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Fleet 7 off to the Races! Results added

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/20/2008 : 16:09:41

We've made a real push this year to get all the Fleet 7 boats to join the San Diego All Catalina Association. This weekend we'll be racing with them and the Silvergate Yacht Club. At least for me, I am making a weekend cruise of it - I'll be leaving Friday night after work, and sailing about 10 miles to the anchorage in San Diego Bay. I'll be doing the race with friends I pick up and drop off in San Diego, then going to the after-race party. Assuming I'll be tired and in no shape to sail home in the dark, I'll anchor out again and sail home Sunday morning.

My feeling is that racing in the All Catalina Fleet will be lower-key, more fun, and less competitive then being up against Flying Tigers, Melges, and Maxi Z86s.

Wish us luck, photos and journal to come!

Winds have been great all week, seas a little rough, especially last weekend for the NOOD (winds 20 to 30 seas 10 feet).

Around the Coronados race coming up April 12, crew needed. 36 miles round trip offshore PLUS pickup and drop off in Mission Bay so add another 20 miles.

Indiscipline 1978 FK SR #398

Edited by - JimB517 on 03/23/2008 21:19:20

sweetcraft
Admiral

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USA
816 Posts

Response Posted - 03/20/2008 : 21:27:50

That really sounds good to me so have a great time and post those pictures. I am still anchored to this wheelchair so those pictures mean a lot. Dad was born on Ballast Point in the Lighthouse and my Grandparents were on the Silvergate for sailing club meetings. Remember boat speed.

Edited by - on

gnorgan
Admiral

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USA
563 Posts

Response Posted - 03/20/2008 : 23:22:50

Classical Cat will be out on the water, too

to give Indiscipline a challenge from start to finish line.
We'll be racing against all those bigger boats and should finish ahead of them on corrected time, no sweat!!!

No matter the outcome, this should be a boatload of fun, with temps in the low 70s and winds around 9 hopefully.
Pictures? Got to remember to bring the camera to take pictures of all those boats behind us!!!

Edited by - on

JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Response Posted - 03/21/2008 : 09:46:02

Jim,
I'll be flying to San Diego on Friday, April 5, to attend a scientific conference for a number of days. Do you need crew for that weekend?

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 03/21/2008 : 13:14:43

Gary, they set my handicap at 247 (228 + non spin offset of 19). I think there will only be a few boats racing. With that handicap and a rookie crew I may not go up spin unless the winds are quite light.

JohnP there is not a race that weekend but I'd be happy to take you sailing. I sent you a private message.

Edited by - on

JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Response Posted - 03/21/2008 : 13:36:00

Jim,
Thanks. I'm looking forward to it. Perhaps you could even give me a lesson on heaving-to. PM sent.

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 03/21/2008 : 15:49:02

heaving to under autopilot works great on these boats, that is my secret.

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JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Response Posted - 03/21/2008 : 18:27:47

That's fantastic!!! Love it! Thanks for the lesson.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 03/23/2008 : 21:49:46

Well I carried on with my plan even though we got bad news that my daughter Amy's car was stolen Thursday night during her shift working at the local cinema. All day Friday I felt this weird anxeity sick feeling I think in common with all crime victims. A weekend at sea was a good cure.

Friday night I sailed from Mission Bay at 5:30 PM, there was a good omen, dolphins in the channel before I was even at sea. I set the spinnaker for the run down to San Diego and was making most of 5 knots watching the sun set. Just before total darkness I doused it and gybed for the Bay. On the way in it got cold and I put on my foulies. I had strange headwinds, it was late, cold, and I was tired. I motored the rest of the way to the anchorage. Anchor down in La Playa Cove by 9:30 PM. I had a cold dinner, a beer, and set the alarm for 07:00.

Saturday morning I left the anchorage at 08:30 to meet my friends at a resturaunt dock known as the Bali Hai (best Mai Tai in town - 0% fruit juice). I was meeting them at 10 and I was there by 09:30. I got the boat tied up, cleaned up, and took a little walk. There was no wind. They arrived at about 10:15 and we got going. We got the spin up and were running out of San Diego Bay - 180 degrees from the normal winds. It dried out quickly from the soaking it got when I doused it the night before. It was sunny and felt about 80F. Soon we crossed paths with Classical Cat, Gary Norgan's TR Wing Keel. We got the spin down, packed and motored over for the check in. There were 11 boats, 8 in the all Catalina Class. We had course 17 with an upwind start, 8.5 miles, and a triangle shaped course with a very long leg out to sea and back. Now the winds were picking up nicely. It was about 10 knots. With a first time crew, I didn't plan on using the spin as using it costs me 19 seconds per mile.

Gary had a better start, near the front of the pack. I was mid pack in clean air and I crossed the line 1 minute and 30 seconds late. Soon I was dueling with a cruising equipped Catalina 34 for the back of the pack, Gary had a 2 or 3 minute lead at the first windward mark.

As we rounded we headed about 3 miles out to sea, this is usually the upwind leg but today we could have set the spin. Of the 11 boats, only 2 went wing and wing as I did. It drove me low of the mark, most boats like Gary were gybing and high of the mark or on the rhumb line. Once around Pt. Loma we got into some real breeze, over 15 knots. A strong wind, upwind leg is what we needed to catch Classical Cat. I got the pole down and had a good reach for the mark, we gained about a minute on Gary on this leg.

After we rounded we were heeled over for dear life. I tensioned backstay, outhaul, and showed my crew how to dump the main and how to hike. Now the SR Fin showed its advantage over the TR Wing. We outpointed them and in fact I even cracked off a little for boat speed. On this leg we overtook them and we watched Classical Cat getting forced into the submerged Zuniga Jetty, finally they had to tack away for Pt. Loma. Soon I was wishing that I had not cracked off because we had to tack, too, as did the entire fleet. As opposed to PHRF racing, here we were pretty competitive - at least the fleet was still in sight. No one flew spin, only 2 boats had mylar headsails. Good, I was about 1/4 to 1/2 mile ahead of Gary.

Then we and all the fleet ran into the mother of all holes. That, combined with a 2 knot ebb current meant that one one tack towards Zuniga Jetty we would make about 1 knot VMG, then we would tack to Pt. Loma and make -2 knots VMG due to the ebb. We, and the whole fleet was slowly being swpet back to sea! Funny how you would see just one boat get into a puff and make 6 knots for a couple of minutes while you were drifting! The puffs were about 15 knots. One time we saw Classical Cat get a huge puff along Zuniga Jetty - they almost caught up. But they tacked again and were swept back to Pt. Loma. They were never close again. We finally weathered a little point and could fall off a little and make hay at 2 knots towards the next mark. On the way, we passed the finish line and the committee boat, but we had one more mark to go.

Then, all of a sudden, 20 knots or more of wind descended on the entire course. We were way overpowered, dumping main, ducking spray. We powered around the upwind mark and blasted to the finish, going into a huge downwind broach just before the line, but we held it off and finished.

We took 5th place, Classical Cat 6, the Cat 34 7th and one boat was DNF. We beat Classical Cat scratch by about 3 or 4 minutes, I'm not sure of the corrected times for all, I'll post that in a couple of days with some photos.

We docked at the Bali Hai in a hurricane and made room for Classical Catbut they never showed up. So off we went to the party at the Silver Gate Yacht club. They were a great group of folks, when Fleet 7 was introduced they gave us a standing ovation for coming all the way from Mission Bay for the race. We ate, drank, and watched a slide show of the days race. I met all the folks and felt very, very welcome. They told me in the history of their racing series, there has never been a protest. This is my kind of racing.

My guests hit the road. Winds were down to about 12 knots so I ran all the way down the bay, under the bridge, gybed for Glorietta Bay, and had anchor down by 5:30 PM. I cooked some burgers and settled down with a good book and was sound asleep by 9:30.

Sunday I got up at 7 to zero wind and was on my way by 9. I pretty much motored the whole way back to Mission Bay (sailed the last 90 minutes) and was home by 2, right on schedule - 5 hours from Gloiretta Bay.

Very tired, hands sore, muscles sore, sunburned, wind chapt after 3 days at sea. Its spring break, Amy wants me to take her and her boyfriend sailing after work tomorrow. Its a tough life but someone has to do it.

Oh yeah, 125 miles logged in the first week of daylight savings time. I'll be practicing for the Round the Coronados race April 12 starting tomorrow.

Edited by - JimB517 on 03/24/2008 12:08:06

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 03/25/2008 : 15:19:43

All Catalina Results

Finish Elapsed Corrected Margin
Mis-behave Cat 30 14:18 2:18 1:47 lead
Interlude Cat 27 14:17 2:17 1:47 0:00:12
Escape Cat 34 14:15 2:15 1:52 04:54
Sabbatical Cat36T 14:19 2:19 1:59 12:10
Indiscipline Cat25 15:00 3:00 2:26 38:18
Classical Cat C25T 15:07 3:07 2:33 45:15
Coaster C34 15:03 3:03 2:36 48:48
Isle Run C36T DNF

So I beat Gary by 7 minutes, even though they rated the C25 Standard Rig 247 and the C25 Tall Rig 246. Still, Indiscipline has a long way to go to be competitive with the faster boats, finishing 20 minutes behind the next fastest boat on an 8.5 mile race. We were stuck in that hole for a long time.

Edited by - JimB517 on 03/25/2008 15:24:59

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 03/25/2008 : 15:20:24

no way I can figure to make the table line up, above, the forum automatically deleted white space and you can't enter a tab.

Edited by - JimB517 on 03/25/2008 15:26:20

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 03/25/2008 : 16:02:06

I would like to have been with you, my kind of racing too.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 03/25/2008 : 16:48:01

Yup--the forum does that... Anyway, thanks for the narrative! Holes can ruin everything--it's interesting how far back both you and Gary were on corrected time. My observation has been that smaller (lighter) boats have an advantage in 0-2 knots, and bigger ones (with taller rigs) in 2+. Once I ghosted right past a Swan 56 in barely 2 knots--my crew to leeward to keep the sails there... I wondered if he was aground and didn't know it. (That's <i>my</i> kind of racing!)

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 03/25/2008 16:49:39

gnorgan
Admiral

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USA
563 Posts

Response Posted - 03/26/2008 : 10:57:03

Jim, you didn't "beat Gary"!!!
I was way ahead of you heading for the entrance to SD Bay. Once we entered the bay, the tidal current essentially ended ALL racing for ALL boats. This was NOT a fair race and the race committee had no business sending boats out of the bay "had they realized the extent to which the tidal current would have affected the race". Apparently, the San Diego Yacht club tried to hold their racing outside of the bay (did they know the tide?) but gave up and went home early after the wind completely fell apart.

On a normal, non-current day, after sailing toward the air station point, I would have made one tack back toward Ballast Point (I think that's what it is called), tacked away toward the fuel pier (which took me 5 tacks to clear Saturday!!!!), another short tack and another back to Mark 16, then the finish line. As it was, my crew and I made roughly 20 tacks to even get close to the weather(?? Hahaha) mark in constantly shifting, constantly changing wind speed, 2-3knot out-of-bay current, tons of large and small boat traffic motoring back in and out causing huge and small wakes constantly knocking us around. The race ceased to be a race and instead became a matter of just keeping the boat going in ANY direction!!
We completed the distance just to say we had finished. Nothing more. We lost total interest in this "event" when I noted that we had completed three tacks back and forth across the channel and did not advance up-bay any more than about 4.5631 FEET (1.3908 meters)!!!

My start was fantastic for this one race day, making the preferred weather/committee boat end of the line. We were 4th around the first mark! I passed one Cat34 and the sole Cat27 AND one Cat30 heading out of the bay on a deep broad reach. They did, however, pass me later on the way out of the bay and the C27 just went by at the farthest mark out on the ocean.
To weather you have a slight advantage but off the wind we were much faster in light air.
This race ended up being more a contest of luck than a race although had I worked harder to stay very far left at the entrance like the bigger, faster Cats then maybe we would have faired better.....next time.
Bottom line: I hate light air, shifty-winded, big hole and heavy tidal current race days....San Diego Bay is famous for these conditions.

Edited by - gnorgan on 03/26/2008 11:02:16

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 03/26/2008 : 11:47:56

7 minutes is 7 minutes, we had the same conditions as you. I agree with the puffs it was a matter of luck. I am discouraged to see I was 20 minutes behind the next boat and about 40 minutes behind the C27.

Also they rated you 246 and me 247 which is not fair, of course the TR is faster in light air.

I still had fun, I think we beat you because we saw you take some big flyer all the way over to Point Loma while we short tacked up the channel, tacking on every puff.

Sorry you missed the party, it is a great group of people.

Edited by - JimB517 on 03/26/2008 12:00:52

sweetcraft
Admiral

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USA
816 Posts

Response Posted - 03/26/2008 : 12:55:18

I know where Ballast Point is and all the electronics that is looking at you. Isn't luck part of our sailing? Thanks for the updates.

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