San Fransisco Bay Area

I am considering a position in the bay area.

Any of you guys sail San Fransisco Bay?

Can you tell me about weather, conditions, beach launches (for my WAVE), sailing season, etc.?

I am looking at south bay (Mountain View).

Thanks

_________________

"HOBIE....
Say it LOUD and there's music playing...
Say it SOFT and it's almost like praying.....
I just sailed my WAVE out the Marina !"
West Coast Story

Fleet 240 is sailing from Santa Cruz. 40 minutes from Mountain View.
Great place to sail, 15/20 knots most of the time.
Best time is summer though !

Keep your boat in dry storage with the mast up at the Redwood City harbor just a quick push to the water. The sailing there is reported to have good winds, little chop (until you get out of the harbor), and the water is fairly warm.

Fleet 20 gets together once a month out at Woodward in the valley. There was even a Wave in the Ditch run this year.

_________________
Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

What skipshot said.

Redwood city is great. The port is about two miles long and is very protected and flat. The port widens significantly in two spots called turning basins which are there for massive cargo ships to maneuver. The Wave would be a perfect port boat, and maybe okay for calmer days on the bay. The wind usually picks up to about 15 knots at 3ish in the afternoon during Spring, Fall, and Summer - lots of hull flying. Wednesday nights are when Sequoia Yacht Club does their beer cans, so the place is very active with sail boats large and small - lots of fun.

I and two other Hobie sailors go out almost every Wednesday night there. We keep our boats in the dry storage lot. From the time we unbuckle our seat belts to the time we shove off the dock, it is about 20 - 25 minutes. There are also four other Hobies there in the dry storage lot, but we rarely see them sail (I've got to talk to them, I don't think they are aware of the other active Hobies there.)

Contact Larry Mayne for information on lot spaces. You may have to wait a bit, but the convenience of secure, gated, mast up storage next to a great sailing spot for only $75/month is unbeatable; that's like 35 cents per square foot - peninsula real estate does not get much cheaper!

Click here for Larry's site with contact info

I hope to see you there!

Peace,

Dan Peake
2003 H17SE
2005 FX1

Dan, do you mostly remain in the harbor or do you go out in the bay from Redwood City ?

Initially, five years ago, I stayed in the port - the Bay is generally too challenging for someone who has not spent the time to make the handling of their boat feel like second nature.

Knowing the nature of that area of the bay, and knowing the effects of the wind tide and current conditions is also very important - e.g. if the water has been going north for five hours against a 20 knot wind from the north, the chop will be square and tall (maybe four feet at 5 seconds), a small catamaran will be hard to manage, and probably frightening for someone inexperienced. And if there is a capsize, all the worse. I would not knowingly enter those conditions now.

So nowadays at my skill level, I get out into the Bay, maybe three out of four outings. And perhaps one in three of those times I must seek areas of flatter water, or I tire out early and head back in, as I am still not "second nature" comfortable with the FX1.

That said, the Bay is a blast, it is off the charts fun to see your catamaran getting airborne over a wave, the surfing is exhilarating and the abundance of wind power is unmatched in my experience. One of the things I like about this sport, in the Bay, is the availability of incremental things to improve upon - these will outlast my involvement in the sport - the Bay is the Mt. Everest of casual beach catamaraners (OK, too much exaggeration for my style, say Mt. Hood). I am maybe half way up. I actually do not think it is possible for me to grow tired of it. If I were sailing on a flat lake that never saw winds of more than ten knots, and no currents or tidal changes, I am not sure I would have the same long term optimism about my involvement in the sport.

BTW: For the one in three days I can not get out on the bay, I am presently entertaining the idea of getting a Hobie 33 which I will single hand in the same spot! Went out on one last night and they are super fast! Flying out of town to see one which is for sale in the next week or so.

Peace,

Dan Peake
2003 H17
2005 FX1

By the way, I never single-hand my Hobie on the southern part of the SF bay alone!

Huh?

I go out in the Bay almost exclusively on Wednesday evenings, which is when the Sequoia Yacht Club does their regular beer-can regattas. There are usually about 30 participating boats, which equates to about a hundred eyeballs to see me if I get into a tough situation. On other nights, the southern part of the SF Bay is eerily desolate.

Peace,

Dan Peake
2003 H17SE
2005 FX1

Last time I checked Redwood City, I found the harbor area to be pretty small, and the SF Bay to be desolate, that's why I decided on SantaCruz, where we can keep Hobies with mast up directly on the beach.

If you say RedwoodCity is nice, may be I will take another look.

Nothing I have ever seen compares to Santa Cruz in terms of beauty and smoothly graduated set of conditions; near shore it is gentle, go out a mile and the waves get larger and wind picks up - choose according to your ability, it's fantastic, and the chop is generally not as bad. I also *love* the beach. I really do not know of a place that even comes close to Santa Cruz, RWC included.

However, I do not like the idea of keeping my boat on the beach, nor do I care for surf launching/landing, Santa Cruz is about fifteen minutes farther from my home than RWC, the locked gated storage area keeps my boat safe, I enjoy the wetlands, and I am not 100% certain but I believe conditions in RWC are more reliable than Santa Cruz - it's always 15kts after 3pm, almost guaranteed. I also have some great friends there at RWC.

Peace,

Dan Peake
2003 H17SE
2005 FX1

Are you guys telling me that the bay is more difficult than the Pacific Ocean? It sounds like that is what you are saying

_________________

"HOBIE....
Say it LOUD and there's music playing...
Say it SOFT and it's almost like praying.....
I just sailed my WAVE out the Marina !"
West Coast Story

Years ago I was traveling around the world to see what's to see. In Thailand and in Durban, South Africa I bumped into sailors from the SF Bay who had been sailing around the world, and both said training in the SF bay prepared them well for everything they have seen in their travels. I suppose the bay's strong winds and tides have a lot to do with it.

Well, just went out today, and we saw a whale (or something that big), about 100 meters away from our boat.
It was very close from shore, probably half a mile out.
That does not happen very often in Redwood City, does it ?

Hey crobiecat, one day it was very choppy, and I looked down and saw a living, breathing, REAL sardine on my trampoline. Does that count?

skipshot; The Monterey bay, in the Santa Cruz area, is the region we are referring to. It is quite protected and far from being the "Pacific ocean." It is gentle in comparison to the Pacific and the bay. The swell height at Santa Cruz is much smaller than that 10 miles up the coast in the actual Pacific. It's also gentle compared to the bay due mainly to the wave period (compared to bay chop), but also due to the Bay's hot surrounding land mass causing a daily thermally induced transfer of air mass (i.e. brisk wind), that's my understanding of it. That said, I do not like the big stuff you face two or three miles out off of Santa Cruz as you get past the protective shadow of the northwest county land outcropping.

Check out this cool swell model to see what I am saying:
http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub=nowcast&xitem=monterey

The bay is intense; I have heard the phrase "if you can sail in the bay you can sail anywhere" - I doubt it, but it does make most other places seem mild. In my opinion though, based on my very limited non-bay experience, if you can handle the range of conditions the bay has to offer, on a beach cat, you can probably take on just about anything on a 40 foot keel boat!

Peace,

Dan Peake
2003 H17SE
2005 FX1

Correction:

skipshot, my "Santa Cruz is not the Pacific" explanation was directed at zzcoreyzz, not you.

Dan