JULY 15, 2014
WHEN THE WIND GODS
SMILE
It did not look like a good night
for sailing, overcast and gloomy. Hot, humid and muggy to boot! I cheered up a bit when we exited the harbor
and saw 8-9 boats milling around the start mark and more boats coming out of
the harbor. The wind seemed like it was not going to die off, coming from the
South at 8-12 knots. I could not find an
appropriate course on the chart so decided to improvise with: Start-Mile-gov-start/finish
with a 6:10 start time.
On Pair a dice we decided to run the line and
harden up right at the start on starboard tack.
We had a good start but Makani was to windward and ahead as we started. We tweaked our sails for maximum trim and
slowly sailed ahead of them and were able to climb up enough to lee-bow
them. As we approached Mile, we were
trying to decide when to tack over to close the gap between us and Mile when we
sailed into a huge lift that nearly took us right to the mark. The wind was not holding up as well as predicted
and we saw many boats behind us sailing in less wind. We made certain to overstand the mark so we
would not have to tack more than once since a tack in light winds is very
costly. As we rounded mile, it looked
like no wind at all at Gov and we thought we would see compression of all of
the boats around that mark. We checked
for all signs to see what the wind was doing toward shore: Flags on the pier
and Casino, which way were the anchored boats facing? As we approached it looked like the wind was filling
from the north so we took the mark more to the north to compensate. As we approached Gov the wind actually
increased as we looked back on the other boats on a glassy, mirror of an ocean.
This race was not over yet! All
we needed was for the wind to stay with us until we got to Start/Finish. We were very fortunate to ride this puff all
the way to the mark. We were followed by
Blue Ribbon, Diver Down, Sea Quake (C&C29), Makani then Pacific Spirit in a
hard fought battle in slow motion.
I wish I could say that we
predicted all of the variant wind conditions.
I felt sorry for the boats that got caught in very little wind and quit
to motor in. Lord knows I have been in enough
of these slow motion, get-your-calendar-out-for-the-finish-time races. All I can say is sometimes it seems like the
wind gods are smiling on you! Thinking back, I should have bought a lottery
ticket that night!
HOW GOOD IS YOUR GAME?
It has really been fun seeing
everyone pull their game up this season.
Last week after 4 miles of racing
we had 5 boats round Blacks at the same time!
I have been an avid racer for several years, even competing in 2 national
regattas. I must say national regattas
are the ultimate high! How do you
prepare for these regattas? You race in every venue possible: Tuesday nights,
Big Brother Big Sister, the Score series (SCYC), Midwinters. The list goes on and on.
There are
several basic steps you must complete to compete in many of these regatta’s. In order to register you must have an
affiliation (yacht club membership). Of
course in our venue, you can’t go wrong joining the SCYC. An alternative is to join US Sailing for less
than $50 a year. After you have your
affiliation set, you will need a PHRF certificate. This is a form asking about your boat type
and sail inventory and costs $20 a year.
After these two steps, it is good to have a regular committed crew that
works well together.
It is great
fun getting together for our Tuesday nights, but when you start racing in
official races and do well, you actually get hardware (trophies) to show to
your friends.
Looking
forward to next Tuesday!
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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