Fog on Saturday shut us out and to no wind closed out the other boats, but wind came up later and C scows were out with the Optimists.
Sunday turned around and brought brisk west wind with a little chop. We had 8 boats out for six races. Leah Ladley and Patrick Daniel sailing with us for the first time. Where were all the youth with the 4.7s? Were they at an Opti regatta? The 420 folks?? We will try to find out and report later.
Sunday’s races:
Alejandro Illera 2-1-1-4-1-1 = 10
Rob Krentel 1-2-2-1-2-2 = 10
Patrick Daniel 5-4-6-3-4-5 = 27
Jerry Beck 8-3-4-6-3-4 = 28
Leah Ladley 6-6-3-5-5-3 = 28 This was the Radial. Corrected time ate into Jerry twice.
Charlie Jensen 4-5-5-2-ns-ns= 34
Marc Solas 7-7-7-7-6-6 = 40
Sam Chapin 3-ns,etc = 48
Rob and Alejandro changed leads all morning and ended up tied but the break goes to Alej as he has more firsts.
Rob was the first out and got the marks set. He will be rewarded for that later.
There was a big contest for third. We did the corrected time thing for Leah in her radial and she took two places away from Jerry, which left them tied – they both has two 3s but Jerry had some fourths so he edges back. Patrick Daniel got them both by one place. Patrick was steered to us by Ray Laguna. He has signed up for a trial membership and will be back to sail with us again. We are looking for a boat for him and one for Marc Solas. More on that later.
Third place would have easily gone to Charlie J but he skipped out early to get the Xmas tree decorated and had to eat 9s for the last two races. Charles almost has Chutzpah glued up and if I can find the parts that go with it, we can have a new christening party for her. Maybe George Barton who originally brought her to us will come and sail with us.
Marc Solas has started beating boats and he didn’t swim at all. Now he wants to tack better and sail faster. The happiness from just being out sailing is starting to disappear.
Sam was just uncomfortable for a variety of reasons and packed it in after the first race. The wind was near my threshold as I don’t sit out as far as I did a year or two ago. I just didn’t get set up. Probably if I had gotten out a little before the first race and figured out the Cunningham and outhaul settings that I wanted to use, had the vang on and tacked a couple of times under the low boom. I sailed the first race without any Cunningham just because I was too busy sailing the boat to reach in and pull it on.
When the wind is up and we are bending the mast, the draft will move aft and forces begin to want to turn the boat over and less trying to pull you forward, i.e. everything gets harder to do.
So before the start you should get the outhaul and Cunningham set for the upwind leg. Have a good idea about where you want the vang. Then sail up to the start with the vang off. That will keep the leach soft when luffing to stop or slow the boat. In a crowded start you may have to sit and not be going anywhere. It is harder to do that if you have some vang set up. Then when you are ready to move, pull on the vang, pump the bow down with the tiller, lean in to heel the boat to leeward, hike out to flatten the boat and drive forward on a close reach to gain speed and then sheet in more and get close hauled and out in front at the start. I am so good at this, in typing it up.
When I left the club Sunday the High School Team was arriving, setting up tents and getting ready for the evening sail and night sail, games and food and stuff. Three boys and five girls and Leah Ladley. Robert L went home to feed the dog. I think high school sailing has turned around.