Purple is wind, Blue is current, Green is the favored course, Gray is the harder course and the triangles and red balls are the race course
Monday Night Race July 7th, 2025 “Do Your Homework”
The racing tonight had a bit of everything. We had current, light to moderate breeze and big shifts. It was imperative to do the pre race work to determine the proper course to the windward mark. This pre-race work is termed “Homework.”
#1 Turn the boat head to wind on the line to determine the favored end – the end the boat points more towards is the favored end.
#2 Run the line to learn how long the line is in seconds.
#3 Go by a speed buoy, crab pot or government mark to see the current.
#4 Get Bearings – sail a short beat off the line to get some bearings on shore to help me understand whether I’m lifted or headed as I come off the line – this is also good warmup for the crew.
#5 Make a race plan.
In the first race the boat end of the line was slightly favored, the line was about 40 seconds long, the current was ebbing (flowing out towards the Bay) pretty hard and the bearings would have been approximately David Taylor Research Center and Greenbury Point.
A good race plan would have been to start at the boat and head left on starboard tack into Horn Point to get out of the current. Once the boat neared the port layline then look for a header to tack onto a lift. This course would have mimicked the green course on the diagram above.
The left side that was in the inshore of Horn Point – and had less current – really paid off. We coached several boats to tack onto starboard and head that way. They passed the boats they were with when they tacked.
Current flows faster in deeper water so the area around and inshore of Horn Point had less current than the area out to the right of the race course. The boats that stayed on Starboard tack off the lay line did much better than the boats that tacked onto port after the start.
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