California Adventure - Yacht Racing

Every June when I come to California to teach Japanese students at Cal Poly Pomona I e-mail my old sailing buddies and get myself invited to a yacht race. Spray is a 30ft racing sailboat. I used to crew on this boat for about four years, then had to bow out to finish my doctorate. So last night, Molly, Me and Seth went out on the Spray and spent the evening racing. Afterwards we had a BBQ at the Seal Beach Yacht club treated by the boat owners.

In this video we are on our way out of Alamitos Bay and are raising the sails. One person on the bow guides the sail. A second person (Molly) pumps the halyard, and a third person (Joe - bottom right) cranks the winch.


Seth's first duty was to familiar himself with the course chart and to read the flags at the starting line and tell us which way to sail.


Later in the race on the downwind leg, Seth had to keep the main sail fully extended so it would catch the maximum amount of wind


Molly and Seth relaxing during the race with Kathy, who worked the main sail. Notice everyone is wearing sailing gloves. Leather in the palms to prevent rope burns and to help with the grip on wet lines, and no ends on the fingers so you can pick up and handle the lines (ropes) easier.


In this video we are tacking, which requires that we change the jib (forward) sail from one side to the other as quickly as possible. Its is a brief, frantic process. I released the sail from the port (left) side winch and then helped Seth pull in the sail to the starboard side while Joe cranked on the winch to get the sail all the way over. When the sail is full of wind there is hundreds of pounds of tension on the sheet (another name for a rope that tied to a sail), so you need a winch to get it tight enough. The person pulling on the rope (Seth) is "tailing". If you don't pull on the tail of the rope, the winch won't grab it.