TEAM AFTERBURNER breaks
all time record in Santa Barabara to King Harbor race
By Mark Michaelsen
August 02, 2002-Redondo Beach, CA
 |
| Afterburner in the
2002 Newport to Ensenada Race. Photo: Rich Roberts
|
TEAM AFTERBURNER broke the
all time fastest elapsed time record on Friday and
was the first boat to finish in this year's Santa
Barbara to King Harbor annual yacht race. The 70
mile course is a favorite for Southern California
racers who flock to the event by the thousands.
The race is run at the same time that Santa Barbara
celebrates "FIESTA DAYS" which is a HUGE
celebration of partiers who vary in age between
18 and 75. Most are in their college years and the
whole town is a P-A-R-T-Y.
A favorite spot to gather
before the event is the Palace Restaurant just off
SB's famous State Street. This cajun style restaurant
serves up the BEST food in the city and is conveniently
located within just steps of the best and wildest
bars in the city. Among the revelers this year were
Michael Jordan and few notable actors and actresses.
Bill Gibbs (Owner of AFTERBURNER) treated the team
to a lavish dinner. After dinner it was time to
hit the sack. NO partying for us unfortunately as
6:00AM comes early.
A study of the weather maps
showed modest westerly winds in the outer waters
and moderate NW to North flow up the coast. Knowing
that moderate winds at Point Conception (West of
Santa Barbara) would likely mean the wrap around
effect would more closely hug the shore we laid
out our game plan. We would sail South-South West
in the South Easterly breeze that showed itself
at the start at a velocity of 3-4 knots. We would
take this to a building Westerly that began to show
up on the 11:00AM buoy observations.
Taking a port tack approach
to a line you could not lay on starboard tack we
found a hole and sailed toward what we expected
to be a building Westerly. Victoria 5 (Trans PAC
52) went the same direction at approximately the
same boat speed while most of her fleet sailed high
and slow trying to climb to what is the traditional
windline. After about 35 minutes of sailing in very
light winds (under 5 knots) we found our westerly.
A 70' wind shift in under three minutes and then
a final ten degrees pushed us instantly onto starboard
tack. We were off! (We reached this windline a full
five minutes before any other boat after reaching
off hard on the gamble that it would be there...gamble
paid...)
Within twenty five minutes
of hard reaching with our screacher up there was
nary another boat in sight. Averaging 16 knots we
screamed toward Anacapa Island being careful not
to get pulled up into the lee of Santa Cruz Island.
One mile off Anacapa we made a sail change to our
small spinnaker. After getting everything set we
jibed and ran 1/2 way down the back side of Anacapa
Island. One jibe out for ten minutes and then a
jibe back onto port tack. We carried that all the
way to a waypoint just above Point Dume averaging
17 knots and hitting speeds in the low 20s. Wind
speeds at this time were 8-11 knots. We believe
we saw a puff or two to 12 knots but that's about
it!
We carried the starboard jibe
1/2 way across Santa Monica Bay still averaging
in the high teens with boat speed in 9-11 knots
of wind. One more jibe back toward Marina del Rey
and I asked the owner if he wanted to try for the
record of 6:43 elapsed time....after some careful
consideration Bill replied "SURE!"....Everyone
on the crew turned up the intensity a few more clicks
and close attention was paid to navigation, jibe
angles and boat handling (We had been cruising a
bit since there was not another boat within 15 miles
of us for hours).
At a point about seven miles
off Marina del Rey breakwater we jibed onto starboard
for our final approach. Averaging 15 knots the GPS
and nav software agreed that we would be a couple
of minutes late or early depending on what second
you checked it. Bill Gibbs squeezed every ounce
of speed available as we approached the "Whaling
Wall" at King Harbor and prepared for a "Floater
drop" on the spinnaker (a difficult maneuver
at 15 knots of boat speed while reaching into a
turning buoy). The call was made, the boat was steered
around the outside bell buoy, Rick (Mast man) "Smoked
the halyard at the perfect moment and the kite came
down flawlessly and was gathered by the foredeck
crew (two men) while the rest of us rotated the
mast, changed the runners, traveled the main across,
reset the rotation, jibe the jib and cranked down
the daggerboards so we could steer up into the channel
and across the finish line in a time under the previous
record time of 6 hours 43 minutes set by Mike Leniman
in 1987 and held for fifteen years...We made it
with 120 seconds to spare....
Many thanks to Bill Gibbs
(the generous owner) for a great time racing, top
quality equipment including new CUBEN FIBRE sails
and to the crew for putting up with my incessant
screaming during the race!
AFTERBURNER RECORD TIME 6
hours, 41 minutes--2002 Santa Barbara to King Harbor
Yacht Race.
Crew:
William (Bill) Gibbs – Owner / Driver
Mark Michaelsen-Tactician/Navigator/Driver
Don Meifert-Main Trimmer
Vincent Schmitt-Foredeck-Nav systems specialist
John Dodson-Pit , Mid deck
Rick Quist-Mast man, Crew chief
