Out in the Safety Boat

 Out in the Safety Boat

​We missed our turn in the Safety Boat at Easter because of the bad weather, so Paul and I were out in the Safety Boat on Sunday for the Late Spring Race Series. We did the morning and afternoon races. We get points in the race for this; maybe they are the only ones we will get.

Setting up the Course

The course needs to be set up before racing can begin, and this is the first job for the Safety Boat crew. We set out to deploy the buoys. 

H for Home
S for the Dog leg 
W for the end marker

This was my first time deploying a buoy, so I had my first lesson. Take out the anchor for the bucket and set it so the digging-in bits stick out. These anchors were like grappling hooks; the digging-in bits I learned were called flukes.

So, I dropped the anchor and chain at the desired location and put the buoy in the water.

Let the Race begin

Being very new to these racing sailing boats, I have little to no idea about starting, racing, and finishing. Paul has an app on his phone that listens to the Klaxon for the 5-minute warning and then goes through the start sequence, the flags, and a countdown. The app also listens for other klaxons to keep the timing accurate. Paul could give me a countdown to the start of the race, the same as race control. 

The Dinghy Sailing Race Controller app for Android only, seems to do everything, recording the times for the laps and calculating the winner. It's good on the water to know when the race starts, and it's good in the box, too, for taking all the hard work out of racing. 

Camera Boat

There is a lot of time to spend in the Safety boat, slowly chasing down the stragglers and being in the mix of things so that if the boat is needed, it is where it is needed.

Much of this spare time was converted into filming. We had some great angles on the boats and plenty of time. The weather was fair in the morning, with just a few clouds in the sky. With light winds and a strong stream, only three competitors entered the race. Two Safety boats were required: one with the boats ( the one I was on) and the other ready to launch in case of problems.