APRIL 16, 2019

ALL POINTS OF THE COMPASS

The predictions for the wind were up to 14 knots on the bay.  By the time I got to the harbor, the crew had already swapped out to the 155 jib for the lighter winds expected.  As we left the harbor, there was a very apparent northwest wind on the outside.  The wind line extended in and included the newly installed Start mark (thank you race committee!)  When we got to this wind it was about 15 knots.  We had enough wind to have a race! With such great wind, we set the temporary line mark inside toward the beach and called for course W3: Wharf, Blacks, Finish.  Amazingly, in the 15 minutes between the mark setting and the start, the wind came in with an equally strong North wind, which made the beach end of the line very favored.

Many of the boats had great starts: Tusitala, Avatar and Kicks nailed the beach end of the line at speed.  PAD got stuck in the transition zone halfway down the line and was late to the start.  We at least had clear air and were able to take a bearing pretty close to rhumb line to Wharf.  Tusitala played everything just right and was the first to round Wharf well ahead of everyone else.  Second around Wharf was PAD, then Pacific Spirit, Kicks and Avatar.

The rounding at Blacks got very interesting as some of the boats hit the mark in the strang winds that were springing up.  Some took their penalty turn and others just headed to the harbor.  Understandable, imagine trying to take penalty turns on boats that are 10-15,000 pounds in weird very light wind.  Seeing the mayhem at the mark, PAD took the mark wide into a patch of wind to propelled us around the mark. On the way to finish, Avatar was romping ahead of us by 2 boat-lengths.  With the now North wind, we apparently were able to block their wind and creeped up to barely pass them.  At the finish: Tusitala19:14:23, PAD 19:40:29, Avatar 19:40:32, Kicks 19:41:12 and Sanpiper 19:42:20.

It was a great night on the water, with a beautiful sunset.  Though it was tortuously slow through much of the race, it was way better than sitting at home in front of the TV!  The wind was so variable it covered all points of the compass.

LIGHT WIND SAILING:

This is always a challenge, especially when the direction is variable and you cannot read the wind because it is not contacting the water.  I find it best to maximize the effect of the waves as long as it is not taking you to lighter wind.  You want to avoid going into the waves if at all possible.  Another thing I learned on this night is to let the very light breeze dictate how you set the sails.  If your sails back wind, quickly reset on the other tack.  Another useful tool we have on Pair A Dice is telltales on the shrouds consisting of old cassette tape.  These telltales will indicate the direction of the wind about 8 feet off the water, which helps when there are no ripples on the water.

See you out there next Tuesday!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice