CATALINA SAILBOATS RACING MONTEREY BAY: BLUSTERY TUESDAY APRIL 22, 2014

APRIL 22, 2014

You would never guess it was April because there are no April showers, but at least we are getting some  spring winds.  All day Tuesday, I kept checking outside and watching the wind: it was nuking all day long.  By the time we got out of the harbor, the wind had become a lot more tame. There was still a lot of wind, but not enough to have a reef in for us.  Since the wind was blowing from the North, straight off shore, we decided on course 13.  This course begins taking start to port, then Gov, Mile, Blacks then finish with start mark to starboard.  We had 6 boats out this night: Sailing Pair a Dice, Pacific spirit, TOAD (Beneteau 32), Emeritus, Tres Santos and Free Spirit.

On Pair a Dice, we decided that a starboard tack start was preferred and worked our way into being right on the line in front.  Though we managed a good start, the other boats were slowly grinding us down on the way to GOV.  It appears that we were consistently getting headed while Pacific Spirit, our closest competitor seemed to be consistently lifted!  We attempted to tack over to get to windward of them, but by the time we crossed them, they breezed right by us.  We couldn’t believe it when they were able to round GOV without even tacking just ahead of us.  Their boat handling was impeccable to make such a rounding.

On the way to Mile,  Pair a Dice was able to set the pole a little quicker and moved into the lead, rounding Mile comfortably ahead of Pacific Spirit.  On the long run to Blacks, Pacific Spirit was once again grinding us down closing the gap between us.  Looking back at mile, it was very interesting as TOAD, Emeritus and Tres Santos seemed to be rounding all at once Blacks then Tres Santos.

Tactics:

This night was particularly challenging with the gusty conditions and with the wind shifting up to 30 degrees at times.  Though Pair a Dice had a good start, what helped Pacific Spirit pass us on the way to GOV was an excellent example of keeping sails trimmed perfectly and squeezing every bit out of every lift that came along.  The fact that they made it around GOV with no tacks at all is a tribute to their excellent boat handling (helmsmanship and sail trim).

Rules:

There may be some confusion about my rules discussion last week.  At the starting line before the start, the leeward boat can luff a windward boat up and even force the windward boat over the line.  The leeward boat, having right of way can pinch a windward boat off and prevent them from “Barging”.

When rounding a MARK in close proximity, EVERYTHING hinges on inside overlap when either boat ENTERS the 3 boat length ZONE.  This overlap, if close, is usually called by someone in the cockpit of the boat that is being passed, since it is easy to sight through the plane of the stern and tell if there is an overlap.  If close, you will see someone sighting the stern and calling “no overlap!” or even indicating that there is an overlap if there is one.  You will see more experienced skippers set their boats up so that as entering the zone they can turn the boat to break an overlap! If you can achieve an inside overlap AS either boat enters the zone, you are entitled to room at the mark.  The size of the 3 boat length zone is determined by the first boat to enter the zone if the boats are different size.  This all gets interesting when the inside boat claims they have overlap and the outside boat says there is no overlap.  In these situations, you will hear the outside boat call “don’t go in there, no room”.  In more competitive racing, these situations often end up in the protest room.

 

PLEASE NOTE: THIS NEXT WEEK (APRIL 29) IS BARBECUE NIGHT AT THE YACHT CLUB.  PLEASE BE SURE TO  BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD TO BARBECUE AND SOCIALIZE AFTER THE RACE. AS USUAL, THE BAR WILL NOT BE OPEN.  BYO-EVERYTHING!

Officially this is not a potluck, but many of us bring extra to share.

Looking forward to seeing you next week.

 

Barry

 

LET THERE BE WIND! APRIL 15, 2014

TUESDAY APRIL15, 2014

It was a beautiful evening for a sail. Beautiful sunny evening with no fog.  The only problem was, there was no wind!  We had a dozen boats out and no wind. All we could do was wait!   It only took about 20-25 minutes and we saw the water get darker in the distance.  The wind was filling in from the East.  We decided on course 12 which was Start, Blacks, Start Blacks and finish at start. Some of the boats participating were Aeolian, Andiamo, Emeritus, Pacific Spirit, Tres Santos, Toad (Beneteau 32), Iris, Katrina, Free Spirit, Sailing Pairadice and a C&C 29(?) to round things out for us.

We started the count down to the start and were lucky enough on Sailing PairADice to be right at the start buoy on time with clear air, with Tres Santos close behind.  Most of the other boats got tangled further down the line, giving each other bad, unclear air.  We pressed our clear air advantage to lengthen our lead.  As we looked back as the pack of boats rounded Blacks, it was getting very interesting with many boats attempting to round at the same time.  You can’t do better in a race than lucking out with clear air, when everyone else is crowded together.  We finished comfortably ahead with Toad (Beneteau 32) second and Tres Santos third.

Tactics:

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, you can’t beat being in clear air with no other boats around. We fought for and won the pin end which allowed us to lay Blacks without a single tack.  The boats that were too early to the line sailed down the line and could not make Blacks without putting a few tacks in. Extra tacks in dirty air really allowed us to lengthen our lead.

Racing rules of sailing:

When sailing and especially when racing, it is essential to have a working knowledge of the rules of racing.  Basically there are rules always in effect, call them the right of way rules.  These rules are numbered 10-13 in the rule books.   A boat on Starboard tack, with the boom out to the port side of the boat has right of way over a port tack boat.  When two boats are on the same tack, the leeward boat has right of way over the windward boat.  If there is overlap, the leeward boat has the right to luff up and force the windward boat over the start line.  Another critical rule is that a boat that is overtaking another boat must yield to the slower boat.  When any of these right of way rules is broken, the rule book requires the offending boat to perform two 360 degree turns, but most SI’s have shortened this to just a single turn. This turn must be performed as soon as possible and out of the way of other competitors.

When setting up for a start, boats frequently take a line  pretty much parallel to the start line, then try to harden up at the mark.  When employing this tactic, it is common for a leeward boat to luff up to close you out of the start.  This is his right as the leeward boat and he will hail “no room, you are barging!”  We have all tried to barge and it is frustrating, because your only option is to take the wrong side of the mark, turn around and cross the line when the line is cleared.

One other critical area is rounding marks.  There is a  “3 boat zone”.  This is determined by the first boat to reach three boat lengths of the mark.  If as the first boat reaches the “zone” there is an inside overlap, the boat that is overlapped inside of the other boat, has right of way and must be given room to round the mark.  This is a very simple description of a situation that gets very complicated when there are multiple boats rounding at the same time. The inside position is a very desirable position to be in and requires planning and tactics to achieve.

This description of the rules is very crude, and covers only the very basic rules.  I encourage everyone to get a copy of the rules.  There are many books and DVD’s that explain the rules in great detail.

 

We will see you out there next Tuesday.

 

Barry Keeler

 

 

FOGGY TUESDAY: APRIL 8, 2014

Tuesday April 8, 2014


After getting rained out last week, it was looking like it was going to be an awesome evening for a sail. It was clear and warm a mile inland from the ocean, so it was quite a surprise to see the harbor socked in with fog. What the hecht, we got GPS, so why not go out anyway? Actually, once we left the harbor, the visibility was not that bad; between 100 and 200 yards visibility. Of course there is always the question in these races when fog is in: How do you tell the lighthouse end of the line when you can’t see the lighthouse?

Ultimately some boats decided to not come out and still others decided not to race in the fog. The boats engaged in the race tonight were: Diver Down, Andiamo, Tres Santos and Pair A Dice. The wind was blowing 10-13 from the north west and we decided to use course 4: Start, wharf, gov, finish. There was a good crowd with all four boats on the starting line. PAD ended up being early to the line and had to stall attempting to start on starboard tack right at the mark. The other boats skirted right behind us on port. By the time we inched across the line and flopped over on port the other 3 boats were below us and ahead of us. PAD inched ahead of Tres Santos and tacked over on starboard about the same time Diver Down did. Diver down footed off more than PAD did and were going much faster than us, but were moving further from the mark. Andiamo continued longer on their initial port tack than PAD, then tacked over toward wharf. When we tacked over to cross Andiamo, we had to duck their stern. The next crossing we were clear ahead of Andiamo and we rounded wharf first with Andiamo in hot pursuit. PAD sailed a hot angle on a broad reach until we ran straighter toward GOV and we deployed our pole and flew the jib on port, wing on wing. This seemed to work well for us and we extended or lead and rounded GOV with a comfortable lead. We finally rounded start mark followed by Andiamo.

After the race we met at the crows nest for interesting discussions about various aspects of sailing. One topic discussed was man overboard situations and how to deal with them and prevent them.

Tactics:

This evening was a good example of PAD not having a good start, but making up for it over the race course. Having speed coming off the line is much preferred to slowing the boat to prevent an OCS (On Course Side) over start line early situation. With these heavy keel boats, it takes awhile to get them going again.

When going to weather, how do you pick a line that is most advantageous? In other words how do you know when you are footing too much or pinching too much? The seas were pretty flat this night so you could pinch quite a bit. When trying to buck waves, it is necessary to foot off to overpower the waves. We like to tighten the main until the rudder is about 3-4 degrees cocked. On our boat this is about one spoke over with the center line spoke turned toward the leeward side of the boat. This gives us the most lift from the rudder. We also keep the inside jib telltale streaming up at about 45 degrees. I have recently learned the importance of maintaining jib sail shape. If you are pinching to the point that the front of the jib is collapsing at all, you are pinching too much. It is critical for this sail to maintain proper shape for the best speed to windward.

I’m looking forward to seeing you out next week.

Barry

"Mi Dushi"

Since all of our prayers for more rain were answered on this last Tuesday night, there were no boats that went out.  I just returned from a Caribbean Cruise and thought I'd share one of my experiences on one of the excursions I took while on this cruise.

