Race Weekend

Hello All,

Well thanks to everyone who participated in the two regattas this past weekend, they were a great success. A little bit more wind wouldn't have hurt, but all in all the two regattas turned out pretty good. Congratulations to Tom Molinski for finishing first in the PHRF Division in the fall regatta on Saturday along with Glenn Meyer for finishing first in the Ensign Division. Congratulation's to Bill Zabriski for his first time win in the Ensign Championship Regatta on Sunday.

Just a reminder to everyone who can't get enough racing in in one season, the Dolphin Regatta hosted by the Milwaukee Bay Soling fleet will be on Sunday October 7, 2007 at 11:00 am. Boats should be in the water or at the sailing center docks by 11:00 am for the skippers meeting. This day is also the last day of Sunday Racing at the sailing center.

Hope to see you all on the water

Joe

Wednesday Night Racing 9/05

Hello all,

Looks like tonight might be the best night of racing in a while. Winds should be S at 10 knots, maybe a little more if the sea breeze kicks in this afternoon. A little choppy out there but should be a nice night to race.

Joe

Wednesday Night Racing 8/22/07

The forecast for tonight is looking iffy. At the moment there is a very good chance that we will see some thunderstorms in the the neighborhood this afternoon and tonight. Winds should be up out of the SW around 15 knots. We will have our computers working overtime to keep everyone updated on the thunderstorm threats.

Joe

Regatta Comments

As per the email I sent out, I would like some feed back on regattas here at the sailing center. General to specific comments are welcome.

Thanks all

Joe

Wednesday Racing, 8/8/07

Looks like an 8mph breeze for this evening. I will be at the docks ~4:30p.m.
Mel

Wednesday Night Forcast

The forecast for tonight looks like light winds with a SE sea breeze picking up later. There should be about 8 to 10 knots of SE from 5:00 to 7:30 or so. Should be a good night to race as long as the sea breeze picks up but if it doesn't its not my fault :)

There will be 1 J24 available and 2 solings.

Joe

Wednesday Night 8/01

Just as a heads up for all you racers. There is an advanced class this week which will be sailed on J24's. I'm not sure what the status will be on boat availability yet, but I will make a post to let you know.

Joe

Wednesday Night Racing Forecast 7/24

At this point (Tuesday 7/24) the forecast for wed. night racing (7/25) looks fairly promising. The wind is going to be out of the south and light for most of the day tomorrow with a sea breeze developing out of the SE throughout the day which I suspect should remain through much of the evenings race.

There is a pretty good chance of some rain showers late on wed. night as a warm front pushes in from the west. These rain showers main kill the sea breeze and the wind for the race if they show up early enough so keep an eye on the radar. This warm front will bring with it a tongue of warm humid air that will make most of the day Thursday pretty uncomfortable.

Good luck with the race!

Joe

Racing Class

Racing class has been cancelled due to lack of pre registration. Any questions shoot me an email.


Joe

Soling Tips

In response to the question posted as a comment to "Introduction" about soling mast rake.

The rake of the mast on solings is controlled both by the backstay and forstay. There are usually course adjustments if not course and fine adjustments for each. The forstay adjustment line can be found on either side of the halyard post under the deck. In combination with the backstay adjustment lines, which are usually found aft in the cockpit, the mast can be canted forward to vertical or back.

From my own racing experience on solings I have learned that you generally want the mast raked back upwind. Playing the backstay and forstay allows for the correct tuning of the sail via the top batten while sailing upwind. Going downwind the mast should and can be raked forward for maximum speed and efficiency, particularly with a spinnaker. Many privately owned solings record the place their backstay and forstay should be set in each position with a mark on the control lines.

This then explains the phenomena experienced this past Sunday where Barracuda with its mast foreward (vertical) would be faster downwind with cypress, mast raked back, would be faster upwind. The rake of the mast allows the mainsheet blocks to either be close or further apart depending on whether the mast is forward or back.

WARNING!!!
Be careful experimenting with these controls. The block systems in the boat can be easily pulled out of wack, however they are designed to allow the mast to go forward and back as described. Also mast rake is different then mast bend. Playing the backstay and forstay allows for mast rake, playing one at a time bends the mast which has other effects in relation to sail tuning.

Thanks for the question

Joe

Quarter Barrel Regatta

Just a heads up for you racers...

The Quarter Barrel Regatta is coming up Sunday August 12th. As usual skipper's meeting will be at 9:30 am. More information will be available and posted soon.

! Please make sure you are registering ahead of time !

Weather Links

Here are some good weather links for you guys to use.

Joe's Weather Page

(This is my own site containing a series of weather links useful for sailing. )

Joe

P McGuan Said

This post is to make the comment Paul made more visible to all:

P McGuan said...

Thanks to Joe for organizing this site. The discussion last night was very interesting and fruitful. At the risk of being presumptuous, the general theme of the discussion was “How to attract more members to racing and maintain interest in new racers.” That would be a worthy goal.

There are several things I really like about the set up right now and I hope we maintain:
o We get lots of races in. The more starts we have and marks we round, the more we learn. We did 4 races last week. In many fleets, it takes a month to get that many starts in.

o The racing is low key. Nobody gets too bent out of shape. We don’t keep score.

I had some ideas about attracting and keeping newer skippers. For the neophyte, it has to be fun. Going out losing the first time may not be fun. A new skipper may not understand how to helm the boat competitively, and may not know the rules either. Considering that they may be up against other skippers with decades of experience, I wouldn’t like those odds either. Here are some thoughts on how to keep people coming:

o Share knowledge: Take 10-15 minutes before the skipper’s meeting to go over topics to help newer skippers be more competitive. Our races are short, so it’s easy to focus on just a few things that can make a dramatic improvement. If all the teams knew how to set-up the boat for racing, how to get a good start, and basic helmsmanship, there would be an immediate and dramatic improvement. We could also use this blog to share information along those lines.

o Make sure we canvass the newer skippers at the skippers meeting and try to get them out with experienced skippers. This is sometimes done, but often not.

o Explain to everyone that we are trying to develop the newer skippers so they are aware of what we are doing and why we are there.

o Stick around after the races to discuss what happened while it is fresh in your mind. Taking off without having some sort of time to talk is not only socially inept, we miss the best opportunity to review what worked or didn’t work. I always enjoy the group that convenes after the series races. The discussion is always lively and entertaining. We might consider a very short low key BYO social event after the races to kick things off.

o Encourage people to participate by having them helm the boat at least one of the races. Ashley mentioned that you sometimes have to be pushed like she was. (I bribe her with a cappuccino on Sundays, if you want to call that pushing. Otherwise she’d sleep until noon.)

Again make sure you guys are joining so I can make you Authors. Once you are an author you can post on your own. I've already invited a few people.

Joe

Good Turn Out

Great turn out for the start of the forum. I'm am in the process of making those of you who have joined the blog site an author. This will allow you to make posts instead of just being able to comment on existing posts. So this means that if you haven't joined you should consider doing so.

Thanks for everyones interest so far. I look forward to seeing how the blog develops from here.

Joe

Introduction

This is the first post of hopefully many that will allow for open communication among racers here at MCSC.

The goal is to be able to make posts and comment on posts in order to organize people, discuss racing, and all around be able to communicate openly with other racers.

Right now the blog is a work in progress. Feel free to contact me with comments or suggestions.

Joe