Sir;
Thank you for your explanation.
I sail in the Potomac off from Quantico and up near DC.
Racing off Quantico, the line is often half the width of the river and while the committee may want to set a fair line, usually it has a distictly favored point. On low wind days, I tend towards the middle because an equal distant line to the mark is a curve intersecting the line. When the winds a blowing for all get out (see my avatar), it is usually the west end of the line that I take. The line can be long enough and the wind direction off enough that from the west end running north, with a favorable lift someplace, I can make the mark without a tack. Not so from the east end.
In DC, the safely sailable waters can be very limited and I am slowly and most begrudgingly learning to respect the need to keep at least the water under my boat required to sail her if the wind disappears (although I have, in times of good wind, crossed a few bars while tilting 35 to 40 degrees).
There, in DC, the line usually only has a few feet travelwise, distance to the mark difference but oh, those few feet can be critical. See the picture. This is the Leukemia Cup Regatta (Sept 10th this year) and in the forefront is GOOD TRADE. Out of the picture is the eventual overall Regatta winner "Rebecca," stalled and anchored against an outgoing tide. The other drifter flying Pearson is Stacy Lynn. The distance between us is about half the distance that the starting line is wide.
Stacy Lynn started off on the wind favored side of the line. I started off on the other side, just feeling that it was better to be on starboard than a port tack when we hit trafffic.
Moments after this picture was snapped, the wind died and momentum pushed the bow of GOOD TRADE across the line. We started our motor to get clear of the course. In nearly dead wind, it was nine minutes before the next boat crossed the line and 30 minutes before Stacy Lynn made up the hundred or so feet that we were apart.
So, I look to see where is the wind coming from, if not at 90 degrees to the start, and where is the mark?
Thanks for your kind words as well.
