A brief recap of the Silver Eagle on the Team LexisNexis catamaran:

I've been thinking about doing this race on the Inter 20 for a few years now, but have generally been intimidated.  The I20 is a real handful in winds over 20 knots, and the Silver Eagle pretty much promises some tough 20+ knot reaches across the bay, in addition to a long cold distance.  This year I dropped a note to Express 27 & Vanguard master Scott Sellers (thinking he was surely smart enough to decline), and he accepted my offer to attempt this race.  I did promise first-to-finish, and secretly hoped we wouldn't have to deal with any of the D cats.

We met early and rigged and launched the I20.  Scott had never sailed on a catamaran before, so we went over the basics, and got out on the water and did a couple quick tacks & set the kite.  The wind was piping up nicely for the start promising a workout from the very beginning.  We noticed Adrenaline (D-cat) and it put a damper on our hopes for first-to-finish. We had a nice port-tack start near the Golden Gate, and crossed the fleet easily.  We sailed upwind, rounded Blackhauler, popped the kite and started screaming for Harding, sailing through monomarans on the way.  There was some chop about halfway to Harding, and we dug in once and Scott, on the trapeze, flew forward and got banged up on the spinnaker pole.  After that, we religiously used the preventers!

At the Bay Bridge, we caught the front line of monohulls in a dying breeze, and after getting under the bridge had a very nice sail all the way to Oyster Point.  Adrenaline (D cat) caught us there, and we toughed it out in light and fluky wind, watching the rest of the boats sail up from behind.  After rounding #6 we sailed back to a big nasty hole that everyone spent quite a bit of time in.  Adrenaline and a couple of the J-105s did a great job catching wind early near shore and they were off.  Eventually the wind filled to us resumed the race, catching the J105s near the Bay Bridge.  Adrenaline was now nowhere in sight.

The reach across the bay was all we expecte, a very fast, scary ride with the GPS reading in the high teens.  This kept up most of the way to Red Rock, where we again got to fly the kite and had extremely pleasant double-trap conditions all the way to Point Pinole.   Smooth water, nice breeze, blasting along at 17-19 knots.  At that point the wind and chop picked up and we got another brutal jib reach to the oil dock, passing Adrenaline who was on the way back.

Cold and fatigue was starting to have its affect, and on the rounding of the oil dock, we had a sloppy douse and I fell off the boat in the tack, but after a few curses, we got it back together and started to beat back towards the Brothers.  By now the wind and chop were on full-bore, and we had our hands full keeping the boat upright and moving forward.  We were also cold and tired and faced with a long beat back to the finish.  I'd have to guess the wind was in the low 20s with gusts into the high 20s, though other boats reported winds into the 30s (anyone have better wind reports for me?).  We could see Adrenaline in the distance ahead, and we passed the trimarans (headed down to the dock) around Point Pinole.  By the time we got near the Brothers, the wind and chop had subsided and we were having nice sailing.  Plus, we were catching up to Adrenaline!

We tacked near the Sisters (our first tack since the oil platform, and the next tack wouldn't be until we got to Pier 39), and nearly caught Adrenaline at the San Rafael bridge.  We lost them at Richmond, and we presume they pulled out there rather than face a cold beat to the finish.

The final beat across the bay was reasonable but still a long cold trip.  A couple tacks up the city front and we gave the race committee a heads up on our arrival.  The sound of a gun going off never sounded so good.  We appreciate the race committee walking over to StFYC from GGYC to congratulate us.

First order of business after dropping sails was a hot shower and sauna followed by libations at the club bar.  Then we packed up the boat just before sunset.  I slept well.

After the race, "never again" was my only thought, but now after a couple days of rest it starts to seem not so bad.  It was definitely one of the tougher days I've had out on the catamaran!

Brendan Busch,
Inter 20 Team LexisNexis