MAY 1, 2018: SHIFTY WINDS

MAY 1, 2018

SHIFTY WINDS

The predictions for this evening were for very strong winds from the northwest.  I was surprised when I pulled into the harbor. One glance at the Crow’s nest flag showed a building Easterly.  Apparently there was a lot of wind until an hour before we left the harbor.   We kept the 135 jib that was already on the boat.  As we left the harbor, the beautiful Easterly wind seemed to be building.  It was building so nicely that we called an ambitious course down to SC3.   As Santa Cruz conditions often will do, the easterly started dying in the 5 minute countdown.   We postponed the start for 5 minutes to see what would happen and changed the course to B4, keeping us all inside to take advantage of the Easterly.

 

Pacific Spirit was the sheriff boat for this night and they sailed out to observe the line.  All of the boats were dealing with a very light wind and  waves that really slowed the boats down that were trying to get up to the pin end the line.  Sure enough, at the start, several boats were over the line as reported by Pacific Spirit.  Unfortunately for Aeolian,  Aeolian was the only one that was named.   Aeolian dutifully went back to dip the line for their start exhibiting the Corinthian spirit.

All of the boats charged for the first mark, Blacks.  Avatar was the first around followed quickly by Pacific Spirit and  the rest of the fleet.  We all then slogged downwind toward Gov with constantly changing winds creating challenges for all of us.  On Pair a Dice, we were constantly monitoring the wind.  We jibed back and forth to take advantage of the change in the wind direction.  On the way to Gov we all noticed that there was a Coast Guard boat tied to the mark.  Thanks to Doug on Avatar who had the brilliant idea to actually contact the cutter, we got the approval to round the mark and the coast guard cutter “as long as we left them enough room”.

As Pair a dice rounded, we had Makani right on our port quarter preventing us from tacking over toward the inside.  All boats had gone in toward the beach, knowing that when an easterly is blowing it is strongest on the beach.  Finally, Makani tacked over toward the inside and we started to follow until we saw that the northwesterly was overpowering the Easterly wind and was only 60 yards away. Our decision was made when we saw that the finish mark was surrounded by the building northwesterly.  This left Avatar and Pair a Dice racing toward the mark with Avatar closing faster than us.

GOV SUDDENLY GETS BIGGER

At the finish it was:                                                         elapsed time:

                                       Avatar                                    45:41

                                      Pair a Dice                               46.19

                                      Perfect 36                                47:09

                                      Pacific Spirit                            47:27

                                      Makani                                     48:25

                                      Tara                                           49:35

Course distance: 2.43 miles

It turned out to be a beautiful evening for a sail and a great get together at the Crows Nest after the race.

Lessons learned:

I thought it was brilliant to actually call the coast guard boat to get their approval to round them “at a distance”.

 It is not usual to have winds change direction as much as tonight.  In conditions like this, it is critical to pay attention and change sails to match the wind as well as you can.

I am looking forward to next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice