BAMA's Doublehanded Farallones kicks off offshore racing season

by Erik Simonson / pressure-drop.us on 2 Apr 2015 The Northern California Offshore Racing Season got off to a stellar start with BAMA's Doublehanded Farallones
being contested with clear skies, lumpy seas and brisk winds offshore!

Winds in the vicinity of 25 -30 knots were encountered along the way, brisk and northerly, making the 58nm ride to the Continental Shelf a reachy affair in 7-8 windswell lying over a long period south swell. Mark Eastham & David Leach, sailing on the Corsair F-31 Ma's Rover set the pace, finishing in 07:31:33, followed closely by Buzz Blackett and Jim Antrim aboard the Class 40' California Condor, with just 07:37:29 elapsed and followed very closely by the F-27 Papillon sailed by Andrew Scott & Gordie Nash.

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For the first time in some time, all boats, 57 of them this year, that completed the marathon did so under daylight, riding the generous flood to the finish, none so more spectacularly than the Cal 20 Can of Whoopass, sailed by Richard Vonehrenkrook / Paul Sutchek which sailed between the X buoy and GGYC race deck at 19:11:46, a trip consuming 10:26:46 yet correcting out to 08:15:01 for 21st in division trailing only the mighty Moore 24's and the Cross 27 Millenium Falcon in overall corrected standings!

Tales from the Can.

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'Fun start. We've got the chops honed from One-design, and took the Division 8 start, leading by about 50 yards. That, of course, lasted about 5 minutes, as waterline and horsepower prevailed. Some just headed to Marin, some headed for the South Tower. We split, and hedged central, making the fetch of the Demoness easy, with no wallowing. However, we then were the only boat to do a southerly exit, which perplexed us. Knowing that the Marin fleet was going to hit the Daily Double of light wind and residual flood west of Pt. Diablo, we grinned as we saw the roots being set. We left Mile Rock with 3kts of push. We rode a header SW until tacking back toward R8, tacking back to starboard, and riding the lift all the way to Maintop, able to crack off just enough to keep up the punch, as the swell got more square and heavy. Battened down, we would punch through green, and drop 5-6ft through air on the back side. We stayed 3000' off the west end, as Low Speed cove was happening, big time. Rounded at 1507. Paul drove mostly after that, while I tried to unwind my back after 23+ miles on starboard. Returned on the north side of the channel, setting about the COLREGs line. Could have done it earlier, sorry, Paul.

Big thanks to Bob Naber and all the work BAMA has done to keep offshore sailing safe, and sane. Their work with the Coast Guard has been exemplary. We'll be back next year, and watch out, Pete! Congrats to you and all the Moores! '

 

  

Penality Scoring:- DNC = Fleet+2, DNS = Fleet+1, OCS = Fleet+1, DNF = Start+1, RET = Start+1, DSQ = Start+2
BFD = Fleet+2, DNE = Fleet+2, DGM = Fleet+2, SCP= + 20% of Fleet, ZFP= + 20% of Fleet
ABN - Race for Fleet was abandoned, RET - Retired (replaced RAF in RRS 2013-2016)
RDG - Redress given, DPI - Discretionary penality imposed
SRE - Single Race Entry are not included in Fleet Count, Start Count, Finish Count and Series Standings.