Thursday, June 19, 2025

JUNE 17, 2025 QUESTIONABLE WIND

 

JUNE 17, 2025

QUESTIONABLE WIND

Predictions were for 7 knot winds with gusts to 26 knots, but when I arrived at the harbor early in the afternoon the flags were limp, showing very little wind.  From the beach, you could see a wind line on the water further out.  As we left the harbor at 5pm, there seemed to be a little more wind from a south-easterly direction.  I took this as an indication that an Easterly was developing and set up for a race to Blacks including an off-set mark.  It would have been encouraging to see a fog bank in Aptos to confirm an Easterly wind, but there was no fog.  As we returned to the start area, there was a definite wind line showing on the water about 100 yards from the S/F mark so we changed the course from E4 to S5 and moved the start line mark to be more square to a Southerly direction.  Conditions at the start were very tricky resulting in several of the A Fleet boats starting with B Fleet boats 5 minutes later.   I was  one of the boats stuck in no wind and didn’t cross the start line until `10 minutes after the B Fleet start.   It was amazing to be stuck in no wind and watch some of the boats get just enough wind to get out into the real but still light wind outside.

We were about a third of the way to Mile when the Easterly filled in with a relatively strong 8 knot wind and we were sailing once again beam reaching straight toward Mile.  Then as luck would have it, the transition zone was centered right around mile and we were adrift with several other boats.  After using my engine to avoid a collision, I was haunted by the prospect of retrieving the offset mark I had set for the E4 course and retired from the race to take care of business. As we motored back inside, there was a healthy Easterly blowing.  Who could have predicted this?   This is what happens with questionable winds.

PHRF CORRECTED RESULTS

PLACE                 BOAT                                   PHRF                   ET                          CORRECTED

FLEET A:

1             ABORIGINAL                                   33             59:05                               58:01

2             TRUE LOVE                                      72          1:04:02                              1:01:43

3             INTERLUDE                                     141         1:23:08                              1:18:37

FLEET B:

1             SIMPATICO                                      165          1:17:35                              1:12:18

2             SWEET PEA                                     165         1:20:48                              1:15:31

3             AVATAR                                            132         1:20:40                              1:16:26

4             PERFECT 36                                    144          1:24:17                              1:19:40

5             PACIFIC SPIRIT                               165         1:31:33                              1:26:16 TIE

5             BIG MAC                                          222         1:33:23                              1:26:16 TIE

7             TOAD                                                 150        1:33:38                              1:28:50

8             NIDAROS                                          118       1:35:06                              1:31:19

9             MYSTIC                                             150       1:51:01                              1:46:13

 

You can review the tracks for this evening at this web site.  Choose which fleet and which date you want to review:

https://www.regattahero.com/mapviewer/?organisation=scyc&passcode=233793&regatta=Tues%20Fleet%20A&race=3.6.2025%2017:55:00&language=en&defaultspeed=5&loop=no

REGATTA HERO:

We are all learning this new system.  In the registration section there is a field labeled “sail number”.  Enter your boat name in this field.  This allows everyone to identify boats when watching the replay. 

It is also a mystery why some boat tracks freeze in the middle of the race.  It turns out that when conditions are very mild with little or no boat movement, the track will freeze.  If you wear the phone on your body, your body motion may keep the track going.

_)                                       _)                   _)                                                  _)    (_                            (_

NEXT TUESDAY IS THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH!  BARBECUE POTLUCK AT THE CLUB AFTER THE RACE.  BRING YOUR BEST GRILLING FOOD TO GRILL, ENJOY AND SHARE!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice

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