JUNE 16, 2020: WINDY TUESDAY

WINDY TUESDAY

JUNE 16, 2020

From my house in Aptos, I could see white caps to the horizon.  I knew it was going to be a windy night.  I got to the harbor and it was downright weird, the wind was blowing from the north in the harbor.  As we left the harbor around 5:20, there was a strong northwesterly just off the beach and a strong northerly meeting it.  The start buoy was caught in the transition zone.  We waited until 5:45 before setting the buoy in the northerly breeze in effect at the start buoy.  We called course G2: Start, Gov, Blacks, finish and gave a five minute horn.

Pair A Dice wanted to start on starboard tack at the end of the line toward the beach.  As it turned out we were early and kept stalling and cleared the start mark end of the line just in time.  The wind was very strong, from the North clear to Gov with many headers and lifts along the way.  As it turns out Pair A Dice rounded Gov first with Tusitala right behind us.

On the reach back to Blacks, we stayed closer to shore to take advantage of the stronger north wind.  The further out you sailed, the closer you were to the transition zone and lighter wind.  As we approached Blacks, we had to run DDW wing on wing to round the mark to port.  This also allowed us to keep clear of Tusitala that was rounding the mark ahead of us.

At the finish, it was  Tusitala 32:17   , followed by Pair a Dice 32:23, Avatar 32:57, Sweet Pea (Dusk till Dawn) 41:24, and Sophia 43:53.  All times are elapsed and the distance of the course was 2.45NM.

STRATEGY AND BOAT HANDLING:

This night was similar to a drag race. How fast can you get your boat to go.  As always, a clean bottom helps but strategy and boat handling help also. For strategy, Pair A Dice stayed closer to shore to stay in the stronger north breeze.  Staying closer to shore required pointing higher without losing speed. This was difficult with all of the headers we were going through.  One little trick to point higher is to trim the sails so the rudder is 3 to 5 degrees off center so the trailing edge of the rudder is slightly toward the leeward side of the boat. This creates lift off of the rudder and allows higher pointing.

Another critical party of boat handling is performing an efficient tack.  This requires coordination between skipper and crew, and when done well, can increase your lead.  Race QS is a perfect tool to gauge how efficient your tacks are.  On this night Tusitala was executing tack after tack with zero time loss!  You can see this by looking at the Race QS track, choosing to compare two boats including Tusitala. When a tack is performed a white dot appears with a T in it. Clicking on this dot opens a box with 8 parameters judging how efficient your tack was.

The track for this night can be seen at:  https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011635&divisionId=64847&updatedAt=2020-06-17T02:22:52Z&dt=2020-06-16T17:08:16-07:00..2020-06-16T19:22:41-07:00&boat=Dice&model=J24&time=1592352573786&focus=Dice&rival=Tusitala&tab=fleet&view=follow&lat=36.959245&lon=-122.007605&tilt=70&range=5603&heading=326

THINGS THAT GO KLUNK ON THE BOAT:

Windy nights like this can put any boat through its paces.  On Pair A Dice, right after we entered the stronger wind, we heard a klunk somewhere around the boom.  It happened a few more times emphasizing the need for further inspection at the dock.  When we proceeded to unfurl our headsail, it would only deploy halfway.  We checked everything and finally got it to deploy on the opposite tack.  After the race, we were unable to furl the jib which created a problem for us to retrieve the start line buoy.  Tusitala volunteered to retrieve the buoy (thank you Tusitala), while we dropped our jib and tied it to the deck.

We were not the only boat experiencing problems.  Pacific Spirit had to retire with a broken boom.  Jibes in strong winds are very tricky.  The forces at play are HUGE and if not finessed perfectly can lead to damage. I was not on Pacific Spirit, so I don’t know what happened, but in stronger wind it is critical to have something (mainsheet or traveler) not cleated to bleed off the energy of the jibe.  The energy should be bled off by hand.

I am looking forward to next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice