CATALINA TUESDAYS June
9, 2015
ONE EXCRUCIATING
NIGHT
All indications pointed toward a wonderful night of
sailing. Sailflow and Predictwind
forecasted great wind. In the morning I
noticed how blustery it was and anticipated great wind. Getting to the harbor, the flags were certainly
flying confirming a great evening of sailing.
Naturally, with this much wind we aggressively chose course 4 again:
start, wharf, gov, finish. It seemed
like a no-brainer. We blew the horn for
the 5 minute warning for a 6:05 start and the wind started subsiding. From the time the horn blew until the start,
the wind decreased from a steady 9 knots to 4-5 knots. By the end of the evening we would have
welcomed 5 knot breezes.
On Pair a dice we decided a starboard tack start would be in
order and set up for this. The problem
was that we ended up with Diver Down directly to windward of us taking
what little wind there was. They romped on ahead. On Pair a Dice, we watched as boat after boat
in the parade tacked over to the inside and got stuck in a hole. It seemed like nobody was moving at all! We continued to sail further out on starboard
tack and noticed that the wind was shifting ever so slightly and creating a
lift for us. It lifted us so much that
we ultimately sailed around wharf without ever tacking! We knew we were taking a flier sailing so far
from the rest of the fleet and we really thought it would pay off for us when
we saw a dark band of wind forming on the water from the East. It quickly closed on us and just before it
hit us died completely.
Meanwhile we watched with amazement while Pacific Spirit and
Makani rounded wharf and headed for Gov, they seemed to catch some great wind
inside and were leaving us in the dust!
It was excruciating bobbing around in no wind. The rest of the boats had retired and gone in
and Pacific Spirit and Makani and Pair a Dice were still out in the quickly disappearing
light. We were moving so slowly I quipped
on my boat “I do have to be to work at 9AM tomorrow!” It is not like me to give up on a race, but
this was too much. I announced on the
radio “great race tonight, Pacific Spirits has won with Makani second”. It did
not take long for Makani to reply “I
thing we could take them!” and quickly Pacific Spirit came back with “Game on!”. We finally furled our sails and motored over
to observe the finish and Pacific Spirit finished just ahead of Makani. Pair A Dice was DNF! As painful as a bob-fest
can be, I gotta hand it to Pacific Spirit and Makani for their great
competitive spirits!
You can observe the tracks on Race qs on this link. You must have google earth downloaded on your
computer.
http://raceqs.com/tv/tv.htm#userId=1011017&video_offset=&track=416ef09c-2ce6-48c3-bbb7-cdd4cf2ef024&start=2015-06-09%2017%3A56%3A55.711%20-07%3A00&finish=2015-06-09%2020%3A34%3A33.789%20-07%3A00&boat=Pair&extradata=1&fleet=3&race=1&time=1433907273789&focus=Pair&rival=Makani&tab=match&view=leg
For this race we only had 3 boats upload their tracks. Please download and use this free app on your
cell phone.
Bringing up YOUR game:
We all want to improve in our sailing abilities. Many of the boats are going to great means to
improve their results. Improving the bottom of your boat, lightening the boat
and getting a folding prop really helps.
If you are serious about racing, emptying all of your holding tanks is
step number one. Use the Race qs app to
evaluate your helmsmanship. If your
track shows you wandering all over the place, it only makes it more difficult
to beat a boat with a steadier hand on the wheel/tiller. Are your tacks
efficient? Races QS evaluates each tack with multiple parameters. The QRs beta
indicator on Race QS indicates how well you are sailing, the higher this number,
the better you are doing. One other thing is a clean bottom: essential if you
are racing!
See you next Tuesday.
Barry L. Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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