Doublehanded Farallones in San Francisco, CA

Sergei Podshivalov, sailing his J/105 Javelin in the DH Farallones for the first time, sailed to a corrected time victory in PHRF 4. Here are some of Sergei’s observations: “It was my first time going to Farallones, so I was intent to make it even if we had to finish at midnight. Had plenty of food on board to prevent the crew mutiny. We did a few timed drifts before the start, and concluded that the StYC breakwaters would be a good a place to be at the 5 min warning. Had anchor ready, but didn’t have to use it, were maybe 5 boat lengths away from the line at the gun. Better be safe than sorry. Luckily it was enough breeze to clear the South Tower; eventually the pressure has built up and once we were 5 miles out of the gate, the wind veered such so we were fetching the islands. The happiness didn’t last that long. The wind dropped to 4 knots or less, and we just stopped and drifted northwest with the current. Even jellyfish of which was plenty around were moving faster than us. Need to learn how to make J/105 move in the light wind. Saw some other boats around making a knot or so. At 2:45 the wind built up again, to a reasonable 8 knots and we started to move. Half an hour later we had to crack off to fetch the mark. Too bad too much distance was lost due to this northerly drift and inability to make the boat to move. We rounded the islands at happy hour, wind blowing 16 -18 knots at 5 pm, then immediately jibed and set the kite. Apparently this wind angle was very favorable to the J/105, and we were able to beeline to the Golden Gate on a very hot reach, rounding up every so often, but still moving at about 10-12 knots boat-speed. Other boats either kept going with the jib, or carrying the kite but leaving the mark to windward. Once we reached Point Bonita at 8:15, the wind started to die down to 6-8 knots and was almost behind us. Eventually we had to heat up and then jibe. Close to the bridge the wind increased to 18 knots and we rounded up right by the South Tower, but fortunately missed it! As soon as we went past the Golden Gate, the wind calmed again, so we went inshore jibing back and forth to avoid the ebb. We soon crossed the finish line and opened a well-earned cold beer!”