Foiling Magic

Yesterday, out on the bay, only a handful of sailors went out.  It was the ‘Usual Suspects’ of Kuba Surowiec, POL41, Jacek Noetzel, POL1, Michal Korneszczuk, POL111, Emmanuel Dode, FRA2 and Dave Shaw, NZL 270 who just can’t see a body of water without needing to be on it.    But now joined by Valdek Kwasniewski, POL 120, David Haylock NZL284 and Lamberto Cesari ITA13.  But they’d forgotten to book a suitable wind, so initially stooged about in sub minimal conditions of 3-4kts, with the odd 5kt blast, all coming from the NNE.  The sea state was benign, with a slight .5m chop coming in from the Pacific direction.

They were found a couple of miles offshore, in a sort of ‘Pod’.  Not sure what the collective noun for a bunch of A-Cats is, but maybe a ‘Pod of A-Cats’ suits?  That distinctive Orca dorsal fin, and black and white colours are all reminiscent.  So I shall continue to use that term until the authorities stop me.  These are super tricky conditions to sail in, right at the bottom of the class legal envelope, which is 5kt min.  It demands far harder concentration to go fast at that end, whereas at the top end of 22kts, it requires a different set of skills to merely remain in contact with the planet surface and not snap the things in half, at the bottom, smoothness and gentle touches are needed and merely ‘suggest’ that the boat sails at all. Hence the reason they were all out putting the time in on the water for which there is no substitute.

We are seeing weather patterns now, as a result of climate changes, where regattas are sailed in ‘all or nothing’ winds.  The good old days of those lovely 10-13 kt days seem to have become treasured memories to tell the great grandkids about, to fill the long evenings in those climate controlled, subterranean, habitation zones that you will be undoubtably living in by then in our collective dystopian futures…

But enough of next year. Today, the pod was hunting for any breeze to get going in. As a result, they were drawn Nor-Nor East to an area thought to be more fruitful.  The PredictWind model had forecast the breeze to pick up as little as the day progressed, to the hope was there. And very gradually it clicked up.  With my trusty mark-layers essential tool, the anemometer, readings were taken and showed 4.5-5kts as the pod started to pick up speed.  Jacek and Valdek showing the way in their low drag Classic boats. 

But then the newly discovered superpower was deployed by the Open lads.  Practice makes perfect, and the hours the likes of Kuba but quickly taken up by Emmanuel and Lambi and others, have put in to get their boats up on foils in 5 kts of wind is astounding.  Wait for or sail into a gust of maybe 2 kts or more.  The boat will speed up, careful playing of the mast rotation and steering should allow you to get up to that magic v2 speed of 11kts, where the boat will lift off, as you have pre-set your foil angles.  Once clear of the water, the reduced drag allows the apparent wind to kick in and in the space of maybe 50m the things are flying serenely off at some 19-20 or so knots, with the resultant silly grins it induces in the sailors.  The free practice time with your new sailing partner friends is invaluable here.  Sailors who are forced to sail alone at their clubs are at a distinct disadvantage in this respect. Guys, you need to find a training partner!

So after a few hours playing up and down the lovely North Auckland coast with its iconic skyline with that big tower you see at New Year with fireworks squirting out like a palm tree, they headed back to the beach.  The Club restaurant was opened a day earlier to serve it’s wonderful fayre.  Then the fireworks started.  November 5^th is Firework Night here.  A weirdly British tradition that seems to have been taken up with gusto by Kiwis.  Essentially it is to celebrate the failed plot in 1605 to assassinate the Protestant King James by a radicalised Catholic English mercenary call Guy Fawkes thirty odd years before the territory of New Zealand was even ‘discovered’.  And to celebrate this non blowing up, people like to blow stuff up in tribute. See, it’s weird.    

  Thursday, PredictWind is promising a little more wind in the afternoon.  More sailors have arrived and will be rigging and setting up, so hopefully we’ll get more elegant A-Cat action.