OCTOBER 7, 2025 WINTER TUESDAY AFTERNOON SAILING

 

OCTOBER 7,2025

WINTER TUESDAY AFTERNOON SAILING

For  the rest of October, we will start the races at 5pm. A Fleet start time is 4:55 and B Fleet will be 5pm.  After the time change in November, we will start the racing at 3pm (2:55 and 3:00).  We will use this start time until time changes in the spring.

 With Summer sailing, the only issue is: Is there enough wind to race?   Racing in the winter requires paying attention to shoaling, rain, large swells breaking in the harbor entrance and just downright nasty conditions.  Because of these elements of nature, there will be times we need to cancel racing for the day.  There are two ways we will communicate cancellation. We will post an announcement using Regatta Hero.  If you have the app correctly installed on your phone, you will get an announcement.  The second way we will broadcast cancellation is by text messaging to your phone.  We will post announcements of race cancellation before 12 noon on the day of the race.

Every skipper is responsible for the safety of their boat and crew.  There are times when seasoned sailor will go for a sail and sailors with less experience should not sail.  The skipper must decide if they can safely deal with the conditions. 

SHOALING:

Dealing with harbor shoaling is not simple.  It is essential to open the harbor web site and study, print or memorize the most recent harbor soundings printout.  Sometimes the channel can be very narrow and you must know how to “thread the needle” going out and coming in.

SWELL:

Its good to have a surfer on board when reading swells.  Surfers can recognize a set of waves approaching the harbor.   You can wait out a set of waves whether going out or coming into the harbor.  The power of waves can be very dangerous going out or coming in.  Catching a wave and bouncing your boat off of the bottom is NOT a good thing and can lead to an emergency haul out. 

Always pay attention to tides.  You can exit the harbor at high tide with no issues, but if the tide has dropped while you are sailing, the power of the surf can be much stronger.

SPINNAKERS ANYONE?

For the winter sailing, we will convert A Fleet to a spinnaker fleet.  We have always used the PHRF assigned by the PHRF committee for each boat.  This means all spinnaker boats used PHRFs as if they were flying a spinnaker.   With a spinnaker fleet, all boats will be applying their correct PHRF and flying a spinnaker.

I hope to see you out for the Tuesday Afternoon sails through the rest of the winter.

 

Barry Keeler

Sailing  Pair A Dice