This is, indeed, a great addition to this forum.

As a first post, I have to say that while I love my own C36, I have found that the most fun and best value is found racing OPBs. Is anyone else out there racing OPBs?

I raced a few OPB's boats as well as being a crew member of an S-2 7.9 meter for ten years. This gave me enough confidence to enter Caprice in two series of racing with the Punta Gorda Sailing Club which conducts some very competative racing. A also race Caprice in my Yacht Club's racing series and have also raced Caprice in two Leukemia Cup Regattas.

I had sailed many years on Long Island Sound, but never raced. When I moved to Florida in 1992 I continued just cruising until I saw an article in the newspaper on racing and decided to join the Sailing Club. In the first few races on OPB's I learned more about sail trim then I had learned in my previous forty years of messing around in boats.

During my 23 years on the State Police I have had my share of some high speed chases on the interstates, but they do not compare with the excitment of a start in a sailboat race when all the entries try to get in the same favored spot on the start line and the gun goes off especially when it's your boat that is in that spot and most of the other boats are just inches away from each other going as fast as they can.

For those sailors who have never raced let me say you are only getting half of the enjoyment of sailing. Enter your boat in a race or get on someone elses boat, but get out there. As far as winning remember that old addage "If you had fun on the water you are a winner no mater where you finish in the race." I will admit though it is a nicer felling when you win.

[QUOTE=deising;3953]This is, indeed, a great addition to this forum.

As a first post, I have to say that while I love my own C36, I have found that the most fun and best value is found racing OPBs. Is anyone else out there racing OPBs?[/QUOTE]

I know that I am far more relaxed racing OPBs :) but Lucky has proven to be a very competitive boat.

We used to struggle to beat a Hunter Legend 37.5 but have had a lot of success recently against it and have our sights set on catching a Sabre 36. I recently, last week, entered Lucky in a new fleet at Lake Canyon Yacht Club. There is another MK I Catalina 36 in that fleet that I really want to race. I may very well get my back side handed to me but that is OK. I love the challenge.

Boy, you guys are too good. I was kinda hoping the next post would be, "what's an OPB?"

I have raced on Mike's boat and he is a great skipper. He is calm and competent throughout the race. I have crewed for skippers who think they can make up for their own mistakes by yelling louder; it is not so much fun.

I race mostly on OPBs. My weekly ride is a Melges 32, but my wife and I have travelled around a bit and sailed on pretty much everything up to a TP52. She is the main bow person on a Santa Cruz 52 as well. Obviously we could never afford to campaign boats like that ourselves.

We race our Cat 36 in 'fun' Thursday night races during the summer and the odd winter race, just to make sure that our 2 year old daughter gets lots of time on the water and has a high comfort level. I also race the boat in all the local single-handed races. With the baby on board, we won a lot of races in the last couple of years with our previous boat so the bar has been set pretty high for the Catalina.

Jack
Is a "Pursit Start" the same as a "Reverse Start" where all the boats are given a starting time according to their PHRF handicap. The slowest boat starts first and the fastest boat starts last? The first boat to cross the finish line wins. In our local Regattas we have two regular races on Saturday and a "Reverse Start" on Sunday for a three race Regatta.

[QUOTE=jmontani;3962]
In some distance races, we also use pursuit starts (Handicap is applied at the start - one boat on the line at a time - vs. everyone starting at the same time and applying the time corrections after the race) to expose new people to racing. QUOTE]

I like this idea. I have also heard it called beer can racing. We have been trying to talk our RC Sail to adopt this type of start to our July racing series. You could focus on your starts with less worry about all the other boats and the first one over the line is the winner. Although, with the slower boats starting first, it could make jockying at the marks interesting. With Lucky's PHRF I would have 2 boats starting behind me. The 37.5 Hunter and the Saber 36.

It may be just a small group so far, but this racing discussion forum is getting a lot of action. This was a great idea.

News from the Mediterranean!

We own Eureka since 1991, and use to race her on single/double hand regattas and in our club series here in Barcelona area (Spain).

We race under ORC handicap system, and I most say we get quite good results. 
Our actual sails inventory is; North laminated main and Genoa, two north asymmetrical spinnakers, Yankee (fly  on inner stay) and storm sail. Furling system factor flat deck with race luft profile.

Original gardhauer jammers and hardware was replaced by Antal and Harken. All halyards and sheets come from Armare and Gottifredi Mafioli.

Back stay is made of spectra and navtec hydraulic tensioner is in place. The mechanical tensioner was a great improvement as since then we are able to point higher

Hull is sanded  and Nautix anti fouling with Teflon applied with air compresor to obtain  a smoother surface.  Propellor  is a SPW folding variprofile.

I will be happy to exchange info to ameliorate performance of our C36! 

Best regards from the Med.

Wow!

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if there is a "by the numbers" sheet for the Catalina 36, when I was sailing on a Beneteau in a regatta he had a sheet that told him where the boat should be (that is the max boat speed) based on the confitions and point of sail. On the first day he followed it as close as he could and we won by a pretty good margin, on the second after a crew change he was unable to do so and it didn't go well...

I have raced in a couple of regattas with Soroki (1995 Catalina 36 TR SD) and have done well and am wondering if there is more information out there that may help cut some time off.

Any and all information is very much appreciated, thanks in advance.

You mean Polars?

I do mean polars, thanks.

Hi,

Attached the polars we use to race Eureka II. They might slightly differs from others you will find on this site.
Eureka II is a C36 TR fin keel, the polars have being “customised” to our sails guard robe (quite large) and folding propellor, Asymetric spi (110 sq m), so the figures, assume downwind you will be under asymetric spinnaker.

They are also reduced by 10% of the theoric obtienes figures in order to be more realistic. If you need polar without spi configuration, we also have it, also in different file extension .pol .txt .csv ...our polars are integrated in our navigation system so we can easily monitor the performance.
I’m sure you know the popular iRegatta app, that is extremely useful for racing.

Hope it helps,

Best regards