What a lovely night for sailing we had yesterday!  Steady winds from the south, 11 boats on the line, and four races to give everyone a bit of a workout.  Sailing we had Alex, Doug P., Forest, Cullen, Jody, Christof, Chris, John E., Griffin, Brig,  and Eric Ro.  Running the races we had Mike T. as PRO, Martha,
Graham, and Mike R. on the big boat and Porter and Eric Re. on the crash boat.  Thanks, race committee, for getting the races off.

The wind gods threw a bit of everything at us, from winds in the high teens, perhaps brushing 20 for the first two races to much more moderate conditions for the last two races.  This was a far cry from last week’s burn down of withering gusts, and much more enjoyable.

The race committee ran two single lap races, nos. 1 and 4, sandwiching two, two lap races.  The last race started just before sundown, ending after sunset.  That’s called getting your races in!! 

There were some capsizes last evening in the first two races, but not none too serious.   And the funny for the evening was in the last race when Eric Roman’s hiking strap decided to part ways with him at the finish line!  He went over the side — and the boat went over with him.  Lots of guffaws on that one!

Our fleet is a competitive one.  Before the start of the first race, the Young Wizard commented to me “This is a good fleet — lots of people can do well.”  And he’s right, our fleet is competitive because of people like Griffin who share their knowledge.

The evening was dominated by Chris who borrowed one of Forest’s sails work his way to the top.  His big concern was whether Forest was going to jack the price up on the sail!

Lessons for the heavier wind:

1. If you are overpowered going upwind — you can’t hold the boat down strictly through hiking, reduce power in the sail by:
   1. Cranking on the Cunningham
   2. Cranking on the Vang
   3. I also pull my dagger board up a couple of inches when I am way overpowered as it keeps the boat on its feet better
   4. And this should have been first — steer precisely.  Watching Chris is a joy because he balances the boat perfectly through his steering.  He is often feathering the boat  to keep it flat.  But he also does all of the preceding stuff, too!!
   5. Downwind, don’t let the Vang all the way off when it’s really cranking.  Your steering options get too limited when the Vang is too loose.  Keep about a 10″ tail on the Vang downwind when it’s blowing.
   6. When you jibe is critical!  Don’t jibe when a gust is hitting you.  Jibe either before it hits you or after you are going full speed.  The boat is massively powered up when its accelerating, so even when you are going really fast, you have a better chance of pulling off the jibe than you do when the boat is accelerating, as when a gust hits you.

Important Control Line — The Vang

Griffin will do a pictorial in an upcoming newsletter showing you how to get the most out of this control line.

No Coast Regatta

It’s show time, folks!!  The weekend of May 19 and 20 is it.  Please contact Griffin if you either want to sail or can help make this a great show for us.

Dues  Please pay your dues.  We will post a naughty and nice list next week.  Be on the nice list!!  Greg is the man.

Racing on Wednesday, May 16  Next Wednesday will be our last tune up for the No Coast.  Our race committee will be GRIFFIN, CAN YOU FILL IN, PLEASE?

Big Sail Out — June 6 Let’s all shoot for June 6 to have as many boats on the line as possible.  Bob Gough will be running the show, so it should be spectacular!!