I have set out below a number of heavy air techniques that will help you sail more competitively. Success and speed in heavy air grows from a combination of the following ingredients.
Firstly you have to learn to love it.
Secondly, you must prepare your boat so that nothing will break.
And lastly, be prepared to practice and train in heavy air. When you do race in those conditions, you will instinctively respond to situations as they arise.
The list is by no means complete but will at least give you a start to get faster out on the race course.
Upwind – Jib Settings
Use your jib to power the boat and use the main to keep the boat flat. Move the jib leads aft to flatten the foot and open the leech. By keeping the headstay tight with the rig and backstay tension, you will flatten the jib.
Moving the lead outboard will open the slot which although fast may hurt pointing.
In big waves or puffs, when the boat becomes difficult to steer, easing the jib will reduce the load on the helm, otherwise keeping the jib sheet tight is fast.
The mainsail should be flat with an open leech. Flatness is achieved by tightening the outhaul which flattens the lower sections. Pulling on the Cunningham moves the draft forward and opens the upper leech.
Flatten the mainsail by inducing a lower mast bend which also widens the slot. This means that you don’t need to move the jib leads outboard as much.
Pulling on the backstay (if you have one) flattens the upper part of the mainsail and opens the upper part of the leech.
Set the vang tight so that the boom does not raise when the sheet is eased to balance the boat.
When a puff hits and the boat starts to heel, play the mainsheet to keep the boat flat and head up slightly. Once the boat is flat, hike hard, drive off slightly and trim in hard.
As the forces on the board or keel, rudder and sails begin to build up again, ease the sheet and repeat.
Steering
In many classes and boats, the crew is handed that mainsheet to play leaving the helmsperson free to steer to the conditions.
The worst thing in heavy air is to lose your speed, crashing into a wave or letting the boat heel over. Steering accurately is critical as is your ability to concentrate for the whole race.
As you approach a wave that you think may slow you down, try to see what is behind it. Bear off slightly to keep your speed and momentum dependent on the wave sets that you see.
Always look to weather, pick a smooth spot and make sure everyone has their sails un-cleated before you call “tacking”.
It’s always fastest to have the boat flat or even slightly heeled to weather after coming out of the tack. This can be controlled by mainsheet tension and crew weight placement. The first few seconds after the tack are critical.
Prior to rounding the weather mark, the vang will have been eased substantially from the upwind setting. If the boat feels overpowered ease the vang further and if underpowered sneak a little more on.
Riding waves fast in heavy air is what many of us look forward to when the breeze is on. To catch waves effectively you need to keep the boat flat and continually play the sails.
I interviewed Skip Lissiman about sailing practice and training, excerpts from that interview are copied below.
Skip has sailed just about everything from Pelicans and Cherubs through J24s, Etchells, 12 Metres and Maxi boats.
He’s also sailed in every position from bowman to sailing master. Skip was in the crew of Australia 2 when they won the America’s Cup in 1983. He sailed for Australia in the Admiral’s Cup and the Kenwood Cup, plus a multitude of other offshore events.
Some of those include the Fastnet Race, Plymouth to Freemantle, Transatlantic Race, and 6 Sydney to Hobart. Newport to Bermuda and this is just to name a few.
Skip is also an accomplished match racer and has won six grade-one match racing events.
Brett: Is there any aspect of the sport you reckon can’t be learned? I mean, you often hear about somebody who’s a natural. I believe sailing’s one of those sports, where you’re always learning. You don’t ever know it all.
Skip: Well, every natural yachtsman that I’ve ever sailed with has always started at a very young age.
Picking up the sport when you’re older will be harder to learn the skills than at a younger age. I can’t stress enough the importance of kids getting into the sport and doing the hard yards in the Opti’s and the dinghy classes.
The learning that you do after that, sailing with other people and other classes, will upskill you to a point where you get better and better.
You’ve just got to get out there and do it as young as you can If you pick it up later in life, then read a lot, watch a lot, sail a lot. Especially sail with people better than you and you’ll slowly pick up the skills.
Brett: What age did you start, Skip, as a matter of interest?
Skip: I started about age 6 and really didn’t get into dinghy sailing big time until I was probably about 12.
Brett: I’ve read a lot of biographies of great sailors and five or six seems to be the magic starting time. Do you reckon there’s any part of sailing where natural ability will trump someone who has to learn and practice the skill?
Skip: Well, each class is different. The modern moth type classes where you sail faster than the wind is a totally different sort of skillset to sailing a slower moving boat like a Dragon, 12 Metre or a 5.5 that tack slowly and carries its speed through the tack.
Each type of class has got a different skill set in how you use the wind shifts and the wind itself. You’ve got to apply the skills differently for each kind of boat that you’re sailing and what the wind patterns are doing.
There’s no easy way around it. The guys that are very good at it have a knack of seeing the different ripples on the water and they can tell generally whether it’s a lift or knock before the wind actually gets to them.
That’s a skill that you can only get good at by watching the gusts as they come to you and seeing what the boat does. Over time you get better and better at it. And if you get it right more often than you get it wrong, you’re halfway there.
Brett: Once again, that comes back to time on the water in a lot of cases, because some people are slower than others to pick that stuff up too.
Skip: Yep. Some people never really get it.
Brett: Outside sailing, what do you do as part of the training if you were training for say an Etchells regatta for instance? What would you do off the boat other than gym work to keep fit? Is there another sport you’d play for instance?
The one thing that really is important on a boat is good balance and good upper arm or upper body strength and core strength. If you’re hiking all day on any type of boat, you need core strength. You need upper body strength to be able to pull on the sheets and do the things you need.
So free weights exercises that give you good stamina. Bike riding does that very, very well. A lot of the Olympic athletes have bikes and they do a lot of bike work as well as static weights.
GLENN: You have your aspiration in the beginning and you’re trying to learn about the venue and understand what you think the idiosyncrasies of that venue are, so you’re capable of making changes as you need them.
The plan will change based on the input that you get. I think the sailing strategy is very much like playing chess. What’s the other guy done relative to what you’ve done? And can you factor that in, in a quick way and be adaptable enough to alter the destiny of a race or a leg, or the regatta itself?
So it’s always, moving pawns and moving knights and whatever else. And you’re trying to, I think it’s an actuarial kind of composition. I’m always thinking about the numbers in the event.
Where am I? If I’m 30th at the top mark and I need to get into the top 10, I’m going to be a bit more aggressive at the bottom. That I’ve got to get myself clear, I’ve got to get to the favoured side of the course.
I’ve got to take a little bit more of a risk to try and get myself up to 10th because I know that counting a 30th is going to hurt me. And you’ve got to be adaptable all the time like that.
If I’m first around the top mark, I know that I’m going to leg it on port tack from out of the bottom mark. I will then cover the fleet and try and make people do what you want them to do. To shut the race down, to get the least reaction out of the fleet.
If there’s one guy that’s inconsequential to the event, I’m going to let him go and hope that my plan’s better than his.
BRETT: How do you plan an approach the lay line in a big fleet and you’re back 15th or worse?
GLENN: Again, you got to be adaptable. And if you’re coming in under the lay line, and somebody crosses in front of you or just behind you and opens a track up, you need to get out to that starboard hand lay line.
Ultimately the only defence you have is being on the starboard hand lay line and in clear air.
So if a guy ducks you and he’s creating a hole for you, tack on his hip. Take a dig out, get to the lay line, and come back again. Don’t get trapped at the top mark doing a series of doughnuts trying to find a hole.
Don’t get caught late, be preemptive and make your decisions early. Understand that if you’re really deep, they’re going to rack up further and further outside the starboard hand lay line.
Occasionally if you’re in 30th place, stay to the left and then find a hole coming back in.
You know, they tack, they don’t give room. They’ve got to run behind 15 boats before they can find a hole to tack into. You’ve really got to be pre-thinking it as much as you can.
GLENN: Always, always when you’re constructing a regatta win. It’s safer to stay with the fleet. I would much prefer to have a third with no risk than a first with a medium amount of risk.
If I’m constructing a regatta, I’m trying to get on the podium every day, you know? Can I get a decent result every day? And I know that the more I hang it out there and do dramatic things, the greater the risk.
So if the fleet splits in two, and half go left and half go right, you got to take a punt on which side you think is correct. If the fleet is predominately going right, and three guys go left, don’t worry about the left guys.
Stay with the fleet because you know the worst you’re going to get is a fourth place, and you can count that, and you’re all happy. And your main players are on your side of the course. So it’s an accounting function where you just trying to work out risk versus reward all the time. But if you’re fast, there’s even more reason to stay with the fleet.
I know that Tom Slingsby in his day, was a fast laser sailor. And he would know when to just stick with them because he was going to make small gains if he stuck with them.
He might have had the opportunity of a huge gain when he went a different way, but why do that when you can stick with them and beat them anyway?
That can be from race one to the last race of the series. I may have a different plan in race one to the last race of the series of the points gap between us in either direction, but I’m always thinking about the other competitors because it’s a component of your race that is fundamentally important.
It’s part of the mathematical equation of can I put this boat in the right place at the right time around competitors that gives me a better outcome than them?
SAILING - Rolex Farr 40 Worlds 2011 - 23-26/02/11 - Day 4, Race 2
Ph. Andrea Francolini
SPINNAKER
Photo – Andrea Francolini
Excerpts from an interview with highly accomplished Dinghy through to Maxi Yacht sailor and North Sails sailmaker Michael Coxon who answers your questions regarding sail controls and their effects.
Brett: Michael, could you explain the effects of the major sail shape controls.
Michael: the most important sail control for any boat, is the sheet tension. That’s the most significant variable in anything and it’s a fairly basic answer, but the fact is that the sheet tension is the number one.
Once you’ve got the sheet tension control it comes to getting the more subtleties of what sail sectional shapes you want to achieve. Where the sheet tension will tend to control the twist of the sail and the general drive of it, you can actually then use the subtler controls.
Controls on a main sail include the outhaul and the Cunningham eye. One very important thing depending on the boat is the mast bend and how you achieve the mast bend. If the mast bend is achieved by having a backstay, it makes the exercise fairly easy. You can actually do infinite adjustments.
If it’s a non-backstay boat it will depend on things such as boom vang, again, sheet tension; it will depend on if you’ve got control of the mast at the deck. In other words, can you control the pre-bend in the mast whether through a leaver or a chocking system.
Another big variable is rig tension. By increasing rig tension you’ll put more compression through your rig and increase, obviously the tension, but also the pre-bend in the rig. And that would be the major controls on my boat.
Brett: Any other sail shape controls? Michael: When we take headsail, obviously car fore and aft is a big deal with a jib, luff tension I don’t think is a huge deal with a stable sail.
It’s mainly car fore and aft. Some boats have the ability to adjust in and out also, so you can in-haul and out-haul. That’s a big deal, and sheet tension. So with a jib, the really critical ones are car position and sheet tension.
Brett: You talked a little earlier about forestay sag.
Michael: As an example, really critical on an Etchells. Being an older style, it’s a 40-year-old designed boat with an aluminium rig. It’s actually harder to set up than more modern boats that are, say, carbon.
There are a lot more variables because they get a lot more mast bend. So you go through a lot more range and to address that the extra mast bend you’ve got more luff curve. You’ve got excess cloth in certain conditions. What you do with it, that’s the question.
Certainly, mast bend and rig tension is a big deal with any setup. The general rule is the softer the air, the softer the rig. As the pressure goes up, the tighter the rig. That will then get you a tight forestay and a tighter forestay will give you a finer entry on your jib or a flatter jib.
But just as important to control the forestay up the range, you can make people focus on that. It’s just as important to have the same emphasis on sagging the forestay downrange because if you’re carrying, one jib right through the range from 5 knots to 25 knots, it’s only got one shape.
It’s only got one luff flow in it. You need to continually adjust the parameters around the sail to actually get the right sail shape. If you’ve got hollow in the luff of your jib and you’re sailing in light air, you’ve got to reproduce hollow or forestay sag so you don’t over-flatten the jib.
If you’re a competing sailor, you know that the sport requires a lot of skill, knowledge, and practice. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned sailor, there’s always room for improvement.
But where do you start? How can you take your sailing skills to the next level? With so much information out there, it can be overwhelming to know which tips and tricks to follow.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of expert tips to help you improve your sailing performance, from novice to pro.
