Otter Cup - Elkhorn YC - 2015

May 16, 2015 -- For many years the Elkhorn Yacht Club, located in Moss Landing, has hosted a wonderful reaching race from the waters outside their harbor, to a buoy off of Monterey and back again.  A few of us left Santa Cruz harbor early and took MAYAN by power to Moss Landing in time to arrive for the 0930 hours skipper's meeting.  The winds were looking painfully light again, and the memories of our slow and frustrating sail in the Leukemia Cup lingered.

As always EYC was warm and welcoming.  The race committee did a good job of briefing us, warming us with hot coffee, and sending us out to the race course.  For those of you who haven't been to EYC, the MAYAN crew would highly recommend investigating this jewel of a club.  No flash, just sailors enjoying sailing to the fullest.  Elkhorn Yacht Club

The Otter Cup Course

The race course was simple and looked to be perfect for a schooner like MAYAN that loves to reach.  The only difficulty was going to be that short little beat directly into a 6-8 knots westerly wind.  We've been learning how to sail MAYAN in light winds (those painful memories of the Leukemia Cup haunting us again) but it is hardly our strong suit.

Approaching the start, which was a beam reach start on Starboard, we underestimated the additional speed MAYAN would show on a reach and found ourselves early by about a minute.  We are clearly still learning how to judge her speed.  Turning the boat up and down wind a lot to slow her down started to fail as competitors formed up around us on our final run-up to the line, so we were forced to reduce our boat speed by easing sheets.  While we were on the line at the gun and had "won" the start, we were only moving at about 3 knots and the ARIEL, a C&C-110, passed by us to windward.

For the next one hour and fifteen minutes we painfully beat two miles upwind in 4 to 8 knots of shifty breezes.... frustrating to say the least.  We rounded the windward mark dead last, seriously - dead last, behind the Cal 25, really seriously... last.  MAYAN is not a light wind boat.  We had confirmed our lousy ability to go upwind in light air.

Then everything started to get better.  The wind built slowly over the course of the ten mile beam reach to Monterey.  The sun came out.  With the genoa, advance staysail and mainsail we spread as much sail area as we could on a tight reach and MAYAN started to do what schooners do well.

MAYAN starting her move.  (Credit: Un Bel Di)

Our friends on UN BEL DI, the Cal 25, started snapping photos as we moved past them giving us some of the best pictures of our restored schooner we've seen so far.

As the wind moved aft slowly, we were able to set the forestaysail and MAYAN started to average about 6 knots over the ground in what had built to a steady 12 knot breeze.

With no complexity to the leg the crew relaxed and enjoyed the ride.  One of the great joys of being MAYAN's caretaker has been that Stacey and I have been able to invite a tremendous group of sailors aboard to share the rare joy of schooner sailing.  With so few of these old girls still sailing, let alone racing, our friends have turned up in large numbers to share the experience.

In this race we had to wonderful helmsmen who paired up to relieve me: Bill Lee and Lou Pambianco.  There were smiles all around and I got a chance to spend some time fussing with the sail trim up forward, and catching up with old friends.  The wind continued to build and move aft and by the time we reached Monterey it was relatively steady at 14 knots.  Bill guided us through the gybe gracefully, the crew brought the sails around and we were off again back to Moss Landing.

MAYAN doing what schooners do best: reaching

By the Monterey mark MAYAN had reeled in all but two competitors, and we appeared to be gaining on them.  With about ten miles left in the race, it would be difficult to catch the C&C but we provided a bit of a photo shoot for the boats still sailing towards Monterey and the boat in second.

We decided to hold a bit high of the finish line and then set the spinnaker.  As you all know, we're really just learning how to sail MAYAN and in hindsight it would have been better to simply sail the rhumb line as she doesn't gain much speed from the spinnaker.

After a wonderful dry and relaxing sail back to Moss Landing, we finished in second place, and believed we had saved our time on the C&C.  It is nearly impossible to provide a single number rating for two boats as different as the C&C and MAYAN.  If the race had included more distance sailing upwind, we would have been last.  But with 20 of the 24 miles of the race course being reaches in enough wind to get MAYAN moving, the advantage shifted to the schooner.  Aboard MAYAN we were amazed that she was so very slow upwind and so very fast on a reach.

As always the EYC put on a great meal after the race, there was great camaraderie in the bar, and we were thrilled to receive MAYAN's first ever First Place trophy.  We have sailed at Elkhorn Yacht Club in the past and have always enjoyed their tremendous hospitality.  Later this year we'll be back for the Double Angle Race, a crazy fun race course in which boats start from both Santa Cruz and Monterey, go around a mark in the middle of Monterey Bay (rounding in opposite directions simultaneously), and then run downwind to Moss Landing.  The party after that race is a legend amongst Monterey Bay racers.  The MAYAN crew will be there!