2021 J70 North American Championship

[trimfast 102]

The 2021 J70 North American Championship, held in the "editor hated" Annapolis, MD started yesterday.  Par for course, the Chesapeake Bay held to its standard light breeze, strong current, and multiple wind shifts as the weather instability played to its true self.  During Race 1, the wind shift was too big and the race had to be abandoned. Race 2 did not fair any better, and with eager competitors over early, it too was abandoned. After delays all day, they finally got a race going in the late afternoon and only 29 out of 59 boats finished before TLE. After thorough discussions from the Race Committee, it was decide the race was unfair due to another shift on the first beat and the lack of finishers during a Championship event, those results thrown out as well. Words from competitors come in all colors including frustrating and brutal to sum up the conditions.  However, as of this morning, the Race Committee has received multiple request for redress due to the abandonment, and a hearing is schedule for a future date and time.

With Day 2 Warning advancing to 10am this morning, the flags draping straight down at the Eastport Yacht Club, hopefully they will be able to get some races in today.  

With the forecast for the rest of the regatta looking bleak, it may not get any better. Will the local knowledge of Scott Nixon and Terry Hutchinson on the same boat win out in these conditions, or will another well stacked crew from another area win the fleet? Coming off a competitive NOOD Fleet two weeks ago, my money is still on Nixon, Hutchinson and the rest of the crew.

Event Site  - https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=13209

What are your comments and insights.

[Editor 1,240]

Hahaha. What don't I hate??

[JEA 29]

The Cleveland Browns

[Editor 1,240]

17 minutes ago, JEA said:

The Cleveland Browns

Tru dat! See the front page for more on that...

[dphelps 0]

Three hours into (theoretical) racing and their FB page is showing a highlight reel.  Hard to tell if they went AP...

[BayRacer 79]

They got 2 in so far today.

2021 J/70 North American Championship on Yacht Scoring - A complete web based regatta administration and yacht scoring program

[Grinder 57]

3 for the day.   

[Hitchhiker 1,156]

Hmm.  Two things.  I see quite a few blanks for the Group ranking for some sailors. Def some Group 3 who have no declaration.  How does that work and what is the significance?

 

Who knew that Austin powers was a sailor and a group 3 at that?  Grrr baby, very Grrr.

[hermetic 305]

Go Petey

[Retired BN 10]

Good coverage of yesterdays three races on Youtube.

 

[Hitchhiker 1,156]

Thanks for the link 

 

[Hitchhiker 1,156]

Pretty fucking dull really!  Nice scenery though.

 

[BayRacer 79]

Apparently class and RC not optimistic about weather/wind conditions today and tomorrow.  They amended NOR/SI's to say (3) races required to award championship.

[trimfast 102]

Redress Hearing Results - Denied.  https://yachtscoring.com/event_documents/13209/Hearing1RFR-Decision.pdf

Certainly some interesting maneuvers in the video which would seemingly cause a flag, but I haven't seen any other protests.  

[jackolantern 598]

Why anyone would have a regatta on the Chesapeake and not expect it to be cut down because of wind is beyond me 

[trimfast 102]

1 hour ago, jackolantern said:

Why anyone would have a regatta on the Chesapeake and not expect it to be cut down because of wind is beyond me 

All about time of year. May can be good, October better. Just never know as it’s all frontal controlled for the most part. As an event coordinator, I would never schedule an NA before October in Annapolis.

[Wavedancer II 177]

59 vs 41 at 10:20 not a foul?

Unrelated: are those robotic marks?

[trimfast 102]

38 minutes ago, Wavedancer II said:

59 vs 41 at 10:20 not a foul?

Unrelated: are those robotic marks?

Yes they are. Trolling motors with gps called Mark Bot

[JohnMB 560]

2 hours ago, trimfast said:

Yes they are. Trolling motors with gps called Mark Bot

marksetbot

https://www.marksetbot.com/

 

[sailman 412]

20 minutes ago, JohnMB said:

marksetbot

https://www.marksetbot.com/

 

Even in the marine industry that is ridiculously expensive.  It will not save on mark boats, you still need them to deploy and retrieve it.

[JohnMB 560]

14 hours ago, sailman said:

Even in the marine industry that is ridiculously expensive.  It will not save on mark boats, you still need them to deploy and retrieve it.

They are expensive.

I'm guessing the need to have a boat deploy them would depend on location; at harbor springs last year they were quite happy to get themselves from the dock at Irish boatyard out to the course and back. It looked a bit strange seeing the three of them in a line heading out and coming back like a row of ducklings with no mother but it seemed to work fine.

They seem to be getting a good amount of use, so I would hope they represent value for money for the regattas that are currently using them.

 

[Somebody Else 896]

I have to assume that eventually the economics of scale and the refinement of the concept will allow the price to come down.

[Somebody Else 896]

So... a North American Championship with 3 races total?

You have got to be fucking kidding me!

[Bump-n-Grind 2,677]

1 hour ago, Somebody Else said:

So... a North American Championship with 3 races total?

You have got to be fucking kidding me!

an absolutely fabulous weekend for power boating

[Parma 432]

13 hours ago, Timur said:

Congrats to the boat load of pros who won it all...again.

All congrats again to the load of boat pros who won it…

[Parma 432]

Just now, Parma said:

All congrats again to the load of boat pros who won it…

It  all won congrats again to the boats who load pros..

[kent_island_sailor 5,296]

On 5/16/2021 at 6:24 PM, Bump-n-Grind said:

an absolutely fabulous weekend for power boating

They missed it by a few days or a week. I had some great sails just before this with absolutely perfect wind.

[Grrr... 2,246]

On 5/15/2021 at 4:17 PM, Wavedancer II said:

59 vs 41 at 10:20 not a foul?

Why would you think that's a foul?  Starboard boat has right of way, and is still starboard until reaching head to wind.   Port tack boat must keep clear.  Starboard is perfectly OK to alter course as long as port is given time to keep clear.

[Lex Teredo 383]

On 5/16/2021 at 6:24 PM, Bump-n-Grind said:

an absolutely fabulous weekend for power boating

Tremendous sailing... on Sunday, the day after NAs.  10-15 kts all day, steady out of the South.  Had friends out for a booze cruise.  

This comes two weeks after Wednesday Night AYCs was cancelled due to 30+ kts winds, and the first day of NOODs was skunked due to 25 kts / gusts to mid 30's, with the next day steady in the mid-high teens with early gusts into the 20's, and the third day all teens.  

May is usually pretty good around here.   It's the Chesapeake though, and she always reserves the right to change her mind, and f*** your plans.  Sometimes sucks, but most of the time she offers up 8-10 kts pretty steady.  This is why we keep an emergency bottle of good rum on the boat.  You never know when it will be needed to deal with the pain of a drifter.  Oh yeah, and a .5 kite.  

[kent_island_sailor 5,296]

19 hours ago, Lex Teredo said:

Tremendous sailing... on Sunday, the day after NAs.  10-15 kts all day, steady out of the South.  Had friends out for a booze cruise.  

This comes two weeks after Wednesday Night AYCs was cancelled due to 30+ kts winds, and the first day of NOODs was skunked due to 25 kts / gusts to mid 30's, with the next day steady in the mid-high teens with early gusts into the 20's, and the third day all teens.  

May is usually pretty good around here.   It's the Chesapeake though, and she always reserves the right to change her mind, and f*** your plans.  Sometimes sucks, but most of the time she offers up 8-10 kts pretty steady.  This is why we keep an emergency bottle of good rum on the boat.  You never know when it will be needed to deal with the pain of a drifter.  Oh yeah, and a .5 kite.  

Long ago I wrote this guide to Annapolis:

1. The wind can be 0 knots, 10 knots, or 100 knots. Possibly all in the same day.

2. The tide goes in and out.

3. We have crab traps with floats and fish traps with pilings.

4. You will have to deal with freighters, tankers, tugboats, barges, tugboats towing barges, tugboats pushing barges, fishing boats, crab boats, power boats, tour boats, sailboards, paddleboards, canoes, kayaks, and pretty much anything else that floats. Some of these things are being operated by drunks.

5. We have thunderstorms, hurricanes, and thunderstorms in hurricanes. If those get boring, we have water spouts too.

6. Jellyfish can sting you and flies can bite you. Cougars are a danger on shore with various STDs as well.

7. Due to all this, Annapolis is the WORST PLACE IN THE WORLD to sail. Note that finding a place to park a boat or a car can be quite a challenge, so somehow item #7 does not stop every boat that can fit showing up here. We only have 3 or 4 yacht clubs running races too, so if you are used to 10 or 20 you will be sad.

[Lex Teredo 383]

46 minutes ago, kent_island_sailor said:

Long ago I wrote this guide to Annapolis:

1........

Yeah, for a place that sucks somethin' fierce for sailing, it's pretty amazing how many sailors are willing to sell a kidney to sail here.  

I just take all that stuff as part of basic seamanship.  It's an education in everything you might have to deal with.  The full capriciousness of the water, possible exception of huge waves, icebergs and mola mola strikes tearing off the keel, is present here.  

 

[kent_island_sailor 5,296]

37 minutes ago, Lex Teredo said:

Yeah, for a place that sucks somethin' fierce for sailing, it's pretty amazing how many sailors are willing to sell a kidney to sail here.  

I just take all that stuff as part of basic seamanship.  It's an education in everything you might have to deal with.  The full capriciousness of the water, possible exception of huge waves, icebergs and mola mola strikes tearing off the keel, is present here.  

 

Back In The Day the race started and the wind did what it did. We didn't have a bunch of whinging bitches going on about how they wanted to throw the race out because they were on the wrong side of a shift.

[Tax Man 316]

1 hour ago, kent_island_sailor said:

Back In The Day the race started and the wind did what it did. We didn't have a bunch of whinging bitches going on about how they wanted to throw the race out because they were on the wrong side of a shift.

Shift is one thing, but when you have kites drawing from both ends towards the middle it is time to find N and wait to see which breeze wins.

[Wavedancer II 177]

On 5/18/2021 at 3:51 PM, Grrr... said:

Why would you think that's a foul?  Starboard boat has right of way, and is still starboard until reaching head to wind.   Port tack boat must keep clear.  Starboard is perfectly OK to alter course as long as port is given time to keep clear.

It looked to me that 41 (on starboard tack) had to head up to stay away from port tacker 59. Alternatively, 41 was going to tack anyway. The video probably makes the boats appear closer to one another than they really were. 

[JohnMB 560]

36 minutes ago, Wavedancer II said:

It looked to me that 41 (on starboard tack) had to head up to stay away from port tacker 59. Alternatively, 41 was going to tack anyway. The video probably makes the boats appear closer to one another than they really were. 

This is one of the instances where the hail and flag is important.

It is far from obvious that 41 is heading up to keep clear of 59, (rather than tacking on their bow). The only way 59 would know if 41 felt that 59 had fouled them would be through a hail and a flag. Absent a hail and flag 59 has every reason to believe that they did not foul 41.

 

[Mr. Squirrel 120]

On 5/15/2021 at 7:42 PM, sailman said:

Even in the marine industry that is ridiculously expensive.  It will not save on mark boats, you still need them to deploy and retrieve it.

You clearly know best.  So what should we be charging for a concept that didnt exist 5 years ago?

[sailman 412]

12 hours ago, Mr. Squirrel said:

You clearly know best.  So what should we be charging for a concept that didnt exist 5 years ago?

I did not claim to know best.  The price speaks for itself.  I could maybe see an active large OD class buying these to use at major and regional events, but at the club level it would strain the budgets already in place.  If you do know best, what wave state can these things operate in?  Current?  Duration on station?

[trimfast 102]

1 hour ago, sailman said:

I did not claim to know best.  The price speaks for itself.  I could maybe see an active large OD class buying these to use at major and regional events, but at the club level it would strain the budgets already in place.  If you do know best, what wave state can these things operate in?  Current?  Duration on station?

From their site. Max conditions 30kts with 8-10 ft waves. Max  Battery 20-24 hrs at 8-10 knots no current.

[JMOD 109]

yesterday, there was a training with dragons on the IJsselmeer. our club has a set of these buoys, pro could set and adjust the course alone. for bigger races, I agree, it will not save on volunteers as you want them standby. but for easy training sessions, it works well and the need for volunteers is diminished, keeping them free for bigger events.

[sailman 412]

22 hours ago, trimfast said:

From their site. Max conditions 30kts with 8-10 ft waves. Max  Battery 20-24 hrs at 8-10 knots no current.

Nice stats and really quite useless.  The duration in those heavy waves or high current conditions I am guessing is dramatically different.

[Monkey 2,378]

1 hour ago, sailman said:

Nice stats and really quite useless.  The duration in those heavy waves or high current conditions I am guessing is dramatically different.

So what?  They’ve obviously demonstrated that they’ll last through a day of racing. Plug them in overnight and you’re good to go for the next day. 

[trimfast 102]

4 hours ago, Monkey said:

So what?  They’ve obviously demonstrated that they’ll last through a day of racing. Plug them in overnight and you’re good to go for the next day. 

There is obviously some level of concern.  Here is a good article you all might enjoy. 

https://www.sail-world.com/news/229386/A-QandA-with-Kevin-Morin-about-the-MarkSetBots 

This does address some issues, and certainly shows some limitations.  I think the main positive response to these devices is that it does alleviate some onus on the race committee members. Although, I think anyone could honestly debate either side of it. The prices for purchase are high, but the rates for monthly subscription style service are not terrible if you are a club in comparison to other expenses.