6/26/2018
GREAT WIND, BUT DON’T
COUNT ON IT
Predict wind was calling for the wind to die as the evening
progressed. On my approach to the
harbor, the flag was flying briskly showing a good
northwest breeze. By the time we got the
boat ready and headed out of the harbor, the wind was dissipating a bit. Being a Barbecue night, I did not want to
have too long of a race and called for
course W3: Start, wharf, Blacks finish.
We gave a five minute horn and started setting up for the start. On Pair a Dice, we wanted to start at the red
buoy end on starboard and accomplished this goal. In this position we had most of the fleet
pinned. One by one each of the boats
tacked over to port tack toward wharf mark.
We all made our way to wharf mark with Avatar, Tusitala and
Pacific Spirit leading the way. After
rounding Wharf, it was very crowded as we all made our way in a tight bunch toward
Blacks. As is customary some of the
boats had quite a lead on us. But as we
approached black About this time there
was a wind line inside showing an Easterly building. the wind inside was dying and many of the boats compressed
on the leaders.
We had sailed all the way to Blacks with
Makani and we split tacks at this point.
Pair a Dice sailed in for the Easterly building on the inside. Makani tacked away sailing away from
blacks. I could not believe it when
Makani got the northwest and sailed easily down to Blacks and rounded ahead of
us.
As we sat in a dead zone after rounding Blacks, we watched Avatar,
Tusitala and Pacific Spirit round the finish mark, boats started to retire from
the race. The wind was absolutely dead
as we joined the chorus to retire also.
Sometimes a Barbecue is more enticing than bobbing on the water. With the great wind at the beginning, it was
obvious we couldn’t count on it to finish the race.
The boats that actually finished the race were Avatar
1:00:00, Tusitala 1:03:40, Pacific Spirit 1:08:17, Nidaris II 1:09:50 and Makani
1:11:20. All times are elapsed and the
length of the course is 3.23 nautical miles.
LIGHT WIND SAILING:
Many sailors know how the jib and main sail interact with
each other. It is true you can often
steer a boat in normal wind with adjustment of the jib and main. If you want to fall off tighten the jib and
ease the main. If you want to head up,
travel the main up and loosen the jib. When
the wind gets so light that the boat is not moving and there is no steerage,
these same principles come into play. Sometimes, in order to get the boat to head
up, you need to furl up to jib and use the very light pressure on the main to
turn the boat in the direction you want to go.
SAILING AWAY FROM THE MARK?!
Years ago, when there were only 3-4 boats sailing on
Tuesdays, our rival frequently was Pacific Spirit. They had an excellent helmsman, “Joe” who was
one of the best sailors I have ever known. We would watch in amazement as he
would often sail their boat directly away from a mark. I admit, we were stymied
by this action and sometimes mumbled to ourselves “what a fool”. We frequently found ourselves following this “fool” around the mark.
After this happened multiple times, we finally learned what he was doing. He
was sailing to the area with the most wind. Sailboats need wind to move and we
learned that it is ok to sail away from a mark to get more wind from Joe. When Makani started sailing away from Blacks
on this night, he saw more wind outside, we thought we saw more wind
inside. Makani scored and actually
finished the race rather than retiring. To
this day on PAD, sometimes my crew will say “remember Joe” as we sail for an
area with more wind. RIP Joe.
I hope to see you on the Boreas race this weekend.
Barry L Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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