Inspired by the legendary San Francisco Bay 3-Bridge Fiasco race , the Santa Cruz Yacht Club has come up with its own version on Monterey Bay. This year’s new and improved version of last year’s SCYC Fiasco clearly lived up to expectations for the crews that traveled from Marin, Reno, Ventura and even New Zealand. Four iconic local landmarks, SC Wharf, Natural Bridges, Cement Ship and Capitola Wharf made it easier to navigate, but also more challenging to cross through different microclimates. All of Sunday’s conflicting weather forecasts turned out to be correct, at differing times on the 14 mile course. However, the biggest unexpected game changer turned out to be sailing and escaping the kelp beds.
Two invited one design classes attracted 11 Moore 24s and 7 Santa Cruz 27s. Everyone liked that it was up to each boat to choose their order of rounding the 4 buoys, which made the race a genuine fiasco! Under the enthusiastic leadership of event chair Sydnie Moore and PRO Christina Shaw, by the end of the race, many felt this could be a Santa Cruz classic (maybe even twice a year) and perhaps to open it up to all double handed boats with a PHRF fleet. - Event Chair Sydnie Moore
The Moore fleet started first and everyone went to the Santa Cruz wharf mark, then upwind to Natural Bridges mark. The breeze was 6-8 knots from 200 degrees, so it was not the usual trip up the coast to Natural Bridges.
Steve Bourdow and Dave Sheldon on Mooregasm (#36), won the start and led the fleet up to Natural Bridges. They continue to lead downwind to the Cement Ship buoy, favoring sailing further outside ahead of Pegasus (#1197), Lowly Worm (#38), Mooregawr (#12), Tonopah Low (#88).
However, Chris Watts and Karen Loutzenheiser on Watts Moore (#104), then Sydnie Moore and Mackenzie Cook on Nobody’s Girl (#84) with Tom Conerly and Ricky Garza-Giron on Wildfire (#10) chose to play closer to the shore. The boats outside never got knocked, the three boats on the inside got knocked right down to the tip of the kelp bed off Pleasure Point. As we were getting there, a fog bank rolled in with a small increase of wind velocity to 8-10 knots and a shift left to 185 degrees. Visibility was about a half-mile. After passing Pleasure Point, the outside boats gybed in and took transoms on the inside.
Pegasus (#1197), Tonopah Low (#88) and Lowly Worm kept going in and went to Capitola Wharf first. The rest of the Moore kept going to the Cement Ship mark, with Watts Moore two boat lengths ahead of Nobody’s Girl and Mooregasm just behind. When the three boats took off for the Capitola Wharf, the breeze was down to 4-5 knots. About halfway to the mark, the fog rolled back out. Going into the kelp bed between New Brighton beach and Capitola, we were all reaching, basically dead even. While most of the boats got tangled in the kelp, Nobody’s Girl crash tacked and managed to stay free and reached Capitola Wharf buoy first.
As the boats cleared the Capitola buoy and tacked out along Pleasure Point, the fog came back in, but this time there was 200-foot visibility and 18-20 knots of breeze. The three lead boats had a big-breeze tacking duel, as we all headed out. It only took a couple minutes sailing on opposite tacks to lose sight of each other in the fog. The three lead boats worked our way up the kelp bed, basically “feeling” along the edge of the fog.
Five minutes after clearing the end of the kelp bed, the fog lifted and the breeze backed down to 16-18 knots for the race to the finish line. Mooregasm finished first, and Watts Moore finished in second place. Nobody’s Girl was a couple minutes behind finishing third and Wildfire a few minutes after that in fourth.
The rest of the fleet struggled through a transition at Cement Ship, forcing gambles that did not pay out. Others had moments of brilliance and better luck which made the race more interesting. All of the double handed crews were able to finish with a sense of accomplishment and felt that this was the best race of the year in Santa Cruz. Hope other Moores will join us for next year’s Buoy Fiasco. - Mackenzie Cook
Mackenzie Cook and Sydnie Moore on (#84) Nobody's Girl first to Capitola Wharf Mark and finished 3rd
Graffiti in the harbor at midnight
Steve Bourdow and Dave Shelton (#36) Mooregasm lead to Natural Bridges and passed Chris Watts and Karen Loutzenheizer on (#104) WattsMoore and Mackenzie Cook and Sydnie Moore (#84) Nobody's Girl in a tacking duel to the finish.
Ian Sprenger (#73) Skosh and crew Bianca Sills all smiles - quickly got up to speed racing for the first time on Skosh.
Chris Watts and Karen Loutzenheizer first to Cement Ship on WattsMoore.
The iconic Syd smile