July 25, 2017 HEADERS, LIFTS AND WHALES

JULY 25, 2017

HEADERS, LIFTS AND WHALES

It was shaping up to be a stellar evening on the Monterey Bay.  We had a low cloud cover hovering over the beach which meant there would be no Easterly wind tonight.  Under the cloud cover the air was so clear, it seemed you could reach out and touch Monterey.   To add to the excitement, there was talk of whales breeching practically right on the beach.  The wind was less than stellar at about 8 knots from the northwest, but if they can fly Americas cup boats in 8 knots, we can at least race in it! 

As we left the harbor, there were about 15 boats out once again and the boats outside were chattering about whales being out there.  On Pair A Dice, we could see some of their backs coming out of the water in the distance. 

  With the wind blowing from 240, we decided on course W5: Start, Wharf, Finish.  We gave a five minute horn.  On Pair A Dice, we thought we saw more wind inside and wanted to start on Port tack, which we did without having to duck too many boats. Most of the boats headed outside for the customary  wind outside.   Pair A Dice was sailing more directly to the mark and with the waves on our beam rather than our bow, we thought we were making progress on the boats sailing outside.  Our goal was to make it inside the point so when we tacked out there would be less wave action on our bow to slow us down.  As the wind started to decrease and with 30 degree shifts in wind direction, we finally tacked out into the bucking seas.  As we crossed the outside boats, Guenther on his Finn,The Perfect 36, Pacific Spirit and Kicks crossed in front of us so our lead was not what we thought it was.

At the rounding of Wharf mark, it was Guenther, Perfect 36, Pacific Spirit and Pair a Dice.  There was talk of shortening course, but I thought we had enough wind to finish the race.  Alas, the lure of the barbecue enticed all of us to retire before finishing.  All except Guenther who was the only boat to finish the whole race.

 

COURSE ALTERNATIVES:

We have come a long way in our Catalina fleet.  Years ago, we had 3 or 4 boats coming out every Tuesday night for an impromptu race.  We would agree on a course and sail it.  It was easy to communicate between 4 boats.  Now we customarily have 15 boats out with varying degrees of skill in sailing and racing.  In order to be consistent, considering the crowd we have, I feel it is important to stick with the course cards. Communicating a mark rounding or delineating finer elements of an extemporaneous course gets very tedious with 15 boats out.  Using a course on the course cards has all of the information right there (or on the back). The start line, how to round the mark and all other elements are right there on the course card.  I admit, in retrospect, the course on this night should have been shortened to just rounding wharf mark, especially with it being a barbecue night.

Despite this consideration, I do not want to be dogmatic.  I have offered it before and the offer still stands if someone wants to call a race you can call it and run the whole race (give the 5 minute horn, answer all questions about the race during the race etc).

COURSE CARDS:

We have some new boats out for our friendly sails.  I want to make sure everyone has the course cards I keep referring to.  These course cards give all of the courses we use on the front of the card and the general sailing instructions on the back of the card.  Also on the back of the card are the location and description of all of the start lines and marks used.  I am on Q dock every Tueday evening.  Stop by and get one if you need it.

Looking forward to next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

July 18, 2017 VACATION CORRESPONDING AND START LINE PHOTOS

July 18, 2017

VACATION CORRESPONDING

 I was in Vegas this Tuesday night pondering another pair a dice while celebrating our 26^th wedding anniversary. Stefan and my crew were kind enough to provide a report from which I will attempt to write a blog. I apologize for the tardiness of this blog.

   

The wind was a light Easterly about 7 knots so the course B5 was chosen.  It looks like there were 13 boats out again for the fun.  In light conditions like this, how you deal with waves becomes a critical factor in performance.  Perfect sail trim and clean bottoms also become essential when sailing in light winds.  At the leeward mark six boats converged at the same time in orderly fashion. Pair A Dice  sailed wide of the mass of boats at the leeward mark and was able to get clear air.  At the finish  Perfect 36 was first, followed by Guenther on his Finn, Pair A Dice, Nidaros 2, Rosa Nautica, Kicks, Toad, Dreamer, Tara, Freya, Aeolian, Odonata and Rosie. It is good to have so many new participants!

