JUNE 14, 2022
GETTING PREDICTABLE
I arrived at the harbor at about 3 and was encouraged to see
the northwesterly stirring up white caps on the water. Could we actually have enough wind for a race
tonight? At about 4 o’clock the wind had
switched around to an Easterly. As we
exited the harbor at about 5, I was encouraged to see a healthy Easterly across
the bay. We saw as much as 14 knots
apparent at one point. We determined the
wind direction was 100 degrees and set a start line square to this. As we sailed further out from the start area,
we found the wind almost died completely.
The transition zone between the Easterly and the Northwesterly was still
present.
Trying to decide a course, we saw no boats sailing in the
Easterly toward SC3 and thought the transition zone would nix another attempt
to sail Echo 2. Since the Easterly is
usually stronger toward shore, we felt an “inside course” to Gov would be more
stable and called for Echo 4: Start, Blacks, Gov and finish. We blew a 5 minute horn for a single start at
6pm.
We had a clean but crowded start off the line as all boats
charged toward Blacks. The first around
Blacks was Aboriginal followed by Nidaros, Zoop, Frisky, New Wave, Geronimo,
Perfect 36, Pair A Dice, Sanctuaire, Pacific Spirit, Tusitala, Gold Rush, Big
Mac and Sea Quake. After rounding
Blacks, the fleet split with some boats sailing further outside while others
sailed the rhumb line toward Gov. As we
all sailed toward Gov, the wind was, once again, dying off and I shortened
course to finish at the line between the end of the wharf and Gov. All boats crept slowly toward the finish with
some boats giving up and retiring.
The first around Gov to finish was Aboriginal 33:36 followed
by Nidaros 42:43, Double Espresso (formerly Patricia J ) 43:19, Zoop 45:57,
Pair A Dice 50:34, Perfect 36 50:47, Tusitala 52:08, Big Mac 53:14, Pacific
Spirit 54:59 and New Wave 55:05. All times are elapsed and the course length
was 1.72 NM. It was a beautiful, warm
sunny afternoon on the bay, but the healthy Easterly dying halfway through the
race is getting to be too predictable!
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS:
PLACE BOAT NAME ADJUSTED SECONDS HIGH SCORE
1 ABORIGINAL 1957 10
2 NIDAROS 2361 9
3 DOUBLE
ESPRESSO 2428 8
4 ZOOP 2509 7
5 PAIR A
DICE 2724 6
6 PERFECT
36 2799 5
7 BIG MAC 2812 4
8 TUSITALA 2973 3
9 PACIFIC
SPIRIT 3020 2
10 NEW WAVE 3134 1
RACE QS:
The track for tonight can be found at:
OUTSIDE VS
INSIDE:
On this
evening the boats that went outside on the way to Gov fell behind the boats
that sailed inside. On PAD, we knew the
transition zone was present from our earlier sail out there. Another factor that was a huge effect for
this evening was the current, which was much stronger toward the beach. I like to look at the kelp strands to see how
they are flowing indicating the direction of the current as long as the kelp is still attached to the
bottom! In the very light wind, a one
knot current going in the right direction, can offer a huge advantage.
DEALING WITH
WIND SHADOWS:
Dealing with
wind shadows is a huge thing to learn when sailing with larger, faster
boats. You can use the windex on the
windward boat to tell when you will be affected by their bad wind. When the tail of the windex is directed at
your boat, you are getting blanketed.
Keep an eye on this and just before you are affected, fall off to keep
your speed up and increase distance between the boats. Meanwhile keep an eye open for a gap in the
boats that will allow you to tack over the make the mark.
Of course, if
you can execute a perfect start like Nidaros and others did on this night:
right at the start buoy with all boats to leeward, you will not get blanketed!
We will see
you next Tuesday.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair
A Dice
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