The big breeze parking lot Corinthian

Corinthian this year was definitely more memorable than most. I can’t remember a race that went from small craft advisory gusting 30 with carnage to match the conditions, turned into parking lot and then back again. It was a ‘local distance race’ counter for the new class scoring format, so it drew out those vying for every high score then can get their hands on and those that just enjoy the simplicity of doublehanding. Vaughn Siefers and daughter Michaela came to show that brains matters as much as brawn in doublehanding.

The start was tricky with the breeze just filling, leaving pockets of no wind at the exit of Raccoon Straits, sprinkled with ‘floating wind indicators’ from the fleets ahead of us. Within minutes it filled, and we were off to a nice reach over to Little Harding. I was surprised to see us hanging with Expresses on that reach - it’s that 150% #1 magic. 

Joel and Chris Watts on Firefly were ahead of us, having made a cleaner exit from Belvedere cove. We both set at Harding, and while they were changing down to the #3, we caught up. Approaching Blossom, Bart spotted big breeze over to the right closer to the city front. We heated it way up to get over there and it paid big, ripping down to blossom, passing Firefly.

We followed everyone in front of us to the city front. All boats behind us turned towards the cone of Alcatraz to stay out of the flood. Ugh. I knew Joel would go that direction, but we were committed. The flood was WAY stronger than was forecast, presumably due to the lack of rain that the tidal models anticipate. And it was building along the city front first. Duh! The cone paid off big time, and Joel re-connected later a good few minutes ahead. Behind us at Blossom was chaos apparently. Shrimped kites, BIG collisions, retirements. The breeze going up the city was getting gnarly! Kelly’s experience on #62:

Epic spinnaker run to Blossom Rock in the middle of the fleet. Max speed 11.4 knots on that run. Smooth rounding and douse, and then WAPAH! A solid breeze straight on the nose. Moments of mayhem ensued—wrapped the jib around the headstay, broke the tiller extension and got soaked. Had a hard time making headway towards Blackaller in the gnarly chop.

We short-tack all while getting ping ponged by big boats and put on foulies. We pinned a J105 in against the shore because we had no room to tack either. They were gracious and never called for sea room. Minutes later I see a boat on the rocks in that same spot - apparently an Olson 29 - so glad it wasn’t that J105, but still feeling gutwrenched. Firefly puts a solid 5 minutes on us at Blackaller, just constantly gaining upwind. As we watch them round, FLYING TIGER CASUALLY ROLLS IN OUT OF NOWHERE. Vaughn’s daughter Michaela is sitting on the rail, pretty sure I can hear Vaughn chuckling.

“Y’all are workin’ too hard”

We spend the next few minutes debating what happened. They must be going for a fun sail. They must have just skipped Blossom. How did they just crush us? We busted our asses! They took the cone and then continued out into the middle of the bay, avoiding the building flood on the city front - and tacked once. We were just so wrong.

Firefly took it easy and didn’t set for a while after Blackaller, opting to avoid traffic and have a nice, controlled set. We note that there is only ONE kiteboarder out at at Chrissy. Is it really that ugly out? I’m confused. As we’re pushing into these 30kt gusts I thought no way would Vaughn set. How is Michaela going to manage that kite? Well they did! 

We had a ripper - not nuclear, just a very fun run down towards Angel. We slowly caught up to Vaughn as the breeze went forward and got lighter. As we passed Pt Blunt, everything. just. Shut. off. 

And we drifted. No current. No breeze. 

We parked next to Flying Tiger, put up the #1 and tried to figure out where the breeze was going to come from. Some boats went super wide towards Berkeley. Joel went left close to Angel and looked like he was slowly rocking Firefly in the right direction. We slatted, and auto-tacked 15 times or so - ‘the Madness’ - with me walking the genoa around the shrouds, and thought Vaughn was genius, still having his #3 up. 

After about 30 minutes of drifter, we had a lovely visit from a whale. He dove right under the boat. As we turned, he drew our attention to the incoming breeze line some 100 yards away. 

We took off. Vaughn with us. The #1 started to pay off, and we had speed on everyone. We were matched with the J105 behind us. Moore magic. All the boats that went close to Angel were stuck, and eventually made it down to Southampton under spinnaker. 

Rounding Southampton was gorgeous, and lonely. Maybe too lonely, as we stayed towards the middle heading into Raccoon, the boats that stayed to the left made gains on us again. We could see the drama developing behind us: Flying Tiger was followed closely by Firefly, with Mooretician now in close chase. 

As we exited Raccoon by Pt Stuart, the breeze was back on. The #1 was overpowered, the main was complaining, but it was manageable, and we rounded and reached back to Corinthian. The drama was palpable behind us. Flying Tiger held her lane but Mooretician linked some waves and we watched in awe as they *roasted* past Firefly right at the tip of Belvedere, for a third place finish.

Farallones up next folks!

