1. Jim went over the rule book and pointed out the rules dealing with actual racing in a boat is basically two pages. (Back when I saw Dave Perry give a seminar about the rules, he took these two pages and broke it down to FOUR BASIC RULES) a. Port Vs. Starboard b. Windward vs. Leeward (boats on same tack and overlapped) c. Clear Ahead vs. Astern (boats on same tack NOT overlapped) d. Boats while tacking (keep away from boats not tacking) everything else is related to these four basic rules. TAKE HOME: Just sail and race, if you do not know the four rules, some one will let you know soon enough!

2. Smaller Boats can make moves closer to other small boats… the larger the boats, the more room PERCEIVED you must give… what I mean by this is a JY15 fleet race may have some contact and a simple “protest” will do. But two 40 footers converging with steering wheels that COST as much as a JY15 shouldn’t try to lee bow within inches of each other… contact is more expensive in bigger boats.  People sailing bigger boats think you may hit them earlier, adjust or you may find yourself in a Protest for not giving enough room.

3. You don’t need to use rules, if you keep away from everyone… three ways to do this: a. start behind everyone b. sail far away from the fleet c. be really fast off the line, extend your lead, and keep extending your lead…. speed kills. option c wins many races and stays away from rules incidents.

4. The more you race, the more you learn, the more you get comfortable in situations, the more you can ANTICIPATE how a situation will turn out. You then can make easier decisions, and stay out of trouble and raise your level of sailing.

5. If you think you are right, don’t be afraid to stand your ground, say the word “Protest” and fly a red flag if necessary (boats longer than 6m). Need a flag and don’t have one? Jim was unprepared one regatta when a boat fouled him and he hit a mark because of it… he had to do a 360 turn because he hit a mark, and couldn’t protest the other boat since he didn’t have a flag.

6. If you sail monohull on the same course as a multihull, just stay away… just stay away…

7. Listen to the questions and comments from the audience… you will find your starting neighbors, and also you will tell who not to get involved with. Sun Tzu said, “Every battle is won before it is even fought.”

8. When in a bar, it is helpful to practice playing with objects and pretend they are boats, marks and wind direction.  This will help when Jim asks you in a protest, “with this fork and this knife show me where you two boats were.”  If you say, “I was on starboard within a boat length of hitting her.”  MAKE SURE the TINES of the FORK are pointing at the Knife and its within one utensil length from each other (not across the table, because it will look like the knife gave you plenty of room.)

9. Even if you have right of way, don’t be that guy who yells STARBOARD STARBOARD, when you can’t even cross the start line ON STARBOARD, and the pin is highly favored.  Ok Jim, didn’t say this, but he did say, sometimes its better to give up your right of way so you can keep sailing in clear air to get to where you are going more quickly.  In other words, don’t mess with one boat while the rest of the fleet is sailing faster…

10.  The big point is to sail fair and have fun.  If you broke a rule, do your penalty and sail on.  If someone fouled you, Protest them properly, and sail on…  if you decide to not follow through, that is your option.  However if you do not Protest properly, don’t cry that so and so fouled you and messed up your race.  The rules are there so we can sail, not hit people, keep us safe and have fun.  :)

1. RULES
a. This series will be governed by the rules as defined in the current Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS), US Sunfish Class Association and these sailing Instructions.
b. Boats shall be able to be identified by numbers, letters or unique markings on its sail.
c. A non-class legal sail may be used. Protests will not be allowed for this rule alteration. This changes the Class rules of having class legal equipment.
2. ENTRIES
a. Competitors: May be Non Members or guests, trophies will be awarded only to Wet Pants Members in good standing, with dues paid according to membership application.
b. Non-members and guests will be scored together with members, but not be eligible for trophies.
c. There will be three divisions: OPEN, ‘B’ Fleet and Wet Pants Student Fleet. Sailors may choose only one fleet to compete in. If no fleet is chosen, sailor will be scored in the open division. If a ‘B’ fleet or WP Student fleet fails to form, they will be combined into the ‘B’ fleet. A minimum of Three QUALIFIED boats are needed form a fleet, if no fleet is formed they will be scored in open division.
3. NOTICES TO COMPETITORS- will be posted on outside bulletin board on South facing side of WP Building.

4. CHANGES TO SAILING INSTRUCTIONS- Any changes in Sailing Instructions will be posted before 5pm on the day it will take effect.

5. SCHEDULE OF RACES: (tuesdays) NOTE: there may be some extra sailing on other days, please refer to Notice board or email
Spring Series: May Tuesdays practice racing- June 5,12,19,26
JULY SERIES: July 3,10,17,24, 2012
Ma Huus: July 31, 2012
August Series: August 7,14,21,28, 2012

b. The number of races will be determined by the Race Committee, start of first race is 6:00pm. Subsequent races will be held as soon as possible after the end of the previous race.

6. RACING AREA- will be south of Wet Pants Club House on Great South Bay.

7. CHECK IN- Sailors must check in to race committee by passing committee boat and hailing prior to their first race.

8. COURSES- To be determined by Race Committee and hailed before each race. Any Questions regarding course please ask them before sequence is started.

9. MARKS- To be determined by Race Committee.

10. THE START- Starting line will be between Race Committee Person (May be on Boat or on Dock) and designated Mark or pin to be determined by Race Committee.
b. Boats may not start more than five (5) minutes after the starting signal.
c. Sequence will be the “Dinghy Start “3-minutes” Audible” Sequence.
d. All fleets will start at the same time and on the same starting line.

11. RECALLS- The race Committee intends to hail the recall or sail numbers of On Course Side (OCS) boats after the starting signal. The failure of any boat to hear the hail, an untimely hail of OCS boats, failure to hail boats and the order of the boats in the hail shall not be grounds for granting redress. This changes rules 41 and 62.1.

12- THE FINISH- will be between the race committee and a mark/pin designated by the race committee.

13- PENALTY SYSTEM- A boat that may have broken a rule of PART 2 of the RRS while racing may take a penalty at the time of incident. Her penalty shall be a “One Turn” penalty that includes- getting clear of other boats as soon as possible, promptly making your penalty turn by making one turn which includes one tack and one jibe in the same direction. However, if she caused injury or serious damage, or gained a significant advantage, her penalty shall be to retire. This changes rules 44.1 and 44.2.

14- TIME LIMIT/COURES CHANGES- to be determined by Race Committee.
b. If boats in or near last place in a race are unduly delaying the start of another race, the race committee may terminate the race and score those boats in the place they would have finished based on their position at the time the race is terminated. RC may shorten/change course by hail (no flags/sound signals needed) if necessary.

15 PROTESTS AND REDRESS- A boat that is intending to protest about an incident in the racing area shall notify the race committee of their intention, including the sail number of the boat(s) being protested. This changes RRS 61.1(a).
b. Protests shall be in writing, and delivered to the race committee within thirty minutes after the race committee boat docks, or 9pm that evening which ever is sooner.
c. Protests may be heard after the next General Meeting.

16- SCORING- The Low Point Scoring System, Appendix A will apply, modified so that each sailor’s score will be the total of his/her race scores with his/her worst score(s) for every five (5) races are completed. SPRING: A Minimum of Five Boats sailing the day in order to score the day. Other Activities may be determined for Spring Series, ie Team Racing, Training, etc these will not count towards series.
b. A Sailor that DNS every race for one day will be scored as the most # of Boats that came to the racing area in one day of the series + 1. (Note: this is not the same as boats finishing or boats starting) However, if a sailor started in a race but missed a race that day, a DNS will be # of boats started that race + 1. A DNF will be scored as number of starters + 1.
c. If identifiable, the sailor shall be scored, even if different sail numbers are used. It will be the responsibility of the sailor to let race committee and chair know this may be the case. A substitute skipper may not be used.
d. To QUALIFY for prizes you must sail 50% of the DAYS raced and be a WP member in good standing. A fleet (Open, B and WP Student) must have three different qualified sailors to be scored as a fleet.
e. Sunfish Tune up, if designated by fleet captain, will not count towards any series scoring.
f. Race Committee- Duty- In order to get scored for season trophies, all racers (or their representative) will volunteer for at least one RC Duty on Tuesday, Thursday, Tea Cup Race or other race day approved by the fleet captain. The RC duty day will get scored the average of their scores for that series. There will be a maximum of five RC scores counted towards the series, after five RC raced they then will be scored as a DNS. RACE COMMITTEE CHAIR may assign RC duty to sailors.
g. MA HUUS- A separate series of THREE Races, held on July 31, 2012. Each sailor will sail in one fleet. Only the first three races will be scored towards the Perpetual Ma Huus Trophy. There are no throw outs. The Ma Huus trophy will be awarded to the top finishing Wet Pants member. Any races sailed after the first three will count towards the august series. One race will constitute the series.

17- SAFETY- All competitors shall wear, while on the water, other than brief periods while adding or removing clothing, a US Coast Guard approved PFD.
b. A boat retiring from a race shall notify a race committee vessel before leaving the course, or if impossible, some race committee representative after arrival on shore.

18- PRIZES-AWARDS will be awarded to the top finishers in each fleet at the Annual Mess for each series. The number of awards will be determined by the Race Committee Chair or Executive Committee.

UPDATED: 5-4-12

one thing was, to call starboard on us, when they were on the wrong tack, so we had to do a huge duck, instead of going straight… (we eventually passed them on our next meeting, because we stayed on the lifted tack.)

then next one was, lets pinch them out because they are going faster than us… well that’s because we were sailing with our BOW DOWN and straight, the other boat was looking behind and seeing us, they decided to pinch to the point I saw their jib luffing for seconds… no wonder they were going slow… to get their speed back up they had to continuously fall off, then pinch off… C’MON! if they would have just put the BOW DOWN, they would have held their lane… instead we both slowed down…

next was the “tack every time you get the header” boat… well in conditions where it is puffy up to 15 mph in a river, some of those headers, are not wind direction shifts, but velocity headers… when we were going well, we would tack maybe three times up wind… the rest of the time was eating the slow lull until the next puff came… tacking a lot makes a squiggly trail…

After years of sailing and years of getting critiqued by Jim Ryan and other more experienced sailors , it finally has hit me what Erich and countless other crews and I were doing wrong… doing all those maneuvers and sailing squiggly lines… squiggly lines are slow, back half of the fleet slow… Now I have a consistent crew and years of knowledge to pass on and discuss as we sail together… it’s usually faster to sail straight lines.

pinching another boat out when you are in the back of the fleet makes both of you slower and you both will slide more back into the fleet… tacking too many times, will make you further back again… have a grudge against a boat, or want to sit on a boat, just because? you will fall even further back…. sail your own race, sail straight lines… do this and you will raise up the fleet.

If you are further from the windward mark, may cross, then a lee bow may be a great weapon…  but it depends…  if you duck as a port tacker, this means you wanted to go right-  maybe there is better wind?    you will the get the other boat when you converge again, but you will have starboard.

If you see better wind to the left, then a lee bow that sticks is the best…  the starboard boat that gets gassed by a good lee bow will have to tack away or fall behind from your great lee bow… and the fall behind, but if they tack away, they should be going away from the better wind you saw to the left…   If you see better wind to the right, and can cross, cross…  however make sure you can, or you may get protested…

Another option:  if you think it will be very close to cross and want to cross, yell to the other boat, “Tack or cross”…  this give her a decision to make…  you are saying, “Im going to leebow your ass, and make you tack away…  or you can let me cross so i can go where i want to WITHOUT having to duck you…”   you should say this in close crossing situations when you can go left or right…  NOW if they DONT SAY ANYTHING, you must keep clear as  a port tacker…  then you have to make a decision…  it would help if you told your crew ahead of time what you will do…

If you are on Starboard in a crossing situation, you have a bit more power…  Stay in your lane where you feel you can gain on your opponents.  keep in mind being on the RIGHT of another boat, if everything else is equal, is better, since you will have starboard advantage…

all these calculations need to be ANTICIPATED, and help from YOUR CREW by telling the skipper of possible crossing situations, EARLY, will help to get you to the next level.

Going down wind we wanted to stay on the headed Jibe, and keep our air clear…  at this point if were ahead, we wanted to stay in front if any boats, and keep ourselves positioned between the mark and them…  some times we got off the rhumb line (straight line to the mark) in order to position ourselves where we felt where the wind was coming from…  (which was predominantly left , facing down wind…  )   this also helped us keep to the inside as we all converged on the leeward mark….

as we rounded the bottom mark if we had another leg, the fleet spread out enough to go into ” fleet management” mode…  which means continue to stay in between the fleet and next mark…   if we were in front, we tried to sail our own race, keep in phase on the lifted tack and find the most velocity…  we didn’t let the fleet dictate our sailing so much as we just kept an eye on them to monitor our progress…

a few mistakes were made and we lost Dan Cameron twice at the finish line by what was not more than 6-12 inches…  once we were in 2nd and Dan was in third, both of us followed Kevin Brink around the leeward mark to the finish, the boat was favored…  and it was a very short beat to the line…   Dan round behind us, and quickly tacked, we did not go with him  and instead followed Kevin…  we lsot 2nd because of that…   we were not going to pass Kevin in that short of time, we should have covered and accepted second and made sure we beat Dan.

the other time, we rounded inside and a head, but went with Dan when he tacked away…  the problem was my rounding…  I pinched too much after the rounding….  when we tacked he was leeward to us, and eventually was able to pinch us out…    we lost to him that race by about 5 inches…

Now there is lots more Stages of a race in the first beat, but after the first rounding, it becomes less of a race against everyone, and more of a race against the few boats around you….   if we find our selves in the back or mid fleet, we try to keep calm and look for wind, trying to stay on the lifted tack…  we also try not to tack too many times…  this is slow…  I sometimes say out loud…  ”lets be calm”, to remind myself I don’t sail well when I’m stressed….

So a sailboat race can be broken down in to different stages.  try to do your best at each stage.  If it does not go as you plan, you are then racing against the boats around you…  don’t give up, just realize you may have to take it one boat at a time…  if you find yourself in front or close to it…  stay in the oct wind and then Manage the fleet make it hard for them to pass you….

Well the first race was relatively long. I believe we won the start, and half way through the first beat, we dropped to about 5th and was going backwards in a lull… however we managed to round in the top four, and then we hugged the Snapper Inn side of the course… we bought more boats…. but lost a lot going down wind, we hugged the shore side a bit too much, we just were in less wind and lost lots of boats… we then wounded the bottom mark in about 10th… however, we decided to stick to our guns, we saw there was the flag moving off the Snapper and hugged the shore so much we sailed thought the pylons in the marina…. we lost more ground to a pack of boats who went with a puff that took them to the middle of the river… however we eventually go the first wind off the shore and road that all the way to 2nd to the last mark… the pack that caught us eventually got into a lull and were getting in each others way…. we then split tacks/sides with the leading boat, we went left to the pin while then went for the boat… left was closer to the shore… it was a panic as the whole fleet caught us while we sailed into another lull, but we managed to catch a small puff and finished second to a North Shore Sailor who came from behind…

The bottom line was to look at the situation and sometimes change your thinking, but sometimes you should make a plan and stick to your initial gut feelings… if you say the shore is the place to go, and you have evidence that the wind is best there most of the time, well put yourself there, and live with your decisions…. This is especially true when the sailing goes light and you are sailing in light lake conditions…. do go chasing a puff across the river in no wind, because when you get there it probably will be gone….

If you feel that you need to be on one side and find yourself not there, when you do get good breeze, use it to get to where you wanted to be….

We thought: be patient, don’t panic and “Keep the wind ON US”

The fundamental reason for this is to SAVE money for anyone who wants to have a newer sail to compete with. This will not be allowed at any Sunfish Class Sanctioned event, which require class approved North Brand Sails… (or any older class approved sails). This can save hundreds of dollars for anyone who choses to buy these practice sails…

I hope this encourages the beginning and average sailor to sail more and to race more. For our Tuesday night series, it is more important to sail as much as you can and manage the fleet, rather than the sail… so a good sailor will win unless his/her sail is like a blanket…

A new North Racing sail is about $450, while a new practice sail is about 130… use the difference to buy a new daggerboard or a dolly….

