CATALINA SAILBOATS RACING ON MONTEREY BAY ON TUESDAY NIGHTS AUGUST 26 BLUSTERY WARM EVENING

BLUSTERY WARM EVENING

TUESDAY AUGUST 26, 2014

On my way to the harbor, my first glimpse of the bay showed no apparent white caps, but the wind sure seemed to be blowing in the harbor. We saw at least one boat putting a reef in while in the harbor.  As we left the harbor,  I could not believe the number of boats already out.  Ultimately there were 15 boats out for the excitement and fun.

With the wind blowing between 15 and 20 knots roughly from the northwest, we selected course 2 with a start time of 6:10.  I tried a new technique on blowing the horn.  One single blast at 5 minutes to start, this way everyone can sync their watches. On Pair A Dice we decided to attempt a port tack start.  Normally you can find a break in the stream of starboard tackers to cut through, but not tonight as we had to dip every boat in the line before we were able to harden up and head for our first mark: wharf.  We were the furthest in of all the port tackers, with Homer coming up behind us and just to windward.  We were able to pinch up until we could finally tack out for better wind.  Meanwhile, all of the starboard tackers tacked over toward the wharf.  Since the wind was lighter in there, we thought they were sailing toward a disadvantage.  We thought wrong though, because as we rounded wharf, Diver Down had a healthy lead on us and then the other boats followed us around wharf.  We were still quite a ways behind at Mile.  On the way to Gov, Pacific Spirit and Blue Ribbon got a little mixed up with each other in a luffing battle.  We love seeing boats in these conflicts, because it usually slows both of them down!

We rounded Gov with Diver Down way out in front.  We did our best to catch them, but they ultimately crossed the line a good 4 minutes ahead of us.  Well done Diver Down!  After Diver Down, Pair A Dice was second, followed by Pacific Spirit, Blue ribbon, Emeritus, Makani, Iris and Aeolian.

We had a wonderful barbecue at the yacht club with everyone recapping the fun they had on the water. Cheers to Stuart Pearce on Makani whose crew did not show up and he came out by himself, coming in sixth in the fleet.  Great job!  Stuart racing and sailing by himself!

Catch a wave:

I was talking to a top sailor at the yacht club one night when I opined “you know, what you do with waves in Monterey Bay is EVERYTHING!”.  He agreed wholeheartedly.  So what do YOU do with waves as a helmsperson?

Years ago we were competing on a Tuesday night and found ourselves in a transition zone (what’s new?).  We had the boat pointed straight toward our next mark as the waves swept under our boat from the side.  The boat was tipping side to side as each wave passed under us, sails flapping in the lack of wind.  I instructed the helmsperson to steer the boat so the waves took us from the stern making the boat rock fore to aft.  It seemed that every time a wave hit us and the mast whipped forward, we made forward momentum.  Before long we were out of the transition and sailing toward the mark.  I jokingly called it the “Keeler effect”! 

This is only one example.  I witnessed the same sailor I talked to at the yacht club sailing to windward with waves coming from behind.  He never lost speed as he caught waves and fell off on the wind to keep speed up.

Sailing downwind is another challenge with the waves coming behind.  In the recent BBBS regatta, by catching wave after wave, I was able to keep the boat speed between 6.5 and 7+ knots on our way to SC3.  It is difficult to explain this technique. With sails perfectly trimmed for maximum speed, wait for a wave which you can feel as the stern rises.  When I “feel” a wave coming from behind, I will turn the wheel quickly so the wave pushes the rudder, then straighten out for the ride down the face of the wave. At the trough I like to head up to maintain speed in anticipation of the next wave.  Experiment and find you own way to steer through waves, keeping an eye on your GPS speed since speed through the water is not relavent at this point.

One great barbecue! You can almost smell it now.

See you next Tuesday!

 

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

CATALINA SAIL BOATS RACING MONTEREY BAY AUGUST 19, 2014

A MISTY SHEARWATERS EVENING

 

TUESDAY AUGUST19,2014

As I left work in anticipation of another Catalina night of sailing, I was impressed at what a gloomy evening it was.  If I was in any other state than California in such conditions I would expect a cloudburst at any moment.  The mist was so thick in the air, I could swear I felt a few drops on my face.  Despite these conditions, I was looking forward to sailing, but doubted there would be much of a turnout.

Getting to the boat and out of the harbor, I was pleasantly surprised to see eight boats already out and  another 3 boats following us out of the harbor. We decided on Course 4 with a 6:10 start time.  Course 4 is start to wharf, gov then finish.  We had 11 boats out for the evening.  It was great to have Brian Kieft join us on his Catalina 27 “Intrepid” for his first time this season.

On Pair a dice, we decided to try a port tack start.  This is quite a gamble with 10 other boat in the mix and we paid dearly having to duck almost every boat.   We sailed inside until we felt the wind die a little and we tacked out, going clear out until we saw a wind line to tack on.  This worked out well for us, as on this tack we were able to clear wharf just ahead of Homers “Blue Ribbon” and Pacific Spirit with Makani and Diver Down in hot pursuit. 

Next stop was GOV which was obscured by literally thousands of Sooty Shearwater Birds.   As we ghosted through the birds they were taking off by the thousands.  The sound was incredible,  sounding like we were at the foot of a 500 foot waterfall.  Behind us, Blue Ribbon and Makani were trying to close the gap on us as Diver Down and Pacific Spirit tangled with each other.

After rounding GOV, there was a long reach to the Start finish.  We paid close attention to sail trim to maintain our lead as Diver Down waterlined Blue Ribbon and started closing the gap on.  Ultimately the course was not long enough for them to overtake use.  The order around the finish mark was Pair a Dice, Diver Down, Blue Ribbon, Makani the Pacific Spirit.  Even though the conditions were damp and dreary, the sailing was red hot with great competition all around.  Dinner at Crows Nest rounded the evening out perfectly with good food and good discussions about sailing.

Tactics:

On Pair a Dice, we went for a port tack start, knowing how risky it was, but felt it was worth it.  The wind at the time seemed to be the same inside and outside and we felt it would be better to go on port tack until we saw the wind decrease.  I think what gave us the lead was going out until we saw the wind line and tacking on this windline.  More wind=faster boat speed.  As Vance said once “wherever you go, it’s a crap shoot”.  Sometimes you choose right and sometime you choose wrong.  This night we lucked out.

_/)                                     _/)                        _/)                                       (\_                               (\_

 

NEXT TUESDAY NIGHT (8/26) IS BARBECUE NIGHT AT SCYC AFTER THE RACE.  BRING YOUR FAVORITE GRILLING STUFF AND BEVERAGE.

See you next Tuesday,

Barry

 

 

 

CATALINA SAILBOATS RACING MONTEREY BAY CALIFORNIA: ONE CLOSE RACE

ONE CLOSE RACE

Tuesday August 12,2014

Another great night for sailing with plenty of wind coming from the northwest.  It was good to see Iris back out after a couple of weeks off.  Diver Down, Aeolian, Pacific Spirit and Katrina were also out for the fun.  Since we had used Course 1 the last two weeks, we decided to mix it up a bit and used course 2: Start, Wharf, Mile, Gov, finish.  On Pair A Dice we saw more wind on the inside and decided to start off on port tack.  We were a little late to the start and had to duck Diver Down who started on starboard tack with Pacific Spirit.  Aeolian and Iris went inside with us.  When the outside boats and inside boats merged at wharf, it was a pretty even draw.  Pair a Dice rounded just ahead of Pacific Spirit and Diver Down followed closely by Aeolian.  The same order was followed around Mile, though Pacific spirit had closed the gap on us and was right on our stern.  The reach to Gov was very exciting with Pacific Spirit first trying to pass us to windward, then to leeward.  The boats were so close we could have exchanged drinks with each other!   Sailing Pair A Dice was barely able to break the overlap at the 3 boat zone and Pacific Spirit swung down to take our stern.  Right after rounding Gov, Pacific Spirit pulled a brilliant tactical move and swung very high to pass us to windward effectively stealing or wind.  We attempted a similar move, but were unable to effectively steal their wind.  It was a drag race to the finish mark with Aeolian closing the gap and establishing overlap at the start/finish mark.  The order at the finish was Pacific Spirit, Aeolian, Pair A Dice, Diver Down, Iris and Katrina.  I guess it was even exciting to the spectators on Chardonnay as they shadowed us at the finish.

Tactics:

When approaching a mark, the three boat zone is a critical time.  If planned and played correctly, you can break the overlap and have a huge advantage when rounding the mark.  Pair a Dice pulled this off when we rounded Gov, but we were slow defending our position.  We thought we could set a pole for an advantage, but it was not effective.  While we were “playing with our toy” (whisker pole) Pacific Spirit sailed right over us, a great move on their part.  We love these tight races!

Another perspective:

Diana of Pacific Spirit sent me their recap of the race as follows:

Since Jeff was at the helm I had my hands free to take some video. For
those not present, it was a great race. We started very well, and
immediately split tacks with Barry (Pair-A-Dice). When we crossed again we
were extremely close to them and Aeolian. Both of them were on starboard
and we were on port so we tacked, not sure if we were on a lay line to the
first mark yet. Fortunately we made it without tacking again but not by
much, rounding in 2nd place. We were still 2nd after Mile mark, and almost
caught Barry on the way to Government (where the video starts). We passed
them just past Government and held them off until the finish.

The video continues past the finish, with the 4 top finishers heading back
to the harbor with great wind.

Chardonnay was hanging around the whole time, giving us bad air but a great
show for the crowd on board.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_ti07K_Gk&feature=youtu.be

- Tom

 

It was a very fun, close race!  Congratulations to Pacific Spirit and Aeolian for superior sailing.

Looking forward to next Tuesday.

 

Barry L.Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

CATALINA SAILBOATS RACING MONTEREY BAY ON TUESDAY NIGHTS

                                                               BACK IN THE GAME   

Tuesday August 5, 2014

And yet another Tuesday night with perfect sailing conditions.   This night, we had between 15 to 20 knots of wind out of the northwest.  When Pair A Dice came out of the harbor, there were already 5 boats out and chatter from other boats in the harbor on their way out.  We decided on Course one: Start to Wharf, Mile, Blacks and Finish with a start time of 6:20.

We timed the start with Pacific Spirit just ahead of us just leeward of us and Diver Down coming up hot on our heels.  As we all headed out on starboard tack, Diver Down passed us to leeward and Pacific Spirit was leading the pack.  As we were sailing out into more wind and we had our 155 jib on, we decided to tack back over to the inside.  We sailed all the way in to the layline for Wharf, as the other boats stayed outside in more wind.  This was our error as we sailed further inside with less wind trying to make the layline.  One thing we learned a long time ago, but obviously have not learned well enough, always sail to where the wind is!  Pacific Spirit rounded wharf just ahead of Diver Down and we followed with Perfect 36 following close behind us.

The same order was followed around Mile with Perfect 36 closing the gap and rounding immediately after we did.  It was a long slog to Blacks, with Diver Down sailing more downwind to heat up at the end of the run and Pacific Spirit running the rhumb line to Blacks.  Pair A Dice was being waterlined by Perfect 36 as they tried to steal our wind and slowly overtook us.  At the mark, Pacific Spririt maintained their lead over Diver Down.  Perfect 36 had inside overlap on us so we had to give them room at the mark.  We swung down to make more of a “tactical rounding” to come up tight and squeak to windward of “P36”.  Our plan failed and we were stuck leeward of Perfect 36.  Perfect 36 tacked out for more wind outside, but miraculously the wind filled inside for us instead.  Pacific Spirit finished ahead of Diver Down with Pair a Dice coming in third and Perfect 36 fourth and Sea Quake (C&C 29) fifth.  Close races like this are always fun and keep us on our toes!

Last Tuesday (7/29)

I was not able to sail last Tuesday, so was not able to give a proper report.  I heard that there was great wind and the winner was Diver Down followed by Perfect 36 then Sailing Pair a Dice, Blue Ribbon and Makani.   It’s great to have Perfect 36 join the party!  They appear to be a very well run boat from what we can tell viewing their sternL.   Sounds like a fun night on the bay.

Other racing venues:

It seems we have all had a blast sailing our Catalina Tuesdays.  There are many other racing venues we can all race in.  Personally I missed the Santa Cruz to Monterey race a few weeks ago, but I heard it was a blast.  There are score races and the midwinters during the winter.  We could even have a contingency go up to the bay for the windjammer, an overnight race from St Francis to Santa Cruz.  Most eminent is this Sunday’s Big Brother Big Sister.  Having sailed in this race multiple times I can attest that it is one of my favorites. Let’s have a great turnout for this benefit regatta and have some fun this Sunday!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice