Thursday, January 30, 2025

JANUARY 28, 2025 NICE EASTERLY WIND

 

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:

https://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1011635&divisionId=104864&updatedAt=2025-01-29T01:02:47Z&dt=2025-01-28T15:18:09-08:00..2025-01-28T17:02:44-08:00&boat=Kicks&time=1738106307865&focus=Kicks&rival=Nidaros%20II&tab=fleet&view=auto

I hope to see you sailing next Tuesday!

Barry Keeler

Sailing  Pair A Dice

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