STARTING LINES:

I know that with the new start lines we are using this year, there may be some confusion.  Vern Wallace was kind enough to take some pictures of each of the start lines to help clear up this perplexity.  The first picture is the start line for Blacks point.  From this picture, you can see that if you set a range using the left end of blacks point and the tip of the gable (marked with orange line) on the house directly behind, you can tell whether you are over the line too soon.  In any case the compass bearing is about 352 degrees magnetic from the mark to the left end of Blacks Point (which is white from bird droppings).

The second picture shows the “S” or the white house at the end of Schwan lagoon.  Using the 

 left of that white house, you can set a range with the slight v (orange arrow) in the large mushroom-shaped tree tops behind the corner of the house. The range should be close to 330 degrees magnetic.

The last line is our old standby we have always used and should be about 310 degrees magnetic from the mark.

Please try to observe these start lines so we can all have a fair start, and thanks to Vern and Judy for providing these pictures.

HANDICAPPING:

I know the normal way of handicapping in sailing is to use PHRF.  I firmly believe nobody wants to try to incorporate PHRF in our events on Tuesday and I have no intention of doing this.  I do believe that the smaller displacement hulled boats have a distinct disadvantage and believe we should give them a head start so they at least have a chance.  It gets complicated because our courses all have different lengths and the head start should be greater for longer races.  Each course card has the length of each race. For any heavier displacement hull boat 27 feet and under, lets give a 2 minute head start for any course up to 2 miles in length and a 3 minute head start for any course between 2 and 3 miles and a 4 minute head start for any course over 3 miles.  The “heavier displacement” means any SC27 that care to participate will not get a head start. For your head start, follow the chart below.  This is simplistic, but I know in the heat of the race, nobody wants to do even simple math.

5 Minute horn blows: Two minute head start means you start 3 minutes after the horn.

                                        Three minute head start means you start 2 minutes after the horn.

                                         Four minute heads tart means you start 1 minute after the horn.

I will call over channel 69 the head start indicated and will attempt to give adequate warning of when the 5 minute horn will blow.

PLEASE NOTE: NEXT TUESDAY IS BARBECUE NIGHT AT THE CLUB AFTER THE RACE.

I am looking forward to Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice 

JULY 11, 2017 DEJA VU, NOT AGAIN

July 11, 2017

DÉJÀ VU, NOT AGAIN!

Last week we did not sail because of the fourth of July being a family holiday, there was no interest.  Two weeks ago we sailed a marginal race with no wind on the inside and plenty of wind further out beyond Mile buoy.  Pair a Dice had attempted a track inside and fought our way through the transition zone between a northwest and an east wind painstakingly inching along until the call of the barbecue seemed more enticing than sailing and most of the boats retired early with us.

On this night it seemed like plenty of wind even in to the start mark until it came time to call the race.  We called for course W5 and gave a 5 minute horn.  As the clocked ticked to the start, the wind seemed to be dying even more and we finally canceled the race.  It seemed none of the boats were in position.  In exasperation Homer announced over the radio “let’s just go for a sail!”  With plenty of wind outside and nothing inside, it sounded pretty good to me.  We all motored out into the wind and had a wonderful sail.  The last thing I wanted to do was to limp along inside in no wind like two weeks ago.  My thoughts were “déjà vu, NOT AGAIN”

.

Kudos to Mark on Kicks for organizing a race starting at mile buoy and it seems about 6 boats took part.  All I know is the northwesterly was blowing nicely and the transition to the Easterly was not bad at all.  We had up to 16 knots of easterly breeze and it felt delicious to be sailing again.

OTHER REGATTAS:

It is not too late to register for the Monterey and back regatta this weekend.  Race down to Monterey on Saturday.  Party at the club down there and race back on Sunday.  I have done this race several times and it is very fun.  It can be done with minimal crew since it is a 24 mile drag race.  There are virtually no tactics and buoy roundings.

Also keep in mind the Fall SCORE series put on by the yacht club.  It would be great to have more Jib and Main boats join in this series of races.  Get the details on line SCYC.org under regattas.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice