Sailing

NEWPORT BEACH — Balboa Yacht Club began accepting invitation requests for the 55th Governor’s Cup International Youth Match Racing Championship set for July 25-30.

The “GovCup” is the world’s oldest junior match racing championship; participants come from all over the world to participate in this week-long event held the last two weeks of July.

The event is presented by Disc Sports and Spine Center and is an invitational event open to sailors under 23. The event will be sailed in identical “Governor’s Cup 22” sloops provided by the Newport Balboa Sailing & Seamanship Association and BYC, designed by yacht designer and BYC Staff Commodore Alan Andrews. The boats are suited for racing in wind speeds of as little as 4-5 knots and perform well in 18-20 knot conditions.

To procure an invitation, skippers are asked to write a short statement about their experience racing on a three to four-person keelboat and provide their top three match racing accomplishments as well as any other sailing accomplishments from the last two years.

The 2022 Governor’s Cup has applied as a Grade 3 regatta with World Sailing.

Defending Champion Jeffery Petersen (USA) and World Youth Match Racing Champion David Wood (USA) have committed to attending the event.

The club also expects to be joined by teams from New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as several other teams from Europe depending on COVID-19 conditions come, July.

Participants in the Governor’s Cup have gone on to compete and win the America’s Cup, the Congressional Cup, Olympic medals, and the World Match Racing Tour Championship.

Winners like Sam Gilmour, who came out of the Governor’s Cup with two backto-back wins in 2013 and 2014, went on to compete in the Congressional Cup, where he placed third. He is expected to join alums Taylor Canfield, Campbell, Dennis Durgan, and Gavin Brady as Congressional Cup champions. The deadline to submit a request is April 8 at 5 p.m. To learn more about the event, visit the Governor’s Cup website at https://www.govcupracing.com/. To request an invitation for the cup, visit: https://bit.ly/3o0RS4l.

2021 Governor’s Cup winner Jeffrey Petersen (USA) leads runner-up Emil Kjaer (DEN) in the fi nals of the 2021 Cup.

By: KATHERINE M. CLEMENTS

CAPE HORN— On Jan. 18, sailor Ryan Finn set out to break a record on a 19th-century clipper-ship route taking him from New York around Cape Horn and up to San Francisco on his 36’ Proa Jzerro.

Finn is taking the solo journey after making a promise to himself while fighting cancer.

He is attempting to defeat the world record for the fastest single-handed route to San Francisco, which is currently 81 days, by finishing his journey in 70 days; this is Finn’s second attempt at the record.

Finn is heading down to South America, following the Atlantic Coast; once he has hit South America, Finn

Ahoy sailors, now that you’ve mastered the anatomy of the sailboat, next up is safety. Here is an in-depth breakdown of all the safety requirements you should know before setting sail. Stay tuned for next week when we break down how to get your boat out on the water.

By: KATHERINE M. CLEMENTS

SOUTHERN CALIF.— Harnessing the power of the wind and bending it to glide your boat across the water is beautiful. Sailing does, however, raise some safety concerns that should be entirely understood and practiced each time a sailor hits the open waters. This issue’s lesson will address all safety precautions. We did the research; you just have to read it!

A hiking strap or harness can help sailors avoid falling into the water, and caution can help you avoid the boom. Every crewmember or passenger onboard a sailboat should wear a life jacket. Yes, they can save your life, but only if you’re wearing them. New life jacket models are noticeably more comfortable than those of old, and some even come with a safety harness and tether built-in, ready to clip to a jack line along the gunwales of an offshore sailboat.

Safety goes beyond life jackets; other accessories can make sailing safer as well: • Safety glasses guard eyes against loose tackle. • UV-blocking sunglasses protect eyes better. • SPF-rated clothing and sunscreen block skin from the sun. • Fingerless nylon- or leather-faced sailing gloves make handling lines and cables easier and gentler. • An Automatic Identification System receiver can keep you posted on the paths of large ships and commercial passenger vessels so that you have extra time to avoid them.

Smaller sailboats have centerboards or daggerboards that help the boat track well but don’t do much to keep it upright. In one of them, there’s bound to be a time when your boat is “knocked down” by a sudden wind blast or a crew mistake. tered or away from the wind) because the wind’s force overcomes the crew’s ability to hike or let the sails out. It is essential to practice capsize recovery drills before you need to use them independently. When the vessel is on its side and the sails are in the water, you should act promptly to right the boat (the act of reversing a capsized boat is called righting). The Scoop Method of recovery gets its name from one crew being “scooped” into the cockpit, as the other rights the capsized boat.

1. Tread water near the stern until the scooper has control of the centerboard. 2. Move to the centerboard trunk and free the mainsheet, jib sheets, and boom vang if possible. If necessary, throw the windward jib sheet over the high side to the scooper to assist the Scooper in getting up on the board. 3. Hold on to a cockpit structure as the boat goes upright and gets scooped in. 4. Balance the boat and steer it into a safe position. 5. Help the scooper on board over the stern.

1. Move around the boat to the centerboard. 2. Climb up onto the board, using the jib sheet if it is unavoidable. Always try to avoid putting pressure on the tip of the board; you can break it this way. 3. Once on the board, make sure the scoopee is ready for the boat to be righted. Place your feet close to the base of the board where it enters the hull and leans back, bracing yourself with the tail end of a sheet or halyard for leverage until the boat gradually comes upright. 4. Swim to stern to climb back on board.

If the boat capsizes and the helmsman falls into the water: 1. The helmsman should unclip the mainsail and boom vang. 2. The mainsail should be lying to the leeward of the hull in the water. If the mainsail is lying to the windward of the hull, the boat can be rotated, so the sail lies leeward, or it can be brought upright, which will result in the boat quickly capsizing again but with its sail lying in the water to leeward of the hull. 3. Helmsman moves to centerboard, climbs onto it, and, holding onto the gunwale, leans back to bring the boat upright. 4. Helmsman climbs in over stem.

Ship grounding is the impact of a ship on seabed or waterway side. The relatively deep drafts of sailboats, thanks to keel fins and center- and or daggerboards, means extra attention is needed to avoid grounding. The 2017 investigation into the grounding of a Clipper Round the World yacht in South Africa delivered some interesting lessons for all sailors. The most important points learned were that the skipper was the only person in charge of navigation and became distracted by other tasks and lost situational awareness. The chart plotter (an electric navigation device) was below decks, and there was no route marked on it. The displays at the helm did not show depth, nor were there shallow water alarms set, and that started out clearing any dangers that became unsafe through gradual changes to the wind direction.

To learn from this event, remember to plan ahead! Good planning of your passage will not only highlight areas of concern but also enable prompt and effective corrective actions to be taken should the depth unexpectedly decrease and induce grounding.

Set an alarm! Alarms are a useful tool although, to be effective, like everything else on your boat they need to be trimmed (adjusted to your sailboat). Alarms should be adjusted to reflect conditions and set to a level that will ensure they are not constantly sounding and therefore get ignored. An audible alarm will allow less experienced crew members to comfortably stand watch and be sure of exactly when to call the skipper; they’ll also alert a skipper whose attention has been drawn elsewhere. In addition, having an XTE alarm onboard is very helpful. Cross-track error alarms will sound once your track has strayed too far from the rhumb line. Ensure there are sufficient waypoints in your route to make these effective.

Of course, the weather is always a consideration for a responsible boater, but a weather eye is even more important to a sailor who can’t pick up and run from storms as can one in a powerboat. The U.S. Coast Guard said in its “A Boater’s Guide to the Federal Requirements for Recreational Boats,” offers these tips to identify an approaching change in weather, which usually brings the most challenging conditions.

• Flat clouds getting lower and thicker. • Puffy, vertically rising clouds getting higher. • Dark, threatening clouds, especially to the west/southwest. • A sudden drop in temperature. • A halo around the sun or moon. • Increasing wind or a sudden change in wind direction. • Flashes on the horizon. • Seas becoming heavy. • Heavy AM radio static, which can indicate nearby thunderstorm activity.

• Reduce speed to the minimum that allows continued headway. • Make sure everyone on board is wearing their life jacket. • Turn on running lights. • If possible, head for the nearest safeto-approach shore. • Head boat into waves at a 45-degree angle. • Keep bilges free of water. • Seat passengers on the bottom of the boat, near the centerline • If the engine fails, deploy a sea anchor (or bucket if there’s no sea anchor aboard) from the bow. • Anchor the boat if necessary.

Sometimes, a sailor needs to stop everything during frantic sailing practice, pause, adjust, and adapt. That can seem impossible when the wind’s blowing. In his book, “Learn to Sail,” legendary sailor Dennis Conner highlights a “time-out position,” where the sailor needs to release the sheets of the mainsail and headsail—if so equipped—while the wind is at right angles to the boat’s centerline. When the boat has stopped, aim the tiller at the sails to release pressure on the rudder. You’ve effectively taken your foot off the gas and the “car” out of gear. Take a cleansing breath and purge the anxiety, figure things out, then return the helm to parallel with the centerline, trim (snug up) first the headsail, then the mainsail, and you’re back in action.

Sailing is powered by the momentum that it brought about by the wind. If the wind has died down, the sails will become slack, and your sailboat will just drift along. So, unless you have oars or a motor attached to a propeller, you might not go anywhere. You can rely on Hydrodynamics of the Water Flow. It’s physically impossible to have a total absence of wind while out there on the water. But if that happens, you can rely on the heat from the warm zone to the cold zone, which will create some form of hydrodynamics or flow, which would then create currents that will propel your sailboat, even if not in the same way as the winds.

Sailors should document in writing who to contact if something goes wrong as well as keep a record of: • Where you’re going. • What your boat and tow vehicle look like.

ON THE HORIZONS

By: JORDAN B. DARLING

DANA POINT— The Dana West Yacht Club is hosting the 92 Annual SCYA Midwinter Regatta just outside of Dana Point Harbor on Feb. 12. The regatta is open to all boats of the non-spinnaker class. Registration is open until 8 a.m. on the day of the regatta; there is a $27 fee for boats under 10 feet, a $37 fee for boats 10-19 feet, $45 for boats 20-30 feet, and a $55 fee for boats over 30 feet. Members of US Sailing receive a $2 discount with proof of membership. There are three races scheduled for each class. The fi rst warning signal will go off at 11:25 a.m. The starting area is located .8 miles southeast of the harbor entrance. For more information, contact Barry Clark at race@dwyc.org.

MARINA DEL REY— The California Yacht Club is teaming up with the Southern California Yacht Association to host the 92nd Annual SCYA Midwinter Regatta on Feb. 19 and 20 in Santa Monica Bay. The event is governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing and is open to J/70, Martin 242, and Star class boats. Registration will need to be completed by Feb. 16 at 6 p.m.; there is a $45 entry fee and a $2 discount for US Sailing members with proof of membership. Seven races are scheduled for the event, and courses are in a windward and leeward format. The races will start approximately one nautical mile northwest of the Marina del Rey breakwater. For more information, contact event chairs Justin McJones at ripplezero@gmail. com or 310.213.4391 and Madeleine McJones at homecoding@gmail.com or 310.213.4392.

CHANNEL ISLANDS— Channel Islands Yacht Club will host the 92nd Annual Southern California Yachting Association Midwinter Regatta in the coastal waters outside of Ventura and Channel Islands Harbors on Feb. 19 and 20. The regatta is open to all boats in PHRF Spinnaker, Non-Spinnaker, and J24 One Design Classes. Registration is due no later than Feb. 18 at 5 p.m.; there is a $45 entry fee for boats between 20-30 feet and a $55 entry fee for boats over 30 feet. The fi rst race is scheduled for 11 a.m. on each day, no races will start after 3 p.m. Boats will be scored using time-ondistance, and any boat that has not fi nished by 4 p.m. will be scored DNF without a hearing. There are no throw-out races allowed for this event. Registration can be done online at https://www.regattanetwork.com/ event/23567.

CORONADO— The Coronado Yacht Club, in partnership with the Southern California Yachting Association, will host the 92nd Annual SCYA Midwinter Regatta in Glorietta Bay on Feb. 19 and 20. The regatta is open to all boats in the Martin 16 and Harbor 20 classes. Registration is due no later than Feb. 18 at 3 p.m.; there is a registration fee of $27 for boats under 10 feet, $37 for boats 10-19 feet, $45 for boats 20-30 feet, and a $55 fee for boats over 30 feet; US Sailing members receive a $2 discount with proof of membership. The fi rst warning signal is set for 11:54 a.m. For more information, contact Jaime McArthur at cgsailingmasterandcommander@gmail.com or Curtis Milioti at fl eetcaptain@coronadoyc. org. To register for the event, see https://www.regattanetwork.com/ event/23582.

Several clubs are hosting the 92nd Annual SCYA Midwinter Regatta throughout Southern California. For a complete list of clubs participating, see the regatta network at https://www. regattanetwork.com/html/calendar. php.

From page 23

• Include sail numbers or logos on your boat. • When you plan to return to mainland. • When is an appropriate time authorities should be called if you’re not back by your documented return time goal?

While sailing requires special attention to the weather, water conditions, riggings, and responses, all these tips and advice will enrich the experience of riding on the wind.

This document should be given to the person whose judgment you trust best to help you if your plans don’t pan out.

This information can protect you when out on the water and riding the wind! plans to work with weather routers to navigate the safest and fastest route to San Francisco.

Finn is aiming for an average daily speed of 10 knots throughout his trip.

Finn’s Jzerro weighs roughly 3,200 pounds. He has added a water filtration system to his boat, making the overall load much lighter.

The 36’ Proa Jzerro features Colligo Marine Extra Lightweight Headsail Furling (ELHF) Systems, Engineered Synthetic Standing Rigging, Torque Rope for the storm job, and Colligo Dux Running Rigging.

“Colligo Marine Products are very durable,” Finn told Sail-World. “I am very happy with them. They are the one thing I’m secure about throughout this journey.”

Finn is currently in the Atlantic Ocean, sailing south between South America and Africa as he gets closer to the tip of Cape Horn. You can keep track of Finn and his journey through a tracking app or on his Instagram account.

From page 22

Finn has been updating followers on his progress.

Fleet of 9 sailboats specifi cally designed for adaptive sailing.

Challenged Sailors San Diego provides FREE therapeutic and recreational adaptive sailing opportunities for people with disabilities to enhance their dignity, well being, and independence.

(760) 690-6594  info@challengedsailors.org