TUESDAY APRIL 25: A GUSTY NORTH

TUESDAY APRIL 25

 A GUSTY NORTH!

I don’t know about everyone else, but on Tuesdays I am always watching the trees all day in anticipation of what wind we will get on the water.  On this Tuesday the trees were whipping around all day and when I got to the harbor I knew we would not be disappointed.  The wind was blowing steadily from the North.  Being a Barbecue night, I was thinking it would be a good time to conduct a starting clinic.  We got other marks all set to go so we could have a proper start line and planned on setting a rounding mark a couple hundred yards to windward.

When the starting clinic was proposed to the other boats, it was flatly refused.  Why futz around with a starting clinic when we could actually be sailing!  I could not agree more.  We settled on course G2: start, Gov, Blacks finish.  On Pair A Dice, I got us too far from the start line.  Actually our timing would have been perfect if we could have sailed directly toward the start pin, but my boat does not sail directly into the wind too well.  A total mis-judgement on wind angle on my part.  I learned a long time ago to not get too far from the start line, but this vital lesson somehow slipped my mind this night!  Oh well, last one off the line once again.

We had quite a few boats out and the wind was steadily from the north with plenty of gusts you could see on the water. All of the boats had to tack over to take Gov to port and Homer (Equanimity) was the first around the mark with Pacific Spirit close behind. Though we were able to close the gap between us and some of the boats, we did not seem to pass many of them. 

At the finish it was Equinimity, Pacific Spirit, Perfect 36, Makani, Kicks, Pair A Dice, Odonata, Tara, Aeolian and Toad.  We all had a great time at the barbecue afterwards.

Tactics and boat handling:

Rather than giving tips, I should be taking lessons at this point.  As noted, even in great wind always stay close to the start line keeping in mind the rules of the road to avoid fouling other boats.

 

In the gusty conditions we had this night,  my main-sheet trimmer was hard at work.  One of the things most important in racing is keeping the boat sailing at the same angle of heel.  In gusty conditions, this is accomplished by the main-sheet trimmer releasing the traveler to ease the load on the boat with each gust.  How does this work to make the boat go fast?.  Originally, it made sense to me that letting the boats angle of heel change would take incredible amounts of energy which should be used to propel the boat.  This is true but also consider what happens under the boat with the keel and rudder.  You will get much better speed if the foils under the boat work as well as the foils above the boat.  It really helps to try to maintain the same angle of heel!

Other Regattas:

This Saturday, April 29 will be the commodore’s cup.  This is a reverse PHRF start and should be a lot of fun. The weather should be great. You can register for this race on the SCYC web site. Click on Regatta and follow the lead to register for this regatta.

Pair A Dice was out for the first of the SCORE races.  These are races put on by SCYC and are really a lot of fun.  I know many people did not know about this race and we were the only ones in the Jib and Main fleet.  We ran the course but did not cross the finish line (DNF) for both races so other boats can come out for the next race days and we are all starting from scratch.  Register and come out for the fun!

See you next Tuesday!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

VACATION RECAP FOR APRIL 4 RACE

VACATION RECAP

I am finally back from our extended vacation.  While I was gone, Mike Gross was kind enough to write me a recap of the events for the April 4 sail.  From the sounds of it, the night must have been excruciating with such light wind.   At least they were lucky to have two buoys to limit the line.

I was not there, so will not judge but we are doing everything we can do to maintain the integrity of the start line.  As I have written before, not being OCS is as simple as siting the line to set up a range.  Once this range is established, you can easily determine if you are over early.  We will start sighting the line for OCS boats on occasion and announce the OCS boats.  If announced as OCS, you must go back and restart in order to be considered for that night.

Another issue we need to work on is VHF radio protochol.  I know everyone likes to comment on the selected course, as well they should!  This is not a dictatorship and we are open to suggestions.  A problem occurs when this dialog continues right up to the start time.  We should attempt to be finished with all discussions about the course by 5:50 so we can get set up with our minimal 5 minute horn.   Maybe we can give a five minute warning on stopping all radio transmissions until the start.  Obviously this is a work in progress.

It sounds like it was an interesting race with many tactical and strategic decisions.  Though Mike gave a thorough recap (thanks Mike) I cannot comment since I was not there.  At the finish Equinimity was first with Pair A Dice close on her heels.  The next three boats were Makani, Pacific Spirit and Perfect 36 all overlapped with each other.   Next were Kicks and Aeolian followed by Sea Quake and Odonata.

Sailing in light wind is certainly Challenging!

