AUGUST 18, 2026
INTERESTING EVENING
ON THE WATER
The flags were flying through the afternoon showing a
healthy wind. As we left the harbor at
5pm there was a very good westerly wind that came all the way into the S/F
mark. There was no fog toward Capitola
and reports of “not very hot inland”.
This discouraged anticipation of an Easterly developing. The wind was coming from about 250 degrees so
we set a line square to this and called for course W4. We blew the “15 minute horn” at 5:45, but as
the clock ticked down, I noticed a change.
The windex was showing an Easterly breeze developing. We cancelled the race as Spinny fleet had
already started, changed course to E3 and blew a second “15 minute horn”. We
ended up telling boats to follow the signal coming from Regatta Hero for the
proper start time. As the Easterly
built, we were all enjoying the great conditions. When
we got closer to Gov, my heart sank when I saw the Coast Guard cutter moored to
Gov requiring rounding the cutter rather than Gov. As boats were rounding the cutter, some got
too close with multiple announcements from the cutter to keep clear. The required distance is no closer than 100
yards, which extended the length of the course with an undefined leeward mark
to round.
With the sudden change in wind and course requiring
manipulating Regatta Hero, then the cutter moored to Gov, it was an interesting
evening on the water. Thanks to Zach
Shepard and James Amendolagine for their work with Regatta Hero.
Spinny fleet track can be reviewed at:
https://www.regattahero.com/mapviewer/?organisation=scyc&passcode=233793®atta=Tues%20Spinny%20Fleet&race=18.8.2026%2018:04:57&language=en&defaultspeed=5&loop=no
AFleet track can be seen at:
B Fleet: Track available at:
NEXT
TUESDAY IS THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH WHICH IS:
BARBECUE
NIGHT AT THE CLUB AFTER THE RACE. BRING
YOUR BEST FOOD TO GRILL AND SHARE! ALSO
A GREAT TIME TO SOCIALIZE AROUND THE BARBECUE!
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS:
COURSE E3 DISTANCE 2.687NM
PLACE BOAT PHRF ET CORRECTED TIME
SPINNY FLEET:
1 PEGASUS 150 43:34 36:51
2 FLEXI
FLYER 96 43:40 39:22
3 DOUBLE
ESPRESSO 99 45:10 40:44
4 AVATAR 132 50:42 44:47
FLEET A:
1 ABORIGINAL 33 38:36 37:07
2 WATTS
MOORE 150 46:01 39:18
3 MAIN
SQUEEZE 72 45:53 42:40
4 KEMOSABE 81 1:05:16 1:01:38
ZOOP DSQ (see
Zoop Scoop)
FLEET B:
1 BIG MAC 222 51:41 41:45
2 SAILING
PAIR A DICE 180 53:53 45:49
3 AZOR 243 57:22 46:29
4 ABSOLUTE
05 120 52:12 46:50
5 NIDAROS 118 53:18 48:01
6 MAKANI 147 54:50 48:15
7 PACIFIC
SPIRIT 165 57:12 49:49
8 TARA 243 62:23 51:30
9 SIMPATICO 165 61:12 53:49
10 WIND
GODDESS 163 64:53 57:35
11 KICKS 180 65:46 57:42
12 MYSTIC 150 83:12 76:28
ZOOP SCOOP BY PAUL TARA
QUIZ
Last Week:
c) Moore 24 minimum
class weight is: 2,050 lbs. Includes the hull, spars, hardware and fittings,
standing and running rigging, but not the sails, or other miscellaneous
gear.
This Week:
A minimum weight Moore
24, sailing with maximum crew weight, displaces:
a) 2,050 lbs.
b) 2,825 lbs.
c) 2,525 lbs.
“HIGH VALUE ASSETS”
You must keep a minimum
distance of 100 yards (91 meters) from any moored U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
vessel or official “High Value Asset” (HVA) in Monterey Bay.
Since this is a
development series, time to pay attention. In what can only be described
as a “senior moment” Tuesday, Zoop violated the above
regulation and rounded “Gov” within about 20’ of the transom of the USCG cutter
moored there. That put her around 280’ in violation. Slam dunk. I knew
the rules and just spaced out. We went on to score 3rd on corrected time.
That’s incorrect. Regatta Hero doesn’t know anything about Homeland
Security Regulations. Zoop should be scored DSQ. Not
DNF, but DSQ, just like when boats racing on San Francisco Bay interfere with
commercial traffic.
That being said, in
order to avoid future episodes of arrested development, possibly next year we
should consider the descriptive mark language for Gov including something like
“When occupied, stand off 100 yards.” Tuesday, the only VHF warning we heard was
from Barry, in B Fleet, well after most of A Fleet had rounded. Approaching the
mark from upwind, the cutter’s verbal warnings were pretty unintelligible until
too late. These are not excuses, but I have a feeling that discovering she was
a mark of the course might have been as much of a surprise to her as it was to
the fleet.
THE RACE
Barry made a great
judgement call and saved the evening by postponing and waiting for the easterly
to fill. Then, Zack made another good call to stick with RH when it was not in
sync with the horn, due to the one minute offset from when the postponement was
lowered. E-3 was a good course. Recently, concern over current has led to
Barry pinging both ends the line, but we saw little evidence of current. When
we went out the wind was still westerly and the kelp was streaming east. Later,
in the easterly, the kelp was streaming west. Wind-wise, the conventional
wisdom held — more easterly on the beach. On Zoop, we muffed rounding BP by
trying to set up too early on the starboard lay line and getting caught by the
edge of the transition.
Spinnaker Fleet had 4
boats. Flexi Flyer did a good job of covering Pegasus,
but wasn’t fast enough to save her time. Double Expresso seems
to be getting more of a handle on her asymmetric jibe angles, but upwind she
wasn’t pointing with the other two.
A Fleet had 6 boats and
followed the usual script. Aboriginal got the best start and
never looked back. By Gov, she was well ahead of Watts Moore on
time. On the beat to the finish, Main Squeeze managed to
grind down Watts Moore, but not by nearly enough to
save her time. Zoop was first to set a pole on the run, and
gained steadily, only to sail into the exclusion zone surrounding Gov. Oops, no
penalty turn escape for that one!
B Fleet had 12 boats.
The racing was close and quite competitive. (Dare I say, maybe a little too
competitive at the start.) The star of the evening was Big Mac,
which rounded BP 5th, but took the lead on the run and ended up finishing 1st
both on elapsed and corrected time! I don’t know what portions of the
fleet were smoking, but in the interest of saving time, here’s a shot of the
moment when Big Mac moved into the lead on the run.
Overall, she sailed 3.29 nm; others sailed almost a half mile further. Some
of these maneuvers might be due to the requirement of passing the red ball
within 200’, but Regatta Hero is sounding “mark passed” well outside that
distance. Go figure.
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Thank you Paul!
I hope to see all
of you sailing next Tuesday and at the BBQ.
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A
Dice
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