After last week's blow the grins in the bar were the widest I've seen and the decibel level was double the usual as excited crews told war stories. So I was disappointed to cancel this week for less breeze. In Europe or Australia there would be question of not sailing; are we getting to be wimps in the US? So questions for the fleet-- owners and crews; Should we have sailed last Wednesday? Should we have a "No Spinnakers" flag?
5 comments:
we could have sailed.
the "no spinnaker" flag idea is a bad idea......this is not a cruising canvas class. skippers should have the discretion of whether they do or do not fly a kite.
real wind is what separates the men from the boys!
- Alden Anderson
What are the "rules" for when to call it. Is just RC with their discretion or are there written guidelines?
It's a Race Committee and Fleet Captain decision. We look at a bunch of factors like the wind speed at Rose Is., whether the tide's against the wind, and the forecast. We're fortunate that Robin Wallace who does RC for us is a former Shields owner so he knows the boats.
I thought we HAD a rule based on mph that was used to guide the PRO and Fleet Captain in their decision making -- maybe 20 knots steady, gusts over 23, etc. If we no longer have one, we should, so that the decision is not arbitrary.
I believe that we should sail in stiff breezes, and that Fleet 9 suffers when we go to the Nationals, where it usually blows (think Edgartown, Marion, and Larchmont for recent examples). We usually sail in smooth water and light to moderate evening breezes here -- and cancel when the breeze is up.
I drive 90 minutes to sail against the best sailors in New England -- I am always in favor of testing ourselves, absent, of course, thunderstorms or 30+ knots....
Andy,
Nothing like calling the fleet wimps to engender camaraderie.
I cannot access the blog due to corporate firewall/spamfilters etc, but I'll tell you that in spite of my worst start ever, I had a ball out there last week (when we tore the kite on the first run then chose to not fly our old kite on the second run), but was fine with not racing this week due to the carnage out there last week. Considering Grace lost two guys overboard last week, I would say Robin correctly estimated the condition when there is risk of equipment breakage and injury, which is ultimately not what we're out there for (Europe or Australia notwithstanding).
Would I have raced wednesday? Yes. Would I have enjoyed it? Yes. But I respect Robin's decision not to and believe it was correct. Going forward, I suggest we continue to leave it up to Robin.
Charlie E
#36
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