APRIL 2, 2019: RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING, BUT NOT TONIGHT!

APRIL 2, 2019

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING, BUT NOT TONIGHT!

As dicey as this season has been, this night did not look like any improvement.  Indeed, as I left work at 5pm I walked to my car in a steady rain.  I was thinking there was little chance for a sail in these conditions.  I had committed to at least show up at the boat, so dutifully made the short drive to the harbor.  I was surprised to see a “hole in the clouds” as I approached the harbor and set up for a sail!  We had 5 brave boats tempting their luck with impending rain all over the place.

We set the buoy as fairly close to the jetty lighthouse attempting to set a perpendicular line to the wind.  With none of the racing buoys deployed we called for a course: start mark to starboard (start line an extension of line from lighthouse and start mark), first mark GOV to port, Mile to port, finish at line between Gov and end of wharf.  We blew a 5 minute horn and set up for our start.

As usual, we wanted to start on starboard tack, which required us to sail close to the harbor entrance and approach on starboard INTO the waves.  Amazingly the boats starting on port tack (sailing with the waves), all had great starts.  On Pair A Dice, we were late to the line being slowed by the waves and had a lot of distance to make up between Avatar and Makani which were enjoying a great lead over us, though it felt like we were starting to close some of the distance on our way to Gov.  We had a steady 9 knot wind as we rounded Gov and started to sail toward Mile.  We were steadily closing the gap on Makani, though Avatar was the first to round Mile.  Somehow we rounded Mile ahead of Makani and started sailing back to Gov for the finish.  The disturbing sound of the bow wake of Makani seemed to get louder and louder as he approached us from behind us and ultimately passed us.

 At the finish, it was Avatar with a healthy lead, Makani and Pair a Dice.   Amazingly, with dark clouds all around we did not get rained on until we were back in the harbor with sail covers on!

TOWING ANOTHER BOAT:

On this  night, we had a boat with an Impaired motor so we towed them into the harbor.  As always it was an education.  You should use a line long enough so the towed boat is not right on your stern.  You need enough distance to allow you to react if the towed boat catches a wave.  It is good to have fenders out as you approach the other boat because you need to be in close proximity to the boat to toss a line to them.  Once the line is tied to both boats increase speed slowly to get both boats up to speed.  Determine who is going to release the line when you are approaching the towee and increase speed at the last minute to give the boat enough speed to make it to their slip.  To the experienced, this is all second nature, but unless you do it frequently it can get to be very interesting.

To make it interesting consider if you are being towed by a big power boat.  They toss you a line and slowly increase their speed.  They have power to spare so start going FASTER than YOUR hull speed.  This is where things can go seriously wrong because they are trying to pull you “up-hill” and can apply incredible stress on your boat.  Always be aware of your hull speed and do not let a powerful boat tow you faster than your hull speed.

 Recently there was a trimaran being towed to Moss landing from Santa Cruz.  The trimaran washed ashore close to the Cement Boat in Aptos.  I wonder if they were trying to tow at an excessive speed?

Hopefully this coming Tuesday will be clear with some wind!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce