2009 SF - Monterey Spinnaker Cup
 

For the past five years, the Spinnaker Cup has been Scorpio's only true ocean race.  The 88 mile run to Monterey has always been fun, but also requires some preparation. Identifying and retrieving safety gear from the storage locker, swapping sails, arranging for a rental vehicle for the return trip, getting a deliver crew, etc. takes a fair amount of time and preparation.  But, it's usually worth it, last year being the exception where we had no wind and withdrew and motored to Santa Cruz.

By late Wednesday, we had the boat pretty much ready.  The forecast was for 5-10 knot winds, so we expected an after midnight finish.  This meant we'd have to wait till 0900 Saturday to pick up our rental SUV in Monterey.  For this reason, Brent Harrill and Amy Leenhouts, who had commitments early Saturday, had to back out of the race.  This was fine:  six people should be adequate given the light forecast.  Regulars John, Doug, Toby, Matt and Larry were to be joined by Scorpio Alum Sean McBurney for the race.

I arrived at the boat at 0900 Friday with provision on hand:  cold pizza, 10 sandwiches and assorted snacks.  There we discovered a note on the chart table from Doug who explained that his infant son had undergone emergency small intestine surgery at 0300 that morning, so he'd be unable to make the race.  Needless to say, we are relieved to learn that he's doing fine now.  But, we're down to five.

So, we teed up the offshore main, threw in a reef line and motored across the bay for the 1100 first warning.  Enroute I surprised the crew with a MOB drill by tossing a life ring into the drink.  The life ring survived.

We started with 15 others at 1138 and worked our way to the Sausalito shore to avoid the 4 knot flood current.  It was blowing 15-18 at the start.  Although we were 20 seconds late, we were able to tack immediately and won the right lane.  An hour later we'd escaped the bay in third place, well behind the Antrim 40 (who apparently didn't complete their float plan and consequently wasn't scored) and the new (to the area) Farr 40 - Twisted, both of whom owed us a lot of time.  It was unseasonably cold throughout the race, settling most in the 40s.

The wind lightened as we gradually headed South, and we changed down to the L3.  Our new rig settings immediately paid off as we felt the boat power up with the fuller sail.  We successfully held off Recidivist and Tiburon as we approached Pillar Point.  We squared more and set the asymmetrical spinnaker.  We carried that for about five miles, then switched to the .75 as both Tiburon and Recidivist gained on us.  By the time we were abreast of Ano Nuevo, approximately 3-4nm offshore, Tiburon began reeling us in.  We gybed to the beach and they stayed out.  We immediately gained a mile on them and continued to do so as the wind veered enabling us to clear Davenport.  By now it was dusk and we couldn't see the outside boats. 

The wind backed as we passed Davenport and we sailed into the lift all the way to Table Rock.  We then gybed to starboard and basically sailed rhumb line to Monterey.  Just before midnight we got to Monterey Mile Buoy where it was blowing about 6-8 knots.  We carried the spinnaker another half mile before switching to the L3 in the dying breeze.  We finished under jib at 0021 off the new wharf and motored to our assigned slip in the harbor.  We quickly flaked sails, pulled battens, and bricked the main, three jibs, and four spinnakers for the return trip via automobile.  We then headed for the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club for a last call drink. 

We had a very enjoyable conversation with friends (and Scorpio Alums) from the Santa Cruz 40 Camelot, before retrieving our mast jack and delivery sails from Darrel Louis's truck and putting them on the boat.  The five of us then returned to the boat at 0300 for a nap before picking up the rental car.  I should mention here that Sean McBurney is always fun to sail with, but next time we'll have to find him another place to sleep.  He denies his snoring problem, but we can all attest that it became very quiet after Sean left for the head early Saturday.

At about 0800 we arose, enjoyed a hot shower at MPYC and Toby and I walked to the car rental agency to pickup our monster SUV.  We loaded the eight racing sails into the back, and Toby, Matt, and Sean headed home.  Larry and I had breakfast before the awards ceremony.  We were surprised to learn that we'd won our division (out of 16) and were 6th overall (out of 54).  We picked up our trophy, thanked the race committee, and headed to the boat where we rigged the main before heading to the fuel dock.  We added nine gallons of diesel and began the long motor home.  As it turns out, it was much longer than we had expected.  We left the Monterey fuel pier at 1130 and didn't dock at the StFYC until 0330 Sunday morning.  It was a long slog in moderately windy conditions and large confused seas.  We arrived at the main SF shipping channel at around 0130, dodged a dredge we had been communicating with over VHF, then fought a 4.5 knot ebb current which seemed to take forever.  We were both very tired, freezing cold and wet, and I was finally free of the persistent nausea I'd experience most of the trip.  The next day I delivered Scorpio to KKMI for its return to her cradle.

The Spin Cup is the only PHRF event we participate in, but we do dual-score it under IRC.  As a result of our top finish here, we leapfrogged Tupelo Honey and now lead the SF Bay IRC Season Series.

PHRF-TOT Race Results                       IRC Season Scoring