Fair weather sailors?

The discussion at the club: 'What do the dark skies to the west really mean?'. When it started to rain I decided to bail. In the end there was a race for a few (fool?)hardy sailors. We now know who are the fair weather sailors?

A "better" race

Dragon lady was not available so the Race committee had to use fixed marks. There was good wind from the north north west. Gilbraltor to Dufferin worked. We once again opted to use the jib due to the brisk wind. We did not plan on using the chute.

We had another bad start. About a minute to go we were located a few boat lengths astern of Grand National. My idea was to force out boats to windward. For some reason, we were slow to power up. Windburn overtook us to windward. We opted to go on port tack and head off on our own away from the fleet.

The wind made for difficult to manoeuvre . In heavy wind conditions, crew has to stay on the rail until we are head to wind; and then must quickly and adroitly (?) ‘scamper’ to the new windward side. I tried to slowly tack; to give everyone time to move. There was a conflict with the theory of crew placement and the ability of crew to move ‘quickly and adroitly’ when the boat was head to wind. My response was to utter sotto voce 'get ready' to the jib trimmer, so as to keep the rail crew uninformed. I tried to keep things on a need to know basis. This didn’t work. The crew got wise to my modus operendi and starting to move as soon as they saw the trimmer start to set up. Theories once again are just theories!

In spite of this conflict between proper and practical procedures, we had a good upwind leg. I kept the main sheet uncleated. It was difficult to hold but it allowed me to trim given slight changes in wind strength. There was little change in direction; more a problem of velocity.

On the first downwind leg we didn’t fly the chute. There was a discussion about whether we should. I felt that we could. Once we had a consensus to possibly use the chute on the next downwind leg, the crew set about setting the lines. There was a bit of a problem to figure out the lines. We did use the chute on the second downwind leg but, there were unresolved line issues and it wasn’t completely powered until we were 2/3rds on the way home.

The conditions were more challenging than last week. It was not the no wind drift of last week. All in all I found this was a better race.

No photo

Janet was back. After five weeks it was the regular Wednesday crew.

The wind was very light and variable. The RC set a course at 230 but the wind was very much STC. We had a poor start. For some reason I allowed port takers in. We were slow and behind all night. As we rounded the windward mark I could hear Posieden helpfully shout: "You are slow!",just in case I hadn't noticed.

On the second downwind leg there was a huge shift. Chris pointed out that Anthem had gybed immediately after rounding the mark. Good plan. After I made a quick scan of of the course, we gybed and were on a near beam reach. The wind continued to shift. We had to drop the chute and finish with the genoa.


I think basically it was a case of me not showing up mentally. Perhaps I was discouraged when we had such a great race last week and due to RC error it wasn't getting scored. Consciously I didn't think it had an impact but maybe it affected more than I realized.

Unfortunately for the crew; who were all very enthusiastic and patient in trying to deal with the light conditions. I even forgot to get a photo!

! + ?

Janet was still away in NL. Jamie was available as replacement. He did sheets while Chris and David were foredeck and mast. We had a fair breeze from the east. About 5 J22s showed up at the start. A regatta next weekend?

We were a bit early to the start. I tacked back on port; either I was to run into a Beneteau or had to duck. I elected to tack. At first I was apologetic about the decision however, in hindsight it was probably a good call. We were able to squeeze out the Bene, although we were behind the other boats in our division.

On the upwind leg we found ourselves on the left side of the course, while the J 22s were leeward, to starboard. The wind made a big shift to the left. Our heading went 150 and dropped to 138. We had to tack. We stayed on port for a short time; when we tacked back we were just off the port layline of the windward mark. The lift continued and it brought us almost to the mark. There were no worries about starboard tackers as we were now clear ahead.

The chute went up nicely and we had a good downwind leg. As we approached the mark we were on port gybe. There was a bit of discussion about a plan: dropping the pole, free flying the chute, and doing a windward takedown. We were overstanding the leeward mark before a decision was made; we headed up on port tack. At the mark rounding we had to go leeward of Windburn; Three was able to get inside. The combination of our bad air from Windburn and Three's clear air meant we fell back.

The chute was doused on port gybe. There was some discussion about whether to do a port hoist or move the sheets to set up a normal hoist. From last week I felt part of the problem was the port hoist. We decided to move the sheets.

At the windward mark we tacked on the layline but couldn't make the mark. Three, who was between the windward and offset mark couldn't make the offset mark. We tacked onto port and had to duck Flawed. Flawed couldn't make the offset and had to tack back. We were now on starboard and they had to duck us. The chute hoist was good.

Upwind and downwind boats tried flying their chute in a vain effort to find some wind. We elected to keep ours up and managed to get a bit of wind. Three was abeam and south. Were they windward? They dropped their chute. What little wind there was favoured them (so I guess they were windward). They were able to head directly to the finish and keep up some boat speed.

The main thing about the first part of the race was the shift(!) to the left; the main thing about the last downwind leg was the lack of wind(?). Unfortunately it wasn't scored since the RC finished some of our division at the windward mark. It was still a great race. Competitive fun.

Lessons Learned

This week it was Janet's turn to be away. She is in Newfoundland for two weeks, visitng with some former club members. David was back. Chris and David did foredeck and Nick was on sheets.

The wind was more or less west and there was a concern that it would be too strong. We decided to use the jib. The wind was brisk but we were being over cautious.

Our start was OK but not good. Threes Company, Defiant and Windlight were the competing boats in our division. Threes Company started ahead and gained throughout the race.

As we approached the leeward mark another boat over took us to windward. We were starboard they were wing on wing (but the mast indicated port tack). As they got closer we urged them with increasing intensity "to get out of the way". This year I haven't brought out my protest flag as I view these races as competitive fun. We carried on with the discussion with no change. When the other boat's boom was over my port rail I decided to get out of the way. Unfortunately we were now on port gybe as we rounded the leeward mark. The chute was on the wrong side for a normal hoist.

On the upwind leg I explained to the crew about what the plan was at the windward mark. We had to round the mark and gybe. I thought it was easier to explain the port hoist rather than supervise a transfer of the spin sheets for a normal hoist. We reviewed several times what everyone would do and everyone was ready. We rounded the offset mark but the jib halyard got caught. The crew concentrated on the jib halyard but my concern was to get the chute up and flying. The further we went on port the poorer are angle would be to the finish. Eventually we got sorted and were able to gybe over to starboard. We were almost on a dead run. The wind shifted so we were eventually sailing by the lee.

We had a couple of interesting discussions over dinner. The skipper from the overtaking boat came over. We had a pleasant conversation about the encounter, in an effort to better understand what should've been done. My view was that starboard boat has rights over port. (QED?)

The second discussion: the crew was a bit miffed that I changed the plan for the second windward mark rounding. When I set out Plan A I did not account for the snag in the jib halyard. The crew was attentive and followed the instructions to the letter. However good the plan was, reality intervened; the jib halyard got snagged. The unstated priority was to get the chute powered up, after making a quick assessment of the effect of the jib halyard snag. Things change quickly, especially at a mark rounding. What was planned may have to be changed without the luxury of time for an explanation! The key was to adapt to a new situation. Miscommunication can lead to bigger problems. It was helpful for me to get their perspective and be aware of the need to be more clear about unstated 'priorities' when they become a priority. In order to improve communication it is not only necessary to know what was said but also to know what was heard. A good lesson for me.

We will see next week if any lessons were learned!