October 8, 2013
Another great evening sailing in the Monterey Bay. Great wind around 20 knots blowing out of the East with a little Northerly direction. With so much wind , we decided to use course 9, a rather long course considering the shortness of the daylight. The course was start to blacks, SC3 and back to start. We actually had two Catalina 27's which had a 2 minute head start on the rest of us. Other Catalina's out this night were Emeritus, Pacific Spirit, Tres Santos and Sailing Pair a Dice.
Iris and the other 27 had good starts and were off and running to blacks. We (PAD) had a good start right at the pin and Emeritus started right on time a little further down the line. Pacific SPirit was breathing down our necks right at the start. We were able to fend Pacific Spirit off until we all rounded Blacks. In the long run to SC3, Pacific Spirit was able to roll us to windward and Emeritus was right with them. We had the hardest time trying to pass Iris, which was sailing nicely, considering the weird chop that was in the water. The smaller the boat, the harder it is to overcome the disadvantage of chop, but they were doing a great job of it. As we got closer to SC3, we decided to tack off to clear our air from Pacific Spirit and Emeritus. Pacific Spirit rounded SC3 easily with a commanding lead, while PAD and Emeritus were having trouble getting around SC3, having to tack several times. Alas PAD even grazed the buoey as we tried to round. Fortunately, with as much wind as there was, the one turn penalty was not too painful. Right after rounding, PAD headed inside while Emeritus stayed outside, while Pacific Spirit was romping on ahead. When we finally got closer to shore, we turned more toward the mark and were able to set our pole. It seemed like we were closing on Pacific Spirit, but their lead was too much and the crossed easily (about 2 minutes) in front of us. We crossed ahead of Emeritus, which was sailing without a pole, a distinct disadvantage on such a long down wind run. Good job Pacific Spirit!
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Steering in challenging conditions:
I was at the helm of my boat for this night and I found it very challenging. Normally, when steering, you want minimal handling of the wheel and you want to maintain an even angle of heel. On this night, we had many gusts of wind and the waves and chop seemed to be coming from every direction. Normally, you can use the waves to "surf" a little closer to the wind. This night, it seemed every time I attempted to surf, there was chop fighting my attempt. I felt like I was using way too much helm with all of the gusts and definitely lost my cool when attempting to round a mark in close quarters. I am open for suggestions from people more in the know.
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The end of the season is quickly approaching and what a season it has been. Participation has grown almost exponentially this season. Thank you all for making Tuesday nights part of you routine. Keep in mind and plan for the fact that the last two Tuesday night of the season will be Barbecue nights! Both October 22 and 28 will be followed by a barbecue at the yacht club. Lets have a grand finale on the 28th.
Looking forward to seeing you next Tuesday.
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