Karl

Complete results here

07 - Doublehanded Moore 24

Time on Time 650/(550+PHRF)

Start: 02/29/20 at 11:15:00

Wind: --- from ---

Fleet:

8

Course: 1   Distance: 18.00

Tide:    ---     ---

Started:

8

Finished:  6

Sail #

Boat Name

Points

Skipper

Rating

Finish Time

Elapsed Time

Corrected Time

Club

Make

Comments

121

SNAFU

1

Karl Robrock / Bart Hackworth

150

15:35:14

04:20:14

04:01:39

ryc

Moore 24

155

FLYING TIGER

2

Vaughn Seifers / Michaela Seifers

150

15:39:51

04:24:51

04:05:56

ryc

Moore 24

89

MOORETICIAN

3

Peter Schoen / Roe Patterson

150

15:40:57

04:25:57

04:06:57

tibyc

Moore 24

64

FIREFLY

4

Joel Turmel / Chris Watts

150

15:41:15

04:26:15

04:07:14

ryc

Moore 24

71

TOPPER II

5

Conrad Holbrook / David Mcmurtry

150

15:50:18

04:35:18

04:15:38

ryc

Moore 24

62

PUFFIN

6

Kelly Gregory / Patrick Haesloop

150

16:14:58

04:59:58

04:38:32

Moore 24

51

WET SPOT

9

Dave Hansell / Denis Mulligan

150

DNF

stfyc

Moore 24

76

JR

9

Richard Korman / Chris Davison

150

DNF

cyc

Moore 24

And just for a quick flashback: in 2011 we did the 3-3-3 race combined with an overnighter in Belvedere cove. Siefers and Lahr daughters catching a ride, in pajamas, on the transom Where does the time go?!

Bruzer wins 2019 Nationals

Photo credits Sean Trew, Kandace Farley. Thank you!

The 2019 Moore 24 Nationals proved to be a hard-fought contest, with a range of sailing conditions contributing to a diverse score card for most of the competitors.  Fourteen teams hailing from Seattle, Hood River, Victoria, Santa Cruz and the Bay area attended the event, which was sailed out of Seattle’s Corinthian Yacht Club on Shilshole Bay.  An experienced race committee team led by PRO Charlie Rathkopf made the most of the conditions, with a couple strategic dock postponements (anticipating afternoon northerlies that typically fill in later in the day).  The result was some classic Puget Sound racing with sunshine, relatively flat water, and wind speeds generally ranging between 5 and 12 knots.  

A change in the weather Sunday brought a switch to a somewhat shiftier southerly, which unfortunately died in the afternoon.  As the day’s final race was shortened in a receding breeze, Hood River’s Bruzer emerged at the top of the scoreboard. Per Moore 24 Fleet tradition, winning co-skipper’s Erik Hauge and Mark Harang offer the following insights:

Team Bruzer - Erik Hauge

Moore 24 Nationals in Seattle, Hell Yeah! Sign me up. I love sailing in Puget Sound. It is slightly different than the Gorge, but fun it its own right. It should be a small, mellow, fleet.  I don’t think that many boats will make the trip north for sailing in Seattle in August (wind can be fickle that time of year).  Wait! I need a ride, and Brian Petros #145 has a family wedding that weekend. Luckily, Morgan and Christa Larson are some of the most generous boat owners, huge supporters of the Moore 24 class and sailing in the Hood River community. They will lend me Bruzer, which I was lucky enough to have borrowed previously for a Road Master race in Cascade Locks.  So, now we have a boat. My first call is to one of my close friends and college roommate, no not Andy Schwenk (he was the second call). 1st call was to Mark Harang, who I sailed dinghies and keelboats with in college, Hawaii races, Round the County, South Sound and Center Sound races. Mark and I have been riding bikes more than sailing together lately, so I am stoked he will join the team. 2nd call another college roommate, Andy, who has sailed with me on my Express 27 but he is sailing with Ben and Jen, so he is out. Brad Butler helps connect us with Terry Williamson, who trimmed for Brad and I have sailed with on the Morphine. Now I need to look at crew weight and Brad Speidel, my bow man from the Express 27, fits in nicely.  Low and behold we are 121 pounds shy of max weight. We just happen to have a keen 14-year-old junior sailor, Leif Hauge, who weighs 120 lb and helps Brad on the bow of the Express. The crew is complete.

The crew comes together for the first time Thursday afternoon as we assemble the boat and start to get a handle on rig tune and sort out a boat that I have not sailed on since the 2017 Round the Country race. I did have a look at the entry list and the talent that was on hand, and it was obvious that this was not going to be a small mellow fleet! Fourteen boats from California, Canada and the Gorge. This was going to be a shit fight with almost any boat capable of winning races.  Luckily CYC is going to run a few practice races where we have a chance to line up, tune and see how we go against the competition. The idea was to switch off helming between myself and Mark, so Mark and I each drove a practice race. The results were the same, we were pretty much dead last in both of them. That night at dinner there was a bit of concern hanging in the air, and I think we were all thinking the same thoughts...“ What the hell did we get ourselves into, this is going to be a long weekend”!

