JANUARY 6, 2026 A SURPRISE WIND

 

JANUARY 6, 2026

A SURPRISE WIND

Once again, predictions were for a light breeze and as we left the harbor at about 2 there was a very light breeze.  As we approached the start area, the wind was even less, close to no wind at all.  Preparing for a no-wind situation, we set a temporary mark for a very short course.  We saw the wind was coming from 290 degrees.  As the clock ticked down, the wind was increasing so we called for course S5: Start>Mile>finish at S/F.  It was a beautiful day on the bay with a 10-14 knot breeze.  After a whole week of incessant rain and stormy conditions, we finally had a clear, sunny day for a sail with a surprise wind.

The track for this evening can be reviewed at:

https://www.regattahero.com/mapviewer/?organisation=scyc&passcode=233793&regatta=Tues%20Fleet%20B&race=6.1.2026%2015:00:00&language=en

Jennifer Kinsman photo
BEAUTIFUL BLUE SKY AFTER A WEEK OF RAIN

PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS:  COURSE S5 COURSE LENGTH 1.929NM

PLACE                BOAT                                 PHRF                  ET                         CORRECTED

1            FLEXI FLYER                                  96                         24:43                  21:37

2            AVATAR                                            132                      27:13                  22:58

3            AQUAVIT                                         72                         26:08                  23:49

4            PERFECT 36                                    144                      29:05                  24:27

5            NIDAROS                                        118                      28:31                  24:43

6            SAILING PAIR A DICE                  180                      30:42                  24:54

7            WIND II                                           213                      33:06                  26:15

8            PACIFIC SPIRIT                             165                      31:35                  26:16

 

ZOOP SCOOP BY Paul Tara

OUTRIGGER AMBUSH!

Rule 55.3 says it’s illegal to sheet to an outrigger, which is anything that exerts “outward pressure” beyond the edge of the deck or hull.  Note the word sheet. A few miles from the finish of last month’s Sydney Hobart Race, the overall corrected time leader, a JPK 10.80  (a really cool French 36 footer), rigged with both a short bowsprit and a conventional pole, decided to pole out her asymmetric kite to port, wing on wing. Totally OK, so far. The pole is not an outrigger because the sail is not being “sheeted” to it.(even though the kite is asymmetrical, the clew automatically becomes the new tack, and the sheet automatically becomes an after-guy when the pole goes out). But, simultaneously, the original tack becomes the new clew, which makes the original tack line into, you guessed it, the new sheet, still led to the end of the bowsprit.  Now, a bowsprit or sprit pole is a “hull spar” which does exert outward pressure. You can tack a jib or an asymmetrical to it — no problemo — but not sheet to it. Easy remedies would have been to sail wing on wing without the pole, or lead the tack line (now the sheet) back to the stem-head, thereby eliminating the outward pressure, but they were unaware of 55.3. Unfortunately, you only get one tack and one clew per sail. The protest committee assessed enough of a  time penalty that the rule breech cost them first overall in IRC. Bummer.

 

WIN BY A WHISKER

If there’s wind, our races don’t usually end at the weather mark.  To be competitive downwind in a non-spinnaker fleet, boats need to consider a whisker pole.  So, what’s legal? PHRF is not homogeneous — it’s composed of regional committees — some areas control the length. But San Francisco Bay PHRF Rules simply state, “Whisker pole may be of any length.” 

 

To me, this makes sense. It avoids the hassle of trying to compensate for adjustable length poles which, in a sense, are self-regulating. If you extend one too far, it will suffer catastrophic compression failure.  (Ask Barry — and wear a helmet if you plan on sitting under one.) A popular misconception is that whisker poles are not highly loaded (only real men sail with spinnakers) but that’s not true.  The compression load on a spinnaker pole does increase as the pole goes forward, but it can be controlled by easing the sheet and luffing the sail.  The same is true of a whisker pole, but there’s no back door. The pole is trapped by the tension on the jib foot and the sheet.  Easing the sheet makes little difference;  the sail stays powered-up and will not luff until it’s flogging out forward of the headstay.  A quick by-the-lee bear away can momentarily unload the pole, but crew need to be on their toes.  A good adjustable pole can help; shortening it can take the load off. Another place an adjustable might come in handy could be tacking downwind in light air with the pole set to leeward, where the ability to shorten it might allow a tighter reaching angle.  I don’t know, Zoop doesn’t have one.   I also don’t know why a whisker pole set to leeward is no longer “sheeting to an outrigger”. Maybe it’s because it’s a “spar-spar” as opposed to a “hull-spar”.  But I suspect it’s because the rule makers just gave up and went with popular demand. 

 

Our pole is double-ended, and is rigged with both topping-lift and fore-guy bridles. We jibe end-for-end. The fore-guy acts as the jib’s vang; it controls the amount of twist, and can make a big difference. Without it, when there’s a puff, the pole end rises, the jib leech twists off at the top and dissipates power. Conversely, in light air, no topping lift means the weight of the pole is carried by the jib leech, making it straight and unresponsive.   The helmsman’s job in light air is to find the right compromise between leech tension and apparent wind angle so that the sail stays full and relatively stable. 

Thank you Paul.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice