J/111s Cruise Fast in Division(Santa Barbara, CA)- This year’s Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race did not disappoint the 90 boat fleet assembled for one of the most popular mid-summer offshore races in Southern California. The race is full of surprises and the most salient element facing the teams headed on yet another classic “downhill sleigh-ride” was the fact that all weather forecasts were wrong— thank goodness. Top dog in this year’s race for J/Teams was Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s J/88 CRAZY 88, sailing the race for its first time and convincingly winning PHRF Sprit B Class. While the “Doc” has done the race numerous times in the past (J/92, J/125, J/145), the overall and class wins have proven elusive to her team.
The other “most excellent performance” award most assuredly goes to Bill Webster and Mike Moorhead’s J/111 JATO and to Glenn Griley’s J/111 STAMPEDE, both taking a 2nd and 3rd in the highly competitive PHRF A Sprit class. Here’s how the race evolved from the perspective of co-owner Bill Webster:
“The start of the Santa Barbara to King Harbor race was in light air. We started down the line a bit and STAMPEDE started at the pin end in clear air. This allowed them to get in front of us while we had to fight through many other boat's dirties. The SC 37 started with us and they were able to get a bit ahead of us also. At Anacapa Island, they both had managed to get a decent lead on us. We were there with the Ross 40 which owed us time and the J-120 POLE DANCER not far behind us.
We managed to get around Anacapa avoiding the holes and not wasting distance going too far outside. This race is usually windy with conventional knowledge saying to go inshore before you pass Pt. Dume. But this year was lighter than usual with more of an offshore flow. I don't think we ever saw over 13 true on the entire race. Our feeling was that Pt. Dume was going to be very light instead of the usual breezy and we should stay further offshore which matched our polars very well.
We watched the fleet go inshore and it looked like they were killing us. But there was no percentage in following them so we stuck to our plan. We continued down the rhumbline or slightly inside past Pt. Dume and into Santa Monica Bay as it got dark. Santa Monica Bay started getting its usual lighter and lighter self in the evening although we were able to keep up some boat speed.
About 10:30 the breeze picked up to 6-8 knots and we thought that maybe we were not going to have to spend most of the night out in the bay. We had lost sight of the boats inside in the dark and were unaware of how they were doing. Shortly after 11:00 the fog came in thick and we were seeing wind up in the nines from time to time. It was spooky seeing running lights come out of the fog and then disappear as we crossed jibes. They looked like pretty good-sized boats but it was hard to judge in the dark and fog.
As we got close to the harbor entrance we heard the J-133 Tango call the finish boat saying they had just finished. As they owed us quite a bit of time that was encouraging. We crossed the finish line at 12:47 and headed to our slip knowing that we had to pass Stampede's slip. We were surprised when their slip was empty. We got a cheer from our friends on the King Harbor Yacht Club balcony as we went past. One of our friends came down to our slip and told us we were scored 1st in class and 3rd overall at that time. Unfortunately, they had scored the SC37 in another class. When the correction was made and all the boats scored the SC 37 was first and we were 2nd in class with a 6th overall out of 90 boats. Stampede finished 3rd in class and 9th overall just under 7 minutes behind us. I am glad our plan worked!”
For the balance of their fleet in PHRF Sprit A, the J/133 TANGO sailed by Roy Jones took fourth and fifth in class was Joe Simpkin’s J/133 FORGIVENESS. Sixth was Tom & Terri Manok’s J/120 POLE DANCER.
Taking 2nd in PHRF B Spinnaker class was the J/33 TIGGER skippered by Fred Cottrell from King Harbor YC.
In the Sprit ULDB A Class, the J/125s clearly had a split-decision on how to approach the race. One boat went high off the start matching the J/145 and Bernie Girod’s ROCK’N’ROLL (a Farr 400 reverse-bow special, an ex-J/105 owner), the other went low of rhumb. In the end, Mark Surber’s DERIVATIVE got the better of Viggo Torbenson’s TIMESHAVER by a mere 30 seconds at the finish line after 80nm!! They took 3rd and 4th in class. Carolyn Parks’ J/145 RADIO FLYER finished just 20 seconds behind her J/125 colleagues, taking 6th in class.
Finally, in the PHRF B Sprit Division, Dr Laura Schlessinger’s new J/88 CRAZY 88 took class honors by nearly 20 minutes on corrected time. Taking 3rd was Jack Mayer’s J/109 ZEPHYR, 4th was Tom Bollay’s J/105 ARMIDA and 5th was Bryce Benjamin’s J/109 PERSISTENCE.
Here’s the report from Stu Johnstone sailing aboard Dr Laura’s J/88 CRAZY 88:“The forecast for this year’s Santa Barbara to King Harbor 80nm race was a bit challenging, if not forbidding, for the 90 entries in this year’s race. In fact, the weather forecast created a somewhat gloomy outlook on what is regarded as one of the best mid-summer offshore races all year long on the Southern California sailing calendar. There was talk amongst a number of crews on the smaller boats that if Anacapa Island was not reached by sunset, it was perhaps time to consider the “iron genny” option and simply head for home. For veterans of 20+ SB-KH races, the prospect of rounding in the lee of Anacapa at night (which can be either a 30 minute scenic tour or 3 1/2 hours of drifting hell) was not to be taken lightly. What this scenario could lead to was sailing’s version of torture- a mind-numbing exercise of staring at sails and red-lit instruments far too long, fueled by too much Red Bull, leading to hallucinations of “heffalumps & woozles” (pink & green Dr Seuss elephants) crossing the horizon in front of you due to lack of sleep for 24+ hours. In other words, drifting across Santa Barbara Channel to Point Dume that would lead to drifting across Santa Monica Bay in 0-3 kt whispers of wind towards the towering cape of Palos Verdes that might take until noon the next day! Sailing a proverbial “glass out” all night long was not appealing to many.
While most years the starts can often have light airs for the first few miles headed to Anacapa Island about 25nm offshore at a 140 degree course, the breeze often picks up quickly and with 15nm or so to go to that first turning mark, winds seem to have a habit of whistling down the northern side of Santa Cruz Island and blow from 15 to 20 kts and, in some instances, 20-30 kts! Conventional wisdom for the race seems to be sail rhumbline to Anacapa, then choose an “inshore” course in the island’s lee if light or an “offshore” course (1-2nm) if breezy. Once clear of the island, shoot straight across to Pt Dume on port tack for 32nm at 80 degrees, gybe once onto starboard, then head straight for King Harbor for 22nm at 100 degrees. There are some variations on the strategies, of course, like head right towards KH after rounding Anacapa, or gybe back in under Pt Dume to Malibu for localized “point acceleration” of the breeze, or simply gybe on the lifts from Pt Dume to KH for 22nm and hope no one in either corner (LAX Airport beach to the East or Catalina Island wind bend to the South) blows past you.
This
year’s sleigh-ride was on-board Dr Laura’s latest rocketship, the J/88
she named “CRAZY 88”. For many of you not “in the know” about some of
SoCal’s cast of characters that sail offshore, Dr Laura may be one of
the most interesting and enigmatic personalities of the California
offshore fraternity. While renowned on public talk-show radio to
millions of her fans across America as simply “Dr Laura”
(http://www.drlaura.com), helping listeners on the trials and
tribulations of their daily lives for over 40 years, sailors in SoCal
simply know her as “Doc”. Doc has learned to love sailing as an outlet
for her competitive drive- for her it’s therapy. It’s the thrill of
sailing as a team member with a good crew and her passion to succeed
combined with her fierce determination enables her to drive for hours on
end at a remarkably high level. For many who know her, perhaps it was
that amazing shot of Doc’s 47 ft KATANA blasting down the Molokai
Channel that epitomizes her will to win— for 8 days Doc steered from
dawn to dusk and while blasting towards the Diamond Head finish line
doing 27+ kts down a 15 ft wave, the bow dug in and cast a comber across
the decks that washed out her feet at the wheel! Not only did she not
let go, she kept driving to the finish, all 105 lbs of her!Given the fact that her offshore skills have been strongly tested in big boats (J/145, J/125, Kernan 47, etc), Doc was looking forward to sailing her tiller-steered J/88 in its first SB-KH Race. Amazingly enough, she was worried that the boat might not be big enough, and fast enough, to finish by midnight (I think she was worried she might turn into a pumpkin and have to go to sleep!). Nevertheless, as her crew assembled before the start of the race (Wendell Liljedahl, Sam Solhaug, Julia Langford & Stu J) on the Santa Barbara YC docks, it was apparent the various weather models might be a bit “off”. Prior to the start, every forecast (NOAA NAM/GFS, Sailflow’s proprietary models, Europe’s ECMWF, and even Clearpoint Weather’s highly accurate 1nm/ 5nm models (http://www.clearpointweather.com) was showing a “micro-Low” forming over the Channel Islands early Friday Am and moving south-southeast and consuming all winds in the area like a giant vacuum cleaner (despite showing very strong offshore flows from the Pacific High just 15-20nm offshore). Based on those forecasts, some boats even dropped out beforehand. Nevertheless, the majority of the fleet headed off into the unknown, prepared to sail like lemmings into the abyss (the starting line) towards Anacapa and into the proverbial Twilight Zone (the gap in the Channel Islands formed between the enormous Santa Cruz Island and Anacapa Island itself).
