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Around the World of Sailing
25 July 2001
This weeks features:
Finish Line
List of boats winning flags in both 'Mac Races'
Great Lakes 70: Holua 3rd Chicago, 1st Port Huron
Open: Gamera 1st, 3rd
Open: Nice Pair 2nd, 1st
PHRF: Rumors 1st, 2nd
PHRF: Time 3rd, 1st
Water Level Update
Here is an informative feature that used to appear in the
Friday edition of Sailing Daily. Below you'll find water
level info that pertains to Lake Michigan and Huron. For
information on other lakes see:
http://huron.lre.usace.army.mil/levels/weekly.html
Reference Point
Inches below Chart Datum +0
Difference From 29 June 2001 -2
Difference from 29 June 2000 -4
Difference from long-term Avg. -24
Difference from Record High -54
Difference from Record Low +11
Forecast for 20 August 2001 0
Rowing Reporter
The Rowing Reporter is a weekly column of commentary and
observations by Ike Stephenson, Marine Informationist. It
concentrates on the home waters of Around the World of
Sailing, Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.
**************
Readers Write
During our coverage of the Port Huron to Mackinac race Roger
Rummell wrote, "How are "ratings" used to adjust actual time
to corrected time in order to determine a race winner?"
Most of the boats race using the PHRF rating system.
Boats are assigned a single number rating. For example
in PHRF A Goblin.com rates -6.
Insatiable rates -3.
The lower the number the faster the boat.
Allowances are figured on a per mile basis. The course for
the Port Huron Mac course is 253 miles. In the above example
that equals 759 seconds or 12 minutes 39 seconds.
To win Goblin.com would have had to finish 12 m 39 s or more
ahead of Insatiable. Goblin finished @ 0912,
Insatiable @ 0933 a difference of 21 minutes. Therefore
Goblin.com is the winner by 8 minutes 30 seconds.
Judy Betz asked a Tall Ship related question, "Will the tall
ships be approaching Muskegon down the Lake Michigan
shoreline?" After visiting Bay City and racing to the
Straits of Mackinac, the ships will split up. Some will be
across the lake, others perhaps to the north. So it's
unlikely you will see many ships pass your location, but
still possible.
*************
New Magazine: Great Laker
Recently Issue 1 of Great Laker Magazine was released. This
is a product of a collaboration between Neil Schultheiss of
boatnerd.com and Roger LeLievre of Know Your Ships.
The Quarterly magazine will feature: lake boats, travel and
lighthouses. The first issue features current commercial
freighters that actually served in World War II, tips on
travelling to Duluth Minnesota and an article on the Great
Lakes oldest lighthouse in Marblehead Ohio.
The magazine is an excellent choice for those interested on
the working waterfront of the Great Lakes. The editorial
team is as knowledgeable in their subject as is possible.
A visit to http://www.greatlaker.com/subscribe/ for a $ 14
annual subscription will get you 4 shots of interesting
maritime reading per year.
************
Better Sleep at Night?
After the recent Chicago to Mackinac race, I took a solo
voyage from Mackinac Island down Lake Huron to Port Huron.
With voyage time of 36 hours sleep would at some point be
necessary.
The logical and prudent time to sleep would seem to be the
daytime. You have your best visibility and can best see any
obstacles. No matter it seemed I could not flake out during
the day.
I think the reason is that the sky was bright and sunny and
I could see all too well. I saw the freighters that could
cause me problems. I saw the shoreline I was running.
At night my world closed down. Freighters were collections
of lights, not hulking metal objects. The shore was shown
by occasional lights and long dark stretches.
At night navigation is by light blink.
What color is the light and what is the period of it's flashes.
If your GPS said Poe Light, you can verify this in your small
night time world by light blink. If you find an ISO White
light every 2 seconds you're verified.
An alternating green and white 20 second light is Thunder Bay
off Alpena. A single flashing white light every 20 seconds
and you can know you're near Point Au Barkes Light.
Even though I could see less, and technically it was more
dangerous I felt more secure at night. I had a dual lock on
my position via GPS and light blink plus I could sleep!
*************
Lab Racing
There's a definite contrast in sailboat racing these days.
At a recent buoy racing regatta, a wind that varied from
270° to 290° kept officials from running a race. Apparently
a compromise upwind heading of 280° didn't work.
British sailor Neal Macdonald describes perhaps the premiere
lab racing boat the IACC sloop: "ACC boats are far from
being well suited for that type of race: they are
thoroughbred racing machines designed for pure upwind and
downwind VMG sailing." There's a reason that races must be
set up in a scientific manner.... the boats can't do ought
else. It seemed to this participant that they should set a
course and let the wind gods wrestle with the sailors.
After reading the wind comes right after riding the wind in
your basic definition of sailing.
Contrast this with a couple of this summer's offshore events.
The Transpac where Santa Catalina Island is the only mark on
the 2225 mile course. Or the EDS Atlantic Challenge.
On the leg from Portsmouth England to Baltimore Maryland
there will be no waypoints, making it a 'free course'.
Quite a contrast and a harkening back to the old days of
sailing ships carrying cargo port to port by the fastest
route without regard to waypoints and dealing with everything
the watery world had to dish out!