GBCA Discussion Forum

Commodore's Ball is scheduled for February 2nd at Nassau Bay Hilton.

REGISTRATION: https://www.gbca.org/event-3135050/Registration

Last year we had a full house with a waiting list, so we expanded the space. But, there is a limited number of registrations, so make sure to register early to guarantee your spot.

GBCA's Chili Chase Regatta is a 2 part event. The first part (sailing), will be a 19.68nm Star Course or a 14.27nm Bowtie Course. The second part is the the chili competition at the clubhouse after the racing. Chili will be judged as Best Overall Chili and Best Chili submitted by a competitor who sailed the regatta.

Competitor's Briefing: Friday, 11/30/18 at 1900 hours.
Warning Signal: Saturday, 12/1/18 at 1100 hours
Awards: Saturday, 12/1/18 at approximately 1800 hours.
Registration: https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_registration_form.php?regatta_id=17802

I'm looking to relocate the red buoy for Rum Races.

Anyone who has coordinates of objects they have hit, or seen (the pvc oyster plots don't count), please send them to me. I will plot these and work on placing the mark to avoid these obstructions. More than likely, it will make the course shorter.

We are aware of a boat tagging Marker 55 last Rum Race and there was some concern about the marker being at a severe angle, or missing.  As the last boat to round M55 on Rum Race #3, it was present and vertical.

GBCA is working with LYC/JBoats SW in promoting JFest 2018.

JBoats Southwest will be sponsoring the Post Race food for Rum Race #4, July 14th. Everyone is encouraged to wear their previous years JFest wares (hats, shirts, etc..) to the party. Everyone who wears wares can be entered for the "Infamous Random Prizes" to be awarded at the party. Must be present to win.

I was talking to Bob Saunders of Superior Dive Works yesterday, and he was telling me that the hull bottom growth has been terrible this year, and there has been a brown carpet-like fungus that grows from the bottom up. So far, it has not been marina specific - just all over. They are having to scrape the fungus off and they wipe the bottom. Obviously, this requires more time and more frequent cleanings.

I mention this because if you are set up for quarterly cleanings, your bottom may be not as clean as you expect. You should always have your bottom cleaned before each race, but if you do not clean the bottom everytime, you are leaving a lot of boatspeed on the course.

Time to get the kids out on the keelboat and let them play in the "big league".

GBCA's Jr. Regatta will be July 28th; parallel to Rum Race #5. There will be an entry fee for the Jr Regatta because it is a separate event with specific trophies to be awarded at the after party.

https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_registration_form.php?regatta_id=16118

TRW Sailing Instructions have been posted with an amendment.

We are told that GA 190 is not present, therefore replaced by GA 210.

Please goto Regatta Network and note the changes. An email has been sent out notifying the change.

http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/16844

Unfortunately, we will have to reschedule the Single/Mixed Doubles Regattas due to low participation.

We are looking for the new date to be October 6 & 7, 2018.

We apologize for any inconvenience and hope everyone that is already registered can make the new date, but if that is a problem, please let me know.

We look forward to seeing everyone at Texas Race Week, June 6-9th...


cheers...
Scott Tuma
Fleet Captain

Thursday: At Drunkn Monkeyz with Castaway Radio playing
Friday: Still negotiating
Saturday: Awards party at the Texas Seaport Museum and Tall Ship Elissa. Catered dinner with Beer and open rum bar. Fidelity Maxx is playing.

It is time for Galveston Bay's ONLY junior keelboat regatta; GBCA Jr. Skipper Regatta.

Event information is located here: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/16118

We have several junior programs and some very talented kids; it's time to let them shine on a big boat. This regatta is perfect to get the kids introduced to the next step; keelboats.

We have changed the format this year to run the Jr. Skipper parallel to our Rum Race #5 on July 28th. The Jr. class will be a seperate class  among the fleet.

I am doing a slight alteration to the finish line for WNR.

The finish line will be between an orange flag and the black finish mark. It is intended for the orange flag to be located on a floating pole out from the pier; intending to keep competitors away from the submerged tree. We may be installing a permanent pole with an orange flag.

Boats attempting to finish outside (between the orange flag and the pier) the finish line will not be considered finished. They will have to "unwind their string" and finish correctly to be considered finished.

This change is for safety reasons. 

To accommodate the Texas Youth Race Week, we have decided to move the date of the Junior Skipper Regatta to July 28th. The GBCA Junior Skipper Regatta is the ONLY junior keelboat regatta in the Galveston Bay area.

We are going to try something new for this one; we are going to blend the Jr. Skipper with the existing Rum Race on July 28th. I will get the NOR out next week, but we will have a minimal entry fee, separate class flag for the Jr.s, and will do the awards at the Saturday Social party.

This will give the opportunity for ALL of our youth sailors to get some keelboat experience. We have some fantastic programs, now is the time to get these kids to the next level.

With that, if you have a boat and are willing to host a Jr. Skipper (someone under 18 years of age), please shoot me a message. I will make a list of available boats and available skippers.

The crew page is up.

If you are looking to crew on a boat, or looking for crew; visit our Crew Page: http://clearlakeracing.com/index.php/crew-list.

Over the winter, we shut down the page and cleared it out of previous crews. Everyone on the page is newly submitted. I know of a lot of situations where a temporary crew became a permanent crew member. This is our attempt of match making...

Please note we have a crew flag for those who are able to jump on a boat last minute. This flag is located at the end of the Villa Capri pier and is bright pink. It can be seen across the lake. If you have a boat and needing crew, you will need to sail the boat to the VC to find and pick them up. But, it may be something workable in the future. Or, it may be a windy day and you need one more body.

If someone reminds me at the awards, I will set up a section for available crews where skippers can pick and choose crew.

This year we are continuing using the US Sailing Portsmouth Yardstick rating system. This system can be used as a single point rating (D-PN number) (like PHRF) or a multi-point (rating changes with wind speeds) rating system. I do not believe a single-point rating system can be remotely accurate; boats perform very differently in different wind conditions. A multi-rating handicap system is a bit more work for the race committee, but our races are not that long to worry about drastic wind changes. Every race, race committee has discussions on the wind strength and direction.  We do have ananonometer and digital display on the committee boat (donated by Davis Marine Electronics) as well as some phone apps that will record average and max wind speeds. This year we are also making some rating adjustments based on performance. Like most rating data bases, they are only as accurate as the data submitted. For myself, when evaluating a boat's rating and performance, I look at the sail condition first. If someone feels their rating is off, they better have new sails and a good two years of data. Basing a boat's rating off one or two races is not valid. Luckily, with about 20 races per year, we get some very accurate data. We are working on a page or link that will list the rating changes for this year. On the changes, we have done an "across the board" change with the wind ratings. Monitoring and applying changes for each wind range is very time consuming, but I'm sure we have some data analysists that would enjoy this type of challenge. We are one of the clubs that submit our results to US Sailing to be inputted in their database. 

Here is the link to the US Sailing Yardstick Handbook: http://www.ussailing.org/racing/offshore-big-boats/portsmouth-yardstick-handbook/  Which may not load if you are not a US Sailing member. I am working on linking a pdf from the website. This handbook describes the rating method and the factors applied. 

Over the last couple of Icicle Races, I noticed some boats using a whisker/spinnaker pole on the clew of their asymmetric spinnaker. What is done, they are sailing wing on wing with the main on one side and the asymmetric spinnaker poled out on the other side. I think this is more of a misunderstanding of the rules rather than a purpose breach of the rules. I apologize for the delay of me making this post, but I needed to verify I was thinking correctly before I said something. The Racing Rules of Sailing states the following:

"50.3 Use of Outriggers
a. No sail shall be sheeted over or through an outrigger, except as permitted in rule 50.3(b) or 50.3(c). An outrigger is any fitting or other device so placed that it could exert outward pressure on a sheet or sail at a point from which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck. For the purpose of this rule, bulwarks, rails and rubbing strakes are not part of the hull or deck and the following are not outriggers: a bowsprit used to secure the tack of a sail, a bumkin used to sheet the boom of a sail, or a boom of a boomed headsail that requires no adjustment when tacking.
b. Any sail may be sheeted to or led above a boom that is regularly used for a sail and is permanently attached to the mast from which the head of the sail is set.
c. A headsail may be sheeted or attached at its clew to a spinnaker pole or whisker pole, provided that a spinnaker is not set."

Basically, the sheet of a spinnaker cannot be held out by a spinnaker/whisker pole. There have been times I have seen a boat have the spinnaker pole and boom on the same side; this is not allowed either. There are some clubs that add this as a line item in their sailing instructions.

Besides it not being allowed by the rules, it becomes a HUGE advantage. Let's say a boat uses an asymmetrical tacked to the bow. They get a 9 second per mile rating bump. Now, they run downwind with a poled out asymmetrical. The disadvantage of using an A-Kite almost disappears. We are not intending to adjust parameters to make certain configurations a benefit, we are intending to make racing fair. The whole premise of the asymmetrical matrix was for like boats racing a windward/leeward course against symmetrical spinnakers. We fully understand the limitations of an A-Kite downwind, that's why there is a credit to the rating - because it becomes painful.

If someone has a question, you can PM me.

There will be a celebration of Life for Karl Schneidau on Saturday, march 3, 2018 from 3pm to 6pm at the Houston Yacht Club Beachcomber. Please come and join the family and share your favorite memories and stories of Karl with all of us.

If you have a Karl story, please feel free to post it here as well.

Registration is now open for 2018 WNR

http://www.clearlakeracing.org/index.php/2018-registration-to-race

NOR is posted and registration is open for Performance Cup 2018: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/16038

I am going back old school; longer legs. Handicap classes will be racing triangle windward/leewards with 3-5 nm legs (weather dependent). One-design will be running a windward/leeward course with the same idea on distance. I will be offering an ORC class also.

I feel this will appeal to our Cruising Club fleet as well as our more dedicated racers. The starts will be the more traditional RRS 26 start where everyone will start even and the results are calculated at the end. The great thing is the boat can stretch her legs and the crew can actually enjoy the ride. Last time I ran this course, we received high raves for it. This is what Galveston Bay needs, getting back to the course that started it all...

However you want to race, we will have a class for you; Cruising Club, PHRF, ORC or even with "training wheels"...

GBCA and HYC are working with LYC to promote and host the first Storm Trisail Safety-at-Sea Seminar on the Gulf.

Here is the link with more information: https://www.stormtrysailfoundation.org/lakewoodsass

We are looking to provide volunteers and boats for the event. If you are willing, please send me a message and I will give you the contact info: FleetCaptain at GBCA dot org.