MAY 24, 2016: STEADY WINDS

May 24, 2016

STEADY BREEZE

The prediction was for a lot of wind that would subside as the evening proceeded.  My first glimpse of the flag on the Crows Nest confirmed there was a lot of wind from the Northwest.  The flag was flying as stiff as a board. We motored out of the harbor and watched as there were various boats out on the bay with various amounts of sail up.  Some were sailing with heavily reefed mains and small jibs.  We raised our main with a reef in it.  It was finally time to use the 135 jib for the first time this spring.  May winds were finally here.

We called everyone over to the start area and called for course Whiskey 1: Start, Wharf, Mile, Blacks and finish.

  We gave a 5 minute horn and set up for our start.  Since the conditions were easier inside, we wanted to be able to tack as soon as we could to head back toward the beach.  We set up on Starboard tack start the very last boat in the parade of starboard tacking boats.  We did not go out far before Sagitarius was crossing below us so we tacked to cover them.  We may have slowed them a little, but they still passed us and got far enough ahead of us to tack and clear us.  We didn’t even have to dip them. 

At wharf, Sagitarius had a comfortable lead followed by Pair A Dice, Pacific Spirit and Kicks.  We all romped on toward mile as we shook out our reef on Pair A Dice.  Pacific Spirit was doing a good job using their extra waterline trying to run us down.  At Mile we still had a very small lead on Pacific Spirit.  There were no points of sail that required a whisker pole, so we had no advantage there as we all reached toward Black buoy.  Pacific Spirit was slowly grinding us down and finally caught us at Blacks with an inside overlap which required us to let them round first.

As we rounded black buoy, we did not feel we could climb on top of Pacific Spirit so we tried to pass them to leeward.   They were very close so we did a wide swinging tack to clear their stern and the race was on for the finish mark.  Sagitarius had finished way before all of us, Pacific Spirt was second and we were a close third followed by Kicks, Makani and Aeolian.

What a gorgeous night for a sail!

Tactics:

On downwind runs when you are trailing another boat, your object is to steal their wind.  You are looking for the tail of your windex to be pointing at the other boats sails.  This effect of disturbing air on the other boats sails is much more pronounced in lighter wind than heavier wind. As boats converge on a downwind leg, the overtaking boat must yield to the boat they are passing.  Once an overlap is established the leeward boat can luff the windward boat up as far as they want, a tactic frequently used in team racing.  The goal is to have an inside overlap at the 3 boat zone for the rounding of the mark. Pacific Spirit did this perfectly on this night.

Rules:

Check out this web site for a review of all racing rules:

 http://game.finckh.net/situat/tit_gbr/0_titel_e.htm

Thank you Fred Molnar for passing this on to us.

Next Tuesday (May 31) will be:BARBECUE NIGHT AT SCYC, BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD FOR A GREAT TIME.

Fair winds, see you next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

TUESDAY MAY 17, 2016: EASTERLY WIND

TUESDAY MAY 17,2016

EASTERLY WIND!

My first glimpse of the flag at the Crows Nest confirmed a moderate Easterly blowing.  We got out of the harbor and made our way to the start mark.  Since we were not certain if the wind would hold, we decided on a moderate length course Bravo 4: Start, Blacks, Gov, Finish.  Since some boats were waiting for crew, we delayed the start till 6:10 and gave a 5 minute horn.

On Pair A Dice we set up for a Starboard start at the buoy.  We had a great start with Toad right in front of us.   After the start, we were able to point higher and get above Toad.  Pair a Dice was the first to round Blacks. We felt there would be more wind toward the beach and sailed toward the beach. The only problem with this strategy is going through the dreaded kelp beds.  We gingerly worked our way through the kelp beds.  Kicks used the same tactic.  As we were approaching gov, it was apparent there was a Coast Guard cutter tied to the Buoy.  As we approached the cutter, we switched our radio to monitor channel 16 in case they tried to hail us.  We rounded Gov and headed straight back to start.

Pair A Dice rounded the start/finish mark first, followed by Pacific Spirit, Odonata, Kicks, Aeolian and Toad and Sea Quake.

Tactics:

It is always a risk going through a kelp bed!  You never know when you will pick up an unwanted hitch hiker.  Some things to consider in these situations: 

-High tide:  makes less of the kelp floating on the surface and makes it easier to avoid hitch hikers.

-Density of kelp bed:  We have had a lot of swell through the winter keeping the beds thin.  It would be riskier in late summer when the beds are thicker.

-Is there current? You can tell this by looking at the kelp.  If all of the kelp is streaming the same way, there is a current.  If they are streaming the way you are going, you are going with the current which makes it easier to find paths through the kelp.

When trying to go through kelp it is critical to have someone on the bow guiding the way through the openings in the kelp.  On this particular night, it was apparent that we had about a one knot current headed toward Gov.  We used this current to get to the mark and went outside to avoid it on the way back to finish.

Rules:

There seemed to be a little excitement at the rounding of Blacks as many boats approached at the same time.   On Pair A Dice, we were busy and did not observe what happened so cannot offer an opinion.  Mark rounding can be a complex situation because so many rules are involved.  Rule 18 is the predominant rule that deals with mark rounding, but this does not mean other rules are not at play.  Rule 18 simply says that the first boat to enter the 3 boat length “zone” achieves right of way for mark rounding.  This gets more complicated when a boat reaches the zone but is overlapped by an inside boat, which gives mark room to behind but inside boat.  This gets much more complicated when any of the boats must tack in the zone to clear the mark which forfeits their right of way to boats that did not tack in the zone.  Other rules also apply like keeping clear of other boats when tacking.  If anyone with better knowledge on these rules would like to comment or clarify, please do so.

