FEBRUARY 3, 2026
WHAT A DAY FOR A
SAIL!
I arrived at the harbor at around
noon and saw limp flags once again. Oh
well, just deal with what you get! When
we left the harbor at about 2pm there was a nice, 8 knot breeze filling the bay
from 230 degrees with sunny, warm conditions. We set a start line square to the wind and
set an offset mark about a quarter of a mile directly into the wind for the
windward mark. We called for a course: Start>offset mark> Mile finish at
S/F. All boats got off to a clean
start. With our 3pm start, the wind
lasted just long enough for all boats to finish. Conditions were so awesome,
many boats stayed out to sail for awhile after the race. What a day for a sail!
To view the replay go to:
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS: COURSE
LW2 DISTANCE 2.089NM
PLACE BOAT PHRF ET CORRECTED
1 ABORIGINAL 33 21:53 20:44
2 SAGITTARIUS 120 25:00 20:49
3 ZOOP 144 25:56 20:55
4 AVATAR 132 25:44 21:08
5 MAIN
SQUEEZE 72 23:53 21:22
6 FLEXI
FLYER 96 24:59 21:38
7 SAILING
PAIR A DICE 180 28:37 22:20
8 ROSIE 162 28:52 23:13
9 PACIFIC
SPIRIT 165 29:28 23:43
10 PERFECT 36 144 29:13 24:12
11 BIG MAC 213 32:05 24:21
12 AQUAVIT 72 27:05 24:34
13 NIDAROS 108 28:27 24:41
14 WIND II 213 32:15 24:49
15 WIND LUST 66 32:43 30:25
RACE START TIME:
Several people have asked for a 4pm
start time. I empathize with these
participants and I understand the conundrum of people working and starting at
3pm. I also sincerely appreciate all the
support for our Tuesday sailing. With
the fickle winds we have experienced and
trying to maintain consistency, we will maintain the 3pm start time until time
changes in a few weeks.
_)
_)
(_
(_
Paul Tara’s
ZOOP SCOOP
TUESDAY’S RACE - UPWIND
SLALOM
“That can’t be it!” or
“Never trust the Race Committee.”
ON OR OFF
My father, who learned to
sail on Navy whaleboats, while anchored in Pacific lagoons during WW II, only
ever gave me one sailing lesson. “Upwind, pull it in tight; downwind, let it
out.” There’s a plethora of terms that describe sailing upwind — beating,
braced sharp up, close-hauled, full-and-bye, hard-on-the-wind, on-a-bowline,
on-the-wind, sheeted-in, tacking, up-the breeze— all essentially refer to the
same thing. Underlying them all is the fundamental concept that, to
a sailing vessel, the wind is a hill. It’s a hill to all vessels, (a
fact that many powerboat operators fail to appreciate, until it’s too late) but
only sailing vessels beat up it, reach across
it, or run down it. (Nobody in my age group runs
uphill.) One of the reasons that racing sailboats is so interesting is that the
uphill gradient is never constant. Some days it’s steeper on the left, others
on the right. And it can change in an instant. Imagine playing pickleball
while the court boundaries and net height are constantly changing.
Anyway, back to terms.
“Hard-on-the-wind” is not a sexual reference. In the days before modern winches
it took a lot more effort to actually trim sails in to “close-hauled”.
Note that term is not “close-winched” — everything was tackle and muscle
— there were no ball-bearings. “On-a-bowline” is a square-rigger term. It
does not refer to docking. A bowline is not only a knot. It’s a line, or
series of lines (a bowline bridle) leading forward from the luff (windward
edge) of the lower square sails (courses) on a square-rigged ship. These were
hauled taught, in concert with the “tack line,” so as to tension the luff and
produce a cleaner leading edge. To sail “on-a-bowline” was therefore to sail
close-hauled. And, clearly, the “tack line” wasn’t invented with the
asymmetrical spinnaker. Why not just have another yard across the foot of
the sail, like the “Maltese Falcon”? Simple —no carbon fiber for
free-standing masts — those pesky shrouds were in the way.
Two terms I find most
interesting are on and off the wind.
Some modern autopilots are capable of steering a close hauled course more
accurately than a human. If you dial in a close-hauled course, the key
input is apparent wind, which the auto-pilot will follow faithfully, subject to
the boat’s polars, even if it shifts. It is constrained to sailing
“on-the-wind”. Same is true for humans, if the skipper gives the command
to steer “close-hauled,” “on-the-wind,” or “mind-your-luff”.
“Full-and-bye” is similar in concept. Sail bye the wind, but don’t pinch.
The course that can be steered is constrained to that dictated by the wind.
Sail as high as you can (as far up the wind hill), but stay out of the
no-go zone. In contrast, when sailing in a direction not dictated by the
wind, that constraint is turned off, and a vessel is said to be “off-the-wind”.
She can then sail any compass course she wishes independent of wind
direction; all of which are reaching or running. It’s like a toggle switch — on
or off.
A bowline is not a forward dock line. That’s
a breast line. Another topic.
Thank you Paul!
I hope to see you next Tuesday
for a 3pm start.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
No comments:
Post a Comment