Log - Aug 24, 2015 - Race night and sailing with boom past 90

It's been a while since I took out a Laser, mostly because I've been catarmaraning (is that a word?) the past month or so.  Then the commodore of the club sent me a picture he had taken earlier this year of me in the old trusty single-hander... and all I could see were mistakes I was making

So, I decided to work on those.

Forecast: Light to Moderate winds, anywhere between 6 and 12 knots from SW

Observed: Very Light to Light winds, from WSW

Focus: I wanted to focus on getting the controls set correctly.  This would help me keep the boat flat, and reduce weather helm.  Everything else flows from there.

Pre-Race:
It was single-hander night at KSC, apparently.  Carla was in a Byte CII, Mike R and Ken E (and myself) in Lasers. Before the race, I was trying to get a hang on roll-tacks in the very light winds. I actually dry-dunked in about 4 knots trying to see how far I could heel the thing, but fortunately nobody saw it (or were too polite to say anything...)

Tony and Annie were in a H16, but the winds were light enough that they were not a factor.  Mike T was running RC with a nice short course (about 20 minutes per race with 6 legs- I pity the cat).  Also on the course, Hannah, Emily and Heidi in Optis!  Another post on that later... 

Before the race I had resolved to crank on the vang much more, and keep just enough curve in the outhaul to shape the sail.  I figured too tight (especially for the vang) was better than too loose, even though I do prefer a bit looser controls in very light air to keep the power up.  I also knew that tight controls would let me get the most out of any roll tacks I could pull off cleanly.

First Race:
I had a good start, with Mike and Carla to my port side (and behind!), and Ken to starboard.   I didn't have a good view of the mark prior to starting, so I didn't realize how much boat end was favoured.  Ken an I approached the mark on opposite tacks, and I had to bear off to duck him, as he had right of way.  I tacked right behind him, and Carla tacked within a couple inches of me.  I was able to put some distance between Carla and myself before rounding in second a few boat length behind Ken.

Ken was ridiculously good at defending and keeping his boat flat.  There was no passing him on either of the reaching legs, and he caught a couple of good gusts.  He was still a good two boat lengths ahead at the leeward mark.  Upwind, I was able to use roll tacks to play the shifts a bit better, and made up some distance.  We were both coming onto the windward mark on port, and I had to make a move.  I thought a header might be coming so I tacked early just as the shift hit and I was on the layline.  Ken waited a few more seconds before tacking, and was too far "up" the coarse.  This let me get inside him at the mark, and I was able to round first.  Downwind was nothing to write home about in the very light air (Ken was lighter, but I was able to heel more, reduce my wetted area and get more of the sail in the air, so we were about the same speed).  I blew the gybe and rounding the leeward mark, but had enough of a lead that Ken wasn't able to capitalize on it.  Me 1st, Ken 2nd, Carla 3rd, Mike 4th, Tony and Annie 5th.

Second Race: Everyone seemed to have a bad start.  It seemed everyone was tacking back and forth looking for air, and that was okay with me (I was starting to get the hang of the roll tacks).  Again, it came down to Ken and I in the lead.  This time I was able to get inside him at the 1st windward mark, and rounded 1st.  From there, it was a matter of defending.  I put about about a half of a boat between Ken and I for each of the reaching legs and again upwind.  Downwind, I got lucky, and caught a gust that no one else did.  The wind was really dying at this point, and I had a trick up my sleeve.

This is something else I've read about but have not been able to do successfully.  It's used when there is not enough wind to hold the boom out.  I let (or push) the sail out past 90 degrees (not as much as the diagram, but that's just an exaggeration), and heel the boat.  Because the boom is up in the air, it wants to fall down, but because the boom is in front of the mast the mainsheet holds it in place. This keeps the boom on the correct side of the boat, keeps the sail area high up in the air, and moves the centre-of-effort on the sail closer to the centreline of the boat (meaning less rudder has to be used.)  You can steer pretty effectively just be heeling more or less (more heel = bear off, less = head up).

