Twenty twenty-five was a fun year for racing. I participated in most of the SF Bay Singlehanded Sailing Society races in the singlehanded spinnaker division. Preliminary results seem to indicate I may have come in 5th out of 79 boats. My placement seems to have dropped a bit due to missing the Valejo race at the end of the season.
My comfort level with flying the symmetrical spinnaker singlehanded greatly improved. While in the beginning I struggled with getting the spinnaker wrapped in the shrouds, I eventually sorted out how to raise and douse the spinnaker without much effort.
I attribute this improvement to crewing on J/70s on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. While the J/70s have symmetrical spinnakers, the routine of dowsing the spinnaker into the companionway through the shrouds was an applicable technique to the symmetrical spinnaker.
Successful Races
There were a number of successful races during the 2025 season. In the Round the Rocks race on March 29, I placed 3rd in my division and 7th overall among singlehanded racers. My adjusted time was 03:54:51. Since wind conditions were light, flying the spinnaker made all the difference.
I flew the spinnaker twice during the race. First, I used the spinnaker downwind through Racoon Straight. To avoid sailing close to Red Rock Island, I doused the spinnaker earlier than necessary. Other doublehanded boats managed to pass me keeping their spinnakers raised and just skirting the shore of Red Rock Island.
After clearing Red Rock, I raised the spinnaker a second time to pass under the Richmond San Rafael Bride until reaching the Brothers. There was one last opportunity to fly the spinnaker approaching the Richmond channel. However, I was a bit tired and concerned about my ability to handle the spinnaker in tight quarters. With more experience, I would have surely placed even better.
Although not counting toward the season’s scoring the Sort of Singlehanded race on April 26 was an enjoyable race from the Richmond “Bob Klein” buoy around Treasure Island and back. I was in the “Journeymen” class for sailors with some but not a huge amount of experience singlehanding. I finished 3rd in my division with an adjusted time of 02:06:43. The boats in my class that finished ahead of me were much higher performing: a Synergy 1000 (2nd place) and an Alerion Express (1st place).
The Artekno H-boat “Grace” finishing the Sort of Singlehanded race on April 26, 2025.
The Singlehanded Farallones race on March 31 was the highlight of the season. It was the furthest offshore I have raced singlehanded. The conditions to and from the Farallones were milder than the predicted by PredictWind. There was still some swell, but it actually got calmer for much of the race. As most boats seemed to experience, there was a lull in the AM around Point Bonita. My thinking was to be carried by the outgoing ebb tide and not get too far off course. It worked well for me. I ended up in front of many of my competitors with faster boats.
Pink tracks: Cal 40 “Fugu” (Chris Case). Purple tracks: Artekno H-boat “Grace” (Paul Rogé).
As soon as the winds picked up again, my competitors quickly passed me. Since it was my first time sailing to the Farrallones, I underestimated the distance that I would feel comfortable circling the rocks and breakers. So I tacked once to give some more distance. As predicted by the model, winds did calm even more around 4 pm or so. Given the mild conditions, I flew the spinnaker from the west side of the islands back to the Golden Gate. Dark Horse and I sailed together for much of the race, which was reassuring and also a surprise to me.
On the return, I would probably would have done better staying on a broad reach port tack further so that I could eventually transition to a more downwind run on starboard with the swell. But instead, I tried going in a straight line, which required isolating the main and just using the spinnaker for much of the distance (likely slower).
Given my boat’s narrow beam, it gets unstable with gusts and swell. Just after hitting my around 11 knots close to the Golden Gate (an exhilarating moment to be surfing like that on a small boat), the boat rounded up and I was forced to douse the spinnaker. I lost some time retrieving the spinnaker from the water and coming in with just the main. In future races, I will be more conservative with the spinnaker, particularly when sailing at night! If it were not for the spinnaker issue, I may have been first in my class. I finished 2nd in my class and 9th out of 12 monohulls that finished. My corrected time was 11:57:25.
The two-day Drakes Bay race on August 8 was another one of those races where I surprisingly surpassed faster boats for much of the competition. The first day started with foggy conditions and mild winds. Other racers started with reefed mainsails, and I followed suite. However, it soon became clear the reef was unnecessary. Approaching Drakes Bay, I got caught in a spot with no wind. Eventually, I got out of it, choosing to head out further from shore. The winds were very strong toward the finish, which was exhilarating and exhausting after a long day on the water. Grace handled the conditions perfectly. Looking at the tracks later, I realized that boats did better hugging the coast of Drakes Bay close the finish line. I finished 4th in my fleet with a corrected time of 08:33:21. The second day from Drakes Bay to San Francisco was a bust for most sailors. After bobbing around in Drakes Bay for many hours, I retired. Only two singlehanded monohulls managed to finish.
I finished the Half Moon Bay Race on September 13, which I consider it successful, although it could have gone better. Exiting the San Francisco Bay, boats seemed to do much better staying to the north of the channel. I crossed the channel twice, and experienced a jammed jib sheet, which set me back a bit. Once I had cleared Seals Rocks, it was a straightforward sail almost all the way to Half Moon Bay with comfortable and constant winds.
The Artekno H-boat “Grace” at the beginning of the Half Moon Bay race on September 13, 2025.
Toward the finish, the winds died, and everyone was bobbing about. My spinnaker helped keep me moving for a good portion, but toward the end, I should have doused it sooner and sailed in a more upwind direction. Due to these mishaps and decisions on my part, I finished 2nd in my class, 7 seconds in corrected time behind a Cal 20 “Slainte.” My corrected time was 04:56:44. I placed 7th overall out of 12 singlehanded monohulls that finished the race.
Troublesome Races
As usual, there were races where the conditions were simply too adverse to finish. In addition to the second day of the Drakes Bay race mentioned previously, my father and I were unable to finish the Three Bridge Fiasco. The first race of the year, this race is particularly tricky given the tides and light air conditions. My father and I had some differences of opinion on how to tackle the conditions. We ended up getting swept through the smaller section of the Golden Gate, which is a prohibited area. Thus, we were forced to retire. No boats from the doublehanded spinnaker 186 and up class finished, so probably we would not have finished even if the early disqualification had not happened. We had a good time regardless.
The Corinthian race in February was also a retire. I was unable to finish the race before the ending time due to the delay to starting the race and a drop in the winds near the Richmond “Bob Klein” buoy. There was very little I could have done differently for this race. If the races had been started earlier, I probably would have finished. Only 5 of the 9 boats in the singlehanded spinnaker class finished the race. These all were higher performance vessels than Grace.
A work colleague who had never sailed before asked if we could do some coastal sailing. It turned out that his visit corresponded with the YRA of San Francisco race to Half Moon Bay on June 28. I figured it would be safer to be part of a race than do the sail on our own. It took my friend a bit of time to get a sense of how to position his body, but he enjoyed every minute. Unfortunately, the winds were not at all favorable, and we reached a point of realizing that finishing on time would be unlikely. Instead of motoring to Half Moon Bay, we retired and returned to Berkeley. The following day, we cruised around the San Francisco Bay and visited Angel Island. It turned out to be a rewarding two days on the water despite our inability to reach Half Moon Bay under sail.
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