From mastering the basics to fine-tuning your technique, these tips will help you become a more confident and successful sailor.
Before you can become an expert sailor, you need to master the basics of sailing. This includes understanding the different parts of a sailboat, knowing how to steer, and learning how to control the sails.
One of the most important skills for any sailor is learning how to trim the sails. This involves adjusting the sails to catch the wind and propel the boat forward. It takes practice to get it right.
Another key skill for any sailor is learning how to tack and jibe. Both techniques require careful coordination and timing. It’s important to know when to use each one depending on tactical considerations and wind conditions.
Lastly, learning how to read the wind and waves is essential for any sailor. Understanding the direction and strength of the wind can help you plan your tactics and strategy more effectively.
Waves can also affect your sailing performance, so learning how to read them and adjust your technique accordingly is crucial.
Understanding Wind Patterns
To become a successful sailor, you need to understand the different wind patterns and how they affect your sailing performance. The most common wind patterns are the prevailing winds, which blow in a consistent direction over a particular area. In some areas, there may also be local winds, which are influenced by local geography.
One of the most important things to understand about wind patterns is how they affect your sail trim.
It’s also important to understand the wind shadow effect, which occurs when another boat blocks the wind from reaching you. This can be particularly important during a race, as you want to avoid getting stuck in another boat’s wind shadow.
Having the right sailing equipment and gear can make a big difference in your sailing performance. One of the most important pieces of equipment is your sailboat itself.
Different sailboats are designed for different purposes, so it’s important to choose one that fits your needs and skill level.
Other important pieces of equipment include your sails, lines, and rigging. It’s important to keep these in good condition and to know how to use them properly.
You should also invest in good-quality safety gear, such as life jackets and harnesses.
Preparing for a Sailing Race
If you’re competing in sailing races, there are several things you can do to prepare and improve your sailing performance.
One of the most important things is to practice as much as possible. This not only helps you get comfortable with your sailboat but it improves your technique.
It’s also important to familiarize yourself with the racecourse and the rules of racing. This will help you plan your strategy and avoid any penalties or disqualifications.
Lastly, make sure to check the weather conditions before you race. This will help you choose the right sails, rig set-up and adjust your technique accordingly.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start to focus on more advanced techniques to improve your sailing performance. One of the most important techniques to master is sail shape control. Get your sailmakers recommended rig settings and adjustments for the different wind strengths that you will be competing in.
Another key technique is weight distribution. This involves positioning your crew and equipment in the sailboat to optimize balance and stability.
It’s also important to know how to use different sail controls, such as the Vang and the Cunningham, to fine-tune your sail trim. Once again, your sailmaker will be able to advise on this and will factor in the crew weight that you are sailing with.
Nutrition and Fitness for Sailing
Sailing can be a physically demanding sport, so it’s important to maintain good nutrition and fitness to improve your sailing performance. Eating a balanced diet can help you maintain your energy levels and improve your endurance on the water. Do not overlook hydration, a team that is thirsty with not be able to perform at optimum.
In terms of fitness, it’s important to focus on both cardiovascular and strength training. Cardiovascular exercises, such as running or swimming, can improve your endurance, while strength training can help you build the muscle you need to control your sailboat.
Sailing also requires mental preparation, particularly if you’re racing. It’s important to stay focused and alert on the water, as even small mistakes can have a big impact on your sailing performance.
One technique to improve your mental preparation is visualization. This involves imagining yourself sailing and visualizing different scenarios and outcomes. It can help you stay focused and confident on the water.
Improving your sailing performance takes time, practice, and dedication. From mastering the basics to fine-tuning your technique, there are many tips and tricks you can use to become a more confident and successful sailor.
By understanding wind patterns, investing in good-quality equipment, and focusing on your nutrition and fitness, you can take your sailing skills to the next level.
With these expert tips, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a pro sailor.
Your upwind Sweet Spot is the point of sail in which you sail against the wind most efficiently and at a consistent angle of heel. Also known as the “groove”, it covers a range of a few degrees angle to the wind in which you are able to steer consistently at a steady speed.
The sweet spot for your boat may be narrow, with a tolerance of only a couple degrees, or wide, in which you can head up or down several degrees. If it is wide, you can handle gusty winds and steer around waves better, but you won’t point as close to the wind.
If it’s narrow, you must maintain a precise course, which can be a challenge in variable winds but can be very fast in flat water.
The groove for a given condition, is when forward speed and pointing are as good or better than boats around us.
Visual cues –
If your telltales react too fast on both sides of the sail, the entry angle is super narrow; if the sail actually luffs before the telltales react, the entry angle is too wide.
Headstay Sag is Fast Upwind in light Air –
When the headstay sags, it not only sags to leeward but also sags aft, which puts the luff closer to the leech, thereby adding depth to the jib.
The key controls for manipulating headstay sag are shroud tension, mainsheet tension, and in some cases, headstay length.
In light air, the number one adjustment for headstay sag on boats with either deck-stepped or keel-stepped masts is varying the shroud tension. More tension effectively pulls the mast aft—assuming the chainplates are aft of the mast. If the lower shrouds are farther aft, they will have the most effect on boats with aft-swept spreaders.
When you sag the headstay, the maximum draft in your jib moves forward. To compensate and keep the draft aft, ease halyard tension, which also creates additional power.
When headstay sag is increased, the headsail becomes deeper and more powerful. If your boat is underpowered, this can make a big difference, especially in choppy wave conditions.
When the breeze is up, speed first, then pointing. You also have to deal with the waves that usually accompany big breezes, they take extra speed to get through.
Make sure both sails are as flat as you can make them using backstay, outhaul, luff tension, etc. The real key is not to trim as hard as you would in normal wind conditions.
Start with the sails eased so it is easy to get the boat going and then gradually wind them in. When the boat gets hard to steer and hard to keep moving, you’ve gone too far.
If the mainsail is luffing completely in the puffs to keep the boat on its feet, you need to change the jib setup. Move the lead aft (or up and out if you have athwartship jib tracks) to flatten the foot and twist off the top of the sail.
A constant angle of heel is the goal, don’t worry so much about the telltales. Too much heel and you will have too much weather helm. Too flat and you will not generate enough speed.
Ask the Right Question – I have copied below excerpts from an interview I did with Aussie sailor Mike Quirk in order to find out what questions to ask in the boat park in order to get better.
Quirky is a successful businessman and that success has flowed through to his sailing. He regularly sails in regattas and championships in Europe and keeps the latest model Holger Jess 505 on the continent.
Mike is not a one type of boat guy and also sails very competitively in the Tasar class and has been competing at the pointy end of the fleet at many Tasar world championships.
Mikes Club is Royal Prince Edward YC in Sydney Australia. Quirky has tackled the sport with a vengeance putting in many hours of training on the water. For much of his practice, he uses a top-notch coach.
Brett: You are constantly practising and using the services of a coach, I have also noticed that you are happy to help others and something you said about questions that sailors ask each other, particularly resonated with me.
Quirky: None of us gets enough time to go sailing regularly. We’re not Olympians and we’re not professional sailors. So we need to get the easy wins with our practice and with our learning. We tend to focus on stuff that’s way too complicated and we don’t focus on the basics. The thing that’s changed my sailing from when I used to finish mid-fleet to being able to win a National Championship, is basically just sailing the boat fast all the time, keeping it flat, and keeping it in the right power range.
If you practice that, you get so much further up the curve than if you’re frig around with all the other things like buying new sails and trying to understand all the complications that to this day I don’t understand. We all ask questions in the boat park. And people ask me and they ask other people. “Should I use more ram? And should I use more Vang? Or how much weight did you have?
Every single one of those questions I’ve come to believe is the wrong question. And if anybody answers that question, you’ve really got to wonder why. I would argue that they don’t know what they’re talking about because all of those things are subjective.
More ram? Well, more ram than what? It depends on your weight. Depends on where you were to start with. It depends on a whole lot of things. So when we’re all looking, particularly in Five 0’s we’re all trying to work out whether I should have more…how I should be setting my boat up, instead of understanding what it is I’m actually trying to do. All of those setup things are just trying to get towards a fast sail shape and a fast technique.
Many people in boat parks are willing to offer advice but 99% of them don’t really know what they’re talking about.
Ian Brown’s a good mate of mine. He’s got an Olympic medal, has done a lot of coaching, and was the head coach in the 2000 Olympics. So when he starts to tell me something about my rig and what I’m looking for, I sit up and listen. But most of us don’t really know.
So if we ask a question like, “Should I use more ram or should less ram or should I use more rake?”. It’s the wrong question. And if somebody answers it? They’re probably the wrong people to be talking to.
Brett: We tend to talk amongst people at our own level at a regatta because we’re too embarrassed to talk to the good guys.
Quirky: The good guys, in fact, are more than happy to give you any help you ask for. And I’ve heard this before where…I think it was the last nationals when somebody didn’t ask me a question up in Manly. Afterwards, he said, ” I just thought you’d be focused on winning and wouldn’t want to have to talk to me.” That is very rarely the case. If you talk to somebody as they’re trying to put their boat in the water, perhaps. But most of the time, everybody’s really happy to help.
Upwind legs are the most important part of a race, and they offer the greatest opportunities for sailors to gain an advantage over their competition.
Sailing fast upwind is one of the most challenging aspects of the sport. In this blog, we’ll explore the best ways to sail upwind, strategies to help you sail fast and smart, and why upwind legs are so crucial.
Upwind legs are critical because they often determine the outcome of a race. If you can sail upwind faster and smarter than your competitors, you’ll be able to gain a significant advantage.
However, if you struggle to sail upwind, you’ll quickly find yourself falling behind. Upwind legs also tend to be the longest legs of a race, which means they offer more opportunities to gain or lose ground.
Sail Fast and Smart Upwind
To sail fast and smart upwind, you need to focus on a few key areas:
Boat speed:
The faster you can sail, the better chance you have of winning. To sail fast upwind, you need to trim your sails for the conditions, keep your weight in the appropriate position, and sail at the optimal angle to the wind.
Wind shifts:
Wind shifts are changes in wind direction that can help or hurt your boat’s distance to the weather mark. To sail smart upwind, you need to be aware of these shifts and adjust your sailing strategy accordingly.
Tacking:
Tacking can be costly, both in terms of time and boat speed, so you need to be strategic about when you tack and keep tacks to a minimum.
Depending on the type of boat you sail and the conditions, you can lose one to many boat lengths in every tack. In a light weight dinghy a tack is not as costly as it is in a heavy displacement boat so strategies are by necessity quite different.
To sail fast and smart upwind, you need to develop a strategy that takes into account the wind, your boat’s and crews capabilities, and your competition.
Here are some tips to help you sail upwind like a pro:
Set Priorities:
When sailing upwind, it’s important to set priorities. Determine what’s most critical to your boat’s performance, such as boat speed, wind shifts, or avoiding other boats. Once you’ve identified your priorities, you can adjust your sailing strategy accordingly.
Consider the Cost of Tacking:
Tacking is a necessary part of sailing upwind, but it can be costly. Every time you tack, you lose speed, and it takes time to get your boat back up to speed. Try to minimize the number of tacks you make by looking for opportunities to sail in the same direction as the wind shifts.
When sailing upwind, it’s crucial to anticipate wind shifts and adjust your course accordingly. A good rule of thumb is to sail towards the next shift. This will help you stay in the strongest wind and take advantage of any shifts as they occur.
Wind shifts come in two types: oscillating and persistent. Oscillating shifts are changes in wind direction that oscillate back and forth. Persistent shifts are changes in wind direction that remain in place for an extended period.
Understanding the difference between these types of shifts helps you make better decisions about whether to tack on a shift or keep on.
Prior to the start, sail upwind towards the first mark on each tack, recording the subtle changes in direction. This will help you to determine a mean wind direction and whether the wind shifts are oscillating or persistent.
I have copied below excerpts from an interview I did with Mark Bulka on Mark Approach and Rounding Considerations. Mark has won World, National and State championships in a number of different classes ranging from single handed monohulls through to catamarans.
He has also competed in skiffs, sports boats and run Ocean racing campaigns. His experiences and thousands of mark roundings have given him a unique insight into what it takes to effectively carry out this manoeuvre.
Brett: When approaching the weather mark what sort of things do you consider?
Mark: It was things not to do, don’t ever get up on that starboard lay line.
