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First Person Account: Tornado Catamaran Sailor "Enters" the Tri-Point Anacapa Race.
Well, I crashed the Tri-Point race last Saturday. This race, part of the LandRover 3 races series, goes around Rig Gina & Anacapa Island to starboard and is organized by PierPoint Bay Yacht club in Ventura Harbor, CA. Race distance is ~45 miles. It's primarily a lead-bottom sailboat race, but they have an ORCA class for multihull sailboats. My Tornado catamaran doesn't qualify, but what the heck, it's a free ocean! Here's my report of the race... my first ever solo circumnavigation of Anacapa Island:
Multi's started last (about 11:25am) at the Mandalay power station buoy in 5-10 knots wind in fairly flat seas. Since I wasn't an official entry, I decided to let Afterburner (a 52 ft LOA catamaran racing machine), 2 of 10 (a 36 ft Rolland flat-out racing catamaran), a Reynolds 21 catamaran, and several Farrier and Corsair Trimarans have their way with the line.
Multi's started last (about 11:25am) at the Mandalay power station buoy in 5-10 knots wind in fairly flat seas. Since I wasn't an official entry, I decided to let Afterburner (a 52 ft LOA catamaran racing machine), 2 of 10 (a 36 ft Rolland flat-out racing catamaran), a Reynolds 21 catamaran, and several Farrier and Corsair Trimarans have their way with the line.
I stayed well to leeward and behind until they had all cleared the line. Spent the first 20 min. on a reach leg to oil rig Gina working my way through the fleet wind shadows to leeward of mono-slugs and Trimarans. Afterburner and 2 of 10 were at the rig before I even made it to the half way point.
Winds had picked up to 10-15 knots and I was beginning to have some trouble keeping the boat down in the gusts. Honking on some downhaul (8:1 purchase) helped flatten off the top nicely and kept the hull down some. Coming around the rig, I had about 2 min. lead on an F28R trimaran after about 25 min. of sailing. I thought I had blown it when I passed quite close to the rig and I just stopped completely in it's lee. I sat helplessly as the F28R closed in. Suddenly I was back in the heavy air and off I went. No need to tack around the rig, as the course to the Esat end of Anacapa was still a close reach.
I still had a few mono's to pass on this leg, since they had started some 25 minutes ahead of us. Blew past them doing around 7-13 knots via GPS. As I approached the island, wind began to lift even more, and was up near 17-20 knots. More trouble holding the hull down so I travelled out a few inches (no need to point since I could easily make the island on a reach). As I passed behind the arch rock of the island, swell disappeared but the wind kept on blowing strong...but it was a lot more gusty. WhoaHoo! Flat water & high speed!. By this time the F28R was about 10 minutes behind.
The great conditions seemed to continue as I made my way to the midpoint of the backside. Then I spotted a big sail at the far end...it was Afterburner! I could not belive I was actually on the same leg within visual range as this awesome speed machine at about 1.5 hour mark of the race. Looking along the shore and ahead, I suddenly spotted 2 of 10 (actually he was very hard to see since his kevlar sails were a near perfect camouflage against the brown cliffs of Anacapa Island).
But wait, he seemed to be very close to shore...and NOT MOVING! Was it really him or some guy at anchor? Decided to stay out away from that area incase it was a hole of some sort. Kept trucking. I could see Afterburner making his tack to head back across the channel. By the 2/3 mark along the backside, speed suddenly went to zero as I fell into the ugly wind shadow that had entrapped 2 of 10...despite staying much further out. There I sat. And Sat. And Sat. Looking back, I could see the entire fleet of mono's & tri's marching towards me at full tilt! 3 miles...2 miles...1 mile. Still coming! Wham! Everyone hit the hole! Only Afterburner had escaped (something to do with that 80 ft mast catching wind coming over the tops of the cliffs no doubt!). So, we all sat there... miserable as can be! I could see folks breaking out their lunches. I grabbed a few swigs of GatorAid right before I felt a puff. WIND! I starting moving and within about 30 secs was up to 10 knots again. As I looks back, I could not believe my luck...I was the only boat moving...not even 2 of 10 had got it yet.
I headed out further from the cliff while I still had wind just in case...but it held steady. Finally , after about 10-15 min., the fleet began moving again. It seemed to fill in everywhere. Once 2 of 10 got it, he quickly passed me and disappeared around the tip of the island in hot pursuit of Afterburner. As I rounded the tip and tacked for home, I saw the F28R about 10-15 minutes back, heading in close to shore looking for a lift. As I turned for the heading home, wind was at 15 knots steady, course was a good fast beam reach. Got up to 15 knots steady boat speed with moments of 17 to 18 knots. Looking over my shoulder, I never saw another boat emerge from behind the island. I was putting some real distance on them.
About ten min. into the leg, I spotted a damn sunfish flapping around on the surface. It was about 2 feet to windward so I steered lower to give it a wide berth. At the midships point, the damn thing decided it's life was worth living and bolted right towards the hull and on into my rudder. Hit one of these lethargic big fish at 5 knots is one thing (I had hit one earlier this summer in the Milt Ingram race) but at 17 knots! Rudder kicked up but I couldn't see if there was a blade still attached or just fish guts everywhere. Since I could still steer with the one blade on the leeward side still down (although with lots of side loading on the raised blade on the windward side from the cross waves), I decided not to stop to inspect/re-lock down the blade. Another 40 min. and I was across the line inside Ventura Harbor.
They didn't give me a finish gun...but I took my own time...3 hours, 17 minutes...and that's including the 15 minutes dead stop behind the island! I was the 3rd boat to finish. 2 of 10 was ~17 min ahead while 'burner was more 40 min under my time. The next boat to finish, the F28R, was 21 min. behind me. Handicaps couldn't help...the race uses (and 'burner & 2 of 10 only have) PHRF ratings while Tornado uses Portsmouth.
Afterburner ended up winning on corrected time... quite a surprise because he's got a terribly fast rating to overcome... must've been the hole he seemed to missed that made the difference.
What a day!
Mike Dobbs
Tornado CAN 36 "DoubleMint"
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