OTHER REGATTAS:          

It is time for everyone to show our prowess on a proper course.  Santa Cruz Yacht Club has an active race schedule.  When you excel in these regattas, you actually get to take home some hardware (trophies).  I know this is short notice, but the next regatta series is quickly approaching on Sunday April 23.  This is the first day of the spring SCORE series.  These are always fun races.  Make sure to sign up so we can have a good representation of the “Jammers”.   It is important to race in all of the race days of the series.  Missing one day of racing can dramatically affect your standings overall, so sign up and we will see you Sunday!

Another regatta that is quickly is our Commodore’s cup on April 29.  Some of you know that I am the current SCYC Commodore so this is “my race” with all of the fixings of an actual regatta complete with committee boats and all.  Please sign up and race in this regatta!

Thanks to all of your for being part of the Catalina group!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair a Dice

THIS COMING TUESDAY NIGHT (APRIL 25) IS A BARBECUE NIGHT. PLEASE PLAN ON ATTENDING AND BRINGING YOUR FAVORITE GRILLING ITEM.

March 27, 2017: A STERN RE-VIEW

A STERN RE-VIEW

With my wife’s grandiose plans for a long vacation, tonight’s sail was going to be my last for a while.  The forecast for wind looked good with people commenting all day long about how blustery it was outside.  Would the 155 jib be too much?  It seemed that I was getting multiple text messages and phone calls with one question: “Do you have room for one more on your boat?”  I never discourage people from coming out on Tuesday nights, but when I showed up and we had about a dozen people looking for rides, I was feeling the pinch.  Thankfully one more boat was going out which lightened the load for everyone.  Barbecue night and finally a night with wind was stoking the crowd.  The wind was flowing in puffs basically from the North.

I have worked hard my whole life and have followed all the rules so I am not accustomed to getting stern reviews.  Little did I know what a stern re-view I was in for on this night! 

As I fumbled through the courses, it is amazing anyone understood my gibberish, but the communication was finally made: Start, Gov, Finish.   My mind had slipped off on vacation early I guess. Thanks to Kathy for calling to clarify that the final mark was to be taken to port, the way we normally finish on the run from gov to the start mark finish. Chris Hoffman was kind enough to set a start mark for us which was basically square to Black point.  I did not count the boats but it seemed like about a dozen.

Everyone was milling around for the start.  On our first run toward the start we felt we were too early so we tacked back for a second run.  At the start many boats seemed to be late to the line with Pair A Dice being the latest of all.  Variable, puffy, unpredictable winds and being last in line was not working.  We thought we saw more wind toward shore and tacked over to get inside and to get clean air and got headed so badly that we were actually sailing away from Gov.  I am sorry, but we were so far back and so intent on sailing our boat, I did not see who rounded Gov first.  Talk about a stern view!  We were last to round Gov and then we were getting our stern Re-view as all boats were ahead of us. 

Most of the boats sailed inside and about three of us decided to gamble on running outside. On a night as unpredictable as this, anything was worth a try.  All of the boats that went inside had to buck the waves to get back to the mark.  Many people were claiming victory and I am sorry I missed the barbecue because I am sure there were some interesting discussions.  The guys on my boat said they were going to tell everyone that I was so humiliated I was selling my boat and moving to Kansas!  It was bad, but not THAT bad!  

Aside from being such a stern re-view, losing on a Tuesday night can be a beneficial experience if you analyze and learn from your experience.  So this is my post- race analysis of my errors.

1)          Know your start line!  I did not analyze this element at all before the race.  I should have done a line sight to set up a range to tell when we were on the line.  This is the only way to properly estimate such a long line and one that is new to our group.  Another way to do this would be to have someone with a puck compass knowing the bearing to Black point to give an estimate to how close you are to the line.

2)      When wind is coming in puffs, they will invariably hit you at the wrong time like when you are trying to start!  I should have dumped sails to slow down rather than tack back as I did.

3)      Focus on the race.  My mind was obviously not on the race, and my poor steering showed it.  Anyone trying to follow the course instructions I gave on the radio could tell I was already on vacation.

4)      I believe I was correct in tacking over for the “more wind” further toward shore.  When in last place you are forced to gamble and go for fliers and this one did not work to our advantage.   In short this was an unpredictable night for all of us and I just made bad predictions. 

I will be gone for a few weeks on a different kind of cruise.  My boat will be going out and hopefully she can do better in my absence.

Have fun sailing on Catalina Tuesdays.

Barry Keeler