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Wednesday Night Race #7

We were lucky enough to have another beautiful night of racing. The wind was from the S at 6-11.3 kts and the tide was outgoing. The race committee gave us a 4 nm course between club marks M-Y, rounded to starboard.

The Start:

Our start was relatively uneventful. We paced back and forth along the line during our 5 minute sequence, tacking back to the line with about 1 minute to the gun. The two other boats in our division were vying for the pin end of the line, just as we were, but were not in a position to block us at the start. We were about 10 seconds late across the line, but were crossing with our competitors, who were about 5-15 seconds late across the line as well. Therefore, we had a clean start at the pin end of the line.

The Race:

After crossing the line, we found ourself in close proximity to our two competitors. The J/109 was ahead of us, while the Antrim 27 was below/behind us. We were potentially creeping into a bad air area and chose to tack away for guaranteed clean air. We tacked back shortly after because we didn't want to be too far from our rhumb line. It took us 3 more tacks to get to our first mark, "M," and this upwind leg was relatively uneventful.

Of note, we did have a couple issues where our jib was released from the winch or not pulled in quickly enough, causing us to slow down & fall back in the fleet.

Our spin was ready to be hoisted on the starboard side of the boat, and we were quickly able to set it after rounding "M." Instead of gybing right away, we held our heading, in part because we were traveling with the two other boats in our division, and also because there were boats from the other divisions traveling upwind towards us, and they were either the leeward boat or were on starboard tack and we needed to avoid them.

We gybed a total of three times before reaching our next mark, "Y." We took our time on each gybe, because some of the crew were not used to sailing with a spinnaker and were learning what to do. Needless to say, all of our gybes went well, there were no twists in the spin, no one got hurt, and nothing broke.

We did a leeward douse, and chose to douse early--we didn't want to run into any trouble with a rushed douse, and also wanted to be sure that we had time to fix any potential problems that could have arisen. The douse went very well, we rounded "Y," hardened up and tacked away from land. It took us three more tacks to get to the finish line.

There were no boats around us, so we used this upwind leg to work on sailing to the best of our ability. We worked on sail trim, eventually tightening the jib halyard during one of our tacks, and we moved around jib cars, in an effort to improve upon the jib's shape. We also worked on dropping the traveller when strong puffs of wind started to overpower the helm, and steering through headers.

The Finish:

There were no other boats around us and our finish was uneventful.

Notes:

It took us 57:43, corrected to 52:45, to travel the 4 km course. We traveled roughly 5.8 nm around the course with an average boat speed of 5.3 kts. The two other boats in our division finished ahead of us.

Looking back, our start was good. We can improve upon it by being closer to the line at the gun. Our upwind speed and sail trim were generally good. We lost time when our jib released from the winch a couple of times, but I actually see that as a positive...some of our experienced crew were missing tonight, so, once we dropped into 3rd place and couldn't catch our competitors, this race, in my mind, became a learning experience for less experienced crew--hence our slow gybes downwind and early spin douse. I think we were successful in talking through what each person's role was, because everyone did a great job!

On my end, I think that I am learning to do a better job of dividing my attention. My job was to steer the boat and tactics. I did look at sail trim a bit, but tried to let someone else handle that (old habits die hard!). As a result, I think that I was able to pay more attention to the boat's heading, pinch less, and respond more effectively to gusts/headers/lifts/etc.

#beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

The Dorothy Quortrup Women’s Skipper Race

The Dorothy Quortrup Women’s Skipper Race was named after Dorothy Quortrup, who was the first female member of HHC and a champion sailor. This regatta requires that all participating boats have a female skipper behind the helm for the duration of the race. The above photo and the below description of this race and its history are from the Hempstead Harbour Club's Facebook page.

We had another night of pre-storm sailing. Conditions were relatively mild, although the wind speed (6.9-11.3 kts) and direction (S-SW-SE) varied over the race course--some of the direction variances were due to land effects. The tide was incoming.

We had a pursuit start for our 4.33 nm course between club marks M-Y-G, with port roundings

The Start:

Tonight's race was a pursuit start, which meant that we had to wait 11:28 after the 5-minute gun to start, and were starting at the same time as the J/109 since we have the same PHRF rating.

We stayed near the J/109 as we entered the 5-minutes before our start. Around 45 seconds to our start, they tried to block us out of the start. We chose to do a quick 360 so that we could maintain our position along the line. Since they were successful in pushing us, they continued to zig zag along the short starting line in order to slow down & then have a clean start. Our 360 did not put us in a bad position to start. We were at the RC end of the line, which was the favored end, and were able to cross the line within few seconds after our gun.

The Race:

Most of our upwind leg was uneventful. We made our first tack after entering the mooring field. After making our second tack, the J/109 tacked over us, so we chose to tack again (our 3rd tack) to get clean air. Our fourth tack took place when we thought we were on our layline. We may have been able to make the mark ("M"), but with shifting wind near "M," and with watching other boats just ahead of us, I made the decision for us to do two quick tacks so that we could get around the mark in lieu of pinching, losing speed, & trying to squeak by the mark.

We rounded "M," gybed the main over, and put out the whisker pole so that we could go wing-on-wing. This leg was relatively slow and it felt like the wind was dying for a bit. After we passed the breakwater and neared mark "J," we chose to head up more (head away from our rhumb line) to gain speed. We later gybed to head to our mark, "Y."

We rounded mark "Y" just behind 2 other boats. Even though we were behind them, we tried to stay higher than them in order to ensure clean air. We were able to pass 1 boat before the next mark.

We chose not to immediately tack at mark "G." Instead, we hardened up and continued into the harbor. We were initially planning on going about 2 boat lengths past the mark before tacking, so that we could have clean air while following in the path of other boats that had rounded the mark ahead of us. But after hardening up, we chose to hold position for a little while longer. We went maybe 5 additional boat lengths before tacking.

We followed this tack in to shallower water. There was one boat that crossed close to our bow--we were on starboard tack, so we weren't sure if they'd make it or not, but they squeaked by and we didn't have to change course/protest. We eventually tacked so that we could get around the break water. I believe that our next tack was an attempt to make the finish line, but we were not able to do that--we needed one more tack to get there.

We had a boat on our stern and we weren't sure if we should tack early or wait until we neared the finish line. If we tacked early, we would have to duck behind that boat in order to avoid a collision, since they were on starboard tack. If we waited, it could be a little dicy, but there was a chance that we would have room to finish without ducking behind them. We chose the latter & waited until we were on our layline to the finish before tacking.

The Finish:

One boat crossed the line about 15-20 seconds in front of us. We crossed the line, on port tack, without having to duck behind any starboard boats, and about 10-20 seconds before the boat that was astern of us crossed.

Notes:

We finished in 5th place and are very happy with how we did. The top 3 boats finished close together (this included the J/109 who got 1st), as did the 4th, 5th (us), & 6th place boats. We traveled roughly 5.75 nm at an average speed of 4.6 kts.

We could have improved upon our performance in a couple of ways. First, our first upwind leg to mark "M" was good, but the short tacks we made at the mark itself may have slowed us down. I truly do not think that we were going to make the mark, which is why I called for the short tacks. If, instead, we held out a little past our layline at our previous tack, we possibly would have avoided these short tacks.

Our downwind leg was good but relatively slow. It's hard to compare our downwind performance to boats with genoas, but we were not gaining much ground on any of the other boats. We were also somewhat shadowed by one of the boats for much of the leg. In hindsight, if we chose earlier on to sail at a lower angle to the wind (i.e. on a broad reach) instead of wing-on-wing, we may have had better overall speed and may have made up time on our competitors.

Our final upwind leg to the finish line is where we really gained ground on the other boats. We made the right decision to harden up after mark "G" instead of tacking right away. We also chose wisely to hold off on tacking until we reached our layline for the finish line.

#beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #friday night race #women's skipper race

Wednesday Night Race #6

Tonight was another night where we were lucky to sail. Our area was under a thunderstorm watch and the radar predictions kept changing throughout the day. Fortunately, the threatening storms continued to shift north of us, allowing us to get a race in. Our race committee played it safe by giving each division a relatively short course, in case the weather predictions were wrong and a storm popped up.

The breeze was from the S at 5-9.5 kts, and we had an incoming tide. The race committee gave us a 3.98 nm course (club marks: M-Y), with starboard roundings. Including us, there were three boats in our division.

The Start:

The RC did a good job of making the starting line square to the wind. We caught the gun and immediately unfurled the headsail, giving us most of the 5 minute sequence to get used to having it out. We had already crossed the line once and were heading out into the harbor, so we tacked back towards the line, but soaked down a bit in order to be below the line. We tacked a couple of more times in an attempt to be in a good position with regards to the two other boats in our division, who were now near us. With about 30-40 seconds to the gun, we made our way towards the pin end of the line. We were the closest boat to the pin, but just behind the other boats in their bad air. We crossed about 15-20 seconds late and maybe 5 seconds behind the nearest boat.

The Race:

We tacked almost immediately after crossing the line in order to get clean air. Our remaining upwind tacks were uneventful. We did throw an extra 2 tacks in as we approached the pin because we were approaching land where it gets shallow and rocky--since it wasn't high tide, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Our rounding of mark M was uneventful. We prepared for our spin hoist ahead of time by getting the pole out & setting the tack. As we beared off of the wind, we were seamlessly able to hoist our spin on the starboard side of the boat, and we gybed shortly thereafter.

We gybed twice more. The first of these gybes was because we were nearing the breakwater and needed to get around it. The next gybe was because we were losing pressure, would have to head up and into the harbor for better pressure, but were on our layline to the next mark ("Y"), hence our gybe. We did a leeward takedown just before reaching the mark.

We tacked once we were clear to do so after rounding the mark. One of the other boats in our division was next to us for most of this leg, and they were slowly pulling away from us. Eventually, we tacked away from them & towards the mooring field. We had to tack two more times to make the line.

The Finish:

Our finish was uneventful. There were a few boats nearby, but none close enough where anyone's finish would have been affected.

Notes:

It took us 51:54, corrected to 46:56 to sail the 3.98 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 5 nm on the race course, at an average speed of 5.2 kts. The two other boats in our division finished ahead of us, with the first place boat finishing in 47:03, corrected to 42:05, and the second place boat finishing in 51:18, corrected to 45:32.

We didn't do as well as we hoped, but we were happy to be out on the race course tonight & weren't significantly far behind the second place boat.

I think that we could have improved upon our start. Our position was good and we were able to get out of bad air relatively quickly. On the other hand, if we were in a different position with regards to the other boats, we may have been able to sail further into the mooring field before making our first tack. This would have kept us closer to the rhumb line and would have altered how we sailed the remainder of that first leg.

Our downwind sailing was good. We sailed almost the same course as the first place boat, although this was unintentional. We followed the wind, stayed in strong clear air, and used the puffs to our advantage. Also, out takedown was timed well, taking place when pressure in the spin decreased, making the takedown fast and efficient.

Our last upwind leg could have been better. We played around with sail trim a lot, working to optimize it as much as possible, but the boat felt slow to me for much of this first port-tack leg. The first place boat commented after the fact that we looked like we were pinching. From my position behind the wheel, it didn't seem as though we were pinching, because tell tales were flying and sail trim was constantly being tweaked...but it's possible that we were over trimmed and pointing higher than we should have, all possibly contributing to that feeling that we were going slow. Otherwise, the incoming tide definitely was helpful to all boats. Heading out into the harbor, instead of hovering behind the breakwater near land was definitely the right choice.

#beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

Friday Night Champagne Race

We were lucky enough to have another night of sailing, considering that it was raining before tonight's race began and then again shortly after racing ended. The breeze was very shifty and varied in both speed (4.3-8.6 kts) and direction (mostly from the ESE). Our course was 3.49 NM long between club marks M-G with port roundings. The tide was outgoing and there were nine boats racing tonight.

The Start:

Tonight's race included a pursuit start. Since we had the fastest PHRF rating in tonight's fleet, we started last, 9:15 after the gun.

We were about 15 seconds late to the line, starting close to the "pin" end (a blue hull sailboat located E of the RC boat). Because there were no other boats starting with us, our start was uneventful.

(Our start is highlighted in green.)

The Race:

Since we were the last boat to start, we had the benefit of watching all of the other boats in front of us. We watched them all get headed by the shifting wind and we were able to anticipate this happening to us as well. We did the best we could to harden up and intentionally sail a higher course than needed until we too were headed. I think that we were successful, since we did not have far to travel after tacking towards mark M. I called this tack a little early and had we not trimmed sails our sails in as much as possible and pinched, we would not have made it without tacking again.

We rounded mark M and were on a broad reach for much of our leg to mark G. We chose to stay at/slightly above our rhumb line, while other boats chose to sail higher/lower than the rhumb line. Those who traveled higher than the rhumb line ended up sailing into a no wind zone, which cost them time. Those who sailed lower than the rhumb line sailed much of the leg wing-on-wing, eventually hardening up to a reach in order to make the mark; they probably sailed the smartest course since they had wind & speed for the duration of the leg, which made up for the longer course that they sailed. Because of the squirrelly and dying wind, we eventually gybed our jib over and used the whisker pole to go wing-on-wing for the last half of this leg, which helped us maintain momentum.

One boat rounded mark G right in front of us. We were never on a collision course with them and our rounding was uneventful.

The last leg between mark G and the finish was much more eventful. The wind was lightening up a lot during this leg and our strategy mostly focused on sailing as short a course as possible by staying close to our rhumb line, while also following the wind. Because of what happened to the boats on the downwind leg that sailed above the rhumb line, I was afraid of putting us too far above our rhumb line, so we were conservative with regards to where on the course we put the boat.

Our first 4 tacks were uneventful. We primarily tacked if we thought that were were being headed or if we thought that we slowed down. Our 5th tack was meant to put us close to our rhumb line, but this tack put us on a potential collision course with another boat. We were the starboard vessel, so it was up to the other boat to avoid us. They could have crossed ahead of us, but at the last minute, they decided to tack, thinking that they couldn't make it. This put us right behind them in their bad air, so we chose to immediately tack into clean air. This was a smart decision on our part.

The wind continued to die and our remaining tacks were based on staying within bands of air that we could see on the water. By doing this, we were able to distance ourselves from several other boats who chose to sail towards the western side of the harbor or those who weren't following the wind. Therefore, these tacks and the remainder of our last leg was relatively uneventful.

The Finish:

We finished on the RC end of the line. There were no boats around us and our angle of approach to the finish line allowed us to drift across the line without tacking or hitting the RC boat.

Notes:

Tonight's race was interesting because of the variable wind speed and direction. Because of the pursuit start, we don't record race times; instead, race results are based on chronology of crossing the finish line. We proudly earned 4th 3rd place (one of the boats that placed ahead of us withdrew due to a protest), not too far behind the second and third place boats. One boat withdrew, and the remaining four boats finished a while after us due to lack of wind.

Although we were about 15 seconds late to our start, our start was good and clean. Because of the shifting wind on our upwind leg, we made the right decision to start towards the pin end of the line.

We sailed our upwind leg to the best of our abilities, with good sail trim, and good tactics based on the angles of the boats ahead of us. I could have called for a later tack towards mark M so that we didn't have to pinch, but I don't think that we lost more than 5 seconds with that mistake.

Our downwind leg was also relatively good. In hindsight, we probably should have sailed below our rhumb line, since that's where the best wind was and that's where the top boats chose to go. Therefore, we probably should have put up our whisker pole sooner to go wing-on wing in order to optimize the shifting & dying breeze.

Our final upwind leg is what truly helped us. Tactically, we stayed close to our rhumb line and we paid attention to the breeze--this is what allowed us to pass several boats that were ahead of us for much of the race. The team did a good job of weight placement to help with the boat's light-wind heal angle and they made gentile movements in very light wind.

Even though sail trim was good, we can always improve upon it, since we were slow to fine-tune our sails if we noticed a sail wasn't flying optimally. As the driver, I also would occasionally point too high and pinch if I was distracted by looking at sail trim or by talking with others on board. I do not think that I should have avoided any of these tasks/conversations, since we used this race as a teaching/learning experience, but I should have focused more on driving and keeping the sails full while engaging in these other tasks/conversations.

Lastly, we had a discussion before the race began about which headsail to use. We looked at the weather forecast--one forecast called for increasing wind due to storms, and another called for light wind. We ultimately chose to go with the light air jib, which 100% was the right decision for tonight.

#beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race #champagne race #Friday night sailing

We were lucky enough to get a race in before strong thunderstorms rolled through, bringing a small waterspout to our harbor/mooring field (no damage done). Because of this incoming storm, conditions were somewhat shifty, but the wind held; we were able to start the race with around 9.5 kts from the SSW, but it eventually dropped and we had about 5.2 kts by the time we finished racing. The tide was outgoing.

Our course was 4.0 NM long, to club marks M-Y, with starboard roundings. There were only two boats racing in our division tonight.

The Start:

We tacked along the line twice during our 5 minute starting sequence. Unfortunately, we went too far out on the pin end, causing us to be about 30+ seconds late to the line after the gun. The other boat in our division also started late, but was much closer to the line at the gun. This allowed both of us to start without interfering with each other, have clean air, and sail the course that we thought was best.

The Race:

When we got to the pin end of the line for our start, we immediately tacked around the pin, heading out into the harbor. We held that heading until we hit a bit of a lull, where we tacked back onto starboard tack. The other boat in our division crossed our bow, but we maintained our heading.

We eventually decided to tack as we approached land, out of fear that the wind shifting around it would negatively affect our course/speed. Now, on port tack, we were on a collision course with the other boat in our division. We tried to lee-bow them, but were not as successful as we had hoped. The other boat pulled ahead of us and we were caught in their bad air, so we tacked away to get clean air, tacking back shortly thereafter towards our first mark, "M."

We rounded mark M, letting our sails out to head downwind and hoist our spin. Once the spin was set, we gybed to match course with our competitor. We kept watch and when the other boat gybed, we also gybed. We held this course and gybed again when we were able to clear the breakwater. Unfortunately, by doing this, we sailed out of good pressure and into a lull. We gybed again when we reached pressure and could stay in it, with one last gybe to take us to our final mark, "Y."

Near mark Y, we were on another collision course with our competitor. They had already rounded the mark and were heading upwind directly at us on port tack. We were on starboard tack heading downwind. As such, they were forced to tack away to avoid hitting us.

Our spin takedown was uneventful and well-timed, allowing us to harden up as we reached mark Y and immediately tack around it. We took this tack out into the harbor, in order to avoid the bad wind we might have gotten from the boats in the non-spin divisions, who were rounding a different, more windward mark ("J") than us. We tacked once we knew we were clear of the breakwater, and hoped to be on our layline for the finish. Unfortunately, with shifting wind, we were not able to make it and had to tack once more.

The Finish:

We finished on the boat end of the line. There were no other boats around us at the time so our finish was uneventful.

Notes:

It took us 57:46, corrected to 52:47, to sail the 4.0 NM course. We traveled about 5.4 NM total with an average speed of 5.2 kts. Our competitor finished ahead of us in 54:07, corrected to 48:21.

My job this race was to drive. In looking at our tracking, I think that I did a relatively good job overall, especially upwind, but I can definitely work on keeping the boat more straight while going downwind. In order to do that, I can pay more attention to our compass heading and continue communicating with the spin trimmer.

Sail trim and tactics were done by other crew members. From what I could see, sail trim was good. The crew was constantly playing with the sail trim to optimize our speed for the varying conditions. Tactics were also good, and we tried to be competitive against the other boat in our division when on collision courses. Our tactician mentioned that our first gybe after hoisting the spin may have been unnecessary and may have hurt us. Our late start also affected our overall race time.

#beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

Dr. Ruth Regatta

HHC usually holds champagne races on Friday nights, but sometimes those races are replaced with trophy races. Tonight was one of those nights--it was the Dr. Ruth Regatta.

The conditions were great! The breeze was from the SSW at 7.8-9.7 kts, with gusts up to 15.5-17 kts. The tide was slack for most of our race, eventually turning to an incoming tide. Our course was 6.70 nm long (club marks: M-Y-C), with port roundings. There were 10 boats total out on the course.

The Start:

We had an exciting start! We tacked back and forth along the line a few times before the 5 minute gun. We were actually planning on tacking across the line a few more times, but due to our position on the line & the other boats around us, we chose to hang out just past the pin end of the line a little longer until we could tack and head directly for the line at the gun. We zig zagged a little to slow us down as we approached the line and then ducked below 3 other boats who were also planning to start at the pin. Because of that, we were able to start just after the gun, with speed, as the most leeward boat in our cluster. This gave us a very clean start and put us in an advantageous position for the upwind leg.

The Race:

We continued on starboard tack into the mooring field until we were able to sail away from the cluster and tack without fouling anyone. We carried this new tack until we hit our layline to mark M.

We rounded mark M, and instead of easing our sails and heading downwind towards the mooring field, we choose to gybe the main over onto port tack and head out towards the middle of the harbor. [From what I could see, the majority of the fleet chose to ease their sails and stay on starboard tack after rounding mark M.] I don’t think that we made a poor decision--we sailed wing-on-wing while in the lee between mark M and the breakwater, where we then gybed the main and sailed on a broad reach/reach to our next mark, mark Y.

We gybed around mark Y without any problems. I wrongfully thought that mark C was located in a different, more windward location, so I headed us up more than we needed to be. I was quickly corrected by everyone on board [thank you for that!!!] and we immediately corrected course. In all, I don’t think that this mistake cost us much, since I personally prefer sailing above the rhumb line when on a reach in case there are any significant wind shifts near the next mark.

Our rounding around mark C was uneventful. Because of the wind direction and the nearby land mass, the wind between mark C and our finish was very squirrelly, meaning that it was very shifty and wind speed varied greatly with gusts. We tried to stay as close to our rhumb line as possible, but there were a lot of headers, and not enough lifts. We may have been better off sailing a lower course, further away from our rhumb line, as this may have given us more stable wind. Regardless, our course allowed us to make it to the finish without tacking.

The Finish:

We were the first boat to cross the finish line and our finish was uneventful.

Notes:

It took us 1:05:24, corrected to 57:09 to sail the 6.70 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 9 nm on the race course, at an average speed of 6.4 kts and came in 4th place. The other boats ahead and behind us came in as follows:

1st place: 1:11:42 corrected to 52:34 2nd place: 1:09:00 corrected to 55:28 3rd place: 1:16:21 corrected to 56:53 ---[1:05:24 corrected to 57:09]--- 5th place: 1:18:23 corrected to 57:49 6th place: 1:10:06 corrected to 57:53 7th place: 1:18:49 corrected to 59:21 8th place: 1:25:50 corrected to 1:10:19 The 9th & 10th place boats withdrew

Overall, the race was very close when you look at corrected times. We were less than 5 minutes behind the 1st place boat, less than 2 minutes behind the 2nd place boat, and 16 seconds behind the 3rd place boat. The 5th and 6th place boats were 40 and 44 seconds behind us, respectively.

I believe that we had a phenomenal start, overall great sail trim, and good communication on board. We mostly sailed with our rhumb line, which helped limit any extra distance that we might have otherwise sailed, but that may also have hurt us on our last leg with the squirrelly wind. I made a navigation error, which could have potentially cost us had everyone on board not been paying attention. It was also my first time steering this boat, so I’m sure that with practice, I could have done a better job than I did.

I’m not sure if the jib halyard was slipping through the clutch throughout the race, or if we just didn’t notice how slack it was from the get go, but we did need to add tension during our race. We chose to do that on our last leg as we neared the finish, in part because we couldn’t get the upper part of the sail to stop luffing despite trimming the jib sheets and adjusting the cars. It’s possible that the extra slack in the headsail could have affected our overall performance had it happened early on & we didn’t catch it.

#beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta

A Night With Some Solid Wind

Last night was a beautiful night to be on the water. We had a solid 11 kt breeze from the NW with an outgoing tide. I sailed on a Beneteau First 35 in the spinnaker division. We essentially sailed a windward-leeward course (C-M), which was 6.31 NM long, with port roundings. There were 3 boats (including us) in our division.

The Start:

The line was relatively square to the breeze. This meant that the boat end of the line was a bit more north than the pin end, although the pin end was more west. To me, because of how far north the boat end was, I believe that it was the favored end of the start.

We ran the line twice during our 5 minute start, gybing within about 1 minute to the gun and running the line one last time until our start. We started closer to the pin end of the line and were the most leeward boat at our start.

Because it is somewhat confusing, our start is highlighted in green in the image below.

The Race:

There were a couple of obstacles that we needed to be aware of on our first leg between the start and mark D. First, we had to be aware of land and underwater obstacles (rocks). Next, we had a tug & barge come through our course, which had right of way and which we had to avoid. Together, this meant that we could not zig-zag across our rhumb line to get to our first mark.

Below is an overview of our first leg, as well as a couple close-ups for more detail.

The image below shows our first few tacks. Prior to our 1st tack (bottom of image), we were pinned down by a J/109. Even though we were the leeward boat, both on starboard tack, we could not tack without avoiding a collision with them, so we had to wait for them to tack first. This didn’t hurt our position much, because we stayed with one of our competitors, but tactically speaking, we would have liked to have tacked much sooner.

Our 3rd tack (near mark Z) occurred much sooner than I would have liked because there was a barge coming our way. If we kept going towards land, we would have risked getting stuck in shallow water and having to tack unnecessarily a couple of times to avoid the barge. So, we erred on the side of caution and tacked early. The J/109 was in a better position to go into shallow water and completely avoid the barge than us. I think this helped them out, as they were able to stay closer to the rhumb line and sail a shorter course.

Our last 2 tacks were fast and well executed. In hindsight, we probably should have tacked twice more, since it appears that we were getting headed, therefore increasing the distance sailed, and making our last leg to mark D rather long.

We rounded mark D without any problems. The only issue we encountered is that we set up our spin to be hoisted on the port side of the boat. Upon getting to the mark, we realized that we needed it set up on the starboard side. It took a few minutes to move around the spin lines, but once that was done, our spin hoist was uneventful and we were able to sail relatively deep and make it back into the harbor/mooring field on this one tack.

We smoothly gybed once in the mooring field on a direct course to mark M. Upon getting to mark M, we chose to do a Mexican takedown. We had a little bit of difficulty taking down the spin at first, causing the boat to slide sideways, but I don’t think that this impacted us drastically.

We tacked 3 times on our way towards the finish line. In hindsight, we probably should have taken our first tack a little sooner, because the tracking shows that we were slightly headed, most likely by the Sea Cliff land mass (not shown in the image). Also, if we tacked sooner, we would have stayed closer to our rhumb line, which would have meant a shorter course sailed, and a more direct course.

We took our second tack (near the yellow buoy) because there were boats from other classes heading downwind and we did not want to intermix with them. We didn’t want their bad air, nor did we want to have to worry about where in their fleet to tack in order to avoid a collision, since this could have drastically affected our performance. If we didn’t have to worry about these other boats and could have tacked later, I do not think that we would have needed our third tack to get to the finish line.

The Finish:

We finished at the pin end of the course. This was the favored end for finishing, as it was closer to our last mark (”M”). There were no other boats finishing near us, so our finish was uneventful.

Notes:

It took us 01:22:32, corrected to 01:14:45, to sail the 6.31 NM long course. We traveled roughly 9 NM around the race course, with an average speed of 5.9 kts, and finished in 3rd place. Although we finished last, we were with our fleet the entire time. The 1st place boat finished 03:48 ahead of us (corrected to 05:03). The 2nd place boat, the J/109, finished 03:16 ahead of us (same time corrected since we have the same rating).

Overall, we could have changed a few things to improve upon our time. First, I believe that had we started closer to the boat end of the line, we would have been in a better position tactically at the start of the race. Next, we had a few issues with sail trim, one example being when we accidentally released our jib while going upwind (I did not mention this previously). It’s also possible that we could have sailed in front of the barge and into shallow water without any issues, but we chose to play it safe--this affected our distance sailed. As tactician, I should have been more aware of when we were getting headed, and I should have called for us to tack sooner or I should have called for a few more tacks. Lastly, the two previously mentioned issues with the spin (changing which side it was set to hoist mid-race, and the issues with the douse) slowed us down a little.

Despite these few setbacks, I am extremely happy with how we did! We had a relatively new crew of people who mostly had not sailed together before, and some of whom had very little experience on a sailboat. We were able to work together, trim sails on a boat we’re not used to, in what I believe to be an optimal way, and sail fast. This race was a learning experience for everyone on board and we stayed with our fleet the entire time! What else can you ask for?!

#boats #beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

1st Wednesday of the Season

Welcome back to a new season of sailing, be it cruising or racing! We’ve survived the COVID lockdowns, gotten vaccinated, and are hopeful for a more normal summer! With that said, our first night out was not on Sweet Caroline--winter repairs & projects are slowly coming to an end and we’re hoping to have her back soon. Some of the crew sailed on another J/109, Waterdog, while I sailed on a Beneteau 36.7.

The conditions were beautiful, albeit a little chilly, for a first night back. The breeze was from the SSE with a steady 8 kts. It was high tide for the duration of our race. The boat I was on is part of a non-spinnaker division, so our course was 4.44 nm long, with starboard roundings around marks M-Z-Y. Five boats showed up to race in our division.

The Start:

Unfortunately, I did not remember to start tracking until 3 minutes into our race--therefore, I missed tracking our start.

We got to the line a little early, but were in a good position for the start. We were close to the line, near the pin end on starboard tack when the gun went off. What slowed us down is that we were not up to speed. We could have rectified that by trimming our sails sooner to prepare for our upwind leg.

The Race:

As soon as we had an opportunity to tack into the harbor, we took it. The rest of our fleet continued on starboard tack, into the mooring field. This did not hurt us, as we cleared ourselves of bad air (from other boats and from the Sea Cliff land mass) and got a little push from the current, allowing us to round mark M with the fleet.

Our next leg, between marks M and Z, was a mix between downwind and a broad reach. We were able to stay mostly along our rhumb line, deviating only slightly as we worked to keep our sails full. We did attempt to go wing-on-wing at one point, but this was a short-lived attempt as we were heading too far off course in order to stay far enough downwind and needed to head up in order to make our mark.

We had an uneventful rounding at mark Z, where we gybed towards mark Y. This leg was a reach, and, again, we were able to stay on our rhumb line. At one point, we headed up above the rhumb line in order to gain speed and pass windward of another boat. We maintained an overlap with this boat for a while, but as we approached mark Y, we requested room at the mark. The other boat headed downwind to give us room early, instead of only giving us room at the mark, which caused them to go in the lee, lose all sail power, and slow down while we walked away from them. Because of that, we had another uneventful mark rounding at mark Y.

We tried to stay behind the breakwater for as much of our final leg to the finish line as possible. At one point, we developed an overlap with another boat. We were both on starboard tack; we were leeward and were sailing at a higher angle than them. We asked for room, as the racing rules say that the leeward boat in an overlapped situation has right of way and cannot be pushed off course. Unfortunately, the windward boat was in a tough position in that they eventually had to tack away, but in doing so, they also had to duck behind another boat on starboard tack who was right behind them. The remainder of this leg was uneventful.

The Finish:

Our finish was uneventful. There were no other boats in our immediate vicinity, so we were able to cross the line at the boat end of the line.

Notes:

It took us 01:08:45, corrected to 00:59:43, to sail the 4.44 nm long course. We traveled roughly 5.4 nm around the race course, with an average speed of 4.9 kts, and finished in 5th place. Although we finished last, we were with our fleet the entire time. The 1st place boat finished 04:30 ahead of us (05:15 corrected).

As always, there are always things that we can improve upon. I think that a little bit of practice as a team before the race would have ultimately improved our performance. Had we done that, we would have had more efficient and faster tacks, which definitely slowed us down a bit. We were also missing the clew strap on the main sail, which really affected sail shape and trim, especially downwind.