Warm summer evening sailing among the Olympics

 It is Bruzer tradition that we have a “Shot of the day” before we go out on the water. Respecting tradition was on the list of our goals, since the one time we forgot things went very, very badly (Santa Cruz Nationals 2013).  For the first day: Goldschläger for the adults.  During the briefing on the way out of the harbor we talked about doing our best, sailing as fast as we could and having fun. We did not have high expectations. We agreed that our best shot would be the long-distance race where local knowledge might be a factor. 

Since day one started out patchy and light, I made the call to put the light guys on the ends of the boat and center our weight in the middle. We pushed Leif up to the bow and had Mark drive the first race. Let’s see how that goes...... 

Racing Summary – Mark 

While we surprised ourselves on Bruzer with a race 1 win, it was the Hood River team onboard Space Toaster that set the tone for the day.  The conditions for race 1 were tailor-made for my self-proclaimed “foot to the next shift” approach.  As the northerly built, however, it was David Gee and team on Space Toaster who sailed most consistently, never finishing worse than 3rd.  The steady breeze and relatively short lines led to aggressive starts.  Race 3 saw five of the favorites picking up an OCS (not a good thing in a no throw-out series).  At the end of the day, Space Toaster held a four-point lead over Bruzer, with More Uff Da, Mooreitican, More Cowbell, and Immortal tightly grouped a few points back.  After all that racing, most sailors had worked-up a powerful thirst, fortunately the locals had a plan. 

A proper window

Messy!

Moore 24 Concourse d’Elegance

Moore Fleet Party Summary - Erik

Ballard Moore Ambassadors (Ben and Jen) organized a fleet BBQ at their beautifully remodeled home. They are always the masters of fun and good times. How cool is it that the whole fleet comes together and parties together? You people already know this, but I am going to remind you, so you don’t take it for granted. The Moore Fleet is very special and always has such a good time. Thanks for having us!

Fireside chat at the Uff Da shrine

Day Two

Bruzer shot of the day – Erik 

Jägermeister! 

Racing Summary continued – Mark 

Day two featured similar conditions; however, lady luck did not smile equally on everyone.  Space Toaster began the day with a dominating performance.  For the second race, they recovered from a restart to motor through the fleet and cap off back-to-back wins.  On Bruzer, we were on a steady improvement cycle, finishing the first two races mid-fleet, but then ending with a third and a first.  Saturday’s final race turned out to be the “distance race” and featured a long run into Shilshole bay with a final beat along the marina breakwater.  When the scores were tallied, Space Toaster led Bruzer by 3 with Immortal, More Uff Da, and Spoon Man closing the gap.  The day’s close racing is highlighted by the following “Saturday only” point totals:  

Spoon Man     15

Immortal          16

Bruzer             17

Space Toaster18

Flying Circus   18

More Uff Da    19

With another day of racing to go, it looked like several boats had a solid shot to win the series.

Amoore #13 rescued and restored

Fun with the drone

Line up

The three decade club

103 returns to from Santa Cruz to familiar waters

Mo Uff Da!

Stoked to see Sean

#131 digging the orange

Moore 24 fleet outdoes itself by hiring celebratory fireboat

Day Three

Bruzer shot of the day – Erik 

Fireball!

Racing Summary continued – Mark 

As it turns out, day three was ruled by the Seattle weather. Things started off with a solid southerly, with rain showers threatening.  The first race was won by Mooretician, with Immortal, More Uff Da, Flying Circus, and Space Toaster rounding out the top five.  At this point, Space Toaster’s lead over Bruzer had swelled to five points with Immortal just six more back.  The last race started in decent breeze, but it decreased rapidly as the fleet rounded the weather mark.  Flying Circus led the way with Bruzer, Morphine, Firefly, and Mooretician all occupying the second spot at one time or another.  The race committee shortened course at the ensuing weather mark where Mooretician once again took the win.  On Bruzer, we were able to sneak by Flying Circus, then hold off a hard charging Ray to finish second.  The shakeup in finish positions left Bruzer on the top step, and with no wind anticipated for several hours, the regatta was over.  A tough finish but not unusual in these parts. Special thanks to the Seattle Moore Fleet and CYC for a great regatta, and thanks again to Morgan and Christa for loaning us such a well-prepared boat. 

1st place Bruzer

The mandatory Moore 24 Nationals traveler box shot

2nd Place Space Toaster

3rd Place: Seldom Seen

Nick Farley - thanks for running the show!

Firefly flies at Huntington

Huntington lake really showed off her beauty this year. A big snow year left spectactular views of snow-capped mountains set in the back drop of the Sierra National Forest, with crystal clear cold water only the bravest dared to enjoy.

Picture perfect

Thirteen boats made it out this year, all stacked with great crew. While reliable breeze filled in each day, it was anything but typical Huntington tactics.