Like clockwork, Santa Barbara YC’s RC/ Sailing Director Brad Schaupeter fired off the warning signal at 1155 hrs. The big boats were the first to take off in very light airs at 1200 hrs sharp, at most 2-4 kts from the SW, the conditions were nowhere near the forecasts. Why? Friday dawned with a blanket of cool fog that completely enshrouded the Channel Islands, a scenario that often permits the prevailing NNW offshore breezes to permeate inshore and create a WNW flow down the coastline.
By the time that Doc’s J/88 CRAZY 88 took off at 12:15 pm, the winds had not changed much, necessitating the use of the LM1 jib for maneuvering at the start with a Code Zero ready to roll. A Beneteau 40.7 was in our midst on the wrong side of the starting line yelling “starboard” at everyone (they were supposed to be on the “left” side). Such is life sailing PHRF.
With a great start near the starboard pin, Doc focused hard to sail fast and maintain clear air. Less than 5nm after the start, the breeze kept accelerating in velocity from the WSW and we managed to lead our class boat-for-boat for about an hour. Soon, one of the primary competitors that was clawing well to windward of rhumbline, a Tartan 101 called Mistral, set their Code Zero and rolled over us before we set our own C0 flying. Nevertheless, after another hour of sailing in a very slowly building westerly, they faded off into seeming oblivion to leeward, at one point bearing 90 degrees to leeward of us while we sailed with a C0 and staysail at 110 TWA doing 6.5kts in just 7.0kts TWS— an apparent wind machine the J/88 is!
Fast
forward to the approach into the Anacapa turning point, Doc was sailing
fast. So far, so good on relative fleet position. All things were
good on crew comfort, especially Doc’s homemade PB&J’s (peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches for the uninitiated) using potato bread— the
best combo ever! Lunch included tasty “Food That Tastes So Good” sweet
potato tortilla chips! Wow, combined with the salt-air surrounding us,
nothing ever tasted so good with Gatorade!Meanwhile, the Mistral boys way off to leeward practicing the “zero-to-hero” strategy looked like their gamble might pay off. Unusually, the breeze did not keep accelerating on the approaches to the Anacapa turning point, puffs never seemed to climb above 15 kts TWS. It was fantastic conditions for the J/88 as with our A1 chute and staysail flying we were surfing off wave-tops at up to 10-12 kts consistently and giving the J/120 headaches just in front of us. The “high road” fleet of boats that included the J/105s, J/109s and a host of others in class were feeling the effects of having to bear off using A1/ A2 kites with lower AWS/ AWA and, therefore, much lower relative boatspeeds.
By
the time CRAZY 88 hit the Anacapa left turn, Mistral planed across in
front of us and was ahead by at least a mile and we were still in the
hunt, we hoped, for a top three position in class. While a number of
boats around us turned left in under the lee of the island fairly
quickly, we rode a long 13-15 kt wind streak about a half-mile past the
island before gybing. We’d set the A2 “whomper”, a giant PHRF maxi-size
chute, and were flying downwind on a favorable headed starboard shift.
Once on the other side of the streak, we gybed in the lift and rode it
for at least 2-3nm down the backside of the spectacular cliffs of
Anacapa before having to head up and maintain speed to “shoot the gap”
between the two massive rocks that form Anacapa island. By this stage,
we caught the J/120 POLE DANCER and the 1D35 DEJA VU, both inshore under
the island in no wind. As the breeze filled beneath the gap in the
island, those two took off. Since we were outside of them, we then
settled into a pure VMC/ VMG course scenario keeping the big A2 Max full
with staysail flying at around 145 TWA and steadily flying down the
large Pacific swells at 8-9.5 kts in a wind that varied from 8-13 kts
TWS. We basically felt like we were on a skateboard zipping down the
swells and placing the bow where it felt best and fastest. Doc was in
the back with a big smile on her face simply enjoying the ride.And so it went for the next 30 odd miles to Pt Dume. The J/120 ultimately pulled away and a bit to leeward by a mile or so. So did the 1D35. That was our world until the fog settled in near Pt Dume. Approaching Pt Dume at dusk, we took one gybe onto starboard and headed back across Santa Monica Bay. We lost track of the blue chute flying on Mistral, we last saw them going left into Malibu and perhaps the beaches of Santa Monica.
