FAST WINDS AND RACES Sept 12 Race Report

Photos courtesy of Justin Bush, Lisa Duret and Julia Schroeder

Because of the fast wind and low humidity it didn’t seem like ninety degrees. Sailors were rewarded for the five-week weather and holiday driven hiatus with a great, fast wind out of the south/southwest.   

 

Lisa waves the 5 minute to start flag. Cindy positions the boat at the starting line, and Bob minds the stopwatch.

 

A few seconds before the start, boats head for the starting line, jockeying for the best position. Kevin seems to have it.

The long course was straight into the wind to the first mark, making for some tacking and adjusting to "headers" (bad)  and "lifts" (good). 

 

On the way to the first mark. Social distancing nautical style.

 

Matt on his way to 1st mark

Laura on her way to the fist mark

Things get more interesting...

Lance and Bianca (foreground) and Tom and Phil on their way to the 1st mark.  And then...

 

...Lance and Bianca tack and head toward the paparazzi, which....

 

...gets a close up of them.  Yeah, they are going to want the high-resolution version of this, don't you think?.  The paparazzi is very reasonable we are told.

 In the meantime, 

Jim hiked out on way to 1st mark.  Then he encounters Tom and Phil...

Jim coming from the right on a starboard tack has the right of way over Tom/Phil. He yelled "Starboard!" to make sure they will yield to him.  Tom and Phil anticipated this and are executing a tack to avoid Jim and run parallel to him.

 

As they tack they must duck (passing under the "limbo stick"). By the way, at the bottom of the starboard (right) column of this blog is an entire series of photos entitled the "limbo collection", complete with a link to the "Limbo Rock" recording.  Enjoy.

 

And all the sailors get around the orange first mark flag

 The 2^nd mark required a tricky jibe which at least one sailor fell victim to with a capsize. 

Kevin successfully jibes around 2nd mark

Tom, feet up, delegated the jibe to Phil

Laura capsized after jibing, Tom and Phil wobbled a bit, but Phil kept it under control

Phil, appropriately proud of himself gives the paparazzi a "high five", risking "high five syndrome". Tom continues to relax having great confidence in his crew.

The 3^rd mark, unusually deep into the long eastern inlet, required a fast tack in heavy wind once clear of the mark.

 

After rounding the last mark, sailors head into the wind toward the finish line. Jim Voelz is closest followed by Kevin Preuss and the rest of the fleet.

There were three capsizes and a few near-capsizes.  None involving high-five syndrome after the race though.   The races were fast, only taking about 15 minutes or so, and with fairly close finishes.  Jim Voelz finished first overall in both races.

Thanks to our volunteers, Cindy Bartlett, Lisa Duret and Bob Orben who conducted the race while skillfully keeping the unanchored Committee Boat well positioned since anchoring was not effective.  They also pulled up all the markers after the race, which was above and beyond the call, especially in that wind. Kudos!   Jim Riffle and Arlene Truex were ready in the safety boat, but the capsized sailors all recovered quickly and there was not much other boat traffic to keep at bay.  Matt and Cindy Bartlett with a little assist from Tom Schroeder set up a long course that wasn’t affected by any significant wind shadows. Kevin Preuss and Beth Auld had the race operations humming as usual.

The protest meeting was our first gathering for five weeks, so we enjoyed catching up.  Thanks, Arlene, for your hospitality!

The next race is this coming SATURDAY Sept 18^th (not the usual Sunday) and is the last of the season. A week later we have the awards “protest meeting” the afternoon of the 26^th.

Complete race results are as follows:  

 

A STARTING LINE SNAFU OR TWO: August 8th Race Report

We were glad to have Arlene Truex out racing for the first time this year after also helping out with all the pre-race activity at her dock.  She crewed for Tom Schroeder. Then she hosted the protest meeting as usual after prepping for it in the morning and bringing race equipment out to the dock.  She has the longest, most demanding race day of all of our participants.  We are very grateful to you Arlene!

Thanks to our Committee Boat and Safety Boat volunteers, Beth Auld, Cindy Bartlett, Margaret Powers, Jim Riffle and Bob Orben.  And to Beth Auld and Kevin Preuss for orchestrating another fun race. Kevin also, with help from Tom Schroeder, set up the course.

Long overdue kudos are due to Jim Riffle:  Sailors take turns with the responsibility for setting up and taking down the race course.  Jim Riffle, frequently, with little fanfare, assists in taking down the race markers, although this is the sailors responsibility.  And it is not an easy job, hoisting up all those anchors and line. So here is to you Jim - thanks!  You are a credit to your alma mater!  But sailors, please continue to plan on removing the markers when it is your turn.

Like in the last race we had a reliably steady wind to enjoy practicing our starts before the race, lulling us into counting on it.  Then it quit about 30 seconds before the starting horn blew.  Woe to the sailor not close to the starting line at that point.  We also had  one or two sailors either over the starting line too early, having to restart, or committing a foul and having to do two full 360 degree turns before proceeding.  Reminder to sailors:  if you commit a foul you need to do two 360 degree turns.  Only one is required for touching a race marker. John Gall alerted Tom Schroeder that his main sheet (that is a "line" to you landlubbers) was wrapped around his rudder just before the start, requiring some costly time to untangle it.  One wonders how that happened.

Jim Voelz won both races in the Laser class and Catey and Elizabeth Hale won both races in the International Class.

Race Results are below. 

BY INCHES: July 25th Race Report

Pretty hot and no wind predicted.  What to do?   Steely-nerved Race Chairman Kevin Preuss decided to give it a shot.  The wind showed up and we had a decent race. We only fire up all the race machinery every two weeks, so given the lack of forecast accuracy (other than maybe temperature) it is quite a crapshoot to bet on the wind forecast. 

Thank you to Beth Auld, Cindy Bartlett, Bernice Rains and Bernice’s sister Heidi for doing an excellent job at anchoring and running the race from the Committee Boat.  And to Jim and Mimi Riffle and Lisa Duret for keeping an eye on us from the safety boat.  Jim Voelz and family set up an appropriately short course considering the wind. Kevin and Beth keep the machinery well oiled – Thanks all!

In the first race sailors made many practice runs at the starting line with a reliably steady wind from the west.  Reliable until it counted of course.  Just a moment before the starting horn was blown the wind died.  Perfect positioning suddenly became imperfect, and all bets were off.  While the wind eventually showed up again the start was not one to behold.  The finish was though.  Two tight groups of boats came across the finish line so close it was hard to record the time difference accurately.  Matt Bartlett came in first just inches in front of Catey Hale and her crew Phil Bush. And inches behind them was Jim Voelz.  About four minutes later the rest of the fleet finished within about 30ish seconds of one and other.  The finish was nerve racking for the sailors as usual, trying to make it through the line without having to make that last tack.

The start of the second race was with good wind and was the usual nail-biter of getting through the line with and advantage over, but not fouling another craft.  The downwind sections of both races were slow as molasses until rounding the final mark and heading for the finish line.