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Left or Right?

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Left or Right?

Left or Right? This is probably the most asked question in yacht racing. Going fast is important but it is no good being the fastest boat if you are going fast the wrong way.

That’s why, no matter how fast you are, you must consider whether you want to go left or right.

Strategy

When racing, we must employ strategy. Strategy is the plan you employ for getting to the next mark as quickly as possible.

Strategy is a plan that takes account of wind direction and strength, current, waves and the position of the next mark.

These factors are different every time you go out on the water and they change constantly while you are racing and often vary across the course as a result, the difference between going left and going right can be huge.

On the first beat, work hard to take advantage of changes in wind direction and velocity, current and the geometry of the course. The existence or absence of waves is another factor you should consider. 

Before you can actually plan a strategy, you must observe the racecourse. Collect a bunch of helpful information including data about wind and current. Do this before you leave the beach.

Weather

Look up weather forecasts and current charts and don’t forget to tap into the local knowledge of other sailors.

Get out to the course area early and start looking around and make observations about what is actually happening. It may not be exactly what was predicted.

After the race starts, don’t stop thinking about strategy, the wind and current are always changing. An added dimension is that now you have many other boats to help you see which side of the course is really favoured.

The best way to plan your strategy would be to view the racecourse from overhead. Since that is not possible while racing, you must keep your head “out of the boat”. Focus on the big picture.

Your strategic plan could be as simple as, “Hit the left side hard”.  It might be more detailed, like “Start 1/3 of the way down from the RC boat and play the oscillating shifts up the middle right  side.”

Don’t forget to keep re-thinking your strategy during the race. You will be constantly getting more information about the wind and other strategic factors. 

It is not always obvious which side of the course is favoured and there will be times when you’ll have no idea whether to go left or right and in fact, even the best sailors don’t have a strong feeling about which way to go on the first beat in as many as 50% of the races they sail.

When this happens, what should you do?

Unless you’re sure the right or left side is favoured,  stay near the middle of the fleet. Keep your eyes open. The beginning of the first beat is a great time for seeing what the wind is doing and which side is paying off.

Once you get some clues about which boats are gaining, head that way quickly. You will probably come out behind the boats that sailed to the favoured side but you took much less risk. Hopefully, you will still be in the top group at the first mark.

If you can do this every race, you’ll be successful. 

Sailing Specific Fitness

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Sailing Specific Fitness – I have summarised below some of the nuggets that I read in Michael Blackburn’s excellent book “Sail Fitter” and I highly recommend that if you are serious about getting faster on the race track your fitness is one of the major factors that will influence your results.

Michael’s book is full of excellent advice and training tips from a qualified person, not only qualified academically but with proven on-the-race-track achievements.

Be Adaptable – 

If you turn up to go sailing for a heavy air workout in your boat and the day turns out to be a drifter, cancel sailing and hit the gym.

When end up sailing, follow up with a hard gym session working on the muscle groups that would have copped a hammering if you had sailed in strong conditions.

If you have scheduled a gym session and you turn up in not-so-good condition such as lingering fatigue then you might reduce the volume and/or intensity of the session.

Recovery –

Use ice and cold water recovery practices and remember that you don’t get fitter from training until you get a chance to rest and let the body rebound.

You can recover faster for your next training session using recovery strategies like cold water immersion.

Develop Your Back –

The back is the part of the body that sees the most injuries for sailors. 

An important part of your fitness training is to include exercises for the lower back and deep abdominal muscles and you should try to do something with each of these muscle groups every day.

Shoulders –

These are the sailor’s next most problematic and injured body part and it is the sudden movements of the arms over a large range of motion that will affect your shoulder joints. 

If you have a weakness in this area or simply want to assist your body and to prevent injuries, sailors should include shoulder stabilisation exercises. Michaels’s book or YouTube are two great sources of these types of exercises.

Hip Flexors –

 Because of the way we sit in our boats, the hip flexors are in a shortened state. At the end of the sailing session, you need to engage in stretches. This helps the muscles recover, helps in reducing lower back issues and helps improve your posture.

Equipment – 

To assist with hiking, consider battened hiking pants, these will enhance your endurance. Grip on the boat with appropriate materials will enable you to move without slipping and sliding. The same goes for having good gloves, effective soles on your boots and a wetsuit with nonslip and kneepads.

A sometimes overlooked fact is that hot muscles are less efficient. Correct clothing for the prevailing conditions needs to ensure that muscles stay cool.

Be Scientific –  

Keep records of your fitness the aim being to find out by trial and error what works and what doesn’t. Body weight is something you should keep an eye on. Many classes have an optimum weight or weight range.

Keep a spreadsheet or notebook with exercises and food programs. It is sometimes helpful to look back over the years gone by to see what you have done by way of food and exercise to achieve different results.

Many elite sailors have records stretching back over 10 or more years.

Hiking Exercises – 

A Swiss Ball makes an excellent hiking bench to train your legs and work on your abdominals. This is a particularly useful exercise if you have had a number of light days. It keeps your muscles in peak condition for the next blow.

Better Technique –

Michael says that you are better off hiking at 90% rather than if hiking at 100% you end up fatigued. This affects your ability to steer, trim and decide tactics. 

What you lose in the righting moment you gain in these other areas.

 

Sailing Fast In Light Air

By
Brett Bowden
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0

 

Although light air sailing is far from most sailors’ favourite conditions, it does provide the greatest number of opportunities to make the biggest gains.

A well-sailed boat can develop a great speed advantage and at times it can go literally twice as fast as its competitors – so it is not unusual to see the largest race-winning leads developed in the lightest of conditions.

Boat preparation can also play a much more significant role in the improvement in position on the race track, things like removing any extraneous weight, cleaning and polishing the bottom.

Another light air must is taking unneeded purchases out of sheeting systems and using the lightest possible sheets to enable sails to set in the smallest puffs of breeze.

UPWIND

Good telltales are essential to enable you to set draught and twist plus an effective masthead wind indicator, wool tufts on the shrouds work well and I have even seen boats that have taped incense sticks to the shrouds, they burn very slowly and provide a smoke trail to show wind direction.

Light Air

In most cases in light air, a flatter sail performs best because it allows the airflow to remain attached to the sail. In the case of the mainsail, a firm outhaul will flatten the lower section of the main whilst allowing the leech to be more open.

Prebend the mast to flatten out the entry to the mainsail and the Cunningham and vang should be completely slack.

At no time should the leech of the main be angled farther to weather than parallel to the centreline. In drifting conditions, the technique of trimming the upper batten parallel to the boom is dropped. The upper batten is set parallel to the centreline.

Traveller

The traveller is sometimes pulled all the way to weather in super light conditions so that the slightest puff will allow the boom to lift easily, but as the breeze picks up, drop the traveller down again so the boom stays at or below the centreline while you are trimming the upper batten parallel to the boom. 

There isn’t anything slower in light air than having backwind at the luff of the main. With the main angled far off the centreline, the slot is in danger of being closed. To avoid this, flatten the mainsail. This lets you ease the main until the upper batten is parallel to the centreline without backwind. 

Light Air

In light conditions, the jib should become increasingly full in its forward sections. If you are sailing a one-design that uses the same jib in 0 to 30 knots of breeze, light air is the condition where the jib should be set up with the greatest amount of luff sag. 

A full entry is more powerful, and also helps widen out the “groove”. The boat is less critical to steer, mast prebend also contributes to luff sag.

DOWNWIND

Off the wind, the mainsail doesn’t require as much flow across it. A full shape will make it more forgiving. Ease the outhaul, and mast bend should be eliminated.

On a reach, if the spinnaker is drooping, it is quicker to sail with the jib and douse the kite.

With a symmetrical spinnaker adjust the pole height so that the clews are level and make sure that the sheet is light enough not to weigh the corner down and that the sheet is well eased.  

BOAT HANDLING

Crew movements must be slow and weight forward to lift the aft area of the boat to reduce drag. To make the boat head up, heel to leeward slightly, once turned to the heading you want, flatten the boat to its sailing lines.

Rudder movement acts as a brake so keep it to a minimum and use weight to turn the boat.

Avoid Pinching

Avoid pinching because the boat relies on forward movement to create flow over the foils. Once flow detaches from the foils the boat will start to slide sideways so foot off get the flow going. As you accelerate steer up slightly by moving your weight to leeward.

This is an ongoing procedure. In a lull, move weight to weather to steer down to accelerate and then repeat.

Keep the crew out of the slot and keep the boat flat unless using weight to steer.

If you have good boat speed, standard tactical situations should be approached aggressively in most conditions. Light-air tactics demand more conservatism and greater anticipation.

You can actually gain distance when you dip a starboard tacker because of the speed you generate when bearing off. Don’t be afraid to wave a port tacker across if it looks like they might tack on your lee bow. 

If a new wind comes in with more velocity, always sail to it as soon as possible. Even if this requires sailing a headed tack for a short period to get to it. Since maximum boat speed is extremely important, always aim to get in the position to increase speed through the water. 

A massive shift would be an exception if the shift were to last a substantial length of time.

Anticipation in Sailing Races

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Anticipation in Sailing Races – In every sailing race, to enhance your chance of success you must keep a constant watch ahead and around the course to see what’s coming and have a plan on how to deal with it before you get there.

Before You Leave The Beach

Before you leave the beach and before every race, you need to develop a plan to deal with the anticipated activity of the wind, waves, current, and other boats. Follow your game plan as closely as possible. Avoid spur-of-the-moment decisions that are made without regard for the big picture.

It’s hard to anticipate when you’re staring at the seaweed in the bilge. You have to keep your eyes looking up the course and all around for signs of things to come.

The helmsperson should concentrate on steering, so the crew really needs to be his eyes. Make sure one person on the boat has the responsibility for watching around the course and is watching for two things: changes in the wind or waves and the movement of other boats.

Crews Job

The crew watches for puffs, lulls, waves but to warn of approaching starboard tackers or boats on converging courses. To anticipate potential confrontations and to let the helmsman know of possible scenarios.



As an example the crew member who is assigned the task of looking up the course at the wind direction in relation to the marks needs to anticipate that when you come around the windward mark, will you want to do a normal bear away set, or a jibe-set and this needs to be communicated well ahead of time so you are set up at the mark to carry out that maneuver. 

Communication

So that the helmsman can be informed about situations before they arise, they should call out in a voice loud enough to be heard by everyone aboard that there’s a puff coming, there is a crossing situation where you may need to duck or tack or the tactic needed at the next mark rounding and why.

In sailboat racing, things are always changing. It would be easy if we could plan ahead for every move on the race course but unfortunately, this is impossible because you can’t always predict what the wind will do or how the other boats are going to react.

What you can do is anticipate a  number of possibilities that might happen. Then make a plan for each one. 

By giving you time to consider decisions ahead of time, contingency plans help you stay in control of your race.

Steps to Winning a Regatta

By
Brett Bowden
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0

 Step 1. Work on your weaknesses. Steps to Winning a Regatta

 We all have different strengths and weaknesses, for some, it is light air and flat water,  for others they are faster in a big breeze and boisterous seas.

It is fun to practice in your favourite conditions but you need to get out of your comfort zone and spend more practice time sailing in the conditions that you are slower in.

Keep the Boat Flat

Step 2. Preparation. Steps to Winning a Regatta

Leading up to an event focus on reducing distractions, cross off all the items on your boat work list and let all work clients, colleagues and friends know that you will not be available during the event.

When a regatta begins you need to be rested and ready, and your first and only priority is going sailing.

Complete all tasks prior to leaving home

Step3. Go to a regatta with someone you have spent a lot of time sailing with.

If you are sailing in a multi-crewed boat resist the temptation to link up with a hot shot in your class for a big event.

In a crew-driven boat, the helmsperson only does about thirty per cent of the work. If you compete with someone that you have spent many hours in the boat with, you know each other’s weaknesses but also know each other’s strengths, and in tough situations, you remind each other to focus on those and let the rest sort itself out.

Step4. Nutrition and Hydration. Steps to Winning a Regatta

Proper nutrition and hydration could make or break your results. Carry adequate food, snacks and water during the race especially if you are competing in two or three races in one day.

Don’t neglect off the water fuel and hydration and resist the partying until the event is finished. Supply your own food rather than what the regatta organizers or canteen provide and don’t neglect to get plenty of sleep during the event.

 

Step5. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be better than the rest.

It’s easy to give up, but instead, focus on the opportunities that an event presents and sail hard, remember everybody else is hurting too and wrestling with the same issues as you are.

Fortunately, great boat speed, developed over the time of working together will allow you to move up through the fleet and this is where all your hard work pays off. 

How to Point, Foot, and Change Gears

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Gear changing is what separates the mid-fleet sailors from those who always seem to be a tad quicker and higher.

While most of the fleet starts the race with a similar setup created with the help of a tuning guide, the fast boats are constantly making additional adjustments. When conditions suddenly change—a puff hits or you sail into a lull, the fast sailors shift gears.

Fix Pointing Problems:

Trying to pinch to maintain height is most likely the reason for your pointing issues and by pinching, the boat is actually sliding to leeward. The remedy is to “foot then point”, a boat needs to go fast so the foils can develop lift, so ease the sails a little bear off a couple of degrees to get up to speed then point up and re-trim to the optimum setting.

Once the boat starts to slow down, be sure to ease the sails out, regain your speed, then start the process again.

While it may seem natural to let the boat heel more when trying to point, fight the urge, keeping the boat flat will maintain a balanced helm and maximize the efficiency of your underwater foils.

When sail trim is the cause of the problem, it’s usually the main, not the jib. The upper leech of the main provides most of your pointing ability so be sure to trim the main so the upper batten is at least parallel to the boom.

If you need more pointing ability, try trimming the main tighter. You can hook the upper batten as much as 15 degrees to weather for short periods but avoid the temptation to over-trim the jib to help pointing ability.

Fix Footing Problems:

The easiest fix is to ease the sails because more open leeches on both sails will help the boat sail lower and faster in a straight line but this can create a pointing problem. 

To correct this, first, check your helm balance because weather helm will hinder the boat’s ability to go fast. Instead of easing sheets try to sail the boat more level if you can’t keep the boat flat, induce more mast bend to flatten the main.

The next step is to ease the traveller until the helm is balanced. Other remedies are to tighten the outhaul, tension the Cunningham/jib halyard to pull the draft forward and open the leeches of both sails.

Gear Shift in a Puff:

When a small puff hits.

1. Ease the main.

2. Steer up to “feather” the boat.

3. Re-trim the main.

Because a puff typically lifts the boat due to a change in the apparent wind speed, you need to ease sheets and head up as it reaches you. Let the boat climb to windward and steer toward the upper end of your groove using the jib luff telltales.

If the puff is particularly severe, more adjustment may be necessary. If you can’t hold the boat down after making the above adjustments and there’s still too much helm, do the following until the helm is balanced.

1. Ease the traveller

2. Bend the mast (vang tension, backstay tension, etc.)

3. Tension the Cunningham on both main and jib.

Gear Shift in a Lull:

Lulls usually appear as headers and in a lull, it’s important that you bear off as smoothly as possible. Make sure the boat remains flat and resist the temptation to add heel to maintain “feel” in the helm.

Ease the main so the top batten angles outboard from parallel to the boom, leave the jib trimmed initially until the bow is pulled down to the lower end of your groove with both telltales streaming aft.

At that point, the jib should be eased so the leeward telltale doesn’t stall.

To maintain boatspeed in a lull

1. Ease the main.

2. Allow the boat to heel to weather, creating lee helm, to steer the boat down.

3. Ease the jib.

4. Level the boat.

5. Pull the traveller up (if the boom is below centerline).

If a lull lasts for a longer time

1. Straighten the mast and induce luff sag in the jib

2. Ease main and jib cunningham to maintain correct draft position

 

Know When The Wind Is Oscillating.

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Know When The Wind Is Oscillating. Oscillating shifts are the most common type of wind pattern, so if you’re not sure what the wind is doing assume it is oscillating until you discover otherwise.

It’s very important to figure out whether the wind shifts will be oscillating or persistent, but this is not always easy to
do. There are some visual clues (listed below) that often mean the wind direction will be shifting back and forth.

The wind is blowing offshore.

When the wind is blowing from the shore, it’s almost a sure bet that the land’s irregularities will cause oscillating shifts.

Your headings on each tack go up and down.

Your pre-race compass headings on port and starboard tack fluctuate around an average direction (which stays
roughly the same). Shifts happen fairly quickly, not gradually.

Boats are lifted and headed on both sides of the course.

As you look across the course, you see boats on both tacks on lifts and headers in a somewhat arbitrary pattern. Boats that
are lifted then get headed and vice versa.

You are sailing in a gradient wind after the passage of a cold front.

Oscillating shifts (and puffs) that come with a vertically unstable air mass.

The wind on the water looks patchy and/or puffy.

You look across the course and you can see lighter or darker spots that show puffs or lulls. Sometimes you can even see ripples indicating changes in wind direction. This wind is almost surely oscillating.

On the first beat, each tack is sometimes longer to the windward mark.

As the wind oscillates, so does the long tack to the windward mark. That is, sometimes your bow points closer to the mark on port tack, and sometimes it points closer on starboard tack.

Boats gain (and lose) on both sides of the course.

As you sail up the beat, boats are as likely to pass (or be passed) on the right side as they are on the left. It all depends on who is in phase with the shifts, not on who goes farther to one side.

The ‘favoured’ end of the starting line switches from one end to the other and back again.

In shifty winds, most starting lines are set square to the median breeze. So when the wind is in the right phase the right (committee boat) end of the line is favoured. When the wind is in a left phase, the left (pin) end is favoured.

Deal with congested areas when sailing.

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Deal with congested areas when sailing. You may already have noticed that, shortly before the Start, when the boats have lined up, the wind is significantly weaker there, even if you are in the front row and have clear wind.

Effect of The Fleet On The Breeze

The reason for this effect is the congestion that forms in front of the regatta field producing a not insignificant resistance to the wind.

In addition to this effect, the wind blows around this congestion. It is significantly stronger at the edges, as shown by the narrower lines.

If we find ourselves on the left-hand side of the congested area, the wind flows to the right soon after the start and we can run higher. But take care, after the congestion zone the wind turns back to its original direction again.

This left wind shift should not be misinterpreted as an oscillation to the left. It could mislead us into a tack to the right-hand side of the course.

If we find ourselves on the other side of the congestion, we have the exact opposite effect and feel a header and the leeward boats can sail closer to the wind than we can. If we have the freedom to tack, a quick tack and a short run to the right is called for.

Sailing on port tack on the right side of the congestion we don’t have to sail against the wind shift and can also benefit from the stronger wind at the edge of the congestion.

Clear Line In The Middle

The starting line is often relatively clear in the middle. A group of boats forms on the right and left of it. Each group forms its own independent congestion ‘cloud’.

 In the middle, between these two congestion zones, the wind will be at its strongest for a short time. A further advantage of this position.

However, don’t forget: the pre-requisite for being able to use these effects is a start in the first row. Under the cover of other boats, you won’t even notice them.

Special thanks – Article by Peter Czajka – The Tactics of Sailboat Racing

Sailing Instructions Checklist

By
Brett Bowden
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0
 

Sailing Instructions Checklist – There are several things that you should check in the sailing instructions even if you don’t get time to thoroughly read them which of course I recommend if you want to prepare properly for a race or regatta.

  • The first is determining what penalty system is being used be it one or two turns, yellow flag or retire.
  • Next is the individual recall system, will there be a “hail” of sail numbers or bow numbers if provided, will there be one sound signal for each boat over or one sound signal no matter how many boats are over.
  • In the case of a General Recall, will it be a rolling start and you restart on the next 5-minute signal or will your class go to the end of the class start sequences?
  • Are there any special provisions for the I flag, Z flag or black flag penalties? For example, after a general recall is the one-minute rule automatically in effect, or will the RC fly flag I per rule 30.1?
  • Has the race committee made any changes or additions to the protest procedure found in rule 61? For example, are you required to notify the RC of your intent to protest when you cross the finish line? Is the filing time limit different than that stated in rule 61.3? 
  • At what time is your warning gun? 
Your Class Flag
  • What colour shape or flag will be displayed before and at your start?
  • What are the possible courses and how will each of them be signalled? 
  • On which side do you leave the marks? 
Compass Heading Display
  • Will the RC boat signal the compass heading and/or distance to the first mark?
  • Is the committee allowed to shorten the course? (They are unless the SIs say they aren’t.)
  • What is the time limit for each race?
  • If the RC moves a mark, what procedure will they follow, and what will the new mark look like?
  • What constitutes the starting and finishing lines?
  • Are there any other rules you must be sure to follow? For example: Do you have to check in at the RC boat before the start? 
Read The Sailing Instructions Thoroughly

There is no substitute for reading the sailing instructions thoroughly and in fact you should read them a number iof times so that they are indelibly etched in your memory.

In a multi-crewed boat, one crew member should be tasked with reading the sailing instructions and understanding and remembering them.

On the way out to the course, the crew member who is responsible for reading the SI’s should pass on the most important parts of the document to the team.

Your Head Must Be Out Of The Boat

By
Brett Bowden
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0

Your Head Must Be Out Of The Boat. You have to train yourself to use your eyes, and this takes practice – Buddy Melges.

“Get your head out of the boat” is pretty much a universal catch cry of just about any coach who is tasked with helping you to improve your racing results.

This is a skill that must be practised but if you look around the best one design crews, there will always be a crewman whose express job is to continually watch their competitors.

They look for strategic positioning, locate marks, look for pressure and watch around the course for shifts.

Once the skill is honed, winning sailors can sail fast whilst looking around. A sailor who is constantly at the front of the fleet will be able to remember tactical and strategic details about a race and will be able to recount them during discussion post-race.

Things like who was leading at different times, and major shifts in both directions. Then there’s pressure and will be able to relate that to a particular leg of the course.

The main reason they are able to do that is that they had their eyes out of the boat.  They are constantly evaluating where their competitors were. Where the next shift was coming from, the next mark and changes in pressure.

A lesser sailor would be constantly watching telltales, adjusting trim, eyes glued to the compass or concentrating on steering thus missing many opportunities that are presented out on the course.

What should you be looking for:

  • Waves, both direction and size.
  • Wind on the water to anticipate shifts and pressure changes.
  • Watch other boats for changes in wind direction and pressure
  • Watch the position of other boats to plan strategy, especially when about to cross or approach marks.
  • Other indicators such as smoke, flags, current at fixed objects or cloud movements:

smoke-picture

Ways to develop your senses so you can keep your head out of the boat:

  • Verbalise the feedback that you are getting from the feel of the tiller
  • Note the sound of the boat as it moves through the water
  • Verbalise the angle of the heel e.g. flat, too heeled plus the fore and aft trim.
  • Predict the next wind shift, verbally calling – puff, header, lift or lull.
  • Verbalise whether you are underpowered or overpowered. 

When out training, make small changes whilst looking out of the boat and try to feel the effect, all the time trying to feel when the boat is in the groove. Another good way to develop this feel is to sail with your eyes closed,

Once you are able to sail fast without constantly looking in the boat, at the compass and up at the sails constantly stressing that something is not set perfectly and are able to continuously look around the course you will find your results will continue to improve.

 

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