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    - SSS Technical Infrastructure

Corinthian Race Buzzzzzz

Someone on another forum pointed out that the TOT parameters are wrong on the fleet assignments. The SSS SSI's state:

16. RACE SCORING
a. Races will be scored Time on Time, using the formula TCF =650 / (550 + PHRF).

Ray told me once how to correct them but I don't remember. Easier to do now than after the preliminaries are posted.
 
witness to collision needed

Hi, I need witnesses to a collision causing damage to my Express 27 #56 near the blossom rock buoy. I was struck midship on the starboard side. My life line stanchion was bent end my stern pulpit was torn from the deck. Any help would be appreciated. contact me at [email protected] thanks!
 
My J/92 was also the meat in the Blossom Rock sandwich and has the scrapes on the hull to prove it. The Cal 40 jammed in on port when all the rest of us were on starboard. I yelled at him by name twice as the situation was developing but was ignored. He later dropped out but I'll be looking for insurance information.

The Bay was a hazardous place today if you were a singlehander. I love this stuff but after today I'm wondering if I need to find another way to enjoy my sailing.
 
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BobJ said:
My J/92 was also the meat in the Blossom Rock sandwich and has the scrapes on the hull to prove it. The Cal 40 jammed in on port when all the rest of us were on starboard. I yelled at him by name twice as the situation was developing but was ignored. He later dropped out but I'll be looking for insurance information.

The Bay was a hazardous place today if you were a singlehander. I love this stuff but after today I'm wondering if I need to find another way to enjoy my sailing.
Click to expand...

It was a hazardous place today and I decided to sail very conservative. Bob, I think you got the worst of it during the start and at Blossom Rock. I went way outside to avoid the madness.

I think this is the first time I finished the Corinthian race. Every year something happened to make me drop out, both with Tijd and Xpression. Today I beat the deamon. Yes!

Dirk "TIJD" First 30JK
 
Yes, 20+ boats in our start and only 3 singlehanders (I didn't see either of the Olson 34's). I got screwed at the start by two doublehanded boats who just couldn't find it in themselves to do the right thing. This is the Singlehanded Sailing Society. Maybe we need to have our own starting line somewhere else. It's frustrating.

I'm glad you got around the course without problems.

Sorry for the bad vibe - when my boat gets scraped up I am NOT happy.
 
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We had problems with a white Cal 40 both at the Start and at Blossom. At the Start he was OCS and chose to barge down the Start Line on starboard, paying no attention to several starboard starting boats who were leeward and starting properly. He provided an effective barrier to the wind and to the mark. When I asked, he simply said he was "Over early" and continued blocking the wind and the mark until we slowed enough to pass astern, but by then it was too late to follow our plan of sailing down to Peninsula Point before tacking over. At Little Harding most boats in our division were far ahead. We did manage to do some catching up by the time we approached Blossom.

At Blossom we were the inside same Cal 40 and called for room at the mark. Lots of current and other boats to contend with so we weren't paying particular attention when the boat suddenly banged into us. The skipper said something about being forced by the boats outside of him. We basically stopped and were pinned against his hull for several minutes since the wind was blowing over our starboard quarter, pushing us against him. We could see sails on the other side of the boat, but were very busy trying to get away from his hull, so I don't know who they were. By the time we managed to unhook, the current had pushed us several hundred yards back from Blossom and we had to contend with boats that had come up while this was going on in order to get around the mark and by the time we rounded, boats we'd managed to catch up with to were very far ahead and we never caught them again. Minimal damage and lucky we didn't have spreaders! A few scrapes on the rub rail, a long scratch on the wishbone boom, and some marks I think will buff out.

It is the SSS and we did give room to several singlehanders who got in our way, but there was room to avoid them. I've sailed this race probably 20+ times, both single and double and today was my worst experience.

I also saw the same boat over near Southampton Shoal with its jib down, but luckily this time it was a long ways off and we rounded the platform with no incident.
 
At Blossom, were you on port or starboard tack when you called for room? I know he was on port.
 
We were on starboard when we called for room at the mark. Being on starboard when he hit us, plastered our port side up against the boat with our wishbone against his starboard shroud. As things began to happen, we were busy watching all those boats that had sailed below the mark and were having to tack back on port. What actually "detached" us from the boat was when the whole pack wheeled and we popped onto port long enough to separate. When we were clear enough, we jibed back onto starboard, rounded the mark on starboard, and continued beating back toward the city front on starboard. We couldn't lean over to see what damage had occurred until we tacked onto port near Pier 39.
 
We made a mistake on the approach to Blossom. We should have been well ahead of the melee, but I decided to head left on the final approach to the mark with the idea of coming in on starboard with the jib up. The wind dropped to 9kts and the fleet that was laying the mark sailing deep had a lot more breeze and caught up. Then I dropped the kite down between the jib sheets and we couldn't get the jib out. The good news is that we arrived on the outside of the pinwheel and my kid was able to avoid fouling or hitting anyone while I sorted out the knitting. The little guy was a bit shaken up, though - the combination of chaos, danger of collision and bad language (which he hears in the playground, but has never heard from adults in anger - welcome to the real world, son). He complained of a stomach ache and his leg started bouncing around uncontrollably, so I guess he took a good shot of adrenaline. He was laughing about it by Blackaller, so I doubt there are any serious mental scars - a solid growth experience for him.

On the topic of boats fouling each other - every fleet has a "culture" and my sense from the SSS races that I have attended is that the culture is to let small infractions go rather than throw a flag. Probably because everyone recognizes that there are additional boat handling challenges and so tagging someone "One Design" style on a very fine port starboard is simply not part of the game. However, when rules get interpreted in a less than ridged way, judgment is applied. And then there will be folks that abuse the flexibility. It's obvious that a 120 boat fleet can't race 20 miles without some rules infractions that don't end in contact - but I don't hear of DSQs or RAFs due to non-contact infractions. It's not easy to fix it because the racing is so popular; people like what it is right now and so why change it? But that means guys like the Cal 40 mentioned above causing havoc without consequences. I wonder whether he even knows that in an OCS he has to keep clear? Perhaps some kind of Webex version of a protest arbitration would be helpful - low overhead, easy and educational, but less conflict-oriented and damaging to the fleet culture than more serious protests for non-contact infractions.
 
The SSS Culture of allowing for challenges while shorthanding is why I didn't mention the late-starting port tack nonspin boat who was struggling to avoid getting hit in the melee at the Start. Bad choice to be there. He was attempting to get his boat tacked onto starboard - but he was pretty much blanketed from enough wind to do it. I think all of us who've sailed lots of SSS races have either "been there" or accommodated someone who is "there."

I think the large boat involved with our boat retired, because at Southampton I saw it off to the east with its jib down. Motoring?
 
I had a really great day on the water yesterday. The in the bay SSS races are ideal for me and I am very thankful to have the opportunity to participate.

I race a big cruising boat because thats the boat I have. I often single hand her in non race situations but quite frankly I'm afraid of single handing a boat that big in close traffic, so I race double handed. I am very happy that there is a class that accommodates me

Thankfully, I managed to stay well to the outside of the melee yesterday.
 
Sorry to hear about all the carnage out there :(

I had a great day.

Aside from a spinnaker wrap while heading for Pt Stuart which left the halyard so fouled I couldn't get it sorted till later.
 
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http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/showthread.php?4406-SSS-Corinthian-March-19th

Purdy pics and stuff!
 
A beautiful day for sailing. I am sorry to hear of the carnage too. As I was sailing form Little Harding to Blossom Rock it looked like I-5 on a Friday Night going to LA. It was a foregone conclusion that there would be problems at Blossom, especially with the ebb running. An idea that has been discussed a few times is having the fast boats start first. And giving large one design fleets their own start. I understand all the arguments against these ideas. But as we have more and more racers from very competitive fleets join the SSS races, I think that we have to adapt. Changing some of our practices may help, as well as figuring out how to remind everyone that sailing single or double-handed requires being a bit more conservative. No one has the eyes to watch and the hands to do everything that you can do as quickly or as well on a fully crewed boat. Glad it sounds like no one was hurt.
 
Preliminary results are posted...Sorry for the delay...RC needed to review the Video and without a zoom lens I am now seeing cross eyed...
 
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