MAY 26, 2015
STEADY WINDS
My first glimpse of the harbor
had the flags as stiff as boards. The
wind was blowing very hard indeed. As we
left the harbor we were considering reefing, but decided not to since the sea
state did not look bad at all. The wind
was blowing steadily from the Southwest between 15 to 18 knots. We all filed out of the harbor and
congregated around the start mark. We
chose course number 1 with a start time of 6:05.
On PairaDice we decided to
approach the line on port tack and tack into the first hole we saw. As it turned out, Diver Down and Pacific
Spirit were charging down the line on Starboard tack. We had to wait for them to clear before we
could tack over on Starboard. Doing this
move made us a little late to the line.
Everyone that crossed the line on starboard tack immediately tacked over
on port ended up sailing inside on port tack as we sailed out on starboard tack
for a little bit before tacking over and following everyone on port tack. At
least we were not stuck in everyone’s bad air for once. When all boats met again, we passed in front
of Toad and Diver Down and Pacific Spirit cleared us easily on the layline for
Wharf. We sailed a little further and
tacked over toward Wharf right in front of Aeolian.
As we sailed toward wharf we
realized we had tacked too soon and had to pinch to make the mark. We wished for a lift and we prayed for a
lift, but it never materialized and we ultimately had to do two quick tacks
right at the mark in order to get around it.
This did not help in our attempt
to close the gap between Diver Down, Pacific Spirit and us. They were well on their way to Mile. We had
our own problems with Aeolian trying to steal our wind. We were barely able to keep out of their wind
shadow and jibed around Mile just ahead of them. We made our way to Blacks watching Diver Down
and Pacific Spirit fight it out as we slowly shortened the distance between
us. Meanwhile the splendor of Monterey
bay was displayed behind us with the rest of the boats sailing in bright
sunlight with dark clouds behind them.
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| THE SPLENDOR OF MONTEREY BAY |
After the race, we had a BBQ at
SCYC with the bar open for us for the first time on Catalina Tuesday.
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| FIRST SCYC 'OPEN' BARBECUE |
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG:
It doesn’t matter how long you
sail and race, things will go wrong at the most inopportune time. The greatest chance for errors is when boats
are in close proximity: starts and mark rounding. How do you handle it when you are fouled? How
do you handle it when you have fouled someone?
Obviously we all do everything to avoid fouling other boats, but things
do not always happen as planned. Someone
standing on a sheet, kinks in sheets that prevent the jib from coming around or
simply errors in judgement. Obviously,
if you can abort a move and prevent a foul go for the abortive measure!
Let me illustrate with a true
story. We were in a score race and
determined that pin end on port was the preferred start. As it turned out, by the time we crossed the
line we were inundated with a bunch of Moore 24’s on starboard tack. I was on the helm and knew if I ducked one, I
would have to duck them all. I tacked
over onto starboard trying to get in line and stay out of their way. One of the
Moore drivers told me very politely (considering the circumstances) that I had
fouled him: he had to divert his course to avoid collision. We waited until we were clear and did a turn
for the penalty. I found later that you
should “immediately sail to a clear area and complete 1 turn including a tack
and a jibe”. The penalty in the rule
book for this (failure to yield right of way) is actually 2 turns, but most
SI’s now say 1 turn. In the heat of the
moment, it is hard to be polite and not yell if you are being fouled. It is necessary sometimes to speak louder to
be heard, but screaming insults and profanity does no good. As I say, we all find ourselves in these
awkward situations sooner or later. All
you can do if you foul someone is apologize and take a turn. Notice the course card indicates, as most local
SI’s do, that a one turn penalty is all that is required. Always follow the SI’s for your race. As
terrible as fouling someone feels, thank your lucky stars if there was no
contact/damage or injury.
CURRENT EVENTS:
All sailors know how to read
currents if there is a buoy in the water looking for eddies around the
buoy. Buoys are not always
available. How can you tell which way
the current is going? If there is a kelp
bed around observe the kelp. It’s not
good to sail through the kelp, picking up hitch-hikers is never a way to win
races. Sailing by the kelp have one of
your crew observe it. If all of the kelp
that is still attached by a root is streaming in one direction, that is the way
the current is going. If the kelp is all
disorganized with some strands floating every which way, the current is
negligible. Sailors always curse kelp,
but it can help decipher currents and win races.
RACE QS UPLOAD:
Copy and paste this site and you
should be able to replay the race on Race QS:
Please download and use
RaceQS. It would be great to have every
boat accounted for in our replays.
See you next Tuesday.
Barry
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