I wanted to share a very memorable experience this past weekend and one I will never forget.  My younger Brother Doug was doing a sailing regatta in San Francisco bay on the Melges 24, it was the North American’s,  which by the way they WON the regatta, which finished on Sunday.

I arrived early Friday morning on the red eye from Maui and proceeded to head across the famous Golden Gate Bridge to visit my brother right away, but in the afternoon I connected with my good friend and fellow windsurfer Royce Yen to watch the America’s cup AC45 regatta off Crissy Field. That was amazing to see those big cats flying across the bay so close to the beach and reminded me of slalom racing from the Nationals a few years ago.

After the AC regatta on Friday it was time to have a little fun for ourselves so Royce organized some gear for me from Tim Thole... thank you Tim... including MauiSails TR7 7.6m and 7.0m. The wind was up around 20 knots and a little gusty so I decided to head out with plenty of power, besides I didn’t want to get caught in those cold conditions bobbing around in the line of fire of big freight TANKERS. So we headed out off Crissy about 5:15pm into the chilly waters of San Francisco bay and cruised around for a while with a few other slalom riders, who mind you were also using MauiSails so that was fun to help them tune and then sail with them on the water.

Anyone who has sailed in San Francisco knows about the tides, they are fast and furious, so today the tide was flooding..ie coming in, so the water dead flat across the other side at the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were probably out of about 30 minutes when I spotted far in the distance this huge spray and a huge sail boat in the distance. At first I couldn’t tell what it was or which direction it was heading, but eventually the adrenaline hit me and I realized it was the fastest sailing vessel in the world, “Hydroptere” from France. The sailing cat has reached speed over 50 knots and is an amazing piece of engineering.

As it approached me it looked as if a fire hose was being used to spray water high into the sky  and the mist from the spray covered the boat and the people driving her. I could see it was fast approaching so I set myself up to windward of her to get a good look. She was probably moving around 40 knots that day so I was coming fast as I was only doing about 30 knots. It was a spectacular sight as it fast approached me but I wasn’t prepared to give up with a good fight, so I took off and lined up right next to her and gave it all I had, but eventually the big flying boat cruised by and off into the distance.

I chased her down to the American’s cup compound below the St Francis yacht club and circled her a few times, like lion walking around her catch before she goes into for the kill. The Hydroptere was reloading a few more people to take out, so I patiently waited so I could take off again with her and get one more thrill.

Photo by www.christophelaunay.com

She took off upwind and I thought it’s over I won’t be able to get close again, but eventually she came down wind close to where I was and I was able to line up again. This time the big BIRD was upwind and well behind me, so I was way in front of her but she was coming fast. I just wanted to hold her off for a bit and thought she was going to run over the top of me and eventually block my wind, but all of sudden at a time I wasn’t really paying attention I heard these cheers and whistles in my ear... I turned around to see a few yards away the HUGE CAT, cutting across my stern quarter and heading downwind again. As I looked at the smiles on the peoples faces and realized they were satisfied in beating me, I took off downwind for one more look and soon she was far gone.

I headed back to Crissy Field and realized that was a once in a life time experience, not only to see her up close but to actually race against the biggest and fastest in the World.