delta doo dah number 9

It's offi cial. The ninth Delta Doo Dah cruising rally was the hottest on record. The last one that even came close was the inaugural edition in 2009. Not only was the Delta even hotter than usual this summer, it was less windy. The Delta breezes were downright balmy. Delta Doo Dah 9 kicked off on May 13 with Craig and Ann Perez's Delta Cruising Seminar, hosted by Richmond Yacht Club and featuring guests Bill and Sue Evans. Bill is the executive director of the California Delta Chambers & Visitor's Bureau. Door prizes included six bottles of Pinot Noir donated by RYC, several Delta maps and shirts donated by the Delta Chambers, sailing gloves donated by OPB-YC, DVDs donated by Latitude 38, and, donated by Owl Harbor, a stylish turquoise canvas bag stocked with Owl Harbor hats, tops and coffee mugs. Next up was the Delta Ditch Run, with a cruising division nicknamed the 'Doo Dah Ditch Run'. Hosted by RYC and Stockton Sailing Club, the 67-mile run to Stockton was held on June 10. A week later, on June 17, Owl Harbor Marina on Isleton's Delta Loop hosted a fabulous afternoon BBQ. Unlike previous years, partygoers favored the airconditioned indoors over the outdoors. Among the prizes raffl ed off were six Sailaway sailing simulator games. At the end of the season, fl eet members checked in with reports of their adventures.

Lucky Mud — Pearson 323

John Speck, San Francisco I own a 1978 Pearson 323 that's about as distant from a racing boat as you can get. I made the Delta Ditch Run with a tool-fi lled V-berth and a mainsail that only stays in its track due to a large amount of duct tape on the track latch. About the only thing I did was make sure to have the hull scraped of all the yucky stuff a couple days before the race. I was very excited when I read about the cruising division; that's what made me decide to put in the effort. After having a new baby a year ago, I hadn't been able to do much sailing. My wife and daughter declined the trip, but I was blessed that my wife understood it was a chance to do something I'd never done before. My Pearson is very diffi cult to sail singlehanded, however. The mainsail is raised at the mast. There's no autopilot or windvane. Even adjusting the mainsheet (attached to a jammed-up traveler) and jib sheets can't be done from behind the wheel. I talked one of my friends into it who had previously daysailed with me a dozen or so times. My crewman, Chris, and I set sail out from the Pier 39 Marina Friday afternoon to head up to Richmond to stay at the Brickyard Cove Marina. Once we got there, we managed to make our docking attempt look about as graceful as a sumo wrestler. The wind was up and our slip was about three inches wider than Lucky Mud's beam. I noticed there was a lot of water in the bilge. Time to do some inspection. Thirty minutes later I found the leak in a likely place: the packing nut on the shaft. I had a new shaft and engine installed the previous season and had assumed that the yard would have repacked the stuffi ng box. We left early Saturday morning to get to the starting line for cruisers. The wind was around 10-12 knots. The cruising division boats, 18 in total, most with their sails up but some with just engines, were jockeying around the starting line.

Top: The Walnut Grove Bridge on a still night in July. Bottom: The same bridge opens for a sailboat motoring up the Sacramento River.

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We discussed our racing strategy with the four-hour engine allowance. We had decided to use it once we were halfway up the San Joaquin because we weren't sure there was going to be much wind there. So, Chris and I tried to do a normal sailing start. Shortly after the horn we threw out that plan and turned on the engine when we realized how grossly far from the line we were. We used the engine for about 15 minutes to get us out into real wind in the Bay, and then turned it off to preserve our engine time for the river. That was defi nitely a mistake. We had about 15 knots of wind, but it was coming from San Pablo Bay, so we sailed waaaay out to try and get a tack to get to the Carquinez Strait. Way too far really, when we could have just beat into the wind under engine power. We eventually tacked and made it around Point San Pablo. Amazingly, we actually caught up to some of the cruising division boats. Entering the Carquinez Strait, several boats in my class were giving up on their spinnakers due to the gusty winds. I was under 100% jib and mainsail as those are the only sails I own. The trip to the San Joaquin was excellent. The wind was perfect for my boat's heavy displacement. The weather was gorgeous, and never having been up the San Joaquin before, I loved seeing all the variety. The few old factories, the plains where you could see all the way to the

Clockwise from top left: Craig Perez demos his Delta toys; Cherie hangs out on 'Azure' in Potato Slough; the mercury (on August 28) doesn't go much higher ("Not a lick of breeze that day and jumping into the river to cool off every 20 minutes was the routine," reports Rod Williams); Devery Stockon and the Owl Harbor crew hosted a BBQ on June 17 with a kite theme; Tyler takes the helm of his grandparents' Islander 36 'Cali'; better have a good chart.

CALI AZURE

EREWHON

LUCKY MUD

mountains, all the little offshoot river nooks and crannies that looked cool to explore. As we moved up the river, we realized that we had to do wing on wing to really make decent time, as the wind was almost directly behind us. We jury-rigged a preventer. As we passed boats in our division, several of them took the hint and started doing wing on wing, but we seemed to be able to hold the course better. Then we hit Bee Bend. We turned a bend, and there were bees everywhere. I'm a bit phobic around bees, so when some of them started to land on us I was

The 'Erewhon' crew, Bill, Kathy and Leif, won two fl oaty toys at the Owl Harbor BBQ.

trying to man the helm and cower in fear. We made it to the fi nish line, fi gured out the docking situation (which was super easy and awesome), got some grub, and went to sleep. Thanks, SSC! We returned to San Francisco the next day, and ran into weather in San Pablo Bay so unexpected that I almost pan-panned. I was probably 15 minutes from hypothermia when it fi nally got calm enough to hand the wheel to Chris so I could get out of my wet clothes. Any time you think you've mastered the Bay, it fi nds some new stuff to teach you.

Great Expectations — Catalina 320

Brian & Lisa Forster, Sausalito Our Doo Dah started with the Delta Ditch. We were in the Cruising Division and were in a solid third until we broke the spinnaker halyard around Port Chicago. That started a comedy of errors that saw us beached on the sandbar east of there. We got going again after about 45 minutes, and rejoined right in the middle of the Moore 24 fl eet. We stayed until Monday morning at Stockton Sailing Club, where we experienced a hailstorm that covered all the boats and the dock with what looked like snow. After that, we took Great Expectations to Bedroom 2 for a few days of relaxation. I was glad to see that the water hyacinth was much reduced from previous years. My wife had never done the return trip to the Bay, and she'd heard the horror stories from me about it. Wouldn't you know it, it was pretty relaxed, with one exception. My wife noticed somewhere above Antioch that there was water on the galley fl oor. It turned out that the water pump was leaking. We pulled into Pittsburg and analyzed the issue. I rigged up a catch basin that would allow the water to go to the bilge instead of the galley to be pumped out. Once I got used to the bilge pump going off every 15 minutes or so, and the water temperature stayed normal, we kept going and everything was fi ne. The next day, we pulled into Benicia for breakfast, then continued on to Sausalito and had some nice wind once we got to about Point Pinole. I've done three Doo Dahs now, and we'll be back.

Mas Tiempo — Islander 30 MkII Dave Cowell, Owl Harbor I took the dock locals, Jeff, Ray and Adam, out on a Mandeville run, and they enjoyed it tremendously. We had 15 knots of wind and absolutely the whole river to ourselves. I look forward to the weather getting back to reasonable so I can do more

John Speck, bashing back to the Bay in a squall on June 11, on his sturdy Pearson 323.

Delta Doo Dah 9 Fleet

American Beauty ....New York 36 .........Sam Neustadt/Tammy Forrest .........Richmond Andiamo .................Islander 32 ............Paula & Russell Sunn ......................Richmond Aventura .................Island Packet 370 .Erik & Brian Jones ...........................Alameda Bella Luna...............Catalina 30 ...........Jim Sobolewski/Barbara Poff...........Vallejo Cali .........................Islander 36 ............Kerry & Jennifer Scott .....................Vallejo Cielo .......................Catalina 380 .........Doug Jarmer/Jennifer Mengel .........Alameda Dura Mater..............Cal 2-27 ................Jackie Philpott .................................Berkeley Eastern Passage ....Lazy Jack 32 ........Jay & Connie Spracklen ..................Alameda Elli ...........................Newport 28 ...........Doug McDougall ..............................Richmond Erewhon .................Newport 30 ...........Bill & Kathy Crowley ........................Glen Cove Ergo ........................Express 27 ...........Chris Gage ......................................Richmond Evenstar .................Ranger 23 .............Gregory Towers/Jillian Cripps ..........Emeryville Fantasy ...................Islander 36 ............Gene & Cheryl Novak ......................Alameda Fats.........................Grand Banks 32 ...Vickie Gilmour .................................Richmond Forgiven..................CHB 34 trawler .....Dennis & Marylee Millard ................Alameda Fuzzy Logic ............Hunter 35 ..............Dan & Kathy Baker ..........................Sausalito Great Expectations .Catalina 320 .........Brian & Lisa Forster .........................Sausalito Gypsy Soul .............Roberts 44 ............Danny & Marilyn Webb ....................Emeryville Hokahey .................Seawind 1000 .......Jan Passion/Ellen Furnari ...............Richmond Iolani .......................Hughes 48 yawl ....Sylvia & Barry Stompe ....................Sausalito Joy ..........................Ericson 29 ............Lewis Keizer/Kat St. Claire ..............San Francisco Just Saying .............C&C 40 MkII .........Ken & Nancy Wadsworth .................Richmond Kestrel ....................Tayana 37 .............Roy Pitts/Robin Taylor…………….Rough and Ready Kinyonga.................Hunter 37 cutter ....John & Maureen Brecher ................Richmond Knot Serious ...........Catalina 25 ...........Steve Gierke ....................................San Pedro L'Allegro ..................Cal 29 ...................Philip Lavelle ...................................Oakley La Vida ...................Catalina 320 .........Mike & Joan Mellon .........................Belvedere Lady Jane ...............Catalina 36 ...........Craig & Kristi Butler .........................Glen Cove Lotta'tude ................Wyliecat 30 ...........Jeff & Tracy Olson ...........................Richmond Lucky Mud ..............Pearson 323 .........John Speck ......................................San Francisco Lucy ........................Beneteau 361 .......Daryl & Patty Silva ...........................Alameda Madeline .................Hunter 310 ............Matt & Amy Hendricksen .................Vallejo Mai Pen Rai ............Islander 36 ............Noble & Barbara Brown ...................Vallejo Marauder ................Coronado 25 .........Mick Benoit/Calvin Kai Ku ...............Emeryville Mas Tiempo ............Islander 30 MkII ....David Cowell ...................................Isleton Mental Floss ...........Olson 30 ...............Robert Sesar ...................................Benicia Moana.....................Catalina 34 MkII ...Dylan & Patricia Skerrett .................Tiburon Namaste .................O'Day 37 ..............Larry White/Kathy Kennedy .............Bethel Island

