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