CONTENTS

Light Air Racing
Words to Sail By
Race Committee Duty
The Art of the Start
Sailing a Fast Reaching Leg
Getting the Best Speed from Our Steed

LINKS
David Dellenbaugh's Newsletter of how to tips for racing sailors:
                       



Come back for more: Articles and links loaded regularly

 

                       

Light Air Racing: Successfully Enduring Drifters
By Dave Ellis

Like it or not, we sail in an area that is known for light air sailing events. How do we race our PRHF boats in the drifters we are likely to have?

If there is smooth water with that very light air, forget the old adage about full sails for light air. Instead, upwind, make the mainsail rather flat, similar to heavy wind. The outhaul should be pulled almost tight. If you have a means to bend the mast with the backstay, do it. Pull the Cunningham, or pull the halyard tension, just enough to almost remove the wrinkles at the luff. You want the draft fairly far aft. The first part of the mainsail is messed up by the mast anyhow.

Ideally the boom should be raised up just enough to allow the top batten to be parallel to the boom. The weight of the boom pulls down and closes off the top of the sail. Some boats have a vang that can push up as well as down; others tighten the topping lift to lift the boom a bit. You will have to let it off and re-tighten after each tack. Check the top full-length batten, if any, after each tack or jibe.
As for the genny, if you have pre-bent your mast with the backstay, you will have a tight forestay. While this is not ideal, it seems to work best with those boats with a relatively larger mainsail than jib. It is unlikely that boats with a larger headsail than main would have an adjustable backstay anyhow.

In either case, the foresail can be a little fuller than the main. Pull the halyard only enough to almost remove the wrinkles, but no more. In really light stuff and smooth water try moving the jib fairlead back, yes back, an inch or two. It seems that there may not be any wind at all at the bottom of the sail so you want that area flat for no drag. But aloft you want the sail to twist off to match the mainsail.

Don't forget to move the jib fairleads forward of average when the wind picks up to 2 knots or so. Then you want the jib full and not cranked in very far. Unless you move the fairleads forward, the top of the sail will be luffing.

Get the crew weight to the lee side of the boat. If the sails can fill from gravity, whatever wind there is can do its work instead of first filling the sail. Most boats are designed for a wind speed of between 8 and 12 knots. Below that and they tend to have a lee helm, especially with the biggest foresail in the inventory up in the front of the boat. Heeling induces a bit of weather helm to balance that tendency.

You will not be able to point very high. The sails may look okay, but if the keel is not going through the water, you will have more leeway than if you cracked off a few degrees.

                                    

Most boats have less wetted surface, hence drag, if crew weight is also put forward, depressing the skinny bow and getting the aft sections out of the water.

Especially if there are waves during drifters that move the top of the mast fore and aft, forget the adage about keeping crew weight together. Instead, spread the weight apart, keeping the forward and lee side weight in mind. At those slow wind speeds, the moving of the rig and sails is more damaging than the boat's bumping the swells. You can't go unless the sails push you. Spreading the weight inhibits the boat from bobbing fore and aft.

On reaches, go ahead and give your sails some shape by straightening the mast, letting off the Cunningham or halyard, letting the jib halyard off a touch. It is especially important to lift the boom on reaches. The genny takes care of itself, especially if you can lead it out to the edge of the deck. If you are using a spinnaker, drop the pole down to match where the luff wants it to be. It will be lower than any normal breeze. Pull it back up in puffs and down in the really light stuff. Otherwise the sail won't fly. If you are using the 'chute, douse the foresail in light air.

Don't forget to trim the main. It is still a big sail, even with the spinnaker up. On a spinnaker reach you will have to pull the boom in farther than you think. With a spinnaker that only goes up the mast part way, twist the mainsail out markedly above the head of the 'chute. You will have to do this with the vang or topping lift trick. Again, don't forget the topping lift and top batten when you jibe.

More important than any of this go-fast stuff is going where the wind is blowing. A 2-knot puff will increase your speed and momentum over a drifting boat enough to give a huge lead. Keep your eyes open for wind coming down the course.

If you are drifting upwind and get a header, chances are it would be best NOT to tack. It is likely either a place with no wind at all, or a puff ahead and you are in the outfall of it. Keep going. Unless you need to meet a puff, tack as seldom as possible.

Generally, stay out of the middle of a racecourse and out of the middle of a lake. There is usually better breeze at the edges.

Now, you get to pick which edge.

 
Words To Sail By
By Dave Ellis

Sailors for generations have used chants, songs and sayings to remember what they need to know to make the boat do what they want it to do. PHRF racing skippers and crew can use word reminders to keep the myriad things in mind that make our boat a little faster than that boat back there. Here are a few words to sail by:

SAILS

• If in doubt, let them out.
• Make the top battens parallel to the boom. If they are full-length battens, make the aft third parallel to the boom.
• Check the top full-length batten after every tack or jibe.
• Trim the genny or jib first, then the mainsail to match.
• Play the mainsheet more, the tiller less.

SAILING

• Get Clear Air. Maintain Clear Air. Stay in Clear Air.
• To "slow" the boat, don't slow down; make turns to go more distance (at the start or to position for inside turns).
• The rudder is a brake. Use it judiciously. Use the mainsail to help turn: Dump out when falling off; pull in when heading up from a reach or run.
• Telltales on the genoa: Turn the tiller toward the one that is misbehaving when going to windward.
• Telltales on the genoa when reaching: Let the sail out or pull it in toward the one that is misbehaving.
• After a jibe, push the tiller toward the boom to avoid doom.
• When tacking, push the tiller toward the boom to avoid doom.
• With wheel steering, turn the top of the wheel away from the boom to avoid doom.
• Sailing to weather, think speed, not height. Generally "bow down" is faster on most PHRF racers, especially in waves.
• On reaches, up on the lulls, off on the puffs.
• On the corners, "Wide and Tight," like a motorcycle racer's turn.
• A free-spinning prop has more drag than a stopped prop.
• If you think you may want to reef, REEF. Heeling causes weather helm, which causes rudder angle, which causes slowing.

THE BOAT

• A smooth, clean boat bottom has more speed effect than new sails.
• Every extra pound on the boat has to be pushed around the course.

BRAIN GAME

• A 10-degree shift advantages one boat by 25 percent of the separation between boats. Get separation at your peril—or advantage.
• When a port tacker ducks a starboard tack boat, unless that boat is laying the weather mark, the port tacker is now ahead. Stay to the right of your closest competition.
• Plan ahead, anticipate, prepare.
• Communicate to crew… before you do anything, not during.
• Keep the crew hydrated. A thirsty crew makes more mistakes.
• Smile! It is supposed to be fun.

 

So, You Have Race Committee Duty
By Dave Ellis


              


There are few clubs that have perennial volunteer race committee members for PHRF races. Don't take them for granted. Most of us have to volunteer on a rotating basis, giving up a few days a year to run races for the fleet. While we have all complained about an RC's performance on occasion, it can be daunting to be thrust into that job without training.

For many years I was an employee of St. Petersburg Yacht Club, managing the sailing center and serving as regatta coordinator. Major regattas were run using multiple vessels and dozens of volunteers on the water and others doing shore duty. But Friday night “around-the-cans” PHRF racing was staged by a small Whaler-type powerboat and only occasionally with any helper at all.

How can you produce a great racing experience for your peers? Here are some tips for the shorthanded race committee duty.

Somewhere out there are a written Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions. Often they are online on a club's Web site. Read them. Bring a copy with you. It will make you a genius.

Usually the course is chosen among several government buoys or permanently set club marks. Try to set the starting line where there is a good upwind course to the first mark. Most sailors prefer a windward start as it separates the fleet and gives more options to escape a bad start than a reach or run.

If there is any current that is not perfectly in line with the wind, do not rely on your homemade batten with a length of yarn to tell the wind direction. Instead, ask one of the competing boats, preferably one without an overlapping jib, to go up beyond your anchor line and go head to wind for you. The direction that the boat is pointing is the sailor's wind, including the current effect. In light air this can be a major change from what your anchored wind direction indicator shows.

If you use an existing mark for your starting pin, set yourself at right angles to the sailor's wind. Simply face the direction that you have decided is to windward and put your left arm straight out to the side. The pin should be there or maybe a little to windward of there to try to get sailors away from your precious boat that you have volunteered along with your time. For more security, float a little buoy a few feet behind your transom with floating polypropylene line.

Have plenty of anchor line so that you can drop the hook to windward of your chosen spot and drift back, with the option of changing the scope to be in the right spot.

If someone else is setting the starting pin, the pro's way to do it is to hold the anchor in the attitude that it will be when hooked, with the buoy on the anchor line full length behind the mark set boat. Slowly go up the sailor's wind towing the mark. The RC crew sites the mark with their arm raised high. When the mark gets to where you want it, drop that arm with authority. At that time the mark set person drops the anchor. The buoy will sit there while the anchor drops. Do some homework to make sure there is only a few feet more anchor line than the highest wave at the highest tide of the day so the line doesn't tangle keels and rudders.

Any time you see someone throwing one of those little anchors, be prepared to have a drifting mark. It tangles in flight and upon landing more often than not. Drop marks.

Before starting your flag sequence for the start (Racing Rule 26, page 11 in your rulebook; back cover for other flags) count how many boats are in the fleet. This is a safety measure.

You have flags to show which fleet is starting. Put them on the deck in the order of start. Spinnaker A, Non-Spinnaker, True Cruising, etc.; each will have a "five minute" debut. Some clubs use one flag and the Sailing Instructions show the order of start. But that can be confusing since it is the dropping of the class flag that means "GO" and the raising of a class flag that means five minutes until the next start. Read the Sailing Instructions for direction.

PHRF racing depends on accurate timing of each boat's finish. It is best to use two watches, one being a stopwatch that is started at the GO signal. With running starts, simply subtract five minutes for each subsequent fleet. When you start your sequence, do so at a convenient time of day. For example, start your five minute sequence exactly at one o'clock with the second hand straight up. Write that time down on your finish sheet. The actual start time for the first fleet will be 1:05:00; the second fleet 1:10:00, etc. If there is a problem and a start has to be delayed, just write down when the start did occur.

                             

The biggest danger during volunteer race committee duty is enjoying too much adult beverage while waiting around for the finish and not being prepared for the onslaught of boats. So get your ducks in a row early.

Someone calls the finish line saying "MARK", or "NOW" when ANY part of a boat crosses the line, including a spinnaker. Someone with the watch or stopwatch records that time along with the sail number of the boat. The scorer may not know the boat's name or the skipper, so record the sail number for them.

If boats are really close at the finish, do your homework with the numbers on the sails as they approach. The line caller can then simply say, "Far boat, near boat, middle boat," or whatever they see the order of finish was.

Most scoring programs will separate boats to their proper fleet by sail number. Getting that number correct on the finish sheet will save the scorer much head-scratching.

Finally, count finishers on your score sheet to make sure all are accounted for.

Guard that finish sheet well. Many experienced officials make a copy. Sheets have gone overboard, including at a 100-plus-boat Optimist Dinghy regatta. Ouch.

Oh, and if you have set marks or a starting pin, don't forget to pick them up. Bundle the flags, gather the horns and stopwatch and deliver them back to the club.

Just think, next week you can critique the RC with authority.

 

The Art Of The Start
By Dave Ellis

The start of a sailboat race has been deemed one of the most tense moments in sport. Is there a way to make that moment in time in our PHRF racing game less complicated, tense, and scary? Let's break the procedure down to a decent start to our race.

It is important to know that the most important part of the start is what your situation is a minute or two after that "GO" signal. Being right at the line at the start is nice. But there are more important factors.

                

Suppose you think that there is going to be more wind or less adverse current on the right side of the course, or a wind shift from the right later in the upwind beat. So start on the right side of the starting line. Duh. It would be better to start a few seconds, or be a few boat lengths late at the race committee boat with the ability to tack as soon as you clear the anchor line than to be at the gun but with a boat on your windward quarter so you cannot tack to the favored right side.

Conversely, if you think that going to the left side of the windward leg is better, start near the pin end of the line. It is more essential to be on the starting line at the gun if you want to continue on starboard tack. The very pin end of the line may be crowded. You may not be the only genius who thinks going to the left side is best. Usually, it is best to start at a position a few boat lengths away from that perfect pin spot. Of course, if you see that you have nobody down there with a few seconds to the gun, reach off and head for it.

