I finished second (in my singlehanded division) again on Saturday, this time behind a beautiful boat called a Diva 39.  I had been OCS at the gun and had to restart, which put me behind a bunch of bigger boats.  As you know, the rating on the J92 usually puts us with 35-40 footers - not where you want to be on your first upwind leg.  Nonetheless it was another spectacular day on San Francisco Bay and I had a lot of race ahead of me.

The short windward leg took us up to Yellow Bluff, in an area known by the locals as Hurricane Gulch.  It's not marked on the chart but you KNOW when you get there.  Then we had a long reach down to PacBell Park where the San Francisco Giants try to play baseball.  Unfortunately the wind was more westerly than usual and too far forward to fly the big 2A on the second half of that leg.  I was wishing for the reacher but when I asked the crew to go change 'er out, no one answered!  The farther south we sailed the farther forward the wind went, so the reacher would have quickly given way to the genoa anyway. Roller furling is a great thing - douse the kite into its companionway bag, unroll the genoa and we're back in business as we approach the next mark.

I rounded with a 63' catamaran which was being sailed doublehanded by the editor of our local sailing magazine and his "SO".  A very capable skipper in her own right, she did not look very happy after multiple calls for the screecher, then the jib, then the screecher, etc.  I have a hunch the "Grand Poobah" might be doing the next race singlehanded.

Finding us on another beam reach, I led the lazy jib sheet through a block out on the rail, through the foot block and up to the windward winch.  The J92 is a reaching machine and we had no trouble staying with some much larger boats.

We sailed back up the Bay in light to moderate breeze until we reached The Slot.  You don't sail for long on San Francisco Bay without becoming well acquainted with The Slot - it is the area where all those great gearbuster photos are taken.  But this day The Slot was fairly benign and after working our way across we approached the next mark - Southampton Shoal light.  We rounded to port and then had a breezy close reach through Raccoon Strait and back to the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon.  I finished after three hours on the course.

Our next race is back in the ocean - a beat out the Golden Gate followed by a broad reach down the California coast to Half Moon Bay for an overnight.