5-16-2015 Racing

                                                                                                                                by John K. and Cathy

Start of the first race.  Photo by John K.

John K.:  Tom and I had committee boat duty, and the plan was to run three fairly short races in an attempt to beat the forecasted heavy weather. Race 1 went well (Sandy 1st, Marshall 2nd, and Sam 3rd), with steady winds around 8-10 mph. Just as we were about to blow the horn on race 2 a non-racing Butterflyer capsized, so we dashed over, pulled the skipper out of the water, dashed back and started race 2. That's when the wind really piped up, with speeds from 16-18 mph and the higher gusts up around 25. While keeping an eye on the racers, we went back to right the capsized Butterfly, which hadn't budged because it's

Nice tight rounding at the jibe mark.  Photo by John K.

mast was 2 feet deep in the mud. 

What followed was an exercise in frustration as Tom, our guest skipper, and I tried to get the Butterfly upright. Tom's tried and true method of getting the boat up worked at least 4 times, but a jammed halyard (which prevented us from lowering the wildly flapping/filling main), gusty winds and waves, and a top-heavy mast (lots and lots of mud!) took the Butterfly right back over every time. We finally just dragged it on its beam-ends unceremoniously back to the club where lots of helping hand finally got the job done. Whew!

Second beat upwind in the first race.  Photo by John K.

Many lessons learned for me from this colorful day in the committee boat.  One is the value of those clumsy bleach bottles at the top of the mast. We (or the skipper) could have righted the boat quicker and returned to properly monitoring the race. As it was, another Butterfly went over during this effort. Though we got him back up without difficulty, multiple boats over would have been a really difficult situation, especially if someone had an injury. Second is the experience factor under these conditions. It went from a steady 8-10 to a varsity day in a matter of minutes.  My takeaway is that individual sailors and the committee boat should be ready to call it when the weather takes a turn for the worst. Everybody did this yesterday, but our ordeal on the committee boat illustrates just how quickly things can go downhill. 

The second race was finished by Sandy, Sam, and George finishing in that order. 

Cathy:  It's springtime in Texas but I still don't remember a May quite like this one.  There has been a prediction for rain almost every day and that continues for the foreseeable future.  The lakes are full and at the moment White Rock Lake is flooding.  The drought is over . . . for now.

Since the Snipe Southwestern is May 23-24, C. and I decided to practice in the Snipe.  I saw the prediction for heavy air and isolated showers but it looked like we could beat it.  We sailed up to the dam where I saw a long dark cloud to the west of us.  As we turned downwind I made the comment that we should return to the north end of the lake close to the boat club and probably just go ahead and go in.  That dark cloud seemed to follow us right down the middle of the lake then drifted off northwest of us.

Meanwhile, I'd been keeping an eye on the Butterflys.  There were seven of them out also hoping to beat the heavy air.  John and Tom were on race duty.  Thank you Tom for volunteering to take my race duty - this was not an easy day!  We do need to get experience in heavy air but it helps to work up to it and unfortunately it does have a way of breaking things on the boat.  Fortunately no one was hurt . . . though Tom had a bloody sleeve, hopefully not serious.  We also have one broken rudder and a boom vang arm ripped out of the mast - but not on the same boat.  Ouch.     

From my perspective, I never go out without my plastic bottle tied to the top of the mast.  I've seen people go over even in light air.  The bottle buys you some time - but not much so if you can step over and tap the dagger-board before fully capsized that is the best thing.  If you are fully capsized and stuck in the mud, Marshall has developed a technique for self-recovery that might work for you. It was mentioned in an earlier blog and copied in again here from Pam's description:  

When he tipped on Sunday, he decided to get creative and not even mess with trying to get on the centerboard and used an old catamaran trick. He pulled out the end of the main halyard that was stuffed up next to the mast, left it cleated, tossed it over the side behind the side stay, swam around to the bottom and grabbed the halyard and put his feet on the gunnel on the side under water, then pulled the halyard and pushed the gunnel at the same time. He popped right up, stuffed the extra halyard back up against the mast and was on his way unassisted. Because you are pulling toward the front of the boat and pushing toward the middle/back of the boat, it has the effect of bringing the boat up into the wind so it doesn't flop over again. He says it will even pull it out of the mud.