C.R.A.N.N.E. Sailing

This was the second year of this event held in Madison CT the weekend before Memorial Day weekend. A few of us had gone down last year and had a great time. The event is run by a group of young adults that have gone through Joe’s sailing program. With support from their parents, other community members and the town, they are able to keep the spirit of Joe alive. The regatta is held at the town’s beach facility and community center on the Long Island Sound which is perfect for the event. The nice beach is sandy and short with no surf to get through.

This year, CRANNE sent 3 F-18’s to make up half of the F-18 Fleet and a Nacra 6.0, one of the 11 boats that made up the open fleet. Craig and Ricardo sailed Craig’s Infusion, Nick and Paul sailed their Nacra F-18, John and Jim sailed John’s Tiger and Scott Malcolm and Hugh sailed Scott’s 6.0. Registration included; 2 t-shirts, 2 dinner tickets and continental breakfast both mornings.

After about an hour postponement for fog the fleet was sent out to sail Saturday morning. The wind throughout the day built up to around 20 with gusts approaching 30. This allowed the race committee to get in 6 nice races (2/1, 6/5, 6/5, 6/5, 6/5, 5/5) around a fairly long ACG course. The facility allowed the spectators to watch the racing from the beach with an easterly wind.

Once back to the beach, we had about a couple of hours to get cleaned up prior to dinner. The buffet style dinner was in the community center building looking over the beach and consisted of chicken, pasta, salad and cookies. Pictures from the day were projected up on the wall and encouraged stories recalling the day’s events. After dinner the raffle was held where about 25 prizes were distributed.

Sunday was bitter and cold with a strong wind from the north. No one seemed disappointed that the race committee called for a postponement. After a couple of postponements, the F-18 fleet decided to pack it in for the weekend and started taking boats apart assuming results would not change either way. The open fleet finally went out for a single race, 5 boats short.

Results are:


Watch the Garvin Point Sailing Club website for pictures to be posted. I’m looking forward to attending this event again next year.

Keys to good starting

What is a good start….90% is to start with clear air & moving at full speed. This is usually better than being next to the committee boat & in the middle of lots of other boats, bumping (Protest….do your turns) & getting off the line with dirty air.

Get to the starting area before the starting sequence begins:

When the committee gets the line set, do a couple of practice starts on port & starboard (this will help you decide which tack & end of the line is favored. It also helps you know where to begin your “run” to the line from.

Typically the starting lines are set up to favor a starboard start with the committee boat end favored. But you need to check

Make a couple of tacks & jibes to be sure everything works & the skipper & crew are together.

If you have a spinnaker…put it up do a jibe & take down (to be sure you have the chute set up right & the crew understands what needs to be done)

“Park” your boat & relax for a couple of minutes but don’t get to far from the line as you need to be able to see and hear the flags/horns.

Have your watch set to catch the horn. Of course you have already decided who will watch the watch & tell the time remaining to the start. If it’s light air you can often listen to the other boats around you for the time

Get the boat set up for the wind. Down haul, out haul, traveler… are you boards and rudders clear of any weeds?

You are wearing your life jacket…. and harness is adjusted-comfortable?

Decide where you want to start & where to be when the 1 minute flag/horn sounds…don’t be too far up wind.

Know where both ends of the starting line are. Sometimes you can’t see because of other boats blocking your view.

The 2 most important rules to remember on the starting line:

• The overtaking boat has no rights
  
• The leeward boat can head you up (slowly) into the wind…i.e. they can push you over the line early. This is one of my favorite things to do to Craig.
  

There is another rule called barging. Basically if a boat is sailing close to the wind there is no room for another boat between that boat and the committee boat. Trying to squeeze into this space is not a good idea…you cannot hit the committee boat or the barging buoy. We need people to let us use their boats for the committee and they don’t like them getting hit.

Learn where & when your competition & the rest of the fleet likes to start. You can often find an opening with clear air just down from the committee boat (if every one is early you can block the line by making them over early. Or if the fleet is typically early it may be best to come in ~ 10 seconds after the group and tack over to port to get clean air.

If you are going to get pushed over the line early, accelerate and get around the committee boat or pin end quickly.

Be careful to not get to windward of a boat that can out point you or sail higher into the wind. (the leeward boat has the right of way)

After the start if there are lots of boats in front of you, giving you bad air, try to tack over and get out into clean air. Be careful as you will typically be on port and have no rights on any starboard boat.

Watch how the fleet starts. It’s pretty typical for a pattern to develop. They maybe early and down the line before the start (come in late up to speed and be prepared to tack if you are being back winded.

Or more commonly the fleet will bunch up at the committee boat and be stalled at the start. If you are ~ ¼ to 1/3 of the way down the line and moving at the start you will have clean air and on your way to A mark.

Like anything it takes practice to make consistent starts, being on time and moving at full speed. If you’re making good starts you should be over the line early once in a while. I think it’s better to be looking back at the fleet vs looking at their sterns.

Go Fast…. and have fun

This years event will be held at the Surf Club in Madison CT this weekend and is open to all beachcats up to 21'. A group from CRANNE is planing to participate. They have a great facility right on the beach and a catered dinner Saturday night. For more information check their website. Hope to see you all there!

Garvin Point Sailing