Association Forum - Frostbite Regatta

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Racing Forum

Frostbite Regatta

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

USA
3323 Posts

Initially Posted - 01/23/2012 : 09:28:19

Well we almost had our Frostbite Regatta on Saturday. Temp rose to the mid 60's during the afternoon, but unfortunately the wind didn't co-operate. It blew 18-20 through the morning and then kept dropping. It was a nice 8-10 when we started but within a half hour we were just above drifting. Then we were either drifting or stopped!
We got within 15 yards of the finish line when the jib decided to keep backwinding but the main was still on the correct side. After being driven sideways a couple of times and almost hitting the pin we dropped the jib and very very slowly drifted over the line. It took almost 20 minutes for that last 15 yards! The RC crew had a great time watching our struggles!
Wiht no hope of any wind for the rest of the day the PRO wisely abandoned for the day. A Sabre 362 in the Big Boat fleet and TSU were the only boats to finish. The rest were scattered all over the course and not moving.

Derek Crawford
Chief Measurer C25-250 2008
Previous owner of "This Side UP"
1981 C-25 TR/FK #2262 Used to have an '89 C22 #9483, "Downsized"
San Antonio, Texas

Edited by - on

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 01/23/2012 : 09:40:09

At least you finished. I've been in a few that if the tide was not going out we never would have crossed the starting line.

Edited by - on

NautiC25
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
957 Posts

Response Posted - 01/23/2012 : 09:43:31

Yea, the day started out great! Perfect temps and steady breeze. I headed out there to catch you all at a good pace, but suddenly the wind died out right as I got there, and saw that your group decided to head in.

Funny they call it "Frostbite Regatta" while everyone is out there in shorts and tees. Gotta love Texas weather.

You've got email.

Edited by - NautiC25 on 01/23/2012 09:45:07

cshaw
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
460 Posts

Response Posted - 01/24/2012 : 09:02:16

Hi Derek!

Congrats on finishing! Sometimes that is as good as you can do!!!!

We had a crazy wind day a long time ago on Galveston Bay. We were close hauled on port tack, and off to our starboard about 100ft, and slightly aft, was a J-30 on starboard tack broad reaching under a chute!. Our speeds were exactly matched (the wind was blowing about 4-6 or so for us).

To make that even stranger, the two of us were sailing thru the rest of the fleet that were all sitting totally dead in the water! We were staring at each other, and everyone else was staring at the two of us!

No idea what kind of wind would do that, some folks thought it might have been a little cyclonic circulation in slow motion? Whatever it was the two of us really enjoyed it and it was/is the source of a lot of talk at the clubhouse!!!

We were able to take finish line honors in the first race of our season here, with our arch rival (O-Day32) finishing about a minute and half behind us. The crazy club handicapping system we have here had him correct out ahead of us however, with him taking 1st and us getting 7th.....? Go figure!

Tom Curran has a bright orange bottom on Island Time now, and changed back to hanked on sails from his furler. That orange bottom looked really cool!

Cheers!

Chuck

Edited by - on

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3323 Posts

Response Posted - 01/24/2012 : 20:09:26

Chuck - that has to be one crazily stupid handicap system! How can a boat that owes you about 25 secs/mile correct out over you when you finished first.
May I suggest that you make a pitch for good old PHRF...

Edited by - on

cshaw
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
460 Posts

Response Posted - 01/24/2012 : 20:42:55

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Derek Crawford</i>

May I suggest that you make a pitch for good old PHRF...

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Hi Derek!

Well, last year I was the "new kid on the block", so I had to roll with the punches. The 11 race series allows one throwout, but they require 3 races of results to provide you a handicap, and your series score for those races is the same as DNS. So throwing out 1 of the 3 still leaves you with 2 DNS's and makes doing ok in the series impossible. The handicaps get adjusted after each race (win and get hammered, 2 and 3rd get hammered a bit less progressively. 4 and 5th stay the same, then 7th and up get some help progressively.

In principle, it does a good job of addressing the issue they wanted to address, which was to encourage new or inexperienced sailors to come out and play, and reward them for coming out by giving them some "limelight" and cutting them some slack while they learn.

I took a turn at being the chief handicapper for the Galveston Bay PHRF fleet many years ago, and one of the things we tried to do was create a separate fleet for non-hardcore racers to sample what racing was like, and the handicaps were "custom built". It actually worked pretty good for getting people out, and a percentage "graduated" to the regular PHRF fleet each season.

That notion also got applied to the annual races our marina put on (Watergate Marina, on Clear Lake), where a guy named Ed Campbell and I put together a custom handicapping approach to get boats out on the bay "racing" as part of the marina's "Spring Fling" weekend party they put on for the marina tenants. It really became a huge hit and still goes on today.

So, I do support the goals the handicapping system I am living with now tries to achieve, but I think they have ended up with a system way too lopsided.

When we go out and race now, we have two choices, race hard and screw what it does to our handicap, or kick back and sandbag to get a better handicap. The Oday32 and a couple of other boats and I all decided to not really worry about the handicaps, and simply sail for line honors. No trophies associated with finishing line honors, but just the "joy" of trying to do a horizon job on each other, and the pre and post race trash talking at the clubhouse! So far our racing has been pretty full of "joy"!! I do admit I love to beat the 32 boat for boat, and she is a well sailed boat by three experienced sailors. :-), and there are several other boats in the fleet that are good competitors.

This year, I am going to be working on a proposal on how to not kill the faster boats chances for winning, but still go after the club racing goals......

We shall see.... But till then, no quarters asked or given!!!

Cheers!

Chuck

Edited by - on

NautiC25
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
957 Posts

Response Posted - 02/03/2012 : 11:55:33

Derek, did you get my email?

Edited by - on

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3323 Posts

Response Posted - 02/03/2012 : 15:17:39

No Jonathan. Did you send it via the Forum?

Edited by - on

NautiC25
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
957 Posts

Response Posted - 02/03/2012 : 15:46:52

Yes I did. I think we had that same problem before now that I think about it. Lol
I still have ur email saved, so I just sent you an email manually...

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.