JetStream JS9000 Ready to Race

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE – 2012 Double Handed Lightship. After a bit of a hiatus on the JS we are back to some racing.  Just gotten back from a great race from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta on the good ship Ocelot.  But I had missed sailing on the JS, she had been sitting on the dry for too long.

The Lightship is a buoy marking the center of the approach lanes into the San Francisco Bay.   It extends another 9 miles past lands end in the middle of the Gulf of the Farallones.   With the start at the Golden Gate Yacht Club, it made for a 25 mile race.   Traditionally, we can have strong NW winds, that make for some upwind work out to the mark, rewarded by a screaming run back to the gate.

This is the doublehanded version of the race and Andrew had agreed to come out and play.   We had been following the weather the whole week since there were a few storm systems approaching.  The forecast continually deteriorated throughout the week from a southerly 15 – 25 knoter on Monday to 10 knots by Friday for our Saturday race.    We missed the good winds by 10 hours.  As they did clock the 25 knots Friday night but quickly diminished as the center of the storm passed us.  We were left with light S-SE winds that clocked to the East throughout the day.  If you have read any of my previous reports you know that 10 knots is not our ideal for the JS, but we had been looking forward to do this race and had all the tools in our inventory to be as competitive as we could. MORE STORY