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The Wayfarer
Midwinters of 2005 |
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Marc and Al choose the
right-hand mark of the gate this time, as do
... |
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... Peter and Frank, and ...
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... Richard and Michele, who
are doing much better this time around, lying a ... |
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... close 3rd to Al and
Peter. |
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Both
Peter and the Flying Scot in the distance have a
lift that Al does not have. On the much larger Lake
Ontario, this kind of split in the wind would call
for Al to take a short jog on port and then tack
again when he hits the different wind Peter is in,
but in these fairly regular oscillations, Al will
opt to hold starboard a while longer since the left
side of the beat is largely empty of Scots, and
since the left side may have more wind. Anyway, none
of these oscillations last very long, so Peter is
(almost!!!) sure to get knocked fairly
soon. ... |
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4th-place Nick (864) is about
to round just ahead of Ed (6751) and Robert. |
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It continues to be a ... |
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... close race. Aha! Peter is
now knocked and the two lone Scots on the horizon
seem to indicate that a starboard knock is
approaching. Al will look for this and be ready to
tack and "dig back in" towards the middle of the
course. |
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If he
wanted to be strategically really safe, Al could
throw in a couple of tacks here - something he might
well do in steadier, big-lake winds - to put himself
between his nearest pursuer(s) and the next mark,
but he won't do that here until/unless he gets
nervous about being too far out to one side of the
rhumbline. ... |
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The "parade" continues as ... |
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... Robert prepares to round. |
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With
both Marc and Al just dying for that starboard knock
to come through, they (3854) were very quick to tack
at the first sign of it. Furthermore, the port-tack
Scot appears to be headed which means Al should soon
get headed and be able to cover the nearest pursuers
while on a lift - the best of both worlds! ... |
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Mike (2959) leads the next
group ... |
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... towards the gate. |
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After
doing so well early in the first beat, Gale (4106)
has dropped back to near mid-fleet. Al (r)
meanwhile, continues to sail "his own race" although
he and Marc continue to monitor and discuss the
situation at all times. If all the nearest pursuers
continue to go hard left, Al will soon tack to go
with them in order to place himself more or less
between the opponents and the next mark. ... |
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Ah! Some of them are tacking
- no need to do anything just yet. |
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A nice rounding for Patricia
and Mike who now switch places again. Wait! |
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Jim Lingeman, now with crew,
Mike Tighe, is ... |
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... the next to round - an
earlier gybe would have made for a less complicated
and more easily controlled rounding though. |
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Wow!
Look at the lift that Al has now! This will not
be good news for the guys in the left corner!
Meanwhile, Jim and Mike have rounded onto their beat
but will not point with the best as long as their
main leech falls off to leeward like this. Since
they are sheeted in almost block to block, Jim
should shorten his bridle to give himself the
ability to put more downpull on his leech without
having to resort to the vang. ... |
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Here,
Bob Frick and Ted Benedict are about to leave the
right-hand gate mark to starboard. Because the boats
are "about to round", rule 18 (buoy room) applies:
Ted, on starboard tack, remains the right-of-way
boat, but rule 18 places a limit on what he can do
insofar as Ted cannot cut Bob off from rounding the
mark. Ted must give an inside overlapped boat or one
clear ahead at the two-length zone, room to round
the mark in a seamanlike manner. ... |
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It
turns out not to matter as Bob is clearly a couple
of lengths ahead and out of Ted's way. But Bob, too,
has left it later than necessary to gybe and will
now have to really scramble to gybe, round and sheet
in as he tries for a good rounding that does not
give too much distance away. ... |
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Ted and Donna are lined up
nicely for a smooth rounding, and they are on
starboard tack already, which helps. |
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Alas, only the crew has
responded as required while Ted is still trying to
find the mainsheet??? |
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Ah! That's better! If you
don't count the rookie error of strapping the jib in
a death grip. |
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Dave Hepting comes along,
looking well trimmed. |
...
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2005
W
Midwinters |