Hudson Cove Regatta

Saturday-Sunday, 6/4/11-6/5/11

Saturday: The winds were light and variable until 13:30. At that point, a Northerly filled in and persistently moved left until it was NW by the end of racing. Courses were windward leeward.


Sunday: Started light, but by 10:30 a Southerly filled in. Course was from H to K to C to H.

I was assigned to Race Committee for the HCYC regatta. Tom DiLauro is in charge of the Race Committee and he assigned me to oversee the on water operations. It started with the skipper’s meeting where I issued instructions to monitor 72 for RC broadcasts and to ignore HRYRA instructions 4.3. Those instructions indicate a cap on how long we can wait to start a race and I was not interested in having my hands tied to the two hour limit. We need to change that for next year. There is no reason we should call off a Saturday race day after only two hours.

We next moved to the water with two boats. Moon Dog is the RC boat while George Samalot’s whaler is the mark boat. Once on the water, we dropped the hook near H and waited for a breeze. After being teased with a SW whisper for two hours, we finally got a northerly to fill in. As soon as we saw the breeze up north, the mark boat went up and dropped the windward mark. I was determined to get a race in no matter the circumstances, so we set up a two mile loop. While short for the 6-8 knots we were seeing, I did not want to take a chance at getting blanked for the day.

By the time we rolled into sequence, both the line and the course were skewed by about 30 degrees from the wind. Fearing the breeze would leave us, we sent the racers around for a quick first race. This worked out well as the last C boat did not finish until 14:30.

The racing instructions indicate a 30 minute delay from the time of the last finisher to the time of the next race. I conveniently interpreted this as 30 minutes from the last finisher until HER start. So with the last finisher in at 14:29, I decided we could begin the sequence at 14:45. This would start the C fleet at 15:00. We needed quick action since the RC boat had to be in by 16:30. We would have finished boats using the mark boat if the race dragged on, but that would not come to pass.

That course was also skewed as the wind went further left. It still left a decent upwind and downwind, but not the ideal setup that inflatable marks should allow. At the end of racing there were two protests. One was boat against boat and one was against the RC.

The protest against the RC was never heard. Looking back, I wish I would have communicated more on the radio before the starts. I wanted to send C once around instead of twice. The race instructions had no way to indicate the two different courses at once. The only way I thought I could do this was to change the course board at the warning signal which is also the start for B. Here is the rule:

27.1 No later than the warning signal, the race committee shall signal or otherwise designate the course to be sailed if the sailing instructions have not stated the course, and it may replace one course signal with another and signal that wearing personal flotation devices is required (display flag Y with one sound).

My compliance with rule 27.1 was followed by at least one pre-race announcement on VHF 72 and another post start clarification for a racing boat. The only rule I may have broken would be answering the boat that asked about the course after the start, but I think it is not assistance to clarify course confusion over the official race channel. If it is, fuck it. I’ll do that until they prohibit me from doing race committee.

In the end, three boats did not know it was one lap instead of two. I feel bad that this had to occur. Our sailing rules are sometimes reminiscent of the communication between 19th century boats, flags and signals. I think we can move into the 21st century and begin using things like the web or even twitter to get race course selection through. This is a constant problem I have experienced for over 30 years and it is time to eliminate it. It would have been nice if I could have sent a tweet (terminology courtesy of my wife). Then everyone would have the course. Maybe I’ll look into that for the next go around.

The important lesson is to check the course board after your warning signal. That is the only iron clad requirement in the rules. Everything else is non-binding.

The other protest was between two boats. I will not go into details about it. Arbitration was a failure by me. I think if I could have convinced the parties to give it a better chance, we could have arbitrated it, but I was too quick to allow them to proceed to the actual hearing. The trouble with the protest hearing is that you are right or DSQ. Nothing in between. In arbitration, you can impose alternate penalties.

The hearing went by the book. I don’t think we finished until 19:30. Luckily, I had spent a lot of time preparing for a protest. I even felt Saturday morning that I should have prepared more for on the water than protest, but I was relieved I had prepared once I knew there would be a hearing. The decision we reached was a difficult one and I wish it could have gone a different way. I am bound by the rules and evidence and that produced a result I was not happy about. A correct result by the rules, but a troubling one nonetheless.

Sunday was perfect. A light SSW breeze that built as the day went on. Captain Al of Moon Dog was nice enough to anchor twice as I was determined not to set another shitty line. This time the line was square, the course was perfect, and the race went off without a hitch. This is how I imagined Race Committee and it was nice to have an easy day after the shit storm on Saturday.

Personal Notes

I was amazed at the effort and concern all the race committee volunteers have for this regatta. I had the distinct honor of being in charge of the on the water activities for a group that were seasoned pros at this. Every operation of the committee boat was planned and executed with precision. Captain Al guided us to the right spot and did not complain as we ran around his boat all day. Jackie and her team of score keepers and flag hoisters were spot on to the second. Tom D. had everything in place to make the regatta a success. My normal crew, Eric, dutifully went around in the mark boat as I asked with every slight breeze on Saturday. All around, a perfect effort on their part.

All mistakes and errors Saturday were solely in my area. This is no pity party, I am confident I did a good job, but there is plenty of room for improvement. In Race Committee, there is no chance to make up for a mistake. If you screw something up, there is no going back, at least not without a high cost. Let’s look at some of the decisions I wish I could redo and see if I can improve for next year.

1. When the breeze finally seemed to be filling in, I rushed to get a race in. During that rush, I did not get a reading of the final wind, but had the mark boat set the first mark in the general direction of where the wind was filling in from. I think with an extra 10 minutes, I could have had a better course. As a result, the wind was further left than expected and the course was thus skewed. The starting line was skewed as well.

2. I do not regret the short course. Contrary to the anonymous caller asking for a longer course, I wanted two races and the best way to guarantee at least one was to set the first course shorter than I normally would. I stand by that decision and welcome comments to the contrary.

3. When I reset the marks for the second race, I did not direct the mark boat to go west far enough. This was a minor error as they were already getting close to the channel and we were running out of room anyway.

4. The larger error in the second race was the skewed line. I had the mark boat change the line by about 30 degrees, but should have moved it 20 or 30 more. Unfortunately, I had the mark boat go to the leeward mark instead of hanging around the pin. When I realized the line was off once again, I could not get them back in time to reset it. With a hard stop time for the day’s sailing, I decided to start with the skewed line rather than hoist the AP (postpone). The error was sending the mark boat away. They could have set the leeward mark after the start. I was hesitant to do that since it may confuse boats, but it was the right call and I did not make it.

5. The course confusion in C could use improvement. I need to think of ways to better communicate courses and changes to those courses. I will mention in next year’s skipper meeting to make sure everyone checks the course after their warning signal. You may see a course 15 minutes before your start, but it can change right up to the warning signal. This is where twitter or a web page could help.

I was happy to help the club and take over some of the tasks they did not like. I will think about the above points and many other possibilities that were considered during the weekend. Hopefully, we will have an even better regatta next year.