Wednesday 6/22/2011
The winds were light from the SE between 4 and 8 knots. Winds went variable in the downpours. Current was flooding early and then ebbing late. The course was from H to K to G to H.
The forecast for this race was rainy with a chance of thunderstorms. The RM left the dock early and headed out to the course. The radar indicated a heavy band approaching the race area. Further south in central Jersey, a well-developed cell was wreaking some havoc. We kept an eye on the warnings and the radar and we never were under any thunderstorm warnings.
The RM had a line set before 18:00 and announced the course repeatedly. We were happy that the race would go on as the weather was not posing any real threat. Things can change rapidly, but it was nice to be able to give the race a chance rather than cancel yet another decent race evening. We seem to get some threat of foul weather two or three Wednesdays each season and only occasionally does the shit hit the fan.
The line was skewed to make the port end considerably favored. Starting on port was the only option for us. Many boats setup near the RM or the middle of the line, but we went straight for the pin end. We started about 3-5 seconds late, but we had speed and we were at the pin.
Being ahead and higher than the fleet gave us a nice advantage on the leg. The wind was more consistent on the left side and we stretched out on most boats after the start. We even caught a few B boats on the first leg. Coming into K, we tacked around and stayed high since the wind seemed to get lighter towards G. By staying high, we would later have some room to come down as the wind died down.
Coming into G, we were between two B boats. I was hell bent on making sure we could jibe around the mark and get back to the middle of the river. This was a fatal mistake. I maneuvered the boat to get to the left and promptly killed our momentum. We were now in a hole and had little steerage. The two B boats we rounded with stayed up to the eastern shore and kept their breeze and momentum. The correct move was to stay on the east side and we just blew it.
After a couple of minutes without much progress, A Train and Zoom rounded G and stayed to the east. This was a great move by them. They continued in the breeze while we were still in the hole. Eventually, the skies opened and some rain fell. This bit of rain did not bring wind with it. It was frustrating since we were now watching boats we had put well behind us sail by. When the rain eased, the wind backed from the SE again and carried us to the finish. A Train and Zoom had a great leg and finished ahead of us. Merlin also made a good charge and finished very close behind.
It was interesting at the finish. A Train, Zoom, Genesis, and Jazz were all finishing around the same time. The pin was favored and we were the last of the four boats. No one seemed to be going towards the pin very aggressively, so we cut in without room. It was risky since we could have been forced to spin around if someone decided to take the pin close, but everyone ended up sailing down the line a little. We probably picked up 10 or 15 seconds by finishing right at the pin. The boats that reached up the line lost some time by not turning down sooner.
The only rule worth mentioning here is that once a boat finishes she needs to stay clear of boats racing. As we were finishing, a boat that had finished headed up to sail back south. I asked them to hold their course since we had not finished yet and they should not interfere. I bring this up since until they finished, they had room at the pin and we needed to stay clear. Once they finished AND cleared the line, they have to stay clear of the racing boats. This does not mean they had to “get out of the way”. It means they cannot change their course and interfere with anyone still racing. Sometimes in light air finishes, I have the engine ready to go in case we need to clear out quickly. There was no issue this night, but I figure the rule is worth mentioning.
23 INTERFERING WITH ANOTHER BOAT
23.1 If reasonably possible, a boat not racing shall not interfere with a boat that is racing.
Finish A boat finishes when any part of her hull, or crew or equipment in normal position, crosses the finishing line in the direction of the course from the last mark, either for the first time or after taking a penalty under rule 44.2 or, after correcting an error made at the finishing line, under rule 28.1.
Racing A boat is racing from her preparatory signal until she finishes and clears the finishing line and marks or retires, or until the race committee signals a general recall, postponement or abandonment.
When we put rule 23.1 together with the definition of the finish and racing, we can see that as long as we gave the boat room to clear the line, their racing will end and they will need to stay clear. That is not to say the boat that finished needs to change course immediately and get out of the way. Rather it is to say that the boat that finished and cleared the line should not interfere with the boats racing. Again, this was not an issue on this night, but it is worth mentioning.
Another point that we should look at is that a boat must clear the line on their own before they can start their engine. I never realized that until I looked into this situation. I always thought that once you got your horn you were done, but looking at the above definition of racing we see that you are still racing until you clear the line and marks. That does not mean you have to completely cross the line, but you do need to clear it before you can put your engine in gear.
PART 4
OTHER REQUIREMENTS WHEN
RACING
Part 4 rules apply only to boats racing.
42 PROPULSION
42.1 Basic Rule
Except when permitted in rule 42.3 or 45, a boat shall compete by using only the wind and water to increase, maintain or decrease her speed. Her crew may adjust the trim of sails and hull, and perform other acts of seamanship, but shall not otherwise move their bodies to propel the boat.
After finishing, we sailed around for another hour. The rain came and went and with it some good winds. After all the rain cleared out, the wind died and we headed in. All in all, a good race and a good night of sailing. The RM did a great job getting a race in. I appreciate their commitment to their duty.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Spring Race #6
Wednesday 6/15/2011
The winds were light from the NE between 0 and 2 knots. A healthy WNW breeze kicked in around 19:00. Current was ebbing until 20:00 then flooding. All divisions sailed from H to D to 26 to H. The Full Moon race sailed H to 26 to 24 to H.
This night was a tough one. It was light from the NE as we headed out. I was ready to swim again, but it appeared the Race Marshall was going to start us no matter the wind speed. As we prepared for the sequence, our plans included anchoring at the line. A few boats ended up doing this.
As the time approached for the C start, I was way out of position. I ended up starting over one minute late. I came into the boat end on a reach, but the wind was so light that we had trouble making one knot through the water. With foul current, this was barely any progress over the ground. We heard of two C boats that got pushed into the RM. Half the other C boats either anchored or started very late.
We debated the start on our boat. Frank believed that the start was the right thing to do and I thought the RM should wait until there was a steady 2-3 knot wind. The RM said they measured 3 knots on the water, but we did not see that ourselves. It is a tough call, so I will post a survey and let’s get some anonymous opinions.
There was one boat left to race against in C shortly after the start since so many were stuck on the line or worse. We ended up well behind that boat during the light and variable part of the first leg. Then we looked to the West and saw the breeze coming on. We maneuvered the boat as best we could to head north. This brought us to the left (west) of our competition and we got the breeze first. They had a comfortable lead when the air finally reached them, but they decided to squander that lead and head up to engage us.
I try to be Mr. Mellow on Wednesday nights, but sometimes I just can’t get away from boat to boat situations. This boat wasted a lot of distance to get close to us. They were still ahead, but only a boat-length to leeward. We both sailed high for a while, then I made a drastic turn to leeward and went below them. I just wanted to get to the mark quickly. After a costly delay, the other boat sailed from over two boat lengths to windward back down to us. Now they had lost more distance and we were overlapped to leeward. It was quite a bit of good fortune for us to have this boat engage us from a commanding position and then switch positions and put us in the leeward spot.
We were moving ahead of them at this point. They were still overlapped when they called for room. I was amazed by this since we were a long way from the mark. I responded to them that we would start our stopwatch and time how long it took us to get to the mark. (To make this clear, the boat seemed to call for room at this point and we said that it was too early.) They were about to lose their overlap and we had no intention of giving them room after that. By the time we got to the mark, doing 5 knots, 75 seconds had passed. Let’s pause and do some math together. Keep in mind we were ahead, so the 3 boat-length circle uses our 28 feet as the boat-length.
5 knots = 8.44 feet per second
75 seconds * 8.44 = 633 feet
633/28 = 22.6 boat-lengths
28*3 = 84 feet = 3 boat-lengths = 10 seconds from circle to mark at 5 knots
I could be terribly wrong with what the other boat was trying to communicate, but it appeared that the boat was asking for room over 22 boat-lengths away. Sound crazy? It should, but it is not. I have lost this protest before. You would be amazed how fast 22 boat-lengths can turn into 3, or even 2 in the old days. Having that previous experience has taught me to start a stopwatch when a boat makes a hail for room. When you can give the protest committee a hard time, with your speed, things will be clear in the hearing. In this case, it was purely academic.
Back to racing, in those 22 boat-lengths we sailed to the mark, we added to our lead and there was no room issue with that boat. We rounded ahead of them and then tacked three times quickly to get on their air. I normally would not do this, but they engaged us, so I thought it best to get well ahead and avoid any further issues. We were over a minute ahead at 26 and cruised on down to the finish.
After finishing, we heard a boat that wanted to take a penalty. They did a 360. A 360 is used when you hit a mark. If the rules allow, you need to take a Two-Turns penalty (720) when accepting a penalty. Our rules say that boats need to acknowledge their foul and take a percentage penalty of their finishing place.
PENALTY SYSTEM: For infringement of a rule of Part 2, penalties will be as set forth in rule 44. If a scoring Penalty of 20% is taken, a yellow flag need not be flown and the decision to accept such penalty need not be made while racing. But the decision must be made before the convening of a protest hearing.
Click Here for Rule 44
Rule 44 talks about the Two-Turns penalty and says that a penalty can be a scoring penalty if specified in the sailing instructions. Our instructions seem to indicate that the scoring penalty is the one we use, although it could be argued that the instructions allow for either penalty.
Full Moon Race
Once the boats had finished sailing, we set the anchor and got ready to run the full moon race. We decided not to pick up the flags since the wind was up and the RM was still anchored. We rolled into a start at 19:55. The breeze was still good, but was beginning to fade. We executed the sequence and the 6 boats racing had a nice start.
The race looked pretty good until the wind dropped out about half way through. Four of the six boats finished. It was a nice evening as Genesis approached the line in light air. Here is a video of them coming into the finish with the full moon behind them.
There was a tight finished between Gusto and Zoom with Zoom just barely edging out Gusto by a few seconds. We then fired up the diesel and headed in.
On the way in, we had a large motor boat coming up from the south. The boat was to our port and they were heading 20 degrees to the starboard of our course. This was a collision course. I was hoping the captain would make a slight turn to take our stern, but he was not yielding. I was not positive we had the right of way, nor did I want to press the issue. Since the other captain was not yielding, I threw in a 360 before it got close. There is no pride in navigating at night. I did not know the other captain’s abilities, so I decided to take the drastic turn and make clear my intention of motoring behind him. He passed without incident and we made it back to the harbor.
Turns out I was right of way, but I did not need to sink my boat to prove a point. In case you need a quick refresher, click here.
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The winds were light from the NE between 0 and 2 knots. A healthy WNW breeze kicked in around 19:00. Current was ebbing until 20:00 then flooding. All divisions sailed from H to D to 26 to H. The Full Moon race sailed H to 26 to 24 to H.
This night was a tough one. It was light from the NE as we headed out. I was ready to swim again, but it appeared the Race Marshall was going to start us no matter the wind speed. As we prepared for the sequence, our plans included anchoring at the line. A few boats ended up doing this.
As the time approached for the C start, I was way out of position. I ended up starting over one minute late. I came into the boat end on a reach, but the wind was so light that we had trouble making one knot through the water. With foul current, this was barely any progress over the ground. We heard of two C boats that got pushed into the RM. Half the other C boats either anchored or started very late.
We debated the start on our boat. Frank believed that the start was the right thing to do and I thought the RM should wait until there was a steady 2-3 knot wind. The RM said they measured 3 knots on the water, but we did not see that ourselves. It is a tough call, so I will post a survey and let’s get some anonymous opinions.
There was one boat left to race against in C shortly after the start since so many were stuck on the line or worse. We ended up well behind that boat during the light and variable part of the first leg. Then we looked to the West and saw the breeze coming on. We maneuvered the boat as best we could to head north. This brought us to the left (west) of our competition and we got the breeze first. They had a comfortable lead when the air finally reached them, but they decided to squander that lead and head up to engage us.
I try to be Mr. Mellow on Wednesday nights, but sometimes I just can’t get away from boat to boat situations. This boat wasted a lot of distance to get close to us. They were still ahead, but only a boat-length to leeward. We both sailed high for a while, then I made a drastic turn to leeward and went below them. I just wanted to get to the mark quickly. After a costly delay, the other boat sailed from over two boat lengths to windward back down to us. Now they had lost more distance and we were overlapped to leeward. It was quite a bit of good fortune for us to have this boat engage us from a commanding position and then switch positions and put us in the leeward spot.
We were moving ahead of them at this point. They were still overlapped when they called for room. I was amazed by this since we were a long way from the mark. I responded to them that we would start our stopwatch and time how long it took us to get to the mark. (To make this clear, the boat seemed to call for room at this point and we said that it was too early.) They were about to lose their overlap and we had no intention of giving them room after that. By the time we got to the mark, doing 5 knots, 75 seconds had passed. Let’s pause and do some math together. Keep in mind we were ahead, so the 3 boat-length circle uses our 28 feet as the boat-length.
5 knots = 8.44 feet per second
75 seconds * 8.44 = 633 feet
633/28 = 22.6 boat-lengths
28*3 = 84 feet = 3 boat-lengths = 10 seconds from circle to mark at 5 knots
I could be terribly wrong with what the other boat was trying to communicate, but it appeared that the boat was asking for room over 22 boat-lengths away. Sound crazy? It should, but it is not. I have lost this protest before. You would be amazed how fast 22 boat-lengths can turn into 3, or even 2 in the old days. Having that previous experience has taught me to start a stopwatch when a boat makes a hail for room. When you can give the protest committee a hard time, with your speed, things will be clear in the hearing. In this case, it was purely academic.
Back to racing, in those 22 boat-lengths we sailed to the mark, we added to our lead and there was no room issue with that boat. We rounded ahead of them and then tacked three times quickly to get on their air. I normally would not do this, but they engaged us, so I thought it best to get well ahead and avoid any further issues. We were over a minute ahead at 26 and cruised on down to the finish.
After finishing, we heard a boat that wanted to take a penalty. They did a 360. A 360 is used when you hit a mark. If the rules allow, you need to take a Two-Turns penalty (720) when accepting a penalty. Our rules say that boats need to acknowledge their foul and take a percentage penalty of their finishing place.
PENALTY SYSTEM: For infringement of a rule of Part 2, penalties will be as set forth in rule 44. If a scoring Penalty of 20% is taken, a yellow flag need not be flown and the decision to accept such penalty need not be made while racing. But the decision must be made before the convening of a protest hearing.
Click Here for Rule 44
Rule 44 talks about the Two-Turns penalty and says that a penalty can be a scoring penalty if specified in the sailing instructions. Our instructions seem to indicate that the scoring penalty is the one we use, although it could be argued that the instructions allow for either penalty.
Full Moon Race
Once the boats had finished sailing, we set the anchor and got ready to run the full moon race. We decided not to pick up the flags since the wind was up and the RM was still anchored. We rolled into a start at 19:55. The breeze was still good, but was beginning to fade. We executed the sequence and the 6 boats racing had a nice start.
The race looked pretty good until the wind dropped out about half way through. Four of the six boats finished. It was a nice evening as Genesis approached the line in light air. Here is a video of them coming into the finish with the full moon behind them.
There was a tight finished between Gusto and Zoom with Zoom just barely edging out Gusto by a few seconds. We then fired up the diesel and headed in.
On the way in, we had a large motor boat coming up from the south. The boat was to our port and they were heading 20 degrees to the starboard of our course. This was a collision course. I was hoping the captain would make a slight turn to take our stern, but he was not yielding. I was not positive we had the right of way, nor did I want to press the issue. Since the other captain was not yielding, I threw in a 360 before it got close. There is no pride in navigating at night. I did not know the other captain’s abilities, so I decided to take the drastic turn and make clear my intention of motoring behind him. He passed without incident and we made it back to the harbor.
Turns out I was right of way, but I did not need to sink my boat to prove a point. In case you need a quick refresher, click here.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Spring Race #5
Wednesday 6/8/2011
The winds were light from the West between 4 and 8 knots. Current was changing or something, not a big deal. We sailed from H to 24 to D to H. A & B went twice around.
It was a hot evening. We left the slip and went just to the south of H so I could have some room to swim while the boat was carried to the line. After taking a quick dip, the wind started to pipe up a bit, so we hoisted the sails and began to move.
The starting line was fair with the pin end favored. The RM originally called for two courses that would have us going around the first mark in opposite directions, but then changed to twice around for A&B and once for C. I was happy with this call since the original course would have had the non-spin boats doing windward leeward, while the spin boats were doing reach-reach to get downwind.
Watching the first start, I saw a B boat pull off a port tack start. The slowest boat at their start port-tacked the entire fleet. I heard some starboard hails, but I am not sure if anything was even close. I have done that start once or twice in the same breeze. The trouble is that the left usually pays and port tacking the fleet brings you right. I don’t know what happened after that.
Back in C, we had a nice conservative start. We were close to the pin, but about 10 seconds late. We worked our way to the left side of the course before tacking over to port. We made some distance on the other boats by the time we reached 24. On the downwind, everyone seemed to sail north of the rhumb line. We winged it and went straight towards D. This worked out and we even passed a few B boats on the leg.
