Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Party after Racing 8/14 sponsored by Hall Spars!
Party after racing 8/14 sponsored by Hall Spars at Ida Lewis!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
A Call to Keyboards (i.e. Volunteers Needed)
If someone were to design a sailing hell, they could do a lot worse (and not in a good way) than simply recreating the conditions from last Thursday night: a mealy, dying southerly and a very strong flood tide running parallel to the breeze.
When we left the dock, we tried to get a gauge on the tide. It looked pretty close to high, so we were anticipating a slack tide or perhaps the start of the ebb, both of which would’ve been fine given the light southerly breeze. No such luck. The tide was smoking in for the entire evening. Even in the Rose Island Cone, where the relief is usually quite pronounced, there was a ton of flow. I’m half surprised Rose didn’t simply break free, bounce through the center span of the bridge, and wedge itself into the Hurricane Barrier in Providence. The incoming breeze and incoming tide meant that the 7-knot southerly was actually a 4- to 5-knot southerly, essentially drifting conditions.
We seemed to play the first portion of the race well, carving out a lane off the line that enabled us to hit the current relief by Goat Island without much trouble. But from there we went backwards. It was one of those nights—no matter what we did, we seemed to lose.
By the leeward mark, we were pretty desperate, so we split from the pack and headed toward Goat Island. We overstood by 20 boatlengths and came into the finish on a tight reach. It was hardly conventional sailing, but it netted us a respectable finish.
And so July came to a close with a resounding thud. Since the results from BargeGate haven’t been released, we currently have three official race results from the entire month. Wow. Who would’ve thunk it? Not to beat a dead horse, but taking the July 3rd off so great right now. Sail ‘em if you got ‘em, to paraphase Die Hard hero John McLain.
Another thing that ended on Thursday was my perfect attendance streak. I’m off to China on Wednesday to cover the Olympics. So, I’m hoping that in my absence a few of you faithful readers (Are there any? You never write?) will chip in with your stories from the wild and wooly world of Thursday night J/24 sailing. You can email me (stuart.streuli (at) sailingworld.com) or any of the fleet officers and we’ll get what you write up on the blog. It’s a lot easier than it looks, trust me. And I’ll need something to get me through 17 days behind the red curtain.
And when the results come out and I can figure out who came scorching out of the right corner on the first beat, I’ll try to get another Winner’s Words up on the site.
See you in September.
When we left the dock, we tried to get a gauge on the tide. It looked pretty close to high, so we were anticipating a slack tide or perhaps the start of the ebb, both of which would’ve been fine given the light southerly breeze. No such luck. The tide was smoking in for the entire evening. Even in the Rose Island Cone, where the relief is usually quite pronounced, there was a ton of flow. I’m half surprised Rose didn’t simply break free, bounce through the center span of the bridge, and wedge itself into the Hurricane Barrier in Providence. The incoming breeze and incoming tide meant that the 7-knot southerly was actually a 4- to 5-knot southerly, essentially drifting conditions.
We seemed to play the first portion of the race well, carving out a lane off the line that enabled us to hit the current relief by Goat Island without much trouble. But from there we went backwards. It was one of those nights—no matter what we did, we seemed to lose.
By the leeward mark, we were pretty desperate, so we split from the pack and headed toward Goat Island. We overstood by 20 boatlengths and came into the finish on a tight reach. It was hardly conventional sailing, but it netted us a respectable finish.
And so July came to a close with a resounding thud. Since the results from BargeGate haven’t been released, we currently have three official race results from the entire month. Wow. Who would’ve thunk it? Not to beat a dead horse, but taking the July 3rd off so great right now. Sail ‘em if you got ‘em, to paraphase Die Hard hero John McLain.
Another thing that ended on Thursday was my perfect attendance streak. I’m off to China on Wednesday to cover the Olympics. So, I’m hoping that in my absence a few of you faithful readers (Are there any? You never write?) will chip in with your stories from the wild and wooly world of Thursday night J/24 sailing. You can email me (stuart.streuli (at) sailingworld.com) or any of the fleet officers and we’ll get what you write up on the blog. It’s a lot easier than it looks, trust me. And I’ll need something to get me through 17 days behind the red curtain.
And when the results come out and I can figure out who came scorching out of the right corner on the first beat, I’ll try to get another Winner’s Words up on the site.
See you in September.
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