We
decided to simply sail a fast angle of 130 to 150 degree TWA with our
big A2 asym until the wind started to die (we ultimately changed down to
the A1), and steered 110-135 degrees on starboard towards King Harbor,
playing the shifts along the way (our port gybe angles varied from 40-65
degrees). About 8nm down track to the finish (just 14nm left), we
crossed ahead of the 1D35 and just astern of the J/120. Five more gybes
on 10-15 degree shifts in 7-12 kts TWS over the ensuing hour and we had
put the 1D35 and the J/120 astern of us. The last time we saw these two
boats, they were heading off to the south, staying on starboard gybe
towards Catalina Island (perhaps waiting for a miracle breeze channeling
between the island and Palos Verdes peninsula).The fog was dense enough that all forms of reference from a steering perspective were literally gone. Toss in a quartering swell. No horizon. No sky. No moon. No stars. Yes, a “detox, de-sense chamber” in real life— better than anything imagined by any NSA/ CIA interrogation unit! Just a blanket of darkness enshrouding the boat and only the gloom of the bow lights on the chute and the glow of the red-lit instruments guiding you. Disorientation was easy. Next step was a descent into the darkness of Dostoyevskyian madness! To say that Doc had never been “instrument-rated” may be a bit of an understatement, she had done little steering at night offshore despite years of sailing (remember? Her M.O. was sunrise-to-sunset). Many of you that have done offshore races know that feeling of “hallucinatory tricks” that both your eyes and mind can play on you— a result of physical fatigue as well as intense concentration. Mental relaxation can often help you overcome such situations. Focusing on just steering a basic compass course, Doc managed to lock into a “fast, comfort” mode that was loosely based on the fastest TWA of around 135-145.
That is how Doc and the crew rolled all the way into the finish line. The further we clawed our way down towards the finish line at KH, the more the wind kept dropping and the more we kept passing boats that simply lost all ability to keep sailing good VMC/ VMG angles with their spinnakers (many twice our size). Throwing in five gybes in the last two miles, we finally clawed our way around the white flashing light at the harbor entrance, doused the A1 and finished under the LM1 jib not having any idea of how we did. We presumed the worst, of course, because there was no way to track what happened to anyone else.
Doc was elated but somewhat subdued. Glad to have finished the race around 2am, but clearly exhausted. So were the rest of the crew. Wendell having trimmed the chute for most of the 14 hours. Sam and Julia for having executed about 40 gybes nearly flawlessly (no joke, we lost count after 25 gybes) and Stu for frying a few thousand tactical brain circuits along the way. It was an amazing effort. And, it’s fair to say that Doc quickly achieved her “IFR” (instrument-rating) certification in offshore racing!
As we departed KHYC around 2:30am Saturday morning, we discovered that we’d won our class, boat-for-boat and on handicap. Doc’s response? “Thank God, Lew (her husband) won’t kill me now!” she said cracking a smile. Though her husband Lew doesn’t sail, he supports her passion for sailing with friends and is always happy to know the effort was worthwhile and the crew made it home safely.
The post-mortem? Wow, having buried the 1D35 and the J/120 with less than 12nm to go, why didn’t we simply go for the “zero-to-hero” move and go way south for a “one gybe & in” approach? If only we knew what was happening for breeze just south of us. With no wind sensors in the area, it was a tough gamble to make. We knew at least 90% of the fleet was to our left towards the LA beaches, not offshore. When we saw those two boats disappear behind us going south on starboard tack downwind, it was hard to imagine that more breeze lay south and to leeward of our position. So, we persevered and played every shift we encountered. In the end, the crew of Doc’s J/88 CRAZY 88 were proud of their hard work. But, how did those other two boats beat us in by an hour? The mystery remains and the story to be told another day.” For more Santa Barbara-King Harbor Race sailing information
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