The goal is to start when the boat is going faster than upwind speed. Yes, if you can close reach to the line and then harden up at the gun, you will actually be going faster at that time than anybody close-hauled and a lot faster than the boats luffing to the line.

Okay, you say. Just how do I do that? On our PHRF starting lines it is rare to have the stacks of boats as at a J/24 event. Most race officers give enough room for all boats, and there are always late starters. Many boats will start at the RC boat end no matter what so they don't have to worry about being over-early.

So know the habits of your local fleet. After doing RC work for a decade for the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, I noticed that most boats started about the same way every time. Do your homework. Often there are areas of the line, like one-third down from the RC boat, that aren’t filled until the last few seconds by those who got to the RC boat a little early and reached down. If you approach on a close reach a little toward the pin, from there you may find clear sailing. Actually, not any more if everybody reads this!

Get yourself in a place on the line where you won't be rolled by a bigger or faster PHRF boat and not be able to tack away. I once was sailing a Santana 21 and got rolled by the 12-meter Newsboy at a start. We sat adrift for seemingly minutes until the wind came back. Of course, if you are the big boat in the fleet, start with the slowest boats, not next to your nearest rival.

Much has been written about finding the "favored" end of a starting line. That is overrated. Seldom does a decent race committee start a race with a highly skewed line. The fastest way to check, though, is to sail to just outside of the pin and shoot head to wind. Make sure the genny is loose and make that masthead fly point right at the stem. Then have a crew member tell you whether the bow is headed more toward the pin or toward the RC boat. The end of the line that the bow is angled more toward is the end closer to the windward mark. Chances are there won't be much difference. Also, that very well may not be the “favored end” for your plans.

Incidentally, it does not matter if the windward mark is off to one side a bit and not directly upwind. As long as you have to make at least one tack to get there, this should not influence where you start on the line. A crew member counting down the seconds is helpful. If your skipper is habitually late, cheat on him. Tell him or her when the one-minute flag and gun occurs and then hesitate for a few seconds before starting your countdown every few seconds. By the "GO" of your spoken countdown you will have perhaps five to 10 seconds before the real start, and your timid skipper will be closer to the line.


                    


Uh, it works the other way around for aggressive guys who are habitually early and have to stop at the line.

One way to take the pucker factor out of a start is to practice hitting the line before the starting sequence. Have a one-minute countdown and see how long it takes to get there. How far away are you at 20 seconds? Ten seconds? Then try it at the pin end.

An easy way to tell where the starting line is when you are not at an end is to sail to the right of the stern of the RC boat and sit there. While luffing on starboard tack, take a hand-bearing compass reading from a crew's position to the pin. From anywhere on the line the crew can tell you when you are getting close to that number. In big fleets, we often do the same at the pin end, in case you can't see the pin for the numerous boats. You often can see the flag on the RC boat in those conditions.

Have you noticed that there is a quick sorting-out of boats soon after the start, and then everything settles down? Experienced skippers and crew have the sails set correctly and the steering settled at the start. They concentrate more on their sailing for that minute after the start than at any other time on the racecourse. If you get a great start at the gun going really fast, chances are you will do well. But if you don't, remember, it is only the start. Find a lane of clear air and go from there. That's the game.

 


Sailing A Fast Reaching Leg
By Dave Ellis

Unlike one-design boats, our PHRF races often have reaching legs. What can we do to our boat and steering to get an edge on free legs of the course?

Let's start with light air. The boat needs power from the sails to move all that weight. So we need to make the sails fuller. The genny's halyard can be slackened just enough so that little wrinkles start to appear at the luff. Don't overdo it, but this allows the draft to go aft a bit and makes the jib a little fuller. If your backstay is adjustable, loosen it. Keep it a little snug on smaller boats since the mast slops around and shakes the sails if it is completely unsupported. Don't forget to tighten the backstay to keep it snug as the wind increases, but never to upwind, mast-bending tension.