As complicated as these mark rounding can get, the boats that are seriously racing usually follow another rule “no drinking until going downwind”.

We will see you out there next Tuesday.  (The barbecue at SCYC will be the LAST Tuesday which will be the 31^st)

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

TUESDAY MAY 10, 2016: STEADY WINDS

TUESDAY MAY 10,2016

STEADY WINDS

The predictions were for 12 to 13 knot winds out of the North.  We left the harbor anticipating a fun night on the water.  The wind seemed steady, but would it hold long enough for a decent course?  We rolled the dice and decided on Whiskey 3: start, Wharf, Blacks, Start.  We gave a 5 minute horn and all boats jockeyed for position.

Pair A Dice was determined to start on starboard at the buoy.  As usual the start line was getting very crowded.  We knew we were too early so we threw in a jibe and ended up right on time at the buoy.  One other boat thought they could come in on port and tack right in front of us.  We had to pinch up to avoid collision.  We may have been able to roll them, but had another boat to windward destroying our wind and slowing us down.  Our skipper wisely called for a tack to clean air.  This worked well for us.  We seemed to be further out in a little more wind (?).  Additionally, we were not taking the waves on our bow.  We finally tacked over for wharf mark and rounded just ahead of Makani for the long run to Blacks.

The tactics on the way to Blacks involved trying to stay out of Makani’s wind shadow and heat it up enough for speed.  We studied our masthead windex and at no point did it point at Makani, so we were in the clear.  We rounded Blacks ahead of Makani and marched on ahead to finish first (finally!).

I have to compliment Makani for such a great race.  With only two people on board, they managed to set and take down the whisker pole for a very intense rounding of blacks.  They did an awesome job!

The order at finish was PAD, Makani, Pacific Spirit, Kicks, Aeolian and Sea quake, Odonata and Toad.

Tactics:

It is critical when caught in a bad situation, whether being lee-bowed or shadowed, to get out of the situation as soon as possible.  Do not continue in a bad situation and think it will improve.   When going downwind, your windex and the windex of the boat to windward of you indicate where their wind shadow is.  Do not be in a position where your windex is pointing directly at the windward boat!

Rules:

Starboard has right of way over a port tack!  If you are on port, you must yield to a starboard tack boat.  If you tack right in front of the starboard tack boat and they must steer to avoid collision, you have fouled them.  The penalty is normally two turns to exonerate yourself.  Most SI’s now indicated a one turn penalty.  In order to prevent this situation, the starboard boat should hail  “STARBOARD! NO ROOM, DO NOT EVEN THINK OF GOING IN THEIR!”

Looking forward to next week.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce

MAY 3, 2016: EAST TO NORTHWEST

MAY 3, 2016

WIND FROM THE EAST! OR IS IT NORTHWEST?

Sailflow was predicting Easterly breeze in the afternoon, so I was not surprised when I came to the harbor and saw the Easterly filling in.  We all filed out of the harbor and set up for an East wind course: start, Blacks, Mile, finish.  We gave a five minute horn and set up for the start.

We were fortunate to be first off the line right at the start buoy and lead the charge to Blacks in the moderate Easterly.  We were first around Blacks and started the long slog to Mile.  The line straight to Mile was not ideal.  There was little power in the sails to propel the boat and the waves on the bow did not help.  We hardened up on the East wind even though it was sailing away from Mile. Hardening up on the wind seemed to help our progress along with not taking the waves right on the bow.  This was a big gamble.  Would the wind fill in outside first or build inside closer to the beach?  It seemed like we were sitting in a hole of no wind as Pacific Spirit passed us to windward in the dying Easterly.  We continued on when finally we noticed a wind line just 200 yards ahead of us.  We were stuck in a transition zone once again.  Pacific Spirit hit the wind first, followed by us.  It was a northwesterly breeze that had filled in.  We saw up to 18 knots of breeze close to the mile buoy.

Pacific Spirit rounded mile comfortably ahead of us and took a line toward the harbor while we ran toward the mark.  We held our line further inside with our eye on the wind indicator to see if it would subside.  Pacific Spirit tacked out toward the start buoy several times.  Ultimately their tactics worked as we finally tacked toward the start mark we noticed that there was more wind outside.  Once again we were shown: “Always sail to where there is more wind!”

After we rounded we went out to witness Makani leading the charge ahead of Kicks, Aeolian and Sea Quake.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

APRIL 26, 2016: AEOLIAN SHOWS THE WAY

TUESDAY APRIL 26, 2016

KUDOS TO AEOLIAN

I was out of town for this evenings sail.  All information I got about this night was hearsay and there was a lot of that. 

Since this report is based on second hand information, it will be short. My first report was that there was a lot of wind and there were nine boats out for the fun.   In the end, the normal Sagitarius and Pacific Spirit were ahead as usual.  These two boats were followed by Aeolian, Kicks and Pair A Dice.  Kudos to Aeolian for finishing ahead of the normal pack.  Great job Mark and the crew of Aeolian!

About 30 people showed up at the club for the barbecue.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce