M Squared

It's game on with the Americas Cup. The regatta is all tied up at 2-2 which Tillerman points out has only happened once in the last seventy years. That would indicate the 32nd Americas Cup regatta is about as exciting as it gets. In fact, the third race was about as exciting as it gets. According to Scuttleblog , "The third race of the 32nd America’s Cup proved one thing – a yacht race television show can be riveting. Tight start, huge leads, major splits, 3 passes, a horrid leeward mark rounding – all in minimum winds - and a final winner that wasn’t known until mere boat lengths from the finish. This race set many records..." Or if you're a gambler, you can relate to the view on SailJuice that sailboat racing is sometimes a crap shoot... a really exciting crap shoot. So what's up with the anti-AC sentiment? I can understand apathy from people who can't relate to sailing at all or those who are disgusted by all the money poured into an AC campaign by billi...

Except when they're wrong and succumb to pressure and personal bias... Tillerman is at it again with another assignment. Last time, in response to his request for Worst Sailing Mistakes , I posted a story about my Protest Shoe . Overall the response provided many funny stories and a few intense ones. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt (emotionally or physically) in the making of these stories. This time the assignment is Top Race Committee Screw Ups . First and in general, these (for the most part) volunteers to a great job. We couldn't have fun racing without them. The good ones run a race or regatta in such a way you hardly know they're there. On the other hand... they do occasionally make mistakes. In a regatta on our local lake, we were racing on Sunday. IIRC, the points were quite close. We were setting up for what was likely the final race of the regatta. The committee put up the course label and the sequence was rolling. We made sure we new the course, studie...

Emerald Cup was a lot of fun this year. Several boats sailed really well and showed great improvement . Eve won a race and nearly trophied (which would have terminated Adam's novice skipper status!). Summerwind had a couple really good races. Pizzazz finished 3rd in the first race on Sunday. Way to go girls! Guano Girl finished 2nd in a race on Saturday and 3rd in the last race on Sunday (which was significant...). One Eyed Jack had a great regatta with three bullets and some other low numbers. Race two on Saturday was their worst finish. They tossed out a six. That race was also our worst... We were over early and tossed a four. Going into the last race we had seven points to One Eyed Jack's five (not counting the eventual toss outs). We needed to put a couple boats between us. It was a long race (triangle, windward, leeward) and things were looking pretty good. We were ahead of One Eyed Jack and it looked like we had the possibility of one boat between us but no guarantee...

There have been a few posts out there in the cyber sailing world about coaching from the sidelines as it were... When kids race solo (or single handed), they're sometimes followed around the course (at various distances...) by a parent. Such support boats shall now be referred to as Mommy Boats . The thoughtful parents follow at a distance. There's no yelling or obnoxious coaching. They're there in case of an emergency (meaning the boat is swamped and the kid has trouble righting the boat type of thing... not a "YOU NEED MORE VANG" emergency ). Not all Mommy Boats are as courteous and thoughtful of others... Imagine all of the little league parents being able to following their son or daughter around the field giving direction and "encouragement". Sometimes it's bad enough when they're relegated to the sidelines. My approach is to be in the same boat... racing together as a team. I'm sure this causes some problems too. There are just so...

Sailing and in particular racing, requires wind. Sometimes there's not enough for racing and you wait... It happens to everyone. Other times there's too much wind. Is that possible or is it a matter of having enough experience to handle the conditions? Are you experienced? Should you have to pass a test or are the conditions you race in the test in and of itself? When we raced in the Columbia Gorge in 2005 , the committee observed our collective ability during some practice racing. They used that information to gauge our ability to handle other conditions during the week and postpone racing as they saw fit. I think they did an excellent job. The wind speed yesterday was still in the upper teens (MPH) in the late afternoon and early evening. That's doable and even fun in a Santana 20 . I'm planning to race my Lido 14 with my son this summer in some weekly club races. Last night was our first opportunity now that school is out and other activities are complete. This ...

The now famous Memorial Day Regatta , first held in 1945 with some 23 boats participating, is now limited to 150 boats with competitors from all over the West Coast. It's fun to be part of such a great regatta at home. There were 21 Santana 20's on the line for a total of six races. The weather was quite nice... on Saturday and weird on Sunday. It was cloudy, cool, and the wind was all over the place making for very unpredictable racing. Even so... we improved our position from second place after day 1 to a one point lead for first going into the last race... Well that was our worst race in terms of our finish. It was also the most frustrating in terms of wind. With that result tossed out, we ended the regatta in second place behind a very strong boat (two former class champions). There's a pretty good story on the S20 class website . Another (less flattering) story made it into the Sunday edition of our local paper. It was funny listening to people (serious racers... ) co...

Photo credit: Sean Trew. Pacific Fog In summarizing our SOCKS Regatta experience , I mentioned " BIG air on Saturday with lots of destruction , many DNC/DNS/DNF and our own spectacular wipe out..." Someone noticed the carnage from their house and started a thread on Sailing Anarchy . There were at least two Holder 20s that got swamped in the same downwind run we were on when we wiped out. We had just rounded the windward mark and our skipper noticed a couple Holders in front of us flying their kites. He basically said, "If Chris can do it, the we can too!" The two Holder skippers used to own Santana 20s and we've raced them before. So we did our set and got things cleaned up and started making gains on the (three) boats in front of us. I don't think any other S20s put up a kite. Well I think we all got hit by a big puff or some of those tanker waves... (or both). At any rate, things went from the ride of the weekend to a flaming broach in no time. I starte...