Whale Tales and Spinnaker Reaches in OYRA’s Half Moon Bay Race
All week long, crews had feared a slow, upwind slog “down” the coast for Saturday’s Half Moon Bay Race, but by the time check-ins began, the fluky weather had stopped being fickle. The race committee announced a course taking San Francisco’s R2 buoy to port, setting up a bear-away for an ideal spinnaker reach in calm seas and warm breezes. The only flukes that materialized were dozens of humpback whales cavorting as the 19 competitors sailed through.
“The ocean felt alive that day,” Erin Waid of Wildcard said. “The calm seas gave us a front-row seat to everything happening around us. Birds were diving, seals were barking and splashing through feeding activity, and everywhere you looked there seemed to be another blow, another whale surfacing, or another whale tail waving ‘hello.’ By that point, I was doing a lot more whale watching than wind watching.”
The weather was a relief after the Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco Bay’s offshore series had been impacted by a gale and dangerous seas in early June, cancelling the iconic Farallones race. This time, Mother Nature more than made up for it.
With lighter air, though, calling puffs became critical.
“There were narrow ribbons of very light air weaving through larger areas of pressure. Finding a way through those transitions without getting stalled became one of the bigger challenges of the race,” Waid said.
Visibility in the late afternoon made it possible to see clear back to Mount Tam from just off Colorado Reef. The only limit on visibility was the lack of anything farther away to spot. With the calm seas, whale watching became a key obstacle to overcome, as distracted racers glanced away from sail trim to catch the giant cetaceans feeding, diving, and even breaching spectacularly both far away and alongside.
“On board we started calling out ‘danger whales’ and ‘party whales.’ ‘Danger whales’ were the ones you needed to keep track of because they were near our course. ‘Party whales’ were the ones that were just fun to watch and kept stealing our attention.”
The 28.5-mile event also fell on the Summer Sailstice, with teams registering their float plans for the international day to celebrate sailing and get people out on the water. The solstice also brings the longest day of the year — 14 hours, 47 minutes of daylight — for Northern California. Crews enjoyed sunlight from the moment the sail covers came off until long after the fast boats were tied up back at the dock.
While seas were calm, a few larger swells still rolled through, validating the ongoing beach-hazard and sneaker-wave warnings due to a long-period southerly swell. White breakers were visible all day to many sailors, though conditions just a mile offshore were sedate.
RACE RESULTS:
John Arens’ Reverie took first in PHRF 1, with Nick Grebe’s Wildcard winning monohull line honors before correcting out into second place. Saoirse, skippered by Russell Huebschle, took third.
In PHRF 2, Timothy Roche’s Zaff took first and had the best corrected time of all divisions at 5:45:40. In second was Steven Gordon’s Inconceivable, with third going to Vera Cruz, helmed by Michael Johnson. Brian Turner’s Cruzsea Baby took fourth, while earning a bullet for their season standings.
In the multihull fleet, Truls Myklebust’s Caliente took first. Rick Waltonsmith’s Round Midnight earned line honors with an elapsed time of 4:46:55 before correcting into second, while Rafi Yahalom’s Tri Jolie finished third.
“It was the perfect day,” Kaelyn Grebe said. “Lots of whales and nice weather. I had a lot of fun!”