 Dan Knox Consulting |
September 2007 |
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A View from the Rear . . .OK so far September has been a Cracker Jack month for the Luna Sea and her crew. Especially good was August 25, 2007 a day that will live forever (thanks mainly to Peter Szasz) for all of us. (What you didn’t know what happened? What planet are you living on anyway?) On that day Luna Sea entered an I36 race and finished an I36 race ahead of not one boat but two! And those boats did not drop out or break anything or be protested out or any other nutty things. Seven boats set out at the starting line and seven boats came back over the finish line and we finished fifth. The first time since we have been racing for two years we did not finish last. In addition to our uncontrolled happiness the folks at the Golden Gate Yacht Club (aka Club Larry) probably no longer have to worry about their budget since given the size of our bar bill I am sure they are now firm financial footing. (Unlike most of their docks!) Anyway along with our news we need to point out that Windwalker has wrapped up the season championship with a couple of races to go and that Captain Hooke will be second (but still first in the hearts of buccaneers everywhere). Tom and Dave and crew must have felt like they were battling Peter Pan for there was no getting past Windwalker. For the entire season these two boats have been a fair bit ahead of the rest of the fleet. I still check for the course flag on the committee boat but I don’t know why as really all we do is follow these guys around. (People tell me it was easier to follow the red boat.) And this is getting easier to do as now at least we can stay within viewing distance, which wasn’t always the case. Actually it wasn’t the case a couple of weeks ago but that is ancient history after our fifth place finish. Anyway the season closer brought us back to our normal place in the fleet. Not even with Barry and Sylvia’s help could they make up for a few tacks from hell. It will never surprise me how many ways you can mess up something as familiar as a simple tack. “Ready About” and all of that stuff. We even practice tacks. (We practice MOB’s too and so should you!) A couple of weeks ago we went out in the slot in the late afternoon and did nothing but practice tacks in conditions that could be more appreciated from the bar at Club Larry or the StFYC. Anyway we did one after another until we were totally pooped. Then we rested a bit and then did a few more. So what did all this practice do for us in the next race? Zip. But we now know that we can do it better which doesn’t really help. Before we only thought we could do better now we know. So yes our boom is still pretzel shaped. Remember our boom? The one that bend during the sail trim clinic! Well we are still waiting for our new boom. What has it been three months, four months? Meanwhile my good friend Harry has a new boom on Pacific High one week after breaking his. One week! My crew is ready to shoot me and all we have is a flair gun which will not kill me but will make a bit mess. I won’t permit any adjustments on the outhaul of the mainsail because it has broken four times already. So this puts us at a bit of a disadvantage since this is one sail shaping tool we actually use with some confidence. How many times did Barry asked “Why can’t we adjust the outhaul again?” Anyway more about Barry: Did you know that John Melton not only was ahead of the fleet at the leeward mark but that at the end of the day Freedom Won had actually beat the boat that Barry was on. Barry wanted everyone to know that this was a first. I don’t know if he was trying to congratulate John or . . . well I’m sure he was trying to congratulate John. There is also a rumor that someone saw “The Jewelry Box” aka Zenith out sailing last week. Let me give everyone a heads up. Never spend 5 days in a row cleaning your boat and then dock next to Zenith. That plus the advice never race a guy named Lou is money in the bank. In an event I am pleased to report that after 10 races by Luna Sea and one race by Diana that we have moved ahead of Lou in the season standings. That’s right Diana showed up for only one race (Vallejo and cleaned up big time) and was ahead of us in the season standings for months. But then again the boom is straight on Diana as someone with all those cute grandkids keeps letting me know. Michele thank you again for all your hard work on the Casual Classic Series which appears to have been won by Cassiopeia since Kit seems to be the only person showing up. When I first heard about this I figured it would be well attended but these are the only events we have missed the entire year. Sorry Michele, but I still think it was a good idea and a great try. Where are those cruisers? This was for you guys! Finally to all my fellow racers and especially Kris on Tenacious I promise to actually measure the distance from our deck to that piece of red tape on I put on up on the top of our mast. I’m afraid of heights and last time I went to the top of my mast I had my eyes closed the entire time. But now that we actually beat someone (thanks again Peter) I guess we’ll need to fix that. --Dan |
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