June 7, 2016: PARKING LOT IN THE END ZONE

June 7, 2016: PARKING LOT IN THE END ZONE

As I got to the harbor it looked like the wind was slowly dying as the flags drooped more and more. We even started the process of changing to a 155 jib, but a crew member walked to the beach and came back saying it was a bad idea.  Sure enough as we approached the start area the wind was in excess of 20 knots.  Not knowing if the wind would hold, we called for a short course Whiskey 3: Start, Wharf, Blacks finish.  We gave the 5 minute warning horn and noticed the wind at the start mark was still over 20 knots and quickly put a reef in the main.

At the start we were on the line further down the line from most of the pack which left us free to tack as soon as we wanted to.  With the wind building as we went out we decided to tack back inside for flatter seas and less wind.  We tacked back and forth between more wind outside and too little wind inside. Pacific Spirit and Sagitarius rounded wharf at essentially the same time followed by Pair A Dice and Makani.

On Pair A Dice we decided to rhumb line it directly to the Blacks sailing wing on wing with our pole out to windward.  We started off with a pretty good lead over Kicks and Makani, but as we jibed sails, we did not notice the lead they were building on us by going outside (going where the wind is!).  As we all closed on Blacks, Pacific Spirit rounded first followed by Sagitarius and Kicks and Makani had quite a lead on us. We came around Blacks and saw everyone packed together as the wind died at the finish mark.  The waves on everyone’s bow did not help and as we approached the boats inching along it looked like a parking lot in the end zone.  At the finish Sagitarius lead Pacific Spirit, Kicks, Pair A Dice, Makani and Aeolian, the Beneteau 36, Sea Quake and Thalasia.  It was a great turnout and just as everyone finally inched over the finish line, the wind came up out of the East and we sailed easily back to the harbor.

In Memory of Phil Worthen:

We lost one of the icons of sailing in Santa Cruz this last Sunday June 5.  Phil Worthen died of a heart attack after sailing his boat (a Melges 14) back to the ramp. 

I got to know Phil through association with Jack Mcdermott and “Adventure” in various national regattas.  We were proud to have him as crew on Pair a Dice many times in many races.  He gained notoriety in sailing when he taught sailing for Oneill through the 80’ and 90’s.  He also sailed extensively with Ernie Rideout and most recently ran the boat yard for the harbor.  He seemed to know everyone in the sailing world.  He was also a surfer who surfed Hawaii extensively in the 70s and personally knew the famous South African surfer Shawn Thompson.

Phil was one of the most positive and high energy personalities I have ever known.  He was always smiling and happy.  Every time you saw him, you left the event with better energy.  I will always remember the sail we had on my boat just after the harbor opened in March this year.  It was a beautiful Sunday with 20 knot winds.  We worked our way clear up to Natural Bridges, then sailed wing on wing all the way to Pleasure point.

I happened to be going to my boat on Saturday the fourth and as usual, stopped by to say hi to Phil. As usual the visit lasted over an hour.  Remembering I had work to complete on my boat I shook his hand and said goodbye. Little did I know, it would be my last contact with him.  Fair winds Phil.  You will be missed!

We will see you on the water next week.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

May 31, 2016: FOG WIND

TUESDAY May 31, 2016

FOG WIND

As I showed up at the harbor, you could see a steady breeze was still blowing with a heavy bank of fog offshore.  As we left the harbor, we checked the wind and it was blowing from 210, so a little south of our normal wind.  We were not certain whether the wind would sustain or back off through the evening and with the BBQ awaiting us, called for a short course Start, Mile, start-finish.  We gave a 5 minute horn and everyone started setting up for their start.   On Pair A Dice we wanted to be right at the start buoy on starboard tack. 

We were successful in our start and found Pacific Spirit right behind us slightly to windward.  We did our best to climb up to lee bow them and when we were in position we traveled up on the main to disturb their wind even more.  This worked and they tacked away.  Oh the nasty things we must do to competitors that are faster than us! All in fun of course.    We sailed on out into the choppy seas and a little more wind.  We were wondering why we could not achieve our normal speed for the conditions when I noticed a strand of kelp on our rudder.  I was starting to get the boat hook when the decision was made to “try to lose it on our tack”.  This was successful and the boat got up to it’s normal hull speed.  On our way to Mile Odonata passed easily in front of us, but the next time we met we were well ahead.  Chris was out sailing by himself and doing a great job.

For the rounding of Mile, we had not estimated the lay line correctly and had to pinch to make the mark but were able to round the mark with mere inches to spare.  Alas there was no red paint to clean off the boat.

The next leg was the long slog back to start finish.  On long legs like this in the fog, it really helps to have the marks in your GPS so you can sail directly to the mark without searching for it. 

On this night we were lucky enough to be first followed by Pacific Spirit, Kicks, Odonata, and Aeolian.

We had a great turnout for the Barbecue and it was great socializing with crews from other boats.

Tactics: Playing oscillating winds

This night had pretty consistent wind that was oscillating  left and right about 10 degrees.  You can see this by watching your compass bearing as steering to weather.  Obviously the helmsperson must be steering according to the telltales.  If he is steering correctly you can see the boat swing back and forth. Check for the amount of swing and the time of the swings and you can really use the oscillations to your advantage.  Always remember and header on one tack is a lift on the other.

TIGHT ROUNDING OF BUOYS:

This night was a huge lesson for me on this. We knew it was close as soon as we tacked.  We were praying for a right shift to lift us but our prayers were unheard!  We pinched up to the mark and then just before the mark, we fell off just enough to increase our speed, then used the inertia built up by this move to coast around the buoy.  When attempting this maneuver, sail trim is EVERYTHING!  You cannot afford to backwind the jib when trying to coast around, but as soon as the mark is midship, harden up on the jib and loosen the main to help the boat round the mark. This was very impressive to see for us on the boat. Collectively we were all holding our breath but the seals were jumping in appreciation of our move!

See you next Tuesday.

Barry L. Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

MAY 24, 2016: STEADY WINDS

May 24, 2016

STEADY BREEZE

The prediction was for a lot of wind that would subside as the evening proceeded.  My first glimpse of the flag on the Crows Nest confirmed there was a lot of wind from the Northwest.  The flag was flying as stiff as a board. We motored out of the harbor and watched as there were various boats out on the bay with various amounts of sail up.  Some were sailing with heavily reefed mains and small jibs.  We raised our main with a reef in it.  It was finally time to use the 135 jib for the first time this spring.  May winds were finally here.

We called everyone over to the start area and called for course Whiskey 1: Start, Wharf, Mile, Blacks and finish.

  We gave a 5 minute horn and set up for our start.  Since the conditions were easier inside, we wanted to be able to tack as soon as we could to head back toward the beach.  We set up on Starboard tack start the very last boat in the parade of starboard tacking boats.  We did not go out far before Sagitarius was crossing below us so we tacked to cover them.  We may have slowed them a little, but they still passed us and got far enough ahead of us to tack and clear us.  We didn’t even have to dip them. 

At wharf, Sagitarius had a comfortable lead followed by Pair A Dice, Pacific Spirit and Kicks.  We all romped on toward mile as we shook out our reef on Pair A Dice.  Pacific Spirit was doing a good job using their extra waterline trying to run us down.  At Mile we still had a very small lead on Pacific Spirit.  There were no points of sail that required a whisker pole, so we had no advantage there as we all reached toward Black buoy.  Pacific Spirit was slowly grinding us down and finally caught us at Blacks with an inside overlap which required us to let them round first.

As we rounded black buoy, we did not feel we could climb on top of Pacific Spirit so we tried to pass them to leeward.   They were very close so we did a wide swinging tack to clear their stern and the race was on for the finish mark.  Sagitarius had finished way before all of us, Pacific Spirt was second and we were a close third followed by Kicks, Makani and Aeolian.

What a gorgeous night for a sail!

Tactics:

On downwind runs when you are trailing another boat, your object is to steal their wind.  You are looking for the tail of your windex to be pointing at the other boats sails.  This effect of disturbing air on the other boats sails is much more pronounced in lighter wind than heavier wind. As boats converge on a downwind leg, the overtaking boat must yield to the boat they are passing.  Once an overlap is established the leeward boat can luff the windward boat up as far as they want, a tactic frequently used in team racing.  The goal is to have an inside overlap at the 3 boat zone for the rounding of the mark. Pacific Spirit did this perfectly on this night.

Rules:

Check out this web site for a review of all racing rules:

 http://game.finckh.net/situat/tit_gbr/0_titel_e.htm

Thank you Fred Molnar for passing this on to us.

Next Tuesday (May 31) will be:BARBECUE NIGHT AT SCYC, BRING YOUR FAVORITE FOOD FOR A GREAT TIME.

Fair winds, see you next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

TUESDAY MAY 17, 2016: EASTERLY WIND

TUESDAY MAY 17,2016

EASTERLY WIND!

My first glimpse of the flag at the Crows Nest confirmed a moderate Easterly blowing.  We got out of the harbor and made our way to the start mark.  Since we were not certain if the wind would hold, we decided on a moderate length course Bravo 4: Start, Blacks, Gov, Finish.  Since some boats were waiting for crew, we delayed the start till 6:10 and gave a 5 minute horn.

On Pair A Dice we set up for a Starboard start at the buoy.  We had a great start with Toad right in front of us.   After the start, we were able to point higher and get above Toad.  Pair a Dice was the first to round Blacks. We felt there would be more wind toward the beach and sailed toward the beach. The only problem with this strategy is going through the dreaded kelp beds.  We gingerly worked our way through the kelp beds.  Kicks used the same tactic.  As we were approaching gov, it was apparent there was a Coast Guard cutter tied to the Buoy.  As we approached the cutter, we switched our radio to monitor channel 16 in case they tried to hail us.  We rounded Gov and headed straight back to start.

Pair A Dice rounded the start/finish mark first, followed by Pacific Spirit, Odonata, Kicks, Aeolian and Toad and Sea Quake.

Tactics:

It is always a risk going through a kelp bed!  You never know when you will pick up an unwanted hitch hiker.  Some things to consider in these situations: 

-High tide:  makes less of the kelp floating on the surface and makes it easier to avoid hitch hikers.

-Density of kelp bed:  We have had a lot of swell through the winter keeping the beds thin.  It would be riskier in late summer when the beds are thicker.

-Is there current? You can tell this by looking at the kelp.  If all of the kelp is streaming the same way, there is a current.  If they are streaming the way you are going, you are going with the current which makes it easier to find paths through the kelp.

When trying to go through kelp it is critical to have someone on the bow guiding the way through the openings in the kelp.  On this particular night, it was apparent that we had about a one knot current headed toward Gov.  We used this current to get to the mark and went outside to avoid it on the way back to finish.

Rules:

There seemed to be a little excitement at the rounding of Blacks as many boats approached at the same time.   On Pair A Dice, we were busy and did not observe what happened so cannot offer an opinion.  Mark rounding can be a complex situation because so many rules are involved.  Rule 18 is the predominant rule that deals with mark rounding, but this does not mean other rules are not at play.  Rule 18 simply says that the first boat to enter the 3 boat length “zone” achieves right of way for mark rounding.  This gets more complicated when a boat reaches the zone but is overlapped by an inside boat, which gives mark room to behind but inside boat.  This gets much more complicated when any of the boats must tack in the zone to clear the mark which forfeits their right of way to boats that did not tack in the zone.  Other rules also apply like keeping clear of other boats when tacking.  If anyone with better knowledge on these rules would like to comment or clarify, please do so.

As complicated as these mark rounding can get, the boats that are seriously racing usually follow another rule “no drinking until going downwind”.

We will see you out there next Tuesday.  (The barbecue at SCYC will be the LAST Tuesday which will be the 31^st)

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

TUESDAY MAY 10, 2016: STEADY WINDS

TUESDAY MAY 10,2016

STEADY WINDS

The predictions were for 12 to 13 knot winds out of the North.  We left the harbor anticipating a fun night on the water.  The wind seemed steady, but would it hold long enough for a decent course?  We rolled the dice and decided on Whiskey 3: start, Wharf, Blacks, Start.  We gave a 5 minute horn and all boats jockeyed for position.

Pair A Dice was determined to start on starboard at the buoy.  As usual the start line was getting very crowded.  We knew we were too early so we threw in a jibe and ended up right on time at the buoy.  One other boat thought they could come in on port and tack right in front of us.  We had to pinch up to avoid collision.  We may have been able to roll them, but had another boat to windward destroying our wind and slowing us down.  Our skipper wisely called for a tack to clean air.  This worked well for us.  We seemed to be further out in a little more wind (?).  Additionally, we were not taking the waves on our bow.  We finally tacked over for wharf mark and rounded just ahead of Makani for the long run to Blacks.

The tactics on the way to Blacks involved trying to stay out of Makani’s wind shadow and heat it up enough for speed.  We studied our masthead windex and at no point did it point at Makani, so we were in the clear.  We rounded Blacks ahead of Makani and marched on ahead to finish first (finally!).

I have to compliment Makani for such a great race.  With only two people on board, they managed to set and take down the whisker pole for a very intense rounding of blacks.  They did an awesome job!

The order at finish was PAD, Makani, Pacific Spirit, Kicks, Aeolian and Sea quake, Odonata and Toad.

Tactics:

It is critical when caught in a bad situation, whether being lee-bowed or shadowed, to get out of the situation as soon as possible.  Do not continue in a bad situation and think it will improve.   When going downwind, your windex and the windex of the boat to windward of you indicate where their wind shadow is.  Do not be in a position where your windex is pointing directly at the windward boat!

Rules:

Starboard has right of way over a port tack!  If you are on port, you must yield to a starboard tack boat.  If you tack right in front of the starboard tack boat and they must steer to avoid collision, you have fouled them.  The penalty is normally two turns to exonerate yourself.  Most SI’s now indicated a one turn penalty.  In order to prevent this situation, the starboard boat should hail  “STARBOARD! NO ROOM, DO NOT EVEN THINK OF GOING IN THEIR!”

Looking forward to next week.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce

MAY 3, 2016: EAST TO NORTHWEST

MAY 3, 2016

WIND FROM THE EAST! OR IS IT NORTHWEST?

Sailflow was predicting Easterly breeze in the afternoon, so I was not surprised when I came to the harbor and saw the Easterly filling in.  We all filed out of the harbor and set up for an East wind course: start, Blacks, Mile, finish.  We gave a five minute horn and set up for the start.

We were fortunate to be first off the line right at the start buoy and lead the charge to Blacks in the moderate Easterly.  We were first around Blacks and started the long slog to Mile.  The line straight to Mile was not ideal.  There was little power in the sails to propel the boat and the waves on the bow did not help.  We hardened up on the East wind even though it was sailing away from Mile. Hardening up on the wind seemed to help our progress along with not taking the waves right on the bow.  This was a big gamble.  Would the wind fill in outside first or build inside closer to the beach?  It seemed like we were sitting in a hole of no wind as Pacific Spirit passed us to windward in the dying Easterly.  We continued on when finally we noticed a wind line just 200 yards ahead of us.  We were stuck in a transition zone once again.  Pacific Spirit hit the wind first, followed by us.  It was a northwesterly breeze that had filled in.  We saw up to 18 knots of breeze close to the mile buoy.

Pacific Spirit rounded mile comfortably ahead of us and took a line toward the harbor while we ran toward the mark.  We held our line further inside with our eye on the wind indicator to see if it would subside.  Pacific Spirit tacked out toward the start buoy several times.  Ultimately their tactics worked as we finally tacked toward the start mark we noticed that there was more wind outside.  Once again we were shown: “Always sail to where there is more wind!”

After we rounded we went out to witness Makani leading the charge ahead of Kicks, Aeolian and Sea Quake.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

APRIL 26, 2016: AEOLIAN SHOWS THE WAY

TUESDAY APRIL 26, 2016

KUDOS TO AEOLIAN

I was out of town for this evenings sail.  All information I got about this night was hearsay and there was a lot of that. 

Since this report is based on second hand information, it will be short. My first report was that there was a lot of wind and there were nine boats out for the fun.   In the end, the normal Sagitarius and Pacific Spirit were ahead as usual.  These two boats were followed by Aeolian, Kicks and Pair A Dice.  Kudos to Aeolian for finishing ahead of the normal pack.  Great job Mark and the crew of Aeolian!

About 30 people showed up at the club for the barbecue.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce