On Wednesday, May 28, Mark Thurber invited me to join his boat for the weekly Wednesday evening “beer can” race at Spinnaker. I handled the jib sheets while another of Mark’s friends handled the main sheet, and two more mostly sat on the rail, ducking under the boom with each tack.

But we could have done the whole race with only two tacks! The wind was strong and out of just the right direction to sail all the way to the red barrel without a tack, then up to the nearly invisible buoy “S” on one reach, then a tack to head back to the channel and to the dock without another tack.

But we weren’t sure where “S” was, so we ended up making about four extra tacks to get around it.

Mark sailed into the slip. Very nice.

Saturday, May 17, I had an unusual sail with Jason and Steve M., one at a time! Jason met me a little after noon, and we had plenty of wind to sail out to the red barrel and back. We left the main up and docked to meet Steven M. Then Jason had to go, and Steve and I sailed out to the middle of the bay and back. We got back and put away the boat around 5:30 p.m.

Fun day!

Steve W. was introduced to frequent racer Mark by Spinnaker instructor Dave after our spinnaker course a few weeks ago. Mark invited Steve to join his crew on a Merit, Spinnaker’s M-8, for the Wednesday Beer Can Race last evening.

It was one of those amazing evenings that make you wonder how you can ever live anywhere other than the Bay Area. For two days, the weather on shore has been almost unbearably hot, so Steve’s bike ride from the train station was a little uncomfortable. But on the water, the temperature was perfect for shirtsleeves, with plenty of wind and not too much swell.

With Mark at the tiller, Steve on the jib sheets, and three more crew, we were the third to start the race. The course was out to the little white ball and back, and we completed the race with only one tack, around that ball. It appeared all of the racers finished in the same order they started.

Mark sailed us smoothly into the slip under just the main with the engine stowed. The rest of the crew retired to the club for refreshments, but Steve had to pedal furiously back to the station to make the next train.

Thanks, Mark!

View Sunday May 4th Track in a larger map

Winds were relatively stable today at about 12-15 knots. Steve Moreci and Jason Teller fought a flood current on M-8 all the way out to the bridge. What was interesting was that Jason noticed the waves appeared rougher the farther East they went. Combining this observation with the fact that historically any waves slowed the boat down, he decided to tack every time he noticed increased wave activity heading East. If you take a look at the track (and if you could see the depths…) it’s pretty obvious that wave activity increased as the deep part of the channel became very shallow. So the new hypothesis is that it’s faster to sail inside the deep part of the channel…or at least much smoother.

After they turned around at the bridge they had a really nice set of deep reaches back to the channel. Steve took the power line leg today and came face to face with the cargo ship CSL Tecumseh at the narrowest part of the channel, with leeway carrying them nearer the downwind side. At a very tight close haul they narrowly cleared the bow of the cargo ship and got a really good look at it. Enjoy the video (being the responsible crewman Jason did not feel it appropriate to be filming as they crossed her bow and only started the video once they were safely clear).