Home	Race Clinic April 14, 2012 Encinal Yacht Club

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

We had 12 Islanders represented by 22 people for a GREAT Sail trim Clinic at Encinal YC on Saturday, April 14th.

We got lucky after a record setting (for the Bay area) thunderstorm event Thursday night into Friday morning with over 750 lightning strikes recorded. Saturday dawned bright and clear with light winds. Only Califia arrived ("from out of town") on Friday so their crew could dine at a great German restaurant in Alameda to be ready for the Clinic.

So here's the line up of the 5 boats that sailed, and the crews that came aboard:

Commodore Melton kicked off the day with introductions of all present, including some prospective new members, Richard & Peggy Stanton, whose boat is Morning Star, berthed, at the moment, in Antioch in the Delta, but they are planning to move back into the Bay proper.

Dan then introduced our speaker, US Sailing National Judge Tom Allard. We wish every I-36 member could have been there for Tom's presentation. It doesn't matter if you are a racer or cruiser, because Tom related why the rules are designed to make sailing safe and fun -- and (while not getting too far ahead of the story) -- as newbies Richard & Peggy Stanton realized after it all, just learning the basics makes everyone sail their boats safer and faster.

Tom took us right from the beginning. Yes, there are 155 pages in the Racing Rules Of Sailing, but most of us can get the bulk of what we need by just covering pages 3-10. That's where you'll find Rules 1 - 18. Tom's patient approach to the subject pointed out that Rules 1-3 set the tone for all that follow. Rule 1 - is really safety - giving aid to others if you can. Rule 2 - fair play and sportsmanship - that's what it's all about. Rule 3 - (it's a little "extra" for those crazy racers), when you sign up for a race, you've entered into a contract to abide by the Racing Rules Of Sailing.

Almost incidentally, as Tom was getting into rules and definitions and how they all worked, he made a comment that we've never heard explained quite this fine way before, and it is really so profound: "You get into trouble because of the decisions you made a minute or two earlier."

We'd love to pour paragraphs of details about Tom's wisdom onto the page, but it's better to refer you all to the real source of the rules: http://raceadmin.ussailing.org/Rules.htm

Participants got a bunch of handouts that are I-36 classics for crew and skipper training. Here are the links to:

Crew tasks: http://islander36.org/raceclinic04/crewtasks.html

Super Crew: http://islander36.org/raceclinic04/supercrew.html

Model Skipper: http://islander36.org/raceclinic04/modelskipper.html

It was time to move on to lunch - upstairs at EYC.

Then it was out on the water. Two practice starts, run by Pat & Gary Salvo, saw Luna Sea get the best of the fleet. Then it was time for a "race" up to a "no wake" buoy near the houseboats.

Freedom Won just barely got the edge for the start at the pin end, with Califia and Petite Sirah close to windward. Freedom Won held the leeward position and worked along the eastern shore of the Estuary until she was on a line with the other two.

Tacking to starboard just on the lay line to the mark, Califia sailed just a bit beyond the layline and tacked on Freedom Won's port quarter. As the two converged on the turning mark, Freedom Won hailed, "3 Lengths, No Overlap." Then made the turn and headed back toward the finish line.

It was drag race back to the finish line. While Freedom Won led the fleet, astern Luna Sea set a spinnaker, and Califia set wing-on-wing. Both closed on Freedom Won, but with just enough wind shifts, Freedom Won held them off as they all closed on the finish line.

Just as it appeared that Freedom Won had held off those two, Mischief, sailng 50 yards outside the whole fleet, carried a massive puff right down the course and passed them all, beating Freedom Won by 1 second!

Pictures by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Encinal weclomes ...	our fleet ...	all set up ...	breakfast is ready.
Early morning ...	Califia tied up	Check In time	Charles & Dan
Kathryn & John	Luna Sea crew	Califia crew	Richard & Peggy Stanton Morning Star
Beth - Mark	Dan & Damien	Dennis & Glenn	Pat, Risa & Myphi
Commodore Melton kicks it off	Good crowd	Tom - got ya!	Lunch break Luna Sea & John
Petite Sirah crew	Pat, Gary, Dennis, Richard & Gina	Richard & Peggy Kathryn & Charles	Let's go sailing!
Petite Sirah	Freedom Won	Luna Sea	again
Mischief	Califia ...	up close	Petite Sirah
Back in ... Califia	Petite Sirah	Beth had fun ...	whole crew too!
Here comes ...	Mischief ...	Nice job Charles!	Califia's leaving ...
bye Tim.	Bye Stantons!	"What, Me Worry?" Rick

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