Veteran's Day: Suisun Bay

The wind was blowing from the NE (45-55 degrees) rather than the usual westerly, so headed East into Suisun Bay for an afternoon sail. I have sailed this way on my Hobie cat in previous days, but was able to take in the surroundings in a much more leisurely fashion on the Wharram. We tacked into the wind through the Suisun Bay "Ghost Fleet" but left the camera at home, so no pics this time. Sailed as far as Ryer Island and then back around Roe Island for a great run all the way back to the Martinez Bridge - total distance around 20 nautical miles. What's striking sailing around Suisun Bay - apart from the Ghost Fleet - is the number of wrecks. There is a yacht and power boat stuck in the shallow area in the middle of the Bay, and a bunch of steel wrecks at the South end of Ryer Island (See picture of sail track).

The most common question asked about Wharrams is how well they point to windward (I know it was the question I wanted to know about before I took the plunge and bought a Tiki). Keeping in mind that I am still a Wharram novice - the sail track picture of my gps coordinates is quite instructive. The focus is the tacks to windward through the Ghost Fleet - the setting is:
- wind from just north of NE (about 50 degrees)
- wind speed is 10-15 mph (about 9-13 knots), so the apparent wind speed factoring in boat speed to weather is about 18-19 knots
- the boat is running into an ebb tide with a short 2' chop*
- standard mainsail and jib

So, conditions are quite fresh, heading directly into the wind and tide with a short chop under full sail*. The sail track picture shows that the windward tacks are a bit larger than 90 degrees (say 100 degrees), but that when the boat gathers speed after tacking, the wind angle hardens up to 45 degrees or less. Speed to windward is 5-6 knots. VMG (velocity made good to windward) ranges from 2 to over 5 knots once the boat gathers speed. Once me and boat got above the Ghost Fleet the wind dropped to about 5 mph and shifted to the South a bit. On the fun run downwind the boat speed is 6.5-7.5 knots.

Overall, I think this shows that Wharram Tiki 21's do OK to windward - I think these windward figures are quite good even in comparison to many monohulls, especially since my sails are baggy and soft. Of course the reaching and running speeds are superior to almost any monohull with 18' waterline length unless it is a hard core racer or skiff. I'm looking forward to the right conditions for "Little Cat" to stretch her legs on a reach. Say 20 knots of wind on the beam without too many waves - maybe next week!

*Edit. I've since checked the tides on this day and found that it was not an ebb tide. The tide was actually nearly at the top so would have been a slight flood assist or high slack. An ebb tide would have lead to wider tacks than shown here.