Unlike past years of coastal cruising, I pivoted to mostly regatta racing with the San Francisco Singlehanded Sailing Society in 2024. The Singlehanded Society is dedicated to racing shorthanded, with one or two people on each vessel. It turned out to be a social year, meeting and sailing with experienced sailors. In addition to building more connections with sailors, racing has helped me better understand how to deal with the variable conditions in the San Francisco Bay, including strong tides and different wind conditions.
Troublesome Regattas
The racing season began with several retirements and did-not-starts. The first of the year was the Three Bridge Fiasco on January 27, one of the biggest races of the San Francisco Bay, with 299 vessels entered. Following the advice of experienced sailors, I sailed in the opposite direction that most boats were starting to avoid congestion. Even though I would eventually retire, being conservative for my first single-handed race was wise. Over the radio, I recall hearing of at least one collision.
Sailing on a port tack toward Treasure Island from the start line in front of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, it seemed like the start of a pleasant race. However, near the Bay Bridge, winds died significantly, and Grace slowly drifted into the South Bay with the tides. After 4.5 hours at an average speed of 2.86 knots, I was getting uncomfortably close to a cargo ship at anchor. I was not the only one; in my fleet, only 3 out of 9 racers finished after 17 hours of sailing! Many boats retired around the same time I decided to start the outboard and return to the Berkeley Marina.
Next up was Corinthian on February 24, which also was a “retire” for all 10 boats in the singlehanded non-spinnaker fleet. The race had a good start from Angel Island toward Alcatraz. The boats with spinnakers started earlier than my fleet and made great progress. However, for those of us not using our spinnakers, the winds died down as we approached Alcatraz. I retired when it was clear that I would not complete the course in the allotted time, passing either to the leeward or windward of Alcatraz.
Round the Rocks on March 16 was the first really fun regatta of the season. I entered the race in the doublehanded spinnaker class since an accomplished sailor interested in getting to know the H-Boat joined me. I mostly let my guest take the helm in deference to his experience and as a way for him to get to know the boat. The start of our fleet was highly unusual. The previous fleet experienced a drop in wind, and at our start, there was no wind. Many boats in our fleet started drifting away from the start line with the tides. We put out our anchor in an attempt to not drift too much. However, Grace was one out of four boats in our fleet that were disqualified for not crossing the start line in the first thirty minutes of the race.
My guest and I were oblivious to the situation and continued to race after the winds picked up again. We started with the genoa but soon were overpowered as we approached Alcatraz. We changed the headsail to the class jib, which cost us some time. Once tacking from the San Francisco shoreline toward Sausalito, we reefed the main.
At the mark to make the downwind course through Racoon Straight, we had forgotten to tidy up the lines and thus were not ready to launch the chute. The reefing lines got tangled on the boom as we tried to remove the reef for the downwind course. After a while, we started flying the spinnaker, but it was not a competitive downwind leg. Unfortunately, the Dyneema backstay snapped as we were headed for the finish between Red Rock and Pt Richmond. This caused a bit of chaos as we jerry-rigged a temporary fix. Nevertheless, we “finished” the race even though we had never really “started.”
Modestly Successful Regattas
Although the first few races of the season were a challenge, I finished three races later in the year with some modest success. The first was the Sort of Singlehanded South Bay race on April 27, 2024. This race intends to welcome sailors to singlehanded racing. The race organizers asked if anyone would be interested in having a “ghost” crew member who would not touch anything while racing. I accepted the offer and sailed with a nice person who planned to become a sailing instructor. He came well-prepared with the expected routes and gave me helpful tips along the way.
We had a competitive start and could defend our position from much faster boats for a while. Turning the first mark, we managed to pass up most of the fleet by staying closer to shore and avoiding the strongest tides. By the end, we came in second for the non-spinnaker division. Our adjusted time was also better than most other boats, even those in the spinnaker fleet.
My father and I sailed in the double-handed monohull division in the Drakes Bay overnight race (August 10-11, 2024). My father had minor issues throughout the race, such as back pain and worn-out foul weather gear, which made the upwind portion on day 1 particularly uncomfortable. The winds were light on both days. On day 1, the upwind portion, we made the mistake of hugging the coast rather than heading further from shore for clear air. We placed three out of four boats.
Surprisingly, winds were strong while anchored overnight in Drake’s Bay. Still, we ate and slept well. On the second day, we had a slow start but still placed second out of the four boats in our fleet. We took a somewhat intermediary route, not too close to the shore and not too far out. It ended up being a good strategy. Between the two days, we came in third place. This was a good entry into coastal racing, my preferred kind of sailing.
The Half Moon Bay coastal race on September 9, 2024, was my second coastal race of the season. Several mishaps almost kept me from racing. My attempt the day before the race to resize the cable connecting my AIS unit and the GPS failed, and I called an electrician at the last minute to help solve the problem. It wasn’t a perfect fix, but it was sufficient for me to meet the equipment requirements for coastal races. Also, I purchased an autopilot in July but hadn’t found the time to install it. The electrician helped me get it partially installed, but since it was inoperable, I switched at the last minute from the singlehanded spinnaker to the non-spinnaker fleet.
Given all the complications preparing for the race, I just barely arrived to the start on time, sailing straight through the start line. I had a good first few tacks out of the San Francisco Bay against a flood tide. However, on my last tack out of the Bay, I made the mistake of sailing at a close reach to gain speed. It would have been more strategic to sail close hauled to head further to sea. Several other small boats and I got stuck in some wacky currents in light wind conditions near Lands End. We tacked back and forth without much advancement.
In the non-spinnaker fleet, I was racing against an Express 27, “Archimedes.” The Express 27 was behind me for about half of the race and passed me near Montara. Still, with the adjusted PHRF time, I was slightly ahead, coming in first place for the singlehanded non-spinnaker fleet and coming in 9 out of 15 singlehanded sailors. The singlehanded spinnaker sailors had an advantage in the light wind conditions from Ocean Beach to Half Moon Bay.
Half Moon Bay race, Fleet 5. AIS recording of Artekno H-boat “Grace” 11 (purple tracks) and Express 27 “Archimedes” (pink tracks), the two boats that started in fleet 5, the singlehanded non-spinnaker class. Grace was ahead of Archimedes most of the race until winds died, at which point Archimedes took the lead. However, with adjusted PHRF time, Grace came in first and Archimedes in second.