Three Bridges… And 34 Tacks
An update from Inspire Sailing’s Assistant School Director, Katie Cornetta:
After some deliberation back and forth, my crew and I decided to go Blackaller to Red Rock to Treasure Island. (Remember, in the Three Bridge Fiasco, boats can sail the “three bridges” in any order.)
We knew there was a rocking ebb with the max at 1pm, so we knew it would be a mad dash to make it around Red Rock. When we got to the start, the breeze was a consistent 10 knots (Northerly) so we checked Blackaller off the list because the breeze was forecast to die in the afternoon.
The breeze was staying consistent and the ebb wasn’t hurting us too badly until we got to Red Rock. The wind started dying and the ebb was really starting to ramp up.
“Motorcycle Irene,” another Express we had been crossing tacks with on our way to Red Rock, just barely snuck around the island by getting really close to the Rock to get tide relief and went on to win the entire race. She was followed by “Bombora” who tried the same thing and ended up hard aground for the rest of the day.
We were close behind and tried getting up next to the island for a couple tacks but bailed out as the wind died. After 34 tacks and only minimal progress we eventually we saw an opportunity with a little breeze line along the Richmond shoreline and short tacked in the shallows until we were well north of the Richmond Bridge. Then we set the kite and still barely got around Red Rock.
The rest of the day was pretty smooth sailing in light air, and we finished right after sunset with a nice 10 knot seabreeze.
Katie and crew posing for a selfie at the finish. Congratulations!
Check out Katie’s track of 34 tacks! Wow!
