Here's a compendium of reports on the Kerr racing, Sept 18-19, reposted from the lists.

Saturday:

Joleen Rasmussen (Isotope):

When the winds are gusty, 12-15k, temperatures moderate, crew and wet weather gear aplenty, and of course no lightning.

I don't think I've every enjoyed sailing/racing in the rain as much as today. I for one, was dressed nicely for the conditions. Everyone was wearing a big grin as they returned to the docks, soaked. Well those who went out and sailed anyway...Not sure RC was grinning quite so much - not as much fun getting soaked on a motor boat as it is on a sailboat. Sorry guys & gal. Maybe next time - smile. (yes, horizontal rain under the bimini...pbm)

The Tanzer fleet did a great job with both the social and the RC. We actually had a WD3. I think we need to do more WD3s! Yes, the weather mark could have been positioned further up the lake, but RC wanted be able to see the weather mark. For those times that the weather mark was not visible,sailors used Chobot's large pontoon boat station at the weather mark as a reference point until they got close enough to spot the weather mark.

No, the legs were not exceptionally long. Between the rain, fog, mist, water on the glasses - visibility was often impacted. Sailors got rid of glasses, even the prescription ones.

RC manning the new skiff did a great job getting to capsized boats quickly. I'm thinking I saw two capsizes.....


John Norton (Thistle):

Great day for a sailor at Kerr. It was overcast rainy a foot of fog on the water but the wind blew 10-15. We had five boats with skippers me, Cardoze, Peterson, Kitchen, and Pelosi.

At times the weather mark which was maybe 1/2 mile at most was very hard to see. We had two races (W2) and lots of new crew. There was a constant horizontal mist that some times stung the face. The water felt like bath water and sometimes gave you a blast of warm air. The third race was cancelled to my surprise. RC said they had some pretty strong puffs and wanted to heir on the side of caution. We stayed out a little bit to play in the wind and get some planing in. Me and my brand new crew Joe and Matt were first in the first race and Steve and Craig sailed very fast and smart and won the second race.


Sunday:

Joleen Rasmussen (Isotope):

The sailors mixed it up a bit today. Yesterday, John Kirls (Isotope) submarined a hull with enough force to break one of support straps in the hull. It was a bit too cool this morning for the fiberglass to cure. The lighter approach proved too unsafe, and we didn't have an extension cord long enough for a hairdryer. So, I gave up my crew to John Chaplinsky, Brenda C went on to RC. John K took my boat out, and I crewed with Peter. No Capsizes today!

Yup, the winds were as good a yesterday sans rain. Arch A, PRO, set the weather mark very far to windward, and posted WD3. Hint to crew - yell out strongly the number as you round the leeward mark -ONE-TWO-THREE - up to the weather one more time THEN down to finish. Peter was a better counter than I and Eric messed with our minds by sailing through the finish line and then heading back up to weather. Turns out Eric decided to check with RC and see if they might be interested in shortening the course with the 3rd leedward rounding. Anyway, Peter was pretty sure of his counts and we followed Eric back up to the weather mark. In the second Race, I used the ONE-TWO approach - it worked nicely. On the drive home, I learned that not only did RC decrease the laps by one, they also shortened the leg. Even so, the leg was long, and the Cats banged all the way from the beach on the east side to the cove on the west side to get to the weather mark in one tack, for the most part staying well off the monohull course.

In addition to the great racing, the Tanzers had breakfast for the sailors, using an empty isotope trailor as a serving bar. After racing, Vickie set up a table just beside her RV, and the Tanzers set out munchies and soda.

It was a Great Weekend. Thank you CSC for such a terrific club racing event.

-Joleen
Tanzer 232
Isotope 199


Steve Cardoze (Thistle):

Sunday on Kerr was much better than Saturday - all the wind, but without the rain. Unlike Saturday, visibility was not a problem so the courses had much longer legs, which I really appreciated, particularly downwind. The first race lasted a good hour (WD2). The 2nd race was a simple WD. Wind was about the same strength both days, I think. With the direction at about 30 degrees, I think going upwind the left side off the course had a bit of advantage due to smaller waves, but the shifts were big enough that you ignored them at your peril.

Meg & I were seriously overpowered Saturday, but having 3 on board Sunday made a world of difference. Even with 3, we were all hiking nonstop on the upwind legs, and had to depower quite a bit. Most of the difference was the excellent teamwork by Meg & Craig.

Unless you're Captain Kirk, you missed a great day of sailing on Sunday.

Steve


RC

Many thanks to Steve Chobot for the use of his pontoon boat, which allowed us to have a 3 boats on the course. We should have the old skiff back for the next Kerr event in October, but his boat was a mighty comfortable ride, even if the windage made picking up the marks a challenge. Here's hoping he gets over that nasty cold soon!

The view from the weather mark was interesting, as the Buccs and Thistles mixed it up both days. (The Scots were away at a regatta in Virginia.) Pictures to be posted perhaps tonight, to show the fog/mist, and smiling faces in the rain. On Saturday, we measured a consistent 10-12 knots with gusts to about 14 (gusts to 18 near the end of race 2). The wind was oscillating from about 20 to 45 degrees, or from the left to the right of the island at the north end of the course, every 5 or so minutes. On Sunday, we started out with 10-13 knots, and a few whitecaps, then the wind settled down a bit and we saw a few lulls as low as 6, with a mean of 8-9 for the second race. Although the wind was a bit more northerly on Sunday (about 20 degrees mean), the same oscillation pattern evident on Saturday continued. No rain and a bit warmer temps made Sunday a much more pleasant view at the mark. My sense both days was the the left was slightly favored, based on the distribution of who came up to the mark first.

All in all a great weekend!

--pbm

We had a great time running races this weekend. Saturday was quite frustrating and I made the go / no go to abandon about 3 dozen times in race 2 - but thankfully we had just enough wind to finish. With the help of the 'S' flag (shorten course), we took as much out of the day as possible.

Sunday was fantastic. Readings before the first start were 12 to 16 mph, and by the last finish we were seeing lulls around 8 mph and gusts to 18 mph. The wind started out of 225 degrees and then backed (moved counterclockwise) to 210 degrees halfway through race 3, so we set 'Charlie' (change course) with the port signal but it seems the Thistles rounded both the new windward yellow change mark and also the former windward orange one (already reset for the Isotopes back in sequence for race 4 at the bottom of the course). The Buccs seem to have done that one right and read the SIs.

Anyway, it was fantastic to see the Buccs sailing so well in the breeze. Mike & Bobbie Sigmund (BCN 3687) took line honors on race 4, followed closely by John Chaplinsky & Andy Foreman (BCN 5253), with two Thistles - Kirk Kitchin & Vickie Braxton (TH 3210) and Steve Cardoze & John Ryall (TH 3739) - following closely on their heels.

Speaking of the SIs, they indicate 1130am for Sunday start and everyone (well Jack and Joleen) told me it was 11am up from 1030am. Non issue for the Isotopes, they were all ready at 11am and went off at that time, but we had to wait for Mike S. since he thought we were starting at 1130am as per the posted SIs.

We had some battery trouble on the skiff and had to jump them each morning and once before the last WL2 finish upwind in race 4. So glad to have had the jumper cables on that boat. And we had a leaky mark that was passed on to Steve C. for repair or replacement.

All in all, we had a great time and I had a great group of Lightning sailors on RC - Bob Graves, & Dale Oller on the signal boat, with John Pelosi & Gene Prather setting the marks.

Cheers,

Charlie Hitlin, PRO
CSC Thistle fleet

The Coaching Series is back.

If you are new to racing, have never raced and are interested, or just want to improve your position in the fleet, I will be hosting a series of coaching days at Jordan Lake’s Vista Point starting at 10:30 on Saturday’s before our club's Sunday Jordan Series. There will be a shore school on the various subjects followed by drills and practice on the water.

Here’s the schedule:

June 25th - The Start: signals, methods and rules.

July 23rd - Boat handling: How sail trim and weight placement affect turning boat handling. Roll tacks and jibes, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.

August 6th - Ladder rungs: what they are and why they matter. Sailing the lifted tack and picking a side of the course.

September 10th - Covering: when to do it and when to split. Advanced sail trim and flying the spinnaker.

This is open to everyone, not just Carolina Sailing Club members so please spread the word. We hope to make all sailors better, and to encourage those who don’t race to come on out and give it a try. We encourage those who don't sail to come out and we'll get you out on the water. I encourage you to bring your boat, but if you don’t have one, we’ll have club member boats there for your use.

David Burchfiel
CSC Race Operations

The scores from the 2011 Interclub Challenge are posted. You can see individual results and club results.

To loosely quote Jack Griffin our illustrious Commodore, "You never know what the sailing will be like unless you show up!"
On Sunday he said "This is one of the best winter races we've had all season"

We had four brave captains sail on Sunday. After a postponement on shore from the close of the competitors meeting for an hour the rain all but stopped. The wind was steady from 9 - 12 kts with gusts no higher than 15 out of the south.

Faced with an oscillating wind of about 40 degrees either side of the windward mark, two 505's dueled it out, at times planing upwind and back on the WD course. The 505s were often challenged by a Buccaneer 18 skippered by Jason Tan with crewmate Brittany Moser. And with a captain and two crew, the lone Flying Scot driven by either Jack Griffin or Bill Powell seemed to sail like a luxury yacht.

After three 30 minute races we packed it up and went to the shelter to celebrate our day, two birthdays (Alan B & Brittany M), and to hold a going away party for one of the Buccaneer crew, Brittany. About the time we started eating the gourmet chili (provided by Jason) along with a pot of gumbo (provided by Alan & Pat Backus) the real weather front came through and we were all glad to be on shore and watch the wall of rain and wind come screaming across the lake at 25 - 30 knots.

So if you weren't there you missed a good one.

The last winter race is on the 20th of March - sign up for race committee!

Ray Merrill - PRO 3-6-2011