The genny needs to be led outboard of its usual upwind fairlead position. A snatch block clipped to a stanchion base, or a hole in the outer deck combing can be used. It should be clipped forward of the upwind position, too. If it were legal to put a whisker pole to leeward on the foresail, that would be very fast. But the rules-makers stopped that decades ago, because if the jib dipped in the water, the pole, unlike the mainsail's boom, would not give. Something else would. But it gives you an idea of what we are trying to accomplish with the outboard lead. The rules also preclude leading the foresail outboard of the shear with a special strut or gadget. You can use your foot. You can lead it over the back of the boom on a high-cut genny. On really wide boats you can make the reaching lead just right. Strive to make the back portion of the genny not hook in toward the boat very much as it would to a great degree if it were led to the usual upwind position.


                          

Set the foresail so that the telltale ribbons (the telltales just aft of the luff) all break on the windward side at about the same time. Err on the top ones breaking first. You will find that you will have some twist in the sail when the ribbons are all behaving.

As for the mainsail, again, make it full. Loosen the Cunningham, if any, and also the halyard a bit, as you did with the genny.

The outhaul should be loosened. If your main is on slugs or boltrope in the boom, let it out until wrinkles just start to appear on the sail along the boom. If your main is loose-footed, don't overdo it. With too much slack, say over six to eight inches off the boom in the middle, you are just losing projected area to the wind. This is especially the case in a drifter, as the wind down low is even lighter, perhaps stopped. Then the bottom of the sail is just drag and you want LESS shape down there.

If you have a topping lift or lifting boom vang, snug it up to raise the boom just a bit. Otherwise, in light air, the weight of the boom pulls the main down and closes off the top area of the leach. You want twist in light air, as the wind aloft is faster and effectively is in a lift up there compared to the slower, headed air down low.

As for steering, if the jib suddenly luffs in light air, when on a reach don't turn the boat. Instead, smoothly pull in both sails to match. It could very well be that you have simply sailed into less wind velocity. Until the boat slows, you will luff. No point in steering away from your destination and turning that big brake under water, the rudder.

More subtly, watch those leeward telltales. When they drop, you need to ease the sails. You may have to then head up slowly if it's not a velocity increase. If both telltales drop down your boat is well low of the best direction for the sails. We'll leave it to you to decide whether the helmsman or sail trimmers are to blame.

As the wind increases, the halyards get tightened. The boom needs to be pulled down with the vang instead of lifted. But the idea is still to keep the top battens parallel to the boom, not twisted off and not hooked to windward. That telltale two-thirds up the main and halfway between leach and luff is the key (see “PHRF Race Tips” in the April, 2006 issue for placement of these telltales). Make sure the leeward ribbon is flowing. If not, let off some vang for a little more twist. Make the genny match.

Steering becomes an issue as the breeze and waves increase. The best advice sailing coaches give is to ANTICIPATE what the boat is going to do. On a broad reach, for example, any time a wave heels the boat to leeward the boat will tend to head up. Steer down as the heel begins, not after the boat has begun to turn. You will use much less rudder.

                          

Conversely on the other side of the wave the boat heels to weather. Anticipate the lee helm and steer up a bit. You will be see-sawing the helm much less than the skipper who waits for the boat to round up or down. Without waves in a blow, if you find that your tiller or wheel has to be constantly held or turned more than seems comfortable to keep the boat going straight, you are slowing the boat by the rudder. Even huge ships monitor their rudder angles for best efficiency,

Try easing the vang, twisting the main off a bit to heel less, keeping the foresail powerful. The lower part of the sail will still work. This causes less drag than the entire mainsail slogging.

It is the heel that is causing the weather helm, so depending on the boat, often reefing the main or going to a smaller headsail, or both, will be faster than slogging along over on one side with the rudder straining to keep the boat going straight.

In puffy conditions, light air or heavy, remember the mantra: "Up on the lulls and off on the puffs." Make gradual turns to the new course a few degrees up or down. Don't overdo the down on a little light air puff until the boat has picked up speed. If you are going well and have a lull, hesitate on heading up in light air until that speed has come down to nearly what you figure it will be on your slightly higher course in the new, lighter breeze.

Reaching is the fastest point of sail. Make yours a little faster.

Getting the Best Speed From Our Steed
By Dave Ellis

PHRF racing is based on the relative speed of various classes of boats as observed over many events. Supposedly, a boat with great sails and a clean bottom, driven to its potential, should be able to sail to its assigned rating.

