JULY 31, 2018; THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

JULY 31, 2018

THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

Predict wind was indicating the wind was going to die as the evening progressed.  There was a fine Easterly breeze blowing as we left the harbor. As usual for a barbecue night, we had close to 20 boats out for the fun.   We quickly set the mark for the line and called course B4.  Thanks to Doug on Avatar for pointing out that there was a Coastguard cutter hanging on Gov.  We took his suggestion and called the course as B4 but substituting Wharf for Gov.  We blew the 5 minute horn and set up for the start.

On Pair A Dice, we decided to try to start at the start buoy on starboard.  A risky move considering that it would be a popular start.  As was expected, many boats had the same idea and we got off to a bad start in second row with several boats in front feeding us bad air.  As the season progresses it is amazing, as everyone’s abilities improve, how all boats seem to merge at marks at the same time.  This night was a good example as we had 4 boats rounding Blacks at the same time.  It seems everyone was screaming “ROOM AT THE MARK!”.

After rounding Blacks, we had a long slog to Wharf mark. Would the wind hold or die on us?  I observed all of the SC27s sail way inside with their Spinnakers and wondered how they would fair at the Wharf rounding.  It did not take long as, once again, we all seemed to be rounding Wharf at the same time with many calls for “ROOM AT THE MARK”.

The wind held through the long beat back to start.  Fred was the helmsman on Pair A Dice and he did an excellent job calling the headers and lifts as we passed several boats on the way to the start mark.

At the finish the first over the line was Tusitala (56:45), Avatar (59:30), Patricia J (1:00:57), Pair A Dice (1:05:39) Pacific Spirit (1:06:25), Perfect 36 (1:08:30) and Makani (1:16:00).  All times are elapsed. The course length was 3.20 miles.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

I have always tried to do all I can to improve everyone’s sailing ability.  If I learn something, I will always share it through this blog.  If everyone becomes a better sailor, I must improve also to win races.

I was talking to an experienced sailor once and told him how our fleet has grown.  He stated: “it never fails, when you try to improve everyone’s abilities, you build fleets and participation.  EXCESSIVE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT KILLS FLEETS!”.  What is excessive competitive spirit? Certainly bragging about a win is one example of excessive competitive spirit.  We all enjoy winning but winning graciously is a trait we all should try to employ.

  Another example of excessive competitive spirit is not abiding by the rules of sailing.  We have many novice sailors in our group that are trying to learn (and follow) the rules of sailing for our races.    As our abilities improve and more boats round marks at the same time, we MUST follow the rules.  If a boat has inside overlap at the 3 boat zone, give them ROOM.  If multiple boats are overlapped, you may need to give a LOT of room for all of the overlapped boats to get around the mark.  In order to prevent miss-haps, it is good for the boat that is achieving inside overlap to announce (loudly) at the 3 boat zone that you have overlap and will need mark room.

  

We have many in our group that play by the rules, taking turns if they bump a mark and giving appropriate room at the mark.  Can we all please play by the rules for our Tuesday night “fun sails”?  Nothing discourages participation more than the sound and feel of crunching fiberglass.  Many of us are having a blast and learning more about sailing, THIS is the intent of Tuesday Night sailing.  My greatest fear is that excessive competitive spirit in our group will crush our fleet.  By some of our actions, are we actually causing the beginning of the end?

Please use race QS in order to be counted for the race.  If you are not running this app, you are not being counted.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice