FEBRUARY 1, 2022
WIND BOMBS ON THE BAY
With all predictions indicating strong wind for this
afternoon, Q dock was active with people swapping out their large “light wind”
jibs for their smaller jibs for the greater wind. Even as we were working on sail change at the
dock, you could tell the wind was not consistent as there were lulls and puffs
cycling through the harbor.
As we left the harbor at about 3:25 you could see the puffs
of wind hitting the water with glassy areas of very light wind evenly dispersed
across the bay. It was intimidating to
see a heavily reefed boat out in the bay heeled way over as it dealt with one
of the puffs. As we approached the start
mark area we determined that the wind direction was about 350 degrees and set
up a line square to the wind. I decided
a course of start line to GOV, Mile and the finish at the “finish stick” to
port. With this course, the one drawback
was that the port end of the line was incredibly favored.
At the start, Pacific Spirit nailed the port end of the line
right on time with Pair A Dice right behind. Aquavit also had a great
start. It was challenging as we all
sailed toward Gov, trying to negotiate between the very light wind areas and the
strong puffs. At one point Aquavit got
“knocked” by a header and wisely tacked to take advantage of it. At Gov, the first around was Aquavit followed
by PAD, Pacific Spirit, Avatar, Perfect 36, Kicks, Sea Quake and Nidaros. The last 3 boats around Gov were dealing with
a lull in the wind which can be very challenging. You need a moving boat to round a mark.
On the reach to Mile, most boats set their whisker
pole. At Mile, Aquavit was once again
first around followed by Avatar, PAD, Pacific Spirit, Perfect 36, Nidaros, Sea
Quake and Kicks. On the way to the
finish line, we all experienced several light wind areas which resulted in
painfully slow sailing.
At the finish, it was Aquavit 39:15, Avatar 42:36, Pair A
Dice 45:50, Pacific Spirit 46:31, Perfect 36 48:22, Nidaros 54:01, Sea Quake
57:44 and Kicks 58:40. Times are elapsed
the course distance was 3.15NM.
After our experiences with very light wind through the
winter, it was exhilarating to actually experience strong winds even if it was
not consistent with the puffs feeling like wind bombs on the bay.
PHRF adjusted times are as follows:
|
ADJ SEC |
ADJ PLACE |
|
|
2093.55 |
AQUAVIT |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
2140.2 |
AVATAR |
2 |
|
2183 |
SAILING
PAIR A DICE 3 |
|
|
2280.7 |
PACIFIC
SPIRIT4 |
|
|
2448.4 |
THE
PERFECT 36 5 |
|
|
2881.9 |
NIDAROS
II 6 |
|
|
2900.15 |
SEAQUAKE 7 |
|
|
2953 |
KICKS |
8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
| FIRST TWO BOATS AROUND GOV |
 |
| ALL 8 BOATS IN ONE PHOTO |
The tracks for tonight can be found at:
SAILING IN
INCONSISTENT WIND:
When racing,
you will find that maintaining your boat at a consistent angle of heel results
in more efficient sailing. Think of the energy it takes to push and heel your
boat way over and the disturbance in the
wind that flows over the foils (sails) that pull the boat forward. There are two ways to keep the boat at the
same angle of heel when hit with gusts:
Travel the mainsail down or head up, using the extra wind as a
lift. The strategy used depends on
whether you can use a lift to round the next mark.
I observed
tonight that the longer boats with taller masts seemed to have a more
consistent boat speed while the smaller boats seemed to be more affected by the
lulls. We all know there are times when
there is more wind up higher, and sometimes this higher wind does not hit the
water creating glassy water and the lull.
So how can you use this information other than buying a larger
boat? My theory is that more attention
should be paid to sail trim in the upper part of your sail to take advantage of
this higher wind. I am guilty of
concentrating on the lower tell-tales for steering, but it may be better to
keep looking up while in a lull! Time to
appeal to a “Higher Power”.
See you next
Tuesday for a 4:00 start.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair
A Dice
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