Wind was from the NNW at 4-8 knots, veering to the WSW by the end of the night. The ebb started around 18:30 and was not much of a factor during the race. The course for all divisions was from H to B and back.
Tonight started a little different for us as I brought two people from work to go sailing. They had never sailed before and I looked forward to introducing them to the sport.
We left the slip and hoisted the main in the harbor before heading out into a decent northerly. The Venturi effect seemed to be helping the breeze in the middle of the river. We sailed down to H and then headed upwind for a bit. We noticed that the east side of the river had significantly less wind and decided to avoid that area. This meant going left after the start.
We then judged the line to be mostly square and decided we would run the line in the dying breeze in order to get to the west side of the river as fast as possible. Our start went as planned and we worked our way west into the channel. There we found some good breeze and passed a few boats from the earlier start that had gone to the east.
Behind us and in our bad air was Merlin. They proceeded to sail above our bad air and pass us to windward. It was quite a demonstration of superior boat speed. I thought we were sailing well in our own right, so the speed from Merlin can only be attributed to their great work in passing us. I did almost everything I could to prevent that from happening.
Unfortunately, by passing us to windward on port tack, we were prevented from working further west. We wanted to tuck into the left side of the course and take advantage of the veering wind, but the close proximity of the boats prevented us from tacking. Eventually, we tacked a few times, but Merlin covered us each time.
Finally I went for a close tack to get to their left. This required a massive duck to get around their stern. I neglected to mention my plans to the crew, so we did not back the jib as much as desired, so I had to over steer to avoid any contact and that slowed us down. Fortunately, we were finally able to get some left side leverage on Merlin and the wind helped us get to the mark just ahead of them.
The downwind leg turned out to be a tight reach in the veering breeze. That is a perfect angle for our boat and with good work on trimming, we were able to stretch out from the other boats. One spinnaker boat looked to roll us to windward, but I headed up to prevent that. I certainly was not going to allow our speed to get hurt in a tight race by being rolled. They eventually got stuck below us and I regretted that they were unable to pass us. They would have needed more separation to pass us.
We finished the race and sailed on for a while. The breeze was nice from the WSW and allowed some long reaching up and down the river. The work friends got a chance to steer after the race and seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully this experience will result in them trying to sail some more.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Summer Race #1
No race. Current was ebbing until 20:00. Wind was from the south at 10 knots, dying off as the evening went on.
This was an odd night. It started poorly with storms all over the area. Around 15:00, storms were ripping through north Jersey and southern NY. This seems to have spooked some of the fleet as a few crews never showed up.
Jazz pulled out of the dock around 17:20. We headed out of the marina and heard some chatter about a storm moving up from Nyack. This chatter was a common misconception on reading the radar. The flow was from the west, pushing the energy east. People were misreading the radar due to the energy moving north along the flow, but the flow was still moving to the east. The storms over Nyack and south never did make it up north and the worst we had was a few showers.
Around 17:30, we heard a call for a harbor hold. This seemed to be coming form the race marshal in Croton, so I took the liberty of retransmitting the message so the boats in Haverstraw would hear it and stay in the marina. We were not very concerned on Jazz about the weather since our interpretation of the radar showed that the energy would stay to our south with some light showers reaching up to Haverstraw.
With the fleet in a harbor hold, it came as quite a surprise to hear the RM cancel the race at 17:45. This action went against the instructions of the HBRA. Here is an excerpt from the HBRA instructions for 2012:
POSTPONEMENT: Two long (3-5 seconds each) horns will be sounded. A Wednesday race should not be canceled prior to 1845. Notify racers of an intention to start a race after postponement by announcing on VHF 72 then sounding TWO short horns one minute before the raising the Warning flag. In the case of severe weather, consider announcing a “harbor hold” and any related instructions on VHF channel 72.
CANCELLATION: Three Long horns. The race Marshall may in its’ discretion cancel a race due to severe weather conditions – but in no case prior to the scheduled start time.
There are two mentions of when a cancellation is allowed. Under the postponement heading, a race should not be cancelled until 18:45. Under the Cancellation heading, it says that no race should be cancelled prior to the scheduled start time. So going purely by the rules, the cancellation should have occurred no earlier than 18:45. So this evening was cancelled about an hour too early and by any interpretation of the rules, at least 30 minutes too soon.
It is not my goal to criticize the RM's discretion at cancelling the race. The RM was the same boat that went out last year when a race was prematurely cancelled and sailed with us. My goal is to discuss the rules we sail under and point them out when they are not followed. That is black and white.
The gray area lies in what the RM was thinking. A misinterpretation of the radar seems to have led them to think that the racing area would experience severe weather in the near future. If this were to pass, the right call was to keep the boats in the harbor hold until the threat passed. This was done at 17:30 and we thought everything was going to be fine. At 17:45 the race was cancelled and I have no idea what happened in those 15 minutes. We could have stayed in harbor hold until 18:15 without any increase in danger.
Harbor hold was added to the instructions this year to allow the situation that happened on this night. When severe weather is expected, keeping the boats in the marina is a good idea. If we had stayed in harbor hold until 18:00, everyone would have realized that the weather was not going to hit Haverstraw and we would be safe to race. That is how the racing should work when severe weather is a possibility.
My interpretation of the radar was vastly different than what I heard on the radio. While I agree that the energy was moving north, I was also considering the underlying flow moving the system to the east. That flow was consistent all day and it did move the energy away from the race area. Despite my interpretation, I know that things can change and I did not consider my interpretation as fact. I was prepared for other possibilities since even the radar can be misleading.
I stayed off the radio and did not air any of this since I have a troubled history of radio communication. We hoisted sail around 17:45 and sailed over to H. With the race already cancelled, we decided to just sail around for a while in the perfect 10 knot southerly. This southerly was great until about 18:45. Then it slowly died and by 19:15, we were ghosting in 2-4 knots.
If the rules had been followed to the letter, we would probably had a delayed start in some decent wind. Before the first boats reached the first mark (probably K), the wind would have died and everyone would have faced a downwind leg in light air against the current. I doubt many boats would have been able to finish the race.
In the end, the decision to cancel early may have just prevented a tough night in a dying breeze. As bad as that sounds, I would have liked the opportunity to try my luck on this night. I am sure most other boats would disagree as only two other boats even made it out to the river.
This is a world different than the premature cancellation last year. This was a responsible RM, on the water, making a decision based on sound principles with safety at the forefront. The only discrepancy was the cancellation came before the rules allow for a cancellation. Hopefully, future RM's will wait for the cancellation times to pass since conditions on the river change and no one can predict the weather perfectly. Seems that easy access to the radar in today's world is causing people to make incorrect assumptions about future weather, while leaving little room for doubt.
This was an odd night. It started poorly with storms all over the area. Around 15:00, storms were ripping through north Jersey and southern NY. This seems to have spooked some of the fleet as a few crews never showed up.
Jazz pulled out of the dock around 17:20. We headed out of the marina and heard some chatter about a storm moving up from Nyack. This chatter was a common misconception on reading the radar. The flow was from the west, pushing the energy east. People were misreading the radar due to the energy moving north along the flow, but the flow was still moving to the east. The storms over Nyack and south never did make it up north and the worst we had was a few showers.
Around 17:30, we heard a call for a harbor hold. This seemed to be coming form the race marshal in Croton, so I took the liberty of retransmitting the message so the boats in Haverstraw would hear it and stay in the marina. We were not very concerned on Jazz about the weather since our interpretation of the radar showed that the energy would stay to our south with some light showers reaching up to Haverstraw.
With the fleet in a harbor hold, it came as quite a surprise to hear the RM cancel the race at 17:45. This action went against the instructions of the HBRA. Here is an excerpt from the HBRA instructions for 2012:
POSTPONEMENT: Two long (3-5 seconds each) horns will be sounded. A Wednesday race should not be canceled prior to 1845. Notify racers of an intention to start a race after postponement by announcing on VHF 72 then sounding TWO short horns one minute before the raising the Warning flag. In the case of severe weather, consider announcing a “harbor hold” and any related instructions on VHF channel 72.
CANCELLATION: Three Long horns. The race Marshall may in its’ discretion cancel a race due to severe weather conditions – but in no case prior to the scheduled start time.
There are two mentions of when a cancellation is allowed. Under the postponement heading, a race should not be cancelled until 18:45. Under the Cancellation heading, it says that no race should be cancelled prior to the scheduled start time. So going purely by the rules, the cancellation should have occurred no earlier than 18:45. So this evening was cancelled about an hour too early and by any interpretation of the rules, at least 30 minutes too soon.
It is not my goal to criticize the RM's discretion at cancelling the race. The RM was the same boat that went out last year when a race was prematurely cancelled and sailed with us. My goal is to discuss the rules we sail under and point them out when they are not followed. That is black and white.
The gray area lies in what the RM was thinking. A misinterpretation of the radar seems to have led them to think that the racing area would experience severe weather in the near future. If this were to pass, the right call was to keep the boats in the harbor hold until the threat passed. This was done at 17:30 and we thought everything was going to be fine. At 17:45 the race was cancelled and I have no idea what happened in those 15 minutes. We could have stayed in harbor hold until 18:15 without any increase in danger.
Harbor hold was added to the instructions this year to allow the situation that happened on this night. When severe weather is expected, keeping the boats in the marina is a good idea. If we had stayed in harbor hold until 18:00, everyone would have realized that the weather was not going to hit Haverstraw and we would be safe to race. That is how the racing should work when severe weather is a possibility.
My interpretation of the radar was vastly different than what I heard on the radio. While I agree that the energy was moving north, I was also considering the underlying flow moving the system to the east. That flow was consistent all day and it did move the energy away from the race area. Despite my interpretation, I know that things can change and I did not consider my interpretation as fact. I was prepared for other possibilities since even the radar can be misleading.
I stayed off the radio and did not air any of this since I have a troubled history of radio communication. We hoisted sail around 17:45 and sailed over to H. With the race already cancelled, we decided to just sail around for a while in the perfect 10 knot southerly. This southerly was great until about 18:45. Then it slowly died and by 19:15, we were ghosting in 2-4 knots.
 | |||
| Starting to get light around 18:55. |
If the rules had been followed to the letter, we would probably had a delayed start in some decent wind. Before the first boats reached the first mark (probably K), the wind would have died and everyone would have faced a downwind leg in light air against the current. I doubt many boats would have been able to finish the race.
In the end, the decision to cancel early may have just prevented a tough night in a dying breeze. As bad as that sounds, I would have liked the opportunity to try my luck on this night. I am sure most other boats would disagree as only two other boats even made it out to the river.
This is a world different than the premature cancellation last year. This was a responsible RM, on the water, making a decision based on sound principles with safety at the forefront. The only discrepancy was the cancellation came before the rules allow for a cancellation. Hopefully, future RM's will wait for the cancellation times to pass since conditions on the river change and no one can predict the weather perfectly. Seems that easy access to the radar in today's world is causing people to make incorrect assumptions about future weather, while leaving little room for doubt.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Spring Race #10
Winds were nice from the south around 8-14 knots. Current was flooding and was a factor. Course for A&B was K to C to H. C sailed K to G to H.
I started the evening at Minisceongo Yacht Club (MYC) to pick up two additional crew members for the race. The young ladies were part of MYC's youth sailing program. Jesse had contacted me about the possibility of adding some crew members and we happily accepted two of the youth sailors. I drove them over to Haverstraw Marina and we embarked from there.
On the way, they were concerned about how I planned to right by J28 in the event of a capsize. I used to have the same concern, so I did my best to explain the physics of the boat and how we will never tip over. The explanation basically boiled down to the extreme event of a gale hitting the sails and knocking us down. Our sails would hit the water, lose all pressure on them from the wind, and then the 3,000 pounds of lead in the keel would right us. We skipped any discussion of the keel falling off or the idea that an unsecured hatch could sink the boat in a knockdown.
Leaving the marina, we hoisted sail as usual and sailed on a tight reach to H. From H we sailed about halfway up the course to get an idea of what the wind was doing. The wind looked good across the course, so we decided to avoid the current and go to the left side of the course after the start. We also threw in a quick series of four tacks to make sure the new crew members got some practice scaling my ridiculously high cabin top. Over six feet of head room on a 28 foot boat creates the high cabin top. It is no small challenge on Jazz to cross over during tacks. The girls did well, so I was comfortable going into the race with them on deck.
Heading back to the line, I took a quick look and found the line to be almost square with the starboard (boat) end favored. With the current pulling boats back from the line, I knew I would have some room at the boat, even if things got crowded.
The start went as expected. We did a Vanderbilt start. This is a timed run where we sailed away from the starting line with 4 minutes to go. With 2:20 to go, we did a slow tack and were heading back for the line with just under 2 minutes to go. Since it is a timed start, 2 minutes was a little long for the final approach and I was a tad early. I did some large turns up and down to slow us a bit and with 15 seconds to go, we hit the gas and got off to a good start at the favored end.
From here we sailed a long starboard tack before flipping over to port. We rounded the first mark with a small lead over the next boat. As the reach leg began, I felt something was not going right. Since I was driving, I assumed the problem was with trim, so Emily, our new crew member, took a look at the jib and worked with Frank to see if it could be improved. Things got better, but I was still feeling off. I asked our other new crew member, Alexa, to take over the driving.
With the two kids trimming and driving things got better. The distance between us and the next boat stopped shrinking and began growing. The kids were doing great, so I sat aside and watched them get us to G. At G, I briefly took the helm to execute the necessary gybe. After gybing, Emily took the helm and Alexa worked on the trim. They would switch back and forth a couple of times and they carried us to the finish. More than just finish, they helped us extend the tenuous lead and win the race.
It was a nice relief to have the two girls step in and help us win the race. I was impressed with their ability to hop on a strange boat and navigate their way around it in some windy conditions. Even more impressive was their willingness to jump into the key positions on the boat and help us sail faster. The two girls steered the majority of the race and helped secure us a first place finishing position.
After the race, we headed straight into MYC to drop off our new crew. It was my first time going to MYC by water and the mid tide helped my confidence going into the shallow area. With three feet under the keel the whole way, there was no real basis for my concern. Entering the harbor through the narrow entrance was cool. We then hooked right into a slip and dropped off the girls. They wanted to just jump off the boat and swim in, but I did not consider that safe at all and I had no interest in having their guardians put a hit out on me.
With the girls off the boats and a nice breeze still blowing, we hoisted sail again and hooked up with Dick Bracken's J28 for a little side by side sailing. While I managed to stay close, Dick sailed away from us a bit and showed that his boat had legs.
We then continued to reach back and forth across the river in the great breeze. We had some good puffs punching into the 16 knot range, maybe even higher. The conditions were so good we continued reaching until well after sunset.
This next picture seems to show a thunderstorm developing way up north. Notice the top of it extending to the east. Seems like a higher level flow from the west was sheering off the top of the cell. Could be something else, so please comment if you know why this cloud looks like it is being blown apart.
It was nice to see some other boats out there enjoying the evening with us. Sailing in the fading light with good boat speed is a neat experience. The boat seems to skip along the water more as the perspective changes due to the loss of sight. Finally at 21:30, we headed in for the night.
Stop reading here. The rest is crap.
I cannot let something go, so I thought it best to memorialize the thought here. While one of the girls was driving, I could hear a soft humming or possibly singing coming from her. It reminded me that I used to do the same thing out loud until my late teens. I imagine it was the social pressure that eventually quieted this habit and brought the tune inside my head. I realized that the song is no longer in my head when I sail and I miss that.
I am not into the whole harmony of the world and the new age BS that goes along with all that. I do recognize that waves are patterns. They are predictable patterns that can be akin to a rhythm. I forgot how nice it is to be so connected to that rhythm that a song comes out that matches the rhythm of the sea. I greatly appreciated tonight's experience as it brought back my younger days when the rhythm was a more explicit part of my sailing.
I would like to think that I still have that connection to the sea, but it no longer shows itself as explicitly as it did in my youth. Despite wanting to hold onto that, I have to admit that those connections to the sea and environment are more about experience today than feel. I will not proclaim experience or feel to be better than the other, but I recognize that my experience and careful analysis of the conditions have come at the expense of letting some of the feel slip away.
That was going through my head as the sun was setting. I don't sail much at night anymore, but night sailing is where analysis takes a backseat and feeling must come to the forefront. As the river lost its light, I appreciated being able to feel the boat under me and longed for the days where that just happened in my subconscious. I can understand and explain sailing better than I could 20 years ago, but I miss driving a boat on feel more than thought. Because of that, I am slower in pure sailing situations. At least my kids will be old enough to drive a boat in a few years and I can do my best to help them keep that feel as long as possible.
I started the evening at Minisceongo Yacht Club (MYC) to pick up two additional crew members for the race. The young ladies were part of MYC's youth sailing program. Jesse had contacted me about the possibility of adding some crew members and we happily accepted two of the youth sailors. I drove them over to Haverstraw Marina and we embarked from there.
On the way, they were concerned about how I planned to right by J28 in the event of a capsize. I used to have the same concern, so I did my best to explain the physics of the boat and how we will never tip over. The explanation basically boiled down to the extreme event of a gale hitting the sails and knocking us down. Our sails would hit the water, lose all pressure on them from the wind, and then the 3,000 pounds of lead in the keel would right us. We skipped any discussion of the keel falling off or the idea that an unsecured hatch could sink the boat in a knockdown.
Leaving the marina, we hoisted sail as usual and sailed on a tight reach to H. From H we sailed about halfway up the course to get an idea of what the wind was doing. The wind looked good across the course, so we decided to avoid the current and go to the left side of the course after the start. We also threw in a quick series of four tacks to make sure the new crew members got some practice scaling my ridiculously high cabin top. Over six feet of head room on a 28 foot boat creates the high cabin top. It is no small challenge on Jazz to cross over during tacks. The girls did well, so I was comfortable going into the race with them on deck.
Heading back to the line, I took a quick look and found the line to be almost square with the starboard (boat) end favored. With the current pulling boats back from the line, I knew I would have some room at the boat, even if things got crowded.
The start went as expected. We did a Vanderbilt start. This is a timed run where we sailed away from the starting line with 4 minutes to go. With 2:20 to go, we did a slow tack and were heading back for the line with just under 2 minutes to go. Since it is a timed start, 2 minutes was a little long for the final approach and I was a tad early. I did some large turns up and down to slow us a bit and with 15 seconds to go, we hit the gas and got off to a good start at the favored end.
From here we sailed a long starboard tack before flipping over to port. We rounded the first mark with a small lead over the next boat. As the reach leg began, I felt something was not going right. Since I was driving, I assumed the problem was with trim, so Emily, our new crew member, took a look at the jib and worked with Frank to see if it could be improved. Things got better, but I was still feeling off. I asked our other new crew member, Alexa, to take over the driving.
With the two kids trimming and driving things got better. The distance between us and the next boat stopped shrinking and began growing. The kids were doing great, so I sat aside and watched them get us to G. At G, I briefly took the helm to execute the necessary gybe. After gybing, Emily took the helm and Alexa worked on the trim. They would switch back and forth a couple of times and they carried us to the finish. More than just finish, they helped us extend the tenuous lead and win the race.
It was a nice relief to have the two girls step in and help us win the race. I was impressed with their ability to hop on a strange boat and navigate their way around it in some windy conditions. Even more impressive was their willingness to jump into the key positions on the boat and help us sail faster. The two girls steered the majority of the race and helped secure us a first place finishing position.
After the race, we headed straight into MYC to drop off our new crew. It was my first time going to MYC by water and the mid tide helped my confidence going into the shallow area. With three feet under the keel the whole way, there was no real basis for my concern. Entering the harbor through the narrow entrance was cool. We then hooked right into a slip and dropped off the girls. They wanted to just jump off the boat and swim in, but I did not consider that safe at all and I had no interest in having their guardians put a hit out on me.
With the girls off the boats and a nice breeze still blowing, we hoisted sail again and hooked up with Dick Bracken's J28 for a little side by side sailing. While I managed to stay close, Dick sailed away from us a bit and showed that his boat had legs.
We then continued to reach back and forth across the river in the great breeze. We had some good puffs punching into the 16 knot range, maybe even higher. The conditions were so good we continued reaching until well after sunset.
This next picture seems to show a thunderstorm developing way up north. Notice the top of it extending to the east. Seems like a higher level flow from the west was sheering off the top of the cell. Could be something else, so please comment if you know why this cloud looks like it is being blown apart.
It was nice to see some other boats out there enjoying the evening with us. Sailing in the fading light with good boat speed is a neat experience. The boat seems to skip along the water more as the perspective changes due to the loss of sight. Finally at 21:30, we headed in for the night.
Stop reading here. The rest is crap.
I cannot let something go, so I thought it best to memorialize the thought here. While one of the girls was driving, I could hear a soft humming or possibly singing coming from her. It reminded me that I used to do the same thing out loud until my late teens. I imagine it was the social pressure that eventually quieted this habit and brought the tune inside my head. I realized that the song is no longer in my head when I sail and I miss that.
I am not into the whole harmony of the world and the new age BS that goes along with all that. I do recognize that waves are patterns. They are predictable patterns that can be akin to a rhythm. I forgot how nice it is to be so connected to that rhythm that a song comes out that matches the rhythm of the sea. I greatly appreciated tonight's experience as it brought back my younger days when the rhythm was a more explicit part of my sailing.
I would like to think that I still have that connection to the sea, but it no longer shows itself as explicitly as it did in my youth. Despite wanting to hold onto that, I have to admit that those connections to the sea and environment are more about experience today than feel. I will not proclaim experience or feel to be better than the other, but I recognize that my experience and careful analysis of the conditions have come at the expense of letting some of the feel slip away.
That was going through my head as the sun was setting. I don't sail much at night anymore, but night sailing is where analysis takes a backseat and feeling must come to the forefront. As the river lost its light, I appreciated being able to feel the boat under me and longed for the days where that just happened in my subconscious. I can understand and explain sailing better than I could 20 years ago, but I miss driving a boat on feel more than thought. Because of that, I am slower in pure sailing situations. At least my kids will be old enough to drive a boat in a few years and I can do my best to help them keep that feel as long as possible.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Spring Race #9
Light wind, 3-10kts
from the NE with a bit of E in it after 7:15PM. Current was at
a full ebb. Course H to D to 24 to H. Both fleets ended
up doing the same course when the RC shortened the course for A/B (which
there will be come controversy as it was shortened to the finish after the
first boat rounded 24).
Quite the opposite from last week wind wise. Tom had the
week off as he was away enjoying time with his family down at the Jersey
shore. Peter and my brother in law Kevin crewed tonight. We got out
early to practice and sailed in about 10 kts form the NE.
The wind, which was around 10 kts for the prestart and the A/B
start, dropped to about 6-7 kts for our start and caused us to be about 20
sec late to the line. We were 2nd off the line as A-Train got ahead of us
and I did not feel like pressing a potential barge situation even
though I may have had a window to sneak in by the committee boat.
On first leg, A-Train legged out a bit as it took me time
to get used to driving the boat in light air race conditions. A-Train was
first and we were second around D. Then there was the downwind leg to 24,
in light air with the current ripping. We held a starboard pole for most
of the leg, slowly working our way to the mark and trying to keep the boat high
of the mark to avoid getting swept past it (which a lot of boats did).
About .3 miles from the mark the wind swung east and we got rid of the pole and
were able to get by A-Train to be first to 24. The current was ripping
along at 1.5-2 kts, reminded me of Plum Gut on the Sound.
We got around 24 and sailed across the river in light air.
I saw a cruiser off of Croton moving downwind against the current so we went
for the wind, which was a developing Easterly. It was ugly going across,
as the current was carrying us south, but we got to the wind first, dug in and
then tacked on to Starboard and held to the finish. We were able to
pass some A/B boats who were stuck on the west side in less breeze.
Overall a good race for Jazz and I was happy to be able to hang with Tom's
results as driver.
Cheers,
Frank
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