Shorthanded Midwinters 2014/2015

[Lightspeed]

Bob-

Thanks for organizing this. Very good turnout. What happened to the forecast? I was expecting 5 kn NE.
Todd

Yea what did happen to that 5k? Sure glad I have my bi-weekly shoulder physical therapy appt tomorrow. 20+ with the 140 up was a real workout (for the other shoulder!!).

 

[Wylieguy]

Well I have again studied the SIs and I can't see how I (and perhaps Tijd) managed to DNF, unless the RC simply did not see us. We did not get a horn crossing the finish. We overstood the finish by quite a bit , and so approached the finish at a very shallow angle, but definitely passed between OCX and the RC, on port tack. A bit ahead of Lightspeed FWIW. We sailied Course 4 S - W - R - L - F, following a number of others in our division.

Super nice day on the water, though the 16 kts at our finish and the 20kts reaching home with our 150% #1 were quite a bit more than advertised. I'm not used to such short legs -- setting the kite at those reaching leg angles did not seem like it was worth it for a sym boat. I'm surprised though that the J92S did not set. Perhaps the RC gave us the reaching DW course to keep us out of the crewed fleets traffic pattern.

Pat Broderick (USSA Race Officer/PRO for some SSS races) here. If you think you finished, but were missed, contact Bobbi (BYC PRO) with the time you finished and the boats ahead/behind/alongside. If everything's okay with the course you sailed they'll probably "plug" you in between those boats' times, taking your reported time into consideration if it matches their times for the other boats. RCs miss finishers frequently and the only way they can rectify things is to find out where the missing boat finished and "plug" it in. As a frequent shorthanded racer I know how difficult it can be to record things, especially if there's traffic and it's blowing stink. I keep a pen in my foulie jacket pocket and use my hand for a note pad. -- Pat

 

[solosailor]

Course 4 S - W - R - L - F,

Shorthanded Fast (Class C) did course 3: S-W-R-L-W-L-F

 

[BobJ]

Pogs, Shorty 1 was course 3 (incl. you); Shorty 2 was course 4. I think Dirk had another issue - he headed back to Richmond after rounding the leeward mark the second time.

 

[pogen]

Well great. I guess as I passed the RC at the start saw the "4" flag but that was intended for the next fleet.

 

[Lightspeed]

A bit ahead of Lightspeed FWIW. We sailied Course 4 S - W - R - L - F, following a number of others in our division..

Shorthand 1 "C" was course 3 S-W-R-L-W-L-F. I was still heading to W.

 

[dhusselman]

Pogs, Shorty 1 was course 3 (incl. you); Shorty 2 was course 4. I think Dirk had another issue - he headed back to Richmond after rounding the leeward mark the second time.

I had a small cut in my jib and decided that it was not worth finishing and making it worse.

Great venue for a race and I'm looking forward to the next one....

Dirk - TIJD - First 30JK

 

[BobJ]

Yep, course flag goes up with the warning, which was the start for us. She announced it on the radio though and will likely do that again next time.

Do you know that I can control both the stock market and the wind? Yep. To make the stock market tank I just have to put more money in it - works every time. To make the wind blow >16 knots, all I have to do is put the genoa on the furler the night before the race, then not take it off. I was looking brilliant on the first lap, then by the time I was headed to the windward mark the second time, I was well-and-truly screwed. The rinky-dink autopilot couldn't handle it so I did this really neat pirouette at the leeward mark - you really should have seen it! I'm glad we had wind though.

 

[Gamayun]

What a great day it was! Very pleasantly surprised to see 20+ knots even though it made for a fast spin around the marks. Thanks, Bob, for the motivating influence.

I hope I'm not hijacking this thread by asking about the following. Since there had been a suggestion about resubmitting my PHRF to account for a spinnaker, I was curious if my PHRF is a bit off based on this document: http://www.ussailing.org/wp-content...Current Base Handicap Class Hi Lo Average.pdf, which indicates that the lowest reported handicap (from 2005 through 2011) for a Freedom 38 was 153 (mine is 141). What do you think?

And for those who saw the dingbat tack at the finish today, it has also occurred to me that it's not the rating, but the fact that I need to learn how to sail better. I can take that, too ;-)

 

[BobJ]

I would absolutely point the committee to that data. PHRF ratings are based on "observed performance" but Freedom 38's are rarely raced and there's not much for the committee to go on. They might want you to race a bit more and then appeal your rating, since they prefer to have some local data to base it on. I would still ask though.

Because of our typical conditions and the fact that most sailboats like, well, WIND - NorCal PHRF tends to rate boats a tick faster than other regions. You probably won't get 153 but you should do better than 141. If they set it at 150 you'll be even with the Moore 24's (good luck with that!)

Keep it at or below 150 though - that's the cutoff for the Solo Tahiti Race that's been rolling around in my head for the last several years. The diving in the Tuamotus is supposed to be awesome . . .

 

[Daydreamer]

I have to agree it was a beautiful and challenging day. This was also my first race. I hanked on the genoa as well and it was perfect for the start, however my line took me just outside the mark for the start and I had to tack to make it through the gate. Had to do it again at the windward mark as well, DOH!

The first reach went well and rounded ok. On the way to the leeward mark I could feel things picking up, more weather helm and trying to corkscrew off the swell.

As I rounded the leeward mark I was maxed out for flying the genny. I am pretty much topped out at 14 knots close hauled. I decided to stick with it and hope the wind didn't increase. WRONG! I tacked to port, putting me on starboard, to make for the finish and things started to deteriorate. I couldn't get sheeted in all the way and I couldn't get enough grip with four turns on the winch, the tiller pilot was losing ground, I think the keel was seeing more air than water at this point! I cleated the jib sheet and climbed up to the windward side to get ahold of the tiller and try to control the jybe that was coming. Wound up hove-to right in front of someone on starboard making for the finish. Turned downwind to blanket the genoa to get it down but it kept getting wind from every angle. I run a downhaul so I let the halyard go and pulled it down, turned to starboard reach to slow things down a bit so i could crawl foreword to drag the sail out from under the boat. Got that tied down and started making way for the finish, except I wasn't sure where that was. With the fog rolling in the committee boat kept disappearing! I watched my bearings and worked my way there under main only. Finished, thanked the race committee, and headed back to Berkeley.

My initial plan was to hang out and visit at BYC but it looked like lots of folks were heading home so I decided to do the same. Put the boat on the trailer and got home in Arnold by 17:30

As always there is more to learn, and trust that instinct that says change sail while you can!

Can't wait to do it again!

See you all in December

 

[Wylieguy]

Well great. I guess as I passed the RC at the start saw the "4" flag but that was intended for the next fleet.

Pat here again. Yes, the flag you saw as you started was for the next division. Your course flag was displayed during your Prep Period. It's always a good idea to be close enough to the committee boat to visually see the course flag, but that can be difficult for a whole bunch of reasons, especially if you're singlehanding and busy with not running into something. I'm not sailing this series, so I don't know if the RC was using the radio to announce things, but if they were, they should have announced your course #.

I think they're probably "rolling" the starts, that is to say with no break between divisions. The gun that goes off for the division in front of you is your warning. That's when the RC usually announces the course over the VHF.

You course flag comes down at the 4-minute sound - 1 minute before you start. The next division flag goes up with your starting gun.

Sometimes RCs will just leave course and "P" flags up if they don't plan to change things.

 

[Philpott]

I sailed with the Commodore. Yup. Al's boat is still in the yard so he graciously agreed to sail on Dura Mater. The Commodore came prepared with pages of gentle wind predictions: lovely light and medium green colors across the pages. I came with course descriptions. Research did us no good at all. Trouble is, we're both singlehanders and Bandicoot doesn't have a headsail. So there was some luffing of headsail at the finish with me expecting Al to sheet in the jib (I had this delusion that crew help with that sort of thing, but ... he's a singlehander! He was respecting my singlehanded self) and him wondering why we weren't crossing the line faster ("keep going! head toward the pin!" jib sheet? what jib sheet?). Plus neither of us paid attention to the course when it was announced ("Do you know what it is?" "No! Don't you?"). Al finally figured out our course when we were engulfed in fog north of the committee boat ("do you see it?" "No, do you see it? It has to be somewhere over that way!"). All of which meant we approached the finish on a beam reach in 18 knots. Beam reach on the Olympic Circle @ 2 in the afternoon: If I'd been alone I would've reefed long before, but then Dura Mater would've come in last. Instead, because I was doublehanding, I came in ahead of that 22 foot boat. I learned some things (before the race lay down on the foredeck and stare up along the luff of the furler in order to evaluate whether or not you should loosen the jib halyard - maybe, maybe not; consider carefully the placement of the jibcars - maybe, maybe not). Al was noncommital about all decisions. I made the excellent decision to not put up my genoa. Oh yeah, I don't have a genoa. There was still a lot of weather helm on that 100% at the end. Sorry you all didn't come into the yacht club afterwards. It was ... well, the door was locked. Maybe next time.

 

[BobJ]

I love it! I was over at BMC on Friday, saw Al's boat on a trailer and thought "Al is creative but this will be a neat trick." I'm glad you got him out there anyway.

It was so early when we finished that I definitely would have come into BYC had it not been so windy and cold for the later trip back to Richmond (I sound like a wimp). We'll see what happens next time. Even if the club isn't open, we can raft up and pass around half-full water bottles or something. For sure we need to have an after-party on March 1st. Suggestions welcome.

 

[Gamayun]

It's great to read everyone's comments on the race. What fun to sail vicariously with the rest of you. Just one year ago I started racing Kynntana, not sure this was my thing. My crew on Sunday (Barry, who has been on a sailboat a couple of times and has never raced before) had no idea what to expect and just assumed I knew everything there is about sailing. Ha! We got there just as the gun for the first start went off, which was cutting it a little close. I was still trying to figure out where the course was so didn't look to see who else was around. It took a while after the start to be even sure of the windward mark! Thankfully, there were boats ahead of me (let's hope that's not always the case...) and I was able to keep relatively on course though each turn was fraught with "is that the next mark?" as Barry wondered why this wouldn't be better known by all the skippers in a race. (Was it just me or was the BYC map a tad confusing?) I had also told him that we would have really light wind and might even drift for a while. Well, that certainly did not happen and every time the wind inched up, I was more and more surprised. So much for forecasting. By the time we were heading back to Treasure Island, it was gusting to 23 knots and we were feeling a little over-powered. One fortuitous thing that happened is that I had told him the story about some skipper running through the Berkeley Pier and sinking his boat. On our fast, wet and fun return back to the slip, and being deeper into Berkeley Circle than is usual, Kynntana was moving like a horse heading to the barn when Barry asked "what are those things sticking out of the water? Is that the pier?" Yikes! At least two other boats ahead of us sailing toward Alameda had to make the same course correction ;-) It's good to have crew who pay attention to your stories...

I am really looking forward to December when Beccie joins me. The short-handed sailing bug bit her bad when we did the Great Vallejo Race and surfed four-foot swells on San Pablo Bay. Maybe we'll stop in at the BYC next time for hors d'oeuvres. Can someone make sure they keep the door open for us??

 

[BobJ]

Was it just me or was the BYC map a tad confusing?

This is good experience for us SSS skippers. Our races, around government buoys and big objects like islands or bridges is one way of doing it, but what was done on Sunday is the norm for more competitive racing. Some observations:

The R/C adjusted the start/finish line as the wind filled in, so it would be square to the wind with the pin end slightly favored. This is so boats will not pile up at the committee boat end. The R/C will also adjust the length of the line for the sizes of the fleets.

Via radio they then talked to the mark set boat to make sure the windward mark was directly upwind. Once they agreed and set it, I took a range from the pin end of the line to the windward mark in case I lost track of it. From the pin, the WW mark was right in line with the north tower of the GGB. This would do me no good since the fog obscured even the tops of the bridge towers, but I tried. However once set, Bobbi (PRO) announced the magnetic bearing and range to the WW mark - a user-friendly thing to do. Had the wind shifted, a postponement would likely have been called and the course adjusted.

The more competitive skippers checked the line for the favored end and sailed part way up the first beat to see which side of the course was favored. I noticed the wind was uneven down the line. At the boat end the line was was pretty square, but port was enough favored at the pin end to consider a gutsy port tack start. Poor planning and traffic prevented this and I ended up getting a lousy start. Greg and the Archie 35 both nailed it.

By the way, I noticed many shorthanders setting up for a barging start. In a more competitive fleet, about half of you would have been shut out at the committee boat.

The wing/reaching and leeward marks were similarly set. In response to a skipper's request, Bobbi announced the approximate position of the reaching mark on the radio. The illustration in the SI's was a good representation, just obviously not to scale. I suspect the "C" and "G" marks were left in the instructions as backups in case the wind shifted substantially after the first start or two. Also be aware that the course can be shortened after the start, by moving the committee boat (or using the mark set boat) and taking the finishes at an earlier mark of the course. This is all announced with flags (at the previous mark) and probably on the radio.

Announcing the courses and start sequence on the radio is not often done but makes the racing much more user-friendly - I really appreciated that.

Perhaps some others can chime in with their observations. Again, this is all great experience.
.

 

[Lightspeed]

Again, thanks to Bob for the idea. This is a great venue to practice and see how the buoy guys do it. My comments are.

1. BYC does not require VHF checking but the committee boat does enjoy a sail by and a wave before the start.

2. Great race to practice right of way rules. Nothing like being on Starboard tack thinking you have the right of way, only to look up and see a fleet of spinnakers on different poles coming at you.

3. Would be fun to jaw somewhere after each race.

 

[dhusselman]

This race was well managed. Thank you BYC race committee! I really appreciate the vhf announcements, count downs, etc sailing single-handed.
Next time I will put a waypoint on my plotter when passing the marks so that I don't look for them the second time around...
I went to the "wrong" LW mark and lost a lot of distance. In this case it did not make a difference as I decided to give up due to a tear in my jib anyway.
There was too much wind to sail to the finish risking bigger damage to the jib...

These races are great to improve boat speed and handling sailing a new boat.

Great race and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Dirk "TIJD" First 30JK

 

[Gamayun]

This is good experience for us SSS skippers. Our races, around government buoys and big objects like islands or bridges is one way of doing it, but what was done on Sunday is the norm for more competitive racing.

This is the main reason that I've been hesitant to do any buoy racing. I appreciate all the feedback in your and others' posts. It truly helps new sailors figure out bay racing because I can tell you from my research into this, it's mostly a learn-as-you-go process. Just trying to find coordinates for the named YRA buoys has been a feat in the past.

On the one hand, it was great to hear the radio announcement for the course number, because I was expecting to have to focus on the flags; on the other, it makes me complacent because I never did look at the flags. I also did not have the right VHF channel queued up and missed when they called the bearing to the windward mark. That would have been helpful information. Anyway, this series will be great practice for all that and more.

 

[Gamayun]

3. Would be fun to jaw somewhere after each race.

Can we make this a reality? Say a Wednesday or Thursday early evening-ish following the race? I'm generally at Treasure Island either one of these nights so anywhere near Alameda could be good. Suggestions?