Question for the night: where’s the wind? As we left the harbor, there was a lovely 6 kt easterly blowing. Seas were moderate, skies were sunny and warm. I didn’t get a count of the fleet, but 16 boats recorded tracks on RaceQs. The start line was set nicely perpendicular to the wind, so neither end was strongly favored.
As boats were preparing to start the countdown sequence, we were not surprised to find the wind dying to nearly zero. As we bobbed around, looking for a breeze, Stefan declared ten minutes of Start delay. He also called for course B5, which caused some confusion as there is no such course. When someone asked if he meant course E5, he admitted that B5 is found on an outdated course card, and that he did, indeed, mean E5: Start, Blacks, round Start, Blacks again, and Finish. With the course straightened out, we all got back to planning our strategies.
This was a two division start, with the A fleet starting 5 minutes after the warning, and the B fleet starting 5 minutes later (10 minutes after the warning). 10 boats choose to join the A fleet, and 6 boats joined the B fleet. This arrangement seemed to work well, with a bunch of big, fast boats in A, and most of the cruising type boats choosing B. By 6:00p, the easterly had returned, so the warning horn was sounded, and the races began in earnest. Fortunately, this returning easterly held throughout the race, and at one point it piped up to 12 kts.
The A division start saw 5 boats close together at the right end of the line, with the other 5 spread out along the rest of the line. They all headed toward the beach on starboard tacks, and as we approached the kelp, boats tacked over one by one to port as the opportunity to find gaps between the starboard boats opened up.
The first boats arrived at Blacks soon after the start, because it’s less than a half mile upwind, and there were some close and exciting roundings, but I didn’t observe any collisions. The rounding order for the A fleet was: Pacific High, Avatar, Watts Moore, Sweetheart, Sanctuaire, Tusitala, New Wave, Pair-a-Dice, Sagittarius, and Big Mac. For the B fleet, it was Toad, Makani, Kicks, Natorius and Pacific Spirit. Zoop was racing, but didn't show up on the RaceQs tracks or results.
The short downwind back to the Start was mostly a race between whisker poles vs. downwind jibing. There were few changes in position, largely because there wasn’t a lot of time. By this point, the breeze was a nice 10-12 kts, still from the east. The fleet has spread out some by the second rounding of Blacks.
The run back to the Finish was a quick rerun of the first downwind leg, with close finishes throughout the fleet. The A fleet finish order and elapsed times: Pacific High 27:33, Sweetheart 27:42, Avatar 27:46, Watts Moore 27:56, Tusitala 28:28, Sanctuaire 28:44, New Wave 29:33, Pair-a-Dice 30:42, Sagittarius 30:52, and Big Mac 32:42. The B fleet was a bit more spread out. Finish order and elapsed times were: Makani 31:20, Toad 31:27, Pacific Spirit 34:38, Kicks 34:46, and Natorious 37:24.
Corrected times, per RaceQs:
A fleet: Pacific High N/A, Watts Moore 23:50, Avatar 24:11, Sanctuaire 25:36, Tusitala 25:47, Pair-a-Dice 25:48, Big Mac 26:36, New Wave 26:48, Sagittarius 27:39, and Sweetheart 28:06. RaceQs track for A Fleet: https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.
B fleet:: Makani 27:20, Toad 27:27, Kicks 29:52, Pacific Spirit 30:12, and Natorious 32:29. RaceQs track for B Fleet: https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.
The entire race was less than 30 minutes for the leaders. But those were fun minutes for all the sailors.
The Tuesday races in the summer present a lot of evenings of variable winds, as we had this week. Some of the key strategies I have found useful in these conditions are based on the fact that the courses are usually very short, in case the wind disappears completely:
- Stay close to the start line, so you don’t get becalmed with no way to start
- Starting on time and in clear air is especially important, because there’s little time to make up for a bad start
- Knowing where the breeze is likely to show up depends on local knowledge. It can be smart to watch what the old hands do (and don’t do), and to ask other sailors what they did that worked well in any particular evening. But keeping a sharp lookout for changing breezes can trump the conventional wisdom on any given night.
- Keep it light and fun, even if you’re super competitive. For example:
Joke of the week:
Skipper 1: I’m going to protest you for this race.
Skipper 2: Oh no! What did I do??!
Skipper 1: You didn’t wait for me.
Hope to see you all out next week.
Doug.
Douglas Mahone
doug@dmahone.com
(916) 541-6607
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS:
PLACE BOAT ELAPSED TIME ADJUSTED
SECONDS HIGH SCORE
FLEET A:
1 WATTS
MOORE 27:53 1421 10
2 AVATAR 27:44 1442 9
3 PACIFIC
HIGH 27:27 1490 8
4 SANCTUAIRE 28:41 1529 7
5 PAIR A
DICE 30:41 1538 6
6 TUSITALA 28:23 1551 5
7 BIG MAC 32:34 1581 4
8 NEW WAVE 29:29 1602 3
9 SAGITTARIUS 30:49 1647 2
10 SWEETHEART 27:40 1670 1
FLEET B:
1 MAKANI 31:18 1631 6
2 TOAD 31:25 1633 5
3 KICKS 34:43 1780 4
4 PACIFIC
SPIRIT 34:32 1799 3
5 WINN II 35:58 1800 2
6 SEA
QUAKE 37:21 1940 1
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