Summer Race #4

Decent wind from the SSW between 4 and 10 knots.  Course for A&B was from H to K to G to H.  C sailed H to K and back.  Current was "slack" at the start with an ebb filling in.

The night started with a good southerly that appeared to have been blowing for a while.  The river had decent waves built up from that direction.  We left the marina and had to use a boat brush to clean off the speed wheel to get a boat speed reading. 

Once that was set, we hoisted the main and sailed around for a bit.  There was a noticeable flood still on the river and we had trouble getting upwind of the starting line.  We knew the scenario well and decided that we should go left after the start.  We read the line as mostly square with the boat end slightly favored. 

As the start approached, we began to second guess our pre-start plan and decided that the right may well be worth a try.  I went for the boat end at the start and we got off the line with room to tack out to the right.  We did not wait long and tacked over to head to the west side of the river.  Incredible also had a good start and they continued to sail on starboard to the left. 

As I have written many (too many) times on this blog, in a southerly breeze, the left can pay off big time.  I used to call it the Bugaboo move.  On this night, history repeated itself on Jazz.  We went to the right, found better breeze and got sucked in as the boat kept lifting.  Being on the right side of the course in the lefty wind left us sailing the great circle route since we were on the outside of the lifting breeze.  Of course with good wind speed and sailing on a lift, it was difficult to even consider a tack.

Incredible's move to the left paid off.  They were two minutes ahead of us when we crossed about 2/3 of the way up to K. 

Let's pause here and consider how ignorant I was.  Here is what I wrote on 7/6/11:

So off to the right we went. When we tacked back to starboard up the course, A Train could cross. Zoom banged the left corner and at the mark had a comfortable lead. I can never figure out why the left side pays off in this situation. I call it the Bugaboo move as Bugaboo always kicked our ass when they stayed left. The current and direction seemed to favor the right side, but the proof is in the results. The left side was favored and I cannot explain why. A comment on this would be most welcome.

Here is what I wrote last year on 7/20/11.  Apparently the Bugaboo move was still fresh in my mind.

I wanted to protect the left side from the Bugaboo move. In case you did not read this in the past, the Bugaboo move is an unexplained advantage boats get going left in the SE breeze. Even the stronger ebb to the right does not overcome this affect. We did see some of the reason for the affect as we came in from the port side and got lifted as we sailed into the mark on port. It is still a mystery to me.

Fast forward to 2012, I forget how the left side goes against my judgment each time, but still pays off.  With Incredible crossing us, I was hoping they would continue to the right so we could get further left and get some left side leverage.  They continued to the right and we were able to get far to the left late in the leg.  I noticed the wind speed was going down, but our COG and SOG were doing great.  The current was helping us sail higher and faster.

Despite the ugliness of the lighter air and the knock, we continued to the port lay-line.  Once we tacked over, the over-the-ground number still remained impressive and we were able to sneak ahead of Incredible at the mark.  We then rounded the mark and had a nice quick set that allowed us to get far enough ahead to keep our air clear. 

After the race, we continued north to get an edge on the current.  The ebb was now pretty strong, so going north allowed us to cruise with some nice reaching angles.  The wind picked up a bit and we enjoyed the 10-12 from the south.  Well after sunset, we went back to the slip and retired for the evening.