Hog Island Race

 

 

Start of Hog Island Race, over-sheeted on the main:  Courtesy Jim Laws, Inverness Yacht Club

This is how we started and ended the Hog island race:  Oversheeted!  Phil Delarosa was great crew handling Jib and Trap like an acrobat and absorbing every gust that hit us.  It was a challenge to keep the boat flat, but as I learned during this 4+ hour race, it's better to de-power using the traveler and try to keep the main as a last resort.  I didn't feel confident enough to try this, but next time will for sure.

The winds started deceptively calm and built up to white caps off some of the beaches on the Western shore of Tomales.  45 degree windshifts, the hallmark of this bay that I call "gully puffs" kept us very busy during the main portion of the race.  Interestingly, we were able to convert a beam reach back to the finish into another upward leg due to our tremendous speed.  We were truly powered up and probably hit high teens and low 20 knot speeds.

There were a lot of boats.  Ryan Scofield visited with his girlfriend Emma and blew past the rest of the field.  A number of flying Scotts and Malcolm Fife in the 110 finished within the top five due to tremendous wind reading and low wind performance.  For our part, we probably finished somewhere in the middle after corrections are made.

A record number of four Johnson 18's were apparently on the water including Jim Pedigrew's boat which has recently found a new owner.  Sean Kelly and Mark Darley braved the puffs and singlehanded this year.  I think they both found excitement lay in store.  The day was largely warm and fogless with gentle breeze from the North shifting South Westerly in the afternoon.  The wind didn't play to our strong suit, but I think just as much came down to technique seeing that Ryan S. was able to cross first, probably about 30 mins+ in front of us.