Going right on 2nd row start paid this year!

Firefly had quite the adventure before the regatta even started: with my rig down on deck, an hour before i was supposed to leave RYC to head to Huntington, I removed my battery and set it on the deck as a helpful hand walked by and offered to help throw sails up to me. I of course accepted and as I stacked the sails on the deck I noticed a smell of plastic. As I put the sails below I saw the problem: a couple of shrouds had come in contact with the battery terminals; burn marks as well and parted strands all over my rigging! I removed the shrouds from the battery and quickly removed all my standing rigging to get it replaced. ( Thank you Easom Rigging and Racing ) lesson learned I set out for Huntington. Editor note: the countless adventure/drama stories around getting to Roadmasters events are just part of the deal

Whoops!

Day one gave us breeze out from the left. Conventional wisdom had most of the fleet headed to the boy scout camp off the starting line and making their way up the shore line. We found favorable breeze going mostly up the middle and down wind, you guessed it, mostly down the middle. We were off to a great start the first race until after the weather mark we headed to the wrong downwind mark do to someone printing out the wrong coures sheet! My Bad… We turned around and finish the course properly and took 13th. sometimes its good to get that out of the way i guess.

Banditos absolutely sent it the first two races with two bullets. Moorgasm and Immooral as well as Gruntled also had a great day and it was quite obvious that everyone wanted to take a win at this year’s regatta. The night was filled with great conversation about the day and great food. Simon Winer on Gruntled said something interesting to me after the day concluded witch was ‘ if you have experience here it seems to be a handicap this year ‘ I agreed and think its part of what made it a good day out for us.

Banditos & Lowly worm

Port

Day two the starts were getting pretty intense as everyone wanted to make a good showing. Breeze was a bit more from the right and the Committee end was quite crowded with the docks 25 feet away from the committee mark, making things a little more interesting. Again the middle seemed to work out the best for us, while really studying the puffs to see if we were going to tack or carry on. The RC picked a short course for the first race and a longer for the second with reaching marks. A bit of the tour of Huntington. Lowly Worm and Mooregasm really seemed to have speed and sailed well.

We were delighted to have sailed the way we wanted to, and come out with the victory. The fleet is full of truly talented sailors only surpassed by their great character. In the fleet it can be anybody’s day. The four ties at the end of the regatta is a testament to that.

-Joel Turmel, Firefly

Kites & Mountains

The Firefly crew

Front of the pack

Mooretician & Immoral

Huntington cheerleader extraordinaire Sydnie Moore

117 snazzy Ullman #1

Last NorCal race for San-Diego-bound 137

119 in the fray

Gruntled demonstrates proper tacking

Snafu & Wet Spot marching

Amigos

Big tree camping

Ferry shenanigans

Snafu vs. Coastal Cup 2019

I had some unsettled business with Coastal Cup after making landfall by air instead of water two years ago. Steve and I were ready to take another stab at it. Snafu has been equipped with a bomber Ballenger rig - the Express 27 section rather than Ultimate 20 section this time.

This year’s Coastal Cup was attended 18, mostly by big boats: an Australian RP66, two SC70’s, SC50’s Oaxaca & Deception, SC52 Lucky Duck, and a couple of Cal 40’s. Mostly Bay Area boats - a community we all know. The outliers were us as the lone Moore 24, and two Express 27’s: Tequila Mockingbird and Bombora. Unlike two years ago where they started us all in the same start (amusing!), the RC started the small boats first, and gave us a little gap to work with on our way upwind to Pt Pinos. They timed it perfectly: the first big boat to round, Lucky Duck, rounded just behind us, and rolled over us as we cracked off to a reach heading southwest. It was super fun having the big boats roll by rather than have them start 30 minutes ahead and never see them again.

We had a full arsenal of kites for this trip that Steve (Hogin Sails) made. The regular class runner kite, a shy kite (flatter, smaller), an A5 reacher and an A2.5 runner. Mas! had led the development of asymmetrical kites on Moores in the 2016 Pac Cup, and now a few of us have these kites.

Credit to Ian Rogers & Mark English from Mas! for the sail chart

Once rounded Pt Pinos, we cracked off the #1 and aimed directly for the next point of land: Cypress Point. The Expresses didn’t crack off. I suspect because they wanted to get height before setting their kites - or maybe they didn’t want the big boat dirty air. We bee-lined it and as soon as the wind backed to about 85 degrees true, we hoisted the A5 - breeze was still light. We may have only carried that sail for 30 minutes, but in that time, we scooted forward and rounded at Cypress point right along side the Expresses. With the wind backing, we set the A2.5. The Expresses set their symmetrical reachers. Yet It was night and day - the 2.5 is just fast. Bombora sailed high, Tequila sailed low closer to shore. They were separating and had to make a call on who to cover.