The bad thing about this technique is that any lateral forces on the sail either hit the front of the sail, slowing you down, or add to the heeling force, possibly putting you in the water.  If the wind picks up, or the direction becomes shifty, you're better to sheet in lest you get into a death-roll situation.

The technique seemed to work, at least last night.  I was able to put several boat lengths between Ken (who was sailing his boat flat) and I, and rounded the leeward mark with tons of time to spare.  Another bullet!  Actually, placement for everyone was the same.

Masters' Clinic with Thomas Fogh

A group of sailors in the area are heading to the Masters' Worlds' and had arranged for a prep clinic with Thomas Fogh at Britannia Yacht Club.  Somehow they heard that this rookie from Kanata was going as well, and extended an invite.

The first thing I learned is that my goal of "second last or better" is probably a stretch -- holy shit, these guys are good.  Their boat speed on any point, in any conditions must've been 135% mine, and that's not even including the fact that they don't lose any speed during their tacks, whereas I, well, do.

Speaking with the other sailors, as well as coach Fogh, I learned gobs about everything from setup, to boat handling, to proper technique, even a few tactical tips.  The only downside is that (given that the other folks were so much faster than I was) I didn't get a chance to practice the tactical aspects too much.

Setup - Before launch

Right away, I was pointed to some things I was doing wrong in terms of boat setup.  Some of this was functional, some was just to save wear-and-tear on the boat.

Traveller - My traveller was too loose to begin with.  In addition, the line was old and stretchy, and I had it tied in a simple "slip loop".  I should replace the line, and tie it in a bowline before getting it down tight.  For the clinic, I wasn't able to replace my line, but I did sail with it tighter than I normally do -- I was able to point better, depower more easily, and go faster.  Note that I WAS catching the sheet on the transom more (as the block needed some coaxing to move across the rudder, and got stuck a couple of times) but practice should take care of that.

Vang - as the control comes out of the cleat block, I have a loop with a rubberized handle.  My loop was set too far back from the cleat, allowing, in downwind conditions, the boom to rise up.  Also, after the loop, there is a trailing length of line.  I should be tying that extra line to the centreboard -- this allows the handle to "fall" to one side, but still be within reach.

Clew tie down - I didn't have it tied down tight enough

Centreboard brake - replace the rubber "M" brake, it's not holding the board in place

Outhaul - The outhaul ties off at the fairlead, and goes through a block with a hook which attaches to the clew grommet before going back through the fairlead to the control line.  The "turning point" that the fairlead makes should be "above" the tie off point, rather than "below" it.  I never really paid attention to it before, but apparently, the line can get caught under the fairlead where the rivet is.  I erroneously drew the line passing through the grommet, but you get the idea from the picture.  Also, I should add a (class legal) "inhaul", drawn in blue.

Setup - On the water

Cunningham - I tended to put way to much cunningham on.  The low purchase on the cunninham on the Laser, combinded with a stiff upper mast (in comparison to a skiff, a Byte, a cat, etc) means that the cunningham isn't really useful for bending the mast and depowering.  The cut of the Laser standard sail, also means that the cunningham is pulling along the bias of the sail cloth, which "stretches" the sail more than depowers.  Use a bit of cunningham to move draft in and out, but that's about it.

Vang - I didn't use nearly enough vang.  As a result, when I tried to sheet out to depower in gusts, the boom was just moving "up" and was actually increasing power, forcing me to pinch.

Boat handling - Tacks

My tacks the first day were quite awful. Improve:

• Tack smoother, slower.  Don't jam the rudder ever, instead use body weight more, and urge the boat using the rudder
• Move my ass farther back in the boat when tacking.  This helps head the boat up, and allows me to duck lower when crossing
• "kiss the rachet" when crossing
• come out of the turn with the rudder strait
• hike HARD when I come out
• head down a bit, momentarily, to regain lost speed, and get back on close hauled

Boat handling - Gybes/downwind

 I was doing too much of an "s-turn" when gybing.  Sheet in so boom is about 45 and then use body weight to turn the boat slightly to initiate gybe.  Going downwind, in fear of the death roll, I had my vang on too tight, and my boom in too much.  Get better at generating/handling more power.  Centreboard down "a bit", the thinking at the top level has changed from the "board all the way up" days.

