| Vol 2 - Issue 6 | March 1998 |
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Ocean Images by a Newbie Racing in Bodega Bay By Rob Morse |
| Last October, I took part in what was my second regatta campaigning a Prindle19. This is not a race report but rather a collection of memorable images. Let me first describe the crew, boat and location. I've sailed dingeys and keel boats for years. I have been on cats only a dozen times. I am the Crew, but my Helm has been at this for 10 years. We are best described as middle age and middle weight. The boat is 19 feet long with a 31 foot high mast and weights 380 pounds in race condition. The crew of 2 , the Helm and Crew, add another 390 pounds when dressed to race. So the "crew" weighs about as much as the boat! This regatta was in the Pacific ocean off Bodega Bay on the California coast north of San Francisco. |
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I feel both fear and excitement as we assemble the boat. People stop to
chat, and exchange hello's. I am distracted by the strong and steady wind.
The feeling reminded me of a locker room before a game, or an aircraft
cockpit before an interesting flight. I saw other people change attitute
too. I put on serious excitement along with my sailing clothes. Suiting
up consisted of a bathing suit, wet suit booties, a full sailing wetsuit,
neoprene/leather gloves, spray suit (kind of an ankles to ears to wrist
windbreaker), PFD, trapeze harness, hat, whistle and dark glasses. The
Helm wore a wetsuit hood as well. We were not over dressed.
The first mark is an offshore buoy and a tight beat to windward. We duck under the Bodega headland and then head out to sea. I can not trapeze because the waves would wash me off the boat. This is a subtle clue that we are not on a small lake anymore. We both hike out with our feet under the straps. I try to face the waves, to keep them off of the Helm. We bury the bows a few times: A wave comes up, and the hulls punch right through it and out the back side. Being attached to the boat, you follow the hulls right through the wave. (I think we tacked twice.) Hey, neat, we are not in last place! We round the buoy, turn down wind and raise the centerboards. We speed up too. We are sitting thigh to thigh as far aft and windward as we can sit. Still, we bury the bows back to the mast on a regular basis. I am awed to see green water cover the top of our boat and then the hulls surface like twin syncronized submarines. We jibe down wind and keep the relative wind on the beam. We survive and are in the middle of the fleet as we approach the shore line. We capsize at the "C" mark. We blow a simple tack, get flipped by a gust of wind and capsize to windward! I am tangled in the sheets which gets my attention. The boat stays on its side with the mast to windward. I throw the righting lines over the upper hull. We right the boat and go finish the race. This is my first cat capsize. The wind increases for the second race of the day. The second race is shorter and consists of a reach, a downwind reach and a beat to finish. We are really hauling assets now! As we turn down wind, I am fairly sure I should be scared. I am not used to judging boat speed under these conditions, but I'd guess we are making between 15 to 20 knots. We pick up a load of kelp on our leeward rudder and the rudder flips up. It sure does make the helm feel heavy. My Helm suggests I fix it. If we fly a hull, then we will have NO rudders in the water. We would then broach. We turn nearly dead down wind. The sails stall and the boat slows. I feel brave enough (less scared really) to crawl over and latch the rudder down. The trampoline seems so cluttered when we tack. Now it seems like a dozen slippery feet from side to side. As we near the shore, the waves ease enough that I can get on the wire as we turn upwind towards the finish line. Actually, I have to climb the trapeze wire a little to keep from hitting the mark with my body. My Helm says his last Crew was shorter than I am. Hmmmm. We are now heading to the finish line and I am out on the trapeze. We capsize. I get off the wire as the mast head hits the water. I fall off the hull and land in the jib. This time, with the mast to leeward and 25 knots of wind on the trampoline, the boat turns turtle. We are several hundred yards off shore and the water is exactly 31 feet deep. I know, because we can feel the mast head hit the bottom in the troughs of the waves. We get the boat on its side with the mast to windward. The boat does about 1 and a quarter knots on its side with just the trampoline as a sail. Although capsized, we still have to hang on to the boat. Being in the water is actually drier than sailing: At least I get less salt water in my mouth once I am swimming. With this much wind, the boat rights very easily! Technique helps. However, getting back on board is definitely getting harder to do. We DNF (Did Not Finish). We beach the cat 200 yards from the finish line. We are just happy to be back on land and need help to pull the boat onto its beach wheels. The small waves that make it to the windward beach are throwing rainbows out to sea as the wind tears the spray off the breakers. Rolling the boat the last 200 yard convinces me I am not in great shape. It is a bit more exciting than I had hoped for. Other boats DNF and others finish after we quit. A few boats tear sails and can not make it back to the starting beach. Eventually all boats are found and their crews return. Some of the boats have to spend the night on distant beaches and are recovered the next morning. On Sunday, we sail the same course as our first race on Saturday, but with 10 to 15 knot winds. The weather is perfect and spray suits aren't required. There are 4 to 6 foot swells offshore. The boats are a little slower, but no one capsizes. Still, the boat speed is exhilarating. The crossing speed of two boats on opposite downwind tacks takes some getting used to. I learned to yell "Starboard" while still hundreds of feet away. That way, the other guys on the other boat have time to look at you as you flash past each other. It is easy to use the trapeze. One long reach has me trapped out while racing near four other boats. The four boats are within a 100 yard circle. It is great racing! It is easy to try and adjust sail trim at this point. If they catch up, it was the wrong thing to do. If they fall behind, it was the right adjustment! The final leg to the finish line is a very close beat to windward. I am still on the wire. In the lulls, I lay against the side of the bow to try to keep one hull out of the water and the transom from dragging. We soon have one hull flying just above the water. Now both of us are on the trapeze wires and standing against the side of the hull. I have one arm over my head and am on tip toes at times. We hold that position right across the finish line. It doesn't get any more fun than that. The only danger is that our ear to ear grins might split our faces. My son, brings us the beach wheels and helps us move the boat. It is a group effort to roll the boats back over the dunes and back to their trailers. These are vivid images that make me want to come back for more. I think we came in 8th out of 12 for the regatta. We did some things right and a some things wrong, but LEARNED A LOT. Rob Morse jmorse@jps.net Back to Features |