Check out those numbers. A2.5 sailing its optimal angle

We had downloaded GFS weather data for the course, and HRRR data for Monterey Bay and the Santa Barbara channel. I downloaded a last data set while we still had cell reception and sailing conditions were modest. The routing based on the HRRR data wanted us to jibe inshore for a geographical shift (that GFS did not see). I wasn’t keen on that. Not a fan of inshore waves - I just wanted the nice stuff further out. But I also didn’t see the value in going high - there wasn’t a pressure gradient out there to go for, it was all pretty uniform across the course.

Routing using HRRR data (left) vs GFS data (right)

Tequila seemed to be doing what we would do, so we stuck with them. The late afternoon was fun as the breeze built, at first lots of pumping to catch waves, and eventually freshened. It seemed that in the swell we were pretty on par with speed, surfing more easily. Matt on Tequila was in disbelief at how low we were able to sail. The breeze filled in the evening - absolutely glorious evening conditions.

Another major change this year was moving from Tacktick to B&G instruments. NMEA0183 to NMEA2000 - it’s just a world of difference with the faster data rates (10Hz vs 1Hz). We had one display giving us true wind angle and wind speed, the other SOG and heading. With a full sail chart, we know exactly what sails we should be in for the wind conditions, and we can sail extremely effectively by True Wind Angle. Not only does it eliminate the need to kink your neck every few seconds to glance up - having a numerical value for TWA really does allow you to sail a lot closer to the edge (e.g. >172deg TWA) when you want to. I find it really difficult to discern those nuances in TWA when you are looking at a Windex (apparent wind angle), so you probably end up sailing closer to 165 and won’t sail really any deeper down a wave. With a TWA readout, you know exactly where that line is. Pretty powerful. This is all standard stuff on big boats, just new to us small guys that usually sail by the seat of the pants.

The night came, we lost track of Tequila - they sailed a little higher and went further out. Bombora had jibed behind us and went closer to shore. My preference was to stay offshore in cleaner seas, though I’m not sure the inshore vs. offshore difference was as dramatic as it was last time.

The breeze held by the middle of the night was a solid 23 gusting to 28, 30 now and then. That is full on for doublehanding in big seas all night long without depowering. Last time I was at the climbing gym I did this route labeled 5.11b: Tripping on Cortisol. Most of the night felt that way to me, as I clenched my foul weather gear between my teeth as a mouthguard. Part of what was unanticipated was that we were supposed to be falling off the back of the pressure zone that was moving south. Instead we surfed our way to out-sailing our polars, and found ourselves well inside that pressure zone next time I re-ran a route.

Planned route. We caught up to the 25kt pressure zone and rode it south

Doublehanding a textbook Coastal Cup is tough. At night here’s just no backing off, no moment for a break - and we knew the competition was fierce. If there was a lull for a few minutes I could go sit down below, weight in the middle, and try to run a new route. We had to do this pretty often because we were blowing away our polars and constantly ahead of where we thought we should be.

Throughout the night we saw lights, heard chatter on 16 with racers coordinating with ship traffic. There was something eerie about the whole thing. A light appeared to port and slowly converged, passing in front of us. We weren’t sure what it was, but presumed it was a big boat - maybe one of the Cal 40’s. Green turned white then red as it moved over to the right into the distance.

Snafu, Bombora (green) and Tequila (orange) converged in a tight beeline

Steve and I had alternated driving, with stints ranging from 30 minutes to maybe 1.5 hours. I lost track of how many roundups we had, but probably 6 or so. There’s just something about these waters that feels BIG. Nervewracking. Like a Pac Cup squall that just keeps going. But the waves are sketchier. They knock you around. They’re breaking all around you. At 1:15am or so, we rounded up, and just like that, the squared back pole rotated aft, and snapped like a toothpick around the shroud. Not sure how that happened but I presume the foreguy came loose. We took the kite down, and pulled out the backup pole. It was a dented, crusty old thing, and didn’t have a foreguy bridal. We lost a few minutes there under main only, and decided to hoist the shy kite.

At 2am we heard the USCG announce a small craft advisory for the SB channel. Wait a minute! Our HRRR data for the channel shows 15 dying to 5kts and hot angles. We heard that announcement a few more times through the night. We knew we were going to have to improv the plan in the channel.

The breeze moderated, but running on the backup, we decided to wait until daylight before shifting back up to a full kite. We were a little frazzled and gun shy. As the early light arrived, we tried to figure out what boat that was to the right of us. With both waves on a crest the red hull was visible. The kite matched recollection too. Damn it’s Bombora! A2.5 time immediately. It was back to match racing and the entry strategy to the channel and the finish became clear: stay between them and the finish.

Rounding Conception was nothing short of glorious, alongside Bombora.

My recollection of Conception was that it was the gateway to Southern California. As soon as you round, the winds moderate, the waters become turquoise, layers come off, you sail hotter angles, maybe weight to leeward. Winds moderated to 15 or so and we did shed a layer. And then WHOOM. Back up into the 20’s and immediate wipeout. Back on our feet, back in full plane, and then more pressure. Like the hand of God pushing you from behind, gusting to 32kt. The small craft advisory as promised, cortisol levels rising again. I thought this was over!

