Club Sailing Results
Posted for 02-April-2017
Sunday was a great day for sailing and racing Dagnabit! Another blustery day with plenty of wind, maybe 15 to 18 knots. 7 boats were out for the thrilling ride. The wind was out of the SE and the course was set (Glad to see you back Gypsy Wind.) at X-SE-SW-NW-X. One important Racing Principles is to “BE WHERE THE WIND IS” and that proved helpful to Dagnabit as she went inward on a starboard tack, while the rest of the fleet went on a port tack, for a wire to wire win. Congratulations John and your super crew Todd, Bob, and that little Lady Luck. Skedadle and Whitehawk had an always fun tacking duel with Skedadle crossing the Finish Line only 18 seconds ahead of Whitehawk.
The channel has been dredged so everyone should be able to get out now. Come join the FUN.
Posted for 19-Mar-2017
This was the day to check out a lot of sailing theories. First Sailboats are No Da__ Good with out wind. Next you need to be where the wind is. Then the SEA BREEZE will eventually come in. We had all of that and it was good to see eight boats out (including 2 “sport boats”) seeing what they could do. The Start was postponed for 30 minutes trying to figure out if there would be wind and if so would it stay from the North or would the SEA BREEZE take over. It appeared that North won so the course was set at X-N-W-S-X. A little bit of chasing the wind lines before they died, and then it got mighty slow before the SEA BREEZE finally kicked in and it turned out to be a GREAT DAY OF SAILING with up to 12 to 15 knots of breeze. The winner was White Hawk (Nice job Ben) with Skedadle 2nd with Tigress right behind him.
It was nice to see the Sport Boats out there but one had tiller/traveler troubles and had to drop out while the other decided to check out their Spinnaker Prowess while the wind was light. Looked mighty pretty.
Looking forward to the Dogwood Regatta next week end with an eye on the weather Saturday. Could possibly be postponed until Sunday so stay tuned. Divers will be around to clean bottoms on Thursday 3/23 so make arrangements with your favorite guy.
Spring Series will pick up again the following Sunday 4/2.
Posted for 12-Mar-2017
The North Wind doth blow and it was a Blustery Day. Possibly 15 to 18 knots or more. The course was set at X-N-W-S-X and 5 boats were out to enjoy it. Bondo Flyer led most of the way but White Hawk caught her for 1st Place. Nice job Ben and Crew. New Wake was not far behind for 3rd place.
As an added benefit there were Dolphins on the course.
Next Sunday will be the last week to practice before the Dogwood Regatta on Saturday 3/25. Don’t forget to line up your boat bottom cleanings on Thursday 3/23.
Posted for 5-Mar-2017
The weather forecasts were for a Blustery Day, but from the docks it didn’t look too bad. 3 boats went out debating what kind of sails to put up. Once at the X Mark it was a surprise to see that the forecasts were correct with a SE wind of around 18 knots. The course was set at X-SE-SW-NW-X to hopefully have steadier winds offshore a little. All 3 boats finished with Tigress leading the pack (Good job Dave, and/or Don, and Tracey) with Bondo Flyer 2nd and Dagnabit 3rd.
After 4 races the leaders are:
Tigress 15 points
Bondo Flyer 13 points
Whitehawk 13 points
Come on out. We are having FUN – John H
Posted for 26-Feb-2017
Does anyone know where we can find a good weather man? The Weather Channel predicted South 9 mph (on land) through out the afternoon. NOAA predicted South 8 to 13 knots in the top half of Mobile Bay. Just before the race started the winds were out of the Southwest (Looked like the Sea Breeze had kicked in.) so the course was set at X-SW-SE-NE-X. Nice to see 8 boats making a run for it. Then it happened. Half way through the 1st leg the wind decided to go several directions at the same time that made Mast Head Flys look like helicopters and made boats point all different directions and then STOP. Velocity Made Goods were negative as the tide took over.
After an excruciating 30 to 45 minutes the wind came in with a roar (maybe 12 to 15 knots) and we were off to a nice day of sailing and racing. White Hawk finished 1st (Very good Ben) but only 11 Seconds ahead of Tigress. Wanderer was third. There was another newcomer on the course – Blue Godess – who seemed to have fun. See you on the water for next Sunday’s race.
Club Races/Score sheet for 05-Mar-17
Posted for 19-Feb-2017
Kind of an interesting day. Beautiful all around Sunny, warm, etc. It even looked like there might be enough wind for a sailboat race. In fact there was enough to start, maybe 5 to 8 knots, and 7 boats were out to go around an X-W-S-E-X course. A slight wind shift spread the fleet out a little and then it died on the 2nd leg. It was decided to shorten the course and finish at E, but two boats thought it was time to go in. Then wouldn’t you know the Sea Breeze was late but finally came in and there was a 10 to 12 knot breeze to enjoy after the race was over.
Wanderer actually did finish the course at the X Mark and was declared the winner since she definitely went around the E mark 1st. Nice job Ken. Bondo Flyer was 2nd, and White Hawk 3rd. Judging by the times, it looked to be a very close race 1st thru 4th place. Due to the Shortened Course the Finish Times had to be adjusted since our Handicaps are based on a 5 nm course. The attached Score Sheet show the adjusted times. It didn’t make any difference in the results and I have the calculations and recorded results if anyone would like to see them. It was nice to see Skedadle racing.
There was some discussion on how to apply the Spinnaker Adjustment. The Sailing Instructions are set up to give you a chance to evaluate the wind, PRIOR TO THE START O F THE RACE and if you decided to fly a spinnaker you need to Start 2 1/2 minutes later than your adjusted Start Time. Adjusted Start Times and Finish Times can both be recorded at the end of the race. Thus we can always tell that what order boats finish is the actual placement.
Club Races/Score sheet for 26-Feb-17
Posted for 12-Feb-2017
Well we got off to a pretty good start to our Spring Series as 7 boats showed up for a relatively nice day. Winds were out of the South at about 12 knots. The course was set at X-S-W-N-X. White Hawk showed she still has the “Right Stuff” and won handily. Good job Ben and Crew. 2nd place went to Tigress, and 3rd place went to a “new comer” (the boat) Bonclo Flyer. She was captained by Rick Byrne who kept muttering “it’s a work in progress”. There were some people Single Handed, and it was good to see another newcomer Osprey captained by John McBrayer.
There are lots of boats on the Score Sheet (33 – wouldn’t it be fantastic if they all came out at the same time?) so I rearranged it again putting the most likely racers on the 1st page, and the “Sport Boats” on a separate 3rd page.
See you on the water.
