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