The Protest

My wife said something to my son Rowan today that he did not like. He yelled "PROTEST!" I am a big rules guy in sailing. I have not had a protest make it to a jury since 2000, but I make sure I have a red flag ready to go. Over the years I have tried taping a flag to the backstay, Velcro, and now a great solution I found at http://www.sailorsprotestflags.com. Rowan was fascinated with the latest product. It is a protest flag shielded in a tennis ball. This beats keeping the flag on the backstay as the sun would fade it. It also beats Velcro for convenience. I just pull on a strap and out pops the flag. Rowan asked about it. I explained that in sailing you must fly a red flag when you protest. He asked what a protest was. I explained that it is what a boat will do when they think another boat has broken a rule. If the other boat acknowledges the foul, they will take a penalty. If not, the protest can go to a jury to be decided. With that in mind, Rowan protested his mother when she said something he did not like. I may have to get him his own red flag. I will convene a jury tonight and find the facts of the protest. Odds are it will be thrown out for improper procedures.

Spring Race #9

Wednesday 7/7/2010 Hot night. Sea breeze filled in and brought 6-14 from SSE. Current flooding hard all night. A & B sailed to K, G and back to H. C sailed to K and back. This was shaping up to be a bad sailing night. An early summer heat wave had its grip on the area and temps were close to 100 with humidity high as well. The forecast hinted at a possible sea breeze making it up river, but there was nothing at 17:15. We motored out of the harbor early and saw some dark water to the south of us. We headed straight for it and hoisted the main. Once into the breeze, we unfurled the jib and began sailing nicely to weather. It was still light, but the 6-8 knots felt good on the warm day and the breeze was cooler than what we had back at the dock. When we turned downwind to get back to H, the committee boat was not on station yet. They were setting their anchor around 17:50. Check in was a bit of a mess as many boats like to radio in and the RC asks for sail numbers and stuff. It is funny because there are 2 or 3 new boats each season. Things don’t change much, but the check-ins sounds like it is an introduction for a first time regatta. The RC was nice enough to allow us to check in by sailing by. We prefer this as we do not have to battle for airtime and our sail number is clearly visible. A & B had a pretty good start. Surprise had a great leg and almost ran away with the race. Chi was solid in B. As our start approached, I was diligent to keep the current in mind as we approached. I went conservative again and started at the committee boat 10 seconds late. We were in a great position above and ahead of the fleet. In light air, A-Train is our biggest threat, so we tacked on them as they went off right. This soon proved to be the wrong tack, so we tacked on them again as they came back onto starboard. A-Train tacked a third time to clear their air, but we continued on, as the benefits of going left were now clear. We lost some time on Bugaboo in the exchange, but it is easier to keep up with them in light air than A-Train. We held out to almost the port lay-line. I do not know if we held our own on this side, but we did not seem to lose anything. Around the mark, we were a few minutes behind Bugaboo. It seemed like they might correct over us, but they sailed up and into the favorable current. I stayed on a straight course, as it seemed like the current difference was not worth sailing the extra distance. In the end, Bugaboo almost corrected over us. It was a tight race. Glory Days took the C2 class. They stayed left on the upwind leg and that seemed to pay off for them versus the fleet. I would have preferred the course that A & B sailed since it was reaching downwind, but that may have been too much for the C2 boats. It would be nice if C1 sailed different courses than C2. The divisions are broken out by performance and C1 boats are able to cover more ground than C2. Frank had an engagement to get to after the race, so we only sailed around for 30-40 minutes before heading in. It was a perfect night for cruising. The current was with the wind. We were able to sail a nice tight angle and keep the breeze on us. It was a perfect end to the heat wave we were in that week.

Spring Race #8

Wednesday 6/30/2010 Beautiful night. Shifty NW breeze from 6-18 knots. Current ebbing hard over 1 knot. All boats sailed up to B to 24 and back to H. We had a rare beautiful night. The Hudson has many nice evenings, but lately, Wednesday nights have brought foul weather. Tonight there was breeze and sun. The temperature was a very comfortable 75 degrees. We left the marina and immediately put up the main. We did this to acclimate ourselves to the wind and figured we could sail to the start. IT also helps to be getting feedback from the sails as soon as possible. Right away we noticed the puffs and the direction changes. Once at the line, we found it to be a little on the short side. The boat end seemed favored. Some people thought the line was more skewed, but I thought it to be within 20 degrees of perpendicular. I was disappointed with the call for the course. Going into B with a foul current can be very difficult. The wind is shifty and the current is ripping through that part of the river. There were some nice courses that went to 26 and then to K or G that would have provided two upwind legs and kept us away from Stony Point. The start was uneventful. Bugaboo and Jazz were on the line and Bugaboo was above us. It was a great start for them as their speed allowed them to get on top of us. I was a bit early, so I ended up slowing down at the start. We ended up tacking twice and continued to the west side of the river. This seemed to pay off a bit as we were about 2 minutes behind Bugaboo at our next cross. This time, they went left and had a big gain. We should have stayed closer to the West shore than we did. The current killed us in the middle of the river. We rounded the mark over 4 minutes behind Bugaboo. With the knowledge that the middle of the river was where the current was ripping, we immediately winged the jib and head back to the middle to get a boost this time. That worked out well as we closed the gap to well under 3 minutes by the time we rounded 24. We were close hauled most of the way to the finish. The current was sweeping boats down river, so most boats stayed high on their course. We finished close enough to Bugaboo to correct over them. We then kept sailing upwind and enjoyed the nice evening. As we continued up river, we saw a pack of C2 boats that were close to B, but not quite able to get around. The shifty and dieing breeze and the strong current conspired against these boats. They just do not have enough VMG to make any progress into the strong current. Then I saw Summer Wind. Despite the difficult conditions around B, somehow Summer Wind made it around. At least 6 boats were unable. It was awesome seeing them break through and glide with the current down to 24. Unfortunately, sailboat racing is not fair to all boats. Summer Wind was about 20-25 minutes from finishing when the time expired. They will not get credit for beating those other boats around the mark. I would just like to recognize their great race. It will not be reflected in the standings and most boats were already back in their slips and unable to see how Summer Wind did something no other small boat did that night. They rounded B. With the current pushing them, they had a huge lead over the rest of the C2 boats that never made it around B. If they were given an extra half and hour (not allowed), they would have beat half their fleet. They will be scored OTL, but they sailed a great race. I dedicate this blog to Summer Wind and the great race they sailed. At least this will be the one place where their accomplishment will be recognized. No real rules issues tonight. The main take away from the evening is that the current is the most important factor in the northern part of our race area. We played shifts and lost ground upwind. We then went out of our way to get into the favorable current downwind and made big gains.