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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Ca. Delta Ditch Run

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MattL
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/08/2006 : 17:43:26

The elder boy, 9 year old Casey, and I are off tomorrow morning for Richmond CA. to race in the Delta Ditch Run. This 80 mile trip goes from Richmond to Stockton. We will be in the crusing class, non spinniker. My old college room mate Dave will join us for the trip. I'm looking forward to some time with Casey, this will also get him away from fighting with his younger brother giving mom a needed rest too.
In getting ready for the trip I gave the old marine head a new set of rubber only to find that the pump cylinder was also cracked. Called west marine on Monday, the replacement part came this morning. Just spent a little quality time with the head hoses and got that set up. Can't test it because the boat is on the trailer right now. Hope it works, may take a port a potty along just in case.
Got to go now to get a new light for the trailer. The kids decided it made a great hiding place for their bikes and just forgot to tell me they knocked off the right turn signal. I guess it made some parts of a 9 and 6 year old imagiation death ray or something.
Wish me luck and I'll try and remember to take photos to post when I return.
By the way, got the boat on the trailer and the mast down and bundled up in just a shade under an hour. Taking my buddy that helped out to dinner made the excersize a little longer though.

Matt/Brigitte Loeffler
E.C. Rider 5411
Cat 25 86'
FK/SR _/)

Edited by - on

Sloop Smitten
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1181 Posts

Response Posted - 06/09/2006 : 09:17:31

Good luck Matt. I'm sure you'll have an interesing report for us when you get back. Hope you brought your camera.

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Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 06/09/2006 : 10:58:07

Have fun Matt, I hope you and your crew have a great time. Be sure to post a report and some pictures when you return.

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bbriner
Captain

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349 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2006 : 11:42:10

Matt - how'd it go?

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Russ.Johnson
Commodore

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USA
855 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2006 : 23:27:59

Matt,
We saw the start of the race on Sat.
We left from Marina Bay Harbor and when we past Point Richmond
we saw about 100 boats just after the start.

BBriner, we saw your boat (#4036) about 3pm on Sunday.
You were headed south between Alcatraz and the Berkeley pier.
Russ (250WB #793)

Edited by - on

bbriner
Captain

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349 Posts

Response Posted - 06/12/2006 : 10:44:52

Russ
Yes, I remember! When I spot a C25/250 on the Bay I defintely scope them out. Fun Day wasn't it!

Bill

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MattL
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 06/14/2006 : 17:47:29

Here's a photo Casey took himself. This was a great trip. I am trying to load the photos into shutterfly, I'm on dial up so can only handle a few at a time.

We left home in Atwater at 8 Friday morning with a stop at the store for lunch stuff and ice.

Starbucks at 9:30 for breakfast stuff. We pulled into Richmond at around noon and checked in with the harbor master. He told us where the boat ramp was.

While raising the mast one of the other boats from our club showed up, also in the cruising class, merit 22. The wind was howling and all the white caps in the public marina were making me nervous. Casey had only really been on the lake, and my bay experience isn't that vast.
My buddy Dave got there as we were finishing putting the boom on. Casey, a guy from another boat and I did the couple mile motor to the RYC marina. Spray was everywhere. Casey's coat was pretty soaked too.
Now the hard part was next, getting the truck and trailer to Stockton in SF bay area rush hour traffic. My buddy Dave led the way and I towed the trailer across multi lane traffic, how do these people do this day after day. It's great to be a small town boy.
The morning of the race we got up had breakfast and stowed the night time stuff. The wind still seemed a little stiff to me, well not the wind, just the waves. We got out there with the other cruising class people, it was great.

The race was started from the VHF, I of course was on the wrong channel and we just followed everyone. The Wiley Cat was gone from the beginning, for you east coast folks a Wiley cat is a local boat that I always thought was strictly for racing, big and fast. There was a Westsail 32, the boat of my child hood dreams,

a Cat 27 and a bunch of others, nine in total, for our class 150 for the whole regatta. We were keeping pace with one of the islander 28's, and the Beanteau (SP). Our buddies on the merit were in site but kind of far ahead the whole way.
Once we got into San Pablo bay we started to feel the big waves. My god to us they seemed mountainous. The boat kept wanting to head up. The wind was on our stern and the waves were coming from our rear quarter.

The Cat 27 in the group turned around somewhere in San Pablo Bay and went home.