Also, my position was wrong in light air.  I typically crouched on the windward side of the boat near the centreboard.  While my "place" in the boat was correct, I wasn't "locked in".  It was recommended that I put one leg under the hiking strap to ensure I could throw the boat around, if need be.

Starts

Wow, this is a post on its own..

Honestly, dear, this has never happened to me before!

I was fortunate that I heeded Steve and Rune's advice.

Tie down your tiller!

I've been sailing for 5 years, and not once has the tiller come out of the rudder head.  Until this week.

The Laser's rudder head is on the boat pretty securely.  The clip does a good job of keeping it in place, and some have additional pins or split rings to back the clip up.  The tiller, however slides into the rudder head, and there are a few, unreliable, ways to keep it in place:

• friction - jam it in there, and hope it stays
• the pin -- there is a single pin to hold the tiller in the rudder head, but it can fall out
• the rudder downhaul -- the rudder can pivot up and down.  Except when you're coming into shallow water, you want the rudder down, and that's what pulling on the downhaul does.  The line can then be cleated onto the tiller (which also holds the tiller in place), but is pretty easy to release.

For two years, I sailed with these three mechanisms conspiring to hold the tiller in place.  And it worked.  Then Steve and Rune advised me to additionally tie the downhaul into a loop past the cleat.  They said that if the cleat/pin came undone, then this would at least prevent you from loosing the tiller (which doesn't float).  I figured (at the time) "why bother, this works fine as is!" but heeded the advice of the gurus anyway.

This week, I inserted the pin incorrectly, and didn't notice.  On the water, in heavy winds, I all-of-a-sudden felt the tiller come out of the rudder head, in the middle of a tack.  I was still holding the tiller, but almost capsized.  If I had gone into the drink, there's a good chance I would have lost the tiller to the bottom of the Ottawa had I not tied the downhaul post-cleat.

So yeah, tie down your tiller!

Sailing beginner's tips

I was out a couple of days ago, and I noticed a few folks on the water making "rookie mistakes".  Not that there's a problem with that -- we were all rookies once, and even the folks who have been going out for 30 years make them.  I'm sure there are many things I do that some would consider rookie moves.

Most of the sailing blogs I read focus on the high-performance sailor.  There's little on them for the person just starting their adventure.  So I figured I'd address some of common things I see beginners do.

Tiller grip: The "frying pan" vs "microphone" grip (I've also seen this called "dagger" grip). When holding the tiller (or tiller extension), hold it like a a microphone.  Don't bend your wrist and hold it like a frying pan.  It feels awkward for about 5 minutes, and then feels much more comfortable.

Holding the sheet: do NOT wrap it around your hand to improve grip.  Especially in high winds.  it will squeeze your hand and leave you with bruises, or worse.  If you're having trouble gripping the sheet, you can

• replace the sheet with a thicker line
• wear gloves that make the effective size of the line thicker
• do exercises to improve grip strength

Hand-over-hand sheeting: Hold the sheet "mainly" in your forward hand, but hold the slack in the back-facing hand (yes, even if you're holding the tiller).  This lets you sheet in by moving your hands together, move your forward hand down the line, and re-grip.

Behind-the-back passing: When you tack (or gybe), you ultimately end up switching which hand holds the tiller extension, and which holds the sheet.  I find it most effective to (as I'm switching sides), face forward, place both hands behind my back, move the tiller to the new hand (it's now holding both sheet and tiller), sit down on the new side of the boat.  Only once I'm settled do I grab the sheet with the new control hand (and I'm already in my hand-over-hand sheeting position).

