[C38] FW: Attn. West Coast sailors

Tue Mar 16 15:30:25 EDT 2010

Steve and Randy,

                 Best advice by far!  

The Northern California coastline is not to be taken lightly as a friend of mine can attest to when he crewed a 28 footer from Santa Cruz to San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend 2009.  The boat was rolled by a breaker off Pillar Point (Half Moon Bay).  Sadly the skipper was lost on that fateful trip.

Shaya Amanzi
C38
Alameda

Eldore' Wood
Photographer/Artist
Kubili Fine Art Photography
www.kubili.com

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From: Steve Smolinske <SSmolinske at rainierrubber.com>
To: Catalina 38 Listserve <listserve at catalina38.org>
Sent: Tue, March 16, 2010 12:06:57 PM
Subject: [C38] FW: Attn. West Coast sailors

Follow up on the coastal sailing post, from one of my crew members with lots of experience.  
Steve 
#312 Peregrine   

Steve please run through this and comment. If you think this will work feel free to send it on. Randy

Hi all, I have crewed on two races to Hawaii,and the following  deliveries:One Hawaii to Seattle, two Seattle to San Fransisco and one San Fransisco to Astoria. I am by no means an expert but have developed some opinions on passage making. There are three key elements to a safe and sussesful successful trip. They are stay away from dirt, fitting the trip to the crew and the boat,and making do with what sea and the wind will allow. 
The first Seattle to San Fran trip: 
Boat: C&C 39
Time: last week of June
Crew consisted of 4 adults and my 14 year old son. We left Seattle at about 9 pm and motor sailed to Cape Flattery. We reached the ocean at about dinner time, turned left on a beam reach. Within 6 hours we were on a hard beat for two plus days. Our course was headed out to sea After a day we cracked off some to the relieve of the crew and the Boat. When the wind shifted we tacked towards shore, at this point we were about 100 miles off shore. The wind slowly clocked around so that last two days were a spinnaker run. the trip was non stop to San Fran.Typical conditions when beating- wind 15-20 knots, seas 4-5 foot. Conditions when running- wind 10-20 knots sea 1-4 foot.
San Francisco to Astoria 
Boat: Pyramid 45
Time: first of May.  
The crew consisted of 3 adults. One crew was new to both the skipper and I and the boat was new to all of us the skipper had sailed the boat several times in the bay but that was it. After spending half a day checking every thing out ( the boat had been previously hauled and checked by the skipper) we motor sailed out of the bay. By 8pm the wind was pushing 50 Knots. The highest I saw was 58 knots. The anemometer blew off the mast shortly there after. Our course was away from dirt and the highest point  we could sailed with a #4 only and 20+ foot seas.(note these conditions were not in the weather forecast) When conditions allowed us sail like normal folks we 100 miles offshore and 12 miles south of  the San Fran bay. We had a 5 day beat from there to Astoria. We thought the bar crossing was the best conditions we had seen until we watched a freighter heading out to sea stuff its bow in a wave and take green water back to the second gantry. This 
 passage is the only time I've been ready get off the boat when we hit port, most of time its "oh no we're here allready". The feeling was short lived , a week later I was racing this boat to Victoria.  The trip was non stop. the conditions after the blow were winds   15-30, seas 3-8 foot. 
Second trip Seattle to San Fransisco
Boat:Pyramid 45 
Time: Last week of June. 
The crew consisted of the skipper, his 14 year old son. my !5 year old son and myself. We left Seattle in the evening motored sailed to Cape Flattery with a short stop At Port Angeles to repair the shaft coupling. After we turned left we had short period of beam reaching, then the wind clocked aft and we spent the rest of the trip running. The majority of the time we had 20-30 knot winds and 5-8 seas. we spent most of the time sailing under a 110 square foot storm jib tacked to the baby stay and no main it was a blast the boat surfed and was hitting 11 knots. Our basic tactic was jibe away from dirt in the dark and jibe towards dirt in the daylight. We were never more tha 20 miles of the coast. Once we left Port Anglese the passage was non stop. 
Now to answer your Questions:
Disclaimer- these are my personal opinions and need to be adjusted to your boat and crew. 
Do I hug the coast or head out to sea? You need the confidence in your boat and crew to able to head out to sea no matter which route you intend to take. The further you stand off shore the less traffic to deal with. In general we saw more shipping in close particulary fishing vessels which were not well lit. The wind and seas were  bigger but more consistant and well behaved offshore. Our first choice would be be to head to out to sea.Granted we always had crews which loved being at sea and felt comfortable being out to  sea. We felt safer with room between us and dirt. but we were quick adjust when conditions said other wise. on the  second trip down the wind was blowing right where we wanted to go. So down the coast we went. During daylight we headed back to shore until we saw it then jibed away until the next morning. The other two coastal trip we end up hundred plus miles off shore partly that was the best and most comfortable course to sail.  
Do I hop ports or stay at sea? For myself and the people I sailed with being on the water was why we made the trip. It takes a couple of days to adapt to living on a boat at sea, so I  want to do that as few times as possible. every time I spend much time in port I have to readapt. Also I have heard (I have no first hand knowledge) alot of the ports can be challenging to enter,paticulary along the Washington and Oregon coast.So choose your ports carefully. One other consideration is how along can your crew maintain watches without fatiuging. A tired and unhappy crew can make for a lousy and possibly an unsafe  passage. Finally if I felt I needed a port to run to for safety I would reconsider the  trip.  Hpoe this made sense and I would be open to further diccussion. Randy Doull

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Subject: RE: [C38] Attn. West Coast sailors
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 20:33:03 -0800
From: SSmolinske at rainierrubber.com
To: listserve at catalina38.org
CC: doull5 at hotmail.com

Let me introduce Randy to the group, Randy has made the trip from SF to Seattle several times I loved the two stories about how the last wind reading they got was 50 knots before the wind instruments blew off the mast, or how the wind and waves made the Columbia Bar at Astoria during an incoming tide look like a walk in the park.  I'll let Randy answer the question rather than relay info:  

Steve
Peregrine #312
Seattle

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From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org on behalf of Joseph Launie
Sent: Mon 3/1/2010 6:37 PM
To: Catalina 38 Listserve
Subject: Re: [C38] Attn. West Coast sailors

Steve,
    I would talk to several professional skippers. One who I have discussed this with says to keep one foot on the beach - go up close to shore because it gets a lot worse further out.  I would harbor hop up with a lot more stops than you have mentioned. Joe Launie/Macavity

ssorton at sbcglobal.net wrote: 
This summer during July/August I'm contemplating sailing our boat from Southern California North to Puget Sound- some 1450 miles.  The distance actually traveled could be twice the point to point distance due head winds.  My question to the Cat 38 group is, does anybody have experience making this trip?  Do you follow the coast putting into 3 or 4 ports, or sail westerly and make a right return?
> 
>Thank you for any advice,  Steve Orton (Santa Susanna- # 304)
>
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