We were surfing, talk about cool. Dave tried to get some shots of this, I was driving. Casey was helping out with the jib on all the jibes, Dave was the fore deck hand.

That's me on the left and Dave on the jib.
Dave has only sailed with us a couple of times every year, I didn't want to overburden him with some hard work so we were kind of laxed about using the whisker pole. I don't think he'd say that though.

There are two bays, San Pablo and Suisun, to traverse and then the delta proper. Both these bays are noted for some chop,

the water to the north is shallow and then we had the tide going against the current, with the wind on top of all that. The first part of the delta is fairly wide with a shipping channel cut down the middle. Either side of this channel can get pretty shallow. We studied the charts before starting to get an idea of where not to go, Also by the time we got to the second bay we started to get passed by some of the faster racers. The first to come by was a blur, all I saw was a large mast and two black hulls. Imagine walking down the road and having a bicycle pass you, this is the fast boat. The big 40' cat was a Ferrari compared to the bike. Too fast for me to even think of getting the camera out. I think Dave got it though.
Soon after the black spectra went buy we saw a bunch of cigarette boats coming from the delta. Turns out this was a race that had its GPS mark right where we were.
In the Cartinas straights we saw the SF bay Scow the Alma. I have only seen this boat in photos or tied up at it dock at the State park in SF. To me it was quite a treat, even though it wasn’t sailing at the time we saw it.

I also get a kick out of tug boats, we saw them a plenty.

After Antioch, the last city till Stockton, the delta starts to narrow. Before this happens there are plenty of wide open areas that are termed reaches on the chart. Sailing here you realize they are called this because that is what you are doing here. By this time my lack of sunglasses, left them in Dave’s car, was taking its toll on my eyes. I was able to remove them and put on my glasses. I can see again and didn’t need to ask if that was a boat or a channel marker up ahead. The wind was still strong here but Casey wanted to try his had at the helm. With all his other activities, karate, soccer, base ball, swimming, he doesn’t get on the boat as often as I’d like, now he wants to be an Olympic sailor, and hasn’t really developed a knack for steering. I let him take the tiller but told him I was going to keep my hand on it to help him a little. Normally he likes doing things on his own, but after feeling the tiller he said OK. I just guided his hand after saying what needed to be done. My touch became lighter and lighter till I just took my hand away all together. He was grinning from ear to ear. This went on till a big gust gave him some troubles, then he had me take over again. He is all set to get into our clubs new junior sailing program.

As the channel narrowed we say more and more of he faster boats getting closer and closer to the shore. Because of this we also saw more and more getting stuck in the mud. This gave me great incentive to stay in the middle of the cut, and try to keep in line with boats that were moving.
The Merit from our club was out of site when we got into the narrower stuff, but as we got closer to the finish I saw them again. Now the cruising class allows the use of a motor for 1 hour at 6 knots. By this time I was giving Dave a break from the whisker pole and just going without. Dave had his GPS and computer hooked up and was now giving us updates as to distance to the finish. When we got to about a half hour motor away, we lit up the iron genny and motor sailed. Richard, in the Merit decides to cut his motor before the finish line. Even though we used the motor for the same time, this allowed me to sneak up on him at the end. He was a little ahead at the finish. But that’s cool we had a great time.
When we got up to the club house everyone was asking how we did. I just replied, we got there alive with out getting stuck, and had a great time too. The guy from the Wiley Cat stopped me and said “Hey you guys did great I think you placed.” I said “naw we just had a good time.” We had dinner and got the boat ready for the night. When we went back up to the club some friend from another boat told us the results were up and we got first place. I said not that couldn’t be. but we looked anyway and we did correct out in 1st. What a way to end a perfect day.

Edited by - MattL on 06/15/2006 12:43:32

welshoff
Captain

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USA
253 Posts

Response Posted - 06/15/2006 : 14:36:22

Sounds like you guys had a great time. Way to go on the finish. Someday I'm going to go down and sail the Delta. One more cruising spot to put on my list.

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Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 06/15/2006 : 14:55:38

Great story and pictures Matt.

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Gambit
Navigator

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USA
160 Posts

Response Posted - 06/15/2006 : 20:40:18

Great story and pics. Be sure to keep a version for your boy to check out at a later date, complete with your story.

Sailing is good for kids because it puts them into a position of responsibity with real consequences for their decisions. Just like life.

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