It was a fresh and yet very sailable day today on Hempstead Harbor. Sea Cliff Yacht Club Sunfish Fleet 517 got the winter series season started with the Ice Cube Regatta. There were NW winds of 10-15, mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 40’s.

Race Committee persons Carol Hoeber and Past Commodore John Dawson did their usual great job of keeping the racing going but the steep northwesterly waves along with the 5 leg races proved challenging for the fleet. Doug Wefer and Rob Ehrlich showed the groove as they consistently finished in the top of the fleet and finished first and second. Richard Smith sailed a nice regatta with 18 points to finish third. Following Richard was new fleet member Arthur Leitz, Harry Ehrlich, David Lawson, Jon Darling and Past Commodore Jim Carballal. Nina Ring and Carlo Zaskorski get credit for making the effort to rig but didn’t sail.

Bridget from LI Sail (www.lisail.com) helped Chris support the course and a nice afternoon of food and drink was had after sailing in the Regatta. Many thanks to the Dinghy Shop (www.dinghyshop.com) for providing some calendars for trophies and to Jim Aikman for designing our new fleet t-shirts.

See you all next Sunday. Regatta time – 1 PM start. – Doug, John & David

Full results available at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuoxPwXQUjpWdE9WY2FUejh5S1BUNFF1LW9MakRaQWc&authkey=CPfT610

Ice Cube Regatta, Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sailor                    Sail         1              2              3              4              5              Total

1              Doug Wefer       62037    1              1              1              2              1              6

2              Rob Ehrlich         4040       2              2              2              1              2              9

3              Richard Smith    80976    3              3              5              3              4              18

4              Art Leitz               60008    5              5              4              4              3              21

5              Harry Ehrlich      3604       4              4              3              DNS       5              24

6              David Lawson    28           7              7              7              5              6              32

7              Jon Darling         3130       6              6              6              7              DNF       33

8              Jim Carballal      6              8              8              8              6              DNS       38

9              Nina Ring            75297    DNS       DNS       DNS       DNS       DNS

9              Carlo Zaskorski 3455       DNS       DNS       DNS       DNS       DNS

Did one notice that the sun is staying out longer? this occurs right after the first day of winter, the shortest daylight day of the year… The regular football season has only one more week… why am I saying all this? it’s because before we know it it will be 2012 and we should all be thinking about warmer and longer days ahead…

enjoy the weather as it is may it be brisk or warm, sunny or cloudy… for each different condition brings out different situations that we can take advantage of and enjoy…. happy holidays!

Like in all series and multiple racing in a day, consistency and avoiding the big scores will jump you to the top of the fleet… The Snapper Inn fleet schedules seven races into the course of about two and a half hours… this makes the races about 15 minutes long each…. however in those 15 minutes, leads can change multiple times… it is not enough to just get out there first and people will follow you to victory…
The sailors are very good, and some are just learning the nuances in the river, but most of the time no one gives up… also because of the tightness of the fleet, you may be in a bunch from 3rd to 10th and one mark rounding can jump you 6 or more spots…. Because of this one can never give up until you finish… There has been dozens of times throughout the years that I have lost boats in the last couple of yards!
So as I sit here just blah blah blahing… i will write what I feel has helped me… I do not think I am an expert especially in this fleet but I am experienced…

In no particular order: a. The start is important, but not as much as the summer.