Solid 13’s in the channel

Eventually, around 8am the winds moderated for real, and we threw in a couple of jibes to play the shifts and keep aiming at the finish. Bombora on our heels. We crossed the invisible line 11 miles from Santa Barbara just before 10am, and doused. Within minutes, the wind died fully, it seemed. We stopped to say hi to Rebecca, Julia, and Zac. They had beers, we did not. They tossed us a flask of whiskey that became the object of a laughable MOB drill and then motored back to SBYC in calm waters and no breeze. The rest of the fleet had some light air battles at the end.

We had no idea what our standings were. We knew that our routing had forecast us to finish in 24h 31m, and I had no expectation of being able to sail a perfect race - we anticipated 25-26 hours, maybe more. We finished in 21h 51m. During the couple of hours of the motor back, our results were posted. We corrected out first, Bombora 2nd overall. 52 minutes ahead of Velvet Hammer in 3rd place on corrected time; we set a corrected time course record in the process. There was a moment of celebration among these two bubbly groups of tired sailors.

No doubt the small boats sailed a great race, coming in hot right behind the SC50’s

SB harbor was full of sleds, staged for the SoCal300. Everyone onboard waved, and seemed to know the small boats as we motored in with our rattlecan outboards. The whole experience was pretty insane, and hanging out with all of the folks that sailed down the coast with you, on a sandy beach with a band and a drink in your hand is all pretty surreal.

Snafu in her happy place in Santa Barbara

Bombora drying out

Beachfront racing

Moore 24’s back on the Perpetual, alongside Mas!

The ORR-EZ misfits!

The small boats did really well this year. The Moores and Expresses were able to sail to their full potential - and surf. And surf. And surf. Wavefronts were going 13 knots. We heard from big boats saying they were just locked into a wave, going the same 13 knots we were doing on a plane. The best part of this was being in good company - having competitors in the same battle. More is only better.

The Coastal Cup experience is truly unique. It encompasses so many of the elements of an ocean race, in a (typically) nuclear 24 hour run. It’s not full on Pac Cup, but the closest thing to it, and a gem (is the analogy the K2?) of west coast sailing. It’s extraordinary to be able to compete against the big boat campaigns, on their turf, with relatively modest budgets. Do it.

Karl

Flying Circus takes the Ditch

22 Moores showed up on the line for the 4th event of the Roadmasters series. Those numbers from come from newcomers on the scene such as Chris Berge’s #119 A Little More, from Santa Cruz, some Jack &Jill couples like John & Erica on #77 Moorigami, and folks like the Lahr family taking growing your own crew literally: Dad + two kids. This year also seems to have marked the transition to the majority doublehanding this race.

The headline of this Ditch Run however, was Bill Erkelens on his new ride Flying Circus with his overall win. In between managing Volvo campaigns and other ocean-related professional pursuits, Bill has a double life resurrecting barn find Moore 24’s and putting them back in the racing scene. Thank you for your service to the fleet Bill!

His latest project #11 is an early production coveted ‘stringer’ boat. It was also unusually heavy (see original weights!), recorded as 300lbs above class weight when originally built. There’s a long story about how the hull was damaged by the weight of water that had filled the cabin, put back in the mould (!) by Ron Moore some 15 years ago, deck re-done, and then left as a partially finished project.

The economics of the barn find take a swift turn when the barely used racing sails are unrolled. Rats!

100lbs of the extra weight are in the keel, which is what had Bill single the boat out as a winner. With the project complete, the boat weighs in at 2050 - 6 lbs above class weight. Fast boats don’t win races though, sailors do. Some words from Bill on the day:

Was an awesome day for the Moores! Enough breeze to rip in the puffs but not so much that it got out of hand in the jibes double handed. We went double handed, one light jib (JT) and had ability to rake rig WAY forward with aft lowers backed off as far as they would go. OK start which allowed us to jibe just after the gun and set. Small pack of us went North of the Brothers and closer to the deep water which was a slow gain all the way down to Vallejo channel. We reached up about halfway to the Vallejo channel to consolidate on the Northern boats. Played the puffs for the next section past Benicia then sailed low into the channel under the Benicia bridge which helped us relative to the boats that stayed high on that leg. The balance of the race was managing the traffic jams of slower boats. We passed all but one E27 and as we climbed that fleet they got harder and harder to pass! My neck is sore from turning to watch Pegasus pressing up on us all day with filling breeze. Sections with wind going forward helped us stretch back out but the long runs had the other Moores pressing up to us.  Finished with all our fingers and toes so a successful day!

Flying Circus in good form - photo courtesy of Slackwater_SF

The rest of the event was a familiar affair - a dog fight with constant lead changes and big boats in the mix.

photo courtesy of Slackwater_SF

Banditos & Immoral finish 5 seconds apart for 3rd & 4th place

A major super frustrating reshuffling then took place in the middle group of finishers’ last 50 feet, causing the RC to re-issue the scoring after closer review of video.

Pile of Moores finishing with Cal 40 and hot angle J boat in the mix

All the threats and profanity from the race course turn into laughs and fist pumps at the Stockton sailing club. It’s just a big family gathering, really. Next up Huntington!

The always-smiling Syd

Kurt Lahr with son Owen and daughter Hayden as crew. What more could you ask for?

The familiar sight at RYC the morning of the Ditch

Webb Chiles circumnavigation - the stats on his 30,000 miles

Dear Fellow World Cruiser Owners,

At first light on Monday, April 29, GANNET and I sailed into San Diego Bay completing her first circumnavigation and my sixth.

The final passage from Balboa, Panama, to San Diego was slow and difficult, the hardest I can ever recall when there was no severe weather.  We never had more than 25 knots of wind and possibly no more than 20.  My wind instruments have died again so I can only estimate.  

What we did have was a thousand mile almost windless hole.  

As you know in light wind a Moore 24 can sail windspeed or nearly, yet that doesn’t help when windspeed is 2 knots or 0.  The most common word in the passage log is probably ‘becalmed’.  And the most common phrase:  ‘the wind headed us.’  

We had by far our slowest noon to noon run of the entire circumnavigation, only 16 miles, and I had the G2  asymmetrical up part of the day.  Ten days later we broke that regrettable record with a day’s run of only 14 miles.  Five of the six slowest weeks of the circumnavigation occurred during this passage.

The calms were followed by headwinds.  These were predictable,  but I had hoped we might have to beat only the last 800 or 1000 miles.  We did beat the last 1500.

The daily runs  for the entire circumnavigation total 29989 miles.

The best noon to noon run was 185 miles between Marathon and Hilton Head last year.

The worst 14 miles between Balboa, Panama, and San Diego this year.

The best week 1002 miles between San Diego and Hilo, Hawaii in 2014.

The worst week 368 between Balboa and San Diego this year.

The longest passage: Darwin to Durban  5814 miles 55 days.

The shortest passage: Hilo to Honolulu 197 miles 2 days.

Not counting the anchorages while daysailing inside the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns to Cape York, Australia, or the side trip to St. Michaels, Maryland, last year, we stopped only thirteen times.  People arbitrarily divide sailors into either racers or cruisers.  A circumnavigation with only thirteen stops is not cruising.  It is not racing either.  Maybe I’m just a sailor.

2014 Hilo; Honolulu; Apia; Neiafu; Opua

2016  Bundaberg; Darwin; Durban

2017  St. Helena; St. Lucia; Marathon

2018  Hilton Head

2019  Colon/Balboa; San Diego

I believe we were under sail 302 days.

I put the masthead in the water at least three times.  The Windex was replaced in New Zealand, South Africa and St. Lucia.  The wind instruments in South Africa and St. Lucia.

I cracked the hull keel joint.  This is not a criticism, but perhaps as someone suggested proof that I sailed to the edge.

GANNET was in many gales, the two most severe while approaching New Zealand and South Africa both had 55 knot winds as officially recorded.

GANNET is presently in San Diego while I have flown home to Evanston, Illinois.  I will return to her in about six weeks.

People who passed by her on the dock last week often comment that she does not look as though she has sailed 5,000 miles this year and 30,000 in the past five.  As far as I know she has no significant damage.  However, she needs expected maintenance, particularly in what I call The Great Cabin.

It is said that artists should always be striving to create a masterpiece.  Marine architects and boat builders are artists as well as engineers and craftsmen.  In the Moore 24 George Olson and Ron Moore created a masterpiece as proven by all your race wins continuing through the present on a more than forty year old design and by hull number 40, GANNET, built as an around the buoys racer, sailing around the world.

We have great boats.  I trust that yours brings you the joy and pride and satisfaction that GANNET brings me.

Sail on.

Webb unable to withhold a smile. Image courtesy of Latitude 38

Gannet back where she started

Back in the comforts of home

Webb’s surreal blog can be found here: http://self-portraitinthepresentseajournal.blogspot.com/

2019 Doublehanded Lightship

How the hell did those two knuckle heads know where to go ??? Well it was easy, I got the hot tip from coach Dave Hodges. We looked at the wind forecast and the tide charts, the gears started turning in Dave’s head…. He said go left for current relief heading out, and right going in, Sweet… we had a plan.

We had a decent start with a little puff that pushed us ahead of most of the fleet, then stopped dead and rolled by everyone. But we had a plan and we where sticking to it. So, we slowly worked are way to the south tower following the Wolf Pac A- loot- trash [editor side note: this is a reference to Andy Hamilton, owner of Moore 24 Barbaloot, Pete Trachy owner of Moore 24 White Trash, sailing on their new Donovan 30 Wolf Pack]. Tacked and headed in toward mile rock, we had just enough pressure to keep us moving forward. About half way to mile rock we looked back, and most of the fleet was going backwards. Dude it’s working, we need beers and tunes, so I jump down below to queue up some Bob Marley and grab a couple cold ones…… poooooooof, the manual cord on my PFD had come out and got snagged on the hatch. Mike was laughing in my face before the thing could fully inflate. No problem I have a spare cartridge I’ll just do I quick reload, oh wait its in the truck!!!!

So we made it out of the bay with the Wolfpack and Banditos ahead us, flopped over to port and the drag race began. We were a bit over powered with the J2 and that mixed sea state was terrible, but we made it work. Banditos was to in front and leeward of us, they where blocked by the jib so we didn’t have constant visual with them. We sent it straight out the main channel, by the time we got to close to the last mark I look over and see Banditos way low. We looked at the chart plotter, we were right on course. I don’t know why they went so low, But thanks John for the early x-mas gift. We tacked at the Lightship with the Condor and headed off to mile rock. When we got about a quarter mile for mile rock we saw something going on with the condor, we were about set but held off for a few minutes to see what was going on, didn’t hear any chatter on any of our 3 radios. After a few minutes they got it together a sailed off. So, we set, had to gybe to clear the south tower, then back to starboard for finish.

Scott Nelson and Mike Radziejowski on Lowly Worm 2.0

Thanks Karl for all your hard work, I probably would have skipped this one if it wasn’t for you pushing the offshore thing. Thanks Syd Moore for the use of your life sling and jack lines, and of course Mike Radziejowski for sailing with me

Hope to See Ya All in Santa Cruz for the PCCs

Team Worm 2.0

Results posted

[Editor note: Huge thanks to Leslie Richter at Rockskipper.com for the fleet shots!]

2019 Farallones champ John Kernot and Steve Carroll on Banditos

Joel Turmel and Hood River guest driver Dave Gee on Firefly

Peter Schoen and Roe Patterson on Mooretician

Mark English and JP Sirey on Mas!

Conrad Holbrook and Eric Ochs on Topper II

2019 40th Doublehanded Farallones

Ocean racing is a completely different experience than Bay racing. There are far fewer heart pounding moments like starts, mark rounding and spirited discussions with other boats. There are far less boat on boat shenanigans, but there is lots of strategy and boatspeed discussions - and a lot of other discussions about who knows what before remembering you are supposed to be racing and preparing for the next change that the weather or race course will throw at you. That said, even on a 50+ mile race the Moores were never very far apart. We sailed three abreast bow for bow on starboard tack for at least 3 hours each one of us having moments of ‘we’re going great’ to moments of ‘what the hell just happened’ as the other guy legs out on you.

The race was started in 0-3 knots easterly in a very early quiet ebb. The Moores were the 8th start and we got a little puff in our sequence that got us drifting a little faster than the previous starts, quickly putting us amongst some of the bigger boats. This helped set us up for the overall corrected time results. The northwesterly filled in from....of course, the south, and all the fleets were fully powered up an hour after the first gun. Snafu led the charge out past Bonita. The 6 boat Moore fleet largely stuck together early working our way west and north beyond Bonita, the big question as always was when to commit for the island on starboard. Then came the 3 hour long drag race to the island. The breeze lifted significantly leaving us free to ease the jib slightly and sail fast. The headsail change was always coming and inevitably arrived with the breeze hitting 12 -15 knots.

The island could be seen from 20 miles away- at 6ish knots it is a long layline. We got there around 2.30-3pm in about 20 knots with slightly eased sheets. The island was spectacular, crystal clear with relatively calm seas. As per usual, there was only time enough to steel a few glances at her. Banditos led by just a few boat lengths from Snafu with Mooretician just behind in 3rd.. The first 5 Moores rounded within 10 mins of each other- marvelous racing after around 6 hours on the track.

Gorgeous day at the islands

On the far side of the island chutes were popped on starboard before a quick gybe back to port to see if we could lay the bridge as it was always going to be a tight headstay reach. Now was when you really missed a having 800+ lbs of crew camped on the rail to get the boat rolling. It was obvious we weren’t going to lay the bridge as Pacifica was mostly in our sights. So about half way in to the bridge, kites came down. The wind strength popped up a little a bit and the wave angle squared and we actually got in a few nice surfs.

Positions stayed as they were at the island but we had lost sight of Mooretician, which is never a good thing in the ocean. We were joking that Mooretician had gone north early from the island and was roaring down the course to our north....naah couldn’t be. Sure enough their kite appeared at Bonita seemly abeam of us as we popped the kite again just outside of Mile Rock. Mooretician & Snafu converged incredibly close to each other at the bridge after having sailed completely different courses on the way in. They were close behind us as we all gybed onto starboard to make the finish line within a few minutes of each other.

Mooretician approaching the finish

Big thanks to BAMA for continuing to make this incredible experience possible for us all.

- John Kernot, Banditos

Results posted

Mooretician

Topper II

Snafu

Banditos