Sailors,
Sunday is our second day of racing and it's looking to be another great day with winds 8-11kts W SW.
First signal is at 1200, if you still need to register you can do so. Britt is our treasurer and he can accept CC payments.
Last Sunday we had a great day of racing, with 22 boats. Pictures thanks to Chris Perez on RC
PHOTOS HERE
I did something by accident that I've never had happen, sail without a stern plug! Initially, it didn't affect me too much, but then in between races I moved back or checked for weeds on my rudder, which definitely took on water. The boat felt odd, and I remember looking back and thinking why does it seem like my transom is in the water? Lawrence rolled me pretty good! At least I finished the day without completely sinking, I've only seen 1 laser completely sink ;) almost unsinkable
So what worked on Sunday? Andrew mentioned that he saw more breeze towards the right in the first race and that he never stopped making the boat go, that downwind he takes every opportunity to make the boat go forward, and keeps track of which gybe is favored with his top mast wind indicator, I believe if his wind indicator points at the sail, it shows him he's on the favored gybe. That's really cool!
I tested the current with a sponge and it was ripping down and course left at the starting line, which would explain why there was a big line sag, it was also hard to make the pin if you ended up too close, both Andrew and I bailed out in a race from a pin start, gybed around and started on port, it paid off for both of us, Andrew first and me 2nd.
More from CORK ocr:
So in the first race up in Kingston, Canada. - I had a pretty good start, it was one of the only non-U Flag starts of the 4 day regatta, I was sailing upwind on Starboard close to the middle of the course, (they're long upwind legs, maybe equivalent to 3 or 4 times our typical cpyc courses, 3-4 races per day.)
It was hiking conditions and a port boat went to duck me and sheered my rudder right off the boat! I still had the tiller in my hand and no steerage, it took a second to figure out what had happened, and I yelled protest, I had a quick glimpse of the sailor as he did his turns but didn't get his number because I was trying to determine if I could fix this and at least sail the race. Once it was clear that I couldn't, I was waving my rudder at the jury since the radials were in sequence and I was right in the middle of the course, just a minute or two up the beat.
A week or two before Cork, I was at a rules talk with Dave Perry and someone brought up questions about damage and redress. How do you qualify for redress? Well I'm glad I heard that talk because this was the first time ever that my boat had been damaged in a way that I couldn't sail and had to retire. I got towed in and luckily was able to get a new pintle and get back out to do the last race of the first day. I'd informed the safety boat that towed me in that I was protesting, and I didn't know the number initially which is actually part of the rule when it comes to damage or injury, if there's serious damage or injury, it's expected that you might not get the sail number right away, I did eventually figure it out.
So in this case even though the boat that hit me did his spins, because he caused serious damage ( I was forced to retire) he was supposed to retire. So I filed a protest, the race committee at Cork are top notch, so the protest process is very fair, the sailor clearly didn't mean to hit me, he did his spins, but when there is damage or injury, the boat that broke a rule must retire, his coach talked to him about that after the race, so also if you sustain serious damage or injury in a race, you can ask for redress.
So the protest committee found that the damage was serious (I couldn't steer my boat) so the port boat was DSQ in that race, and they determined that it was only fair that I get redress, and because something was still wrong with my rudder (it was sticky feeling) they gave me the average of my finishes for the following 3 days for the races, for races I missed because of this incident, excluding 2 finishes on the first day.
The sailor who hit me apologized and he paid for the new parts without even asking, we became friends after.
I feel like this is how protests should all be, in sailing we are the referees so we have to protest, I had an obligation to protest and I'm glad that I did. I would expect the same from any sailor had I caused damage to their boat. So don't be afraid to protest. It's likely both parties will learn something and you might make a new friend!
So my rudder has been feeling off since then, I couldn't figure out what it was. So this week I discovered this week that not only did the force break the pintle, but it had bent the top pin on my rudder, so that explained why it's felt sticky after installing a new pintle. I'm glad I figured that out, I thought maybe the pintles were out of alignment, I think maybe both the pintles were off when I first put them on and the rudder pin was bent, so that made it very hard to steer.
The regattas at CORK are really fun and many of the fleet have sailed there, if you have a story to share be sure to email me :)
Sailing Videos:
Sailing World Championships at Arhaus, Denmark - Laser Medal Race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FWuRHN63c0
See you Sunday, |
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Sincerely,
AJ Sorensen
#204092
Laser Fleet Captain
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