Offshore - Lake Ontario 300

Page 96 Lake Ontario Offshore Racing Guide Lake Ontario Offshore Racing Guide Page 97
11.4 Blankets, warm clothes, sleeping bag. It is recommended that flotation
suits be carried.
11.5 Approved firefighting equipment.
11.6 A small bag rigged to float (i.e. attached to a fender) containing equipment
for use in the event of abandoning ship (dye markers, flares,
waterproof VHF, mirror, knife, etc.).
The contents of this equipment list are minimum requirements. It is recommended
that all participants are familiar with ISAF Offshore Special Regulations,
Category 3 Monohulls which can be found at www.sailing.org/documents/special-regs.php
web site.
Please remember to check the www.loshrs.com web site for final versions of
the Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions and Equipment Requirements.
Don’t forget
the LOSHRS
Banquet.
Enjoy great food and time with
friends. Pick up your flags
and trophies.
Nov. 5th,
2011
Reading
The Wind
by Dick Steigenga
It was time, MacIntosh’s instruments needed to be replaced after 25 years.
Every season saw the loss of another function so that the last year we
sailed with a GPS unit duct taped into an opening port facing the helm.
The old system a, Dana Navigate, had served us well, and a collection of spare
parts donated by other sailors kept it going well beyond the original “best
before date”. In the early 90s we had learned how to tap into the NMEA 0183
data bus and input all the data into a computer. Laptop computers were just
coming on the market and they were terrible in bright light, never mind direct
sunlight. MacIntosh sailed with an IBM 286 with the hard drive removed
strapped into a locker and an amber monochrome monitor bolted onto a shelf
viewable from the helm.
Why? Well, I had attended a course run by a major instrument company that
extolled the virtues of target speeds. By this time we had an IMS certificate,
(which was supposed to solve all rating issues forever and bring about peace
and goodwill to the racing community) and the premise was that if we were
able to sail to our targets, and maybe hit a few shifts, we would win. The problem
was, were we up to speed? And,.... on the beats and runs, were we sailing
too fast or too slow to make the best VMG? The answer was the computer.
The computer read the inputs of boat speed, wind speed and wind angle and
calculated the target speed for the conditions based on an expanded IMS database.
It was like having a coach onboard giving us instant and constant feedback
on how we were doing, but with an off switch. Did it help? Yes it did, but
I think the biggest contribution was that it helped to learn how to get the best
out of the boat. With time, we could tell if we were in the groove.
So now it was time to replace the instruments and I wondered if I could find
a system that provided the same functionality. A search on the internet led me
to Grahame Shannon who was developing software under the brand name of
AVIA. Advanced Virtual Instrument Applications.
The attraction of his system was that the entire instrument array could be on a
computer screen in any combination of digital or analog instruments but the
real attraction was that it has real-time polar charts with a simple indication of
how well you are sailing; Efficiency. Whenever the boat is on the target speed,
you’re at 100% efficiency.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with sailing faster than 100%, except on down-