Santa Cruz 27 Nationals

While working on the boat, I found out that the Santa Cruz 27 Nationals were being held July 10-12 in Monterey. With serious progress being made on the boat, I began trying to figure out how to race in the Nationals. However, I had a delivery on Criminal Mischief from SF Bay to Long Beach for the start of TransPac just before Nationals, so it was going to be a major push to make it.

Speed Merchant Services hooked us up with new standing (3/16" wire) and running rigging (1/4" Warpspeed) at wholesale prices and expedited the shipping to get it to us on time. The rigging arrived on Thursday, with the first race of Nationals the next day. The Jeep was loaded up, the boat and mast strapped down, and with a quick check of the new rigging we headed down to Monterey.

We got down to Monterey in the early evening and began setting everything up to re-step the mast for the first time. Several other SC27 owners came by to introduce themselves and wish us luck, but they didn't seem very confident in our efforts to be ready to race the next day. Barry Whittall, the owner of Variety Show, was kind enough to loan us an old 3/4oz spinnaker, which was lacking in our downwind sail inventory. The rest of our crew began to trickle in from around the state and help with the rigging. The crew was comprised of high school and college sailing friends and it was the first time I had seen some of them in a long time. Our line-up was Cody Spruce on foredeck, David Kurtmen as mast/grinder, Michael "Tweek" Whelden in the pit, Cole Davis as a trimmer, Sheehan Commette (my girlfriend and Snipe sailor extraordinaire) as tactician and trimmer, and myself as the skipper. Working together, Saltshaker hit the water around 4 a.m. and we had the rig up shortly after. I had been stripping and splicing the halyards while the standing rigging was set up, but decided to wait until the morning to run them. With the boat in the water and mast up, the crew dispersed to sleep for a few hours.

Around 7 a.m. I woke up and within 10 minutes was finishing the splices on the new halyards while some of the SC27 class watched and expressed their surprise that the boat was in the water and rafted up with the rest of the fleet. Finished splicing, I put on my climbing harness and free climbed the rig to start dropping the halyards in; the feeder lines I ran while pulling the old halyards just went from the masthead to the exits. When I was done with that, Sheehan tuned the rig while everyone else began showing up and finishing random little things around the boat. We were the last SC27 to leave the harbor for the noon start.

Breezy conditions allowed us to use the #3 jib for the start of the first race and we were doing well, but as the wind got lighter everyone switched to #1 genoas. We did the same, except our #1, made in 1988, was so blown out that even strapped at the chainplates, it was a foot off the spreader tip with the jib cars all the way forward. This kept us from pointing well upwind and we lost a few positions on the last beat to finish 7th out of 12 boats. The breeze came on again for the second race, a "distance race" of several miles, and we were doing well before the wind lightened to #1 conditions. Sailing 15 degrees lower than everyone else, the boats behind us caught up and then the jib pulled out of the head foil. Now we really couldn't point and while going for a close duck of a starboard boat, they tacked and we collided, putting a hole in the port side of their boat near the transom and above the waterline. There were no injuries, but since we were the port-tack boat and in the wrong, I radioed the Race Committee to withdraw from the race and we motored in.

Luckily, the Santa Cruz 27 class is very close-knit and friendly and the owner of the boat I hit was very nice and understanding. I offered to help repair the damage so they could keep racing, but his crew was already on the job. It also turned out that the co-owner and skipper of the boat was Bob DeWitt, the SC27 Class President; what a great way to introduce myself...

Back on Saltshaker, the crew was trying to figure out our head foil issue. I'm pretty sure it was the original head foil from 1979 and the plastic was cracked and brittle from three decades in the sun. A crack was running vertically up the inside of jib luff groove, allowing it to spread open under load. Also, bottom of the head foil were pretty FUBAR, making it hard to reset the jib for hoists. Our solution was to cut the bottom 6" off to get past the worst parts and try to file it the end to fit in the metal feeder. Also, there wasn't enough throw in the backstay or rig tension, so I shortened the spectra cascades and Sheehan borrowed a Loos gauge to tighten and further tune the rig. Luckily for us, there was no damage to Saltshaker in the collision.

