Information for all potential Catalina Tuesday's participants

 

For those that don’t have the marks listed in their GPS, the waypoints are as follows.

 

Mark Name Mark Location Mark Description

Black Pt. 36°57.22’N – 121°59.29’W Unmarked yellow ball

Government 36°57.47’N – 122°00.72’W Large white metal ball marked “CG”

Mile Buoy 36°56.35’N – 122°00.56’W Large RW “SC” WHISTLE buoy

SC3 36°56.49’N – 121°58.00’W Yellow cylinder marked “SC3”

SC5 36°55.00’N – 122°00.00’W Yellow cylinder marked “SC5”

SC7 36°56.30’N – 122°00.97’W Yellow cylinder marked “SC7”

Start 36°57.09’N – 121°59.62’W Unmarked yellow ball

Wharf 36°56.87’N – 122°01.24’W Unmarked yellow ball

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 Sailing instructions for all courses are listed below.  Any Catalina skipper that needs a laminated copy of the below information, can stop by Q dock between 5 and 5:30 on Tuesday evenings when we sail.  Stay tuned to channel 69 for start times and communication.

CATALINA TUESDAY COURSES

 

_/)Marks all left to port unless designated (SB) which shall be rounded on starboard.

_/)Start  line shall be a line between start(to port) and lighthouse on jetty approx. 5 boat lengths from start. If a different line is used, it shall be designated for the course.

_/)Finish line shall be designated for each course as rounding the start buoy to port (P) or starboard (SB) within 5 boat lengths of the buoy. If rounding buoy to port from the northwest, finish line is an extension of line from lighthouse to buoy. Start buoy=finish buoy.

 

NORTHWEST WIND COURSES:

 

COURSE 1: START, WHARF, MILE, BLACKS, FINISH (P)           DISTANCE=4.04

 

COURSE 2: START, WHARF, MILE, GOV (SB), FINISH (P)        DISTANCE=3.93

 

COURSE 3: START, WHARF, BLACKS, FINISH (P)                    DISTANCE=3.23

 

COURSE 4: START, WHARF (SB), GOV (SB), FINISH (P)         DISTANCE=3.07

    

     COURSE 5: START, WHARF, FINISH (P)                                    DISTANCE=2.68

 

COURSE 6: START, MILE (SB), GOV (SB)=FINISH (BETWEEN END OF WHARF AND GOV, 5 BOAT LENGTHS FROM GOV.                       DISTANCE=2.24

 

COURSE 7: START, MILE, FINISH (P)                                       DISTANCE=2.17

 

EAST WIND COURSES:

 

COURSE 8: START (SB), BLACKS (SB), MILE (SB), GOV (SB), FINISH (P)  DISTANCE=4.03

COURSE 9: START (SB), BLACKS (SB), SC3, FINISH (P)      DISTANCE=3.04

 

COURSE 10: START (SB), SC3 (P), BLACKS (P), FINISH (P)   DISTANCE= 2.95

 

COURSE 11: START (SB), BLACKS (SB), MILE (SB), FINISH (P)  DISTANCE 2.72

COURSE 12: START (SB), BLACKS, START, BLACKS, FINISH (P) DISTANCE=1.12

 

NORTH WIND COURSES

For north wind courses: START LINE IS BETWEEN START AND BLACKS, 5 BOAT LENGTHS. START TO PORT.

 

COURSE 13: START, GOV, MILE, BLACKS, FINISH (P)                  DISTANCE=4.03

 

COURSE 14: START, GOV, BLACKS, FINISH (P)                             DISTANCE=2.45

 

COURSE 15: START, GOV, FINISH (P)                                             DISTANCE=1.98

April 23, 2013

APRIL 23, 2013

 

It was a sunny beautiful day on the Monterey Bay and once again Sailing Pair A Dice leads the two other boats around the course NOT!  That was years ago, this is NOW.

 

On this night we came to the cold dank harbor.  The wind was blowing out of the northwest, but it was so chilly, even I was wondering “is this what I really want to do tonight?”.  Put on more clothing and get the boat ready!  As we left the harbor, there were already three boats out and two more following us out.  The participants this night were: Sailing Pair a Dice (PAD), Aeolian (A), Diver Down (DD), No Name 27 (NN), Free Spirit (FS), and Andiamo (AND).  We used the new course card that all of the boats had to set the course and with the wind, we decided on course two (Start, Wharf,Mile,GOV and finish).

 

With a port tack start heavily favored, all of the boats came in on port for the start except PAD, which all of the boats had to duck.  On PAD, we felt we had made the right choice because we thought we were getting in to better wind heading outside.  We were getting stopped by the bigger seas, so we tacked over and were running parallel to the fleet inside, maybe a quarter of a mile further out than the rest of the boats.  While  DD was roughly following our lead, the rest of the fleet was inside and had to tack out when they got to the wharf.  It was very apparent to PAD at that point that the gap between us was closing, as the inside fleet was getting lifted and we were getting headed.  PAD eventually tacked over to take advantage of the lift, at which point it was very apparent that FS was definitely in the lead.  Wharf was a very difficult mark to pass, with all of the boats needing to tack multiple times to round except A.  I have to hand it to Mark on A, though he had to pinch to make the mark, he rounded without having to tack which  gave A a substantial lead.   The rest of the fleet rounded just about in unison, then it was off to Mile, with a very tight group of boats, all trying to steal the wind of their competitors.  A was able to round Mile ahead of everyone else and, once again, the whole group rounded together just after A.  It was interesting with the different points of sail, how the boats ranked in speed.  To weather AND and the rest of us were dead even.  DD was waterlining all of us with good speed on all points.  Off the wind, on port tack, PAD was able to get a lead on AND and was just off of FS’s starboard quarter.  As we rounded GOV, PAD had inside overlap on FS and were able to get ahead after rounding GOV.  DD had rounded just ahead of us and just behind A, as we all marched toward the finish line.  Once again the winner was Aeolian, followed by Diver Down, then Pair A Dice, Free Spirit, Andiamo and No Name 27.  This night was the tightest grouping of boats I have seen on a Tuesday night, with No Name 27 coming in less than 5 minutes after Andiamo.  For this night we did not give No Name 27 a PHRF offset which could have placed her very near the front of the fleet!  What a great night, seeing everyone so tightly grouped together!

