SEPTEMBER 29, 2026
ANOTHER PERFECT
EASTERLY
Predictions were for a dying
Westerly and when I got to the harbor early in the afternoon there was a
Westerly showing on the flags. By 2 pm
we started seeing an Easterly. When we
left the harbor at 5PM the Easterly had filled in completely. We determined the wind was coming from 100
degrees, set a line square to this and called for course E3. Though there were patches of lighter wind it
turned out to be just another perfect Easterly.
A Fleet Track:
Fleet B track:
PHRF ADJUSTED RESULTS:
PLACE BOAT PHRF ET CORRECTED
SPINNY FLEET:
1 FRISKY 81 45:54 42:19
FLEET A:
1 ABORIGINAL 33 36:22 34:54
2 HEARTBEAT 12 42:26 41:54
3 SAGITTARIUS 120 50:13 44:55
4 PERFECT 36 144 51:21 44:59
5 YELLOW
BELLY 141 52:44 46:30
6 GOLD RUSH 126 52:08 46:34
FLEET B:
1 SIMPATICO 165 49:33 42:15
2 MAKANI 147 54:54 48:24
3 PACIFIC
SPIRIT 165 57:25 50:07
4 AVATAR 132 56:27 50:37 (TIE)
4 SAILING
PAIR A DICE 180 58:35 50:37 (TIE)
6 BLUE FIN 72 54:30 51:19
7 TARA 243 1:08:29 57:44
8 TOAD 150 1:08:00 1:01:21
9 AZOR 243 1:14:47 1:04:02
10 KICKS 180 1:12:02 1:04:04
11 CIELITO 360 1:21:56 1:06:01
_) _)
_)
ZOOP SCOOP BY Paul Tara
QUIZZ
Last Week:
The term “head
down”means
a) concentrate
b) bear away
c) check your shoe laces
The correct answer is b)
bear away. To a sailing vessel, the wind is always like a Hill. “Head Down”
means to turn away from the wind or head downhill. As opposed to Head-Up(the
Hill) or Reach Across (the Hill). There are many synonyms:
bear-off, bear-away, fall-off, ease-off, etc. The reference is always to
the wind direction, not the compass.
.
This Week:
Sick of hearing about
the Moore 24 Nationals and Moore’s Reef yet? Me too. To conclude the topic,
let’s try this bit of historical trivia. What very well known racing
yacht was reborn at “The Reef”?
a) Grendel
b) Angelita
c) Illusion
THE RACE
Zoop was on the hard
this week, so we did not sail. Everything you read from this point on is a
product of my imagination and Regatta Hero. From the beach at 1730 it
looked like an established easterly, with a transition far offshore.
Spinnaker Fleet: One
boat, the J105 Frisky, sailed what, in the absence of other boats,
appeared to be an almost perfect course. But it wasn’t enough to prevent
the A Fleet leaders from overhauling her before the finish. No Moore 24’s
sailed, having been sated by their 3 day Nationals. No wait, #2, Lono,
sailed to Capitola for fun, but did not race. Who are those people? (Talk about
gluttons).
A Fleet had a great race
— I’m sorry we missed it. Aboriginal made a gutsy move on the first
beat. She split from the fleet to tack offshore, with P36 following
suite. Both were rewarded; Aboriginal rounded first, ahead of
Heartbeat, and P36 ahead of Sagittarius and Goldrush.
On the run to Gov, Aboriginal extended her lead by sailing a shorter
distance. Back in the pack, P36 held onto her lead over Goldrush and Sagittarius.
But they were nipping at her heels. It’s interesting to watch the relative
speeds of these three; Goldrush, by far the oldest boat sailing on
Tuesdays, is much lighter than the other two, and it showed on this run. Aboriginal corrected out first.
But, on the beat to the finish Sagittarius pointing ability
(assisted, I’m guessing, by her carbon # 1) allowed her to pass P36 and
correct out third by just 4 seconds.
B Fleet had 12 boats, 9
of which managed to finish. The Santana 22 Tara had a great first
beat, taking a page out of Aboriginal’s playbook and tacking away from
the fleet on port early. Simpatico did the same, but went further
and rounded first, putting Tara in a squeeze play on the starboard
lay-line with Pacific Spirit. In spite of that, Tara rounded 4th and was
still in the hunt on the approach to Gov, but then the wind went light and she
struggled on the beat to the finish, ending up 7th. Simpatico corrected
out first, followed by the Catalina 34 Makani.
THE POWER OF THE PEN
WOW! Last week I
wrote a made a short reference to how we need to “tighten up” course E-3’s
description requiring boats to pass within 200’ of the red ball on the run.
This week just about every boat went by within spitting distance of the
red ball. Amazing!
Thank you Paul!
Barry Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
