The Harbor Report: Wild winds, waves make for exciting race
I hope you are all starting to smile a little more knowing that our summer weeknight sailing will be starting May 1. But let’s not forget about April, which is always the most active month of the year for sailboat racing. First I’d like to review the Newport Harbor Yacht Club Cabo San Lucas race.
Team Linstar sailed its Santa Cruz 50 Horizon to third in class — 47 seconds out of second and eighth overall. We sailed very well off the starting line and led the fleet to San Diego. At this point, we sailed into a light wind while most of our fleet sailed farther out to sea and put eight miles on us the first night of the race.
We had to play catch-up for most of the race and hit the last three major wind shifts to place as well as we did. The outside finish strategy paid big dividends.
One of the most exciting moments of the race for us was when we had about 32 knots of breeze as we approached Cedros Island on a dark and chilly night. While off watch, I was awakened by the water rushing past the hull, like the rumble of an approaching thunderstorm, as we surfed down the big waves.
With only 45 minutes left before I had to be on watch, I got out of my bunk and put on my business suit — some people call it foul-weather gear — and life harness. Just as I was going on deck, the crew on watch came down below and asked for everyone to go through a gybe maneuver and spinnaker change to reduce sail area.
When you first go to the deck after waking from a deep sleep, it takes a little while to adjust to the pitch darkness and regain the feel of the boat’s movements, especially in a confused sea state. As I walked into the cockpit and saw the sea condition, I thought, “Oh, shoot, this is going to be Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride again.” I clipped myself onto the boat’s safety lines and sank deeper into the cockpit.
As we went into the boat’s gybing maneuver, moving the main and spinnaker sails from one side to the other, the waves seemed to become larger and the night seemed to get even darker. Just then a large gust of air hit us and we rounded up right into the wind.
It got rather loud at this point with the helmsmen giving orders to regain control of the boat, the sails snapping above our heads and the wind howling. Let’s not forget about the fear factor while trying to keep yourself on the boat along with the rest of the crew.
I have gone through this fire drill plenty of times, and the Horizon crew took it all in stride and regained control of the boat and our composure to complete the maneuver quickly. Now, while under control again and surfing down the huge waves with the spray hitting my face, I smiled because I knew we were doing well and would be passing our competition in these dark and stormy conditions.
This year down the coast of Baja, I noticed the normal amount of dolphins lighting up the night’s water with their photophores as they approached the boat like shooting stars. I also saw a few sea turtles during the day. In fact, we heard a rather loud bump one night and assumed we left a turtle with a rather gnarly headache.
One afternoon, just past Cedros Island, we noticed a large whale completely breach the water while its spray went high into the sky. We were over a mile away and three of us said at the same time, “Did you see that? I’ve never seen that before.”
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Baldwin Cup
It’s April in Newport Harbor, and that means it’s time for the Newport Harbor Yacht Club Baldwin Cup.
The Baldwin Cup will run Friday to Sunday. It is sailed in Harbor 20s with a ton of support from yacht club members and Harbor 20 Fleet 1. If you are on the bay this weekend, you may start to notice moored boats disappear from the yacht club mooring field.
All the racing takes place directly in front of the club’s main dock and will be streamed live from the club’s webcam. The event promotes our harbor and sailing better than anything I have ever witnessed. You can bet I will be on the main dock all three days.
Sea ya.
LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist.