OCTOBER 17, 2023
PATIENCE IS REWARDED
The wind was already getting light early in the afternoon as
I arrived at the harbor. This was the
first Tuesday of an earlier start (5pm) because of shorter days. As we left the harbor at about 4:15, we were
surprised to see the bay with a steady 8-9 knot Northwesterly breeze. Would the Easterly fill in? There was no fog
in Aptos, which encouraged us to count on the Northwest wind to continue. We still thought that the Easterly would fill
in later and called for Whiskey 4: Start, Schuyler, Gov and finish. We were late in blowing the “10 minute horn”
and blew it 3 minutes late which had A Fleet starting at 4:53 and B Fleet starting at 5:03. As it turned out, the wind on the start line
absolutely died creating a bob-fest as both Fleet A and Fleet B bobbed around
the start line unable to sail or start their race. As the Easterly started to fill in, it was
apparent that Whiskey 4 was too ambitious and I called for a shorter course:
round Gov and finish with the start mark to port. As the wind filled in, boats were able to
sail and complete the shorter course.
It was difficult to separate the fleets because Fleet A and
Fleet B boats rounded GOV together. At
the finish, Watts Moore was the first Fleet A
boat 58:25 followed by, Zoop (the only boat to sail the whole Whiskey 4
course) and still finished near the top 1:15:06, then WIND II 1:06:12, Avatar
1:18:06, Coyote 1:20:09 and Rosie
1:28:40. B Fleet had Perfect 36 first
1:00:44 then Nidaros 1:06:00 then Pair a
Dice 1:06:39, Makani 1:16:39, Blond Ambition 1:17:03, TOAD 1:22:36 and Kicks
1:25:24. Times are elapsed and the course distance for the shorter course was
1.92NM.
While it was a very frustrating start with the wind dying,
it turned into a glorious warm sunny afternoon for a sail in the Easterly wind
that finally filled in. If you don’t like the conditions for sailing in Santa
Cruz, just wait 15 minutes or half an hour! With the wind being dead for so long, I could envision boats
retiring, but most boats stayed out and were
rewarded with a great sail. Sometimes patience
is rewarded.
PHRF ADJUSTED
RESULTS:
PLACE BOAT PHRF ADJUSTED TIME
FLEET A:
1 ZOOP* 144 *
2 WATTS
MOORE 150 53:37
3 WIND
II 213 59:23
4 AVATAR 132 1:13:52
5 COYOTE 86 1:17:23
6 ROSIE 162 1:23:28
FLEET B:
1 PERFECT
36 144 56:07
2 PAIR
A DICE 180 1:00:44
3 NIDAROS 108 1:02:32
4 BLOND
AMBITION 165 1:11:46
5 MAKANI 147 1:11:56
6 TOAD 150 1:17:58
7 (and)
KICKS 180 1:19:38
*Zoop was the only boat that sailed the original course
called for the evening which was 3.1 NM. Still he finished ahead of most of the
boats that sailed the shorter course.
RACE QS:
The track for this evening can be found at:
DEALING WITH
POOR CONDITIONS:
When I called
for the Whiskey 4 course I envisioned everyone sailing the course like Zoop
did, but conditions deteriorated very quickly in the final minutes of the
countdown leaving many boats bobbing in no wind. As usual, the adage of “SAIL TO THE NEW WIND”
comes into play. Zoop was smart enough
to start earlier in Fleet A and caught that last of the Northwesterly and had a
great sail outside. The rest of us
bobbing on the inside needed to sail to the new wind which was an Easterly
which was building inside toward the beach. Boats that took this inside course,
like Perfect 36, continued to increase their lead over boats that tried to sail
directly to GOV.
For the next
two weeks we will start the races at 5pm like we did for this night.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair
A Dice
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