7/20/21 FRUSTRATING LIGHT WIND EVENING

JULY 20,2021 FRUSTRATING LIGHT WIND EVENING THANK YOU DOUGLAS MAHONE FOR YOUR EXCELLENT REPORT! BARRY This was another Tuesday evening of highly uncertain wind. About a fourteen boats were out for the racing on a mild, sunny evening. As the time for the 5 minute warning approached, Stefan (filling in for Barry) called a simple course to Blacks and back, twice, based on the light easterly that was blowing. Then it appeared that a westerly was filling in so, after aa short postponement, a new course to Mile and back was called. Then the easterly re-appeared, so the final course call was Start, Blacks, Finish. We didn’t actually start racing until 18:17. The start was exciting, at least on the left end of the line, with six boats closely bunched at the start buoy. The rest of the fleet were mostly bunched at the right end, with several boats caught late to the line. The breeze was light, in the 4-6 kt range, so all the excitement was in slow motion. Despite the slo mo bunching, there were no collisions and little shouting, even when boats were inches apart. It was one of those starts when you don’t want to be far from the line, because you may not have enough breeze to get back and start on time. The upwind leg to Blacks continued the slow motion competition. Several boats headed for the beach, which proved a good strategy in the light easterly, although a couple of boats stayed toward the middle of the course and did reasonably well. There was, unfortunately, some after race complaining about port tack boats not yielding to starboard tack boats; these are fun races, but part of their purpose is to learn to race by the rules. The rounding order at Blacks was: Avatar, Geronimo, Zoop, Nidaro, Kasatka, Makani, Dice, P36. About the time the fleet was getting to Blacks, the wind really became squirrly, at times dropping nearly to zero knots and shifting from easterly to southerly and back, with lots of dead holes. Again, the boats that left Blacks and headed to the beach seemed to do slightly better. There were times when some boats were dead in the water while other boats nearby were moving quite nicely. Some gnashing of teeth could be heard. It was a short leg, but there were several changes in position. At this point, boats started dropping out and heading for home. The finishing order and elapsed times were: Geronimo 38:10, Nidaro 39:34, Zoop 40:35, Avatar 41:55, Makani 51:07, Dice 53:13, Good Timin’ 57:42. The course length was 0.6 nm. As we keep noting, all boats are highly encouraged to record their tracks and times on RaceQs. There were eleven boats that recorded starts, and seven that recorded their finishes. I know that there were several other boats out for the race, but we have no record of their participation or position in the fleet. This is too bad, because there’s always something interesting to learn from other racers. Also, several of the boats have left incomplete descriptions of their boats in RaceQs (e.g., type of boat, skipper, PHRF rating). The rating has not traditionally been requested, because we usually were just racing for finish position. But as the fleet becomes more diverse in terms of boat types and speeds, the PHRF rating becomes an interesting way to compare your boat’s performance to others. Often, a slower boat will actually beat out a faster boat on corrected time (or not), so the corrected times offer a way to level the playing field, so to speak. If your PHRF is known but not entered for your boat in RaceQs, you are encouraged to add that piece of information. The RaceQs track for this evening’s race can be found at: https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1066813&updatedAt=2021-07-21T02:44:46Z&dt=2021-07-20T17:50:02-07:00..2021-07-20T19:44:18-07:00&boat=Avatar&model=Express27&time=1626830047607&focus=Dice&rival=P36&tab=setup&view=follow&lat=36.948878&lon=-121.994417&tilt=1&range=183&heading=147 Tuesdays after the races feature Taco Tuesday at the club. And, of course, the bar is serving. Next Tuesday, however, is the last Tuesday of the month. That means we revert to our “bring your own dinner to grill and something to share” format at the clubhouse. Hope to see you all then.