Won at the Gun: Fall Breeze Series, Night Two
Four boats came out to Utah Lake on Thursday night for the second night of the Fall Breeze Series, and the committee got two races away before sunset. On paper it was a quiet evening: a steady northwesterly, one lap of a short triangle, no protests. On the GPS tracks it was something more useful. The two Catalina 25s in the fleet carry the same rating, took one win each, and neither win had much to do with the sailing between the marks. Both races were settled at the start line.
The night
Provo airport, about three and a half kilometres from the course, logged a northwesterly of 7 knots from 320° through both races, building to 8 by 7:56 PM under clear skies. The tracks agree with it. Nobody needed more than one tack to reach mark 1, and the reach to mark 2 was the quickest leg for every boat.
The course was one lap of 0.71 nautical miles off S Jetty Rd, marks left to port. In that breeze it sailed as a port-tack beat to mark 1, about 370 metres north; a beam reach to mark 2, 400 metres southwest; a run back to mark 3, just below the line; and a short beat up through the line to finish. Scoring was PHRF time-on-time.
| Boat | Design | Sail | PHRF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter Spotter | Catalina 25, swing keel | 3779 | 228 |
| Summer Breeze | Catalina 25, fixed keel | 1690 | 228 |
| Valhalla | Catalina 27 | 4207 | 204 |
| True Luff | Catalina 28 Mk II | 584 | 198 |
Race 1: the committee boat is the end of the line
The gun went at 6:27 PM. With the breeze in the northwest, the pin was the upwind end of the line by roughly 40 metres, and one boat used it. Otter Spotter reached in along the line, was a few boat lengths back at the gun, and crossed at the pin 16 seconds later with nobody near it.
Two boats made the same mistake. Summer Breeze and True Luff both lined up to the right of the committee-boat end, where there is no line to cross. Each had to bear away, sail back down below the line and come up again inside it. Summer Breeze got away 2:46 after the gun. True Luff, which was also 250 metres back when the gun went, got away at 6:27.
Valhalla started about two minutes late, also at the pin end, and was the second boat home. Here is the part that stings. Summer Breeze beat Valhalla on corrected time by 3.8 seconds. Valhalla needed to cross the line 4.7 seconds sooner, out of a race of almost nineteen minutes.
The run cost True Luff as much as anything bar its start. It steered about eight degrees low of the line to mark 3, passed 80 metres below the mark, and sailed 522 metres on a 390-metre leg. That leg took True Luff 6:12; Summer Breeze did it in 4:31. It is a shame, because True Luff sailed the fastest first beat of any boat we have a track for.
| Place | Boat | Crossed the line | Elapsed | Corrected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Otter Spotter | 0:16 | 17:27 | 13:42 |
| 2 | Summer Breeze | 2:46 | 19:24 | 15:14 |
| 3 | Valhalla | about 2:00 | 18:55 | 15:18 |
| 4 | True Luff | 6:27 | 24:01 | 19:34 |
Every track on this page came straight out of the race. Each phone logs its boat's position throughout, and Race Replay puts the whole fleet back on the chart afterwards with a scrubber you can drag. Drag it to zero and freeze it: where you were at the gun, and where the line actually ended, stop being a matter of opinion.
Race 2a: everybody found the line
The second gun went at 7:02 PM with a little more breeze, and the fleet learned fast. All four boats were over within 47 seconds of the gun.
Summer Breeze had the start of the night: three boat lengths back at the gun, at full speed, in the middle of the line, and over after 15 seconds. Valhalla matched it at the pin, arriving on a reach at 4 knots and crossing at 0:19. True Luff went at the committee end at 0:40. This time it was Otter Spotter that was caught out, about 70 metres back at the gun and over at 0:47.
Then the first beat. Otter Spotter sailed one port tack and arrived at mark 1 exactly on the layline, the fastest first leg of the race at 3:56. Summer Breeze overstood for the second race running, sailing 456 metres to reach a mark 370 metres away. It was going half a knot faster than Otter Spotter and lost only 19 seconds, which tells you what laying the mark would have been worth.
After mark 1 there was very little in it. Summer Breeze had the fastest reach of the night for the second time, 2:46 at up to 5 knots against 3:08 for Otter Spotter and 3:10 for True Luff. The run and the finish beat were within ten seconds for all three tracked boats. Valhalla was first across the line at 7:14:51, eight seconds ahead of Summer Breeze, but a Catalina 27 owes a Catalina 25 time, and Valhalla took second on corrected by 13 seconds.
| Place | Boat | Crossed the line | Elapsed | Corrected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summer Breeze | 0:15 | 12:55 | 10:47 |
| 2 | Valhalla | 0:19 | 12:46 | 11:00 |
| 3 | Otter Spotter | 0:47 | 13:26 | 11:13 |
| 4 | True Luff | 0:40 | 13:58 | 12:08 |
Won at the gun
Put the two Catalina 25s side by side and time each one from the moment it crossed the line rather than from the gun. That strips out the start and leaves only how fast each boat sailed the course.
In race 1, Summer Breeze gave away 2:30 at the start and clawed back 33 seconds. In race 2a the two boats sailed the course within a second of each other, and Otter Spotter lost by 31 seconds, having given away 32 at the start. Two identical boats, two races, and the result both times was simply the start gap, less a little change. On a 0.7 mile course there is no time to recover. A start that costs half a minute costs the race.
On the night, Summer Breeze takes it on points with a 2 and a 1, from Otter Spotter (1, 3), Valhalla (3, 2) and True Luff (4, 4).
The five-minute habit: in the sequence, sail to each end of the line and look down it. Know where the committee boat ends it and where the pin does, and which one is further upwind. Two of the four boats lost race 1 before the gun on exactly this.
Report cards
Graded from the tracks, so leg comparisons are among the three boats with complete ones. Full disclosure: Otter Spotter is the author's boat, and it gets graded on the same numbers as everyone else.
| Boat | Start R1 | Start R2 | Beat to mark 1 | Reach | Run and roundings | Night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer Breeze | C− | A | C | A+ | A− | A− |
| Otter Spotter | A+ | C | B+ | B | A | A− |
| Valhalla | C | A | n/a | n/a | n/a | B+ |
| True Luff | C− | B− | A− | B− | C | C+ |
Summer Breeze. Good: the fastest reach in both races, by 20 seconds or more; the best start of race 2a; won the night. Work on: the layline to mark 1. It sailed 68 metres past the mark in race 1 and 46 in race 2a, and tacking a little earlier is the cheapest time on this boat's whole track. And in race 1, check which side of the committee boat the line is on.
Otter Spotter. Good: the only on-time start of race 1, at the favoured end; laid mark 1 exactly in race 2a; the tightest roundings in the fleet, all six within about five metres. Work on: the race 2a start, 70 metres back at the gun. And reach speed: the sister ship was quicker on that leg in both races, by 0.6 knots on average in race 2a, which is worth a look at sheeting and sail choice.
Valhalla. Good: a textbook pin-end start in race 2a, at speed on a close reach; first boat home in race 2a; within four seconds of second in race 1. Work on: the race 1 start, which cost the two minutes that 3.8 seconds was hiding in. And the phone. Its tracking dropped out in both races and both finishes were hand taps, and a hand tap is only as accurate as the hand. In a race decided by 3.8 seconds, a late tap is a real candidate for the difference. Keep the phone somewhere with a clear view of the sky.
True Luff. Good: the fastest beat to mark 1 in race 1; laid mark 1 almost exactly in race 2a; a clean second race with every rounding inside five metres. Work on: finding the ends of the line before the gun, which cost six minutes in race 1; steering the rhumb line on the run to mark 3; and remembering the rating. At 198, True Luff owes the Catalina 25s about 30 seconds a mile, so it has to be clear ahead on the water, not alongside.
Otter Spotter's and Summer Breeze's race 1 finishes were recorded by GPS Finish: each phone watched its own boat cross the line and logged the moment it happened. Otter Spotter's recorded finish lands within about a second of the crossing on its track. When second and third place are 3.8 seconds apart, that is the difference between a result and an argument.
Next week is Fall Breeze Series #3. On the evidence of these two races, the cheapest time on the water is still the two minutes before the gun.
See your own race from above
Committee Boat HQ runs the start sequence on every phone in the fleet, records each boat's track and finish, scores PHRF live as the boats come in, and gives every skipper a replay of the whole race afterwards. It's all on the phone you already carry.
Sources
- KPVU METAR observations, Aviation Weather Center (NOAA), reports from 5:56 PM to 7:56 PM MDT on September 10, 2026 (wind 320° at 7 knots, then 8 knots; clear skies).
- Race tracks, finish times and results: the Committee Boat HQ race records for Fall Breeze Series #2 and Race 2a, September 10, 2026.
- Reading Your Own Race Replay: 5 Mistakes You Can Only See From Above, Committee Boat HQ (how to read a start and a layline from the tracks).
- Time-on-Time or Time-on-Distance? A Club Racer's Guide to PHRF Scoring, Committee Boat HQ (the time-on-time correction used for both races).