[Sonar] Race Course Congestion

[Bert Foster]

Hi Becca,
Yes, I'm chairman of the RC and have been working very hard to reduce 
congestion.  The wind yesterday was fluky and the fleets got more 
mixed up than they have all season

We Sonars have been on the same course all year with the S2 7.9s and 
not had much of a problem as they start 9 minutes ahead of us and 
should be a much faster boat.  Yesterday we tangled with two S2 7.9s 
all race.  I hailed one, "Wind Dance"; "what are you doing back here 
with us and don't tack on our air"  They replied "sorry, we only have 
a small jib and wanted to come to play anyway."  They then herded us 
beyond the windward mark lay-line and gassed us all the way into the 
mark.  Its hard to know what to do with a boat so far off the pace 
they end up more than 9 minutes behind and badly bothering other 
fleets.  One would hope they would make a special effort to not gas 
the smaller boats and to generally stay clear.  Frankly it was a mess 
at the very close Sonar finish with those two badly sailed S2 7.9s 
gassing all of us.  I was reported to me that "Wind Dance" sailed 
through the finish line of the right course as some of the Capri-25s 
were finishing.  Boy, were they mad and they sought me out to sound off.

The S2 7.9 is particularly difficult because they are a big fast boat 
that throws a very large wind shadow.  Then they are very hard to get 
around or away from when they are sailed poorly, because they are 
still fast.  When they are sailed well, they are "GONE'", and not a problem.

We also had problems with some J-22s because the wind was so fluky, 
the bottom half of their fleet fell back into the Sonars.  That 
hasn't happened much this season as they have often times sailed the 
right course, in the stronger winds earlier, its wasn't much of a 
problem even when they were on our course.

When we changed the starting order and put the S2 7.9s first, Tom 
Elsen, the S2 7.9 fleet captain promised us their boats would do to 
us what they did to us yesterday.  Lets hope he can clean it 
up.  Part of the problem is that even when a boat is that far back, 
their competitive juices flow and they tend not to give way.

Regards,

Bert Foster
Chairman RC WYC
19150 Park Ave
Wayzata, MN 55391
h 952-473-2240
w 952-544-1100
c 612-281-9999



At 09:53 AM 6/4/2007, you wrote:

>Bert,
>
>Are you still on the RC?  I don't think the committe boat planned 
>well to put the S 2.79, 22's and us on the same race course 
>yesterday.  Too much traffic...can we address this for the future?
>
>Becca