Keep it flat!  Do you have too much weather helm?  You're not keeping the boat flat enough.  Are you slower than everyone else on the course?  Flatten that boat.  Unable to point?  Flatten, to solve your problems!  A dinghy is meant to be sailed flat.  Keelboats, are a bit more complicated, especially approaching hull speed, but you can't go wrong keeping it flat.

Sailing between the holes

The Ottawa River isn't particularly wavy.  Most days, the wind blows from the west, and generally follows the river.  This means the waves are not as big as you'd expect for a given wind speed, since the difference between wind and water is (wind_speed - current_speed).  When it blows from the south or east, however, the waves are bigger since the different between the wind speed and the water speed is (wind_speed + current_speed).

I had the opportunity to get some wave-practice in last night.  The wind was coming up river, and the waves were a good 3 feet high with whitecaps.  Since I don't have a lot of experience in waves, this was a good chance to try different things, and see what works for me.

The wind and waves were going slightly different directions, meaning that on port tack, on a close hauled course, I was just about perpendicular to the oncoming waves.

Attempt 1: baseline attempt - sail close hauled as if there no waves
Nope.  I'd go up a wave (slow down significantly), past the crest, and the bow would come crashing down into the trough [splash!].  The next wave would then hit my bow full on, crashing over the top of the deck, and stopping me (or pushing me backwards!).  Apparently, the Laser does not have a wave-piercing hull.  :)

Attempt 2: use body weight/position
Here I tried to shift my body weight to allow for smoothing wave crossings.  At the top of the wave I'd be low down, and hiked out far.  In the troughs, I'd be sitting higher.  My thought was that if my centre of mass was relatively stable (from a vertical perspective), then the wave would only be moving the boat up and down.  This would mean the wave would have an easier time lifting the boat.

This had a bit of an effect, but not as much as I was hoping.  I then tried moving my body back-and-forth (fore-and-aft) to try to force the boat into/through/up/down/the waves in various ways.  Again, this seemed to have an effect, but I had trouble getting the timing of what to do, when, correct.  The is something I should practice, and try to get a better handle on, as between the up/down and fore/aft movement, the waves could probably be much more manageable.

Attempt 3: steering to avoid the holes

I noticed that the biggest trouble stop was not the big-wave-coming-towards-me, it was that I'm-stuck-in-this-deep-trough-when-the-wave-hits.  I tried something new -- when I saw particularly deep trough coming towards me, I bore off slightly to avoid it.  I tried to point between the peaks of the next wave, as the bigger the crest, the bigger the trough behind it.

This was REALLY effective.  Not only was avoiding the brakes of "pitch-poling", be the few seconds of bearing off also increased boat speed as I was on a bit more of a close reach (rather than close hauled) and I could pinch a little bit immediately after to make up for lost pointing.  Practising this, along with better body movement should definitely improve upwind/big-wave performance.

In the diagram, you can see something like my original close-hauled course in red.  At each "break" in the line, is when I'd crest a wave, crash down, and almost stop.

The green course shows me bearing away when I see a "pit" coming.  While it's not as close to the wind as the red course, I found it much faster.

The takeaway:
- Steer to avoid the deep pits and troughs
- Bear off to increase speed
- Avoid digging the bow into oncoming waves
- Try to figure out how to use body weight/position/movement

KSC Racing Meeting Minutes

Racing is a week away!  In prep, some of the racers held a meeting at the club with the sailing director (Jake) and the ever-awesome Mario.

The end results of the discussion:

• we want sailing instructions to be a bit more formal -- closer to what you'd see at a real regatta
• we'll divide the season into 3 sets of 5 race nights -- we'll try the new instructions out, and can adjust them for the second series
• we'll "draw" boats at the skipper meeting -- no more first come, first serve
• 1st race warning time of 5:45
• we'll sail with the cats and 29ers on the same course, albeit  with different starts
• for the 2nd and 3rd series, the plan is to have the cats and skiffs sail a longer windward/leeward course, but...
• scoring: now no difference between skipper and crew scoring

All in all, I think the changes are good.   I'm mostly looking forward to a fixed start time, and getting more races in.

