3-29-2014 Racing

by Pam

Saturday was a beautiful Spring day with plenty of sunshine and a nice breeze.  Gary and Catherine had duty and Gary brought a very lovely guest who cheered for everyone as they crossed the finish line.  I loved that!

The wind was from the North which means the windward mark was stuck up in that corner and a challenge to get to.  We had the whole instant 5 second hike along with the endless tacks.  Cathy was close behind me and Doug in one race and Doug and I were less than 5 or 10 feet from each other.  He got headed and tacked and I got lifted and kept going.  Cathy commented that she wasn't sure who to follow.  Always follow Doug … at least right up until he falls out of the boat.

When that North breeze blows, anything can and does happen.  Larry went for a swim in the first second race of the first leg.  Miles beat Burton in the second race.  Doug was in the lead in the third race and did a slow motion capsize that let the rest of the fleet pass before he got the boat up and finished.  That pretty much sums up the wind.  We should just have a supply of Tide and Bleach bottles to hand out on North wind days.

So, I think I figured something out for the first time about the North wind.  Probably not news to anyone else but it was eye opener for me.  In the third race, I attempted an unfair head start and got called back and ended up about 50 yards behind the four amigos who rounded a mark or two four deep which was quite interesting to watch from my perspective.  Anyway, as we were coming up to the windward mark (the one that requires a 100 tacks to get to) I must have been further windward as I attempted sail over to the fluky area and I noticed that I would get headed and within a few seconds, lifted again.  It became very obvious that there were fingers of wind close together that were a header on one side and a lift on the other. The more windward I was, the closer the fingers and I would simply sail the downs for a few seconds and then sail the ups for a few seconds and I wasn't losing any ground. If those fingers were more spread out further down the lake, I can easily see now how in the past when I tacked on one side of a finger, I'd get to the next tack and be headed again, perpetually staying out of phase.  So, Doug decided to sketch what I was describing.  Is he right?

An exaggerated example of sailing through the fingers which is what I thought I was doing.

An exaggerated example of trying to stay on a lift between fingers.  You sail a shorter distance but you are in less wind.

An exaggerated example of staying in more wind but sailing a further distance.

The challenge is to stay lifted and stay in pressure. Doug says it's best to do a combination of diagrams 2 and 3 so that you have the best combination of being lifted and staying in pressure. He says that diagram 1 is being aware of the conditions but not using them to my advantage.