JULY 30, 2019
CLEAN SAILING, CLEAN
BILL OF HEALTH
When I first got to the harbor, my heart sank. The Crow’s Nest flag was so limp, I had to
check twice to see if there was even a flag hanging. After two weeks away, I NEEDED a good
sail. The prospects did not look
good. As we left the harbor there was an
easterly filling in with enough wind to have some fun. We set the mark and called for course B4. I knew with the fluky wind, there was a
possibility I would have to shorten course.
On Pair A Dice, we thought we would set up to start down the
line a bit for clear air. As we timed our start, the wind died and we were late
to cross the line. Aquavie, Kicks and
Perfect 36 had excellent starts! The
beat to Blacks was short and sweet with Sagitarius, Aquavie, Perfect 36 and
Nidaros first to round.
The run down to GOV got very interesting as all of the boats
ran into a hole right after rounding Blacks. For about 5 long minutes we all
sat with no movement at all. Finally the
wind started filling in and everyone had to make a decision: Take an outside or
an inside course? It sure looked like
more wind outside and several boats started out, but it seemed like a big area
with no wind was blocking access to it.
With the barbecue waiting and the light wind, I called for a
shortened course to finish at the line between GOV and the end of the wharf. At the finish line it was Nidaros 37:44,
Kicks 40:09, Avatar 42:10, Pair A Dice 43:03, Pacific Spirit 46:10, Aquavie
46:35, Makani 47:33. All times are
elapsed and the course length was 1.46 miles.
After turning the corner at GOV, the wind filled in and we
had a wonderful sail back to the harbor.
It was great to be back to clean sailing with a clean bill of health!
We had a great barbecue at the club with many people
attending. How can you go wrong with
great food and great company?
RACE QS
There were several boats out tonight that did not have Race
QS running. Running Race QS is the only
way we can recognize you on the course.
It is a great (FREE) app that runs on your smart phone that can yield
valuable information about your sailing and boat handling. Drop me an email if you are having problems
using this app. I have even resorted to having two people run tracks on Pair A
Dice in case one track does not upload properly. You MUST use this app to be counted on
Tuesday nights!
The track for
tonights sail is at:
INSIDE OR OUTSIDE?
This is a critical decision in any race with an Easterly
wind blowing and a course running parallel to the beach. You are always looking for where the wind is
the strongest and frequently the Easterly will be stronger toward the
beach. I know, as I was steering I was looking
for patches of more wind on the water and steering toward these small patches
of wind while avoiding the glassy areas on the water.
It is also critical
to observe which way the current is going.
You can tell this by the way the kelp is streaming. If it is all streaming the same way, this
indicates a strong current. I would
estimate on this night that there was a 1 knot current closer to shore sweeping
toward the wharf. With all of the kelp streaming one way, it is usually easier
to pick a path through a kelp bed without picking up kelp hitch-hikers.
We will see you out there next Tuesday!
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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