I-36 Sequoia Cruise Rally - July 2 - 4, 2005

Your rally challenge, Matey, if you're Pirate enough to accept it, is to predict your travel time, in minutes, between the start at the Bay Bridge and your arrival at the Redwood City channel entrance mark "2" - waypoint #8 below.

Thus, if you went exactly 6.0 knots over the bottom, in a straight line, it would take you 177.09 minutes to cover the 17.71 nautical miles.

Each boat that registers (or just asks) will be emailed the Excel spreadsheet below. Then, before you leave home, or if you have a computer aboard, you can try different estimated speeds, and different speeds for different legs if you want. On the water, you can use a calculator to divide 17.71 by your chosen speed, then multiply by 60 minutes to get your prediction of the number of minutes you think your trip will take.

Then, just before we start you will radio (Channel 72) your prediction to the coordinator.

After the coordinator has recorded all times, she/he will announce and record the official start time which will allow for at least 5 minutes to prepare to start. The starting line will be between the Bay Bridge tower east of the center block and its southern-side red and green guard nun. Yachts shall cross the line in a westerly direction - probably on starboard tack - leaving the nun to port. (Waypoint # 1 below.)

You must observe each waypoint along the route, leaving G 1 to port, then passing through the San Bruno Channel, through the center span of the San Mateo Bridge, and leaving "12" (waypoint # 7) to starboard, and finally leaving "2" (waypoint # 8) to starboard.

As each boat passes waypoint # 8, they will broadcast their time on channel 72 and write it down. Other boats will check their watches (or better yet, their GPS time) and visually confirm that the boat is actually rounding the mark. (We may have an observer boat posted at the mark to record times too!)

When you get to the dock, turn in your rounding time to Rick or Sandy. Prizes will be awarded at Saturday evening's dinner for the boats that get closest to their prediction. If the wind happens to be light, motoring will be authorized by the coordinator, however engine speed must be set wherver you like within 5 minutes, then not changed until you have passed waypoint #8.

Rally spreadsheet example.