Sailing – 2011 Austin Yacht Club Centerboard Regatta (CBR)

There has been plenty to think about for folks who live in the Austin area these past few days. What I am going to blog about is pretty trivial stuff.  My heart goes out to the over 500 families whose homes have been destroyed and the countless others who had damage or had to evacuate their home for several days due to the wildfires that have raged across the area.   But  the 2011 CBR was  fun!

The annual Austin YC centerboard regatta is a fixure in the racing schedules of several classes. My focus is on the Sunfish class.  This year attendance was low, as has been the case at many regattas.  But even so, of the approximately 40 boats registered, about 1/3 were Sunfish.  Many stayed home having given up on sailing due to the most immoderate heat that has vexed us this year, but 14 intrepid Sunfish Drivers got out and battled the elements while sitting in slack-jawed astonishment every time John Bartlett, a sometimes Sunfish Guru would go screaming by in his current “hot toy”, a Moth.

A moth preparing to jibe. Not one with John Bartlett sailing it, oh noooo... his is black and sinister looking as well as insanely fast. See picture credits at the bottom of the image.

On several occasions John went zig-zagging downwind through the fleet like some giant creature out of a science fiction flick hunting for live prey… at 30-38 mph!  We all watched for him when tacking because we were pretty sure he could whack a sunfish clean through when up on the foils. He raced with the Catamarans, for lack of a less baffling place to slot the Moth, but provided so much entertainment for us that he was very much a part of the Sunfish experience this weekend.

The races started with the wind out of the northeast (uh-ho, not good on Lake Travis!) and predictably very shifty due to the large hills that slope steeply right down into the lake.  Based on past experience I was expecting a poorly contrived course, but Dane Ohe, our PRO was not going to let an impossible wind direction/terrain combo screw up his race course.  Dane and his band of helpers pulled off a course which was both challenging and fair… and yes pretty shifty too.  The wind was sorta 8 gusting to 15 for the first race.  It was a serious workout getting in and out of the hiking straps as we neared the weather mark.

Another challenge facing Mr. Ohe was that he had to manage 5 different starts.  He did it and did it well using the 3 minute collegiate starting sequence.  Not a hitch!  As a fleet would finish they got teed up for a start pretty quick even as other fleets were heading for the start/finish line.  That was a recipe for conflict, but the R/C pulled it off with sufficient attention to exactly when to start a new sequence in order to minimize conflict balanced by the need to keep fleets racing, not sitting around waiting for other fleets to finish or get started and out of the way.  Impressive job, Dane!

In the first race, Paul Foerster won, as would be his habit for two days, but he got a bit of a come-uppance in that first race when as he approached the first leeward mark he realized that the boat that was about to round ahead of him was… his wife Carrie!  Carrie had rounded a boat or two behind Paul at the weather mark and while he focused on the people he thought were likely to be a real threat, she chose a different lane downwind and got better air and just plain beat him on that leg of the race.  I am going on about this because I have NEVER passed Paul downwind.  NEVER! Way to go, Carrie!  And the one who seemed most pleased was… Paul.

I had a really dumb start and rounded the windward mark 3rd from last, but took the outside lane as Carrie had done and passed 3 boats on that first downwind leg. Everything stayed sorta in order until the last weather leg. Then the wind freshened a little and I passed a couple more boats to end up in a very satisfying 6th (considering the handicap I gave myself at the start.)

The wind continued to gradually strengthen throughout the remaining  3 races with Paul Foerster finishing 1st in each race, closely followed by Ravi Submaranian each time.  Ravi was seriously making Paul work to win the races, not just cruise to the finish in 1st.  In the final race of the day, I got moving early and arrived at the windward mark seconds behind Paul and Ravi and stayed close to them all the way to the finish, though I doubt that they worried too much that I would somehow get past them.

In that last race Saturday the wind was getting up over 20 in the gusts and providing some excitement at times.

Sunday we awoke to a forecast of north winds gusting over 40 miles per hour.  The weather prophets nailed that one.  It was a fight for survival, though given, again, what others in central Texas were enduring while I was out playing on my Sunfish, maybe that is too strong a term… but it felt about right.

The wind was simply too strong for many competitors to even attempt to sail.  Only 8 of the 14 Sunfish started the first race Sunday, though at least 3 others started out to the course before deciding that it was just too much wind.  Shortly after the start one competitor broke a rudder and had to withdraw.  In the chaos involved in getting started in that much wind, another failed to notice that the course was to be an Olympic triagle,windward, leeward, windward route and failed to sail over to the jibing mark at the corner of that initial triangle.

I am not sure whether Paul Foerster got to the windward mark first or maybe Tony Collins or Ravi did, but they all three took off down wind while I rounded and headed off on the triangle with Vic Manning in close pursuit. Paul and Ravi quickly realised what was happening and altered course in time to make it to the corner of that triangle just ahead of Vic and me.  The run down to that mark was wild with gusts near 40 shoving the normally docile little Sunfish to speeds that would at least worry Bartlett and his Death Moth.  Tony had, I think, decided to save his energy for the next race rather than jibe and come over to sail the triangle as he then withdrew before finishing. He did sail the two remaining races (which I did not.)   Once we completed the run to the bottom of the triangle and started upwind, I powered past Ravi.  His superior sailing skill was not matched with enough height and mass to keep the boat flat and moving when sailing upwind.

I rounded the windward mark in a solid second place and feeling pretty spiffy about my most manly sailing…. then we turned straight down wind.  For the uninitiated, straight down wind in a sailboat in very strong wind is where most capsizes broken masts, broken booms and cracked rudders occur.  I did pretty well as I only did one of those; I capsized in a very high-speed, slow-motion death roll in the midst of a gust that was well over 40, maybe near 45 mph.

I righted the boat and resumed the race, but from behind both Ravi and Vic.  The final windward leg of the race was just brutal, even for a guy my size.  While cycling has given me legs of steel, riding my recumbent trike has done nothing to keep my upper body strength up-to-par.  I found that I really could no longer pull the sheet in far enough to drive the boat forward very well and if I got it in then hiked out enough to flatten the boat and a little windhsift required tweaking the sheet even tighter, I could not.  I just could not do it.  So I carefully finished, but behind Paul, Ravi and Vic.  Ted Owens and Bonner Cordelle came in not far behind me in 5th and 6th places.

At this point I let the Race Committee know that I was heading in and would not be sailing the rest of the day’s races.  I felt that I was tired enough that I could be a hazard to the other competitors.  That was a tough decision because, aside from the pain and suffering, I was having a blast.  I guess being 67 carries some costs that I had to pay.  One other competitor, Brian Metz, was gutsy enough to start that first race, but he dropped out at some point, I think maybe on the first off-wind leg.  It was hairy.

Paul, Ravi, Tony and Vic Manning all started the second race of Sunday.  Paul won with Tony doing extremely well to finish second ahead of Vic (3rd) and Ravi (4th).  Tony is recovering from a horrific fracture to one of his legs and sure as heck deserves the Tough Guy award!

In the final Race Paul, Ravi and Tony started without Vic (age also an issue?) in the last race of the day and the weekend and Tony wore away at Ravi and ended up with a VERY respectable 2nd place.

Final standings are shown below:

2011 Centerboard Regatta

Class=Sunfish ScoreMethod=One
design (Finish position)

Overall Results

	Sail	Skipper	Club	Total	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7
1	8	Foerster,Paul	RCYC	6	1*	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	37340	Subramanian,Ravi	AYC	14	3	2	2	2	2	4*	3
3	79321	Collins,Tony	RCYC	20	2	7	3	4	15*DNF	2	2
4	79138	Bynum,Don		38	6	5	5	3	4	15*DNC	15 DNC
5	80119	Manning,Victor	AYC	44	15*DNC	8	8	7	3	3	15 DNC
6	78045	Owens,Ted	AYC	45	10	3	4	8	5	15*DNC	15 DNC
7	7	Cordelle,Bonner	AYC	50	9	4	11	5	6	15*DNC	15 DNC
8	3248	Tye,Dennis		56	8	6	6	6	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
9	80640	Lancaster,Annie	AYC	63	4	10	10	9	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
10	76062	Faust,Sarah	AYC	65	7	9	7	12	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
11	79551	Foerster,Carrie	RCYC	73	5	11	12	15*DNF	15 DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
12	80743	Bryan,Scott	AYC	73	11	13	9	10	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC
13	101	Metz,Brian	AYC	79	13	12	13	11	15*DNF	15 DNC	15 DNC
14	80120	Manning,Patricia	AYC	86	12	14	15*DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC	15 DNC

As previously noted, Dane Ohe ran excelent races in sometimes challenging circumstances and condition and deserves a serious “Thank You!”.

Regatta Chairman Vic Manning (and his nearly silent Co-Chair Pat Manning)had everything organized around the club and this was just simply a really good regatta.  Thanks to all involved.

This coming weekend is the Lake Buchanan Sunfish Regatta.  This is a first of its kind event on The Big Lake and all are invited to bring a fish and come sail.  Paul Foerster will be here and needs the competition almost as much as YOU need to be able to brag to your grandchildren that you once sailed on The Big Lake” in competition with a Gold Medal Olympic Sailor.  Come one!  Where is your ego?  Come on out.  The NOR can be viewed at:  http://www.buchanan-inks.com/sailing-regatta-info.html

There will be some after-hours activities for sailors and mere mortals alike.

At 7pm Paul Foerster (4 time Olympian, three time Olympic Medalist and one of those times a Gold Medalist) will give a slide show about his Olympic experiences.  This will be at the recreation hall at The Edgewater Resort at Lake Buchanan from 7pm to 8pm.  Paul’s presentation will be followed by live music by the Lake Bottom Jazz Ensemble starting at 8pm, which is also open to the public.

Edgewater is located on the west shore of Lake Buchanan off FM261 about a mile north of TX29.  Come meet an Olympian and enjoy the music.