It is difficult to describe the Three Bridge Fiasco before it happens. You have to see it to understand. But it's an easy enough description this time: a bunch of boats behind the Eight Ball. With Eight Ball being Moore 24 sail number 85, the overall winner of the 2010 Three Bridge Fiasco.
Scott Easom, owner of Easom Rigging, and Matt Siddens are the sailors behind Eight Ball's phenomenal success. Scott is modest in his explanation of this victory stating that "it takes a lot of luck, there are a lot of variables in this race." But let's get to how he made that luck and influenced the variables.
To start, he was accidentally on the wrong side of the start line from the direction he wanted to go, getting stuck east of the line. He made up for that by being right on the pin end, wiggling his way through the crowd (remember there were about 40 boats starting with him) and getting out of there fast. And that was the first and most important variable in a day where he did everything right. He got past the pin, took a hard right out into the Bay to catch the last of the flood current and started counter-clockwise. One other Moore went with him and he joined an earlier starting Hawkfarm. His only goal was to get wind and current in his favor and he did. Basically, that was the race, he got to the breeze first.
He then went around Treasure Island, noticing the parking lot that the counter-clockwise crew was in for the first time. He set the spinnaker and headed up to Red Rock, now with a comfortable lead. On the day before the race, he had gone out to Red Rock to see what the currents did when the tide changed; this advance knowledge gave him a good idea what it would be like to round Red Rock at 1PM (not coincidentally when he got there). This knowledge in hand, he rounded Red Rock to starboard, knowing that he would have a big wind hole on the other side and that he needed the current to get him around.
As he went down Raccoon Strait, he played the fine line between the current close to Tiburon and the breeze over by Angel Island, balancing the two to keep the boat moving. If by moving, we mean 9 knots over the bottom. It was in here that he first saw the guys who had parked at Blackaller for so long, not a lot people were happy to see him that's for sure.
The rest of the race was using the current and the now fresh breeze to get to the finish line. Eight Ball finished at around 2:41 PM, 8 minutes ahead of the next boat. What Scott is most proud of from this race is that Eight Ball has now won consecutively the two biggest races in the Bay overall, the Delta Ditch and Three Bridge Fiasco.
As good of a sailor as Scott is, a lot of credit has to go to his boat. Eight Ball is the standard bearer for Easom Rigging, Scott's rigging company. His job is to optimize boats, basically make a better boat for people. And this victory shows what good luck, making the right choices and bringing a well-prepared boat can do for you.
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