Tuesday March 24,
2015
NIGHT OF MIXED WINDS
As we were leaving the harbor, it seemed as though we had a North
wind. Way outside you could see the wind line for the Westerly breeze. As we pulled up to the start mark, it looked
like an Easterly was building. To
complicate things, there was a Coast Guard cutter tied up to Gov. Where is the Blacks buoy when you need it? We sailed down and dropped our temporary mark
close to where Blacks normally is. The
course was announced Start mark to SB, first mark “Blacks” SB, Mile SB and back
to finish at start with start to port.
We blew a horn for the 5 minute and as we waited for the 5 minutes to
pass, the wind seemed to build out of the North, practically straight off the
beach. We had 9 boats out and with the
wind at such an unusual angle to the start line, the start was
challenging. With the wind building, we
had to stall to not go over early. With
all of the traffic, the lighthouse on the jetty was obscured. With the countdown to the start ticking down,
the lighthouse came in to view. It was
really difficult to determine if we were OCS.
It looked very close, without a line sight, it was hard to tell if we
were over. With everyone else struggling
to get over the start line, we started off with quite a lead. I had
given the Catalina 27’s a 2 and ½ minute head start and Iris nailed the start
right on time.
We all filed down to the pseudo-blacks buoy and headed out
toward Mile. Iris was quite a ways ahead
of us, as we both basically took the rhum line toward Mile. This exemplifies that the closest distance
between two points is a straight line. The closer we got to Mile, the more the wind
clocked to the West. It was very unusual
for there to be no transition zone between the two winds. It was critical to pay attention to sail
trim, because as the wind angle changed, our point of sail went from Beam Reach
to nearly close hauled. We finally caught
up with Iris just short of Mile and Odonata (Santana 22) with spinnaker was
trying to catch up.
Once we rounded Mile, we lengthened our lead using our
longer waterline. We finished ahead but
with our dubious (OCS?) start, I think the second one over the line, Iris takes
the honors for the night. Odonata was
after Iris, then there was quite a drag race between Sea Quake (C&C29),
Pacific Spirit and Aeolian crossing the line in that order. Toad squeaked over shortly after them, followed
by Thallassia and Intrepid (Catalina 27).
OCS (On Course Side):
OCS means you are over the line early. This is something that is very hard to tell
from the cockpit of a boat. Serious
racers take a line of sight, lining both ends of the line up with something on
land. When this object on land lines up
with the mark, you are on the line. In
this case we should have sailed outside of start mark and sighted the
lighthouse, lining it up with something behind it. All I know is that every sanctioned race I
have ever finished, I think the line sighter on the committee boat must be
asleep, because it always feels like we crossed the line 10 seconds before the
whistle or horn calls the finish.
Without someone sighting the line, it is impossible to ascertain if we
were OCS, but I am comfortable with Iris being the winner. They sailed an excellent race. Most important, we all had fun and what a
sunset!
Improving your game:
Talk to any top racer and they will tell you they started
racing ending up in last place for years before they started working their way
up through the ranks. The important concept
is not to get discouraged. Keep having
fun and keep learning. Catalina Tuesdays
is the perfect, informal atmosphere to learn about sailing and improving. Keep it up with a consistent crew and before
long, you will be working your way up through the ranks and winning.
_/) _/) _/)
NEXT TUESDAY MARCH 31 IS
BARBECUE NIGHT AT SCYC. BRING YOUR
FAVORITE GRILLING FOOD AND BEVERAGE. COME TO SCYC AFTER THE RACE. YOU DO NOT
NEED TO BE A SCYC MEMBER TO COME!
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