The second day of racing brought lighter winds for #1 conditions, but we chose to use the #3, an almost unused 1988 Kevlar/Mylar jib, and retain our point at the expense of speed. We nailed the first start and were holding our lane when the jib came out of the head foil. This, and the #1 conditions, plagued us for the rest of the day, taking a 10th, 12th and 12th. However, we figured out the jib was coming down top to bottom because the head was actually poking out of the top of the head foil. This spread the head foil at the top and the jib zipper down. None of our jury rigs on the water were able to keep the head foil up, but back at the dock we sourced two small hose clamps. These, wrapped in Gorilla Tape, seemed adequate in keeping the head foil up.

The last day of racing brought 15-20 knots of breeze and 2-3 foot seas: perfect conditions for the #3 and surfing downwind. Working our way through the fleet, my crew hiked hard, ignoring the pain of sitting on the thin metal toerail. Sheehan fed me excellent tactics and I worked the traveler aggressively as other boats rounded up in puffs. We rounded the windward mark in 3rd and worked the boat downwind for all her worth. Being an Ultra Light, the Santa Cruz 27 loves sailing downwind in breeze, especially if there is some swell to surf. Sailing the boat like a dinghy, we gave one good pump of the sails down every wave to maximize our surfing speed, passing the 2nd place boat and closing in on the leader, Hanalei. We rounded in 2nd, but the last upwind to the finish was closer to shore with lighter and shiftier breeze. Both Hanalei and the third place boat changed to #1's for this beat, and we slid back to finish 3rd due to lack of boat speed.

As the wind got lighter throughout the day, all we could do was try to sail our best with the #3 and make gains during tacks, tactics, mark roundings, and downwind boat speed. We finished the last race in 9th, taking last place in the regatta by 1 point. However, we did get the "Turtle Trophy" for the last place boat! And more importantly, nothing on the boat broke during the last day, including the head foil.

We also made plenty of new friends and connections in the Santa Cruz 27 class, which is very close-knit. Rob Schuyler, 6 time SC27 National Champion and winner of the 2009 Nationals, came to me at end of the day on Sunday and said "If I see you back here with new sails next year, I'll be worried." Furthermore, the owner of Sumo gave us about 7 sails which he said, "Aren't new, but are a hell of a lot better than what you have." These sails included 2 #1's (one of which is Carbon), 1 #2 (all made by Santa Cruz Sails, a small loft in Santa Cruz with a great reputation), as well as 2 mains, another Kevlar #3 and storm jib, all by Larsen Sails (who no longer exist). Here is a link to the full results of the 2009 Santa Cruz 27 Nationals

With nowhere to go really, I decided to haul the boat the next day so other people on a schedule could get theirs out of the water. Sheehan had to drive back to San Diego and Dave to Santa Barbara. The rest of us just hung around the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club and fiddled with the boat. Cole, Tweek, and I sailed in Monterey bay during high school, and it was nice to be back where I first learned to race sailboats.

The next day we de-stepped the mast, hauled out the boat and got everything ready to hit the road. On the way north we stopped at Ballenger spars to get the forestay shortened and again in Santa Cruz to pick up the free sails. I also took this as an opportunity to tow the boat over Highway 17, which is a steep and twisty grade, to practice for the long drive to Florida. Given our bad luck at Nationals, Cody and I decided to rename the boat Furthur. Many thanks to the owner of Sumo for the new (to us) sails, Bob DeWitt for being so nice and understanding, Boat US for doing a great job as an insurance company in fixing Duet, and Chuck Coyer of SMS for rushing to get me new rigging on a job where they made no profit.

With the Santa Cruz safely wedged next to the house and unloaded, Cody and I relaxed for a few days before flying to Hawaii to deliver two TransPac boats back to California. I would be on the R/P 45 Criminal Mischief and Cody on the TP52 Valkyrie.