Leading up to the rounding at D, we heard at least two boats hail the RM to shorten the A and B course to once around. The wind at D was terrible, but the wind up the course was still holding on. While I would agree with the hailing boats that a shorter course was an option, I do not agree with them hailing for it. It is hypocritical for me to say this as I am sure I have done it in the past. Hell, I would probably put a link to a past blog where I talk about regretting getting on the radio, but since it is my blog, I’ll let someone comment with the link.
In the end, most boats that stayed out to race finished. A few withdrew. If you have no chance at finishing in the time limit, I can understand withdrawing. Otherwise, this is a 20:30 hard stop for racing. Surely, two hours on the water on a nice evening is not so uncomfortable that boats should be giving up and going home. I am psycho about sailing, so maybe I am way off base. We get about 20 hours of racing each year on Wednesday nights. Seems a little odd to give up when there is a chance at finishing.
Only two boats were OTL. The wind definitely died, but when we sailed in it seemed like someone would finish from B before the extended time limit of 20:50. Looking at the results, it does not appear that happened.
I would like to make special mention of a great performance on this night. Hard Attack sailed very well. They were out ahead early on the heels of the A boats and took line honors at the finish for B. It was great to watch them have such a good race. They were out with us in the stormy weather that cancelled race #2 and seeing them perform well made me think about how they flew their spinnaker on that nasty night. I hope their practice continues to pay off.
Summer Wind had a great race in C2. It was great to see two of the most dedicated racers getting good scores on this night.
The winds were light from the West between 4 and 8 knots. Current was changing or something, not a big deal. We sailed from H to 24 to D to H. A & B went twice around.
It was a hot evening. We left the slip and went just to the south of H so I could have some room to swim while the boat was carried to the line. After taking a quick dip, the wind started to pipe up a bit, so we hoisted the sails and began to move.
The starting line was fair with the pin end favored. The RM originally called for two courses that would have us going around the first mark in opposite directions, but then changed to twice around for A&B and once for C. I was happy with this call since the original course would have had the non-spin boats doing windward leeward, while the spin boats were doing reach-reach to get downwind.
Watching the first start, I saw a B boat pull off a port tack start. The slowest boat at their start port-tacked the entire fleet. I heard some starboard hails, but I am not sure if anything was even close. I have done that start once or twice in the same breeze. The trouble is that the left usually pays and port tacking the fleet brings you right. I don’t know what happened after that.
Back in C, we had a nice conservative start. We were close to the pin, but about 10 seconds late. We worked our way to the left side of the course before tacking over to port. We made some distance on the other boats by the time we reached 24. On the downwind, everyone seemed to sail north of the rhumb line. We winged it and went straight towards D. This worked out and we even passed a few B boats on the leg.
Leading up to the rounding at D, we heard at least two boats hail the RM to shorten the A and B course to once around. The wind at D was terrible, but the wind up the course was still holding on. While I would agree with the hailing boats that a shorter course was an option, I do not agree with them hailing for it. It is hypocritical for me to say this as I am sure I have done it in the past. Hell, I would probably put a link to a past blog where I talk about regretting getting on the radio, but since it is my blog, I’ll let someone comment with the link.
In the end, most boats that stayed out to race finished. A few withdrew. If you have no chance at finishing in the time limit, I can understand withdrawing. Otherwise, this is a 20:30 hard stop for racing. Surely, two hours on the water on a nice evening is not so uncomfortable that boats should be giving up and going home. I am psycho about sailing, so maybe I am way off base. We get about 20 hours of racing each year on Wednesday nights. Seems a little odd to give up when there is a chance at finishing.
Only two boats were OTL. The wind definitely died, but when we sailed in it seemed like someone would finish from B before the extended time limit of 20:50. Looking at the results, it does not appear that happened.
I would like to make special mention of a great performance on this night. Hard Attack sailed very well. They were out ahead early on the heels of the A boats and took line honors at the finish for B. It was great to watch them have such a good race. They were out with us in the stormy weather that cancelled race #2 and seeing them perform well made me think about how they flew their spinnaker on that nasty night. I hope their practice continues to pay off.
Summer Wind had a great race in C2. It was great to see two of the most dedicated racers getting good scores on this night.
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