Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

Thistles are tippier

than Day Sailers, and of course, much faster. I like the Day Sailer better, though. I guess I'm used to them, but if I had to change, the Thistle would be a likely choice.
We had decent starts except for the third race where I messed up by not pushing the boat to windward up harder. I have to be more aggressive sometimes... There were three of us, Mattia and Tom both much, much better sailors than I, kicked my butt.

Tomorrow

at 3:30pm, Central time, I get to race against three of the best sailors in the Clear Lake Area in Thistles. The previous three times I've been here have been less successful than I had hoped... I've finished last in every race except one. I really want to place third of the four in the semi's, if not higher. If the format remains the same as in previous years, we will have a two leg race, one windward, one leeward. Having a good start will be essential. We will need to hit the first wind shift, and if we use the spinnaker, then setting it properly will be important.

All good things...

must end. So it is with the 2003 Wednesday night sailboat races. We had fine weather for the last race, wind just south of east between 9 and 12 knots. We had six boats in the fleet - Two Day Sailers, Surprise and Cacafuego, Dick Hoover's Lido-14, Joe Cornelison's Coronado-15, Paul Shield's FJ, and Tom Kaczmareck's Vanguard 15. We faired well, kept with the Coronado-15 and the Vanguard-15 well throughout the race. The plot is included for the amusement of any who read this.

Jim Wells recently shimmed up his centerboard to remove the slop it exhibited, and his upwind performance has improved. My crew Joe poured the ice water from the small cooler we carry aboard over my head after the race to celebrate. I rigged the grating and had the infernal dog flogged.... Just kidding.

There are 7 fleets in the Clear Lake Racing Association's Wednesday night series: A non-spinnaker PHRF fleet, a PHRF fleet, a Sunfish fleet, a Laser fleet, a Portsmouth fleet, a J-80 fleet, and a J-24 fleet. As Portsmouth fleet champion, I have the honor of humiliating myself in a race with the other fleet champions, in boats provided by the Organizing Authority. This year the boats are...Thistles...

I've been on a Thistle once in my life, in 1999 I was a trimmer for a short race at Shreveport YC one evening during the '99 North American's. I know they have a much larger sail area, and lower weight than a Day Sailer. A crew of three is the normal compliment. We get to use the spinnakers, as well. I don't know yet if I am to sail in the semi final next week or the one the week after.
I'm looking forward to it!

A really cool ad

From 1964.. The DS boat number in this ad is 1750, which is exactly 10,000 earlier than Surprise. I couldn't resist scanning it in and doing a little touch up, especially to the sail number....

September Series race 3

I had thought we would not race today. We had thunder and lightning at 3:00pm. Leaving for the race at 4:30pm we still had rain, but by 5 pm the rain had stopped, and the sky was clearing in the direction the storms had come. We rigged, and put Surprise in the water. The winds were light when we left the dock, but they gradually strengthened out of the east. We beat out to the race course, where the Race Committee informed us that we would finish away from the Seabrook Beach Club, a first in my five years of participating in this event. The sequence started and we positioned ourselves when it was our line. AP was signalled... The race committee postponed once with less than a minute to the start. They pulled up the anchor and shifted the start to the north. Again, we went into our starting sequence, and again the Race Committee postponed, this time with seconds to our start. The two previously started fleets were returning, and the race committee intended to shorten the course and finish them. We waited until they finished, and then race committee again weighed anchor, and proceeded to the windward mark. I thought that perhaps the race committee would, after shifting the mark, set a shortened leg. Apparently I wasn;t the ontly one who tohught this might happen, because the entire fleet hauled their wind and proceeded to windward. The Race Committee returned, and took up position at the original position. They restarted the sequence and this time we started. Surprise was at the left side of the line on starboard, with good speed, but we were headed. The boats above us tacked, as did we, except for the Vanguard-15 who was to leeward of us. Our objective was to keep our boat speed up, and to keep to the center of the course, unless there was a lot of wind in a particular spot. But it was pretty steady, with not too many puffs, but there were occasional shifts. To keep to the center, we visually kept the angle between our track and the mark as small as practical, if it got near or above 45º, we would tack. We would also watch the compass for help with the headers and lifts. We rounded the windward mark close behind the Vanguard 15 and the Coronado 15. We got the spinnaker set pretty quickly after rounding the mark and passed the Vanguard-15 on the downwind run. We closed on the Coronado, now in first, and crossed the finish line within a second of him. So, we corrected out to first, for the first time in several weeks. Here's the plot:

Update: Phill Root, of fleet 89, Eugene, Oregon, the DS Pacific Coast Champion, and three (or is it four?) time DS North American Champion gave me the advice about keeping the angle to the mark at less than 45º, over the phone a few days ago. (actually, I think he said "keep the angle small") Thanks for the advice, Phill!

CLSC saturday series 4,5,6

Made it out for the three club races CLSC had on Saturday. Cliff from the Shack crewed for me. He was not used to how high my boat points compared to his Hobie 16.
Here's the plots from the three races:
Olympic course (Center start)

Windward Leeward, three times around

Windward Leeward, twice around

The northeast winds we had were shift and puffy, and I can't say I think too much of my ability to read where I was supposed to go, considering these plots. I have the feeling I was to willing to ride some of the shifts too long, especially during the second race. But, we kept up with Joe C-15., in some of the races. It's all becoming a blur at this time.

Thunderbolts and lightning

We arrived at the dock as usual, and it was apparent that things were not promising for a race. Storm clouds were slowly, slowly rolling in from the north. So we spent time standing there debating...
"It it really that bad?"
"Think it will it pass to the north of us?"
"You put your mast up first!"

Then we'd see lightning bolts in the distance or we'd hear some rumbling from the clouds. 5:30pm passed, a time at which we ought to have the boat rigged and in the water in time for the 6:15 start. We checked the rain out line which said a line of storms was near the area, and to check back at 5:45...

5:45 - races called off. The lightning was too pervasive. There were no bolts striking the water on the lake, but there were a few on the land around the lake. I don't envy the RC having to make tough choices like that. On one hand people come from down from Houston to participate in these races. On the other hand, you want to be safe. RC made a good choice.

Weather for September race #2

Spoke for a few moments last night with Mr. Root, who gave me good reminders for what to look at on the race course. It's about time we made a comeback. We're there!

Weather forecast:
Today. Partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Highs around 90. East winds around 10 mph in the morning becoming light. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Tonight. Partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 70s. Light winds becoming west around 10 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Current conditions: JSC - calm
Kemah Bridge: North, 3 mph.

Not good....