Healthy SE breeze between 10 and 15 knots. A&B sailed to K twice around and C went from H to K to G to H. Current was ebbing all race.
We left the marina and immediately hoisted the sails. With the wind from the SE, we had a nice tight reach out to the starting area. Gusto was on station early and we passed by them on our way to get some upwind readings.
Sailing upwind, we did a tack or two before we caught the old jib on the mast. The ring that holds the whisper pole to the mast had caught on an existing tear in the jib and gave us a new window on the back of the jib. After 4 years and over 2,000 tacks my favorite sail ever was toast. I had ordered a new one a few weeks ago, so it was finally time to make the change. We were able to make the change with about 10 minutes to go to our start.
With new jib flying nicely, I focused on the start. We passed by the RM with about 2 minutes to go on port. We were sailing into the entire fleet while they were on starboard. Having been at the RM with 2 minutes to go, I had a good idea of when to tack to make the RM on time. When you sail in on starboard for a few minutes, it is much tougher to know if you are early or late. We passed the four early boats and then tacked in front of the late boats.
My spot was not ideal since a leeward boat could have taken me up, but there were none to contend with. At the start, we won the boat and led the fleet out to the left. 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.
The competition followed us in the same direction. I am not sure why no one tried the right side. We were ready to cover anyone that headed right and this could have allowed other boats to gain, but since everyone followed us, it was simply a drag race around the course. When you start ahead, a drag race is perfect.
The reaches were fun, but uneventful. We finished the race and noticed Jesse was taking some video while up in the rigging. I remember doing that in 1989 at the end of a Block Island race when we were hopelessly behind. It makes for some cool video.
We continued sailing after the race. We sailed on a beat up to Croton point before turning downwind and doing some nice long broad reaches back and forth across the river. When night fell, we headed into our slip and called it a night.
The RM was excellent once again. The Race Marshalls have run some great races the last couple of weeks. I hope this continues.
Re Bugaboo "keep left" move, at that particular race, we (Incredible) used our frequent tactical approach, that is "Repeat After Jazz"... and thus went left as well...
ReplyDeleteWe, however, had two of our fierce competitors, going to the right, and the result was... Bugaboo Effect!
We did ended up first at the mark, with substantial advantage of right going boats, two of which were ahead of us at start...
While I do not have a clean/clear explanation of this phenomenon, I can only guess the following advantages of left side at southerly (sea?) breezes...
- less chop on left side, "protected" by croton point
- two tacks less, for what they are worth
- and maybe, just maybe, an wind bend by Hook mtn. Not a shade, for breeze was nice all over the river, but some directional change at right side...
Cheers,
Robert
I agree with your comments about the left side. I also think I overestimate the current in the middle of the river. At the beginning of the ebb, the current can actually be stronger on the East side. The current seems to change there first and may give more of a push than I suspect.
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