So, to do well in PHRF class racing we must have the speed to match the boat's potential. If a J/24, for example, has sails several years old, a bottom that has fissured and cracked from drying out on the trailer and has a few dings on the keel from trailer rash, it would be difficult for it to sail to its 174 or whatever your PHRF rating area assigns.

What are some of the things we can do to get more speed from our steed?

Starting with the hull, yes, smoothness helps. In 1985 there were four identical 26-footers in Offshore Sailing School's spring racing program. For four weeks they were all the same speed. Then one of the boats started coming in last in every practice race. Bill Shore was the guest instructor that week. He said, "Let me demonstrate how to race this boat." He came in last.

Steve Colgate ordered the staff instructors to jump in the cool spring water to clean the bottom. There was a sort of jelly on the hull and foils, no barnacles. As soon as the cleaning was done, that boat did as well as any other. It had a different paint on the bottom that allowed the growth. Just a little goo made the difference.

Weight is a significant factor in a boat's speed. A gallon of water weighs about eight pounds. Beer weighs the same. Drink it and put it on the rail, not in the cabin. All those extra sails below, the extra tools, ancient, waterlogged PFD's, take energy to move.

Our engine for racing is, of course, the sails. If you have older Dacron sails, take heart. There is an advantage to low-tech sails. Unlike modern materials and laminates, Dacron sails can be coaxed into a decent shape for many years.

The Dacron mainsail will tend to have its draft gravitate aft over seasons. So you will have to apply a little more luff tension, either through more halyard tension or a Cunningham if you have one. Pull tension until the draft is about 45 percent aft if you have a genoa jib on your boat. A little farther forward if you have a blade jib.

Put wool ribbons on the top two battens. They should stream aft about half the time when going upwind. If they stream all the time, you probably need more downward mainsheet or vang tension. There is too much twist.

Sight up the back of the mainsail to make sure the top of the sail is not hooked to windward of parallel to the boat. This is especially important if your foresail does not go to the top of the mast. A fractional rig needs the mainsail above the jib to not hook and sometimes to twist off slightly even when not overpowered.

If you sail non-spinnaker, put an additional woolie or telltale two-thirds of the way up the sail and halfway between luff and leach. Make sure the LEEWARD telltale is streaming aft. Especially on a reach this shows the amount of twist to put in the main. If it is not streaming, let the boom lift until it does. It works. After Greg Fisher showed us this secret, my reaching speed improved so much that my Windmill was measured after an event. They thought it might be underweight.

As for outhaul on the main, if you have a big foresail, you need very little shape to the mainsail down low. An inch or two is usually plenty upwind. Any more and there is excess drag. Wind speed is slower down low, so that part of the sail will be sailing in a header. A flatter sail down low is faster in most conditions. In a blow in waves you want some more shape down there as the upper sail is twisted off and not helping you along.

As for the foresail, use the halyard to get the draft about 30 – 35 percent aft.

Jib twist is controlled by sheet fairlead position. The sliding car should be set to make the telltales break just slightly earlier at the top than at the bottom of the sail. Generally, slide them forward slightly in light air and chop and then don't pull the sail in as far. Slide them back a bit from nominal and sheet harder in a blow to match the twist in the main when de-powering.

Again, another telltale is needed, this time a few up the leach of the foresail. If you look under the main up at the back of the genny and see any of these telltales bending around the outside of the sail, you have pulled the sail in too tightly. If only the top one is not streaming, you need to either let the sail out an inch or so or, more likely, the fairlead car needs to go back a hole or two.

On most of our PHRF boats, except perhaps the J/24, which has to be sailed flat, and sport boats, the boat must be sailed “fat.” Don't pinch. The sails in most breezes are doing the best they can, but speed is needed for the keel to work.

Once I was re-certifying for teaching the sport along with a group of instructors. I was the only racing guy there. When sailing a Hunter 46, I found I was going to weather at the same speed and height as our accompanying Hunter 35. Later another skipper took over. He fell off five degrees from what I knew to be optimum. A few minutes later we left the 35 in our wake. Embarrassing, but it taught me that big heavy boats need to be sailed differently than an SR Max or Martin 242. This is especially true with any wave action on the water.

Good speed can make our tactics and strategy look great. Think fast!