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The Plastic classic and getting beat-up in the dark
The ‘Mephisto Cat’ participated in the ‘Plastic Classic’ regatta a couple of weeks ago. The regatta is intended for boats designed more than 25 years ago… It was a fun-packed sailing weekend which included a bit of a soaking.
A windy and very wet / chilly sail on Friday afternoon / night
We had a windy and very wet sail on Friday afternoon down to the south bay. It was a bit of an adventure in rough conditions on Friday night: I did not manage to leave early that Friday and only managed to set off on our 30+ mile voyage at around 4 pm making this largely a sail in the dark.
25-30 knot winds and fog were forecasted for the central SF bay. We had a pleasant sail in 15kt or so, all the way down to Richmond where the sun set and the winds started to kick-up at the usual places. There was plenty of motorboat/ tug/ tanker/ containership traffic at this time - It is the Fast Ferries that I really stay out of the way of. They are water jet powered catamarans and they zoom across the bay...
The winds were in the 25-30 knot range –just as predicted along with a thick fog in the central bay. The wind gusts kick-up especially at SF Bay's famed wind tunnel known as ‘The slot’.
It was just shy of 10 pm and we went right into the thick of it as we crossed 'the slot' from the lee of Angel Island across to the lee of the city.
We had a few tense moments as we ran into some traffic while in the slot in these tough conditions. We were getting drenched every few seconds and the visibility was GONE due to a low thick FOG. For some 20 minutes I could not see the city lights (only glow) and there was no sign of Alcatraz Is lighthouse!. But everyone found their eventual course without incident. I was fortunate to have completed my LED installation before this trip!
I thought of lighting up my sails, but then I would have lost my night vision and not have been able to see anything around me... Not that I could see much as it was...
We reached the lee of the city where there was a very calm environment under a high fog ceiling, and continued past the Bay bridge to our guest slip by the Giants' Stadium (AT&T park?).
- The range of weather available at any one time in different locations of the bay is really amazing…
We made it to our guest slip at about 11pm, tied-up, chased-up the night caretaker for the keys, and hit a little bar for a drink (or two) to warm-up.
The Regatta
On Saturday we headed a bout a half mile further south for the race start in front of San Francisco’s Bay view Boat club -the sponsor of the event.
We had a nice race with little wind early, especially where the course came closest to shore. In fact, we spent quite a bit of time drifting along with some other boats. We fended off another sailboat, but managed to avoid resorting to the use of the engine to get us away from the big bow bulb of a docked ship & the dock behind it…
Later in the race the wind was up in the 15kt range and we had a few nice runs in close quarters with other boats. The Mephisto Cat seemed to stretch its legs! We had a sort of a re-match with the Portugal Princess (C-19) with much better results than on the Hoppe regatta. The course had about 10 marks to 'round.
Despite completely botching-up our start we had a great time. –We were distracted boat-watching and started 3 classes too late! (15 min) :( I have to have a chat with the tactician!
At the sprint to the finish, we converged with a 40’ Cheoy Lee about a mile to leeward of the finish. After trading positions many times, we managed to beat it by a boat length… (I think he had too much canvas up!) We came in a few minutes shy of the finish cut-off… Many boats did not finish due to the lack of wind in the am.
Picture 1: The Mephisto Cat racing to the finish in the South Bay. (Oakland side of the Bay Bridge in the background - you can see the new replacement bridge coming along nicely.)
Picture 2: A few vintage boats... Carl Alberg was represented by 2 Commanders, 1 Ariel, and a very nice Alberg 35 (center of the picture). There was one boat which was reportedly the first production fiberglass boat ever... I'll try to find a picture of it.
Picture 3: The City - in much more pleasant conditions.
Picture 4: Cheoy Lee Offshore (1969) racing to the finish
