OCTOBER 20, 2026
SUNSET SAILING
Once again, the predictions were
for light breeze for the evening but as the afternoon progressed, there was a
steady breeze on the bay. When we left
the harbor and made our way to the S/F area, the wind seemed to get a little
lighter. We determined the wind was coming
from 255 and set a line square to this.
With the cloud cover we had, I did not think an Easterly would develop
and with the sun already starting to set we decided on course S3. Though this
is not a short course it was a direct course with everyone able to make Mile
with no tacks and a straight downwind sail to finish. Just before the start
times, the wind increased to about 15 knots, but as B Fleet was halfway back to
S/F the wind started dissipating. It was painfully slow sailing at 1.5 knot
speeds with S/F several hundred yards ahead. The finish for most of B Fleet was a bob-fest
as boats slowly crossed the line, so much for sunset sailing.
IT IS
CRITICAL TO REGISTER BY CLICKING “REGISTER HERE” BELOW TO ALLOW TEXT MESSAGE
NOTICES OF CANCELLATION OF RACES.
Reminder,
Tues, Nov 3, we switch to Tues Afternoon racing. We have the email list for
blog posting, however you will need to register to receive texts regarding
cancellations. Please register here to
ensure you receive the texts. There are Increased chance of cancellation
from Nov-March due to harbor shoaling and storms.
There is no entry fee or
waiver as it's a continuation of Tuesday racing.
Spinny fleet track:
Fleet A track:
Fleet B track:
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS
COURSE S3 DISTANCE 1.941NM
PLACE BOAT PHR ET CORRECTED
SPINNY FLEET:
1 BLIND DATE 78 18:49 16:18 2
DOUBLE ESPRESSO 99 20:00 16:48
3 ROSIE 162 24:07 18:53
FLEET A:
1 ABORIGINAL 33 17:49 16:45
2 SAGITTARIUS 120 22:05 18:12
3 PERFECT 36 144 23:34 18:55
4 MAIN SQUEEZE 72 22:12 19:52
5 RIO 141 25:52 21:18
FLEET B:
1 AVATAR 132 24:47 20:31
2 SIMPATICO 165 28:41 23:21
3 SAILING PAIR A
DICE 180 30:39 24:50
4 BIG MAC 222 33:00 25:49
5 TARA 243 33:43 25:51
6 NIDAROS II 120 30:22 26:29
7 PACIFIC SPIRIT 165 33:06 27:46
8 TOAD 150 33:09 28:18
9 WIND GODDESS 165 33:46 28:30
NEXT TUESDAY IS THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AND IS
BARBECUE
NIGHT AT THE CLUB AFTER THE RACE. BRING YOUR BEST FOOD TO GRILL
AND SHARE. THIS WILL BE THE
LAST BBQ OF THE YEAR SINCE NOVEMBER
AND DECEMBER HAVE SO MANY
HOLIDAYS. DINNER WILL BE AVAILABLE AS
IS NORMAL FOR OUR TUESDAY
SAILS.
ZOOP
SCOOP BY PAUL TARA
QUIZ
Last
Week:
Two
boats on opposite tacks are approaching a leeward mark, with the port tack boat
clear ahead. Once the port tack boat enters “the zone”
a)
she scores a touchdown
b)
she must keep clear of the starboard tack boat
c)
the starboard tack boat must keep clear.
Answer
is c) the starboard tack boat must keep clear. When the port tack boat enters
“the zone” (3 boat lengths), Rule 10 (port/starboard) turns off, and Rule 18
(mark room) turns on. Boats often approach leeward marks on opposite tacks.
Hint: even though it looks as if the starboard boat might have rights, she
should always have a Plan B — she shouldn’t establish an overlap, if it looks
like she might have to bail at the last minute. “No Overlap” from the port tack
boat is a warning to not stick your nose in there just because you’re on
starboard tack.
LAST
SCOOP (Maybe)
I
need a break. This will be the last Zoop Scoop until next Spring when,
hopefully, we will be racing our Moore 24 Poltergeist instead of
lumbering around in Zoop. If Barry lets me back, should I stick
with “Zoop Scoop” going forward? Mary reminds me that our son Patrick came up
with my nickname, “Zoop”, long before we bought the boat which was originally Zoop’s Sloop,
then Zoop the Sloop, until we finally shortened it to just
plain Zoop — once we tried to spell the others using the NATO
alphabet — Zulu, Oscar, Oscar, Papa.
