Racing Rules
By Tomasz Dvorak
The pall of brown smoke hanging over Great Harbor on Wednesday turned our brightly-colored boats into the sepia tones from an old photograph. A gusty west-by-north wind did little to clear the haze. Our course would be start, short upwind, reach down past Devil’s Foot, then hardening up for two upwind/downwind legs in Hadley’s Harbor, then a run-reach back to the finish. The current was, again, expected to change mid-race, limiting the opportunity and benefit of Making A Move, and encouraging the fleet to sail fast rather than (try) to sail smart.
The start is notionally a line perpendicular to the wind, where starting anywhere has a similar distance to the turning mark. Notice I said notionally. After a wind-shift, the start heavily favored port. The fleet, spoiled by a succession of starboard starts this summer, seemed stunned. At the start, Luciole and Rumblefish barreled along the line on starboard, scattering indecisive port-tack boats. More on how this port/starboard right-of-way interaction works later. Rumblefish, a tad early, had to sheer away to avoid the race committee. Luciole, tacking to port for a near-perfect start, discovered that not only was port heavily favored, but it was so heavily favored that you could make it from halfway down the line (thus obviating the need to start at the boat). Skimmer, having noted this earlier, rounded the mark first, followed by Luciole, then Ragwagon and Luna Nova, then the rest of the fleet, spreading out, footing off, staying high, looking for that scrap of advantage that might lead to an overtaking.
Allegedly, there are foundational principles that guide U.S. Sailing’s constant “revisions” and “updates” to the Racing Rules of Sailing. One of them: keeping the same rules for more than a few years might let people actually learn them, so it’s best to release a new edition every three years to keep us on our toes. Another: boats on starboard have the right of way over boats on port. For those of us unaware of the niceties of Rule 10 (including, apparently, Luciole’s skipper), the penalty for a port boat fouling a starboard boat is prescribed as two 360 degree turns.
Luciole, having allowed Rumblefish to slip by on the inside, held Ragwagon off to leeward as she approached the downwind mark. Rumblefish rounded the mark, and Luciole prepared for a wide-and-tight rounding to keep Ragwagon from slipping inside and above. Rumblefish tacked onto starboard immediately after the mark, planning a repeat of their first speedy upwind leg. Luciole rounded the mark, bore up, sheeted all in, discovered Rumblefish incoming on starboard about two boatlengths away, bore down, glanced off Rumblefish’s port quarter, and descended into a vortex of tacks, jibes, and self-recrimination. (Why didn’t I know they were there? I knew I should have brought my sailcloth-piercing X-ray goggles...) Rumblefish and Ragwagon surged ahead, followed by Escargot and Ghost, while Luciole, chastened, scurried after them to the second windward mark.
Ghost tacked to port for the mark. Luciole, coming in with the right of way on starboard, now alert for boats lurking on the leeward side, tacked over as well to avoid a collision. Luciole delivered a volley of invective, but at insufficient volume to get a distracted Ghost’s attention: Ghost had now found herself involved with the upwind buoy. Ghost’s exonerating turns (there’s a rule about not hitting the marks, too) lasted just long enough for Luciole to nip ahead, but not long enough for Luciole to be comfortable on the cross-current downwind leg home.
Maybe it was flubbing the race after a great start and a sure-fire top-three finish giving that taste of ash in the mouth. Maybe it was just the wildfire smoke. Regardless, downwind beers rinsed it away, and spirits revived for the parade back into the harbor. There’s always the next race, and now we’ve got a new tactic to try – not fouling other boats.
In the end, it was Skimmer who the fleet tried and failed to catch the whole race. Skimmer is now tied with Rumblefish in the summer standings, and it seems like we’d best get used to staring at those two transoms.
Results:
1. Skimmer (Fred Denton) 0:00
2. Luna Nova (Fran Elder) 0:25
3. Rumblefish (Nick Lowell) 0:41
4. Escargot (Brett Longworth) 1:23
5. Ragwagon (Peter Ochs) 1:39
6. Luciole (Tomasz Dvorak) 2:32
7. Ghost (Tom Lanagan) 2:40
8. Blue Bayou (Jeff Corwin) 3:21
9. Jilt (Chuck Verbeck) 4:03
10. Who’s There? (George Sykes) 4:22