12 January 2011

Crowdsourcing yachting strategies

Being a bad ass ocean going sailor, I often rely on others for the hard work like figuring out where Hawaii is or the best recipe for Mahi Mahi Tacos. But on those rare occasions when I'm sailing within the cozy confines of our natural ampitheater in a doublehanded race, strategy advice gets severely limited to me and the other guy in the boat.

In the case of VALIS, it helps that the other guy in the boat is absurdly smart and has all sorts of electric electronics that make our circumnavigation of the natural ampitheater easier. But still, I'm expected to have some sort of input or an opinion or something beyond "hey, let's trim in that jib a bit."

This is even further compounded by my offer to go to the skipper's meeting to save the other guy in the boat a drive down to Alameda. (Quick side note: the Oakland Yacht Club is not in Oakland and the San Francisco Yacht Club is not in San Francisco, who else finds this annoying?) So, I'm going to be listening to the always intense lecture on strategically navigating the Bay based on what we know at that moment 60 hours before the start of the race. And be expected to have opinions come race-time.

Since I'm just not that smart, I'm crowdsourcing to my ever-shrinking blog audience. Which way should VALIS go? Clockwise or counterclockwise? Here's what we know:

1. the currents will look like this:



2. Our start time is 10:18:18 AM

3. VALIS is a big boat and has a deadly anchor on the bow.

Please vote on direction in the poll to the right of this post.

9 comments:

EVK4 said...

That's supposed to be an animated GIF, let me figure that out.

EVK4 said...

breezetrees, I have temporarily hijacked the image off of your site. I will fix that. And thanks for letting me steal it without asking permission.

David said...

You know they changed the course this year, the western mark is now the Lightship. See you on the water.

O Docker said...

I've tried to leave a comment here three times, but keep getting distracted by those groovy pink psychedelic arrows.

If they mean what I think they do, David's right - you're going to end up at the lightbucket no matter what you decide to do.

Your sommelier just might be your most valuable crew member this year.

Zen said...

However the Alameda Yacht club is in Alameda and The Island Yacht club is on an island. Of course the San Pablo Yacht is not in San Pablo, I think somewhere in the Universal amphitheater this all balances out...maybe

Tillerman said...

In Massachusetts the Beverly Yacht Club is not in Beverly (or anywhere near it) and the New Bedford Yacht Club is not in New Bedford.

O Docker said...

The Corinthian Yacht Club is not in Corinth (or anywhere near it) and its barstools are not covered in Corinthian leather.

Tillerman said...

And how could I forget, my old stomping ground Cedar Point YC in Connecticut is not on Cedar Point, it's on Bluff Point. And the first time I went to Sayville YC on Long Island I spent ages looking for it in Sayville until somebody told me it is actually in Blue Point.

David said...

Judging by the parking lot I found you in, your voters did you wrong with that CCW advice. That was me motoring by in Lapras on the way to Alameda. I'm not sure which of us was more more whacked, you "racing" in four knots of wind against a four knot ebb or me "cruising" with the family on the only two rainy days in an otherwise sunny and warm two week span.

Hey, I have some photos for you, but can't seem to find your email address.