TUESDAY MARCH 16,
2021
FIRST TUESDAY NIGHT
SAIL OF THE SEASON
What a great start for the season! It was sunny with 15 to 17 knots of
wind. Since it was early in the season,
we had no start mark so had to improvise and start at Gov. The wind, as is customary for Santa Cruz was
from 240 degrees. We set the mark square
to the wind but we did not anticipate that 13 boats would be sailing and the
line was a little short for this many boats. We are a little rusty but getting
up to speed! We called for a course:
start to Schuyler, Mile with finish line being between Gov and end of the
wharf. We blew the five minute horn and
set up for our start.
With the line so short and so many boats, the start was very
exciting and PAD ended up in bad air for most of the first leg. We wanted to tack over for clear air, but
could not get a clear path without ducking multiple boats. We watched with envy as Avatar tacked and
successfully found a clear path to clean air. At Schuyler, the first around was
Geronimo followed by New Wave, Pacific Spirit, Tusitala, Avatar, PAD and Kicks.
The run to Mile was nice, but there was no change in order
of boats rounding. At the finish line
Geronimo was first with 24:27, New Wave 25:23, Tusitala 25:46, Pacific Spirit
25:59, Avatar 26:37, Pair A Dice 28:26 and Kicks 30:31. Times are elapsed and length of course was
2.61 miles.
After an exhausting winter with Covid, harbor shoaling and
social distancing, it was great to see everyone out sailing again! Welcome back Kicks and crew who took a “Covid
Break” from sailing last year. It was a
beautiful evening and an awesome start for the season!
RACE QS:
About one half of the boats used this app tonight. Using Race QS is the only way to be counted
and to see how you did in the race.
The track for this night can be found at: https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011017&updatedAt=2021-03-17T02:21:41Z&dt=2021-03-16T17:45:11-07:00..2021-03-16T19:21:20-07:00&boat=SAILING%20PAIR%20A%20DICE&time=1615944751714&focus=SAILING%20PAIR%20A%20DICE&rival=Avatar&tab=setup&view=follow&lat=36.955929&lon=-122.010872&tilt=39&range=893&heading=19
SENSITIVITY:
I have always had problems with lack of sensitivity. Not on a personal basis, but in determining differences between this and that. When I surfed, my idea of adjusting a fin was to move it from the front of the fin box to the back, while sensitive surfers would adjust by ¼ inch. I find I also lack sensitivity while sailing. I have problems adjusting sail trim for maximum effect. One of my crew members is able to immediately “sense” that things are immediately perfect with a minor change in trim. Winning sailboat races is all about doing everything exactly right. Trimming the main: traveler position, mainsheet, vang, outhaul, Cunningham all must be just right. Complicating this is the fact that adjusting one of these often will requires readjusting another. Knowing how to read telltales is crucial but knowing which adjustment to make to get the telltales right is the secret! To make up for lack of sensitivity, I will monitor boat speed as adjustments are made to hone in on the best setting. Of course, while doing this, you must watch the wind speed changes.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
As Barry noted, the line was short by about 10 seconds. It looked like some aggressive sailing at the start. Would just like to point out that even though the rules we are learning allow certain things, it may be in the interest of development to show a little mercy to competitors. This, so they are not scared away from competing or lead to think they are obligated to be as aggressive as possible. Let's have fun out there!
ReplyDelete