Tuesday July 7, 2015
FINALLY SOME WIND
All predictions were for great wind for this night. As I turned into the harbor I saw the white
caps and knew the predictions were true.
As we left the harbor we saw 22 knots on the wind meter. We put a reef in the main and headed for the
start area. With all of this wind, it
was a no brainer for the course. We
chose course 1: START, WHARF, MILE, BLACKS, START FINISH.
Pair a Dice decided to start on starboard down the line from
the start mark. Pacific Spirit and
Odonata had the same idea and we all crossed the line together. Kicks and Diver Down started right at the
mark at the Buoy: Kicks on port and Diver Down on Starboard. Everyone had different reef set ups for this much wind. Pacific Spirits had a reefed main and
partially unfurled jib. We started with
the same setup. Odonata, well it’s a Santana 22 “born reefed” and ready for
these conditions. We rolled off the line and got ahead of Pacific Spirit. I am fortunate to have several very
experienced racing sailors on my boat.
As soon as we got ahead of Pacific Spirit, Mike on my boat was calling
for a tack to the inside. Since I was at
the helm, I thought it better to go further out so we could clear the
wharf. As it turned out, Mike was right:
we needed to cover the inside. When we
finally tacked over to the inside, we were amazed to see Diver Down passing us
comfortably ahead. Until this point, I
didn’t even know they were out tonight.
Diver down rounded Wharf comfortably ahead and Kicks was
just ahead of us on the way to mile. We
did everything we could to close the gap between Kicks and us, but at mile,
they rounded just ahead of us. Kicks,
with their reefed main was able to keep ahead of us. After rounding mile, we were on the reach to
Blacks. On Pair a Dice, we were torn between heading directly to blacks and
heating it up to overtake Kicks. I was
having trouble steering a straight line.
After rounding Blacks, we all marched toward the start
line. At the finish it was Diver Down,
Kicks, Pair a Dice, Pacific Spirit, Aeolian, Odonata, Sea Quake, Andiamo and
Toad.
Tactics,
It was a great night for wind. On Pair A Dice, we made the huge error, not
tacking over earlier, as Mike had called for. It is common knowledge to cover
the inside earlier in Santa Cruz. At the
finish, Kicks was 6-10 seconds ahead of us.
Better steering on the leg from Mile to Blacks could have made this
difference. We should have heated it up
to get up wind of Kicks and then drop down to take their wind. My personal error was steering from the rail
rather than steering behind the wheel to
be able to control the boat better
See you next Tuesday.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A dice
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