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August 15, 1999

Dear Friends in sailing,

With the cooperation of the weather, races 6 and 7 were held this past Sunday. Both races were highlighted by a difficult between the island trek and a 3rd upwind leg to the 3rd mark. Needless to say, it was not a good day for the "cats" as the JY and Laser "dogs" managed to hound them continuously. Regardless, with Mike Meagher taking this week off, Tom Davis came out of retirement to turn in a stellar performance and lead the cats to the finish in race 6. The key leg turned out to be leg 3 where Chuck McClead, after two outstanding legs was lulled to sleep between the islands allowing Tom Davis and Bob and Scott Fraser to pass.

Another "one for the books" move was turned in by Doug Kell who used the islands to his advantage to pass 4 boats in about 50 yards on the third leg. Doug accomplished this feat a second time during race 7 as well. Boy, did the rest of us feel foolish as we watched him sail by for the second time in as many races using exactly the same move.

Race 7 was a total JY 15 and Laser sweep in the Portsmouth and 3 of the first 5 places Actual going to the mono hulls. This was in no small way determined by the conditions and the single handed JY 15s. Special kudos to all of the boats that sailed competitively with fully crewed vessels, which included most of the cats,the Lightning with three on board, and Barry Cohen’s Laser.

Great to see Mr. and Mrs. Kim Mumme for the first time this year on the committee boat. Hope to see you again soon.

With 8 multi hulls (Hobies and the Dart), 12 planing hulls (F 5, Laser, Laser II, JY 15, Capri 13 and Lightning) and only 4 displacement hulls (JY 14, Daysailor, Javelin and DC 15) registered, it’s not difficult to see that there has been a significant drop in displacement hull competition. I’m sure a lot has to do with the feeling of not "being in the race" with these high handicapped boats. If just one or two of them show up for a race, it is difficult to stay competitive. I remember what it was like when I was being "horizoned" by the rest of the fleet when I was sailing a Sunbird (What’s a Sunbird?).

To address this problem, I would like to try the following. With our present staggered starts adding to the competitiveness between multi hulls and planning hulls, let’s stagger the starts with the displacement hulls as well. It would look like this. Four flags instead of three (we have to handle four for the start anyway) would be used. A yellow flag and horn would start the countdown. Five minutes later, the displacement hulls would start on the white flag. 5 minutes after that, the planning hulls would start on the blue flag followed by the multi hulls 5 minutes later on the red flag. The committee boat would start the time with the mutihull start with the timer set at 15 minutes and add 10 minutes to finishing time of the displacement hulls, and 5 minutes to the times of the planing hulls.

Displacement hulls would finish competitively with other boats, and the committee boat would save up to 10 minutes of "wait" time for all the boats to finish. I would like to try the start at the next race on a trial basis. Please call me at 843-0622 for comments or concerns. I will be in contact with next week’s committee boat people.

Special thanks to Doug Kell Jr. for the great work on our web site where all race results are now available. Also, please e-mail Doug so that we may save your e-mail address for personal communication.

Have a Great Week,

Mike

Tip of the week. Always be prepared to tack. In dinghy racing there is no place or time for the traditional "ready about, hard a lee" or on any racing boat under 40 feet. The crew should always be ready and should respond instantly to the command, "tacking". The exception is if the crew is out on a trapeze. Does anyone on Lucerne even dare to try one?