Club Starts

A lot of information can be found about how to start a race.  An issue I was struggling with when I started racing was that most of this information isn't applicable to club racing -- it's more focused on competitive level racing where the start lines are packed with boats, all of which know exactly what they're doing.

At the club level (especially the "beer league") the racing tends to be more laid back.  You have folks who just learned (or are learning) to sail, folks who have been doing it for 30 years and have 30 years of bad habits, folks who are just there to have a bit of fun before sharing a pint, folks out with their kids on the water, and occasional competitive jerk screwing it up for everyone else.  The expected behaviour and etiquette in these situations is different from a "real" regatta, and the start strategies usually employed are a bit different.

The goal is the same -- you want to be across the start line (usually between some marker, like a bouy, and a flag on the committee boat) with as much speed as possible, right at the start sound.  But, in my experience, the way people achieve this is a little bit processional than most of the youtube videos you'll see.  You won't see people luffing their opponents or defending their position as much as in a competitive regatta.  Heck, lots of people don't even form a plan to pick a favoured end of the start line!

During the start sequence, most boats will broad reach (it's fun!) on port tack and see how far away from the commitee boat the get after 30 seconds.  The theory is that if you start on a starboard tack from this point 30 seconds or so before the gun, you should be at the committee end of start line with full speed right at the start of the race.  45 seconds or so before the start, a line of boats will form around this point, with each boat judging the ideal place to be.  The line of boats starts heading toward the line.

About 10-20 seconds before the start, the first of the boats pass the committee boat.  Each boat must judge if it's going too-fast, too-soon and may potentially have to luff to avoid overshooting the port-side mark.

As the gun goes, the boats head up to a close-hauled course and the race is underway!

In the diagram above, the blue boat is "too-fast, too-soon" and is approaching the port mark 10 seconds before the start.  It has to head up, and almost stop to avoid going past.  As a result, it's boat speed is very slow as it crosses the start.

The green and yellow boats do a good job.  They're probably taking the lead.

The red boat has left it too late.  They'll pass the start line with good speed, but probably 5 or 10 seconds behind green and yellow.

Fitness

I've been told that the Laser is an "athletic boat".  Honestly, I'm not sure that it's much more "athletic" it is than most other dinghies.  I mean, when I go out on something like a 29er or Hobie, I'm aching the next day from all the pseudo-squats I'm doing from the wire, and I have yet to see someone unable to sail a Laser because they were not strong/agile enough.

What I think people mean by "the Laser is an athletic boat" is that "fit folks tend to sail Lasers a lot faster than unfit folks".  Compare that to something like the Albacore where those carrying more, um, "ballast" can still win by being very smart tactically and knowing the particular tweaks and trim settings to get every ounce of speed from the boat in any wind condition.

So, in prep for the Worlds' it couldn't hurt to get fitter.

Hiking: I built a hiking bench like Doug Peckover's and have been working on getting my time up.  From 10 seconds initially, I'm up to about 45.  A long way to go.

Upper Body Strength: I bought some rope and hung it from the rafters in the basement.  The two ends of the rope are about shoulder width apart and end in loops with plastic tubes as handholds.  I do chinups on this rope, I'm up to two or three sets of five.

Lower Body Strength: I have an old barbell with 70 pounds on it.  Doing 2 sets of 10 squats.  Perhaps I should get more weights?

Situps: I do situps on the hiking bench.  Sit-ups are actually easier than the "hiking" part.  I'm not sure how many I can

Flexability: Flexibility and cardio are by far the weakest points.  I never had great flexibility, and keep forgetting to work on it.  Any tips?

Cardio: I have no stamina.  I can jog maybe one kilometre, on a good day.

Agility: I have no idea how to train for improved agility/balance/quickness, other than to "sail more".  Any thoughts?

I'll try to remember to post in a month with improved results.

Lessons and Improving

I spoke with the instructor at the club about taking some additional lessons.  There's two routes I could go here, with the end goal being "become a better sailor".

