Lessee, last time I out past the Golden Gate--on a keel boat, I might add--I encountered 30+knot gusts, 8 foot swells, gigantic container ships, currents that sent us backwards, nasty looking lee shores, reefs, the potato patch, sharks, whales, pterydactl-sized pelicans, etc.
How about a trying the concept by first sailing from Santa Cruz to Monterey. If we survive that, we can try Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. If we survive that, we can try San Fran to Half Moon Bay. If we're still alive at that point, we can try a 10 miles out and back from the Gate. Then I'm still not sure I'll feel ready.
Did you read the accounts on the referenced web site? Here's an excerpt from an F25:
Approximately 10 miles offshore, the wind filled to somewhere around forty knots and we soon realized that we did not want to leave the back of the boat. For the next ten miles, we sailed with the jib luffing gently and the main pinned against the shrouds, where the battens took on the shape of an "S" and the trailing edge was starting to curl around the leeward shroud. Letting out sheet made no difference, because the battens were pinned to the shroud. I chose not to intentionally choke the slot (as a depowering mechanism) in order to keep the helm balanced and responsive. If things got worse, we were going to try to foot down to a dead run and try to put in a second reef. Additionally, the waves were huge and confused coming off the Potato Patch shoal, making visibility difficult. We had overtaken the lead monohull (J125 with a 50 foot mast?), which as we approached from astern a few miles back, the whole rig would almost completely disappear in the waves.
Doing such an event on a 16 foot 235lb catamaran would certainly be worthy of publicity!
