Because, I couldn't make a living racing sailboats. Came in like, eleventh or something in Saturday's race, wasted a decent start. Had a blast, though. Finish line was exciting and found out how not to do a spinnaker takedown.
Glad I Have a Day Job
- Thread starter Bill19233
- Start date
The way I look at it, anyone that makes a living racing has a blue-collar job doing something I get to do for FUN. ;^)
Anyway great vid as usual! Re the upwind start in a pursuit race, probably the best way is to beam reach straight down the line with all sails out, going full speed. At the start time, turn up and trim on. You cross the line at 0:00 and you're rocking.
That Alerion Express 41 that crosses you at 2:41 is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.
Anyway great vid as usual! Re the upwind start in a pursuit race, probably the best way is to beam reach straight down the line with all sails out, going full speed. At the start time, turn up and trim on. You cross the line at 0:00 and you're rocking.
That Alerion Express 41 that crosses you at 2:41 is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.
And yet I've been on many boats which can't get that done. I think the biggest mistake is relying on following a boat on the scratch sheet. If that boat doesn't show up or starts late some skippers are lost. Mostly because they failed to read the SI's and scratch sheet and don't know what time they start. I wish I was kidding.
I've tried the beam reach approach the last couple starts, I like it and it works great unless you get caught to windward of other boats with a little earlier start time. I'm still trying to get the timing right, I wasn't going full speed yet when I turned up, I got too close to the far end of the line and didn't want to go over early or have to turn around.
There's a couple Alerion Express's on the bay. Very nice, with big mains and non overlapping jibs and they do very well, which shoots down my other post.
You're right its all in the timing. Remember you can always luff your sails to slow down. They are going to start before you, so it should clear out fast. In the worst case, duck under them and then come back up to the line.
That's funny! We'll start our mast mounted race timer to count down from 10:00 exactly 10 minutes before our published start time. At about a minute before your start you should have a pretty good idea about any boats in the area. Absolutely no reason to not nail a pursuit start!
Thanks for the fun look at your sailing venue! Shallow, from the look of the pilings sticking up everywhere.
Bimini's in place for racing, so there must be lots of UV to avoid.
Only puzzling thing was the boat not having an "ATN snuffer" or something similar to control that take-down.
Lots of participation and good winds.
Thanks Again.
Bimini's in place for racing, so there must be lots of UV to avoid.
Only puzzling thing was the boat not having an "ATN snuffer" or something similar to control that take-down.
Lots of participation and good winds.
Thanks Again.
When the sail came down, as it was going in the water, there looked like there was a snuffer aloft. I wonder why it was not used?
Yes, very shallow, Galveston and Trinity Bays aren't much more than deep swamps, the depth finder will only ever read over 10' in the dredged ship channels. And there's old submerged production platforms and pilings and hurricane wreckage everywhere. We've struck submerged objects twice this year. Water was really brown from about 5" of rain in the last week.Thanks for the fun look at your sailing venue! Shallow, from the look of the pilings sticking up everywhere.
Bimini's in place for racing, so there must be lots of UV to avoid.
Only puzzling thing was the boat not having an "ATN snuffer" or something similar to control that take-down.
Lots of participation and good winds.
Thanks Again.
I don't like racing with the bimini up, but mine is too hard to takedown once I put it up around May. We use the boat a lot and an 8 or 10 hour day on the bay in the south Texas summer sun will cook you with no shade, got to have a bimini in the summer in these latitudes. Some people do go overboard with the size of them.
We do have an ATN snuffer, my crew somehow managed to get the snuffing line knotted up in the sock halfway "snuffed". I wanted him to slowly let the halyard down and I was going to stuff the sail in the hatch, but he lost control of the halyard.
Wind was a little below normal for this time of year, but perfect for racing. Probably 50 to 75 boats in the race.
We call this 'shrimping', for reasons that you will fully understand!
The foredeck's #1 job is to get/keep the kite on the deck, no matter how badly the pit botches the drop. I made this vid to discuss a small miss-communication error on BlueJ, but we also caught one of our competitors looking for some tasty freshwater crustaceans. Watch the blue/white kite.
Yes, there is a snuffer, the looped snuffer halyard was a tangled mess inside the sock. I'd like to blame the crew, but I packed the sail and I hooked up the head, tack, and clew when we raised it and didn't see the loop wrapped around the sail. I forced the sock up when we set it and then it would only come part way down when we needed it to. I was tugging on it, trying to get it socked when he released the halyard and I pulled it right into the bay.
Usually, we have zero problems with this sock on the code 3, I think it's the medium hoop size. We have a lot of problems with the small hoop on the code "0", had to cut the looped sock line one time to get the sail set.
@Bill19233 It is a boat. It will always be something. When everything goes smoothly, you just know something big is going to happen.
I almost want something to happen at the beginning so that I get it over with and can enjoy the rest of the day.
I almost want something to happen at the beginning so that I get it over with and can enjoy the rest of the day.
One more race in the series left, we were in the top three or four for the series three races ago. But, since we’ve bounced off a couple submerged objects on a night sail and a night race, we haven’t finished in the top 10. Maybe a coincidence or just an excuse, and I had a diver check for damage, but maybe there is damage he missed or something stuck on the wing that’s slowing me down. I plan on hauling the boat after the last race.@Bill19233 It is a boat. It will always be something. When everything goes smoothly, you just know something big is going to happen.
I almost want something to happen at the beginning so that I get it over with and can enjoy the rest of the day.