There is another reason Pettibone might not have enjoyed racing Tuesday from her position on the leeward side of the boat. These limits seem a bit low to the casual racer. This is because the race committee takes the wind speed measurements from an anemometer mounted ten meters above the water. Wind speed increases as you gain elevation from the surface of the water. The other factor here is that the rule says that the wind must exceed 18 knots for a solid five-minute period, so if once during five minutes, the wind dips to 17.9 knots, the race is still on.
Most sailors agree that the wind is generally fluctuates a knot or two most of the time.
So we knew this morning that the wind was likely to be over the rule limit at race time, but this did not deter our gung-ho race committee chairman, Vince Cooke. Early on he signalled his intentions to try to start racing today as scheduled at 1315. So it was business as usual this morning. The only changes to our normal morning routine was the decision by Paul not to take 49 out as a tune up boat, and to delay our dockstart by 30 minutes to avoid as much as possible beating up the boat and crew. Clouds' forecast was, as it often is, spot on.