(San Francisco, CA)- It is not often that one can use the term “benign” or “lovely” when one thinks of sailing out past the Golden Gate Bridge, into the teeth of big Pacific storm swells that often break massively on the notorious “Potato Patch”, a giant shoal offshore or the Farallones “rocks”. However, the 2019 edition of the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s Singlehanded Farallones Race was in fact “lovely” and, as one sailor described it, “easily one of the most pleasant sails out and back that I can remember; even southeast Farallones Rock was looking benign!”
Ex-J/92 racer Robert Johnston went on to say, “on the return inbound to San Francisco Bay, it was all about keeping the apparent wind on the beam. I wasn't sure I could do it in the 7-10 kts TWS we had coming back - sailing the rhumbline put TWA at least 150. I flew an old J/105 kite and was able to keep AWA at 100-120 and sail straight from the island back to the Gate. Of course, the lighter ULDBs cleaned up in that stuff.”
In the PHRF Spin 5 Class, skipper of the J/105 VUJA STAR- Chris Kim- excitedly hopped onto the podium for the bronze, just 2 minutes shy on corrected time from taking the silver. Meanwhile, while Tracy Rogers’ J/120 HOKULANI took 4th and fellow 120 owner- Sean Mulvihill- placed 5th, just over 6 minutes back on corrected handicap time. For more Singlehanded Farallones Race sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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