AUGUST 6, 2019: BRAVO ONE

AUGUST 6, 2019

BRAVO ONE! 

    

As I left my house in Aptos around 3 o’clock, I noticed a fairly strong Southerly wind which should equate to an Easterly on the ocean.  I was a little surprised to see a northwesterly when I got to the harbor around 4pm.  Within a half hour the northwesterly was dead and I could see the wind change to north and then easterly.  By the time we left the harbor around 5:20, the Easterly was very apparent on the water.  We were going to have a great sail!

We set the red mark to establish the start line and called for course Bravo 1.  Bravo one is the longest course for Easterly breeze, but it appeared that the wind would would not fade.  We blew the five minute horn and set up for our start.  There were 16 boats out for the fun.

Since the first mark (Blacks) was to be rounded to starboard, we planned to start halfway down the line trying to have clear wind.  As it turned out we were a little late to the line and ended up starting right at the start mark in about third row behind many boats.  We trimmed our sails and were able to sail a little higher than the other boats to get clear wind.

There were quite a few boats rounding Blacks simultaneously, without incident! It is great sailing with a bunch of boats, everyone observing the rules.  Then it was off toward Mile buoy with the waves right on our bow.  On Pair a Dice, we ran off wind further from the pack for three reasons: to get clear air, deploy our whisker pole to our advantage AND to take the waves at an angle so they would not slam into our hull and stop us.  We gained on several boats using this strategy.

After another very crowded rounding at Mile, we all surfed our way toward GOV.  Some of the boats seemed to catch better wind and extended their lead. After GOV, once again the decision was whether to stay inside or go outside for the beat back to the finish line? At the finish, it was Tusitala 47:59, Pacific Spirit 49:22, Patricia J 49:39, Perfect 36 51:34, Makani 52:21, Pair A Dice 52:42, Nidaros 53:36, Aeolian 55:41 and Kicks 56:41.  All times are elapsed and the course length was 4.03 miles.  There were several boats that were way out in front (Yellow Belly, Auquavie and others) but without Race QS tracks, I could not ascertain their finish time.

It was a great night for sailing, with the wind holding up for the whole evening.  A great night for Bravo 1!  We had a great turnout at Crow’s Nest with awesome discussions about sailing!

Race QS:

This is a free app that you can download on your smart phone and is the only way we can recognize your excellent sailing and your position in the race.

There is a lot of information you can get from this app. Here is an example of the information on a tack that was done tonight that I would consider to be the perfect tack.  Note these aspects of this tack;  

Time lost: 0 recovery times:0 Duration 14 seconds, Min SOG and VMG 2.6 and 2.2 oversteering 0 and tacking angle 93 degrees.  I have not seen a tack better than this, pure textbook! Congrats to Stuart and team on Makani for an excellent tack!

The track for tonight is available at:

https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011017&divisionId=60868&updatedAt=2019-08-07T05:51:40Z&dt=2019-08-06T17:45:00-07:00..2019-08-06T22:43:49-07:00&boat=Pair%20a%20dice&time=1565143001523&focus=Pair%20a%20dice&rival=Makani&tab=match&view=follow&lat=36.953970&lon=-121.993126&tilt=1&range=693&heading=74

DEALING WITH WAVES:

Waves can be very frustrating to deal with.  If they are straight on your bow, each wave will slow your boat down if sailing upwind.  I have found it best to crack off a bit so the boat can glide up over the waves at an angle which allows the boat to keep it’s speed up.  Going down wind and down waves can be very exhilarating if you know how to surf the waves.

GOING TO WEATHER:

Studying the Race QS track for tonight, I really learned something about the importance of attaining clear air.  After rounding Gov, Pair a Dice tried to sail a course as close as possible to the wind, even though we were getting bad air from a boat that was to windward of us. Makani, which rounded Gov right behind us, immediately sailed out until they had clear air and extended out for a huge lead on us.  Lesson learned: do whatever you have to do to get clean air!

BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS (BBBS):

This is always a fun regatta and this year the event will be this Sunday 8/11.  It is a reverse PHRF start or a pursuit race.  This means the slowest boats (with largest PHRF rating) start first.  It is a fun regatta and and a good cause.  Make it if you can!

See you next Tuesday!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice