Dog Days Wednesday Series Results – Aug 5, 2020

The forecast hinted at a beautiful night of racing on the Bay with plenty of wind. The reality turned out to be a bit different.

The initial assessment from RC at the I buoy showed the wind relatively steady at 280 deg M at 10-14 knts.. As the CB worked its way downwind from I, it became apparent that there was a bit more westerly in the building breeze and that a course utilizing I buoy would run the risk of the racers mixing it up with the Ferry. So, a quick adjustment and the start line was set up square to the wind with Y as the windward mark at 275 deg M.. The wind was varying from 255 to 290 deg M and ranging from 14-18 kts with some gusts to 22!.  The wind continued to build creating very challenging conditions as the start sequence commenced. Most of the fleet was content with conservative starts except FALCON that pushed just a little bit too much. As skipper Roland stated afterwards, “we had the perfect start with no one around us, but I got a little greedy!”. The rest of the fleet was off while FALCON had to restart after their OCS. DORADO was able to tack early off the line and cross the fleet and lead the race “wire to wire” followed closely by RAVEN. A split at the Leeward gate with DORADO going for the right gate (Pin) while RAVEN opted for the left (CB) allowed RAVEN to close the gap a bit and led to several close crosses and ducks on the second beat. However, DORADO maintained their advantage and took the hard-earned win. The challenging conditions and square course had the fleet spread out all over the race course. For the first two legs the wind strength was more or less unchanged, but then the wind built rapidly and when the leaders finished there were gusts of 32+ kts. The downwind legs were especially exciting as the short-handed crews fought to go wing-on-wing and execute the required gybe(s).  Of the 10 starters, 8 finished with a couple boats opting to live to fight another day. Josh, sailing on KOLUS, was the lone singlehander  and smartly sailed with a reef in the mainsail. He looked like he was in total control (more or less) as he successfully completed the course! 

After the first race, the RC made the wise decision to abandon any additional racing for the evening….and I didn’t hear any complaints! Thanks RC for another fun and challenging night of racing.

Tip or Tactic of the Day:

If it feels good, do it. The ‘feel’ of your boat (helm, sheets, etc.) is a good guide to its performance. So, if a change in trim makes your boat feel better, it was probably a good idea, and you should consider doing more of it. For example- you are steering upwind, holding the hiking stick in one hand and the mainsheet in the other. The boat feels pretty good, so you try trimming the mainsheet another inch or two or moving your traveler higher which should improve your pointing. Now you wait a moment to see or feel the results. Does the boat seem more lively and powerful? Or does it feel worse? If the boat seems to slow down, you probably trimmed the sheet or traveler too much, so ease it back out and get the boat going again. However,  if the trimming  feels good, then you might try trimming even a little harder. Let the feel of the boat be your guide. Just like last week’s “shifting gears” tip, the successful racers are constantly tweaking their settings to get more speed! Go fast and be safe out there!

By Jeff Brantley and Dave Burrows