2017 Guinea Cup - San Diego, CA

Album of photos

Two PSSMA Six Metres raced the Guinea Cup #2 on March 4, 2017, in San Diego. The Guinea Cup is a Series of races run by the Ancient Mariner's Sailing Society of San Diego, a sailing club whose mission is to preserve and promote interest in sail and power vessels of ancient, vintage and classic design.  There were three Metre boats on the course, "Sprig" and "May Be VII" (6-Metres) and "Sally", a 10 Metre (owned by CF Koehler). About a dozen beautiful wooden sailboats raced a 12 mile course ziz-zagging down the harbor to the cityfront, then out to the entrance of San Diego harbor just off of Point Loma, and back to Shelter Island. A glorious 73 degree sunny day with moderate winds and sparkling water---perfect!  However, lots of Navy ships and Homeland Security boats to contend with.  "May Be VII", a 1952 S&S designed Six-Metre, is owned by Joth Davis of Port Madison Yacht Club. Joth graciously loaned "May Be VII" to Bob and Molly Cadranell to sail this winter in San Diego, and to line tune with Greg Stewart's "Sprig". Both boats are heading up to Vancouver BC for the 2017 Six-Metre Worlds in September.  As of this writing, we are awaiting the corrected time finishes from the Race Committee.  But, as far as the 6s go, "Sprig" miraculously port tacked the start, and "May Be VII" worked the current to round the first mark ahead of "Sprig". A tactical/operator error sent MB7 to the wrong mark, which was soon evident but resulted in now a 3-4 minute delta, with Greg leapfrogging to the lead.  "At one point, I couldn't even read Sprigs sail numbers" said Bob. So the remaining 10 miles was good practice for the crew to get MB7 into hyperspeed. "Sprig" held the lead over "May Be VII" with a 30 second difference at the finish.
   Those of you from the Puget Sound (PSSMA) fleet know that many times I (Molly) drive our Protector around and follow the fleet, taking pictures, towing boats, handing out sandwiches, whatever. On Saturday the guys went out early to do spinnaker sets, so I ambled over to the restricted Navy area where they train the dolphins and watched for about 15 minutes (getting my dolphin fix).  Just me and Hannah (the dog), hangin' around the dolphins, taking pictures, watching.  Then we ambled over to the starting line to catch the start, hiding among the anchored boats, puttering back and forth...then zipping at full throttle to the mark, puttering, zipping, puttering, etc.  While motoring out to the ocean bouy mark (now it's like 2 hrs into the race, I'm driving and reading the paper and drinking a Bud) I hear a loud boat roaring up my six, blue lights flashing, and I think "Oh SH#!", I don't even have a life jacket out from under the seat.  It's US Homeland Security, and they pull right up beside me, so I neutralize the engines and smile big.  There are 4 huge men with guns. It's like a 40ft Cigarette boat with quadruple Mercury Verado 350s hanging on the stern. They start quizzing me---where are you headed? What type of boat is that?  Where was it built? "I'm following the sailboat race, it's a Protector, it was built in New Zealand (smile, smile, Hannah please be cute and don't bark, smile---oh jeez, I've been motoring erratically and have been drifting secretly in restricted areas---).  There was a pause (probably checking the computer), then they said "Cool---wanna race??"  

All photos by Molly Cadranell,
except I snagged the photo of he Homeland Security vessel off their webpage