The 2003 BBS got underway on September 11^th with the first two of seven races (two per day ending with one race on Sunday).  The Big Boat Series is the most important regatta for Scorpio.  Even in even-numbered years where we typically race to Hawaii in the Pacific Cup, the Big Boat Series is our most anticipated and most challenging event.

Scorpio’s involvement actually started with two tune-up regattas:  the Aldo Alessio Regatta hosted by the StFYC the first weekend in August following by SFYC’s Quickboat Regatta on a weekend later in August.  Historically, we’ve used these two events as an opportunity to get in some serious practice in a competitive situation.  The Scorpio BBS crew had been finalized in June, resulting in the selection of 12 individuals who seemed to work well together and whose combined weight fell slightly (three pounds) under the 2,151 pound weight limit imposed by the Americap handicap system.  The Americap rule is a relatively new handicapping system administered by US Sailing.  It’s a good system in that it’s entirely objective, based on boat specifications, and not subject to the politics of local committees who feel their role is to “even the playing field”.  It’s a bad system as it’s impossible to understand.  Despite it’s scientific merit, the fact that competitors have no “feel” as to how they’ve done until they read the computed race results.  This results in a strange blend of confusion, euphoria and bewilderment depending on the posted outcome of the races.  Despite our perceived performance in a given race, when asked how we did, our canned answer was “somewhere between first and last … we’ll let you know when the results are posted.”

Scorpio’s tune-up regattas were great practice and were very successful.  Scorpio won the four-race Aldo Alessio and took third in the five-race Quickboat series.  One of our crew couldn’t make the Alessio and two were unable to make the Quickboat regatta, but we nevertheless felt reasonably comfortable as a team when we assembled late Wednesday afternoon for a late practice the day before the BBS.  We spent 90 very productive minutes in very windy (22-26 knots) conditions sailing upwind to the GG Bridge, downwind below Alcatraz, back upwind to the bridge, then a short run to the marina.  In that time we tested a couple of jibs, and had some great downwind work jibing about 20 times in the brisk conditions.  We felt good after the practice and retreated to the club for a skipper’s meeting and crew reception.  The parties were well received and made getting up Thursday morning less than pleasant.

Of the 100+ entrants in this year’s event, 23 boats competed in three Americap divisions.  Scorpio fell in division B, competing against six other medium sized “big boats.”  Americap B was comprised of Scorpio, Chance a Farr 39.5 who won last year’s event, Cita a bright yellow Shock 40 from Newport Beach, Zamazaan a Farr 52 a venerable 25+ year old IOR-designed boat, Blue Chip a modern Farr 40 who chose not to race in the highly competitive Farr 40 class, Infinity a Holland 47 from Point Richmond, and Jacana a J-46 that had been shipped from the UK for this series.  Cita was by far the fastest boat in the division, but had a handicap rating that made it difficult for them to win races.

We met a the boat each morning at 0900 stowed sandwiches and water below, prepared sails, rigged the boat, and headed for the starting area shortly after 1000.  We conducted our pre-race briefing on the way to the start, and debriefed at the dock after each day.  The starts alternated each day between the City Front course just West of Treasure Island, and the Bay course which started just Northwest of the Berkeley Pier.  Upon completion of the first race each day, we immediately sailed to the other starting area to await our race.  Both starting areas are approximately four-to-five miles from our tight quarters in the harbor, sharing the guest dock with about 100 other boats.

A high-pressure system entered Northern California on Thursday morning and stayed around through Saturday.  That meant extremely hot weather and very light winds until mid-afternoon.  So, the first three days saw racing postponed from one to three hours awaiting the arrival of a consistent westerly.  It didn’t look good for the StFYC race committee.  Miraculously, all seven races were completed according to the four-day schedule.

Race 1 – Course 1 – 12-16 knots            2^nd
The racing finally began after a 2.5-hour postponement.  We finished just seven seconds out of first and three seconds ahead of third in this eight-mile windward-leeward course.  As in all the races, Cita finished was first to finish.  Zamazaan was a surprise winner.

Race 2 – Course 27 – 14-18 knots             1st
Upon finishing race 1, we moved to the Bay Course starting area (off the West end of the Berkeley Pier).  We won this race convincingly by nearly a minute though we were third to finish.  We finished at 5:30, put the boat away and hit the showers.  The crew enjoyed a spirited party hosted by Mount Gay Rum.  As I said earlier, we were always unaware of our likely place until actually seeing the posted results.  At our debriefing at the dock on Thursday, we felt we sailed pretty well and were delighted with our 2-1 results in the first two races. 

Race 3 – Course 3 – 12 knots    1^st
Racing began after a nearly two-hour postponement.  We were “rolled” shortly after the start by Cita and sailed in bad air on most of the first beat.  We were well behind most of the fleet and finished just ahead of Chance and just behind Zamazaan.  We spent a lot of time tacking away from our competition along the City Front, and seemed to lose a little on each tack.  Our downwind speed in these light conditions was excellent.  Our new Santa Cruz Sails spinnaker paid dividends, but we weren’t optimistic about our performance overall.

Race 4 – Course 27 – 18-21 knots – 1st
We finished in the middle of a pack of boats and again didn’t have high expectations.  Needless to say we were shocked when the results were posted.  On Friday, we felt we were shocked to learn that we finished 1-1 as we felt we made several mistakes in both races.  But, we had acquired a good overall lead that I privately felt would be hard to lose.  We proved to ourselves that Thursday was not an anomaly and that we could beat our competitors if we continued to “keep our nose clean” and sail well. 

Race 5 – Course 18 – 12 knots – 2nd
Most of the crew went for a swim during the 2.5-hour postponement. We finished just two minutes behind Cita and were very pleased to beat the faster Blue Chip boat for boat in this race.  We spent some time patting ourselves on the back after our finish.

Race 6 – Course 8 – 18-20 knots – 4th
We were very pleased with our day on the water.  We beat Chance by over three minutes and beat Zamazaan boat-for-boat.  We were optimistic during our daily debriefing. We felt Saturday was our strongest day by far.  We sailed a perfect first race and a very good second race.  I learned of our 2-4 results while attending my 40^th High School reunion in Santa Clara that night.  I was disappointed, surprised, and became worried about the prospect of holding our lead.  I was on the computer until 0130 trying to better understand the Americap formula.  I mastered the math, but will never understand the implications.  I couldn’t believe that we beat a 52 footer boat-for-boat, but lost to them on corrected time.  I considered filing a scoring inquiry as Chance had done on Friday.  But, after spending an hour with Bren and Toby in the Club Sunday morning, we decided to keep our mouths shut.  We determined that if we finished fifth or better or if Chance finished third or worse, we would win the series. 

Race 7 – Course 32 – 14-22 knots – 3rd
Sunday morning finally brought San Francisco weather back.  It was gloomy and foggy as we left the dock.  We knew we’d finally have some breeze throughout the day.  The fog lifted by the time racing began at 1100 and we looked forward with some apprehension to the long, bay-tour course that normally concludes the Big Boat Series.  As expected, we sailed a 15+ mile course around the bay with an awkward reach from the North tower of the Golden Gate to a mark in front of the yacht club.  The gybe there to a mark below Alcatraz is a favorite for spectators ashore who enjoy watching the crews try to keep their boats upright during the maneuver.  We finished the 2.5-hour race in fourth place and ended up correcting third.  However, we were only four seconds out of second and seven seconds out of first.  We had won our first Big Boat Series!

We’re still perplexed by the Americap system.  The way it works is that a US Sailing-certified measurer weighs and measures all boats in a number of ways (mast height, fore triangle size, displacement, length, etc. etc. etc.)  Then, they assign to each boat two coefficients for seven different course configurations (e.g. percentage upwind, downwind.)The formula used to compute results is then:  (A x Elapsed Time) – (B x Course Distance).  I’ve crunched the numbers to ensure that the scoring program actually worked as advertised, but I’ll never understand the huge differences among the coefficients assigned to different boats.

Overall it was a great regatta with great, clean sailing, good crew work, very nice weather, parties, etc.  My only regret is that we have to wait a full year to do it again!  When I get too old to participate, I’ll be on the water enjoying the spectacle.  We won the Keefe-Kilborn Perpetual Trophy which is a prestigious, very large and gaudy trophy which fortunately lives at the Club.  I was also given a Rolex Submariner: a very expensive prize.

Next year is a Pacific Cup year for Scorpio.  We’re especially interested since the Waikiki Yacht Club will be hosting their first Waikiki Offshore Championship Regatta shortly after the completion of the PacCup.  We plan to do that, then have GW get the boat back to SF for the Quickboat and BBS events.

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