 

_/)           _/)         _/)                              _/)                                             _/)        _/)

 

It has been thrilling for me to see the fleet come together so well.  For all of the boats to be sailing so close to each other shows that all of us are bringing our game up.  All sailing is, is doing a thousand things just right!  Gone are the days when we could sneak up on another boat because they weren’t trimming their sails.  Being associated with the yacht club as many of us are, many of us know very good sailors and they are also getting involved, which ramps the game up even more.  Who would have ever thought that Catalina’s could be raced so competitively!

 

I am looking forward to seeing you all out there next Tuesday.

 

 

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

             /)

  /)      [.]

[.]

SANTA CRUZ CATALINA TUESDAY NIGHTS: APRIL 16, 2013

APRIL 16 2013

 

The overwhelming response from all participants was “Wow, that was FUN!”.  It seems the word is finally getting out about our Catalina Tuesdays.  This was very apparent as we were leaving the harbor and saw all of the Catalina’s sailing around the start mark.  The participating boats on this particular Tuesday were: Aeolian(A), Pacific Spirit (PS), Katrina, Sailing Pair A Dice(PAD), Diver Down(DD), no-name the Catalina owned by Donna and Rob Franks and Free Spirit (FS) and a few other boats that have not come out before.  This was a very windy night with the wind coming out of the northwest, with very shifty wind coming straight off the beach (from the north) when you got close to the beach.

 

We decided on a course from Start to Wharf, Mile, Blacks and back to start, all roundings to port.  Before the race we actually saw 21 knots of wind and quickly put a reef in on PAD.  With this much wind, it was a rather chaotic start, with A and PS coming out with the best starts, right on the line on starboard tack and off and running.  PAD was to leeward behind PS and A was sailing ahead of PAD and to port.  FS got pinched at the mark with DD coming in on starboard and had to spin around the mark.  As we all marched off toward wharf, PS was clearly in the lead and A sailing faster and much lower than we were.  On PAD we were trying to split the difference with a plan to tack onto port to position ourselves about 10 boat lengths below the mark where we planned to tack onto the starboard tack layline.  We were surprised when A tacked over very early and easily crossed us on port tack heading closer to the wharf.  Our impression was that this was a huge mistake since the wind was obviously stronger outside. We finally tacked over onto port tack and we knew we had screwed up.  Right after we tacked, we figured we had layed  wharf perfectly, then the shift came and we  kept getting headed further and further and further.  We did not feel it was appropriate to tack on this header since  it was not enough to clear the mark.  While we had waited to go inside, Aeolian had arrived in this huge shift in time to capitalize on it and got lifted around wharf way ahead of PAD and PS.  PAD was a distant second (behind A) around wharf and Pacific Spirit was close behind with Diver Down  in close pursuit.  As we sailed toward Mile, PS was camped on our wind, but we shook our reef out and managed to gain an inside overlap on PS as we approached Mile and were able to round inside of PS.  On our approach to blacks, PS had worked their way to windward of us and DD had sailed to leeward of us and then things got very interesting. DD swung wide on the mark and since we had overlap at the 3 boatlength zone and were entitled to room at the mark, we ducked inside and rounded just inside of DD.  PS ducked behind both PAD and DD for the rounding.  PAD got a quick tack in and sprinted off toward the start mark with DD right on our starboard hip and closing.  It was a very exciting finish with Aeolian WAY out in front followed by PAD and DD less than a boatlength behind our bow and PS taking a fourth.

 

Tactical Lessons:

 

“A” played the shift perfectly on their approach to wharf and PAD waited too long to tack on the header.  If PAD had tacked sooner, even if we had to tack again, we would have at least been sailing TOWARD the mark, rather than away from it.

When approaching marks ALWAYS do everything you can to have an inside overlap at the 3 boat zone.  This allows you to squirt out ahead of your competitors after rounding the mark.  If DD would have been able to break the overlap at “the zone” on blacks, PAD would have had to follow them around the mark, rather than cut inside.  It would have been very hard to make up this deficit in the short distance to the start mark.

 

Racing Rules of Sailing:

 

This section is not for the experienced racers, but there are some basic rules that you need to know when racing.  The primary rule is starboard tack boat has right of way over Port tack.  With two boats on the same tack, leeward boat has right of way, and a boat being passed has right of way over the passing boat. Always avoid contact with other boats.

 As noted above, when approaching a mark, the zone is 3 boat lengths from the mark (boatlength determined by the first boat to the zone). A boat with inside overlap (any part of the inside boat breaking the plane of the stern of the outside boat) must be given room to round the mark INSIDE of the outside boat.

People often are confused by penalty turns.  Any infraction of the rules involving right of way with another boat requires a 2 turn penalty as soon as is possible, but not in the way of other competitors.  Any infraction where a mark is hit requires a one turn penalty, once again as soon as possible, but not in the way of other competitors.

 

This is a quick review, but it behooves all racers to have a rule book and to study it.

 

I am looking forward to seeing you all next Tuesday.

 

Barry L. Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce