JANUARY 28, 2025
NICE EASTERLY WIND
Below is Doug Mahone’s recap of this Tuesday Afternoon race.
When we
left the harbor at 2:30p, it was sunny and clear, with an 8-10 kt westerly
breeze from 245 degrees. We set up a 150 yd long start line perpendicular to
the breeze, with the old Start/Finish mark (currently marked by a white fender
and a small red buoy) on the left end, and a larger temporary red buoy at the
right end. We were intending to race from the start line, to Mile, and back to
S/F.
Shortly after 3:00p, the breeze died. We were in a
transition, awaiting an easterly. At 3:15p, the easterly arrived, blowing from
85 deg at around 6-8 kts. We quickly motored upwind about a half mile and
dropped another temporary mark. We kept our original start line, but in
reverse, with the S/F mark on the right end and the temp red ball at the left
end. The course ran upwind to the new temporary mark, down to Gov, and back up
to S/F, taking all marks to port. The finish line was an extension of a line from
the lighthouse thru S/F.
At 3:25p we sounded the prep horn and got off to a
clean start at 3:30p. Eight boats recorded their tracks on RaceQs, with another
two or three anonymously joining in the racing. The new breeze held up
through most of the race, although it started to falter at the end for some of
the later finishers.
It was a bit tricky finding the Gov mark, because
there was an illegal anchor out sailboat tied to it.
Some of the finishers were apparently confused
about which of the start line marks was S/F, and instead finished by rounding
the temporary red ball at the left end of the start line.
The harbor mouth was a bit tricky, as the shoal
narrowed the channel close to the east jetty at a nominal depth of
10 ft. The fleet passed thru at lower low tide of
-1 ft (9 ft deep). There were no significant swells complicating passage. The
deepest boat, Aboriginal, ran aground, but was able to back off and get thru. I
think all the other boats passed without incident.
Coming back to the harbor mouth, it was swarmed by
terns feeding on a large school of bait fish. My depth sounder showed 2-3 ft
depth all the way in past the gas dock, apparently fooled by the schooling fish
because we didn’t hit bottom. All boats made it back to their slips
before dark.
It was BBQ night at the club, with a lively crowd
around the grill and in the dining room. With the lengthening days, we’re
hoping more boats will be able to join in the coming weeks as we count down to
the return of daylight savings time.
Doug Mahone, Avatar
Big thanks to Doug for the excellent recap!
The first boat to round GOV was Aboriginal then Aquavit,
Avatar, Nidaros, Inspiration, Big Mac, Kicks and Wind Goddess. On the beat back to the finish line, the
first boat to finish was Aboriginal 33:58, then Aquavit 40:22 Avatar 41:03, Nidaros 44:04, Big Mac
46:35, Kicks 49:56, Inspiration 48:54 and Wind Goddess 58:33. All times are elapsed and the course distance
was 2.53NM. Though the finish line was designated to take S/F to
port, two boats finished at the wrong end of the line. I finished these boats but added 30 seconds
to their elapsed time.
Though I was not able to participate in this race, it was
nice to see a nice Easterly wind.
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS:
PLACE BOAT PHRF CORRECTED TIME
1 ABORIGINAL 33 32:34
2 AVATAR 132 35:29
3 BIG MAC 222 37:13
4 AQUAVIT 72 37:20
5 NIDAROS 118 39:05
6 KICKS 180 42:20
7 INSPIRATION 147 42:42
8 WIND
GODDESS 168 51:28
RACE QS:
The track for this afternoon can be found at:
I hope to see
you sailing next Tuesday!
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
