Hi Y’all,
Assuming you’re still up to it (and no hard feeling if you aren’t :), here are the details on the upcoming race, and the practice sail:


First, the regatta itself: https://sdyc.org/calendar/event/beneteau-cup19
This is a proper regatta, but it has lots of support for first time racers (which I consider myself to be – I use to crew as a teen, but that was back in the Reagan years). I’ll be requesting a spot in the Novice class, and asking for an onboard coach.


There are 4 races, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday, but you spend the entire day on the boat (we don’t go back to port between races). We leave the dock at around 9am (don’t have exact times yet).

My neighbor will be joining us – he has many years of sailboat regatta experience. I have space for one more person to sleep on the boat, if you’re willing to sleep on the sofa :) I’ll be on the boat from Friday night through Sunday.

I’m taking the boat out next weekend (9/14 or 9/15, still need coordination, starting around 10:30am) for a practice sail – we’ll be sailing out to roughly where the race happens, and practicing the following maneuvers:

Tacking

Gybing

Raising and lowering the spinnaker (this is a stretch goal, I’m currently so bad at it that it actually slows me down overall)

Tacking

In this video, you can see a Beneteau tacking. This is demonstrating how to do it single-handed, which I do all the time. Note that the process is pretty simple: you turn the boat through the wind, let go of the rope (called a “sheet” because sailboats) on one side of the boat, and pull the sail into the other side. During the race, one person will be letting go while the other will be pulling in. Note that the main sail (the big one over you, as opposed to the one in front of the boat) pretty much handles itself.

https://youtu.be/tLnxRt_yAy0

BTW, the guy in the video will be competing against us in a bigger boat :)

Gybing

Gybing is like tacking, but the wind is blowing from the back instead of the front. The sheet you see above is handled the same way. The complication is that the main sail is usually much further out when gybing, so it whacks from one side to the other. In light wind, this is fine, but in strong wind it can damage the boat, so you have to pull the sail in in preparation for the gybe, then let it out once the gybe is complete.

– Gybing- Raising and lowering the spinnaker (this is a stretch goal, I’m currently so bad at it that it actually slows me down overall)
Tacking

In this video, you can see a Beneteau tacking. This is demonstrating how to do it single-handed, which I do all the time. Note that the process is pretty simple: you turn the boat through the wind, let go of the rope (called a “sheet” because sailboats) on one side of the boat, and pull the sail into the other side. During the race, one person will be letting go while the other will be pulling in. Note that the main sail (the big one over you, as opposed to the one in front of the boat) pretty much handles itself.
https://youtu.be/tLnxRt_yAy0
BTW, the guy in the video will be competing against us in a bigger boat :)
Gybing

Gybing is like tacking, but the wind is blowing from the back instead of the front. The sheet you see above is handled the same way. The complication is that the main sail is usually much further out when gybing, so it whacks from one side to the other. In light wind, this is fine, but in strong wind it can damage the boat, so you have to pull the sail in in preparation for the gybe, then let it out once the gybe is complete.

Raising, Lowering and Gybing the Asymmetric Spinnaker

I have a ‘socked’ asymmetric spinnaker. Raising it takes two steps – you pull the sock up to the top of the mast, then you raise the sock and let the spinnaker fly. It gets very complicated if you want to do it quickly (like, in race) because you’re transitioning from upwind to downwind, so you have the front sail up and have to raise the spinnaker behind the front sail then roll up the front sail.
Lowering it is the same but in reverse: you lower the sock, then lower the sail to the deck.
Gybing with the spinnaker up is a pain in the ass too: you have to lower the sock (but leave the sail up), then gybe, then raise the sock on the other side.
This sounds complicated, and it kind of is, so here are some videos:
Raising and lowering the spinnaker: https://youtu.be/meFkAZcx4VIGybing with Spinnaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbLoLfL0Lfk
Footage of a past Beneteau Cup – you can see the spinnaker work as the boats turn around the marker to head downwind. Pay attention to what the crew is doing – that’s basically what we’ll be doing, but slower and with more beverages.
https://youtu.be/fj7-c5wTUPc