.jpeg)
Down To The Sea, 1999.
On the other hand, Poltergeist and I go waaay back (see “Moore Memories” in the August Spinnaker Sheet). The boat was named by Rob Wade’s mom, Helen. The boat is # 7, preceded the movie by seven years, and her IOR number was 18877. Spooky. (Her hull is still a ghosty grey). You never know what might pop up in a column entitled “Polter Gist”. For my part, I’ll be attempting to memorize “Papa, Oscar, Lima, Tango, Echo, Romeo, Golf, Echo, India, Sierra, Tango”.
THE RACE
With
the season's first real low approaching, there were a lot of expectations of
more of a southerly, including by me, NOAA, and the RC. But we were all too
impatient. The breeze didn’t back and the course to MB ended up a one-leg
beat. It also resulted in the port end of the line being heavily favored (as
in, by about the entire length of the line). Fortunately, the breeze held, but
was getting pretty anemic by the time B fleet finished.
Spinnaker
Fleet: 3 Boats. Rosie almost made the perfect start right at S/F.
(I’m not sure, but on RH it looks like she may have stalled after her tack onto
starboard and slid into the mark). Double Expresso lived up to her name
by having two phones and icons on the course. Maybe all that extra wetted
surface is what allowed Blind Date to pass her, although it’s hard to
imagine an Antrim 27 not being faster than an Express 34 on the reach back to
the finish.
A
Fleet: 5 Boats. Same old story. Perfect conditions for a Sydney 38. One
leg beat and a reach to the finish, so no price to pay for the 106% jib. Sagittarius
couldn’t hold her, and as it got lighter the speed differential increased. Perfect
36 hung in there for a corrected 3rd after Main Squeeze over-stood
MB.
B
Fleet: 10 Boats. Avatar did an Aboriginal imitation, steaming off
the line and finishing almost 4 minutes ahead of Simpatico, the 2nd
place boat. Big Mac had a miserable first leg after Avatar and a
slew of consecutive 30 footers rolled her. One boat can be dealt with, but four
in a row? Ouch! However, in spite of rounding MB second from last, Mac
stayed low and, in the dying breeze, caught several boats right at the finish,
correcting out 4th.
FINAL
THOUGHTS
Mixed
handicap yacht racing may appear, to use current political jargon, rigged.
It’s not. It’s just physics. Unless it’s very light air, bigger,
faster boats have a huge advantage. Or, as Arthur Knapp wrote in the 1930’s,
“There’s nothing like a fast boat to make a skipper look good.” Tuesday’s
race was a case in point. In A, Aboriginal’s SA/Disp, is 25.43, Sagittarious’s
is 16.28; in B, Avatar’s is 20.45, Simpatico’s is 16.58.
That’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight — a butter knife. The same was true
for Zoop when she raced in B. Her 16.43 SA/Disp isn't particularly
powerful, but she was one of the biggest boats. It showed — 24 starts/17 1sts
in 2023, 24 starts/10 1sts in 2024 and 27 starts/16 1sts in 2025 (the balance
were 2nds and 3rds). But, racing in A fleet, where she’s one of the slower
boats, success is much harder, if not impossible, to achieve. A really good
example of this from Tuesday is Big Mac, one of the smaller boats in B.
She was rolled by Avatar just after the start. This slowed her and
set her up for being driven over by a succession of boats. But, since the
course was a one-leg beat, there was no escape; she had to continue sailing
towards MB. With each added layer of bad air, she was forced further and
further back. This is why reverse handicap races, which force the faster boats
to sail through the bad air of the boats ahead, are some of our most popular
events.
On Tuesdays, if you watch enough RH tracks, you begin to notice the fleet dividing up into sub-fleets, where boats of similar speed repeatedly find themselves racing the same boats. By far and away the best Tuesday racing is in B Fleet. In Europe, during the days of the IOR, this phenomenon gave birth to the concept of level rating classes, enough with three starts).
But
it might be possible to create and score separate classes electronically
using Regatta Hero. Boats would still start together but be scored in
groups, based on ranges of PHRF ratings, or maybe even specific boat types.
For example Santana 22’s would all start and race within the bigger
fleet, but be scored based their finishes relative to each other. Most of the
data is already available. Different sorting might do the trick. Too
complicated? Maybe. But something to think about over the winter.
Ciao
Barry Keeler
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