2003-2004 InterClub Results, Day 12
February 22, 2004

Sorry everyone it has taken a few days to get this out. The internet virus killed our e-mail server and I had to go out of town. Also, the dog got stung by a bee. Turns out she is allergic to bees and her whole face puffed up. Have you ever seen a Golden Retriever that looks like a Sharpei? Quite funny, really.

In any event, for all of you folks that did not sail on Sunday you missed possibly the best day of sailing all winter. Temperatures in the 50s, sunny and the wind ranged from 10 to 15 knots (maybe a little higher in some puffs). The breeze was also from the north and northwest.

Any time the breeze is from this direction it is going to be shifty. Sometimes the puffs looked like they would come from the river (right side) and sometimes from Spa Creek (left side). In addition to the shifts there were also pretty big differences in velocity. In many ways the velocity was a bigger issue than the puffs. A couple of times a boat just to weather would get a puff first and power right off of us.

In any event, it seems as a general rule that when the breeze is from this direction and this velocity range that the left side works more often than the right. SO, our strategy was as an "if in doubt" strategy. Translated that means if in doubt we went left. If we got behind we went left. If we got ahead we went left. The other key part of the strategy was to not get in the middle. The middle did not work. One race we sailed up the middle and ended up last at the first mark.

Downwind also provided lots of opportunity for gains. The key, as with upwind, was to position ourselves for the next puff and keep our lane clear all while keeping the bow pointed at the mark (these are ICs and heading up for puffs never seemed to help much). Positioning for the next puff often meant jibbing two or three times a run to make sure we were among the first to the puff and to have a strong angle.

In any event, it all seemed to work OK. It was definitely a day, as Hal Gilreath likes to say, for patience and confidence.

|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|Day 12|        |          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|      |  Number|         7|      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|      |of Races|          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|      |       =|          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|      |  Number|         7|      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|      |of Boats|          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|      |       =|          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|      |   Total|        56|      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|      |Points =|          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|      |        |          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     |     |    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|      |        |          |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | Low  |High |     |    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|Place |Skipper |   Crew   |Bow # | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  |Point |Point|  %  |    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  1   |Pignolet|Stout     |   672|   2|   1|   1|   1|   2|   2|   2|    11|   52|0.929|RC  |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  2   |Falsone |Seamon    |   802|   1|   3|   3|   3|   4|   3|   1|    18|   45|0.804|SB  |Dierdorff|
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  3   |Guth    |Cook      |   695|   8|   6|   2|   4|   1|   1|   3|    25|   38|0.679|    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  4   |Merz    |Hanson    |   699|   3|   2|   4|   2|   5|   8|   4|    28|   35|0.625|    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  5   |Hull    |          |   508|   4|   5|   5|   5|   3|   4|   8|    34|   29|0.518|    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  6   |Simonds |Dorton    |   804|   8|   4|   8|   8|   8|   8|   8|    52|   11|0.196|    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|
|  7   |Russell |Williamson|   801|   8|   8|   8|   8|   8|   8|   8|    56|    7|0.125|    |         |
|------+--------+----------+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+-----+-----+----+---------|