NOVEMBER 19, 2020: CAPTAIN JOSEPH RODGERS

                                   

                                                        CAPTAIN JOSEPH RODGERS

Santa Cruz has a diverse sailing culture.    We have people that see the boats on the water and wonder what it would like to be out there.  The other end of the spectrum are the people in Santa Cruz that are some of the best sailors in the world.  I would classify Joe Rodgers as being in this class.

While Joe was a superior sailor, I did not sense the “racing passion” many sailors have.  This did not detract from his immense sailing knowledge.  Joe was a surveyor of boats.  If you were purchasing a boat, you needed Joe in your corner to ascertain the true value of a vessel.  Joe was an sailing instructor for Pacific Yachting and served a valuable service introducing future sailors to the wonders of sailing.

I didn’t get to know Joe until I got a slip on Q dock where Joes boat “Tessa” was about 4 slips down the dock from mine.  Being an avid sailor, it seems Joe was always at his boat working on it (aren’t we all always working on our boats?)  It seems like there were many times we were both on Q dock working, talking and getting to know each other.  The better you got to know Joe, the more you liked him.  

It was known that Joe was having “health issues” but he never talked much about these issues.  As a Pharmacist, I would comment on his medicines and side effects when he would ask.  He dealt with these health issues in the typical Joe way; never getting angry or begging for sympathy.  It was just a fact he seemed to deal with on his own.  

When his health was ebbing, you would see a for sale sign on his boat.  Then the sign would disappear when he was better.  Finally, he sold his Tessa to Matt and Tosh but Joe was not done with Tessa. He would come to the boat frequently to help and to teach the new owners about Tessa.  Over the last 6 months, Joe’s visits to Q dock got less frequent.  The reports from Matt were not encouraging.

I did not hear about Joe’s demise until I was on vacation and got an email from a club member about a sail out in his honor. I was very disappointed that I could not participate in this sail out.  Joe was so loved and respected by everyone that knew him!   I understand the sail out was well attended and it was a beautiful day. 

With respect and sorrow: Captain Joseph Rodgers  : R.I.P. and FAIR WINDS!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

     

https://scmemorial.com/tribute/details/2232/Joseph-Rodgers-III/obituary.html                

NOVEMBER 10, 2020: TUESDAY AFTERNOON SAILING FROM A DISTANCE

 

			Douglas Mahone

This was the day of the sunny, lovely, flat conditions.  Perfect for a fun day of racing.  There were nine boats out, ranging from a 42’ Jeanneau (Aquavit) to a single handed Finn dinghy.  That’s a great turnout for a work day.  Stefan was filling in for Barry (traveling out of state) on Pair-a-Dice to set up the race. The start was called on time, with the warning at 1:55p and the actual start at 2:00p.  The course was W3: Start, Schuyler, Blacks, Finish. Winds were steady out of the west at about 10 kts.

 

The start was exciting at the left end.  Two boats were on time on starboard tacks near the start mark, when a third boat tried to sail in on port and then tack over to join the parade.  Unfortunately, they were too close to the mark and instead got in irons, blocking the start.  There was a lot of shouting of “starboard”, and apparently a couple of near collisions as the two starboard tack boats had to push up to avoid the stalled out boat on the line.  I was a bit farther to the right, with clear sailing, but my jib blocked the kerfluffle so I may not have a fully accurate description of the situation.  But it appeared that the third boat was barging on boats that had clear starboard tack right-of-way, and further exacerbated the problems by stalling out in irons nearly in front of the others just before start time.  It didn’t appear that there were any collisions, but the downwind of the two starboard boats thought that they fouled the upwind boat, and so did a penalty turn.  The other boats started further down the line without apparent incident, and the race was on.

 

The upwind leg to Schuyler was a lovely sail in a good breeze, and some fairly earnest competition.  Avatar was able to slowly expand its lead, with Pair-a-Dice, Tusitala and Aquavit all being pretty competitive with each other.  Farther back, Nidaros, Toad and Muffin were having their own pretty good race.  At the upwind mark, Avatar rounded first, followed by Tusitala, Dice and Aquavit  in close order. Then came Nidaros, Muffin and Toad.

 

For the downwind run to Blacks, the excitement was between the closely packed Dice, Aquavit and Tusitala. Aquavit was messing with Dice, interfering with their wind, while Tusitala stayed close but clear, with Nidaro in close pursuit.  Nearly everybody had their whisker poles winging out their jibs, and were making good time.  At the Blacks mark, however, nobody had changed position.  From RaceQs, it appears that Nidaro hit the mark, because they did a 360 turn after rounding, and lost some ground.

 

The short final tack back to the Finish had a few interesting moments.  The two big boats positioned themselves upwind of Dice, which may have slowed her down.  Tusitala held on to their lead at the finish, but Aquavit managed to sail over Dice to finish second.  Dice had some gear problems with their jib just before the finish, which lost them some ground.  Meanwhile, Nidaros was nearly caught by Toad and Muffin, who finished close behind.

 

The final results, this time displayed as corrected time, were Avatar 40:48, Dice 45:39, Tusitala 47:39, Aquavit 48:55, Nidaros 51:03, Toad 51:04, and Muffin (no time due to missing PHRF rating). 

 

Sadly, we can’t report on the other boats because they didn’t record a RaceQs track. We really encourage everybody to download that app on their smartphones (only need one per boat).  It’s really instructive to replay the races on the RaceQs website, compare yourself to other boats, and learn.  Here’s a link to the replay from this week:  https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1066813&divisionId=68698&updatedAt=2020-11-10T23:24:52Z&dt=2020-11-10T13:40:02-08:00..2020-11-10T15:24:51-08:00&boat=Avatar&model=Express27&time=1605049222020&focus=Avatar&rival=Dice&tab=fleet&view=follow&lat=36.955291&lon=-121.995461&tilt=34&range=947&heading=250

 

As those who joined in on these first two races of the post-season know, Tuesday afternoon racing can be really enjoyable.  Pass the word to the other boats, and maybe we can get more sailors involved.

 

Doug.

 

Douglas Mahone

Thanks Doug for writing up this recap since I was in Hawaii on Vacation.

Barry Keeler

NOVEMBER 3, 2020: ELECT TO SAIL!

 

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

ELECT TO SAIL!

After getting skunked with no wind for the last two Tuesday evening sails, it was great to see at least 10 knots of wind as we left the harbor right after 1pm.  The wind certainly felt like it had a lot of south in it and as we approached the start area, we took a reading on wind direction.  Sure enough, the wind was coming from 200 degrees.  We set a mark for the start line.  I called for an impromptu course to take into account the more southerly wind:  Start line to SC7, Mile and finish at start mark.  This seemed to be the right length of course for 11 knot winds.  We were set for a 2pm start but some boats needed more time to get to the line so we set up for a 2:10 start and blew the five minute horn at 2:05.  Had seven boats out for the fun.

Setting up for our start, the wind seemed to be getting lighter but still enough to race.  All boats started on starboard tack to get out to greater wind and greater wind is what we got.  Soon we were all sailing in winds greater than 15 knots. 

At the finish it was Aquavie 32:14, Avatar 34:00, Pair a Dice 36:03, Nidaros 39:32 and Toad 42:14. The length of the course was 2.69NM.

Race QS:

The track for this sail can be seen at:  https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011017&updatedAt=2020-11-03T23:33:05Z&dt=2020-11-03T13:45:01-08:00..2020-11-03T15:33:00-08:00&boat=Pairadice&time=1604443934015&focus=Pairadice&rival=Avatar&tab=setup&view=manual&lat=36.949926&lon=-121.992612&tilt=8&range=250&heading=134

TUESDAY NIGHT SAILING:

We got off to a good start with 7 boats participating.  It seems like a 2pm start will work well, with enough time for a race even as the sun sets earlier and earlier until 12/21.  Please note that the 5 minute horn will be blown at 1:55. 

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice