Sequoia Yacht Club Midwinters Race #2
Midwinters racing is a trip. This was my second midwinters race and had even lighter winds than the first one last month. Dave K. and I raced my Santana 22, Dayspring and fought the brave an righteous fight of the slow little boat and hoped to be fast enough to have our handicap pull us from the bottom of the standings.
After the first race, I had polled the S22 class site for folks thoughts on light air racing and read every article online that appeared applicable.
The trip down from Coyote Point took about two hours and was miserable in fog and a wisp of drizzle. Just enough dampness that after two hours of relatively immobility, I was thouroughly chilled and grateful for the hot water that Larry at Sequoia gave me after I turned down a cup of coffee. The one highlight of the trip South was under the Hwy 92 bridge (San Mateo Bridge) where I watched a mother dolphin and her calf "porpoising" along. I was truly startled and thought, from a distance, that I was seeing a seal of some kind until close enough to the beast to resolve the two known creatures. I would have liked to snap some photos, but didn't like the idea of trying get closer. I wonder what they are feeding on that far south in the bay.
The strategy for the race this time was simple, don't make as many mistakes as last time. We focused on getting a better start and keepingin clear air. Also tried to minimize wetted surface of the boat by sitting on the lee side. Who could say whether this worked or not, but we did place better this time getting to 12th place out of 16 boats. The previous race we finished second to last on corrected time. So, good, a positive result for all the thought and effort.
Dave and I had a tough time keeping up correct VHF protocol when reporting our finish time to the race committee. Everytime I would open my mouth, Dave would have to turn away busting up. He had recently revisited the Family Guys skit about VHF radio language. I finally managed to get it out. This whole exchange left me in a quandry about how to say time. As in, our finish time was at 3:04 pm and 20 seconds. I would normally say it as," Three O four and twenty seconds". But, there was a momentary panic as I could really figure out the correct way and was thinking, "Three Oclock four minutes and 20 seconds". We won't even bring up military time.
Upon rounding the last mark, wondering at how the Alerion 28 ahead of us managed to step on the gas around the last mark when we held pretty even with them downhill (granted, with no wind you would assume the current would carry both boats at the same speed), we turned and headed north. The wind finally started to fill in again and we ate the brownies and sandwiches I had brought before staring up the motor.
Not having to go into RWC harbor to drop off crew saved me at least an hour in travel time and it made for some good guy talk. We tied up and put Dayspring to bed. More lessons learned etc.
Dave K. on the way back to Coyote Point
After the first race, I had polled the S22 class site for folks thoughts on light air racing and read every article online that appeared applicable.
The trip down from Coyote Point took about two hours and was miserable in fog and a wisp of drizzle. Just enough dampness that after two hours of relatively immobility, I was thouroughly chilled and grateful for the hot water that Larry at Sequoia gave me after I turned down a cup of coffee. The one highlight of the trip South was under the Hwy 92 bridge (San Mateo Bridge) where I watched a mother dolphin and her calf "porpoising" along. I was truly startled and thought, from a distance, that I was seeing a seal of some kind until close enough to the beast to resolve the two known creatures. I would have liked to snap some photos, but didn't like the idea of trying get closer. I wonder what they are feeding on that far south in the bay.
The strategy for the race this time was simple, don't make as many mistakes as last time. We focused on getting a better start and keepingin clear air. Also tried to minimize wetted surface of the boat by sitting on the lee side. Who could say whether this worked or not, but we did place better this time getting to 12th place out of 16 boats. The previous race we finished second to last on corrected time. So, good, a positive result for all the thought and effort.
A "J" boat easing easily through our lee
Dave and I had a tough time keeping up correct VHF protocol when reporting our finish time to the race committee. Everytime I would open my mouth, Dave would have to turn away busting up. He had recently revisited the Family Guys skit about VHF radio language. I finally managed to get it out. This whole exchange left me in a quandry about how to say time. As in, our finish time was at 3:04 pm and 20 seconds. I would normally say it as," Three O four and twenty seconds". But, there was a momentary panic as I could really figure out the correct way and was thinking, "Three Oclock four minutes and 20 seconds". We won't even bring up military time.
Upon rounding the last mark, wondering at how the Alerion 28 ahead of us managed to step on the gas around the last mark when we held pretty even with them downhill (granted, with no wind you would assume the current would carry both boats at the same speed), we turned and headed north. The wind finally started to fill in again and we ate the brownies and sandwiches I had brought before staring up the motor.
Not having to go into RWC harbor to drop off crew saved me at least an hour in travel time and it made for some good guy talk. We tied up and put Dayspring to bed. More lessons learned etc.
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