I can’t criticize our performance without giving some praising as well. Overall, I believe that we worked well as a team, especially since this was our 1st time together and it was the 1st race of the season. There are always cobwebs to dust off at the beginning of the season and I think that we were able to do that rather quickly! I think that communication on board was good and everyone was a team player. Sail trimmers did a good job of getting sails in tight for upwind legs, and sails were let out appropriately for our downwind/reaching legs. No one was afraid of trying anything (i.e. wing-on-wing), and the team was ready and able to tack at a moments notice if needed.

#boats #beneteau #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

I snuck out for another race

I was able to sneak out for a night of sailing. The conditions were calm and the wind was light. I promised my husband that I wouldn’t trim any sails or do anything risky for the baby, so I got his approval to hop on board and take a low-key ride.

The breeze was from the N at around 6 kts. Low tide was 18:29, which was just before our race was scheduled to begin. The race committee sent us on a 4.56 NM course (club marks: G-C), with a port rounding. There were three of us on the line for the spinnaker division.

The Start: With relatively light winds, we tried to stay as close to the committee boat as possible, as did the other boats in our division, since this was the favored end of the line.

With about one minute to the start, we tacked onto starboard tack to make our way towards the starting line. One of the other boats in our division tacked at the same time as us and decided to go below us, using that to their advantage to push us upwind & make it impossible for us to clear the committee boat and cross the line (more about this in the Notes section). We tacked away, and, as a result, started about 30s late.

Note: The rhumb line to our first mark is highlighted yellow in the image below.

The Race: Even though we started late, we were able to catch up to the two other boats in our division. We initially stayed with them, but by doing so, we were heading farther and farther away from our rhumb line. We ultimately decided to tack, heading back towards the rhumb line and towards the harbor’s breakwater.

The wind began to die and we didn’t want to get stuck too close to the breakwater, so we tacked again. Some puffs of wind came and went, giving us a nice lift so that we were eventually able to travel parallel to the rhumb line. Near the end of the last visible puff of wind, we decided to tack so that we could stay within that puff for as long as possible.

When we were about 0.4 NM from mark G, the race committee made an announcement over VHF that the race was abandoned.

The Finish: N/A

Notes: It took us about 45 minutes to sail 1.55 NM at an average speed of 1.9 kts. One of the boats in our division gave up and returned to shore before the race was abandoned and the other one continued to race until the abandonment.

Regarding our mixup at the start, the other boat came from behind, sailed below us, and pushed us upwind so that we would not be able to clear the committee boat. We headed up, but they were being aggressive, getting very close to us, and not leaving us any room for our stern to swing while we attempted to steer clear of them.

On the one hand, because we had an overlap, they had every right to push us up.

11. ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a windward boat shall keep clear of a leeward boat. (https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/rules?part_id=33)

On the other hand, we did not initially have an overlap--they came from behind us and eventually created an overlap. Because of that, they failed to follow the racing rules of sailing that says:

12. ON THE SAME TACK, NOT OVERLAPPED When boats are on the same tack and not overlapped, a boat clear astern shall keep clear of a boat clear ahead.(https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/rules?part_id=33).

Moreover, one of the fundamental rules of boating is to avoid contact/collision regardless of the situation. We asked for room in order to avoid contact while trying to head up/tack away and the other boat told us that they did not have to give us room. Yes, the leeward boat does have rights and doesn’t have to give us room, but when the windward boat is actively trying to move out of the way and a collision will occur because the other boat is not giving the windward boat room to maneuver, then the leeward, “right of way boat” is in the wrong:

15. ACQUIRING RIGHT OF WAY When a boat acquires right of way, she shall initially give the other boat room to keep clear, unless she acquires right of way because of the other boat's actions. (https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/rules?page=2&part_id=33)

Regardless, the boat eventually backed off a little, gave us enough room so that our transom could swing and we could tack. There was no collision, and the race went on as planned until it was abandoned for lack of wind.

#sailing #regatta #beer can race #J109 #jboats

My Last Wednesday Night 😢

Last night was the perfect night for my last Wednesday night of racing for the season. For anyone who does not know, I’m now 30 weeks pregnant, and have been slowly doing less and less onboard, in terms of pulling lines and running around the deck. This means that there will probably not be any more updates from me this sailing season.

As previously mentioned, conditions were great! The breeze was from the S at 7.8-11.7 kts, with gusts to 13.6 kts, and an incoming tide. The race committee gave us, the spinnaker division, a long 7.86 nm course (club marks: S-Z-K), with a starboard rounding. Including us, there were three boats in our division.

The Start: We reached the line a little early, and instead of doing a circle or zig-zagging to waste time, we decided to run the line on starboard tack. We made it about 2/3 of the way down the line when the final gun went off. Because the pin end was favored, we decided to tack right away--in order to get out into the harbor & stay close to our rhumb line--and duck behind the other boats that started with us and who were on starboard tack.

The Race: After tacking out into the harbor just after the start, we tacked again to stay with the fleet. Overall, these two tacks were advantageous for us, as it put us windward of the fleet, but also, ultimately, put us much closer to our first mark. One final tack put us on course for rounding mark S.

We put up our chute without any problem and had a straight shot to our second mark, Z.

We gybed around mark Z, and had an almost straight shot to our final mark, K. About 1.5 nm away from mark K, we noticed that the wind was lightening up, and because we were approaching land, the wind was also getting a little squirrelly. We gybed once so that we could sail for speed, and then gybed once more to be able to douse and round the mark. The image below shows the final moments of our downwind leg highlighted in yellow.

After rounding mark K, we talked tactics and decided that our best bet was to stay as true to our rhumb line as possible; this meant tacking fairly often—11 times in total—and hugging the coast. We watched the other two boats in our fleet for a bit, and it appeared that instead of hugging the coast, they went further out into the harbor, possibly hoping to catch a push from the incoming tide. They tacked fewer times than us, but ultimately sailed a longer course on this leg.

The Finish: For us, the finish was uneventful. We were well ahead of the two other boats in our division, so there was no need to try and make every second count (although we always try to do that anyways). There was a Beneteau Oceanis 46.1 near the finish line with us, but they were in one of the non-spin divisions, and we stayed away from each other.

The finish is highlighted in yellow in the image below.

Notes: It took us 1:30:04, corrected to 1:20:02 to sail the 7.86 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 10.5 nm on the race course, at an average speed of 6.3 kts. The two other boats in our division finished after us, with the second place boat finishing in 1:37:50, corrected to 1:26:11, and the third boat finishing in 1:49:16, corrected to 1:33:36.

Ultimately, what I believe helped us the most was (1) staying as close to the rhumb line as possible, and (2) sailing for speed, especially between marks Z-K, even if that meant sailing a slightly longer downwind course than the other boats in our division. I cannot really come up with too many things that hurt us this race—we were initially having some difficulty with our spin gybes, but we had a crew discussion during the downwind leg & were able to solve the problem.

#j109 #jboats #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

Post-Storm Beer Can Racing

A storm passed through around 1700h, which in our little harbor, means we’ll either be able to get a race off afterwards or we won’t, depending on the wind. Fortunately, the wind began to build back up in time for our 1900h race. The building breeze came from the S, starting around 5-6 kts and building to almost 10 kts by the end of the race/night--gusts were between 7.8- 13.6 kts. There was an outgoing tide. Because of the light wind at the start of the night, the race committee set up a 2.54 nm course (club marks: M-Z) that boats in both the spin and non-spin divisions followed, rounding each mark to starboard.

The Start:

We had just passed the committee boat when the 1st gun went off, and it took us about 3-½ minutes to run the line past the pin. During this time, we debated which end of the line was favored and how we wanted to start. The line, although not perfect, put the pin end out into the harbor, which to me, was more favored for a start on starboard tack, as we would be able to stay relatively close to our rhumb line. The boat end was slightly closer to the mark (maybe 1-2 boat lengths max), but in my view, after continuing course on starboard into the mooring field, the added distance that you’d eventually travel to get back towards the rhumb line was wasteful, especially since the wind in that part of the mooring field can get squirrelly and there was plenty of wind in the middle of the harbor. We decided that the pin end was the best spot on the line for us.

With a little over a minute left until our start, we gybed onto a starboard tack and made our way towards the line. There weren’t any boats in our way, and our only true competition, the J/70, was far enough away from us that they couldn’t try to push us over or away from the line. We started maybe 5-10 seconds late (as did the other boats sharing our start), windward of the J/70 at the pin end of the line.

The Race:

We travelled upwind towards the mooring field. A powerboat in the channel crossed our path, giving us their wake, and we decided to tack shortly after in order to head out into the harbor to clear breeze and avoid the squirrelly wind in the mooring field.

We watched the wind closely. We were in a nice puff, but there wasn’t much wind beyond our puff on the western part of the harbor. We chose to sail through our current puff and into a second puff before tacking. This gave us a solid path of wind towards our 1st mark, without the risk of running into any large lulls.

We intentionally overshot our layline to mark M, so that the current from the outgoing tide wouldn’t push us into the mark and also so that we could prepare to hoist our spin. The spin went up on the starboard side, and had a small twist in it which came out quickly and easily. Because of the wind direction and the fact that the breeze was now filling in much more, we were pretty much able to stay on our rhumb line to the next mark, mark Z. We gybed around mark Z and did a gybe douse of the spin.

As with the previous leg from marks M to Z, our last leg was a straight shot to the pin end of the finish line.

The Finish:

All boats were well behind us at this point, so the finish was uneventful.

The image below shows the start/finish line. I highlighted our finish in yellow, as well as the beginning of our after-race cruise around the harbor.

Notes:

It took us 34:36, corrected to 31:31 to sail the 2.54 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 3.3 nm on the racecourse, at an average speed of 4.9 kts.

The J/70 finished about 4-½ mins (uncorrected) behind us, with an overall elapsed time of 39:04, corrected to 34:16. After the start, the J/70 chose to go all the way into the mooring field until they ran out of water. I think that decision hurt them, in part because they had to make up distance, and also because of the squirrelly wind. They hit some large lulls (at least according to the wind patterns on the water) as they made their way back towards the rhumb line and mark M. I lost track of them after this point.

#j109 #jboats #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

From Champagne to Beer

Tonight was a little different from other, recent, nights on the water because the wind was out of the WNW! Wind speeds averaged 7.8-10 kts, with gusts to 15.5 kts. Our course was 6.05 nm long (club marks: C-Y-S) with starboard roundings. Low tide was scheduled for 20:22, so we mostly raced in an outgoing tide.

The Start:

The starting line was angled perpendicular to the wind (zoomed map in “the finish” section), but the boat end was clearly favored for the start. I think that most everyone figured this out as we all tried to crowd that end of the line before the gun. As a result, the start was very competitive with 12 boats from both divisions (2 spin, 10 non-spin) on the line.

Although I said that the boat end was favored, there was some debate onboard over where to start: would it be more advantageous to start closer to the pin with clean air? I believe that this was our skipper’s plan and he was trying to execute it.

With a little over a minute until the gun, we ran the line on port tack towards the boat. As we approached the boat end of the line, we also approached close to 10 boats coming our way on starboard tack. Our skipper wanted to gybe in front of the first of these boats, but I told him not to because I didn’t think he had enough room for this maneuver without creating a collision. He went above them instead and was forced to hold course for several boat lengths.

With about 40 seconds to the gun, we passed the RC boat and found an opening to gybe. Because we gybed, we went lower than the boat that was coming our way & now overtaking us as we built up speed, becoming the leeward boat. As the leeward boat and because of our proximity to the RC boat, we told this upwind boat not to go between us & the committee boat, since we did not owe them any room. They went there anyways, and as a result, they possibly crossed the line early. I was more focused on our boat, so I’m not really sure what happened with them, but I believe the turned back to the line to recross.

The Race:

After an eventful start, the race itself was much more relaxing. After about 5-10 boat lengths, we tacked onto port tack so that we could head out of the harbor on the first of several longish legs. We continued for a while until we started to get pushed in the wrong direction towards the wrong side of the harbor, so we tacked to starboard tack in order to get closer to our rhumb line. We repeated this several more times, only tacking when the wind started to shift and push us the wrong way.

We over-stood our first mark (mark: C) so that we had time to get our pole out, set the tack, pre-feed the sheet, and hoist the spin. This went relatively seamlessly, except for the twist in the spin. I have to look back and try to figure out why we had a twist--the spin had been washed/rolled over the winter, but I taped the spin 3x in full tonight while setting everything up to try to avoid a twist or any other issues. Fortunately, the twist came out on its own soon thereafter.

We continued on port tack for the duration of this leg, sailing high of our mark, which gave us added boat speed. It was on this leg that we started to walk away from the other boats in the fleet.

As we neared our next mark (mark: Y), we realized that we were too far away from the mark to head down to it and, instead, needed to gybe. Our gybe went flawlessly and we planned for a leeward takedown of the spin. With the wind angle and our proximity to mark Y, we could not afford to head down too much, so there was some added pressure in the spin, making it a little difficult for our bowman to douse. Regardless, the spin came down easily and we were ready to continue on to the last mark (mark: S).

This leg of the race, between marks Y and S was uneventful. We hit a pocket of air where the wind lightened up and shifted about 20 degrees to our port, but we sailed through this pocket with ease and continued on to our mark.

We casually rounded mark S, and made our way back to the finish line.

The Finish:

Because the pin end of the start/finish line changes depending on the wind direction, the RC boat is always marked in our chart. I highlighted the approximate location of tonight’s line in orange so that you can see how favored the pin end was for the finish (and also how favored the RC boat end was for the start). As we approached the pin, we rounded up to get our bow across the line faster--not that a few seconds would matter tonight, but it’s a good habit to maintain. Overall, this was an uneventful finish, since there were no other boats near us.

Notes:

In all, it took us 01:12:33 to sail the 6.05 nm-long course. Our time was corrected to 01:05:02 (TOD). We traveled roughly 8 nm on the racecourse, at an average speed of 5.9 kts.

The other boat in the spinnaker division, a J/70, finished in 01:27:40, corrected to 01:15:56 (TOD)--from what I heard back at the club, this boat and a non-spin boat decided to play some games with each other on the course, which may have negatively affected their time. The first place boat in the non-spin division finished in 01:27:52, corrected to 01:13:07 (TOD).

Overall, I believe that we did a lot of things right tonight. We didn’t foul anyone at the start, and took advantage of an opportunity to get a good place on the starting line, therefore having a clean start that was clear of bad air. We watched our heading on our upwind leg and tacked when we were pushed in the wrong direction--this saved us on distance and on time. Despite the twist in our spin, I believe that we were efficient in our hoist and, later, with our douse. Our sail trim was good, and our tacks/gybes were clean and efficient as well.

Because we did so much “right,” it’s hard to think of what we did wrong. Collectively, I can’t think of much. For me personally, I know that I was a little slow with parts of the spin hoist in part because I was confused by what was being dictated to me. I’m used to seeing the spin halyard on the winch in case it needs a grind in order to be made, but was being told to load up the winch with the spin sheet instead. For some reason I couldn’t quickly wrap my head around that concept. Mind you, it was only my 2nd time doing pit, so I’m not being hard on myself, but rather using this as an opportunity to learn.

#J109 #jboats #sailboat #sailboat racing #regatta #beer can race

Champagne Comes from France

Tonight was the second Friday night Champagne race, and, yes, there was champagne. Ok, ok, real champagne comes from France....so, no, there was no champagne, but there was Prosecco. The breeze was steady out of the SSW, averaging 11.7 kts, with gusts to 15.5 kts, and with an incoming tide. Our course was 5.29 nm long (club marks: M-Y-M) with port roundings.

The Start:

This was a pursuit race, meaning that each both starts at a different time based on their handicap/rating. Because we have a low handicap, we started 13m 50s after the gun at 19:13:50. The benefit of a pursuit start is that the line is virtually empty and you have the opportunity to start on port or starboard tack without worrying about fouling someone. We were a few seconds (~30s) late to the our start and approached the boat (favored) end of the line on starboard tack. Because of the wind’s angle and because it was the preferred route to get to our first mark, we crossed the line while tacking around the RC boat.

The Race:

Most of the other racers chose to head away from the mooring field and into the harbor, which is also what we did.

Our first tack was uneventful, as we were nowhere near any of our competitors. The rest of our upwind leg was also fairly uneventful, except that we didn’t know which way to round the mark. We tried watching the boats ahead of us to see which way they rounded, but we couldn’t see them clearly. It looked to me like they did a port rounding, but no one onboard was certain. We decided that there were still a few boats ahead of us who we could watch to get a definitive answer. (Un)Fortunately, we ended up passing them and had to go with our best guess (port rounding). Several boats behind us also rounded with the mark on port, so we were fairly certain that we made the right decision, especially since none of them hailed us on the VHF to tell us that we needed to do a 360 penalty turn.

Our downwind leg was also uneventful. Tonight’s race was not a spin race, so we were at the mercy of our jib. We let off some halyard tension, gybed our main and jib a few times, depending on the wind angle and our few attempts to go wing on wing. We were fortunate to stay fast during this leg, and we were getting closer to the boats at the front of the fleet. Because of this, we were able to watch how they rounded to reconfirm that we rounded the first mark properly: port rounding!

We retensioned our halyards and gybed the sails over to the starboard side just before rounding mark Y. Because of the wind direction and incoming tide, we again decided to go towards the middle of the harbor, so all we needed to do was harden up.

We had an uneventful first tack and kept an eye on one of the boats that stayed closer to shore, a Colgate 26. They were ahead of us on port tack and crossed our bow by about 5 boat lengths--we could catch them.

Although tacking can slow you down, our tactics during this race and this upwind leg in particular were to stay near the rhumb line. Therefore, we continued on starboard towards the shore. We eventually tacked so as not to go too close to shore and the boats anchored in the vicinity, and were now on port tack and on a potential collision course with the Colgate 26. We were prepared to tack to avoid a collision, but we chose to wait and see instead of acting prematurely. This decision paid off for us because we were able to safely cross in front of them. There was now only 1 boat to catch up with and pass--a Hunter.

We tacked four more times before coming close to the Hunter. Again, we found ourselves on port tack and our competition was approaching on Starboard tack. This time, there was enough distance between us where we were able to cross paths without altering course. We crossed behind them and tacked after a couple of boat lengths to ensure clear air, but this put us well past the layline to our last mark (mark M) and we had to head off the wind a little--I think this allowed for us to go faster and helped us gain more ground on that Hunter.

We tacked around our last mark about 5 boat lengths behind the Hunter. They immediately gybed to port tack, while we stayed on starboard tack. Although we were sailing by the lee, we were both going in the same direction and we were able to catch up to them and create an overlap. They tried heading up a little, but because of our different tacks, they were forced to bear off and give us room. Their next bet was to gybe their main over so that they were also on starboard tack--they did that and headed us up, but we were able to pull ahead of them. Next, they tried to position themselves in a way so as to cover/block our wind. I believe that they were successful in slowing us down a little, but we were able to maintain our position in front of them.

The Finish:

We crossed the line about 1-2 boat lengths ahead of the Hunter, making for a great, close race.

Notes:

In all, it took us 01:04:54 to sail the 5.29 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 7 nm on the racecourse, at an average speed of 6.2 kts.

Despite being late to our start, we were able to make up for lost time. Had we started on time, though, it’s possible that we would have caught the Hunter on our last upwind leg (from Y-M).

#J109 #jboats #sailboat racing #regatta

Wednesday Night Racing Has Officially Begun

Tonight was the second Wednesday race of the season, but because of Covid-19, it was the first official race for Wednesday racers. The breeze was steady out of the SSW, averaging 7-9.5 kts, with gusts to 11 kts, and with an incoming tide. The race committee set up a 3.61 nm course (club marks: M-Z-G) that boats in both the spin and non-spin divisions followed.

The Start:

There were 10 boats (2 spin, 8 non-spin) on the line for the start. Although we all paced back and forth along the line for a majority of the 5-minute starting sequence, by the 1 minute mark, most boats were waiting near the pin end of the line for their cue to run down the line and start on starboard tack. We tacked (gybed?) in front of this group of boats, reached the line a little early, and as a result, were one of the first boats to cross at the gun, albeit closer to the boat end of the line instead of at the favored end. There was one boat on port tack that crossed the line just behind us at the boat-end, while everyone else fought to cross on starboard tack near the pin-end.

The Race:

After the gun, we continued on starboard tack into the mooring field. We thought about tacking sooner rather than later, but there were boats on starboard tack who we would have fouled if we tacked , so we were forced to wait. Fortunately, due to the wind direction and the rumb line to mark M, delaying our tack did not hurt us.

We approached mark M, ready for a starboard rounding and ready to hoist our spin as soon as we rounded the mark (starboard hoist). With fewer crew members than normal, setting the spin went much smoother than anticipated and we fortunately did not have any twists to contend with. Since the J/109 uses an asymmetric spin, it took us 2 gybes to get to our next mark--these gybes also went smoothly with our skeleton crew.

We gybed around mark Z (our 3rd downwind gybe), and were able to head directly to our last mark, mark G. As we approached the mark, we headed a bit deeper so that we could douse the spin: our jib came out on port and we pulled the spin down from the leeward side of the jib. We didn’t plan our takedown soon enough, so we overshot the mark by about 2-3 boat lengths, but hardened up as soon as we were clear to do so.

With the incoming tide pushing us towards our finish line, it made sense for us to stay in the middle of the harbor for as long as possible. We used the opportunity to clean up the deck a bit from leftover lines from our downwind leg, and to make sure that none of the spinnaker lines (halyard, sheet, & tack) were fouling the foot of our jib. Once done, we tacked over and made our way back into the harbor towards the finish line. As we neared the layline to the finish, the wind lifted us, forcing us to wait a little longer before tacking over. When we finally tacked over, I anticipated that the wind would shift again, this time lifting us towards the line so that we could cross without another tack. I was wrong in my assumption and we needed to tack one last time.

The Finish:

As with our Friday night race, the finish was uneventful. We crossed near the pin/favored end of the line, and were the only boat near the line at the time. The J/70, our competition for the evening, was trailing us by 4:34 (elapsed time), and the rest of the fleet (non-spin) was even further behind us.

Notes:

In all, it took us 47:16, corrected to 42:40 (TOD, time on distance) or 56:12 (TOT, time on time) to sail the 3.61 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 5 nm on the racecourse, at an average speed of 5.8 kts.

The J/70 proved to be great competition tonight. Their elapsed time was 51:50, corrected to 44:39 (TOD) and 56:38 (TOT)--just 26 seconds (TOT) behind us!

#J109 #jboats #regatta #beercanrace #sailboat #sailboat racing

1st Race of the Socially-Distanced Season

Last night was the 1st night I was able to get out and race this season. It was a light night with a friendly race planned for the 2 boats that showed up. Breeze picked up in the harbor as we made our way to the mooring, allowing us to plan for a nice 4.44 nm course (club marks: M-Z-Y) that takes us on a sunset tour of the harbor. It was high tide when we left the club, so our race would be sailed in an outgoing tide.

The Start:

We began our 5-minute starting sequence around 19:13, with approximately 4-6 kts of breeze (gusts to 8 kts). Because of the light breeze, it paid off for us to stay close to the committee boat and the starting line. We didn’t have much of a plan for our start--we were thinking of starting on port tack, but that depended on where our competitor was and if we ran the risk of fouling them. We also considered a traditional starboard start and tacking right away. Either way, we would ultimately end up on port tack, heading away from the mooring field and into the harbor.

We approached the committee boat a little early, with about 20 seconds to the start, so we ran the line and crossed at the gun on a starboard tack. The other boat stayed below the starting line, which ended up hurting them as they were nowhere near the line for the gun and now had to make up distance and time.

The Race:

After the start, we went about 3 boat lengths to build up speed and tacked away from the mooring field and into the harbor. This worked to our advantage, not only because it kept us near the rhumb line, but because there was a pocket of breeze in the harbor that we were able to tack through to get us towards our first mark. If you look at the image above, you can see that we tacked 5 times (not counting our final tack) in this pocket to get to the windward mark (M).

Our competitors also started on starboard tack, but chose to continue deep into the mooring field. There was breeze in there too, but this decision ultimately hurt them due to the extra distance they needed to cover by heading towards the red & green channel markers (marked “2″ and “1,” respectively in the image), and the fact that the wind tends to shift/bend around the land in that part of the harbor.

As we approached our upwind mark (M), we could see that the wind further in the harbor was lightening up and suggested shortening the course. We agreed on a course of M-Z, which is 2.54nm in length. Unfortunately, the wind died down more than we anticipated, and the course was shortened yet again to just M (1.29 nm).

We sailed out of our wind pocket during our last upwind starboard leg in order to overshoot the lay line and leave enough room to get to M, for fear that the wind would shift or that we wouldn’t be able to make the mark--this was an invaluable decision, because the outgoing current (which completely slipped my mind at the time) was pushing us in the wrong direction (into the mark) and we had to sail a little higher than expected to get around M without hitting it.

We gybed after rounding M so that we could make our way towards the finish line. With the dying wind, we tried to sail a little high so that both sails were as full as could be, but we also wanted to stay in whatever pockets of wind we could find. As a result, we eventually headed deeper downwind and went wing-on-wing. This tactic seemed helpful at first, but our jib began to backwind due to our apparent wind, causing us to eventually gybe the jib over to the same side as the main (port).

Our competitors rounded M but eventually withdrew from the race due to lack of wind.

The Finish:

The finish was uneventful. A combination of very light wind and an outgoing current allowed us to drift across the finish line.

Notes:

In all, it took us 50:50 to sail the 1.29 nm-long course. We traveled roughly 2.5 nm on the racecourse, at an average speed of 2.6 kts.

Because of Covid-19, the crew is currently limited to 4 people: 1 at the helm, 1 at the main/traveller, and 1 at each jib winch. Tacking was the only time we were in close proximity with each other, but everyone wore a mask, and as soon as the tack was complete, the jib trimmer who just released their sheet immediately moved to the rail--the other jib trimmer stayed in place to trim the jib & make any adjustments as needed. Efforts were made so that winch handles were not shared, but there were times when this could not be avoided--fortunately, hands were washed immediately upon boarding the boat, and sanitizer was available if needed.

#sailing #regatta #racing #sailboat #sailboat racing #J109

Summer 2018 Racing Has Begun!

Tonight was the 1st night of Wednesday Night Racing, and we were fortunate to have good weather. The wind was roughly 8.5 kts from the SE, and the water was relatively calm and flat. Gusts were mild, at around 10 kts or so.

Our course consisted of starboard roundings around marks M and Y, which made for a 4.0 NM course.

The Start:

We were on the starting line for the initial horn, but made some tactical errors prior to the starting gun; as a result, we were ~30 seconds late to the line. Once we reached the pin-end of the starting line, we immediately tacked around it to head towards our first mark on port tack.

The Race:

Leg 1--upwind: Because of the wind’s direction, we couldn’t stay on port tack for long. We eventually tacked, and used the remainder of the 1st leg to try to gain an advantage over the other boats in our fleet--mainly a J/70.

The J/70 was headed towards us on port tack, but since we were the starboard vessel, we had right of way. The J/70 ducked below us, and we used that opportunity to tack above them, stealing their wind. The J/70 slowed down, and fell off a little to try to find better wind. When they were clear to tack, we followed suit in an attempt to continue to cover them. We were successful; they fell further behind us and couldn’t sail as high upwind.

We made it to our first mark--mark M--on that tack. Since all roundings were to starboard, we made a clean gybe around M and prepared to raise the chute.

Leg 2--downwind: Our chute went up perfectly and we were able to aim directly towards our next mark. The J/70 that we previously passed was able to catch up to us on this downwind leg, and they chose to sail higher than us--this was a good decision on their part, since we would have tried to cover them had they gone below us again. After passing the breakwater, we took a gamble and stayed close to land. If we stayed a little farther from land, we would have had better wind, but we didn’t lose any time on the J/70 since they stayed along the shore with us.

We doused our spin a little early in preparation for our mark rounding. Fortunately for us, the J/70 doused their spin even sooner than we did, slowing them down as they approached mark Y, and allowing us to gain our lead once again.

Leg 3--upwind: We tacked around mark Y, heading out into the harbor with the J/70 on our heels. Since the rest of the fleet was making their way downwind, we decided to tack away from the J/70, get clean air by sailing above the fleet, and hopefully get help from the tide and current by staying closer to shore. This strategy seemed to work on our favor; because of our proximity to land, we were able to use the shifting wind to arc around the breakwater, allowing us to sail a relatively short distance upwind; the J/70 ended up going further out into the harbor and sailed a longer course than us.

When the J/70 tacked towards the finish line, we decided to tack as well in an effort to maintain our lead over them.

The Finish:

It appeared as though our trajectory was for the boat-end of the finish line. Unfortunately, the wind shifted too much and we needed to tack once more in order to cross the line. We were successful in crossing the finish line first, but due to our rating (handicap), we owe the J/70 time, making it a close race overall.

Notes:

Our elapsed time racing was 54:53, corrected to 49:54, putting us in 2nd place for the race. (The J/70′s elapsed time was 55:35, corrected to 47:49). I made a mistake in not tracking our route/progress for the first leg and a half of the race, and do not know our overall distance traveled for this course. For the 2.51 NM that was recorded, our average speed was 5.0 kts.

Summer Part 2, Week 3

Sorry for the delay in posting. There was no sailing last week due to strong winds, and, more importantly, waves of thunderstorms rolling through our area.

The course for this week was 4.44 NM long, and consisted of marks “M,” “Z,” and “Y,” all rounded to starboard. Winds ranged from 8-13 mph from the south. Low tide was 19:21--hence, we started with an outgoing tide, and finished with the onset of an incoming tide (depending on which tide chart you look at).

The Start:

Only two boats raced in our division, but there were plenty of boats from other divisions on and around the starting line. Our plan was to start at the pin end of the course on port tack; the other boat in our division also planned to start at the pin end, but on starboard tack. We both crossed the line within a few seconds of the gun, and we had to duck behind the starboard tacked boat.

The Race:

As you can see from the map above, we continued out into the harbor on port tack, tacking a few times to get up to our mark while staying close to the rhumb line. The other boat continued on starboard tack deep into the harbor and mooring field (not pictured in the map above) before tacking back out into the harbor. I believe that they were attempting to catch some lifts from the wind arcing around the land mass that is over there, but in doing so, they sailed a longer course to get to the first mark.

We had a quick spin hoist after rounding “M,” but ran into some problems while trying to roll up our jib; for some reason, the lazy spin sheet was getting wrapped in the jib. Our solution was to undo the lazy spin sheet and unwrap it from the jib/forestay, and then rerun that spin sheet. This was an excellent solution, since we did not need to gybe based on wind angle and the location of the next mark, and had plenty of time to figure out and fix our problem.

We gybed around mark “Z” and headed towards mark “Y.” This leg was more of a downwind leg than the previous leg, causing us to gybe several times to get to the next mark. Our gybes were clean and fast. Since the other boat in our division uses a symmetrical spin, they were able to aim directly at marks “Z” and “Y.”

We rounded “Y,” hardened up, and immediately tacked because of the lack of water in that area at low tide. We sailed a little ways out into the harbor before tacking back towards land--again, to insure that we had enough depth under us. Our plan for this last leg was to sail close to land, avoiding the heavier tidal/current push that’s out in the middle of the harbor and sailing a shorter course along the rhumb line. We were able to do that until we got to the breakwater, after which we sailed out into the middle of the harbor, tacking only once to make the finish line.

The other boat sailed out into the harbor after rounding “Y,” I believe to catch a push from the tide. They eventually sailed back in towards shore, making for long tacks and a great distance covered per tack. I’m not sure if this helped or hurt them.

The Finish:

The finish was uneventful, as we were the only boat around at the time. We finished at the pin end of the line while heading upwind.

Notes:

Our elapsed time racing was 56:15, corrected to 50:30, putting us in first place for the race. We traveled 5.91 NM (this includes the time we spent tacking back and forth before/during the starting sequence), and our average speed was 5.6 kts.

#learn to sail #sailing #regatta #racing #sailboat #j109

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