No wind

There was very little wind but the RC still managed to have three starts. We (tonight: Charles, David, Emi, and myself) are in the fourth start. We tried to stay close to the line but was struggling to make the pin. The gennie back filled when the wind did a one eighty degree shift. We dropped it and manually moved the boom to the port side. The gennie was rehoisted and we tried to manually keep it formed. I figured that with 5 minutes we could make the last 50 feet. We were moving. All the crew was to leeward and I couldn't see a thing. I was very anxious to keep up boat speed (?) and avoid hitting the pin. The wind completely died (There was wind?). One, two, three blasts from the RC; and so ended our race.

We tried to tow a J 22 back but we ran out of fuel ourselves. Flak came to our rescue. One of my rules is to have reserve fuel. The local gas station is closed for repairs so I had deferred getting refuelled.

Last week we didn't go racing due to the storm but there was a race and this week we showed up but there was no wind!

Indecision

I was my usual indecisive self last Wednesday. It was raining; should I go anyway? Can I contact the crew in time? I didn't want to go especially if there would not be a race, but I don't want to be perceived as a fair weather sailor! I would feel badly if a race was held and I wasn't there. However, I have been doing a lot of sailing, with events on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Eventually I decided not to go and that was that. A clear and unequivocal email was sent to the crew. I must demonstrate an air of confidence to my crew (?). I spend a bit of time thinking but once I have decided I have decided. Indecisive or ambiguously decisive?

The New Normal?

Another Wednesday night race? There have been a few changes from last year, which may have settled in; creating a new ambiance to the Wednesday series. Allan is not going to be PRO this season. A couple of J 22's are now regulars. Jack Rabbit is not a regular, our close rival for the past three seasons. Many more drysailers are taking part, with the result that we had a problem in having sufficient space at the wall. What are boat to boat rules for launch and haulout?

The conditions were very subtle with a very light wind from the south east. With this type of wind there is a strong probability that, as the land cools off, an offshore breeze will develop. A 'wind well' is created near shore.

We had a resaonable start and headed towards the island. Fairly quickly we tacked and were almost able to make the windward mark. We had a good mark rounding but the wind died due to the onset of the offshore breeze. We tacked away from shore and caught up to Flawed Logic at the leeward mark. They were still able to round in front of us. After the second windward mark rounding we got stuck leeward of another boat and this slowed us down considerably. This was a big no no in boat to boat tactics. We eventually cleared the bad air but we lost a lot of time in the very light wind.

It was an enjoyable race but we finished 2nd last! The new normal? Hopefully not!

Confusing times

The regular RC for Wednesday was unavailable so Stephen had to assemble a back up group to run the race.

I was somewhat concerned that the winds would be too light to race. Both Monday and Tuesday night races were November Alphaed due to no wind. However the wind filled in nicely from the west; light and variable. Stephen set the start line at Dufferin and the windward mark was 0.9 nm. on a bearing of 295. Stephen also had gates, one green and one yellow. (Isn't a green buoy a finish mark in the SIs? No.)

I was glad to see that our old rival, Jack Rabbit, was was racing for the first time this season.

We had an OK start. The main problem was bad air from the rest of the fleet. I noticed that Jack Rabbit had a much better start near the RC Boat and was in clear air. During the prestart it appeared that the winds got very 'fluky' near shore. My plan was to stay in the middle and I think this strategy worked.

After the first leg the wind shifted and starboard tack was very favoured. Stephen changed the course to 320 (the windward mark was moved and the offset mark was removed). At the leeward gate, we had a good windward douce of the chute.

We were a bit slow on the second windward mark rounding. The offset mark was gone so we didn't have the usual time to launch the chute. The wind seemed to continue to shift north. Port gybe was very favoured. We were not able to do a fast gybe because of a slowness in getting the genoa down. Everything got sorted eventually. Candlelight was having even more chute hoisting difficulty.

I was somewhat confused by the finish (i e the Green mark) but Janet sorted it out for me. I was not the only one confused about the finish as Jack Rabbit did an unnecessary third circuit. The net result of everybody being somewhat confused was that we ended up with a first!