Ridiculous amounts of bad air it doesn’t matter how much you overlay, someone’s always going to come up and overlay a little bit more and wreck your run.
When we were coming up to the starboard lay line, it doesn’t matter what it knocks like, we go back and you’ll watch people who’ll keep going to the starboard lay line and you’ll go, “We may struggle later on getting to the lineup but I guarantee we’ll be 100 meters, 50 meters in front of that guy that just went across our stern or just went across our bow and just decided to go into the lay line stack.
On the port lay line, sure, there may not be a hole and you may have to do some massive ducks. But if you’re that far back 80% of the time there’ll be a hole.
Brett: How would you normally approach a weather mark if you find yourself well back in the mob in a big fleet?
Mark: If you’re back in the fleet obviously it’s pretty hard. There’s no magic trick all the way back up, but there are some things you can do that can pick up big numbers of boats.
One, don’t go to the starboard lay line. That will always lose you ground, I have never seen a starboard lay line work.
Perhaps if you’re on an A class cat which is accelerating. It accelerates by 50% of its speed by overlaying. In a boat like an Etchells which doesn’t actually accelerate at all you’re just guaranteed to lose heaps of ground If you’re looking for a big pick up of places, the port lay line is actually your best chance.
You can pick up 20 boats in a solid Etchells fleet just coming in on the port lay line. You’ve just got to be prepared to take a big duck at the end if there’s no hole.
You know it’s a risk but it works 80% of the time. If it’s a really bunched up fleet and there’s no holes, you’ve got to be prepared to go back early.
Mark: I’m always chatting. On a one man boat, it’s going through my head all the time. The decision on which mark can change within 30 seconds. You could be, “Yeah, we’re going starboard, starboard, starboard. No hang on. No, we’re flipping across to the port mark.” You’ve got to be thinking which side of the course was favoured. Are all the boats going that way, is there a big bunch all about to go round that starboard mark?
Brett: What are some considerations immediately after you have rounded the leeward mark?
Mark: Are we just going to come around right on their stern, and be forced to tack off where we don’t want to go anyway?
Do we go around the port mark and then go up 100 meters and then tack back onto starboard? There’s no one rule for every situation.
And another thing is it’s never good to actually tack straight back under the oncoming spinnakers and boats. So you’ve kind of got to punch out a little bit as well.
So we come around the mark, go high mode, wear some pain and then go the correct way right from the word go. 10 boats have just gone around there and the opportunities are pretty slim so we take the port mark for a bit of clear air.
Audi Etchells Worlds 2009, Brighton Melbourne (AUS) – Andrea Francolini
Four Crucial Aspects For Racing Success – Sailboat racing is a challenging sport that requires skill, strategy, and preparation.
Preparing for a sailboat race or series can be divided into four parts: training, equipment preparation, mental preparation, and physical preparation.
Each of these aspects is crucial for success.
Training
To become a skilled sailboat racer, you need to spend countless hours on the water. Training sessions should focus on honing sailing techniques, learning the course, and understanding wind patterns.
A well-rounded training program should also include practice races to simulate the conditions that you will face during the actual race.
Additionally, the boat should be equipped with all necessary safety equipment as required by your class or type of boat.
Mental preparation
A racer must have a clear mind and be able to focus on the task at hand. Mental preparation should include visualization exercises, goal setting, and a positive attitude.
Visualization can help a sailor mentally prepare for the race by imagining themselves successfully completing each part of the course.
Setting specific goals can also help you stay focused and motivated during the race.
Maintaining a positive attitude can help overcome obstacles and stay motivated throughout the race.
Physical preparation
Sailboat racing requires a significant amount of physical strength, endurance, and agility. Physical preparation should include regular exercise, a healthy diet, and adequate rest.
A well-rounded exercise program should include cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and flexibility training. A healthy diet is also important for maintaining energy levels during the race along with sensible snacks and hydration.
Finally, getting enough rest is crucial for recovery and performance.
Sailboat racing preparation can be divided into four parts: training, equipment preparation, mental preparation, and physical preparation.
Each of these aspects is equally important for success. A well-rounded training program, a well-prepared boat, a clear mind, and a healthy body are all essential for achieving sailboat racing success.
