Summer Race #10

Winds were from the northerly direction at 4-10 knots.  Wind varied from almost ENE to WNW.  Current was ebbing hard.  C sailed from H to C to 26 to 24 to H.  A & B sailed H to C to F to 24 to H.

Tonight was just Peter and I from the regular crew and a sunfish sailor from Cupsaw lake.  We left the harbor pretty early and sailed over to the starting area.  I was surprised to find Gusto there on station.  John had sent out a call for a volunteer to do Race Committee and even though quite a few boats never had a turn this season, Gusto was there for the second time in three weeks. 

While sailing around, we noticed the northerly would bend and blow from the direction of the land.  John Nonenmacher explained this concept clearly in his Hudson River sailing tips class.  Tonight was the ultimate example.  On the East side of the river, the wind was from the NE and even close to due E when you got close to the shore.  On the West side of the river, the wind bent to the NW and even WNW. 

With the above in mind, we decided to try and protect the left side.  The left side of the line was also favored, so starting there was the best move.   With the current ebbing hard and pulling boats away from the line, we stayed above the line before the start.  Due to the line's angle, port tack was the only good way for boats to actually cross the line.  So at the gun we were on the left side of the line with a good port tack start.

Soon after the start, we flopped to starboard hoping to push West and get the stronger NW breeze.  We could see the NE breeze on the right side of the course, but thought that to be the weaker of the two battling breezes.  Right after the start, this looked wrong, so we went back onto port tack to get into the NE breeze and then back to starboard again.  Finally we were on the lifted tack, but lost some ground on the other boats. 

We still believed in the left side being favored, so instead of pointing high on starboard tack, we footed for speed allowing the boat to still slide left and expecting the NW to influence us soon.  As we got knocked more and more, I was getting happy.  Rather than tacking back into the NE breeze area, we dug into the West side and the NW breeze built up and continued to move west to the point where we were no longer making positive VMG (velocity made good) to the mark.

So we then tacked onto port and found ourselves pointing about 20 degrees high of the mark.  We stayed high knowing that we were eventually going to get knocked again as we got closer to the east shore.  This worked out and we rounded the first mark with a good lead over the fleet.  We even passed some of the boats in the earlier start on this leg.

Foot to a Header

Not sure if this is an proven concept, but I learned early in sailboat racing to foot to a header.  If you expect a header to be coming either from looking at boats ahead or a predictable wind shift, the old thinking says to foot.  This will push you more towards the header and get you there faster.  Once in the header, you will soon want to tack over to the lifted tack and the extra distance you made to leeward on the old tack will be favorable on the new lifted tack.  In the case above, footing allowed us to get left faster than other boats so when the big header hit, we were on the inside of the new favored tack.

After rounding the weather mark (C), we stayed high to get to 26.  We once again expected to have the breeze go left as we got closer to the west side, so staying high would allow us to reach the whole way rather than tighen up as we approached 26.  The current was also a big factor and staying up current would buy some insurance should the wind die down.  The wind did go left, but the velocity remained good, so we rounded 26 nice and clean. 

The broad reach in the WNW breeze got us to 24 in no time.  From there, we rounded and tightened up to upwind mode on port tack.  We were 30 degrees high of H, but stayed up here since the breeze was good and we expected to get knocked as we moved east to H.  The lighter NE wind came sooner than we expected and we were in full upwind mode to finish.  With the wind getting lighter and the current going strong, I was worried we would repeat the pattern from a few weeks ago where boats parked a few hundred feet from the finish. 

This did not come to pass and we were able to cross the finish line after about 10 minutes of fighting the current within 200 yards of the finish.  We got to sail into the harbor after that.  It was a bit annoying that in the dark a motoring boat was not yielding and we had to tack to avoid them.  When we tacked back to go in, the same motoring boat was again not yielding, so I gave a hail to let them know we were sailing and they should avoid us.  I assume they thought they were going to give us room, but in the dark, I prefer more than a boat-length cushion for safety.

With the season over, I would like to thank John Nonenmacher, John Edwards and John Beck for their hard work putting this whole series together. Many boats and their crew also deserve praise for doing their turn as Race Marshall. It was a great season and I look forward to next year.