Catalina Tuesday June
30, 2015
START-WHARF-FINISH-BARBECUE
All signs pointed to another drifting night. The flag on the Crow’s nest was limp as we
motored toward the harbor entrance. As
we left the harbor, it looked like the light easterly wind was dying but
outside boats were heeled over with a steady south westerly breeze. As we approached the start mark, Pacific
Spirit recommended course 5: start, wharf, finish. Since we had no idea what the wind was going
to do and we all wanted to get to the barbecue it was hard to argue against the
course.
We gave a 5 minute horn and everyone started setting up for
the start. Pacific Spirit nailed the
start once again right at the mark with Pair a Dice just down the line behind
and just to windward. We were fortunate
to be far enough windward to prevent a lee-bow as we all sailed out on
starboard tack. The rest of the fleet
was following us out and one by one all of the boats started tacking over
toward wharf. Pair a Dice tacked just
before Pacific Spirit and we all sailed toward wharf trying to find the mark in
the encroaching fog. Pacific Spirit was
the first to round Wharf followed by Pair A Dice. We set our whisker pole and did all we could
to catch Pacific Spirit. We were having
problems finding the finish mark with GPS problems and too much fog and the
distraction of thousands of sheerwater birds flying around us.
Ultimately Pacific Spirit crossed the finish line about 1
minute and 10 seconds ahead of us. After us it was Kicks, Odonata, Aeolian and
Sea Quake.
After the race, we had a delightful time at the yacht club
with many discussions about sailing and racing.
Using RaceQs to improve your sailing:
Several boats are now using the RaceQs app to track their
performance. I have spent some time
using this software and have found several ways to use it. I have always been heavy on post analysis of
races, so this software is right up my alley.
First you must have google earth downloaded on your computer. Once you get to raceqs.com you can pull up
races that have been uploaded. When
looking at these races, there are several tools you can use to evaluate your
performance. The two I will focus on are
track analysis and groove analysis.
Looking at your track can be very illuminating. You can click the icon on the lower right of
the screen to see your boat sailing toward you as if a camera was mounted about
30 feet off your bow looking back at you.
Click on the arrow on the left part of the screen and it opens a
menu. Be sure the icon clear to the left
in the new menu is clicked to show your track.
The track is color coded. If
green, you are going 5-6 knots, if yellow, 6-7 knots, light blue is 4-6 knots.
To really get a perspective click the icon that looks like a gas guage. This gives you a view from above looking down
on your boat. You can choose two boats
to compare. Each boat has an arc out in
front of it. Each second you are
sailing, a dot appears on this arc indicating where the bow of your boat is
pointed. These dots start fading
immediately. Compare your dots with a
close competitor. If one competitor has
a tight group of dots and yours are floating all over, you have your
explanation why you are not able to keep up with them. You have to be ‘in the groove’ to sail
efficiently!
Another feature I like to look at is Groove analysis. Click on the icon second from the left (in
the screen to the left) which gives you your groove analysis. When this button is clicked, every time you
tack a white button appears on the screen.
When you click on this white button, it opens a window that analyses
your tack by 7 different parameters.
From the top they are: Tacking angle, oversteering, min SOG, min VMG,
Duration, Recovery and Time lost. These
terms are pretty self-explanatory. Your
oversteering depends on what conditions you are sailing in: You want Higher
angles in light wind and lower angles in higher wind. You want to keep your SOG
up, with Catalinas you can expect to slow down to 3 knots during a tack.
Duration you want to see 10 seconds or less and recovery under 15 seconds. I believe the key is the last metric: time
lost. I have seen time lost everywhere
from 30 seconds lost clear down to -1 second.
If you are able to have a -1 second lost, you have actually gained on
this tack rather than lost.
All of these metrics measure boat handling which has two
components: the helmsperson and the crew.
The helmsperson cannot do anything without a good crew trimming sails
and getting the jib in quickly. With a crack crew and an inattentive skipper
steering, you will be sailing twice the distance wandering all over the place. Obviously the key is having a focused skipper
and a quick and efficient crew working together.
You can pull up RaceQs by clicking on this website:
Looking forward to next Tuesday.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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