ONE GREAT EXCURSION

I was recently on a Princess Cruise line that was scheduled to stop in Aruba. I normally do not plan excursions in advance, but a day or so before our arrival in Aruba, I noticed that there were several excursions offering a boat ride to snorkel around the Antilla. This is a German ship that sank off the coast of Aruba sometime around World War II. One of the excursions appeared to be very professional, which would normally be my preference. Unfortunately, this one had no vacancies, so I had to settle for my second choice: an excursion that included rum drinks, lunch and a “swing” on a boat called “Mi Dushi”. I have seen this type of excursion before and they are usually called “Jolly Rogers” and offer all the rum you can drink. I have witnessed people returning from these “Jolly Roger” boats so inebriated, they couldn’t make it up the gang plank to the ship. This is not normally my idea of fun, but I was desperate to experience my first wreck dive so signed on for “Mi Dushi”.

I met my fellow excursioners and boarded the bus to get to Mi Dushi. Imagine a school bus with all windows removed, painted vividly in Caribbean colors with island style sayings painted inside and out. “Not the brightest crayon in the box”, “Every little Ting’ll be all right” were emblazoned on the inside of the bus. Add blaring rasta music and a very happy local driver advising us all to use enough sunscreen declaring he used to be a blond! In this atmosphere it would be impossible to be depressed.

We were dropped off and escorted to Mi Dushi, which was so big we had to ride a water taxi to board the boat. As we approached the mother ship, the person next to me mumbled “My God we’re all gonna die”. From far away and up close, the ship looked like it was in a sad state of disrepair. Mi Dushi is a 90 foot 90 ton gaff rigged ketch built in the 1920s. I have been on many of these excursions when they never even hoisted the sails and just motored from place to place. The skipper came out and introduced himself and his two deck hands: his son Alex and Jose from Colombia. He explained that the name Mi Dushi means “my sweetheart” in Danish. Despite my first impressions the boat was very seaworthy. Sure enough, they slipped the mooring line and hoisted both the main and Mizzen sails. My first experience sailing on a Gaff rigged sailboat. What intrigued me was that there was not a single winch on the boat. To get the sails hoisted completely, one deckhand would run the halyard under a large wood cleat and take the tension up as the other “jumped” the halyard pulling it straight out from the mast, incrementally tightening the halyard until the sail was raised.

As we sailed up the coast to the shipwreck, I studied the nuances of sail trim with a gaff rigged boat. Without a windex or tell tails it was nearly impossible to ascertain our point of sail, but it seemed to be a beam reach. The upper booms were twisted off quite a bit which really stabilized the boat and I wondered how they would have trimmed it if we were racing and not entertaining a bunch of novices. The boat moved along well and was very stable, as we motor sailed our way to the wreck. We finally snagged a mooring line and all dove in for the wreck dive. It was interesting with the shipwreck rising to within 10 feet of the surface and plunging down to over 60 feet. Divers and snorkelers were everywhere, but with the 30 knot winds and chop, it was a little too murky to see much. After a while, we retreated to a more protected snorkel spot closer to shore, where we swam through massive swarms of very small fish. Exploring further away from the crowd, I saw some squid-like cuddle fish. We all returned to the boat and went to another location where we got another mooring line and the skipper and Alex went below to prepare our lunch, while Jose stayed out to prepare various cocktails and introduced us to the trapeze. Most of us gave it our best to swing as high and as far from the boat as possible before letting go. Then Jose announced that Alex was going to perform a special trick for us. When Alex stripped his shirt off, I was surprised to see that he did not have an ounce of fat and was in great physical shape. He got on the trapeze step and had one of the ladies wrap her arms around his neck and clutch tightly to him. When all set, they both swung off the step and somehow he was able to accomplish and complete a flip with the woman.

 

The food was served and more alcohol was consumed. The food was nothing short of amazing. I heard comments from several people “this is the best fish I’ve ever had!”. I asked Alex what kind of fish it was and he said Grouper. Grouper, chicken, Rice a little salad and a skewer of different melons and pineapple; need I say more?

We once again slipped the mooring line and headed for the home mooring line. I was grooving to the music on the foredeck when Jose came by and said “put your camera in the backpack, Alex is going to climb the mast to take pictures”. Here we were with all sails hoisted, sailing back home as Alex climbed the line clear up to the spreader. I could not believe it: no safety harness or bosuns chair for Alex. As he straddled the spreader, he took each camera out and snapped photos down to the deck fore and aft and even a selfie of himself with the deck of the boat in the background. Once all photos were take, he slipped off the spreader to the upper boom of the mainsail, swung around the mast and gracefully came down and passed out the cameras to each of the owners. 

We got back to the mooring line and took the bus back to the ship. There was not a single person on that bus that was not high! High on life and the experience we had just had. As the rasta music blared we all hooted and hollered at the tourists on the sidewalks and beaches as we passed. Many of the tourists quickly grabbed their cameras to snap envious photos. The only sad point of the whole day was having to leave the party and return to the festivities of the Princess Cruise ship and normal life on board a cruise ship.