SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
FRUSTRATING LIGHT WIND SAILING
Barry’s out of town, helping deliver Merlin from LA to SF, so this week’s blog is written by Doug Mahone. Stefan and the crew on Pair-a-Dice filled in setting this week’s start line and calling the race course. Not surprisingly, nobody has stepped up to take responsibility for the wind (you’ll see why shortly).
This was the night of the encroaching fog bank and the dying winds. The wind forecasts were all over the map, some predicting strong westerlies, some moderate northerlies, some dying southerlies. So they were no help at all. When we left the harbor at 5:30p, we encountered a variable wind of about 8 kts, from the SW generally. Skies were sunny, but the fog bank from the east was fast approaching the start area. There were over 25 boats out for the fun (more than I’ve counted on recent Wednesday evenings), ranging from 52’ to 27’ and everything in between.
Stefan called for a short 1.1 nm course: Start to Mile, finishing there. From the start area, Mile was almost directly upwind, at least part of the time. The start line was set in anticipation of a more southerly breeze developing. As the start time approached, the wind stayed more southwesterly, so the right end of the line was heavily favored. The fog closed in, and we found the wind dying during the last ten minutes before the 1800 start time, so the boats that weren’t close by weren’t able to get to the line by start time. This also prevented a massive pile-up at the right end, with many in the fleet starting late. The common strategy was to try to cross the line on starboard, to have right-of-way, but to quickly tack over to a port tack that allowed one to nearly lay the Mile mark.
There was one near collision between a port tack boat and a starboard tack boat right at the start line. Apparently, a port tack boat didn’t (or couldn’t) tack out of the way, and the starboard tack boat had to do a crash tack to avoid the collision. “Crash tack” is somewhat of a misnomer, because it all developed in very slow motion in the very light air. Apparently there was no actual contact, and certainly no damage, but there almost certainly was a foul by the port tack boat. With all the boats racing on Tuesdays, the possibilities for collisions increase, no matter how spicy the breeze or how slowly the boats are moving.
The moral of the story is that the racing rules still apply in light airs. Everybody needs to anticipate that maneuvering will be difficult or impossible due to very slow boat speeds, and to proactively take evasive action early.
Many of the boats, perhaps 2/3 of the fleet, were positioned toward the left end of the line, well behind the leaders, and slow to start. As the fleet headed up to the Mile buoy finish line, we spread out over a pretty wide area. The winds were shifty and spotty. Some boats were dead in the water while other boats, not 50 yds away, were moving along nicely in their own private puffs. It was slow going, with wind speeds in the 3 kt range, gusting to 5 kts (!!). Boat speeds ranged from 0 kts to perhaps 5 kts by the fast boats in one of the rare puffs. It was a real challenging light wind race.
As the fleet got closer to the Mile buoy, the wind died to nearly zero. Boats were drifting in circles, with no steerage. It was difficult to read wind direction, perhaps because there wasn’t one to read. Boats were trying everything they could think of to gain some speed. One boat even put up their whisker pole, feeling the beginnings of an easterly; it never arrived to any significant degree. At about this point, boats came on the radio to report that they were heading home for some beer. Other boats just turned on their engines and steered for the lighthouse. These defections began at around 40 minutes after the start, and boats hadn’t made the 1.1 nm course distance yet, so average boat speeds were less than 1 kt.
In the end, only four boats actually finished, with approximate elapsed times as shown: Nobody’s Girl 53:04, Sweetheart 55:54, Makani 1:09:11, and Nidaros 1:15:33. Course was 1.1 nm. Given that Nobody’s Girl sailed almost 15 minutes after boats started dropping out, and Nidaros sailed over 35 minutes longer to finish, those were four determined sets of sailors! Or maybe the thought of beers didn’t appeal.
It was a lively evening for Taco Tuesday at the clubhouse. At one point, the Busy Bees almost ran out of fixings. Despite the light airs, everybody had a lovely evening on the water, and all survived to tell the tale. See you all next week.
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1 |
NOBODYS
G |
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2 |
SWEETHEART |
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3 |
MAKANI |
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4 |
NIDAROS |
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