At Rock Hall Yacht Club on the picturesque Maryland Eastern Shore the Div11 H17 Championship and Points Regatta will be held on Sept 26-27th. The RHYC members have been working hard to prepare for the arrival of the Div11 "Hobie" sailors. The food for a delicious roast chicken dinner has been ordered .... the +8acres of lawn has been manicured so there is plenty of space for boat set-up and camping .... the "marks" have been inflated and tested ... and the beer is chilling in the cooler ... hopefully the ol' printer won't crap out before finishing printing the SI's ... so I think we are close to being set .... hopefully ....

So hope to see you this weekend at RHYC

Information at: www.rockhallyachtclub.org

Harry Murphey
TheMightyHobie18/#9458
Fleet54/Div11

I was really looking forward to this event. First time in almost two years that I'd be able to race my new 17 against the Division 11 crowd. I even put a blurb in the last HOTLINE asking all the east coast 17s to put it on their schedule.

Then, two weeks ago . . . Karen-Ann X. asked me to be the PRO for the F18 Canadian Nationals. With over 40 boats, this will be the largest F18 event in North America this year.

4.5 hr vs 11 hr drive
$0 for gas vs $200 for gas

Didn't take me long to say "Yes", even though I really, really wanted to race the 17 again.

Sorry, Harry. I'll try to make it next year. Have a great time and I'll miss you guys.

$200 for gas? Get an RV, then we'll really hear the crying start!

I've also got a prior engagement. Good luck to both events.

Mike

Matt and Mike,

We'll miss you guys ... wish you could attend it should be a great time.

Question that you guys maybe can answer ... What year were the H17 NA's held in Upstate New York +5yrs(?)ago??? We located the "Hot Pink" marks used for that event(origonally from the Atlanta 96'Olympic Games), to use for the Div11 H17 Championship this year for added MoJo ......

The Hot Pink color looks awesome in pic's ... they just "pop" out visially!!!!!

Harry

In Syracuse

1994 H17 Nats
1997 H16 women, youth and H17 Nats
2002 Alter cup on Tigers
2004 H16 women, youth, open

...looks kinda like you're overdue for another?

Mike

17/18 NAC's were held in New York in 2000.
Ken Marshack took first in the H-18 Fleet.
I believe one of his son's took second.

NY is just too big...

The event in 2000 was on Long Island, not "upstate" as Harry was referring to. Great event, though!

In 2007, the 17/18s were also in NY, at an upstate location OTHER than Syracuse... Geneva. Not quite as much wind as Long Island (except for the 14 and 16 Youth/Women warmup event)...

In any case, my memory is fading about where I last saw those pink marks. I thought it was Delaware, but who knows???

Mike

There are two possibility among the dates. Pat mentions a 1997 event .... but that date seems too early. I think the 2000 event that Stephen lists is mostly likely the one I remembered that the Hot Pink marks from the 96 Olympic Games where used at. If memory serves me correctly it was a Div 11 H17 sailor that passed the request on to borrow them, (maybe Jimmy Glanden?) The marks have sat in storage since that event ..... but are still remembered by the Div11 H17 sailors who were at that event ... Wally at the June RHYC event surprised me w/ a comment/request ... " Harry, where are those "Hot Pink" race marks? They were the best marks I ever race around. I could see them forever." And I happened to know where they were located ... about 300ft away in a storage trailer recently relocated to RHYC. I think Wally could feel the presence of the marks ..... and what Wally suggests/requests .....

Harry Murphey
TheMightyHobie18/#9458
Fleet54/Div11
RHYC member

PS: the 2007 Youths/Womans/H17/TheMightyHobie18 NA's were not list. Kuddo's to the New York Hobie Sailors ... thats alot of Championship events to host !!!!!!

I thought it was in Upstate New York .... but it could have been Delaware at RBSC as that is also in the correct time frame.

The multitude of roots of my grey hairs are now long enough that they effect my memory ....

Harry

Send those pink marks out to Havasu so they can be used by the 17/18s THIS year.
Thanks in advance, Harry. See you in Ocean Springs....

Rock Hall Hobie Regatta Results and Photos are Posted at Rock Hall Yacht Club.

Rock Hall YC Regatta Page

More Photos
Many thanks to the volunteers who got in 9 good two lap races for the Hobie 17's and 8 for the rest of the 32 boat field.

After 9 races. The Div 11 Hobie 17 championships ended in a TIE. Which was resolved when the two boats approached the down wind finish on opposite tacks. Meyer edged out Raybon by 3 feet!

Final Results

Bill Kast thought it was a blast!!

"After 9 races. The Div 11 Hobie 17 championships ended in a TIE. Which was resolved when the two boats approached the down wind finish on opposite tacks. Meyer edged out Raybon by 3 feet!"

Well, sort of...

The pic you posted above doesn't show the finish you described, but does prominently display "Big Pinky" as Means and I were calling that mark, the last time I recall seeing it was in DE (I've worked on the weather mark with Means for more NA regattas than I can remember).

Anyway, the regatta score was only tied because Myer beat Raybon in the last race. He actually won it by having more first place finishes (after beating him to the finish to set up the tie). Had Raybon passed Myer, Raybon would have won cleanly, 13-15.

So, you're basically right, Myer needed to beat Raybon in the last race to win the regatta, and vice-versa...

BTW, nice pics. You know you're at a yacht club when the shotgun comes out...

Mike

Yeah ... The text was misleading but I did not find a colorful finish pic of two 17's... I really just wanted a big pink mark in the photo for the thread.

.... the pic is actually of Meyer and another 17 at the Weather Mark... I was not on the RC finish boat on Sunday for the big finish. Most of their races on Sat were very close as well.

Interesting debate on the RC boat. How long of a finish line. We set a separate finish line on starboard and opted to make it a decent length. This stinks for getting sail numbers off down wind finishers but it seemed to give the racers more options on finishing by not having to call a lay line through a 5 boat length finish line.

Am I right about that?
Several recent regattas have set short finish lines for me and they are great if everyone is spread out and the race has been decided.... (We could have raced those guys for two hours and they were not going to separate)

The finish line should be short, typically doesn't need to be wider than a gate. If the starting line is long because of a big fleet, the finish line will appear dramatically shorter than the starting line.

Lots of things to consider of course... Upwind vs. downwind finish, spinnaker classes, wind/wave conditions, size of the fleets, how many you expect to finish at once, etc.

Separate start/finish line is definitely becoming the favored way to go, keeps things moving rather than waiting for all boats in all classes to finish before starting the next race (assuming no wild course changes are needed). People need to be reminded not to park on the finish line, though...

Mike

Yes... that turns out to be tough to remember to remind the fleet at the skippers meeting.... Instantly clear to the PRO on the water after the fact.



John Macilag, the PRO, handled the 30 degree shifts this way. All starts were independent.... no rolling the start sequence. Big wind shift on the course but the 16's and 18's were still rounding A mark and you could not move it. Rather then wait and hold up the 17's who were ready to go again.

He flew the gather round the boat flag for the Hobie 17's. He then flew change of course flag and notified the fleet that they were now on the change mark... which was yellow. and we posted the new change mark heading on the compass board.

He then started and finished the 17 sequence. No flags on the RC boat. Meanwhile, He then had the pin boat relocate the pink A mark inside the now dropped Yellow mark. The 16's and 18's continued to sail around Pink all weekend. It was just relocated prior to their starts. It certainly kept things moving and everyone sailed to their proper mark.

First time I have seen it done this way and it worked well.

Even when you remember to remind them, they sometimes forget...

Anyway, I have been discussing the latter issue (using the change mark as the initial weather mark) with the powers that be around here (OAs and upper USSA ROs) for at least a year, and there is surprisingly some resistance. I think we just need to do it and show how well it works.

I think that the best way to do this would be to add a single line in the SIs that if the C flag is flying with the warning, you're going to the change mark first. It would probably be better to pick a different flag (something without another meaning in the SIs or RRS) if the signal boat is near the gate, so boats going through the gate don't get confused.

The C flag procedure is covered by RRS 33, and specifically states that it's for legs that begin at rounding marks (not starting marks), so this would need to be included in the SIs.

You have to fly this special flag no later than warning, otherwise you are changing RRS 27.1 (which is not recommended).

The advantage of using the special flag is, you don't need to hoist L and wait to round everyone up and make sure they understand on the water (this process can be a challenge in breeze or lack thereof). And, unless there's something in your SIs allowing a change to the SIs on the water (which is rarely done), your procedure is out of whack and you could get hit for redress.

Having said all of that, at weekend cat regattas, it tends to be less of an issue because we're all pretty cool about this sort of thing as sailors and RC, and everyone just wants to race a good race.

Mike

If you want to keep a secret from the sailors . . .


Put it in the Sailing Instructions.

The procedure has always been available (it's in one of the questions on the National RO essay exam) but it's rarely used due to the high probability of confusion. Competitor confusion results in redress, or worse, an abandoned race.

"If you want to keep a secret from the sailors... Put it in the Sailing Instructions."

Excellent quote!!!

It's only confusing because it isn't done often enough. It can be even more confusing for the mark boat guys, which is an even bigger issue.

Generally speaking, when the wind shifts with multiple classes on the same course, it's impractical to effectively use change marks anyway.

Mike

Hi Guys and Gals,

It's taken a few days to get caught up on my other responcibilities after the RHYC Hobie Regatta. So I want to thank all the sailors in Hobie Div11 that attended and help make the event a big success. And of course the members themselves of RHYC that opened their club for the second year in a row to host this event and volunteer to help make the event possible. Without both groups sailing events like these just wouldn't happen. And there are also our "friends" who are not RHYC members or Hobie sailors who just show up and volunteer.

The competitors started to show up Friday afternoon and continued into the night ... the registration table/check-in opened w/ RHYC's resident geek Mrs Connie Ranney solving computer issues and solving problems (she is our secret asset !!!!) .... with Ms Kathy Jane manning the bar, staying several hours past normal closing time. Saturday started as a beautiful day ... the skipper's meeting was held on the deck overlooking the Chester River/Race Course ... and the racing commenced ... (5)races were held while during the fifth a few "sprinkles" rained down to give a fore-taste of what was to come .... we all retired to the beach and dropped our sails ..... then it started to rain ....

A delicious dinner was served in the clubhouse's dining room .... after the dishes were cleared Mr Geoff Becker hosted a Sailing Rules seminar that lasted till almost 10:00pm .... we then adjourned to the "Log Canoe Lounge" to watch the Penn State-Iowa football game (Boo-Hoo, Boo-Hoo ...)

It POURED and POURED all night ..... and stopped at approximently 6:00am ..... Yaaaa

Under cloudy skies the racing resumed at 10:00am ... by 12:00 noon we were racing under partly sunny skies w/ white fluffy clouds ...

In the end (8) races were held for the H16 and TheMightyHobie18 fleets with the H17's having a "bonus" (9)th race. The competition in all fleets was close with no-one dominating.

The Race Committee was excellent: PRO-Mr John Macielag, Mrs Lynn Flannigan, Mr Mark Schnieder ... Windward Mark Boat Mrs Connie Ranney, Equipment/Gate Boat- Mr Tom Tontarski/Mr Lee Urbani .... Scoring- Mrs Connie/Mark Schnieder

And Thank You to Mr Geoff Becker for sharing his in depth knowledge of the "Racing Rules of Sailing. (Parts of Geoff's talk are posted on YouTube ... "rolltak's channel")

I won't list result's here as "Pic's and Results" are posted at www.rockhallyachtclub.org

Harry Murphey
TheMightyHobie18/#9458
Fleet54/Div11
RockHall Yacht Club

Ps: Mike L, What flag would you suggest, sir??? From my position on my TheMightyHobie18 I didn't even see the change flag the first time .... the second time was a bigger windshift/course change and I finished just in time to see the H17 sequence start .... all I know is it worked flawlessly/seemlessly. We are going to re-work RHYC's SIs over the winter, would you like to check w/ US Sailing's Rules Commitee and ask them for a recommendation as to which Flag and wording for the SI's. I think something like this, it's best if it is standardized to prevent confusion