Redwood City Sail - October 25

by Greg Yu

Where was everybody? My HMS-18 Sampan was the only Potter around when Rosita, Steven, and I arrived at the Redwood City ramp in our usual fashion - about 30 minutes late. There were about 10 trailers at the parking lot, but none resembled Potter trailers. Steven and I went about rigging up the boat while Rosita amused herself by watching us struggle with our mast-raising ritual. We had the boat rigged in record time - for us, that is - about 50 minutes. There were still no other Potters in sight, and I was eager to get in the water before Rosita realized that the wind was picking up.

Right after we launched, Ed Ochoa and his wife Carol walked up toward us at the dock. Ed is a Potter Yachter wannabe who has talked to me a couple of times on the phone and had come over to my house to see my Potter on the previous weekend. He and Carol were just about going to lunch at the restaurant across from the ramp when he spotted my Potter and came over. I invited them out for a sail, but they had other plans after lunch.

By the time we motored out to the inner harbor the wind was about 15 mph. After we dodged the 20 or so Sunfish that were having a regatta, we raised sail and started out Redwood Creek toward the Bay on a close haul. Steven was having a great time experimenting with our newly acquired Garmin GPS-12, while Rosita slipped into the cabin and dozed off in the v-berth.

The wind really picked up by the time we approached marker 13, and Steven reported our speed as 7.2 mph according to the GPS. Not wanting to alarm my crew, I decided to tack and head back toward the inner harbor. The weather channel on the VHF radio reported gusts of up to 35 mph (I assume out in the Bay), and I estimated our wind speed to be around 25 mph. Recalling the Fisherman's Reef technique that Larry Costa taught me last year at Lake Pillsbury, I pulled in my jib (thank goodness I had my small jib hoisted instead of my lapper) real tight and let my main out. We managed to spill enough wind out to keep the boat sailing pretty flat, as evidenced by the fact that Rosita had not sounded any heeling alarm. Our GPS still recorded speeds of 5.5 to 6.8 mph.

By the time we reached the inner harbor, Steven and I had had so much fun that we decided to go back out again. We spent the next 2 hours tacking back and forth between the inner harbor and marker 13, while Steven reported our speed duly every 10 seconds. Meanwhile, the wind was getting even stronger, and we noticed that the big sailboats that went out to the Bay earlier were all returning. We also noticed a trimaran(?) that was whisking past us at what must be 30-40 mph.

Exhaustion finally set in, and so we pointed Sampan toward the wind, dropped sails in a big hurry, fired up the Evinrude, and dodged the same fleet of Sunfish to get to the launch ramp.

Since there were no other boats around, we decided to tie up to the dock to eat our sandwiches before we retrieved the boat. Half-way through my sandwich, a small - .perhaps 15-ft - fishing boat with 6 morons - no PFDs visible anywhere - pulled up and tied up on the other side of the dock. While his five husky friends got off, the skipper pulled out a paddle and started to paddle around the dock ahead of my boat to the ramp, but his paddle was no match for the swift current, which was pushing his boat toward the marina slips. He tried starting his outboard, but it just kept coughing and dying - it was out of gas! I couldn't believe that he would take six overweight guys out on a small open boat on a gusty day with no PFDs and no gas! Just when I was about ready to fire up my outboard to bring him in, a powerboat arrived and towed him in.

After our sandwiches, we retrieved Sampan,shot the breeze with an English gentleman who was launching his 26-ft deep-keel sailboat (what a beauty and a hassle), derigged in not-so-record time, and headed home.

It was great out there, and you guys missed it!

-Greg Yu, HMS-18 #63 Sampan

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