OCTOBER 24, 2017 SHORT RACE, BEAUTIFUL SUNSET

SHORT RACE, GREAT SUNSET

As we left the harbor, I got a sinking feeling.  There were about a dozen boats floating around the start mark with zero wind.   As we approached the start mark, I announced the course (B6 with an option to call the race at Blacks) and gave a five minute horn at 5:55.  Almost on cue, the wind started to build as the 5 minutes ticked off. 

  There were several boats caught off guard by the building wind and were early to the line.  All boats ran the line and started correctly.  The wind seemed to be no more than 5 knots and we all seemed to be racing in slow motion.  About halfway to Blacks, I announced that we would finish at start-finish.

The first around Blacks was Pacific Spirit followed by Homer and Pair A Dice.  As we left Blacks, the wind seemed to be dying making the Start mark look very far away.  Alas the wind did die at Blacks and most of the twelve boats out just headed to the barn.  Pacific Spirit finished the race just ahead of Homer followed by Pair A Dice.

SAILING WITH HONOR:

Using the start line between the start mark and Blacks point, it appeared that all boats started correctly.  One of the boats touched the start mark and  took a penalty turn. It made me proud to be sailing with such an honorable crowd!

I am still learning rules.  It was pointed out that it is not legal to use a boat hook to hold the clew of a sail out.  This is rule 50 and indicates that anything that holds the clew out must be attached to the mast unless you are in the process of jibing. You can use your hand to hold out the clew, but your body must not be outside the life lines.  I am certain I have ignorantly broken this rule in the past.

OTHER REGATTAS:

Again, I would like to point out that SCYC is putting on the midwinters series. Being winter, these races are usually light wind races and can be very fun.  You will need a PHRF certificate (get one at the club). The first day of races in this series will be November 18.  There is usually a skippers meeting before this first race.  Check out the Notice of Race on the SCYC web site.  We have all learned a lot and it is now time to enter a real race. If three Jib and Mainers do not register for the race, we will be included with the B fleet which will be sailing with spinnakers and we will get a 12 second PHRF advantage.  If you do not know the flag sequence for starting sanctioned race, email me and I will go over it for you.  Better yet, ask me at the barbecue and we can discuss it.

THIS COMING TUESDAY WILL BE THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE YEAR AND WILL BE A BARBECUE NIGHT AT THE CLUB.  THE BAR WILL BE OPEN! BRING YOUR FAVORITE GRILLING FOOD! IT WILL BE HALLOWEEN, FEEL FREE TO DRESS UP!

We will discuss the coming year and ways to improve our Tuesday sails.  Please make an effort to at least come to the barbecue!

See you Tuesday,

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

OCTOBER 17, 2017: NO WIND, WIND NO WIND

OCTOBER 17, 2017

                NO WIND, WIND!, NO WINDL

I was at the harbor for most of the day and was not encouraged with the lack of wind on the bay.  I even got a couple of calls with the predominant question “you’re not going to race today in no wind are you?  I was quite surprised as we exited the harbor to see an easterly building with steady pressure.  We called for course B6: start, Blacks, Start finish. Since we had no radio, Homer agreed to do the starting sequence and horn.  Gotta love teamwork!

The wind was not quite easterly but more South-east: from a 130 direction.  It appeared it would be possible to fetch Blacks from the start mark.  Pair A Dice was late to the start mark and had Sea quake to port on or bow and Kicks to our starboard on our stern. We sailed as hard on the wind as possible and ultimately were able to tack over in front of Kicks for more wind outside.  Once we tacked we were getting better (clear) wind and made good progress on the leaders (Equinimity and Pacific Spirit).  At Blacks it was Equinimity followed by Pacific Spirit and us followed by Nidaris II.  The only problem was that Blacks was in a no wind zone at that point and we all desperately tried to get back out to the stronger Easterly blowing outside.  On Pair a Dice, we noticed that there was a whisper of a Northerly blowing right off the beach and tried to utilize it to our advantage.  We were all creeping toward the start mark.  Many boats opted for an early appearance at the Crows Nest and motored toward the harbor. 

At the finish it was Equiniity, Pacific Spirit, Pair a Dice, Nidaris II, Tara and Aeolian retired early and headed for the harbor leaving Kicks to finish.

We had a great dinner at the crows nest discussing tactics and sailing.

GAINING INSIDE POSITIAN AT A MARK:

 As we were approaching Blacks, we were in a race to the mark and feared Nidaris would have an inside overlap on us.  We fell off gaining speed then turned for the mark right at the 3 boat length zone breaking the overlap.  This cleared us for a rounding without having to give them room.

TACTICS, MORE WIND OR HEADERS AND LIFTS?:

I was discussing with Homer the different tactics used in racing.  He said that he was more prone to take advantage of headers and lifts to get ahead.  Some people just look for more wind rather than headers and lifts.  This is an interesting concept. I have seen both tactics work to an advantage.  These are the finer nuances of racing and sailing.  It seems to me that sometimes more wind pays and sometimes taking advantage of headers and lifts works.

ERROR ALERT!  For those that saw the first posting of this nights blog, I got ahead of myself. We actually have two more weeks of Tuesday night sailing.  The last night of racing will be October 31 and there will be a barbecue on that night.  This is also Halloween, so you can wear a costume if you want. 

See you next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

OCTOBER 10, 2017: SHORT AND SWEET

October 10, 2017

SHORT AND SWEET

After last week’s fiasco with the wind dying and only a few boats able to finish the race, I was determined to not have a replay this week.  As we left the harbor the wind seemed adequate but there was no clue whether it would hold.  We set a mark about 150 yards directly to windward of the start mark.  We announced the course: Start to the windward mark, Blacks and finish.  We gave the normal 5 minute horn at 5:55 and held our breath as the wind seemed to be dying.  Normally, it seems nature takes the 5 minute horn as a signal to start backing off on the wind.  On this night, we were fortunate to have the wind actually build in the 5 minute period to the start.

On Pair A Dice and with about 15 boats on the line, we felt it prudent to start on Starboard tack.  Our problem was that with the increasing wind, our timing for the line was wrong.  More wind creates more boat speed causing a potential over early situation.  As the time was expiring I thought we were possibly over, but checking the range I  had observed with the lighthouse and the trees behind showed we were well behind the line. Nobody was over early so we had a fair race! It is amazing that such a short distance to the windward mark developed into so many different tactics to get there.  Pair A Dice was fortunate to round the mark first with Equinimity and Pacific Spirit following close behind.  On Pair A Dice we set the pole trying to go dead down wind while Equinimity and Pacific Spirit sailed further toward the beach.   As we converged toward Blacks, Equinimity was in the lead and Pacific Spirit had an inside overlap on us so we gave them room at the mark.  As we rounded both Pacific Spirit and Equinimity sailed straight outside again while we sailed further along the beach.

As we tacked back out toward the finish mark, we were feeling pretty good about our chances.  As we got closer to the finish mark and both Equinimity and Pacific Spirit tacked over for the mark, we were amazed to find Equinimity ranging on us and was clearly going to cross in front of us!  We crossed in front of Pacific Spirit and tacked on their wind.  First over the line was Equinimity, Pair a dice less than a boat length ahead of Pacific Spirit then Kicks, Sea bird, a Saber 34, Toad, Freya, Aila (Beneteau 34), Tara and Sea Quake.

It was a beautiful night with great wind and a beautiful sunset. It was a short and sweet race.

OTHER REGATTAS:

Keep in mind that the midwinters regatta will start on November 18.  This series is held on Saturdays rather than Sunday.  For this series, if three Jib and Main boats enter, we will have our own class.  If not enough of us enter, we will sail against the spinnaker class.  If sailing jib and main, you will be given a 12 second PHRF adjustment.  My PHRF is normally 180, but will be 192 for this series.  This will level the playing field for us sailing against the spinnakers.  If you want to enter this series, be certain you have a valid PHRF certificate on file.

I will see you out there next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

OCTOBER 3, 2017: SKUNKED AGAIN

October 3, 2017

SKUNKED AGAIN

In anticipation of a light wind night, I brought a buoy to use as an alternate windward mark.  I was surprised when we came out of the harbor and there seemed to be plenty of wind: but would it hold? We ambitiously chose the course to finish the race at Mile.  We gave a 5 minute horn at 5:55 and it was almost as if the wind gods took the signal and the wind started to decline with the blowing of the horn.  Boats were spread all over the place on both sides of the start line and when the 5 minute count down expired, many of the boats headed outside while some of us took the inside line.  The boats on the outside seemed to be doing pretty well after they tacked back in toward mile and Tara was leading the charge on the “inside boats”.  In the end the wind died and one by one boats called in saying they were retiring.  Some people hung out to the end and finished.  Odonata reported that they finished at 7:25!  We were treated to a wonderful sunset with a hint of a green flash!

