MAY 7, 2019: A COOL EVENING SAIL

May 7, 2019

A COOL EVENING SAIL

Predictions were all over the place for wind with some saying we would have greater than 20 knots on the bay.  Checking the Crows Nest flag, I could see it starting to droop a little so we kept the 155 jib on for the night. As we left the harbor, there was heavy overcast for a cool evening sail, there was also a healthy swell jacking up in the harbor entrance. From the entrance of the harbor to the start mark, we lost almost 5 knots of wind speed, but the northwesterly was blowing outside.

With the wind coming from 240 degrees (we are in Santa Cruz you know) we dropped the ball for the line and called for course Whiskey 3.  I did not want to get too aggressive and have boats negotiating the harbor entrance in the dark with such a swell running.  We had about 14 boats out for the fun, but only half of them had Race QS running.

On Pair a Dice, my plan for the start was to be at the beach side of the line with clear air for the first beat.  I accomplished hitting the line about 10 seconds late, but had Avatar directly in front of me, so did not get the clear air I desired. We all made our way tacking toward wharf mark.  The wind was very fickle, with pockets of good wind followed by lighter wind pockets.  It was not real apparent where the greater wind was by looking at the water.

At Wharf, Tusitala was the first around followed quickly by Avatar, then Pacific Spirit, Pair A Dice, Perfect 36 and Patricia J.  On Pair a Dice, we followed roughly a line directly to blacks, only altering course to avoid the bad wind from boats behind us. Remember to always look at the windex of the boat behind you to see if you are in their wind shadow.  If the tail of their windex is pointing at you, you can expect to see your sails sag a little.

At Blacks, once again Tusitala was followed quickly by Avatar, Pair a Dice and Pacific Spirit rounded together with Pacific Spirit claiming inside rights to “room at the mark”.  After rounding we had Patricia J and Perfect 36 in hot pursuit.  We all tacked over at different times toward the finish line.  At the finish it was Tusitala (50:29), Avatar (51.55), Patricia J (55:26), Pacific Spirit (55:51), Pair a Dice (56:25), Perfect 36 (57:04) and Kicks (1:05:10).  All time are elapsed and the course length was 3.23 miles.

SHOOTING A MARK:

Shooting a mark is NOT a second amendment right!  It is something I am still learning the finer nuances, but was able to accomplish on this night.  You use this move to get around the windward mark in a tight situation.  You have done all you can to round the mark and are very close but more than likely will bounce off the mark requiring a one turn penalty.  Shooting the mark requires incredible coordination of the whole crew to pull it off.  The skipper stays as high as possible and about 2-3 boat-lengths away from the mark falls off to get more speed, then turns directly into the wind.  The coordination of the crew requires the jib trimmer to completely release the jib just as the boat comes into the wind.  Watch for kinks in the jib sheet, because a back-winded jib KILLS the move by stopping the boat and the momentum you built up by falling off before the mark.  When the mark is mid-ship (and not before), the jib should be tightened to help pull the boat around and down. It is also important to release the main-sheet at the same time so the boat can turn down  swinging the transom away from the mark. It is critical to NOT pass head to wind if there is a nearby boat to weather. Shooting the mark is easier with heavier boats (more momentum) so works well with Catalinas.  It is a lot harder to accomplish in higher winds because the windage of the boat will stop you in your tracks.  From my experience, 8-15 knots is ideal.

 It is certainly better to properly call the layline so you do not need to use this trick.  Even if performed perfectly it is still a gamble, better to round comfortably. Still, shooting the mark is definitely a slick move to have in your bag of tricks.

THE RULE THAT NEVER SLEEPS:

Rule 14: Avoiding contact

A boat shall avoid contact with another boat if reasonably possible. However, a right of way boat or one entitled to room or mark-room (a)need not act to avoid contact until it is clear that the other boat is not keeping clear or giving room or mark-room, and (b) shall be exonerated if she breaks this rule and the contact does not cause damage or injury.

It is early in the season and I think it is important to emphasize this rule.  NOTHING discourages participation in our Tuesday night sailing more than boats crashing into each other.  Please do everything in your power to avoid collision.  Keep in mind we have many novice sailors learning about the racing rules so sometimes you may have to give up your “rights” to avoid collision. Above all else, if you see an impending collision with your boa DO NOT try to fend off, this is how injuries occur!

 Since we are engaged in “Beer can racing” there is no protest committee if someone does break a rule.  If a rule is broken and you witness it, please let me know about it.  I will discuss the rule in this blog, never implicating guilty parties.  We are all trying to learn about sailing and racing.

See you next Tuesday,

Barry L. Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

APRIL 30, 2019: A BLUSTERY NIGHT

 APRIL 30, 2019

A BLUSTERY NIGHT

On approaching the harbor, it was apparent that there was adequate wind for a race. As we left the harbor, we could see that there was a good northwesterly breeze blowing at about 15 knots.  We set the line and called for course W3.  This seemed like a good course for a barbecue night.  We had about 13 boats out for the fun.  We blew a 5 minute horn and set up for our start.

Pair a Dice wanted to start up the line (toward the yellow start mark) and accomplished this with Makani off our starboard hip and Perfect 36 ahead of us off our port bow.  As Makani crept up on us we slowed down a bit which allowed Perfect 36 to be the first to tack over toward the mark.  We all made our way toward wharf with Tusitala first to round and Perfect 36 following right behind them, then Makani, Patricia J, Pair a Dice and Rosie.

On the long run to Blacks there was not a lot of change in order and at the finish it was Perfect 36 (41:36), Tusitala (42:19), Pair a Dice (47:10), Patricia J, with Jason single-handed (48:03), Rosie (53:40) and Aeolian (54:10).  All times are elapsed and the length of the course was 3.23 miles. I know that Makani, Pacific Spirit and Auquavie finished way ahead of us but something happened with their Race QS track so I do not know their times.  Special not should go to Avatar which had an exceptional race coming in between Perfect 36 and Tusitala.  Unfortunately, Their RaceQS track did not show on my track.  We will get to the bottom of the Race QS mystery.

With only “15 knots” of true wind, it sure was a blustery night.

RACE QS:

There were many more boats out tonight, but many did not upload their race QS track.  Unfortunately we can only count you if your track uploads. This is a free app that allows us to track all boats in our race if used correctly.  From my experience there are several things that can cause a Race QS malfunction:  battery running out while recording the track and not having your phone GPS enabled. Also, when I use my phone for Race QS, it is dedicated to this app, I do not take pictures or take calls while the app is running.  On Pair a Dice, we have started using two phones (it is a free app) to record.  If one malfunctions upload the other.  It is still fun to come out and race, but it would be good to see how you are doing, so  it is suggested to record on 2 phones in case one malfunctions.

Copy and past this link into your browser to see this weeks track. Remember you must have google earth installed on your computer for this program to work.

https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011635&divisionId=58377&updatedAt=2019-05-01T18:13:57Z&dt=2019-04-30T17:30:02-07:00..2019-04-30T19:14:09-07:00&boat=Dice&model=J24&time=1556675619344&focus=Dice&rival=The%20Perfect%20Thirty-six&tab=match&view=follow&lat=36.952498&lon=-121.995403&tilt=1&range=1306&heading=251

BLUSTERY WIND:

One of the boats indicated the wind was 15 knots true.  It sure felt like more to me.  I was wondering about the effect of temperature on the effect of wind on sails (this evening was unusually cool).  It made sense to me that cooler temperatures would have more force than warmer temps.  I know we had our 155 jib on this night, but we were heeling a lot!

It has been shown that cooler air IS denser and exerts more pressure on our sails than in warm air. One person even thought there should be a gauge similar to “wind chill factor” used for sailing predictions.  “the wind today will be 20knots but will feel like 22 knots”

If you want to see the whole discussion on this topic, google WIND STRENGTH MYTH and read the whole forum on scuttlebutt-sailing forum.:dock talk: WIND STRENGTH MYTH.

DEALING WITH INCREASED WIND:

We all know our boats and our limits with regard to wind.  On Pair A Dice, I have a jiffy reefing system and can put the first reef in within 60 seconds.  Some people will change to a smaller jib.  Some, rather than changing to a smaller jib, will move to the outside track which opens the slot and allows you to keep the larger jib for a little longer.

Once, I was in the Santa Barbara channel in 40 knot winds, going down wind. We had one reef in and no jib.  We determined we needed a second reef in the main.  I gingerly climbed to the cabin top as the sail was lowered, I needed to thread a line through the second reef cringle. In 40 knots this is nearly an impossible task , as the leech of the sail flails wildly.  I ultimately succeeded and we got our second reef in.

 When we returned, I was talking to a dock mate about the experience and his advice was to always have a small line looped between the first reef cringle and the second reef cringle in the leech.  This small line between the cringles should have a loop tied in it, so when the second reef needs to be used, you can put the reefing line through the loop, pull the line through the second reef cringle and tie off the leech part of the sail. Use the Cunningham to keep the luff in place.

Looking forward to next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce

APRIL 23, 2019: THE PERFECT SAILING EVENING

APRIL 23, 2019

THE PERFECT SAILING EVENING

I had no accurate prediction for what the wind was going to do tonight.  When I showed up to the harbor, I was informed that the Easterly was in effect.  We got out of the harbor early and set the buoy for the Easterly breeze and called B4 as the course.  We had 16 boats out for the fun tonight including a new participant: Aquavi (a Juneau 42). We gave a 5 minute horn and began to set up for our start.  I had Fred Molnar on the helm and he skillfully killed time for the start and we ended up right at the start mark on time just behind Makani.

After the start we were getting bad air from the boats in front of us but we were able to point higher and get clean air.  Ultimately all of the boats tacked over but PAD continued in toward Blacks and tacked very close to the mark.  As we approached Blacks, we had a parade of starboard tackers coming down on us.  We cleared the first boat and tacked just in front of the other boats. We barely coasted around the mark and started the downwind run to Gov.

Most of the boats took the inside course, but PAD took the outside course more on the Rhum line toward Gov.  As we rounded Gov, Pacific Spirit and Avatar were ahead and Pair A Dice rounded just ahead of Aquavie  and Zoop and Makani.

On the way back to finish, many of the boats took the inside course once again, while PAD continued on an outer course toward the finish line.  At the finish, Avatar crossed at 44:58, PAD at 45:42, Makani at 47:00, Perfect 36 at 49:07, Tusitala 49:30,  Sandpiper 52:24 and Nidaros 54:00.  All times are elapsed and the distance of the course was 2:43 miles.

We had a great time eating and talking about the evening’s sailing at the Crow’s Nest. It was the perfect sailing evening.

RACE QS:

I know there were many more boats out on this night than recorded above, but the above boats were the only ones running Race QS.  Race QS is a free app you can run on your smart phone.  Once the app is downloaded, you can preset the start time and once your track is uploaded, anyone can go to the web site and view the data.  The information you can learn is amazing.  It shows how well you are steering, angle of heel and you can even analyze your tacks to see how efficient you are tacking.  Not only is this a tool we can all use to improve our sailing, we are using this app as our race committee.  It is only through this app that we can record your finish time.

 

We have a diverse group of boats in our group with PHRF’s running the whole gamut.  The only way any boat can assess how they did in the race is to compare their finish time with the other boats and apply the PHRF to see how they did.  You must run Race QS to be counted! Without Race QS running you are invisible to the “race committee”.  It is still fun sailing on Tuesday night even if not counted, but using Race QS actually legitimizes your sailing expertise.

THREE OF THE FASTEST BOATS HEADED TO THE FINISH!

INSIDE OUTSIDE:                                                                                                                                  

Many of the boats took the inside course toward Gov, PAD stayed outside.  By staying outside we were sailing straight toward Gov and we had clear air.  In the light winds we had this night, clear air was critical. On the way back to the start mark, we were sailing a line closer to straight to the finish line. On this particular night, there did not seem to be a big difference between wind on the inside versus the outside.

SAILING SAFETY:

Sailing involves risk. Driving to get to the boat involves risk.  The important thing is to manage and minimize risk.  While sailing we are involved with many risky actions. I believe it is important to always be cognizant of dangers involved.  We should always consider “what is the worst that can happen and how can we (I) avoid it?”

Consider your lifejacket.  Is it an auto-inflate? How can you be certain that it will inflate if needed? If it does not and “the worst” happens (you go overboard)  It does you no good. I notice that many of the experienced sailors have regular life jackets, not auto-inflate. 

Many jacklines run along the outside rail, just close enough to the rail to allow you to go overboard .  Why not run the jacklines down the middle of the boat so your tether keeps you ON the boat?  Getting dragged through the water would be a horrible way to go.  In essence: STAY ON THE BOAT!

I have always liked to wear a line around my neck that has a puck compass and a knife  attached: two critical tools for sailing. It was recently pointed out to me that the line around my neck could be a noose that, should it get caught around something could easily kill me.  Once again “what is the worst that can happen and how can I avoid it?”  My friend gave me a break-away strap that would break rather than hang me.

NEXT TUESDAY IS THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH: BARBECUE NIGHT AT THE YACHT CLUB!!  BRING YOUR BEST GRILLING FOOD AND MEET AND GREET YOUR FELLOW TUESDAY NIGHT SAILORS!      

We will see you next Tuesday!

Barry L Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

APRIL 16, 2019

ALL POINTS OF THE COMPASS

The predictions for the wind were up to 14 knots on the bay.  By the time I got to the harbor, the crew had already swapped out to the 155 jib for the lighter winds expected.  As we left the harbor, there was a very apparent northwest wind on the outside.  The wind line extended in and included the newly installed Start mark (thank you race committee!)  When we got to this wind it was about 15 knots.  We had enough wind to have a race! With such great wind, we set the temporary line mark inside toward the beach and called for course W3: Wharf, Blacks, Finish.  Amazingly, in the 15 minutes between the mark setting and the start, the wind came in with an equally strong North wind, which made the beach end of the line very favored.

Many of the boats had great starts: Tusitala, Avatar and Kicks nailed the beach end of the line at speed.  PAD got stuck in the transition zone halfway down the line and was late to the start.  We at least had clear air and were able to take a bearing pretty close to rhumb line to Wharf.  Tusitala played everything just right and was the first to round Wharf well ahead of everyone else.  Second around Wharf was PAD, then Pacific Spirit, Kicks and Avatar.

The rounding at Blacks got very interesting as some of the boats hit the mark in the strang winds that were springing up.  Some took their penalty turn and others just headed to the harbor.  Understandable, imagine trying to take penalty turns on boats that are 10-15,000 pounds in weird very light wind.  Seeing the mayhem at the mark, PAD took the mark wide into a patch of wind to propelled us around the mark. On the way to finish, Avatar was romping ahead of us by 2 boat-lengths.  With the now North wind, we apparently were able to block their wind and creeped up to barely pass them.  At the finish: Tusitala19:14:23, PAD 19:40:29, Avatar 19:40:32, Kicks 19:41:12 and Sanpiper 19:42:20.

It was a great night on the water, with a beautiful sunset.  Though it was tortuously slow through much of the race, it was way better than sitting at home in front of the TV!  The wind was so variable it covered all points of the compass.

LIGHT WIND SAILING:

This is always a challenge, especially when the direction is variable and you cannot read the wind because it is not contacting the water.  I find it best to maximize the effect of the waves as long as it is not taking you to lighter wind.  You want to avoid going into the waves if at all possible.  Another thing I learned on this night is to let the very light breeze dictate how you set the sails.  If your sails back wind, quickly reset on the other tack.  Another useful tool we have on Pair A Dice is telltales on the shrouds consisting of old cassette tape.  These telltales will indicate the direction of the wind about 8 feet off the water, which helps when there are no ripples on the water.

See you out there next Tuesday!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

APRIL 9, 2019: DOUGLAS MAHONE BLOG

Thanks to Doug Mahone from the boat Avatar for writing the blog for this week.  We will see you out there this coming Tuesday.

Tuesday April 9th blog (draft)

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Douglas Mahone	Apr 9, 2019, 10:08 PM (4 days ago)
to me

This week was a heavy weather race, with five boats going out. Winds were from the NW averaging around 12 kts, with shifty gusts over 18 kts (true). Skies were clear and beautiful.

Pair-Dice set up a start line based at the newly set club start mark, and called a course up to Government, down to Blacks (also newly set), and back to the Finish.

At the start, three boats were basically on time, and two were late. Tusitala took an early lead and kept it throughout. Perfect Thirty-Six and Avatar fought it out for the next two places (Perfect prevailed). Kicks was chased by Pair-Dice, but not caught.

A lot of the strategy turned on not getting overpowered in the big gusts. Some boats started with both main and jib reefed, some didn't reef, some shook out reefs for the downwind leg. It appeared that the overpowered boats that did not fare as well as those that were able to sail on a more even keel with less weather helm. Most boats were sailing at or near to hull speed anyway, so extra sail area didn't add much. The heavier boats with longer waterlines were favored under the wind conditions.

The race was exciting, challenging, and, if anything, could have been longer (had there been more course options for a NW wind).

There were nearly fifteen cheerful and animated sailors for dinner at the Crow's Nest, which showed that the summer sailing season is getting into full swing. We're hoping for more boats next week.

Doug.

Douglas Mahone
doug@dmahone.com

APRIL 2, 2019: RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING, BUT NOT TONIGHT!

APRIL 2, 2019

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING, BUT NOT TONIGHT!

As dicey as this season has been, this night did not look like any improvement.  Indeed, as I left work at 5pm I walked to my car in a steady rain.  I was thinking there was little chance for a sail in these conditions.  I had committed to at least show up at the boat, so dutifully made the short drive to the harbor.  I was surprised to see a “hole in the clouds” as I approached the harbor and set up for a sail!  We had 5 brave boats tempting their luck with impending rain all over the place.

We set the buoy as fairly close to the jetty lighthouse attempting to set a perpendicular line to the wind.  With none of the racing buoys deployed we called for a course: start mark to starboard (start line an extension of line from lighthouse and start mark), first mark GOV to port, Mile to port, finish at line between Gov and end of wharf.  We blew a 5 minute horn and set up for our start.

As usual, we wanted to start on starboard tack, which required us to sail close to the harbor entrance and approach on starboard INTO the waves.  Amazingly the boats starting on port tack (sailing with the waves), all had great starts.  On Pair A Dice, we were late to the line being slowed by the waves and had a lot of distance to make up between Avatar and Makani which were enjoying a great lead over us, though it felt like we were starting to close some of the distance on our way to Gov.  We had a steady 9 knot wind as we rounded Gov and started to sail toward Mile.  We were steadily closing the gap on Makani, though Avatar was the first to round Mile.  Somehow we rounded Mile ahead of Makani and started sailing back to Gov for the finish.  The disturbing sound of the bow wake of Makani seemed to get louder and louder as he approached us from behind us and ultimately passed us.

 At the finish, it was Avatar with a healthy lead, Makani and Pair a Dice.   Amazingly, with dark clouds all around we did not get rained on until we were back in the harbor with sail covers on!

TOWING ANOTHER BOAT:

On this  night, we had a boat with an Impaired motor so we towed them into the harbor.  As always it was an education.  You should use a line long enough so the towed boat is not right on your stern.  You need enough distance to allow you to react if the towed boat catches a wave.  It is good to have fenders out as you approach the other boat because you need to be in close proximity to the boat to toss a line to them.  Once the line is tied to both boats increase speed slowly to get both boats up to speed.  Determine who is going to release the line when you are approaching the towee and increase speed at the last minute to give the boat enough speed to make it to their slip.  To the experienced, this is all second nature, but unless you do it frequently it can get to be very interesting.

To make it interesting consider if you are being towed by a big power boat.  They toss you a line and slowly increase their speed.  They have power to spare so start going FASTER than YOUR hull speed.  This is where things can go seriously wrong because they are trying to pull you “up-hill” and can apply incredible stress on your boat.  Always be aware of your hull speed and do not let a powerful boat tow you faster than your hull speed.

 Recently there was a trimaran being towed to Moss landing from Santa Cruz.  The trimaran washed ashore close to the Cement Boat in Aptos.  I wonder if they were trying to tow at an excessive speed?

Hopefully this coming Tuesday will be clear with some wind!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A DIce

OCTOBER 30, 2108; THE LAST HURRAH FOR THE YEAR

OCTOBER 30, 2018

THE LAST HURRAH – FOR THIS SEASON

I was not able to be present for the last sail of the season.  Sometimes vacations get in the way!  I watched the race QS track and it looks like the wind did not allow many boats to finish.  With time so short, this can almost be expected.  Thanks to Todd and his crew on Kicks for setting this race up.  I understand there was a good crowd at the club for the barbecue also!

I love the educational opportunity of our Tuesday night sailing.  I find that if you keep alert and observe what happens during a race you can almost learn something new.  This does not seem possible but consider that ocean conditions are always changing.  In essence each day on the ocean can be as varied as snow-flakes.  No two are the same!  I enjoy learning and sharing my observations.  I do not claim to have all of the answers but I will share my thoughts for what they are worth.

With the help of Chris Hoffman, Fred Molnar and Don Radcliffe I feel we have finally achieved the perfect course chart for our Tuesday evening sails. With all of their suggestions, I finally started setting a mark for the other end of the line which has been a huge improvement.   Please keep your course chart for next summer.

I would like to recap some of the things I have learned this year and in previous years:

     Clean boat bottoms are crucial for boat speed.

·             Making your boat as light as possible will increase your speed.

·             Learn the racing rules and use them to your advantage

·             Do not get tangled with other boats (sail in clear air)

·             Learn how to deal with waves.

·             Sail to the area with the most wind (we are on SAIL boats)

·             In light wind, watch for wind higher off the water rather than just wind on the water.

These are just some of the basics.  Be observant and see what you can learn to improve your sailing.

OTHER REGATTAS

The midwinters will be starting on December 17.  It would be good to have a good showing of Jib and Main (jammers) participate in this series.  We can all apply what we have learned on our Tuesday nights. In order to participate you will need a PHRF certificate which only costs $20 for the season.  You can get a PHRF application at the yacht club.

THANKS TO DIANA ON PACIFIC SPIRIT FOR THIS PHOTO

Thanks to all of you for participating and making Tuesday nights something to look forward to.  I am already looking forward to next summer and Tuesday night sailing.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice