PSSC

A Cowboy from Montana wins the 2018 J/24 District 19 Championship

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
A Cowboy from Montana wins the 2018 J/24 District 19 Championship

By Jakob Frederik Lichtenberg

The J/24 fleet sailed the yearly District 19 championship this past weekend of Oct 6th and 7th 2018. The District event was held under the larger umbrella of CYC Seattle’s Puget Sound Sailing Championship that runs over the first two weekends in October. The regatta, the venue and the time of year offers a fantastic framework for an epic “end of year” one design competition. With good reason to expect breeze of varying strength, oscillations and a bit of tide. All of this with the expectation of a dash of October Pacific Northwest rain and a cold beer from the club house after racing. As part of the larger regatta, we raced among 505s, Snipes, lots of Aeros and much to everyone’s surprise a single Laser racing a single Hobie? But the CYC Race Committee was up to the task, and the fleets were well sorted and well organized.

Twenty J/24s signed up for the event, and at stake was the championship as well as a World qualifier spot for next year’s 2019 World Championship in Miami. Friday night offered extra focus on preparation, inspections of boats and rigorous review of eligibility of boat (class certificates and a ton of other stuff that we tend to forget in between these big regattas). Good news: We now all have tight lifelines and paper work on file with the club.

Saturday: Started out with breeze and we all had to feather a bit to hold the boat flat.  We got three good races in and as expected had to balance our strategy: On the inside we found a bit more tide relief, but the pressure on the outside was just a bit better overall.  Over the day the breeze died down and at the 4th race we ran out of wind and had to abandon after a 45 minute upwind.  Dinner and drinks at the club house was great. Pete Sauer won the day in borrowed boat Self Abuse with a solid 1st, 2nd, 1st.  Michael Johnson in Pearl 2nd and finally Mark Laura’s Baba Louie in third.

Sunday: Again good breeze.  Everyone wearing their best genoas and fully hiked. Lots of races and lots of drama with tons of boats called back for OCS (the “around the ends” rule became routine for the day), and the usual compression at both windward and leeward marks leading to even more drama. And finally the tug boat that decided to run a 600 ft floating dock over the top mark.  The competition remained tight and before the last race Pete in Self Abuse found himself ahead by just one point to Scott Milne’s Tremendous Slouch and the boats in 3rd, 4th and 5th were all within striking distance of the trophy – which lead to a dramatic last race!

Results:

  • Team Self Abuse with Pete Sauer, Key Jeffcock Alex Simanis, Joe Greiser and Joe Wilderman went on to win the last race and secure the 2018 District 19 trophy.   Well done and well deserved.
  • Scott Milne’s Tremendous Slouch finished just two points behind and in the process secured themselves a berth for Worlds in Miami (as Pete already had a berth from earlier in the year winning Western Regionals). Also congratulations for crawling back from a tough start Saturday and winning Sunday overall.
  • Mark Laura’s Baba Louie finished third and just three points behind Slouch.
  • Sailed: 8, Discards: 0, To count: 8, Entries: 20.
  • Reference: http://racing.cycseattle.org/results/2018_specific/psscsb.html

 Additional notes from the author:

From our perspective on Hair of the Dog it was just a fantastic weekend.  It is a privilege to race against a number of the top J/24 boats.  Boats that have not just participated, but done well at Worlds. Here is what we learned: It sucks to rig a boat in the rain. The hoist is still out to get our windex. Port gives way for starboard, unless port is absolutely dead in the water and on the mark.  Also, it is cheaper to hit an inflatable mark than a fellow J/24.  It sucks to have to return under spinnaker to restart under an OCS recall a good minute up the first leg.  That a full day of sailing followed by a haul of the boat and de-rigging makes for an exhausting day.

Thank you everyone for a great weekend. To the traveling boats that made it to Seattle. To the strong class measurers and registration team Michael, Noel, Christa, Kelly, Alice, and Melanie. The entire CYC organizing authority lead by Matthew Wood. And of course the on-the-water RC team lead by Geoff Pease that got a ton of races thru in tricky conditions (with lots of sailors him offering “advice”).  A personal thank you to the protest committee that twice listened to our ranting and correctly (and mostly gently) explained why our cause did not ‘stand up in court’.

–Jakob Lichtenberg

Ed. Note: Thanks for the report, Jakob, with the “additional notes” certainly adding some color!

 

RS Aeros and J/24s Enjoy PSSC Small Boats

Kurt Hoehne Racing , , 0 Comment
RS Aeros and J/24s Enjoy PSSC Small Boats

Five classes enjoyed CYC-Seattle’s small boat version of PSSC (Puget Sound Sailing Championships) last weekend. 18 J/24s made the trek out from Lake Washington to sail on the Sound, which provided great racing. The RS Aeros were out in force with 20 on the line for at least one of the races. A half-dozen 505s were out, as were three Snipes. Jay Winberg, the lone Laser, won the class with three straight bullets! (My apologies, Jay, for not being out there. I blame lead poisoning from keelboats.)

We have a short report from the top of the RS Aero fleet. Derek Bottles won it over Dan Falk, Dalton Bergan and Scott Malone with consistency. Falk and Bergan spent race three together toward the back of the fleet, which really hurt their final scores in the no-throwout regatta. Here’s Derek’s report

The RS Aero fleet is now well established in Seattle, 21 boats having sailed PSSC. The Aero is still a relatively new boat but mature enough everyone is sailing the boat well making the racing close. For this year’s event the tricky part was the conditions. Saturday started out with a solid 8 knot wind falling off to 3 knots while at the same time a major flood current built. It was easy to get caught in a hole or adverse current. Sunday saw the wind build from 8 knots to approximately 12 knots over the day, the last race was sailed in the most wind of all weekend. Staying in the right wind, current and shift was not easy as seen by how mixed up the finishing order was race to race. In these conditions I focused on not taking big risks and letting others make errors I could capitalize on. -Derek Bottles

Looking at the J/24 results, it’s pretty obvious that the racing was tight. Just about every boat had a great score and a regrettable score, with consistency winning out in this fleet as well as Pete Sauer sailing Self Abuse came out on top. (photos courtesy of the Pearl Racing Team and Joy Okazaki Facebook pages). I don’t have a report, but I do have the photos! For more information on the Seattle J/24 fleet, check out its web site.

Bruce’s Briefs 6, 7, & 8 Oct. Foulweather Bluff Race out of Edmonds

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs, Racing, Weather , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs 6, 7, & 8 Oct. Foulweather Bluff Race out of Edmonds

Our very interesting year of weather continues after a spectacularly beautiful week of true Indian Summer conditions. As we know, it simply isn’t going to last however there is really nothing major league bad in the offing. That, however, is the bad news.

As you can see from the charts, we have a cold front that is rapidly approaching the Pacific Northwest and will blow through the area tonight. The baro is dropping and we are already seeing rain off the north coast on the Doppler. The other feature to note is the incredibly strong high-pressure system (1040MB) off the coast. This will drive a strong onshore flow down the Straits after the cold front passes. Unfortunately, this will create a convergence zone over the Race Course area for tomorrow. As is typical for a post-frontal scenario, the isobars will ease over the Upper Sound and lower part of Admiralty Inlet and while it may be cranking in the Straits, 25-30 knots from the West, the westerly won’t get much past the Marrowstone Light. While there will be enough southerly in the Race area to get the race started, it will tend to get lighter from noon on. The key to this race will be to finish early.

Running the polars for Crossfire, they should finish just after 1300 hours in a dying south-southeasterly followed closely by the TP-52’s. The rest of fleet may struggle a bit as the breeze will continue to drop. Other projected times are:

Beneteau First 40.7        1609

J-105                                          1648

Farr 1020                                1719

 

The tides will actually be a help. For Admiralty Inlet off Bush Point.

0712                                          Slack

1018      Max Ebb                 2.74 knots

1342                                          Slack

1612      Max Flood            1.75 knots

1842                                          Slack

 

This will be another race that will drive tacticians and navigators crazy as they struggle to keep their vessels in the best wind. The key here will be to keep your head out of the boat and watch which way the smart people are going. For the most part, on the way up to Scatchet Head, simply aim at the mark and sail your polars.

From Scatchet Head to Foulweather Bluff, you will want to stay in the ebb tide and stay out of Skunk Bay where it can get light in a southerly. With any kind of luck, you’ll get around FWB near slack water. Remember that the flood starts first coming down the west side of the Sound and around Point No Point, so watch your COG and SOG. Again, if you’re beating after the mark, stay out of Skunk Bay, there’s a reason why it’s called that….

From Pt No Pt to the finish, have your barber-haulers and light air sheets rigged and ready and aim for the finish. Given a choice between going due east or down the Sound on the west side, stay to the west. Just don’t overstand the finish and keep yourself between your competition and the finish line.

Remember, all of this presumes a long course. The committee has two other options if it looks like it’s going to be really light.

The rest of the weekend really looks OK with the only really breezy conditions being in the Straits. While we’ll tend to have a southerly over the Sound on Saturday, this will shift to a northerly on Sunday. In other words, Stay in Edmonds, enjoy the post-race activities and the sail home on Sunday.

Take a peek also at the surface chart for 10 October. If you were impressed with the 1040MB High, you’ll love the 1043MB monster that’s projected. It also shows another weak cold front coming over us. None of these will produce much rain however it will be getting cooler in the evenings.

Be Safe and enjoy the weekend.