Trachy anchored in the ebb before the start, at the pin end of a long starting line (GGYC), as far out in the bay as he could, knowing that getting out in the heavy ebb was the strategy. Combined with a puff that didn't seem to reach the rest of us, he eeked out a big head start in the otherwise zero breeze at the start (ebb + easterly = 0). It filled in from the west eventually, seemingly about an hour later. Gilles (on Snafu with me) almost lost it in the light air, where either tack, on the same heading, seemed to be justifiable. Mooretician got stuck between some barges... ahem... 30-footers... and worked hard to catch up later.
Trachy and Snafu went for the strong ebb on the southern side, Mooretician stayed north. They both seemed to work. We all headed too far north past Bonita and ended up reaching down to the lightship. Mooretician caught up a bunch by tacking over to that starboard reach before Trachy and us - all pretty close at this point.
Built to a solid 20-25 out there, we all did bald-headed peels to the #3 in potato patch waves, with 5' troughs off the back sides making it all very interesting. We even threw in a reef for a while.
Trachy rounded in first, us second, and we blew the jibe, having forgotten to move a block when we did the peel (no kits yet). Mooretician took advantage and roasted over us, on a close reach, demonstrating a whole lot more experience in ocean reaching. While passing us, they were on the top of a wave, we were in the trough, and mooretician's bootstripe was about 3' above my left shoulder, as I'm realizing that it might just be possible for a boat to land on top of another.
We ignored the conventional wisdom of going really high on the way back and set the kite before everyone else, realizing that we could lay the gate just fine and we'd get lifted anyway. Had amazing surfing conditions, 15 kts and some steep waves that had the bow sticking way out of the water.
It got lighter (probably 12kts) back in the bay as we all converged near Bonita. This was shaping up to be a classic tight Moore 24 finish.
Mooretician stayed along the north shore, which ended up not paying off, with lighter winds and less flood. Trachy and we went straight for the south tower and crossed under the bridge side by side. Dead silence on the boat as we took every minor increase in pressure to head down towards the pin end of the line in max flood.
The three Moore's finished within 60 seconds of each other, taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall.
https://www.jibeset.net/racedoc/IYC_T007701968r1.html?t=1396795566
Peter, Pete - great sailing with you guys.
Karl
All - For what it's worth, DHF relaxed their requirements for lifelines, and DHL agreed to adopt the same rules: PFDs with leg straps and a combination of PLBs and/and VHFs will suffice. Your original stanchion-less boats are ok in these offshore races Moore's were built for. The only boat work you need to do is install a modern VHF (i.e. integrated GPS&DSC), and a masthead antenna.
