Tuesday June 23, 2015
STRATEGY OR TACTICS?
Predictions for the wind were all over the place. Earlier in the day it was 20 knots out of the
Northwest. By 4pm the Easterly was
filling in. We had quite a project
getting Pair a Dice ready. We had to
swap out to the 155 headsail and clean the bottom. While cleaning the bottom, it became apparent
that I had snagged a large piece of kelp in the rudder. It took forever to get this piece of kelp
off. By the time we exited the harbor it
was getting close to 6pm. It was time to
get the race started. As we steamed
toward the start buoy, we were trying to come up with an appropriate
course. Would the wind fill in and stay
from the East? Could we risk another
encounter with SC3? We finally decided
on course 12: Start, Blacks, Start, Blacks,Finish. By the start of the race, this course even
seemed ambitious.
On Pair a Dice we were way too far from the line in a very
crowded field and very little wind. With
the dying wind, it seemed everyone got caught off guard, but we were in one of
the worst positions possible. We watched
in amazement as Pacific Spirit Nailed the start followed quickly by Diver Down
and Makani. The wind was so light, we
were all ghosting along at less than 1 knot speeds. As least we had the waves washing us in the
direction of Blacks. Pacific Spirit
rounded blacks first followed by Diver Down and Makani. The first to the mark were also the first to
deal with very light wind with the waves on the nose, the only thing going for
them was the westerly current. As we
slowly approached blacks it looked more
like a mooring field than a race. We rounded Blacks behind Tres Santos and
Aeolian. After rounding Blacks we
immediately headed outside in search of wind.
It felt weird aiming away from the start buoy while everyone else sailed
directly to it. We finally got our wind
and actually rounded start just ahead of Aeolian and Tres Santos. By this time the wind was filling in again
from the East and everyone was sailing again.
At the finish, it was Pacific Spirit in first, followed by
Makani, Diver Down, Pair a Dice, Tres Santos, Sea Quake and Aeolian. It seems with the frustrating conditions,
some of the boats had aborted.
Tactics VS Strategy:
On this particular night I was fortunate to have multiple
excellent sailors on my boat. The
discussions going on were very educational indeed. Some very knowledgeable sailors were calling
out correct tactical moves “Tack to
cover the inside at the mark!” “We
should NOT be sailing away from the mark”.
Neither of these arguments can logically be argued against. They make perfect sense as TACTICAL
MOVES. Those on the boat that were thinking
STRATEGICALLY were thinking “screw tactics, get to the wind first!” Joe (RIP) who sailed on Pacific Spirit years
ago taught us this lesson well. Too many
times we learned from his example: get to the wind, then worry about tactics. It may be frustrating when you know tactics
like the back of your hand to not have your tactical decisions play out, but we
are on SAILboats which do require wind to move them. For me the whole evening was very educational
as I witnessed the diverse opinions expressed and played out.
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| IS THIS A RACE OR MOORING FIELD? |
Rules: Starboard vs Port tack
On this night, I had a sailing judge on board and learned an
important nuance in the old Starboard vs Port tack crossing situation. We crossed a starboard boat on port
tack. We had them clear, but as they
approached they luffed up to “hunt us” and called for us to take a penalty
turn. Now hunting on the course is a
normal action, but in this case the two boats were on different legs. Following
the Racing Rules of Sailing, Rule #24.2 of part 2 states: “Except when sailing her proper course, a
boat shall not interfere with a boat taking a penalty or sailing on another leg.” It would be appropriate for the starboard
boat to come up to “proper course” pointing no higher than the next mark in
their “hunting” but no higher if the boats are on different legs.
 |
| AEOLIAN GHOSTING BY US |
Ernie Rideout:
We have all lost a very important icon in our local sailing
community. Ernie Rideout passed away two
weeks ago on Wednesday. He had a long,
fulfilling life. Those in the Yacht Club
will always have fond memories of the times spent with Ernie. Fred Molnar was closer to Ernie than most of
us. Fred shared a jewel with me that
Ernie impressed on him. Ernie told Fred
something to the effect of “You may win the race, but if you have not won the
respect of your competitors, you have won nothing!” What a great jewel for Ernie to leave us with
for sailing and our life. RIP
Ernie. You will be missed.
NEXT TUESDAY, JUNE 30 WILL BE BARBECUE NIGHT AT THE
CLUB. THE CLUB AND BAR WILL BE OPEN, BUT
BRING YOUR OWN FOOD AND GRILLING. WE
WILL SEE YOU THEN.
Looking forward to next Tuesday.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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