‘Can O’Whoopass’ Reports From the YRA Doublehanded Midwinters

“We love the way you attacked that course,” said the sailors on the Alerion 28 Sapphire (SFYC), as they rounded outside the Can at YRA 6, on the last leg of Sunday’s race — one of the YRA Doublehanded Midwinters. We nodded in thanks, mumbling something like, “When you’re slow, you’ve got to do that.”

We were half a mile behind our division leader, Pat Broderick’s Wyliecat Nancy (SSS), and our most feared competitor, Dave Gruver’s two-time national champion Olson 25 Sketch (SFYC). The Olson had come off Blackaller, on the YRA 16–17–6 course, and did not jibe immediately against the big ebb, ending up parked over by Yellow Bluff. So we had hopes over Dave. The 10- to 12-knot southerly rendered the course featureless, aside from the ebb.

Rhumb-line vectoring was the key, and my crew Chris Cassell and my Raymarine A67 kept me from spacing out. To veer left off the line while kite-reaching to Harding would take us toward Sausalito, and off right would take us to the west of Alcatraz. We corrected first, a little less than two minutes ahead of Nancy, and ahead of all 18 boats sailing that course, save the Covey 49 Sir Edmund (RYC), which nipped us by three seconds, but in the non-spin division.

The previous weekend, on the Berkeley Circle in the Berkeley Yacht Club Midwinters, we didn’t have the pressure to even be competitive. On Saturday we placed sixth out of seven in a PHRF 141+ division dominated by the well-sailed J/24 [Phantom]. Sunday saw a tighter 168+ division, also dominated by a J/24 [Froglips]. In six to eight knots of wind, a Cal 20 gets eaten up by the J’s and by the more easily driven or taller-rigged vessels, even when sailing a perfect course.

We did not sail a perfect course on Sunday, getting caught on the wrong side of a 30-degree wind shear after the start. Once we got around the windward mark, we were last by a lot. However, once we were on the correct side of the shear, we were able to claw back into fourth of six boats by headstay-reaching with the kite, a Cal 20 specialty in 15 degrees ahead of a beam breeze. Still deep in the tank, to start a series.

The moral of the story, which we on the Can have come to accept, is that on some light days a 273-rater just is too slow to get there from here, tacking through 100 degrees and never reaching hull speed. Some days, if we’re smart, and tenacious, we have a shot.