JULY 9, 2019
SOMETIMES GOOD THINGS
HAPPEN
When I got to the harbor at about 4 pm, the flag on the
Crow’s Nest was as stiff as a board with the 20 knot wind on the water whipping
up whitecaps to the horizon. I was
considering changing down from my 155 jib, but decided to wait. By 5 pm the wind was already backing off, but
it looked like plenty of wind for a race!
As we left the harbor at about 5:15, we checked the wind and it was from
240 degrees and about 15 knots setting
up for a glorious night of sailing.
We called a course and were all ready to blow the 5 minute
horn when we noticed many boats on the start line were not moving at all. We postponed for 5 minutes to see what would
happen. After five minutes, no wind on
the start line, but plenty of wind outside.
With Fred’s suggestion, we moved the start to Mile buoy and called for
course F1: Mile to wharf, finish at
Gov. We gave time for everyone to make
it out to Mile and gave a 5 minute horn. Even moving out to mile buoy you had
to be careful about sailing in too close to shore because of the dead
wind. Dead wind inside, 20 plus
outside. To make matters worse, the
boats with excellent starts were ending up at the first mark (Wharf) with no
wind at all and trying to deal with a strong current coming down the coast.
By the time PAD came on the scene at wharf, the wind was
changing directions like there was a huge oscillating fan overhead with
something randomly turning the wind on and off. There was plenty of wind
outside of the mark, but the mark area showed no wind. My plan was to sail further up the coast and
use the waves to round the mark, but we had a gust that finally took us around
and off toward Gov. The same gust that helped us round Wharf stayed with us all
the way toward Gov until the Easterly kicked in. We adjusted our sails for the new wind and
made our way to the finish. Sometimes, good things happen to you and you just
have to accept it!
At the finish it was Tusitala 31:20, Avatar 31:30, PAD
32:57, Perfect 36 33:41, Nidaros 33:49, Pacific
Spirit 35:00, Kicks 35:45, Sandpiper 36:08, Toad 37:05, Aeolian 42:29. The length of the course was 1.48 miles.
The race Qs track can be seen at:
PROTEST!
In the normal course of racing, even the best sailors will
make mistakes, break rules and foul other boats. Normally, proficient racers will have a red
flag they must wave (in a timely fashion) and shout PROTEST! If the protested boat does not take a Penalty
turn (or 2 depending on the infraction) the protesting boat files a protest and
both boats end up in a protest hearing.
Both sides present their cases and a decision is made. Either the protested boat is disqualified
from the race or penalized in some fashion or the jury may rule in favor of the
protested boat and their standings are not affected.
For our Tuesday nights, I am sure many of the boats do not
even have a red flag to fly. On Tuesday
nights, if you feel you have been fouled and someone has broken a rule, we will
use the radio (channel 69) to communicate the protest. The dialog would be: “Tuesday night sailors,
boat xyz is protesting boat abc for failing to ??” At this point the boat that broke a rule can
take his penalty turn (there will be no 2 turn penalties on Tuesday nights). If the protested boat thinks he was in the
right and does not take his penalty turn, it will go to a protest hearing. The protest hearings will be held on the last
Tuesday of the month (our barbecue night) and can be witnessed by anyone that
wants to attend. These protest hearings
can be a great educational opportunity for ALL OF US to: 1) see what a protest
hearing is like. 2) learn the rules and 3) since Race QS is our “race
committee” we can learn more about how Race QS can be used. It is critical to learn the rules and follow
them.
Since there is no scoring for our races and penalties have
no consequences, I think it would only be appropriate for the skipper of the
boat that broke the rule (if not absolved by the committee), to buy a round of
drinks for the crew of the fouled boat and for the judges that ruled on the
protest committee.
CLEAN BOTTOMS!
One thing that is critical for race performance is having a
clean bottom on your boat. It would be
expensive and ridiculous to have the bottom cleaned by a diver before each
Tuesday night race. On Pair a Dice I
have used a bottom cleaning device I developed years ago. We clean our bottom before each race with
this device that costs less than $20 to make and maybe 1 hour of time. It will clean the bottom of new growth clear
to bottom of the keel. This device will
do no good if you have a garden growing on the bottom of your boat. If you make one of these devices and use it, I
am sure you will be sailing faster. See
photos, and if you want to inspect the devices, they are on my boat at Dock Q,
space 16.
See you next Tuesday,
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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