Laser Run to Benicia
Seven brave sailors and three support volunteers showed up at Richmond Yacht Club Sunday morning, July 1, to tackle the Second Annual RYC to Benicia Run. We had four Radials (Chris, Dan, Peter and Hideki) and three full rigs (Marcel, Julian and myself) plus Josh, Chris and Jocelyn in our support boat.
We met early and had a wonderful breakfast, which was part of the RYC Pacific Cup festivities but was open to all. After breakfast we rigged up under gloomy weather; when the sun peeked through the clouds, it looked like a post-nuclear scene since the fires from the north were affecting the light.
We finally got going at 11:30 with basically no wind. We drifted to the Richmond Bridge where the wind finally filled in at 12:30. Toshi Takanayagi followed us past the bridge but eventually turned around, as he had planned. "On my return, the wind got stronger, so I worried a little bit," said Toshi. "I had to sail very carefully to go back to RYC."
The course was 27 miles (from GPS) downwind with winds getting stronger as we went. The wind was more southerly than usual so it was mostly a broad reach with not much by the lee.
About halfway Dan had problems with his shoulder; after some debating, Josh (our valiant support-boat captain) decided to step into Dan’s boat and sail the rest of the way while Dan rode in the support boat. This was no easy feat; anyone who has sailed Lasers knows how tricky they are, and Josh, though clearly a very accomplished sailor, was very new to the Laser; and learning in a long-ass downwind in 20 knots is not what I would recommend as an introduction.
We did the run during a flood, but waves were pretty long, considering San Pablo Bay is only about 12 feet deep. We were passing waves mostly. After we went under the Carquinez Bridge, it became a tighter reach with little waves, and we were flying (or it felt like it: 17 mph max speed).
It took us about four hours. While the first four boats were de-rigging we watched as Dan’s boat sailed in with Josh driving, Pete’s boat sailed in with Julian driving and then Julian’s boat sailed in with Julian driving… War stories were told while drinking wine and packing up. We should probably make it a monthly event.