Home	3 Bridge Fiasco 1/27/24

From Luna Sea, Dan Knox

For this year's 3 Bridge Fiasco the wind was better than predicted, until it wasn't.

Three I36's showed up; Renaissance of Tahoe, Kapai and us. Cassiopeia also signed up, but Kit slipped and broke a couple of ribs, so he wasn't in shape to race. Renaissance of Tahoe and Kapai started about a minute before us because they have a better rating (wish I could get one of those). Everyone got a pretty good start as we all headed to Blackaller.

Luna Sea was the only boat to put up a kite going to Blackaller, not the only Islander but the only boat in the Three Bridge Fiasco! This wasn't the best idea. The wind was on the beam, and it didn't make us go any faster and, well it was easy to get up, getting it down was a bit harder. Still, it was fun. And I would definitely do it again.

The mark rounding was easy as there was not any traffic and we just needed to harden up as we were headed north parallel to the Golden Gate Bridge. With the wind from the Northeast things were a bit weird. That being said the wind was still pretty good, much better than predicted. At Blackaller Renaissance was leading with Kapai next and us in our usual position, last. The Moore 24's were ahead of us and for the most part we were following them. They were going to Racoon Straight and so were we.

However, I'm not sure, but it looked as if Renaissance was going the other way around Angel Island as they tacked off early against the strong current. A few minutes later we heard on the radio that they were involved with a smaller boat in an incident that forced them to retire. I'm sorry but I have no details and I have not been able to confirm anything. That left just Kapai and Luna Sea.

We passed Kapai on the way to Racoon Straight and got a nice lead only to have them catch up again and then again. We saw Barry and Sylivia as we rounded Red Rock (Richmond Bridge)and had a nice run all the way to the new Bay Bridge.

There things went as expected in the Fiasco. The wind just stopped, and the current picked up and soon all the boats just stopped and anchored or were going backwards with the building unfavorable current. This lasted more than two hours and there were some close calls. I am happy to report that this time Luna Sea did not actually run into the Coast Guard boat docked at Yuba Buena Island, but we did have a lot of close calls. After two hours we wimped out and retired and motored back to Marina Village. Kapai did the same thing and went back to South Beach. It was only four o'clock and sure enough twenty minutes later the wind filled in enough to round the Island and the four-knot ebb carried everyone who stuck it out to the finish line very quickly.

But we did take advantage of the Kame Richard's Three Bridge Fiasco strategy: If you have to retire, choose a course that lets you retire close to your home port!

Anyway, here our video: 3 Bridge Fiasco. . Our GoPro batteries kept dying so there are big gaps in the video. We used three batteries and then just gave up. All together it is about two hours long. The best part is the first leg to Blackaller which is only about 15 minutes.

--Dan


From Kapai, Rick Egan

Kapai had a great time in what Bryce and I refer to as the 2.5 Bridge Fiasco.

I agree with Dan's chronicle with the exception that we actually rounded Blackhaller a bit ahead of Steve on Renaissance. We had good wind out to the north end of the GG Bridge and then Dan smoked us in Raccoon Strait.

We left Red Rock to starboard and after rounding were pretty even with Luna Sea but once Dan got the Kite up it was all over in ever lighter winds with our 125 poled out wing on wing. We were still off Berkeley when Dan was approaching the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge.

As we approached the new bay bridge it was obvious there was a traffic jam as the wind went to zero and most of the fleet was parked just beyond the bridge with many boats at anchor as insurance against the increasing ebb. We ghosted by Luna Sea briefly. Dan had anchored just under the bridge but the ebb was pushing us back toward him so to avoid a collision we cranked up the Perkins and retired.

Unlike most fiasco's we had decent wind most of the day so it was just great to get on the water with my son Bryce.

I lost track of Renaissance after we neared Angel Island so I'll leave it to Steve to give us an update.

Thanks to Steve and Dan for making it out and good luck to Kit and wishing him a speedy recovery. Always better with more Islanders!

P.S. Bryce Egan used his phone for the good shots shown below.

Kapai heads for the start	300 Boats signed up	Renaissance starts	Luna Sea starts	Approaching Blackaller & Golden Gate Bridge
Red Rock in sight & Richmond Bridge	Downwind to TI & Bay Bridge	Luna Sea flies kite	Downwind to Bay Bridge