I could go the certification route.  Right now I hold a CanSail 2 (what used to be "White Sail III") level.  That's basically "you know how to sail."  I got this 5 years ago when I first took lessons.  Now, I'm a much better (I think...) sailor now than I was then.  So maybe I should get trained up to the next level (CanSail 3/4 which basically corresponds to "know how to race").  The advantage of getting a formal certification is that I can putting myself on a common base with other (better) sailors, and I can then see what they're doing differently (better) than me.

Option two is to forgo the certifications, and just "get better".  Work on areas where I'm weak.  Refine areas I'm strong.  The advantage of this route is that I don't waste time developing skills which are of little use to the class of boat I sail on.  For example, how important is knowing "proper trapeze technique" if I'm sailing Lasers?

This got me thinking -- what are my overall goals?

• short term: place 2nd last or better in the Kingston Masters Worlds'
• long term: be a better overall sailor

The certification route would be better for my long term goal, but a more specific regimen would be better for my short term goal.

Gusts and The Fan

Time for a post about actually sailing and (even better) sailing fast.  I'll write a few sentences on the topic of gusts (which many sailors already know) and then move on to talking about the fan which is something that I kinda observed on my own, and then (when I read about it Frank Bethwaite's High Performance Sailing) was confirmed and expanded upon.  But it's not something I hear folks at the club talking about, and I don't recall reading posts about it on other blogs, so I don't know how widely known the fan is.

Gusts

My naive view of gusts

We all know how to spot gusts, right?  Look for those dark, ripply patches on the water.  These patches may be blotchy, they may be in lines or columns.  They move along the water.  The wind in the gusts is faster than the average wind.  If you're on the race course, and see multiple "dots" of fast wind, you'll notice that the boats who win will be sailing from one gust to the next, trying to "connect the dots".  Their boat speed is huge compared to those who just point for the mark.  Avoid those flat, mirror-like spots on the water -- those are lulls with less-than-average wind.

For a long time, I thought that's all there was to it -- gust = faster version of ambient wind.  Eventually, I noticed that the gusts often have a slightly different wind direction than the ambient wind, but that's it.

The Fan

The fan is a term I read in High Performance Sailing.  It describes an area of high pressure, and high wind speeds, around the perimeter of a gust, spreading out in a "fan" shape, especially in front of the gust.  The wind in this fan is faster than the wind in the gust itself.  In hindsight, I have often noticed that the wind feels very fast as I sail into a gust, but I always assumed that this was a trick of my perception -- it "felt" fast because I was coming in from slower air, but quickly got use to the new speed.  It turns out I was wrong -- the wind actually is fastest at the transition.

You'll notice two things about the fan -- fast wind, and changing wind directions.  All the wind in the fan is faster than the ambient wind, and much of it is faster than the "core" of the gust.  But it's the change in direction that we want to exploit.

Consider two boats approaching a gust on a port tack.  The red boat, on the left, heads for the centre of the gust.  They are hit with the strong wind of the fan as they enter the gust, experience a header, and actually slow down, until they get to the normalized wind direction (where they sail faster than someone who didn't hit the gust at all).

The green boat, on the other hand, aims to skirt the gust, and ride the fan.  The boat experiences a lift and can blast by the fleet (including the red boat).

The next time you're on the water, and see an approaching gust, try to feel out how big the fan is, and how much the wind changes direction in it.  Feel the difference in the speed.  Compare it with the wind in the centre of the gust (which is still better than the ambient wind).

One final note about the fan.  The diagram shows using the fan when going upwind.  Now imagine what happens when you go downwind.  A boat like the Laser goes about half wind speed on a run, and much closer to wind speed on a broad reach, right?  So, someone who hits a 10 knot gust on a run will be going about 5 knots (faster than the 4 knots the rest of the fleet is going).  But, the boat who is right beside the gust, and trims his sail for a reach can ride the 12 knot wind of the fan at a speed closer to 9 knots -- passing the guy in the centre of the gust and waving as he does so!