Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

August Series Race 1

Yesterday we had winds 5-10 with gusts to 15 from the Southeast. As it turned out we finished 5th, which is not very good considering how we have done this year. Looking at the track it's apparent that on the first up wind the winds were shifted to the left. Port tack is lifted, and it stays lifted about 10 degrees until the time we tacked. We were then headed. It stayed this way the entire beat.
So what could I have done differently? One option was to tack sooner on the first beat, but I think we did pretty well doing what we did. There may have been better wind to the left side, but we were with the Coronado, and Finn almost until the rounding.

I was wondering if I was going too far out so I overlayed a square course:

It appears to me that on the first run, we didn't go back towards the starboard side of the course soon enough. This also hurt us in that we were pinned behind a keelboat going downwind on starboard when we wanted to jybe. I think that if in doubt for a course like this, it is good to jybe early and make sure that we sail back towards the starboard side of the course and leave the big boat's weather mark to starboard going downwind. I found myself getting blanketed by Jim, and I was not sure how to deal with it. We lost our lead to him at the leeward mark, and I messed up our tack after we rounded, so we lost a lot of time. We made some of it back up on the second beat, and finished neck and neck with Jim, who beat us by a nose.
But, we were both a long way behind the Vanguard-15, the Coronado-15, and the Finn. They did some things right and we did not. It's not clear to me from this data what it was.

I'm sure one contributing factor was that I had no lunch that day, and by the brought no water on board. By the time the race was done and we were putting things away I was very tired, irritable, and couldn't think clearly. I was that way during the race, as well. I must remember to have a good meal before going into the race and have water available. Simple mistakes, but no doubt critical, especially when the temperatures are in the 90's with high humidity.

July Series Race 4

We had relatively steady winds, the forecast was for 5-10; we ended up with more: 10-13. It was puffy in places, with gusts above 15. We're getting used to weaving in between the big boats coming up to their weather mark while we're on our first run. It's pretty easy I find, as long as you plan for it. On the start we wanted pin end, and we got it. We went over to port tack as soon as we were to windward of the fleet. The first beat we went to the left, and went too far. I think that we should have stayed more toward the center. We did this on the second beat, but in this case I think we didn't go far enough to the left. I was hoping to stay more towards the middle left, and it turns our it was the middle right after looking at the plot.

The last run was interesting, we found ourselves in a progressive lift. Abput 1/2 half of the way down the course I wanted to jybe, but talked myself out of it. It's hard to tell what the right answer was. If I get another situation like this, I think next time I might jybe, and see how it works.

Even more Chris Brown Photos

Chris Brown takes some really great photos. It's really good of him to upload them to the CLRA website for folks to look at.

And here's a great shot of my friend Mr. Wells, who sailed very well the last couple of weeks. It's good to see him and Mr. Rogers (the crew) coming along!

July Series Race 3

The winds started out ESE, and light. But they veered south during the first down wind run and increased. We were still able to carry the spinnaker when the run turned into a reach, but only barely.

July Series Race 2

Unfortunately in this track there's a lot of ratty data, that's why the first upwind leg looks so bad. I have been trying to use a different data taking rate on the GPS but I think I'l go back to the what I had previously since it gave more reliable results.

The winds from the race were recorded at the Clear Lake park station as shown. Note there was almost no wind until race time.

At the start,(shown in purple) I wasn't clear which end of the line was favored, so I tried for the middle. We did okay there, but I wasn't happy with the fact that instead of powering up at the start, the boat heeled hard and I had a tough time pointing her up. I'm not sure if it was because I over-trimmed the main, trimmed the main at the wrong time, or something else.

On the first beat(red), we started going left, and were well lifted. The header came and we tacked to port. We continued on and were close to a lot of the boats. We got a shift, and tacked with the rest of the fleet. But it seemed that the shift was not a real one and I could tell we were on the headed tack. We had just crossed the rhumb line, so we decided to go back on starboard. However, it was still no good and we had gotten out of phase. We continued on, and tacked back to starboard, and got back into phase. We were third around the weather mark.

The first down wind run (blue) was good for us, we had good wind. We rounded the mark and jybed. As we came down the course on port, we approached the keelboats' weather mark and I flatter myself that I made the right choice by heading up a little bit and passing their weather mark to our starboard, thus avoiding their downwind boats. It seems like an obvious choice now, but I was considering which to do at the time.

On the second beat(green), we did pretty well until we got near the top of the course. We were headed on starboard going toward the rhumb line, and I chose to tack. The problem was that the header was not very big. I hoped to find a header on the right side, but it never really came. I should have continued on starboard for a little longer, probably until the place we had tacked to port on the previous beat. (in red) As it was, I let us get too far toward the corner. I read in Bill Gladstone's book on racing tactics that if you are not sure which way to go, it's probably a good idea to sail towards the middle while you decide.

On our last downwind leg(black), we were in danger of being overtaken by the PHRF fleet, who were going to round their turning mark and continue racing while we were to finish between that same mark and the line flag on the dock. The last thing I wanted was to get pinned in between a boat and the mark at my finish line. The next to last thing I wanted was to be caught in their wind shadows and to lose the good boat speed we had, so I sailed a hotter angle on starboard than I would normally have done. As it happened, the wind shifted significantly and we jybed to port to lay the finish.

More Photos from Chris Brown

July Series 1

Winds were light, very light. We had enough wind to start, and the port tack was very favored, but we found ourselves in the bad air of another boat, tacked, got out of phase, and lost a lot of distance on the fleet. We rounded the weather mark and the wind kept dying as we ran down to the leeward mark. About 5-boat lengths from the mark, a keelboat on starboard tack to leeward of us came up and forced me to luff. Somehow they got in front of a Sunfish on starboard tack to leeward, but we couldn't. I lost way and steerage and fouled the sunfish. We did our penalty turn and proceeded to the leeward mark. The wind had died away at the mark and shifted far to the right. The faster boats that rounded a few minutes before and had gone left were badly hurt by this twist of fortune. As a result, we rounded the windward mark ahead of many of these boats. As we sailed toward the finish line the winds died again. We focused on keeping the boat moving keeping our weight forward and transom out of the water to reduce drag. Again, by pure luck, we managed to get a puff of wind and cross the finish line ahead of the fleet with the flying junior behind us a few boat lengths. The wind died yet again and we were obliged to paddle back to the dock.

This was not really a fun race. We were tired and hot after it was all done. The winds were capricious, and it was entirely by chance that we faired so well and that others who sailed better did not. I mentioned several times during and after the race how I missed springtime with it's 15-20 knot breezes. Perhaps next week we will have a seabreeze and decent 10-15 kt breezes from the southeast.

North American Championship Results

Results for the NACs and the Junior NACs are here, courtesy of the Greater Richmond Sailing Association.