SEPTEMBER 1, 2020: LIGHT WIND SAILING

 

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

LIGHT WIND SAILING

I took my dog for a walk at the harbor about noon and the wind was nearly nonexistent.  When I got to the boat about 4pm it looked a little more encouraging with a light wind in the harbor.  As we left the harbor, the ocean was very glassy.  It seemed more wind was in the harbor than on the ocean.  There was a cloud line just outside of the start mark that seemed to be creating a little wind.  At about 5:45 the wind seemed to be building a little filling in from outside near the cloud line.  With such fickle wind, we called for  course Whiskey 4 with the option of shortening course if the wind lightened any more.  We blew the 5 minute horn.

On Pair A Dice, we had detected more wind outside and decided to start closer to the start mark to get outside as quickly as possible.  Most of the boats started closer to the beach end of the line and tacked over early for the tried and true inside track.  Connonball and Pacific Spirit started right at the start mark on port tack and only had to dodge a few boats since most had tacked early heading for the inside.

At Schuyler the first boat around was New Wave followed by Cannonball, Sagittarius, Nidaros, Avatar, Perfect 36, Pair a Dice, Pacific Spirit.   With the wind not filling in completely, I shortened the course to finish at the line between Gov and the end of the wharf.

At the finish, New Wave was first 38:39, Sagittarius 41:54, Cannonball 43:33, Avatar 43:29, Nidaros 43:42, Perfect 36 43:44,  Guenter on his Finn 43:55,
Pair A Dice 51:29, Pacific Spirit57:20.  All times are elapsed and the course length is 2.06 NM.

                                                        GLORIOUS LIGHT WIND SAILING

RACE QS:

One by one, we are getting all of the boats to use this app.  Using Race QS is the only way we can get your finish time.  The track for this night can be found at:  https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011017&updatedAt=2020-09-02T02:18:53Z&dt=2020-09-01T17:45:23-07:00..2020-09-01T19:18:51-07:00&boat=Pairadice&time=1599012218561&focus=Pairadice&rival=The%20Perfect%20Thirty-six&tab=setup&view=manual&lat=36.957224&lon=-122.013241&tilt=49&range=225&heading=5

STRATEGY LESSON:

An axiom followed by top sailors is to “Always sail the longest tack first”.  Is this why boats taking the inside track do better than sailing outside first?   I believe there is another factor in play in Santa Cruz.  On this night, on Pair A Dice, we thought we saw more wind outside so sailed toward this stronger wind. Actually the wind had filled in evenly over the course, so our strategy did not work out as planned.  Taking this tack first had us beating into the waves which slowed us down.  But more importantly, it put us into a stronger adverse current coming down the coast.  How can you determine this? Look at the race QS track!

In this race, I compared our track against Perfect 36 which finished more than 8 minutes in front of us. I employed the function on Race QS that shows the following specifics: VMG, SOG, Drift and the distance between the 2 boats. Right off the line, PAD was slightly ahead of Perfect 36 (P-36) but this lead quickly evaporated as their VMG and SOG was significantly better than PAD.  Of note also was the “Drift Indicator” that showed PAD was being significantly set by an adverse current.  Also by going further out, we exposed ourselves to the stronger current we had to fight once we tacked over toward Schuyler.  Lesson learned: Sailing inside decreases the waves taken on the bow and decreased exposure to the current coming down the coast. Also, once inside the protection of the point, there is less wave action to beat through to get to Schuyler mark. Congratulations to Perfect 36 for a great job showing the way!

Studying this track also drove home another point.  Another axiom used is “don’t sail to the corners” meaning “do not sail on one tack all the way to the layline for the mark” (unless there is a big difference in conditions on different tacks).  Watching the VMG function on Race Qs demonstrates why this is so important. VMG (Velocity Made Good) measures your progress toward the mark.  The VMG decreases more and more as you approach the layline.  If you sailed further than the layline, you could experience negative VMG as you are sailing away from the mark!  Watching the decrease in VMG could help determine the optimal time to tack?  It seems to me that once VMG is less than half of your SOG, it would be best to tack.

BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS:

The BBBS regatta is occurring this Sunday (9/6).  This is always a fun event and not to be missed!  You can register online at SCYC.org under regattas. Be sure to follow the links to register both through Regatta Network and also with the BBBS website.

See you next Tuesday.

 

Barry L. Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice