MAY 24, 2022
STEADY EASTERLY
Wind predictions for this evening were dismal predicting 8
knot winds decreasing to 2 knots through the evening. When I got to the harbor, a mild Easterly
wind was showing on the flags. Would the
wind decrease at 6pm like normal or would it hold? As we left the harbor at about 5:25, there
seemed to be a consistent wind across the bay.
The direction was from 90 degrees and we set a line square to this. We delayed calling a course for a bit, waiting
to see if the wind would die as usual. With
the wind not dying, we called for course E4 and blew a 5 minute horn. For boats that wanted to sail a longer course
I added a leg to round Gov again.
Once again, we had a long line and about 22 boats out for
the fun with a clean start as everyone tacked their way to the first mark:
Blacks. With this many boats, the
challenge is to find clear, unobstructed air and several boats tacked to port
right after the start in this endeavor. Good
Timin’ did a port tack start from the beach end and made their way through the
whole fleet and did well with this tactic. At Blacks, the first around was Aboriginal
followed by Sweetheart, Watts Moore, Jersey Girl, Good Timin, New Wave, Avatar,
Sanctuaire, Big Mac, Perfect 36, Zoop, Geronimo, Toad, Patricia J, Pacific
Spirit, Pair A Dice, Kicks, Sweet Pea and Sea Quake.
On the long slow run to Gov, boats spread out across the bay
inching their way toward the mark. There was a current sweeping all boats
toward Gov and some boats sailed further inside to take advantage of this
current. Though the run to Gov was very
slow, we had more wind than last week.
At Gov the first around was Aboriginal followed by Watts Moore,
Sweetheart, Jersey Girl, New Wave, Avatar, Good Timin’, Zoop, Big Mac, Perfect
36, Sanctuaire, Patricia J, Pair A Dice, Pacific Spirit, Toad, Kicks, Sweet
Pea, Sea Quake and Geronimo.
After rounding the leeward mark and turning up into the
wind, the apparent wind increased and it felt like we were sailing again. Boats
spread out across the bay employing
different strategies. At the finish Aboriginal was first 46:55, followed by New
Wave 54:19, Avatar 55:50, Good Timin’ 58:16, Jersey Girl 58:43, Zoop 1:01:53,
Perfect 36 1:02:13, Patricia J 1:02:13, Sanctuaire 1:03:46, Wind II 1:04:17,
Big Mac 1:05:54, Pacific Spirit 1:07:52, Pair A Dice 1:08:09, Toad 1:09:10,
Kicks 1:13:24, Sweet Pea 1:14:25 and Sea Quake 1:16:03. All times are elapsed and the course distance
was 2.72 miles.
It was a beautiful evening for a sail. It was great to finally have a steady
Easterly wind.
PHRF CORRECTED RESULTS:
PLACE BOAT CORRECTED SECONDS HIGH SCORE
1 ABORIGINAL 2725 17
2 NEW WAVE 2989 16
3 AVATAR 2990 15
4 GOOD TIMIN’ 3112 14
5 JERSEY
GIRL 3139 13
6 WIND II 3277 12
7 ZOOP 3321 11
8 PERFECT
36 3341 10
9 BIG MAC 3350 9
10 PATRICIA J 3470 8
11 SANCTUAIRE 3515 7
12 SAILING
PAIR A DICE 3599 6
13 PACIFIC
SPIRIT 3631 5
14 TOAD 3742 4
15 KICKS 3914 3
16 SWEET PEA 4016 2
17 SEA QUAKE 4076 1
Though Watts Moore, Sweetheart and Geronimo sailed great races, they did not cross the finish line, so
finishing time could not be determined.
 |
| PHOTO CREDITS: IRIS SHIELDS ON SEA QUAKE |
It is critical to use this app! It is the only way to be counted in our
Tuesday evening sails. I like to preset
the start for 5:45 (17:45) and I plug the phone in so it does not lose its
charge. It is also critical to upload your track after the race is
completed. The track for this evening
can be found at:
LONG COURSE /
SHORT COURSE:
We have been
exploring options on splitting the fleet, but problems come up when offering
different courses. Different courses
result in boats rounding marks in opposite directions which is a recipe for
disaster. The best resolution for this
problem is to add a leg to the regular course for the boats that want to sail a
longer course. Depending on conditions,
the extra leg could be: Blacks and back, Mile buoy and back or finish at Mile,
Schuylers and back or finish at Schuyler or Gov and back or finish at Gov. If
finishing at Mile, Schuyler or Gov, the finish line would be an extension of
jetty lighthouse through Mile or an extension of the end of wharf through
Schuyler or the line from the wharf end to Gov.
It is impossible to predict conditions for the end of the regular race
ahead of time so I think it is appropriate to have the first boat that finishes
the regular race announce on channel 69 what the extended leg will be: Blacks,
Mile, Schuyler or Gov and whether the extension is one way or there and back to
finish.
On this Tuesday
I had called for another loop around Gov for the long course, but Aboriginal
extended the course and sailed around Blacks and back rather than to Gov and
back. This made perfect sense with the current conditions at the end of the
regular race.
WHAT FINISH LINE?
An unusual
thing about Tuesday sailing is the finish line.
To lend order to the start, I set the red ball to establish a start
line. Normally a start line is used as a
finish line, but this is not the case for Tuesday sails. Since I remove the red ball when I have
completed the race and a few boats finish behind me, we DO NOT use the start
line as the finish line. The finish line
is an extension of the line from the jetty lighthouse through the yellow start
buoy. This makes it easy to sight the
line and know that you have finished correctly.
Unfortunately, we had several boats on this evening that finished on the
start line and did not round the start mark.
It is not possible to estimate a proper finish time unless the finish
line is crossed. The correct rounding for
each course for the finish is designated on the course card.
USING RACE QS
AS A LEARNING TOOL:
I am a big proponent
of using Race QS to learn how to improve sailing. A sail like this evening’s can reveal a lot
of information. Aside from the usual
Race QS information, such as VMG, SOG, angle of heel and how efficient your
tacks are, you can analyze how well different strategies work. While we have a
diverse group of boats participating in our races, choosing two similar boats
to analyze strategy can be revealing. On
this evening, two Santa Cruz 27’s were battling it out. Jersey Girl rounded Blacks ahead of Good
Timin’ and was even further ahead at Gov.
On the return to the finish, Good Timin’ crossed the finish line 27
seconds ahead of Jersey Girl. What were
the strategies and tactics used to accomplish this? Looking
at the track, the two boats were very close until they rounded Gov. Right after
rounding Gov, Good Timin’ tacked over into clear wind while Jersey Girl continued
for about 30 seconds blanketed by some other boats. This is where Good Timin’ got their
lead. These are two excellent sailors,
and it doesn’t take a major error to give up a lead with sailors such as these.
We will see
you next Tuesday!
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair
A Dice
Good analysis Barry!
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