admin May 5, 2024 Sailing Comments (0)
We missed our turn in the Safety Boat at Easter because of the bad weather, so Paul and I were out in the Safety Boat on Sunday for the Late Spring Race Series. We did the morning and afternoon races. We get points in the race for this—maybe the only ones we will get.
Before racing can begin, the course needs to be set up, and this is the first job for the crew of the Safety Boat. We set out to deploy the buoys.
H for Home
S for the Dog leg
M for the end marker - although I thought it was a W - its hard when you are that closeup.
This was my first time deploying a buoy, so I had my first lesson. Take out the anchor for the bucket and set it so the digging-in bits stick out. These anchors were like grappling hooks, and the digging-in bits I learned were called flukes. So, I dropped the anchor and chain at the desired location and put the buoy in the water.
Being very new to these racing sailing boats, I have little to no idea about starting, racing, and finishing. Paul has an app on his phone that listens to the Klaxon for the 5-minute warning and then goes through the start sequence, the flags, and a countdown. The app also listens for other klaxons to keep the timing accurate. Paul could give me a countdown to the start of the race, which was the same as race control.
The Dinghy Sailing Race Controller app for Android only, seems to do everything, recording the times for the laps and calculating the winner. It's good on the water to know when the race starts, and it's good in the box, too, for taking all the hard work out of racing.
There is a lot of time to spend in the Safety boat, slowly chasing down the stragglers and being in the mix of things so that if the boat is needed, it is where it is needed.
Much of this spare time was converted into filming. We had some great angles on the boats and plenty of time. The weather was fair in the morning, with just a few clouds in the sky. With light winds and a strong stream, only three competitors entered the race. Two Safety boats were required: one with the boats ( the one I was on) and the other ready to launch in case of problems.
