Key West Race Week – Part One – A Response!
December 19, 2009
So I have received several responses to the first visualization exercise and I wanted to post some of the thoughts. The great thing about sailboat racing is that there are almost always more than one way to skin the cat. Of course each team can make there scheme work so long as they are all on the same page, and that’s what these exercises are intended to do for the team I am coaching in Key West. Get us on the same page. Below is an example of how I responded to one of my teammates thoughts (his comments are italicized)
First, if we knew left would be favored , why are we in the middle of the starting line???
Great question. Because EVERYONE knows that the left hand side of the course is favored, and in the given conditions being able to continue to the left is at the top of our priority list. There are seven elements to a perfect start:
1. Full Speed
2. On the line and on time
3. Clear Air
4. Clear Lane
5. Freedom
6. Favored end
7. Having a plan
Getting all seven on any start (including a start where you are the only boat there) is really difficult. Add 15 boats and you have to start prioritizing your elements for what is the most important for you in this start. In this case, as you identified, going left is what we must do, but being in the dog fight where few (if even more than one) will be able to retain the other elements by over-prioritizing the favored end is a risky strategy. So by being in the middle, we concede a small portion of left hand advantage (assuming the left comes in – if not we’re even – or even ahead) to sail faster and longer towards the advantage than the MAJORITY of our competition.
With 16kts wind and 4 ft waves I would think we would already be in footing mode; open slot
and a little twist in main with enough power to keep our speed in big waves. I would keep going left,
wanting to be the first to the header.
I think you’ve got a pretty good setting in mind – especially for the open course. With the waves, we will be reaccelerating (maybe a little different than keeping our speed) often . One thing I would point out is that the main and the jib need to be in similar modes, so if we are twisting the mainsail we should likely be twisting the jib as well. Right off the line – we may need a little something different. A different gear for our desired outcome – but I like where you are going with the set up for the general conditions.
I would ignore windward boat on our hip, if he foots off also we can always take him up and keep him off of us, however the boat above him, if he is faster, could be a problem If he is footing also but faster, we want to keep as much separation as possible to stay in clean air, and we want separation when the wind goes left, so we may want to go deeper to maintain our position. Our footing may hold him off long enough, and it sounds as if we can roll the boat to our left (or keep even ) even if he is footing also.
So back to the elements of a perfect start. Immediately after the start we would like to reclaim or salvage or maintain as many of our elements as possible. It is why we take clearing tacks when we don’t have a lane, or why we foot off from the pin to regain any speed we sacrificed in our efforts to win the pin on time. Or even when we return to the line because we were OCS. We are always trying to get back to all seven elements in the first minute or two of the race.
So with that in mind I would argue that we actually have the helmsman keep the boat as high as he can – while still maintaining enough speed to keep us rolling along. The man on our hip is REALLY important to us – in so much as he controls our freedom to tack. There is a thin lane to leeward that must be maintained, and by going a little high off the line we should be able to force the boat on our hip back or into a tack. When we’ve established that controling position, or established that we aren’t going to get it, THEN we can shift back into our footing mode. So how high? High to maintain our lane (if not grow it), and high enough to pinch off the guy on our hip, but not so high that we park the boat. This puts a real premium on helmsmanship and feel. The net gain being that we’ve opened up a bigger lane that we can actually foot into without being impacted by our neighbor to leeward, and with luck we’ve opened up the freedom to go right if needed.
Finally, I think it is really important to remember that this is a one design start. Rolling the boat to either side of us should (in theory) be really hard to do, so we have to imagine we are all traveling at nearly the same speed. This is yet another reason why keep our lanes open is a pretty high priority.
The wind is only ” slightly” favored on the left side but the 1/2kt tide boost is a big reason to go left( even bigger if the wind lightens up). HOWEVER, (always a however) the contrary wind and tide could cause some speed killing chop. Both tide and wind say go left, left left, unless waves are killing our speed.
Left left left is right. In the scenario I presented the current (lateral water movement, rather than tide which is vertical water movement) is running ACROSS the wind. So you are right that the left is important because the current makes starboard the long tack due to the shifting layline. All the more reason to push our competition onto port whenever we can and defend our starboard tack as hard as we can.
Telltales?? Outside should be flicking a little if we are footing.
OK, so I would argue that the leeward telltale should NEVER EVER EVER bounce. That telltale is showing how the airflow is attaching along the leeward side of the sail. If it bounces that means we are starting to stall the airflow – which will quickly rob the sail of power and shift us from PULL MODE into PUSH MODE. Bad news. Rather, given that we are trying to sail high, we want to the INSIDE telltale to LIFT. Moreover the jib sheet should be active when we do move into the SPEED or WAVE (likely more appropriate) mode you described earlier. In a future visualization we’ll discuss telltales a little more specifically.
Communication
(1) Bow calling wind puffs and looking for large or out of sequence waves
(2) Trimmer – how are we doing against the fast boat and other boat positions
Alright, so there was more to this question than just communication. First and foremost these two positions must be at MAX HIKE. To get the boat to sail the mode we are talking about those two positions must be doing all they can to get the boat flat. AFTER they have done that, I like to have the forward position (bow) communicating TACTICAL data. How we are doing relative to the other boats to windward of us (point/speed/net). The reason for this is that this information is important to the tactician who is sitting forward of the helm. So this allows this info to not incumber the helmsperson but get communicated to the tactician. Then the next person back, our Spinnaker Trimmer is responsible for the environmental data of waves, puffs and lulls. This info gets communicated directly to the helmsperson, and because of their relative positions should be able to be done so in a clear way.
All that said – HIKE FIRST, talk later.
Love the challenging questions, keep’m coming , along with your evaluations.
Makes me want to be on the water now !!!!!
Thanks! Me too.
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