FOGGY TUESDAY: APRIL 8, 2014

Tuesday April 8, 2014


After getting rained out last week, it was looking like it was going to be an awesome evening for a sail. It was clear and warm a mile inland from the ocean, so it was quite a surprise to see the harbor socked in with fog. What the hecht, we got GPS, so why not go out anyway? Actually, once we left the harbor, the visibility was not that bad; between 100 and 200 yards visibility. Of course there is always the question in these races when fog is in: How do you tell the lighthouse end of the line when you can’t see the lighthouse?

Ultimately some boats decided to not come out and still others decided not to race in the fog. The boats engaged in the race tonight were: Diver Down, Andiamo, Tres Santos and Pair A Dice. The wind was blowing 10-13 from the north west and we decided to use course 4: Start, wharf, gov, finish. There was a good crowd with all four boats on the starting line. PAD ended up being early to the line and had to stall attempting to start on starboard tack right at the mark. The other boats skirted right behind us on port. By the time we inched across the line and flopped over on port the other 3 boats were below us and ahead of us. PAD inched ahead of Tres Santos and tacked over on starboard about the same time Diver Down did. Diver down footed off more than PAD did and were going much faster than us, but were moving further from the mark. Andiamo continued longer on their initial port tack than PAD, then tacked over toward wharf. When we tacked over to cross Andiamo, we had to duck their stern. The next crossing we were clear ahead of Andiamo and we rounded wharf first with Andiamo in hot pursuit. PAD sailed a hot angle on a broad reach until we ran straighter toward GOV and we deployed our pole and flew the jib on port, wing on wing. This seemed to work well for us and we extended or lead and rounded GOV with a comfortable lead. We finally rounded start mark followed by Andiamo.

After the race we met at the crows nest for interesting discussions about various aspects of sailing. One topic discussed was man overboard situations and how to deal with them and prevent them.

Tactics:

This evening was a good example of PAD not having a good start, but making up for it over the race course. Having speed coming off the line is much preferred to slowing the boat to prevent an OCS (On Course Side) over start line early situation. With these heavy keel boats, it takes awhile to get them going again.

When going to weather, how do you pick a line that is most advantageous? In other words how do you know when you are footing too much or pinching too much? The seas were pretty flat this night so you could pinch quite a bit. When trying to buck waves, it is necessary to foot off to overpower the waves. We like to tighten the main until the rudder is about 3-4 degrees cocked. On our boat this is about one spoke over with the center line spoke turned toward the leeward side of the boat. This gives us the most lift from the rudder. We also keep the inside jib telltale streaming up at about 45 degrees. I have recently learned the importance of maintaining jib sail shape. If you are pinching to the point that the front of the jib is collapsing at all, you are pinching too much. It is critical for this sail to maintain proper shape for the best speed to windward.

I’m looking forward to seeing you out next week.

Barry

"Mi Dushi"

Since all of our prayers for more rain were answered on this last Tuesday night, there were no boats that went out.  I just returned from a Caribbean Cruise and thought I'd share one of my experiences on one of the excursions I took while on this cruise.

ONE GREAT EXCURSION

I was recently on a Princess Cruise line that was scheduled to stop in Aruba. I normally do not plan excursions in advance, but a day or so before our arrival in Aruba, I noticed that there were several excursions offering a boat ride to snorkel around the Antilla. This is a German ship that sank off the coast of Aruba sometime around World War II. One of the excursions appeared to be very professional, which would normally be my preference. Unfortunately, this one had no vacancies, so I had to settle for my second choice: an excursion that included rum drinks, lunch and a “swing” on a boat called “Mi Dushi”. I have seen this type of excursion before and they are usually called “Jolly Rogers” and offer all the rum you can drink. I have witnessed people returning from these “Jolly Roger” boats so inebriated, they couldn’t make it up the gang plank to the ship. This is not normally my idea of fun, but I was desperate to experience my first wreck dive so signed on for “Mi Dushi”.

I met my fellow excursioners and boarded the bus to get to Mi Dushi. Imagine a school bus with all windows removed, painted vividly in Caribbean colors with island style sayings painted inside and out. “Not the brightest crayon in the box”, “Every little Ting’ll be all right” were emblazoned on the inside of the bus. Add blaring rasta music and a very happy local driver advising us all to use enough sunscreen declaring he used to be a blond! In this atmosphere it would be impossible to be depressed.

We were dropped off and escorted to Mi Dushi, which was so big we had to ride a water taxi to board the boat. As we approached the mother ship, the person next to me mumbled “My God we’re all gonna die”. From far away and up close, the ship looked like it was in a sad state of disrepair. Mi Dushi is a 90 foot 90 ton gaff rigged ketch built in the 1920s. I have been on many of these excursions when they never even hoisted the sails and just motored from place to place. The skipper came out and introduced himself and his two deck hands: his son Alex and Jose from Colombia. He explained that the name Mi Dushi means “my sweetheart” in Danish. Despite my first impressions the boat was very seaworthy. Sure enough, they slipped the mooring line and hoisted both the main and Mizzen sails. My first experience sailing on a Gaff rigged sailboat. What intrigued me was that there was not a single winch on the boat. To get the sails hoisted completely, one deckhand would run the halyard under a large wood cleat and take the tension up as the other “jumped” the halyard pulling it straight out from the mast, incrementally tightening the halyard until the sail was raised.

As we sailed up the coast to the shipwreck, I studied the nuances of sail trim with a gaff rigged boat. Without a windex or tell tails it was nearly impossible to ascertain our point of sail, but it seemed to be a beam reach. The upper booms were twisted off quite a bit which really stabilized the boat and I wondered how they would have trimmed it if we were racing and not entertaining a bunch of novices. The boat moved along well and was very stable, as we motor sailed our way to the wreck. We finally snagged a mooring line and all dove in for the wreck dive. It was interesting with the shipwreck rising to within 10 feet of the surface and plunging down to over 60 feet. Divers and snorkelers were everywhere, but with the 30 knot winds and chop, it was a little too murky to see much. After a while, we retreated to a more protected snorkel spot closer to shore, where we swam through massive swarms of very small fish. Exploring further away from the crowd, I saw some squid-like cuddle fish. We all returned to the boat and went to another location where we got another mooring line and the skipper and Alex went below to prepare our lunch, while Jose stayed out to prepare various cocktails and introduced us to the trapeze. Most of us gave it our best to swing as high and as far from the boat as possible before letting go. Then Jose announced that Alex was going to perform a special trick for us. When Alex stripped his shirt off, I was surprised to see that he did not have an ounce of fat and was in great physical shape. He got on the trapeze step and had one of the ladies wrap her arms around his neck and clutch tightly to him. When all set, they both swung off the step and somehow he was able to accomplish and complete a flip with the woman.

 

The food was served and more alcohol was consumed. The food was nothing short of amazing. I heard comments from several people “this is the best fish I’ve ever had!”. I asked Alex what kind of fish it was and he said Grouper. Grouper, chicken, Rice a little salad and a skewer of different melons and pineapple; need I say more?

We once again slipped the mooring line and headed for the home mooring line. I was grooving to the music on the foredeck when Jose came by and said “put your camera in the backpack, Alex is going to climb the mast to take pictures”. Here we were with all sails hoisted, sailing back home as Alex climbed the line clear up to the spreader. I could not believe it: no safety harness or bosuns chair for Alex. As he straddled the spreader, he took each camera out and snapped photos down to the deck fore and aft and even a selfie of himself with the deck of the boat in the background. Once all photos were take, he slipped off the spreader to the upper boom of the mainsail, swung around the mast and gracefully came down and passed out the cameras to each of the owners. 

We got back to the mooring line and took the bus back to the ship. There was not a single person on that bus that was not high! High on life and the experience we had just had. As the rasta music blared we all hooted and hollered at the tourists on the sidewalks and beaches as we passed. Many of the tourists quickly grabbed their cameras to snap envious photos. The only sad point of the whole day was having to leave the party and return to the festivities of the Princess Cruise ship and normal life on board a cruise ship.

Catalina Tuesday March 18,2014

Since I was not present for this night (darn vacations), I can't give a blow by blow description of what happened.  I heard that there were 13 boats out.  What an awesome turnout, let's keep it up.

Starting tactics:
Obviously, many of the boats have experienced sailors and racers on board.  This is demonstrated by many of the starts where many boats are crossing the line right on time.  Some of this may seem pretty simple to the experienced.

 I was talking to one of our newer participants in the harbor.  He had a boat full of eager sailors.  The skipper was enthusiastic and said they were coming out so the other boats wouldn't have to be last.  I told him we all start at the bottom and work our way up.  To me, and I think I speak for many sailors, it's not who is first or last that is important.  What is important is what we learn in the process!  I once heard a sailor say 'all sailing is is doing a thousand things exactly right'. Maybe a little exaggeration, but there is an awful lot to learn.

When preparing for a start, there are several choices that need to be considered.  Which end of the line is favored? Is a starboard tack preferred over a port tack approach?
Which side of the course is favored?

To determine the favored end of the line, luff your boat head to wind on the line: the end of the line your boat is pointing toward is the favored end.  This is because it is closer to your destination, actually starting ahead of everyone else.  There are very few times that the line is square to wind and neither side is favored.  This is pretty elementary to racing sailors, so it is not uncommon to see crowds at the favored end of the line.  Rather than mix it up with this crowd and get stuck in everyone's dirty wind, it is often preferable to start a little down the line in CLEAR AIR.  Clear air trumps line position any day if your boat speed is good enough to get out in front of your competition.

Starboard versus port tack start.  Since starboard tack has right of way over port tack, most people choose to start on starboard.  Very accomplished sailors that can accurately judge crossing situations have been known to cross entire fleets on port tack!  Suffice it to say, the safest tack is starboard tack on a crowded line.

Which side of the course is favored is determined by the amount of wind and also the direction of the wind.  If you see more wind on the right side of the course and you have started on starboard tack, you want to tack over to port at your first opportunity.  The direction of wind is also important.  Often one side of the course will create a lift that will pull you closer to the mark.

There are other considerations when starting, but these three will get you started on the right tack.

I got a little sailing in today on princess cay in the Bahamas.  Crystal clear, warm water.  It was pretty nice even though it was a Hobie Wave Lisa and I were sailing on.  FYI Hobie Waves are not high performance boats, but the conditions more than made up for the boat performance.

I will not be out next Tuesday either, but you guys have fun!

Barry

FIRST TUESDAY NIGHT OF THE YEAR: MARCH 11, 2014

OPENING NIGHT: March 11, 2014

It was a beautiful, clear warm evening as the crews filtered to their respective boats.  It is hard to believe we are already back to sailing our Tuesday nights!  I believe I got the new coarse charts on most of the participating boats.  If you do not have the new chart which is lavender in color, let me know or show up at my boat at Q16 for yours on any Tuesday evening around 5:30.  There are some slight changes in the coarses from last years card which is blue in color.

As we finally were leaving the harbor, it was apparent that we were dealing with a pretty strong Northerly breeze.  It was gusting up to 20 knots straight off shore.  Pacific Spirit’s crew was kind enough to place a buoy close to where the normal start mark is.  Since we had a north breeze blowing, we set the starting line between the buoy and the radio towers.  Since it was blowing pretty strong we used a coarse from start to GOV (to port), mile (port) and back to finish (port).  There was quite a crowd of boats, some  actively racing and others just “tagging along”.

At the start it was Vance and Diver Down out in front with Pacific Spirit in hot pursuit.  There was a whole group of boats close behind the front two boats and we (Pair A Dice) were behind most of the boats.  Iris, Aeolian and Tres Santos were further to windward than us, but we were closing the gap.  Tres Santos was the closest directly in front of us.  We passed them to leeward and by the time we all arrived at Gov, Diver Down was still in front, followed by Pacific Spirit, then Sailing Pair a dice, which rounded just inside of Scotty C on his Catalina 40, Rosa Nautica. 

As we headed off to Mile, we seemed to be slowly closing the gap sailing alongside Scotty.  At Mile, we were still trailing Diver Down and Pacific Spirit as we rounded once again with Rosa Nautica.  We tried to close the gap sailing to windward of Pacific Spirit, but found we were getting lee bowed by them and tacked over.  Diver Down and Pacific Spirit both sailed to the corner attempting to make it back to start with one long tack.  Diver Down finished with a comfortable lead followed by Pair A Dice then Pacific Spirit.

TACTICS:

When passing Tres Santos in the first leg, passing to leeward versus to windward.  Since the wind was so strong, we felt it was safe to pass to leeward.  We would simply have had to pinch too much going to windward.  You certainly do not want to stay in bad air, but you can always fall off for more speed to get by the bad air.

From Mile to finish we tacked inside rather than follow close behind Pacific Spirit.  Actually, this tactic employed two principles.  First, If you don’t have enough speed to pass, it is not good to continue in bad air.  It was obvious if we followed them, we would not pass them.  The second principle is: do not sail to the corners.  By sailing clear to the layline, you are giving up any chance to use lifts to your advantage.  Though tacking a keel boat is often frowned on, if you see more wind in a certain area, it is usually advantageous to get to the windier area and sailing up the middle of a course allows you to use lifts to squeak ahead.

 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPEED:

First and foremost: have a clean bottom.  You need a clean bottom to get the boat moving.

 

 

Second sail trim and sail handling:  In gusty conditions, your mainsheet trimmer must keep on his toes, travelling down every time there is a gust.  The object should be to keep the boat at the same angle of heel.

Third Steering: A steady hand on the wheel is crucial.  You will not pass boats by oversteering and sailing twice the distance. As in sail trim, the skipper should concentrate on keeping the boat on an even angle of heel.  If your boat is heeling way over and coming up to relatively flat, imagine the amount of energy you are losing.

There are sailors much better than me participating.  Please feel free to comment on these observation, so we all can learn from your expertise. 

It was an awesome start for the first time out this year.  Tell your friends about the fun you are having and encourage them to come out.  We have a new boat joining us this year: TOAD a Beneteau 32 owned by Dan Larson. Welcome Dan to the fun!

Unfortunately, I will be out of town for the next two weeks, but the races will continue and hopefully, I can get a recap out on the blog.

Have fun and sail safe!                                 

Barry

HERE WE GO AGAIN: ANOTHER SEASON OF CATALINA TUESDAYS

BOATLESS IN SANTA CRUZ

It has been a while since my last posting. I have always wanted this blog to promote our Catalina Tuesdays, so when we are not sailing, why blog? In reality, it seems like yesterday we were wrapping up an awesome season of Catalina Tuesdays.

So, how was your winter? It certainly was not a winter without sailing for me. Though, my boat made a meager appearance in the Midwinter series of races, the highlight of my winter sailing was participating in the team races in the Santana 22 fleet. What is team racing?

Team racing is much more involved than anything you could imagine if you have only been involved in fleet racing. What are the differences? In fleet racing, which we normally are involved in, it is you against everyone else. The goal in fleet racing is to get to the finish line faster than every other boat. In team racing, you are in one of two teams of boats sailing against the other team. There may be from 2 to 4 or more boats in each team. The course that is set up is very short and you have a committe boat scampering about to call OCS situations and finishes and to call rule infractions. The course is set so you have a start line between 2 buoys, one windward buoy taken to starboard, a reaching buoy to starboard, a leeward buoy to port another reaching buoy to port then off to the finish line. With normal wind, this whole coarse takes all of 12 minutes, and in a normal day of racing, there may be 8 races or more. In team racing, the motto is "slow down we are racing!" The goal is to get the best score for your TEAM, so if you are way ahead, you go back to assist your team mates. Suffice it to say, in one of these races, you get more "rules" use than in a whole year of fleet racing. It is all very fun and engaging.

So why "boatless in Santa Cruz"? I have not taken my boat out for over a month now. When I did my yearly oil change, I noticed excessive corrosion on the engine and have been attempting to get the engine repaired. My engine is 34 years old and is raw water cooled, meaning salt water running through the engine block. As anticipated, this is not a good combination and may mean a short life for my engine. I am hoping to make it out for our first Tuesday on March 11.

So what is in store for this year on Catalina Nights? After consulting with other participants, We have come up with a few other course options and a new course card for all participants. A copy if the courses follows. Any course with a letter is a new course. Another change from last year is the rounding of the finish buoy. If coming from the East, the finish buoy will be taken to starboard, making it easier to sight the line to the light house. The new course cards are lavender in color. If you have participated in the past, you may find one in your boat. In addition, there is a chart showing where all of the marks are on the chart.

Here are the courses and we will see you out there on March 11.

CATALINA TUESDAY COURSES

_/)Marks all left to port unless designated (SB) which shall be rounded on starboard.
_/)Start line shall be a line between start(to port) and lighthouse on jetty approx. 5 boat lengths from start. If a different line is used, it shall be designated for the course.
_/)Finish line shall be designated for each course as rounding the start buoy to port (P) or starboard (SB) within 5 boat lengths of the buoy. If rounding buoy to port from the northwest or to SB from the East, finish line is an extension of line from lighthouse to buoy. Start buoy=finish buoy.
　
NORTHWEST WIND COURSES:
COURSE 1: START, WHARF, MILE, BLACKS, FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=4.04
COURSE 2: START, WHARF, MILE, GOV (SB), FINISH (P) DISTANCE=3.93
COURSE 3: START, WHARF, BLACKS, FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=3.23
COURSE 4: START, WHARF (SB), GOV (SB), FINISH (P) DISTANCE=3.07



COURSE 5: START, WHARF, FINISH (P) DISTANCE=2.68


COURSE 6: START, MILE (SB), GOV (SB)=FINISH (BETWEEN END OF WHARF AND GOV, 5 BOAT LENGTHS FROM GOV. DISTANCE=2.24
COURSE 7: START, MILE, FINISH (P) DISTANCE=2.17
COURSE 7A: START AT MILE(SB)LINE UP WITH LIGHTHOUSE AT STEAMERS, SC7(SB), FINISH AT GOV(P)LINE UP WITH WHARF END.
DISTANCE=1.45
　
　
EAST WIND COURSES:
COURSE 8: START (SB), BLACKS (SB), MILE (SB), GOV (SB), FINISH (P) DISTANCE=4.03
COURSE 9: START (SB), BLACKS (SB), SC3, FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=3.04
COURSE 10: START (SB), SC3 (P), BLACKS (P),FINISH (SB) DISTANCE= 2.95
COURSE 11: START (SB), BLACKS(SB), MILE (SB), FINISH(P) DISTANCE=2.72
COURSE 11A:START (SB), SC2(P), FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=1.2
COURSE 12:START(SB),BLACKS,START,BLACKS,FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=1.12
COURSE 12A: START (SB), BLACKS, FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=0.55
NORTH WIND COURSES
For north wind courses: START LINE IS BETWEEN START AND BLACKS, 5 BOAT LENGTHS. START TO PORT.
COURSE 13: START, GOV, MILE, BLACKS, FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=4.03
COURSE 14: START, GOV, BLACKS, FINISH (SB) DISTANCE=2.45
COURSE 15: START, GOV, FINISH (P) DISTANCE=1.98

CATALINA SAILBOATS SAILING MONTEREY BAY SANTA CRUZ, CA: TUESDAY NIGHTS

10/29/2013

The last Tuesday night of the year did not dissappoint. The wind was from the northwest, sky was clear and the whales seemed to be all over the place. The fall chill is definitely in the air. We decided on a short course: start to mile and back to start. The short course was necessary, little day light left and we had a barbecue to get to.

There were four boats out for the last night this year, Pair a Dice, Pacific Spirit, Free Spirit and Tres Santos. On Pair a Dice, for the start, we were windward of Pacific Spirit in a position they could have luffed us up over the line early. We were seriously stalling coming up on the mark too soon. Rather than luffing us up, Pacific Spirit tacked off and went off on port as we started on Starboard tack. We really felt we had the better of them since we were sailing more toward the mark and they were sailing away from it. The last laugh was on us, since as they sailed off on port tack they had completely clear wind. As we continued to beat our way toward Mile, we were a quarter mile or so east of the mark. When Pacific Spirit tacked out toward the mark, we watched as they ranged ahead on us. They definitely had better speed than we did. When we tacked over to round Mile, Pacific Spirit was well ahead of us. Once we rounded mile, we extended our pole and started closing the gap on Pacific Spirit. If we had a five mile leg, we may have been able to overtake them, but Pacific Spirit rounded well ahead of us. Pacific Spirit won the last race of the season handily. Way to show us how it is done! Congratulations to Pacific SPirit and crew.

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We had a great barbecue at the yacht club with some great discussion on how to keep the ball rolling through this winter and next summer. Suffice it to say, there will be Catalinas out this winter. We will sail, weather permitting, on Saturdays, with a switch to Sunday if the weather is better on that day. Since it is once a week sailing, I usually like to make the most of it and get out around noon or so and Pacific Spirit likes to come out around 2 oclock. We try to set up courses using fixed marks like Mile, SC7 and GOV. If you have never sailed during the winter in Santa Cruz, you are really missing the best of it. Rather than damp fog, we have plenty of sun and 10-15 knots of wind. Personally, I like winter sailing as much as I like summer sailing. If you are interested in crewing on one of the boats during the winter, either comment on this blog, or drop me an e-mail at LLL3@prodigy. net. GIve me your cell phone and your name and we will get you in the crew list for winter sailing.

Thank you to everyone that participated this year. It has truely been a pleasure sailing with and against all of you.

Barry L Keeler

Sailing Pair a Dice

CATALINA SAILBOATS SAILING MONTEREY BAY TUESDAY EVENINGS

OCTOBER 22, 2013

You can really feel the fall chill in the air, and it came so quickly. Just this last weekend was hot and sunny. This Tuesday night was cool with a big fog bank hanging just off shore and the sun was already low on the horizon making daylight very short for a sail. To complicate matters, the wind was very light, with a northwest on the outside and an Easterly very weakly attempting to fill in closer to the beach. After some discussion, we decided on course 7: Start to Mile and back to start. Partcipants this night were: Sailing Pair a dice, Pacific SPirit, Blue Ribbon (Homer's C&C 25), Emeritus, Free Spirit, Iris and Tres Santos.

At the start, the transition line between the northwest and the lighter easterly was right at the start line. Since the northwesterly was much stronger, we approached from outside the start line using wind and waves to get our speed up. At the start Emeritus, Iris and Pacific Spirit and Blue Ribbon were just ahead of Pair a Dice. As we all romped toward Mile into the building northwest, most of the boat were sailing lower, further away from Mile, while Pair a Dice attempted a higher line closer to Mile. Emeritus was the first to tack over to the inside, since it was a port rounding around Mile. When we tacked over Emeritus was charging back out and crossed us easily, but attempted to tack over to steal our wind. We easily sailed out of their shadow and quickly tacked over to round mile. We all had to pinch to round Mile, Homer rounding comfortably in front with PAD, Iris and Emeritus following.

We all marched off toward Start right into a broad transition zone. We watched as each of the boats gave up and furled their sails and motored toward the entrance. Even Homer who was way ahead and seemed to be dead in the water seemed to be motoring toward the harbor. On Pair a Dice, I had visions of burgers grilling and was all ready to start toward the harbor when I felt the weakest hint of an Easterly. As the easterly began to fill in, it was not comforting to note that the start buoy was 0.38 miles away. Suddenly we could see Homer sailing back toward start, this race was not over! We crossed easily in front of him and when we tacked over to get around start we went far enough to be certain we would be windward of him for the approach to the mark. Somehow Homer was able to roll us to leeward and beat us by less than half a boat length. Good job Homer and crew.

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We had an awesome barbecue at the yacht club, with great food and company to complete the evening.

Next Tuesday will be our last Tuesday night for this year and will be another barbecue at the yacht club afterward. At this barbecue, I would like to have a group discussion. The floor will be open for anyone that wants to participate and volunteer comments on: Most important thing you learned this season about sailing, what you like most about Tuesday night sailing and how we could make it better.

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Now that winter is coming, let the racing continue! When weather permits, we meet on Saturdays anywhere from Noon on. We set up races using stationary marks such as SC3, Mile and GOV. It is even more impromtu than Tuesdays and with the lighter winds of winter can be very fun. If the weather is inclement on Saturday, we can even change to Sundays if you can make it. Winter sailing in Santa Cruz is not nearly as cold as you would expect since it is nearly always sunny with light wind and no summer fog. We can exchange phone numbers for people desiring to crew and owners needing crew, so be sure to come to the barbecue.

As the harbor shoals over in the winter, keep an eye on the harbor website to see how deep the channel is and the best way out and in.

See you next Tuesday for our grand finale.

Barry