Jr. Waterhouse

[BobJ]

SSS's web guy, Matt B, needed a day out after lots of work on his own boat. He got to drive Rags a bunch on Saturday, including through a trimmer-induced broach and general fall-der-all.

I apologize in advance for the music - Rx says I should have used "Wipeout!" for the second clip:

Rags on YouTube

[BobJ]

I'm glad it got worked out.

Things are tight in our SHS division, with two points separating the top five boats:

OYRA Standings

[Andy Newell]

One boat was 'iffy' on the inspection but did pass the letter of the MEL so Nick and I conferred and gave him a pass.

Thanks to Nick and the other inspectors over the year so far. Each time we learn something new and hopefully we can get our act 100% together soon.

[BobJ]

Thanks for the explanation Andy, and for the quick results. If one or more boats didn't pass inspection it's not reflected in the results. Nick implied that too, so I wondered.

[Andy Newell]

Ahi was the first boat to receive a pre-race inspection and we were called for a post race inspection after Farallones.

I was under the impression Phil was keeping and distributing the spreadsheet. I added a tab for him with post race inspections passed but I have not seen a copy since before Farallones (the last race with inspections). My apologies that I did not realize that Moonshine passed their inspection after the Farallones. I got an email with the inspection results so I have no excuse, I can only offer an apology. I will keep a spreadsheet myself and make sure inspectors get it for future races.

I agree that one inspection per year should suffice. The original idea was that if you wanted to avoid a post race spot inspection you could do a pre-race full inspection and greatly reduce the chances. I think once you have passed a post race inspection there is very little value in checking the same really basic 5 things again.

As you can probably tell we are figuring this out as we go along. On Lightship we gave everybody a warning, even boats that failed to come in for inspection and boats bitched that we were being too lenient. On Farallones one boat took a 20% scoring penalty for missing gear and another was asked to retire in lieu of DSQ for missing the call to come in.

Now a couple of boats have been double-tagged and that is not right either.

I would actually rather we only offered pre-race inspections, make them mandatory, and skip the post race inspections, but in an effort to make it flexible for the racers we left the choice up to you. Now we need to get accurate information to the inspectors because inspecting some boats multiple times while never inspecting others is a really poor use of very limited resources. The goal is to get at least a quick look at as many boats as possible.

Perhaps we have reached a point of diminishing returns on the post race inspections. Once we can say we did two races in a row with nobody failing an equipment inspection you will have a better chance of convincing me.

[BobJ]

That doesn't seem right. OYRA should update Phil's spreadsheet and give a copy to the R/C's.

I'll inspect Moonshine (I'm at RYC) if that will get them onto Phil's spreadsheet. Your call Dylan - I promise no inter-division bias!

[Nick Salvador]

Maggie has been tagged 3x.

[BobJ]

Twice for Rags - once after a race and once by request (which while not guaranteed, should hopefully end the surprise ones).

It really sucks when you're single-handed.

[Nick Salvador]

The answer to your last question is yes. Ahi has been snagged a couple of times.

BTW, I made a mistake on Saturday asking for ISAF approved tethers. They only needed quick releases and every tether that I saw was equipped with one. So, no one failed inspections due to tethers. My apologies for the mistake.

Have we hit the point of diminishing returns? Perhaps.

Lastly...for everyone: the serial number sticker that comes with your EPIRB or PLB is NOT your NOAA registration sticker. So everyone check out your PLB then dig around in your unopened mail for a letter from NOAA for your COSPAS/SARSAT registration sticker. It will have an expiration date on it, a 15 char. A/N code, and the name of the vessel to which it is registered. It's the only way for OYRA to know that you've registered your beacon, that the registration is up to date, and that NOAA and the coasties know whom to look for while you're dog paddling with the men in grey suits.

[dylan]

OYRA Inspection Harassment

Have any other OYRA racers been inspected multiple times this season?

Moonshine has been called in twice and passed both times.

Andy-Please stop asking the race committee to inspect moonshine.

Have all OYRA boats been inspected? Has Ahi been inspected?

-Dylan

[BobJ]

Here you go Pat:

Results!

[Wylieguy]

So, When Do We Find Out How Badly We Did?

"NANCY" got a good start and everything remained good until the wind dropped below 10 knots about the first set of buoys, then we went way too far north. From there on it was try to catch up and fall farther behind. Just a question" Why is PB to Starboard a mark on Course #2, but not others? Curious about how badly we did. Pat

[Andy Newell]

Ahi had a long but delightful race.

We started with the #3, got a decent start and played the middle to take advantage of the dying ebb. A little past Bonita things started to drop below the teens and we changed to the #1 and had a very pleasant sail. We were one of the higher rated boats in our division but the first boat to the first two marks. It was a nice mellow headstay reach from the So Approach buoy up to the light bucket and we had fun playing with Maggie, one of our faster competitors who finally passed us on the leg.

Things were pretty mellow all the way back to Bonita but we expected much heavier winds on the bay as usual. A check of some observations and the sight of kite boarders had us doing a peel from our fragile old 3/4 to a 1.5 shy kite. We were trying to decide whether to go through Raccoon Strait or go around Blunt and we got sort of pinned south by an outbound ship. Maggie took the direct route through Raccoon but we knew Green Buffalo who kills us down wind was still behind and would likely go to Blunt. We were afraid of going through Raccoon and sitting in a hole while the Buffalo stampeded by the other way so around Blunt we went. The wind just kept increasing and we were surging along at 10-11. I like my new rudder! I am a pretty conservative guy and we knew we were in a good spot in the race so we doused the kite when the wind crept to the upper 20's. We did a couple of wild bald headed gybes (blew out the main sheet cleat) to get past blunt and over to the east side, but there was no wind shadow behind Angel to worry about. After the second gybe we hoisted a reacher, a few minutes later we put the shy kite back up, and a few minutes after that we peeled back to the 3/4. My bow guy got his sail-change card punched many times for this race!

We spotted Maggie still in front as we approached RYC and it looked like they gained a little. I guess the hole in Raccoon was not there, and our spending some time bald headed did not help, although we hit 11.3 bald headed near Blunt. We managed to carry all the way to the finish line, drop the kite, gybe around the pin for home and hand me a much delayed beer!

I got an email from Jim on Green Buffalo earlier today. They did round Blunt, broached and rounded down in the process (no damage) and even with the extra curricular activity they gained on boats near them that went through Raccoon, so the mystery remains.

Four weeks from now we have a race around some approach buoys, provided they are still there...

[Nick Salvador]

All I'll say at this time is this: Be glad that I was there.

[BobJ]

We finished right after RacerX (at about 1616) but neither of us came close to touching Zsa Zsa this race - wow.

I had Matt Beall, SSS's webguy, along for the race since the alternative for him was to spend another day grinding out hull damage on TINKER. Matt doesn't know where all the spaghetti goes on my boat so he drove a lot instead - he didn't seem to mind! He did a nice job getting used to those weird asymmetric kites, sailing angles, etc. Now he wants a J/80.

The R/C changed things up, this time signalling a shorter course just for the shorthanded division, instead of for all fleets after the big boats. That meant the slower crewed boats were also sailing the long course down to the southern approach buoy, which made it a long day for them.

After our start and on the way to the bridge, the only evidence we saw of the Looie Vooie thing was a Coast Guard rib stationed near the West end of the racing area. By the time we came back through around 1500, all the toys were put away and only a couple large charter boats were still out.

More on the actual race in a bit - the coffee's ready. Nick, I saw you walking the dock doing your job yesterday afternoon. Thanks again - I was just yanking your chain a bit above, due to past exchanges we've had and how fun all this equipment stuff is.