THE GREEN FLASH:

I have always been intrigued with the concept of the green flash.  I thought that the green flash would wipe out all of the normal pink in the sky and it would all turn green for a very brief moment. I learned tonight that the green flash is a small area about the width of the sun that hovers over the horizon for just a moment just as the last edge of the sun disappears.  I actually did see this on this night, but did not realize it until Fred explained it to me.

THE FUTURE:

I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the growth of our fleet this year. I feel we have a lot of potential for future growth next year.   This growth, while exciting, has caused me a lot of frustration.  Gone are the days when we had 3 to 6 boats out.  It was easy to record finishes and report the race with fewer boats.  I have done my best to record finishes, frequently hanging around the finish mark until the last boat finishes.  Replaying the race later as I write the blog, I have had problems recognizing the names of boats (my writingL) and because of this have been guilty of leaving some of the boats out of the finish sequence.  Sometimes I am back in the pack and cannot see the sequence of the finish and taking reports from different boats as to who was winner has been fraught with conflict.

 On top of these other frustrations, the fact that some boats “play loose” with the start line drawing even more boats over the line adds to my personal frustration.  Last week, I announced I was going to site the line and not a single boat was OCS, so I know it can be done.  If we were having a foot race and a competitor consistently started 50 yards ahead of everyone else, how long would the foot races last before competitors stopped coming?  

is an embarrassment to me as we have new boats joining us to have the start line played so loosely.  They come out because they have heard that there is more organization on Tuesday nights. They have course cards delineating the start line and find boats all over the place on both sides of the line. This is not just my perspective, others are complaining also.  On this night there were easily 3-4 boats OCS from my estimate NOT siting the line. What does this say about our group?  I really do not want our group turning into just a social event where nobody observes the rules.  What can be learned in such an environment? Rules dictate that if you are over the start line early, you must turn back and go through the start line again.  This is a huge penalty when there are 18 boats on the line, but must be done to exonerate yourself and be part of the race.

There have been people that have suggested we should set up a line complete with a committee boat to site the line and record finishes.  Another suggestion has been to have a ‘sheriff’ boat sail outside of the line to site it and report OCS instances.  This means that this sheriff boat would be given a distinct disadvantage and in essence is not racing on the night they are acting as sheriff.

Where are we now and where do we want the fleet to be in the future?  I am encouraged to see so many boats out but find it impossible to keep track of all of the boats.  What is the answer?  I believe the answer to all of these problems is to use current technology!  We have talked about the FREE app that can be loaded onto any cell phone call Race Qs. 

Once you have downloaded this FREE app, you can preset the start for 5:55 to record the start.  You place the phone face up near the centerline of your boat with the top of the phone pointed toward the bow of your boat. Make certain the phone is in a position where it will not slip out of place.  I mounted a wood strip in my chart table to hold my phone in place. The app will record your position and every movement of your boat. Once done with the race, you must upload the track and can study it later on the web site.  It is an incredible learning tool, showing how well you are steering and how efficient your tacks are.  Each time you tack, there is a white dot you can click on that opens to show 8 different parameters of that tack.  You can compare your tack against the winning boats and learn from their example.  This app will also record the location of every boat at every point during the race and accurately record the sequence of the finish.  The app allows installation of start and finish lines, so there would be no guessing about any of these issues.  In essence, race QS becomes the regatta committee!

Several of us are planning on using this app this coming Tuesday. We will show it on the TV for the last BBQ on Halloween night.   I encourage you to download and use the app this Tuesday.

OTHER REGATTAS:

The next series of SCYC regattas will be the midwinter races. It would be great to have at least 3 of our jib and main boats to constitute a class for this race.  If three of us do not register, there is talk of incorporating us into the spinnaker boats with a PHRF allowance of 12 seconds a mile.  This means if your PHRF is 180 and we are in the spinnaker class, we would be assigned a PHRF of 192 FOR THIS SERIES.   It goes without saying that we should all get a current PHRF certificate.  This certificate takes all of the specifics of your boat into consideration: folding prop, spinnaker or not, max size of your jib etc.

Looking forward to next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice