright and Sunshiny Day at the Jazz Cup

The pre-race debate at the docks is often around which spinnaker to fly, about rig settings, and whether to go inside for current relief or toward the channel for better breeze, but for the 66 yachts competing in the 38th annual Jazz Cup on Saturday, September 5, the bigger debate was over foulies or shorts and T-shirts. Those who opted for the latter were the real winners, regardless of corrected time, as warm autumn weather dominated.

South Beach Yacht Club and Benicia Yacht Club’s signature regatta — with popular parties on either end — is a 26-mile downwind run from Southampton Shoal to Benicia. This year’s 70-degree temperatures came with light and variable breeze at the start. After the first two fleets, the race committee extended and squared the line, and the rolling starts got everyone off to the windward mark quickly, followed by a spinnaker set. Then the real tactics began.

The typical dance of squared-back poles on the slower boats, avoiding the wind shadows of the big asymmetrical boats jibing back and forth through the course, required an extra degree of trim attention this year. Winds varied from three knots to far more, requiring constant mode shifting while also seeking the best current relief.

Entering the Carquinez Strait, winds ranged wildly from nonexistent to very gusty, and as boats navigated the turns, they alternated between reaching and running. In the final turn with the Benicia Bridge in sight, many spinnakers were doused in favor of genoas.

For our J/24 Tenacious Cuttlefish, we debated dropping the spinnaker, and finally decided to hoist the genoa. We then ended up sailing a beam reach with both up for a few minutes, while we made up our minds. We ended up dropping the kite and were happy for the maneuverability that provided. Moments later, the biggest gust of the day hit, pushing our J/24 to over 7.2 knots of boat speed. Competitors that had put more in the bank, going higher toward the Contra Costa shore, were instead able to turn down during the puffs and keep their kites up, which was a good lesson for next year. Finally seeing the line, we popped the chute back up, squared back the pole, and started thinking about finally eating those sandwiches we’d been too busy to enjoy during the race.

Ben Landon’s Flight Risk from RYC and CYC won the spinnaker fleet of 60 boats, correcting at just over four hours 18 minutes, followed less than three minutes later by Bloom County (SFYC) and Zeehond (SSS) over a minute later. This race often favors slower-rated boats, with this writer’s own J/24 Tenacious Cuttlefish (RYC) taking fourth place, enjoying our PHRF of 168. Tenacious was followed by Living Happy (rating 165) in fifth place — the first Benicia Yacht Club boat to finish.

Proving the point about high PHRFs, the Santana 22 Anemone, (Aeolian YC), rating 234, had a strong showing in sixth. Zhenya Kirueshkin-Stepanoff’s sportboat Greyhound (Encinal) was seventh, followed by another J/24, Darren Cumming and Melissa Litwicki’s Downtown Uproar in eighth place. Ninth went to John Ross’s Special Edition (RYC), and rounding out the top 10 for the spinnaker fleet was another Benicia boat, E Ticket, owned by Noble Griswold.