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