Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

September Series Race 1

We had rather strong winds for late August yesterday, blowing steady 13 gusting to 18kts, probably a few higher. The highest speed I tracked Surprise at was 7.4 kts, on the first downwind. This was one of those races where while you're in the thick of it you perhaps aren't enjoying it as much as other times when the wind is less, but once it's done you say "Boy, was that a blast!" I noticed also during this race that many of the gusts had what I'd characterize as a "hard edge", meaning the wind would drop or increase by 5 knots or so in less than a second, or even a 10th of a second. A few were more more gradual, building over a second or two, but they were in the minority, and it was challenging to keep the boat on an even keel during the transitions.
We had a good start, we wanted the pin end and got it, forcing the Thistle that was on Port to duck us. We sailed along until we got too near the shore for comfort and tacked away. We held position with the Vanguard-15 and the Thistle for most of the race, only dropping behind them on the last downwind, but not nearly enough to not correct out over them.

August Series Race 4

I missed getting the data from the wind gauge, but I believe it was in the 8-10 mph range. The course was similar to the previous week, so much so that I want to compare the two tracks and see if I can learn something from that. As I recall, we wanted a pin end start, but got only midline. The wind shifted hard to the left as the starting horn went off, and backwinded the jib. So we tacked, got clear air and were able to get a jump on the fleet. I have some vague recollections of some crosses with other boats, but nothing vivid in my memory. We did pretty well on boat handline, had good tacks and jibes, and watched the shifts.

August Series 3

The front came near enough yesterday that the winds shifted from the southeast to the south. In such a case, the right thing to do is to go to the right. We went left, and paid for it, big time. At the time I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong, but on reflection it was obvious. To me this is the most difficult thing to predict - will the wind oscillate, or will it shift in one direction persistently? if the winds are shifting persitently, you want to sail on the headed tack first, while if the wind shifts, you want to sail on the lifted tack, assuming that the widn wil eventually head you and at that time you tack, thus narrowing the angle to the mark. If you get it wrong, you lose. We ended up finishing 5th, and just ahead of Jim, who sailed well. We only did that through a little bit of luck, and a fortuitous wind shift at the end of the race.

August series 2

Murphy struck the GPS last evening and I don't have a track log, which is a shame, since we had a Gold Cup course instead of the more usual windward-leeward. We had southerly winds between 8-12 mph. The sky was mostly sunny, with cumulous clouds. The seabreeze had come in. Temperatures were in the upper 90's, but decreased as the sun dropped in the sky, as it usually does.

We had a reasonable start, the pin end was favored, and we found ourselves between Dick in the Lido-14 ahead, and Jim in the other Day Sailer behind. Thomas in the Vanguard-15 was ahead of Dick. For once, I remembered to use a technique that Bill Gladstone, as well as others, recommend for determining if you are over the line. I found an object on the shore, in this case it was the third piling on a pier, and lined it up with the pin while sailing down the line. So at the start we were right on the line, but Dick was too close to us and when we went close hauled, I was backwinded by him. I wanted to go to the left for a while, but eventually, I tacked to clear my air. Jim was backwinded by both Dick and I and he tacked at the same time I did. After 5-6 boat lengths, we went back to starboard in clear air. Jim continued on port. We found we had gained some on the Lido and crossed in front of him. We got a lift from the shoreline and sailed it waiting and hoping for it to go away. It took a long time to do so, but it finally happened, and we tacked. The new lift on port increased and we were just below the layline. The Vanguard seemed to have overstood. The Lido and the other Day Sailer were to leeward, but holding their speed and occasionally outpointing us. Surprise points well, so I checked my trim and eased the main slightly, which seemed to help. Or perhaps we just hit a lift, in any event we rounded the mark, and bore off for the jybe mark. The wind had shifted such that the 'chute wouldn't set so we concentrated on reaching, keeping the boat speed up. I wish I had that GPS data...

We rounded the mark, jybed and set the spinnaker. We managed to catch up to a few of the Sunfish class who started three minutes prior to us, so I know we were sailing the boat well. We rounded the leeward mark, and beat back up the course. I don't recall much from that leg or the following run, except that we were about 1-2 minutes behind the Vanguard at the finish and corrected ahead of him with the Portsmouth handicap numbers.

Gosh, It's hot.

Summer has arrived in Houston. Temperatures in the 90's, Humidity in the 90's.
Gag. From the National Weather Service:

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 96. Heat index values as high as 109. Southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 80. Southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.

I froze several bottles of water and put them in a cooler which is now sitting in the shaded area in the cab of my truck. I expect it will melt entirely, but until there are facts, there's no way to know.

The humidity was showing as 98, but there's a note now saying that the humidity sensor at JSC is reading high, so the humidity is perhaps not in the high 90's.... okay, but it's still very humid, and hot. Ellington Field, a few miles to the north is showing a humidity of 94%.

I'm always reminded of Tom Wolfe's description of Houston in his book The Right Stuff I wish I could recall the part about the air, but it was perfect. The words were something to the effect of gulping in the molten air, and people frying their brains out by going out on the asphalt during the day....

Photos from NACs

GRSA has posted some nice pictures from the North Americans.