 First to finish Defiance Photo: 'Lectronic Latitude |
2002 Silver Eagle Distance Race
First to finish Defiance Photo: 'Lectronic Latitude |
We had seven people sailing Defiance which seems like too many but as it turns out we needed everyone. We had the opportunity to have Chris Harvey and Andrew Pitcairn crew, and we jumped at the chance to have them on the boat. They, along with the rest of us, contributed greatly. I have sailed with Chris before and he is a geat sailor and a great guy. I have known Andrew since he got Pegasus, as we are both close friends of Gary Helms and we berthed our boats at Mariner Square. We have raced against each other for years. The only time I beat him was when he yilded to me while I was on Port Tack. It was a delight to sail with him.
As to the race, we got a good start and a little lead over Antares and Prime Directive. We held it past Blackhaller and Harding Buoys. As we approached the Bay Bridge they caught us. Somebody on the crew said to stay away from the big cement pier in the middle of the bridge on the San Francisco side. I remember Tom Davis had used it as a mark in one of his races and what it does to the wind... The two F31's went closer to it than us. The wind had died down to nothing on the other side of the bridge. We were able to get through and they weren't for quite some time.
We had light wind down to the southern most mark. By this time we had caught all but four boats. The wind was about 10 knots and on the nose and they pulled away and were almost out of sight.. The wind began to pick up and we gained on them and passed the 3rd boat a Santa Cruz 52 just past the Bay Bridge.
When we got to the slot all hell broke loose and we had wind reported at 36 knots. It was so hard that we would bury an ama when I turned downwind I steered up to get in the shadow of Angel Island. At this time the spinnaker which was stored on the netting broke loose, and it took everybody to get it back on the boat. I was ready to quit but not the crew. There were several boats hiding behind Angel, and it was like running a slalom course going through that area. By this time we were in second place, and a Santa Cruz 52 was ahead of us. He set his spinnaker. I didn't until we got past the Brothers. By this time he was about a mile ahead of us. We set our little spinnaker and roared up San Pablo Bay at 19 plus knots. We caught them just before the turn at Rodeo. It was blowing about 25 knots on San Pablo Bay and we roared up San Pablo Bay at about 13 knots. We did a horizon job on them.
I usually don't wear foulies because Defiance is a dry boat. This day it was a wet boat, and I got cold. Andrew drove about the last hour of the race. After we finished we celebrated at the bar of the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Nobody from the other boats came in so that we could gloat about our race. I apologize for the length of this report but I had to tell someone.
Mike Ropers