B. Because the wind is much shiftier and puffier, this will help you to gain or lose boats, especially if you get a less than perfect start

c. The crew needs to be active (physically and mentally)— Ryan Messina and I are in our fourth year I think together and this year he can call all the wind, puffs, lulls, boats, marks, relative positions (higher or lower), not to mention he trims the jib, works the centerboard, hikes and moves around in the boat to keep it flat, or when sailing down wind, we sail in “sunfish mode”-  hiked to windward…  as crew try to communicate the wind to the skipper it helps…  unless the skipper doesn’t want to hear it…

d. brush up on your rules, because if you don’t know them, someone else may THINK they know them….  sailing in the company of 5 or 6 boats within inches of each other rounding marks can be intimidating, or it can be really fun….   by knowing if you are right, it is more fun…   if you don’t know, don’t hit a boat…   then ask other sailors in the Bar to clarify…  tis is how we all learn…

e.  it may be cold, so dress appropriately… they call it frostbiting for a reason.  but if you dress well, in light layers, it can be really comfy.   But also the temps usually are not very cold…

f.  Sail in the lifts and tack on the Headers, unless its a velocity header…  this is a very important skill to gain…  recognizing whether the header pushes you away from the mark (then you want to tack) vs a lull after sailing in a puff that then backwinds your jib, making it LOOK like you are getting headed…  this is where the crew can help and call lulls….   when you hit a lull be patient and sail for the next puff, not necessarily tacking

g. for the Sunfish Sailors, it is easy to sail by the lee…  in a JY15, with swept back spreaders, the main sail cannot go perpendicular to the centerline, so it is not fast to sail by the lee….   so it is usually better to jibe.

h.  Sail with tell tails or mast head wind indicator…  this will help see shifts especially going down wind…  the wind is more shift than in The Great South Bay in the summer, so a few jibes in the winter may be the norm…

I.  keep your hull dry…  if you forget to drain the hull if it leaks, then you can get freezing which may crash the boat…   that being said, don’t forget to put your plugs in…  Jim Ryan probably would have won the day had he not have to drain his boat, which was sinkng oh so slowly…  after he did he promptly did a horizon job with another boat. Rick Latorre finished first and Jim finished second.

j.  keep hydrated.  i don’t know how people can drink beer, as I get so dehydrated compared to the summer…

k.  finding the favored end of the line in light and puffy air if more about where the wind is and is coming from, rather than which end is closer to the mark…  (In my opinion)  head for more wind.  the starting line is short, having more wind at the start is, in my opinion, more beneficially to being more upwind.  If there is more wind and the end which is more Upwind, then you need to be there…

j.  you may need more conviction in the winter…  making calls to sail away from the fleet is sometimes needed, to get in more advantageous conditions…  however, sometimes you may find yourself making a bad call and finding yourself in the  back of the fleet…  oh well, learn from it, and why it didn’t work…

k.  sometimes the middle is the worst place to be…  but not always…   the winter makes this more evident.

l. after sailing make sure your blades, sails and sheets are not in the bottom of the boat…  if rain get in you cockpit and freezes, your supple mainsheet may turn into a frozen blob of spaghetti.

m.  for the Sunfish sailors you usually do not have crew to get frustrated with or at…  but to succeed your crew needs to be in sync with you…  try to have fun…  I have crewed with lots of people from Kaitlin Abrams, Tracey H, Felicity Ryan, Dan and Erich Hesse, Chris Johnson, Eileen Korinek, and now Ryan Messina…   the common thread I tried to have with these crews is to have fun…  and learn from each other…  I have gotten frustrated in the boat, and try not to direct it at the crew…   I know without all the experiences with all these different crew our results would not get better over time…  even with the challenge of sailing with crew, it’s SO much more fun to do well with a team mate.   Ryan and I pat each other and encourage each other…  sometimes Ryan looks at the positive when I lose a boat in the last few yards…

n.  Having crew vs just sailing solo, is a challenge…  learning to trim the sails correctly, how to not capsize, how to roll tack properly…  my one suggestion:  you have to work on roll tacks…  because if you tack into another header, you might as well look good doing it  ;)

Well this blog entry is too long…  i hope someone learns from it…  it took me about 7 years to learn this…   we sail at Snapper Inn in Oakdale on sundays starting at 12noon…   you may see WPSA members sailing or helping out, like Bill Zambriski and Jim Johnson running races.  Its a nice site to see while on the lawn or you can get brunch…   the fleet schedule and other information is on the website  www.snapperinnfrostbitefleet.com