Racing in the Double-handed Island Tour Regatta (2021)

This past weekend I sailed in the double-handed YRA Island Tour regatta in San Francisco Bay. I was racing with my friend Jamie Isbester on his J105 “Energy”. All told probably 50 boats made it to the start, and about 14 were in our fleet “Alpha”, the big boats flying spinnakers.

The weather was fair and I don’t remember seeing a cloud in the sky all day. The wind started light (8-11 kts) but would build throughout the day topping out at 25 kts. The wind direction during the windward leg also had a strong south bend to it and not the very typical westerly we are so used to sailing in in the Bay. This shifted dramatically to a north westerly in the north bay as we rounded Red Rock.

The race course started in Olympic Circle and took us upwind to Blackaller buoy, just off of Crissy Field in San Francisco. From there the fleet made its way to the north bay to take Red Rock to starboard. This involves a fateful decision as you could elect to go through either Raccoon Strait between Angel Island and Tiberon (more direct route, but shifty winds and strong currents), or back around the south side of Angel Island. The race finished in front of Richmond Yacht Club.

We had a strong upwind leg and made a number of good tactical decisions to keep us right in the mix of the fleet. A strong flood current was expected and much of the fleet shot for the city front to find tide relief, but the south bend to the wind also meant you were sailing into a header. As we rounded Blackaller and hoisted our spinnaker (in a less than ideal fashion) we made the fateful decision. The wind was dying and we could barely keep the spinnaker flying. All we saw was glassy water and no wind as we looked ahead through Raccoon Straight, but the south side of Angel Island still showed strong pressure. We knew that was going to be the longer course, but if we could keep our speed up with the spinnaker it could pay off.

Unfortunately this did not pay off. As we rounded Angel Island the wind shifted again and slowly died on us. We were back to floating with the flood. Eventually we were able to make it to a new wind line, but the wind direction shifted to the north west and we were now sailing upwind to make it to Red Rock. This new wind greatly benefited the fleet that had made it through Raccoon Straight. Invictus, the top boat in our fleet, beat us by a good 40 minutes.

All and all it was still a fun race and the weather was beautiful. Can’t complain too much when sailing on the Bay.

During the down time before the race started I was able to take some nice pictures of the rest of the fleet. Enjoy!

Visiting the Oakland Zoo

I recently visited the Oakland Zoo for the first time in 10 years living in the Bay Area. I had always heard good things, but with so much to do around here it’s been hard to prioritize. But I’m glad I finally did! It’s a great little zoo and the animals all seemed happy and well taken care of. The following images were all taken with my 300mm F/4 on a D850.

Next on my Bay Area bucket list is Alcatraz. I have still never been 🤨

Racing J105s in San Francisco Bay (Spring 1 Design Regatta)

Photos taken during the Spring 1 Design Regatta from earlier this year. This is a class regatta for the J105 fleet in San Francisco put on by the St Francis Yacht Club (St Fancy). It was slow racing this year with the winds arriving late in the afternoon, which made combatting the strong flood current challenging. The races were consequently delayed, but this gave me plenty of opportunities to whip out the camera. Most of these photos were taken with my 300 F/4E, which handled very well in these conditions.