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.

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.

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!

Don't take dumb risks

In 2014, I was racing at the club with the wind blowing from an odd direction.  The right hand side of the course (going up wind) was exposed to stronger winds on average, but was very gusty, and had the lulls to match.  The left-hand side was sheltered, and the wind was slower, but steady.
The first upwind beat, I went to the unstable wind and caught a couple of gusts.  I rounded the windward mark in first place, in front of Ken Eaves who had gone to the left from the start line.  I managed to hold my position around the gybe mark and back to the start line for the final beat.
Now I had a decision: do I go to the right again into the gusty stuff, and try to extend my lead?  Or do I go left where the wind was constant and try to defend my position from there?
I went right, and got caught in a lull.  By the time the fast air hit me again, I was well behind.  I rounded the mark third, and finished fourth.

Lessons learned: don't take unnecessary risks

Ken had gone left at the start of the race -- this should have been a tip off that he would (likely) go left again on the second beat.  I should have gone left and kept in front of him.  I could have kept an eye on him as he rounded the downwind mark, and (just in case he changed tactics and went right) I could always tack and move towards the gusty stuff to ensure he didn't pass.
Doug at Improper Course wrote a post about a similar tactical decision (http://www.impropercourse.com/2015/04/when-to-slow-down.html) where he opined:

Sailing more conservatively is much better than hoping that things would somehow work out. I got greedy, which rarely works with mark roundings, and it cost me the event.

He knows what he's talking about.