Clockwise from top left: Jackie on the Cal 2-27 'Dura Mater' at Owl Harbor; the Telstar 28 'Try Baby Tri' sails to Stockton with the Delta Ditch Run; Lisa on 'Great Expectations' in Bedroom 2; the entrance to Sevenmile Slough; Mick, Calvin and Ryan rock this year's shirts.

sailing. It is absolutely amazing how it can be totally empty there in the winter. Consider it the best-kept secret in the state. And when the birds fl y south it's amazing.

Next year marks the 10th edition of the Delta Doo Dah, so we hope to come up with something special to mark the anniversary. If you check in on www.deltadoodah.com around March, you'll see how plans are shaping up for summer 2018. But why wait for June? Why not, as Dave suggests, try cruising the Delta this fall or winter? If you do explore the Delta in the off-season, let us know; we'd love to hear about it (email chris@latitude38. com). For more cruisers' pictures from the last fi ve Doo Dah rallies, see http://latitude38events. smugmug.com. — latitude/ doodette chris

Nick's Toy................Chris Craft Amerosport Sedan ..............................................................Nick & Toy Pigati..............................Isleton Odyssey..................Bristol Channel Cutter 28 ..............................................................Wayne & Karen Edney ....................San Francisco Q .............................Cooper 416 ...........Daryl Yeakle……………………South San Francisco Secret Weapon .......Islander 36 ............Lindsey Allen/Brent Maness ............Richmond Serenity ..................Seawind 1160 .......Brooks Peterson/Richard Behling ...Sausalito Shearwater .............Ericson 36C ..........Dave & Kelly Kendall .......................Richmond Shellback ................Catalina 30 ...........John & Doreen Abbott .....................Richmond Sinaloa....................Islander 30 MkII ....Patrick Arndt/Craig Wildman ...........Berkeley Sir Leansalot...........Hunter 40 ..............Tom & Lynn Lueck ...........................Stockton Slaphappy...............F-24 MkII ..............Michael Pouliot/Lucas Goddard ......Alameda Star Gazer ..............Ericson 27 ............Dennis Evans/Debra Baker .............Moss Landing Stewball ..................Express 37 ...........Bob & Ginger Harford ......................Richmond Stink Eye ................Laser 28 ...............Jonathan Gutoff/Christine Weaver ..Richmond Taingiel ...................Newport 28 ...........Matt & Becky Brown ........................Owl Harbor TerryB .....................Jeanneau 37.1 ......Terry Betts/Dave Spinelli .................Richmond Toucan ....................Tanton 43 ketch ....Kevin & Susan Belcastro .................Owl Harbor Try Baby Tri ............Telstar 28 ..............Laurie Chalkin .................................Alameda Two Truths ..............PS Dana 24 ..........Bob Sharf ........................................Berkeley Waitakere ...............Catalina 400 .........Nick Anderson/Carmen Benavides ..Emeryville Wanderlust .............Hunter 25.5 ...........Mark McNearney .............................Stockton Wild-Type................Ericson 32 ............Chris & Margie Simenstad ...............Richmond Windwalker .............Catalina 30 ...........Gregory Wilson/Chris Verplaetse ....San Francisco XOXO .....................Lancer 36 .............Mark Pavusko/Dee Furley ...............Alameda Yo Mis Esposa Y Summerwind .....Catalina 30 ...........Larry & Dorothy Samson .................Stockton Zeehond .................Newport 30 MkII ...Donn Guay/Diane Memory ..............Alameda

Many Thanks to our 2017 Sponsors:

California Delta Chambers www.californiadelta.org Latitude 38 Media www.latitude38.com OPB-YC www.opb-yc.com Owl Harbor www.owlharbor.com Richmond Yacht Club www.richmondyc.org Sailaway Sailing Simulator www.sailawaysimulator.com Stockton Sailing Club www.stocktonsc.org To inquire about sponsoring Delta Doo Dah X, please contact Mitch Perkins, mitch@latitude38.com, or Doodette Chris, chris@latitude38.com • (415) 383-8200