Home	Vallejo Race August 21-22, 2021

Here is a great write-up of The Great Vallejo Race by Dan Knox. Enjoy.

There were two Islanders signed up, Windwalker and Luna Sea. There were 70 boats signed up for the regatta which is a lot less than "normal" but we were happy to just have a race. We were put in the largest fleet with a lot of excellent boats to race against. We had a short crew, only three aboard Luna Sea, Tim Bussiek (formerly of Califia), Justin Hughes and me. Probably for the best given the Covid-19 is back on the rise. Our good friend Donna Domino was sailing with Rich and his son on Windwalker.

Because of the big flood we were late in getting to the start arriving only 10 minutes before our start. Once we got there, we almost caused Windwalker to T-Bone another boat. They were on Starboard, and we were on Port as was another boat in front of us. We thought Windwalker was going above the middle boat and when they went below the boat in the middle we needed to get out of the way. We got clear and except for a few moments of excitement no harm done. We were at fault and probably should have been paying closer attention.

Everyone in our fleet got a pretty good start, but we had to start using "the force" because someone (read me) messed up the starting clock we had on board. Really not much of a problem because of the one-minute gun and all in all we were happy with the start although more in the middle of the fleet than at the front. We put in a single tack to get to the mark which was taken to port. One boat (Joan Burn's Heart of Gold, an Olsen 911s, hit the mark and did a turn) again no harm done as it was a long race and the mark of just one of those do no damage inflatable ones. At the first mark Windwalker was probably 7 or 8 boat lengths in front of us and zooming as usual. All the way to the Richmond Bridge was a close reach with an apparent wind angel of 60-70 degrees. We moved the sheet to the toe rail for a better angle and we were doing 7+ though the water with a good push from the current. The wind speed was 10-15 and seems to be picking up a bit. The fleet spread out a bit with Gordie in the lead, Windwalker second, Joan probably third and Harp (a very well sailed and beautiful Catalina 38 and us staying close together and swapping spots. Joan had put up a kite and sailed a deeper reach and that seemed to pay off for her although they had lots of problems keeping the kite up. At the Bridge it was Gordie and Windwalker were way in front then Joan and then Harp and us. Behind were a the rest.

At the bridge the wind moved aft and we put up the kite and kept it up all the way to the Napa River. The wind increasing to 20 with some gusts to 25. We were sailing very deep with wind angels between 160 and 170 and we had only a single gibe with the kite all day. Gordie extended his lead and Joanie and Windwalker keeping us in the rear-view mirror. We could see them, but we were not going to catch them. The sailing condition were just about perfect. Most of the times we were going in the 8's and 9's with the current often pushing our SOG into the 10's. We had just a bit of trouble at the Napa Rive as I thought it best to take down the kite and then jibe and that slowed us down a bit. We would have been better off gybing the kite first and then taking down so the pole would not have been in the way but we were short of crew and I though another gibe with the kite would be harder. Oh well not my first mistake. This caused Harp to pass us again! Love those guys.

The beat up the Napa River was uneventful as we passed no one and no one passed us. I think we were the fifth boat to finish: Gordie, Joan, Windwalker, Harp, then us and the rest of the fleet. All the boats owed the Islanders time so with the downwind rating the finish was Joanie, Windwalker and then us. We were happy with that.

The Vallejo YC gave everyone their usually wonderful welcome and we even got a slip and were only in the mud for a few hours at low tide. No problem. Most of the time we stayed on the boat but did get off once to see Barbara and Noble Brown. Always good to see them both. The Vallejo YC is always one of my favorites and even with a smaller crowd they were just so very welcoming. Most YC's could learn a thing or two from them.

Sunday was just more of the same, just another perfect sailing day, or at least it started out that way. Because of the smaller number of boats, I think only one boat had troubles getting out and I'm pretty sure they made they made their start on time. Getting Luna Sea out was a piece of cake as we had backed into a slip with the help of many VYC member pulling us in.

We got a very good start with the kite up and going full speed. We crossed the line about 20 seconds late but that is exactly what we were going for. By the end of the Napa River we had passed a few boats and were very happy with our position. As we started to take down the kite we ran into a big problem. The kite got halfway down and then the halyard would not go up or down and was fouled on the forestay. Ouch. The more we pulled the more stuck it became. We were just stopped and trying to figure out what to do. We took down the headsail and tried to pull the kite around the headstay and that didn't work and likely made things worse. As every boat in the fleet passed us we continued to stumble around. We finally drifted over to where we had drop off my friend Tom Newton few years ago. He told me to climb up the damn mast and release the shackle on the kite. So I climbed up on the boom and then using the mounting brackets on the track on the front of the mast that hold the pole as steps was able to get high enough to pull the shackle open and the kite dopped to the deck, well mostly to the deck, some of it was in the water. The halyard was flying all over the place but it was not going to come down so we just left it. We tossed the kite onto the v-berth and got the headsail back up. All this took 30-40 minutes, but it seemed like hours. I not sure but one boat, Kynntana (a Freedom 38 skippered by Carliane Johnson, might have stayed on station for a while to look after us. Thank you so much. They look to have an all-girl crew (always a good thing) and I believe they are planning to do the Pacific Cup so you might want to give them a shout out if you seen them out sailing.

After that our goal was just try and pass one boat back to the Richmond YC. I said a quick thank you to Tom and as were went back into race mode with the spin halyard flying behind us. We might have passed a boat or two on the way back and after a big thank you to the RC at the RYC we opened a few cold ones for the trip back to Marina Village. All in all, a wonderful weekend, one of the best I have had in a long time.

Special thanks to Rich on Windwalker for always being there and keeping me from causing an accident.

Here is a link to the results on Saturday: Jibeset Results. Sunday we just don't even want to look at.

Here is a link of the video of our race on Saturday: Vallejo Race, Part 1 of 9. YouTube Part 1 of 9. We finished with a time of 2 hour and 40 minutes braking our personal best time of 4 hour and a few seconds. Sorry we forgot to turn on the camera at the start but most of the race were able to record.

--Dan