Leukemia Cup - Santa Cruz YC - 2105

MAYAN's first Leukemia Cup

Santa Cruz YC, Sunday, May 3rd, 2015

MAYAN with her advance staysail hanging

It is always great to support a cause like the Leukemia Cup.  The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society supports a massive amount of research into the elimination of all forms of blood cancers, a cause that is near to my heart.  My Dad, who taught us all to sail, died of multiple myeloma.  Then a few years ago my good friend Dave Emberson came down with Leukemia. Even since we've worked hard to help when we could - so this event was for Dad and Dave.

The day started out cool, calm, and overcast, with a gigantic all-star cast aboard sorting out the multiple strings that dangle from MAYAN's two masts.  One of the more interesting sails is the advance staysail, which you can see hanging from its halyards in the picture on the right.  Named for the schooner ADVANCE, a Starling Burgess design, which was the first to sport a sail like this, the advance staysail replaced the gaff foresail that used to occupy the space between the fore and main masts on many schooners.  With the luff running all the way up the foremast and the foot as close to the deck as we dare, the advance staysail is perfect for the light winds that had been forecast.

MAYAN

Once the crew had assembled, we set out for the calm waters outside our small harbor in Santa Cruz. The forecast was for 8-10 knots of wind from the southwest, but our first half hour was spent simply trying to get the sails to fill in near nonexistent winds. In the picture to the left you can see the large genoa, advance staysail and mainsail set with just enough wind to fly the flags.  Some have commented that MAYAN looks a bit down by the stern. Well, we had 28 crew aboard and at least half of them were in the cockpit at this point.

This was to be our first race in N. California.  That combined with the great cause it was supporting, resulted in every person we asked showing up to crew on MAYAN. As we left the dock Beau counted heads and came up with 28!  This was a new record for MAYAN during our stewardship and we were thrilled to see that everyone was comfortable.  Indeed, we could have accommodated 6 or 8 more folks aboard!

Lawson Family at the Rail

The crew was wonderfully competent with world champions, a yacht designer, professional crew men and women, along with some of the most adorable little kids we've seen aboard any boat.  For Stacey and Beau, a major component of MAYAN's mission is to sail with friends, family and most of all kids.  MAYAN was proving to do a great job of all parts of that mission.

The Lawson family had brought the entire team, and they all seemed to be having a great time!  While the munchkins played in the cockpit and below under Dannie's watchful gaze, their Dad (Jeff) hauled the main sheet and provided Beau with a spare pair of eyes spotting boats and marks.

The race format was a pursuit start, slowest boat first, which theoretically should have all the boats finishing at the same time.  The course was basically a windward/leeward course twice around.  Beau got us to the starting line about a minute late, which in schooner-time is close enough (but needs to improve).  Most importantly, no people, glass or wood was injured during the start.  The PHRF handicap MAYAN has received from the Monterey Bay PHRF committee matched her up boat-for-boat with the Catalina 30s.

Bill Lee

With the wind hovering around 6 knots, it became critical to keep the boat moving.  With over 68,000 pounds to move, MAYAN will stubbornly stand completely still with her sails full until she decides to grandly accelerate.  Eventually we set off around the race course and the wind built to about 8 knots.  Beau turned the helm over to Bill Lee for a bit, and the two of them discussed her sailing characteristics in these non-schooner conditions.

With the wind this light, and our entire crew completely new to sailing schooners, we struggled with the first beat.  After rounding Wharf Mark the crew scurried around re-setting the sails for a broad reach.

Gollywobbler and A1 set on the foremast of MAYAN

Schooners are known for being able to reach well, but usually there's a bit more wind.... oh well.  Up went the A1 (asymmetrical spinnaker) tacked to the bowsprit and sheeting about amidships.  Shaped more like the spinnaker for a Aussie-18' skiff than a big boat, this sail drew beautifully and MAYAN started to move.  Next the gollywobbler was set to leeward of the advance staysail and the advance hauled down.  The gollywobbler is another sail that is set between the masts, tacked at the foot of the foremast and hoisted to the top of both the fore and main masts.  It is made of spinnaker cloth, light and strong, and fulfills the needs of a main mast spinnaker.  Aboard MAYAN,  both sails are marked with the MAYAN logo on a broad yellow/orange band.  If only we'd had enough wind to really fill them!

The next mark was SC3, east towards Capitola, so we had a nice long reach to try and get MAYAN moving.... but the wind stayed very very light.  As we approached SC3 the advance staysail went back up, the gollywobbler came down, the genoa went back up, the A1 came down and the crew rounded the mark close along side and kept the old girl's speed up.  Nicely done!

A crew of 28 on the windward rail

In slightly stronger winds of 12knots, MAYAN began to move more easily, but we still hadn't figured out how to get her to point. Perhaps she just doesn't point? Bill repeated the wonderful old joke about schooners: "When you watch a schooner going upwind, you keep wondering why the boat in the back doesn't tack to clear her air." He got quite a chuckle from that one.  As we returned to Wharf Mark to round again and head dead down wind to Black's Point Mark the wind died off again and MAYAN began to wallow a bit.

Finally, abeam of the Santa Cruz Harbor, Beau called Homer on the VHF radio.  "Homer, go ahead and head in, we're going to withdraw."  Homer thanked us and we started taking sails down.  We had ended up last by well over a mile.  Not our best day as a race boat, but one of our best days ever at having a great time on the water.

The Santa Cruz YC hosted a terrific party after racing with great conversations, drinks, food, and awards.  Team MAYAN managed to win on shore, even if she was dead last on the water.  Thank you to ALL the generous folks who donated to the effort.  MAYAN raised more money than the organizers had set as a goal for the entire event!  Well done!!!

We will be making this an annual event for MAYAN, so please continue to look kindly on the email pleas for funds that will start appear early in 2016.  Hopefully, we'll get a race day with a bit of breeze so that we can have a little better showing on the water.  Again, THANK YOU for your tremendous support for our efforts and fund raising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.