CATALINA SAILBOATS RACING MONTEREY BAY ON TUESDAY NIGHTS: OCTOBER 7, 2014 A CARBON COPY TUESDAY

 

A CARBON COPY TUESDAY

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Repetition is normally boring!  Two perfect evenings of sailing that are carbon copies could never be boring.  We had the same wind as last week, the same sunny weather and the same number of boats (11) out for the fun.  With the light being so short, we decided on the same course as last week: Start, Blacks, Gov and finish.

On Pair A Dice, we were a little late to the line and watched as Homer forced Aeolian off for barging and we followed Homer’s Blue Ribbon.  With him just ahead and to windward, we were not in good position.  Makani was steaming up behind and to windward of Homer.  Fortunately with our bad position, it was not a long leg to Blacks.   Makani and Homer rounded blacks and immediately got tangled with each other trying to out maneuver each other.  We rounded blacks right behind them and aimed for clear air further out than they  were on the race to GOV.  It was quite a drag race as we all tried to get downwind as fast as possible.  We set our pole on port and heated up first outside then jibed and heated it up inside.  As we reached Gov we were clear ahead of Makani and Blue Ribbon and after rounding, we headed inside until we got headed and tacked out.  It seems the further we got outside, we got lifted more and more until we were not far from the finish mark when we tacked over and finished first.  Pacific Spirit was second followed by Makani, Blue Ribbon, Diver Down, Kicks, Emeritus, Aeolian, Sea Quake, Andiamo and Free Spirit.

It was a beautiful evening with the sun setting on one horizon and the full moon rising on the other.

Tactics:

When going down wind it is very important to have a good whisker pole to hold the jib out to windward. With Pair A Dice we have found the best angle of sail for maximum speed is with the windex pointing “at the box” one of the two tabs you look at on the mast head that help you determine if you are hard on the wind.  Pacific Spirit used this very concept to move rapidly through the pack on the down wind run.  As Makani and Homer were sailing straight down wind (wing on wing) we heated up and pointed directly ahead of them, as we approached the zone for the mark we straightened out to break the overlap.  This worked well for us as we rounded the mark well ahead of the other boats.

THE PACK MOVING TOWARD GOV

Kick it up a notch:

MAKANI AND BLUE RIBBON

I can say we have all improved our racing abilities this summer!  Why not engage in other races through the winter to keep your skills up?  SCYC is putting on the midwinter series.  This is a series of races through the winter and they actually have a jib and main division which is right up our alley.  Unlike our Tuesday nights, we actually have a committee boat and trophies are handed out.  I think its time to kick it up a notch and have a great showing in the midwinter series. Who know, you may even get some hardware (trophies) to hang on the wall!

Do not forget about the predicted log regatta also.  This will be a great way to test your seamanship and knowledge of boat speed and distance travelled.

SUN SETTING ON ONE HORIZON: MOON RISING ON THE OTHER

 

See you next week,

Barry L. Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice