Regatta called on account of current.

Our fourth regatta of the season was on October 1st, again at NYCC. The day was warm and humid and there was very little wind for the 22 boats on the line. The first two A division races were run and our skippers struggled to find ways of generating speed. After the rotation, the first B division race was run in even less wind. Just as the RC was about to abandon the race, a slight zephyr filled in and most crews managed to finish. In this race our B division skippers Jake and Matt Beauchamp (who was filling in for Erynn who was taking the SAT) finished mid-fleet with a 14th and 15th.



After a postponement awaiting a more stable breeze, the second B division race was started. Unfortunately, the breeze fell out just as the tide began to ebb. When most of the fleet was carried down current of the weather mark out toward the harbor, the RC had no choice but to abandon. The fleet was towed back to the dock and the regatta was officially ended. Since a minimum of six races (3A and 3B) are needed to score the regatta, the day was basically a non-event.

The scores are here.

Our individual finishes were:
Iggy 20, 21
Nick 22, 22
Jake 15
Matt 14

I will upload some video shortly. If anyone managed to take some stills, please send them to me.

One ugly situation raised its head in the light air - Rule 42 and kinetics. After the start sequence of race 1B was begun, a few teams found themselves upwind/down current of the line and needed to get back to the pre-start side of the line. Any action is permitted before boats are racing ("racing" starts at the preparatory signal - with the sound signal starting system that is at the 2 minute mark.) So between 3 minutes and 2 minutes the boats may paddle, rock, pump, fan the sails - any action that can propel them back to the start area. However, at the 2 minute mark only the natural action of the wind on the sails is permitted. A number of boats were protested by the RC for using kinetics and were disqualified after a hearing.

I'll make a video about Rule 42 in the near future. All of our team should know what is permitted and prohibited by the rule and how to "call" others on their disregard of Rule 42.

NA Regatta at NYCC - Feast and Famine

Our third regatta of the season was again at Norfolk Yacht and Country Club in FJs. This fleet race had three more teams than a couple of weeks ago so there were 26 boats on the line (again 15 schools.) The day started with a very light westerly that fluctuated from 3-6 knots with big holes around the course. As the morning wore on there was a persistent veer as the front came closer.  Our crews struggled in the light stuff. A one knot current flowing down the weather leg didn't help. The starting line was right off the pier so we had great 50-yard-line viewing. I captured a couple of starts from the pier. The first has Jake in boat red 1 starting at the committee just a bit late, but crossing the line in the top half of the fleet. This race ended up being one of his better finishes.

The second vid is Jake's race 4A when he was in red 3. He arrived too early, got tangled in the mass of boats and had a poor start. This race ended up being one of his worst finishes. I provided a running commentary as I was recording so I'll let that speak for itself.

The wind kept clocking and gradually built. RC rotated the course to the new wind but just as the second set of B races were in their starting sequence the cold front came through. The wind swung 90 degrees to the North and the whole course had to be reconfigured. The breeze built rapidly and was shifty and very gusty near the new weather mark. The degaussing tower aeronometer in the harbor recorded the frontal passage. While we didn't get wind near 30 mph in the lee of the clubhouse, there were gusts close to 25 out by the start.

A couple of our crews flipped but neither turned turtle (as opposed to some crews from other schools.) The only casualty was the GoPro that I had rigged with the non-waterproof case (to record sound in the morning races.)

Erynn managed to copy an incident I had a few years back that made it in Sailing World's Dr. Crash. When hiking out it's important to make sure you catch the hiking strap! Matt adroitly managed to get on the centerboard as they rolled and pretty much stayed dry. Yes, having a crew can be very useful...

At the end of the day we finished 22nd and 25th. Results are here.

Individually Jake finished 18, 19, 25, 24, 24.
Iggy finished 12, 19, 17, 24, 18.
Nick finished 24, 25, 26, 26, 22.
Erynn finished 25, 22, 16, 25, 17.

Many of the low finishes were the result of taking penalty turns -- especially detrimental in light and heavy air (not so much in moderate breezes.) I'm proud that we acknowledge when we are at fault and readily take the spins. As we become more aware of tactical situations in future regattas the rule violations will decrease. I saw fouls at the start (usually windward-leeward) and on the weather legs (usually port-starboard.) Both the skipper and crew need to increase their situational awareness and not get caught sleeping. Next week we're back at NYCC. Let's hope for steady and moderate breezes and not the feast or famine we experienced today.

Thanks to Mr. Segerblom for the pictures! I'll leave you with one of his artsy shots.

Leapfrog with the GoPro

We mounted the GoPro to the masthead on the 16th when we had 15 knots from the northeast. Since the wind had been blowing for a couple of days we had a nice swell out by the degaussing tower.
Enjoy!

Sailing Rules Discussion

A twenty minutes video...for all skippers. Crews should be aware as well.

Bring questions and comments to the next practice.

Second regatta in the books

    We sailed in our second high school regatta on Saturday September 17 up at Christchurch School. Due to scheduling the VISA fleet was split with most of the teams at Fort Monroe. However, the best team in the league (Christchurch whose teams finished 1, 3, 4 out of 23 teams the previous week at NYCC) was at the regatta we attended so they provided a good yardstick. We again entered two teams: Team 1 had Jake and Nick as the skippers, with Jake sailing A division and Nick sailing B; Team 2 had Erynn and Iggy as helms, with Erynn sailing A and Iggy sailing B. The other team members rotated through in the crew slots. All sailed at least two races, except Matt Beauchamp who was at a cross country meet.

The individual finishes were:

Jake 4,4,4,5,4,4,
Nick: 5,6,5,5,5,DNS
Erynn: 6,6,8,7,7,5
Iggy: 4,4,4,4,4.5

The team totals and overall places are available at this link.  In many races we were close to the CCS "armada," at times overlapped at the finish. The breeze was up around 15 kts by the last set of rotations so I think our heavy air practice the previous week paid off. I'm looking forward to next Saturday when the entire fleet will again be at NYCC. Considering the individual results this week, Jake and Iggy will be Team 1 and Nick and Erynn will be team 2.

I'm not sure why Nick was scored Did Not Start for his last race. There was obviously an error on the committee boat as he did sail the race. If he was over early at the start and did not return he would have been scored OCS (On Course Side). In either case he garnered 9 points (one more than the number of starters in the varsity fleet.)

Thanks to Mr. Segerblom and Mrs. Kiggans for the pictures.

First regatta completed

 
We sailed in our first high school regatta on Saturday September 10. We entered two teams: Team 1 had Jake and Iggy as the skippers, with Jake sailing A division and Iggy sailing B; Team 2 had Nick and Erynn as helms, with Nick sailing A and Erynn sailing B. The other team members rotated through in the crew slots. All sailed at least two races, except Sebi who was working.

Junior and Seniors (Iggy was on the water)

The individual finishes were:

Jake 14,15,16,19,18
Iggy: 22,21,19,23,21
Nick: 21,20,20,23,22
Erynn: 23,22,22,19,22.

The team totals and overall places are available at this link.  Obviously we have a ways to go! Stay tuned as we improve and move up the ranking.

Our 9th and 10th graders

    As a point of trivia I was digging through my files and found the regatta program from 1999 that had a page describing the history of the "oldest high school sailing regatta in the country."  The scanned page is below.

    I scanned another page (below) that was "Reprinted from the 1964 Maury Regatta Program" and described one of the more popular classes at the time - the Moth. Surely the claim of being the "fastest sailboat in the world within the eleven feet" is true today.

    I hope to get of our helms on my foiler before the season ends. Perhaps this video from Oracle Racing will provide some inspiration.

W-4 explained

We will probably not use a triangle for the racing on Saturday. I was told to expect a W-4 course. We will sail this course this week at practice, but I put a short (8 min) video together to diagram it and explain it.