Well what can I say about the anniversary team pursuit that hasn’t already been said… What a great day – glorious weather, if somewhat light winds, good food, John Smith’s commentary, a course that I think really worked well, and Island barn won – not just the sailing team but the whole club. All the people who helped, sailed supported it was a great day and great advert for our club. I have to say that listening to John Smith’s commentary it seemed a lot easier from the bank than it was on the water! I don’t think I have sailed so hard but gone so slowly. Very light weather demands total concentration because changes in wind strength and direction are proportionally so much bigger. The wind strength more than doubles in a ‘gust’ so making the most of them is critical.

Well done Team Solo (IBRSC Premier on the results) fully earning bragging rights over the two Island Barn Laser teams.

We welcomed back Rob Wilder (in his beautiful new wooden boat) and Joe McLaughlin (in a Boon like mine) - two Tamesis Solos who sailed with us winter 2007 and who regularly place highly on the Open Meeting circuit.  I’m hoping Rob and Joe will join us again this winter (probably after Christmas). This meant we had a strong Solo turnout, but not so many that we slowed each other down. In a large pursuit race you have to keep the big picture in mind. You are trying to win the pursuit race not just trying to beat the other Solos near you.

Overall results for the Solos:

1st Gareth Griffiths
4th Rob Wilder (Tamesis)
5th Joe McLaughlin (Tamesis)
9th Arthur Phillips
14th Dave Strachen
18th Dave Thorpe (thanks for lending your boat Mervyn)
36th Malcolm Barnes (Malcolm had a DNF but 13th in the second race thanks to the generous loan of 3996 – would  you lend your boat to someone who just broke his centreboard in no wind?)

From my side I set the boat onto its light weather settings – that is mast heel back two slots and tighten the forestay so that it is just coming tight with the mast at the back of the gate. Shrouds just coming tight with the mast at the front of the gate, then fully chocked. In other words mast much more upright with the forestay supporting the rig but slack shrouds to help downwind.

I also went to my stern sheeting method so that I can sit in the middle with the sheet coming direct from the boom. This gives me very easy control and I don’t have to come back round the mainsheet to tack. Don’t k now if I’ll start a trend with this sheeting system but I like it for below force 2.

In very light weather I’m generally sitting on the thwart with one foot either side. Kicker adjusted to try and keep the airflow over the sail smooth – watching the streamers on the leech of the sail to try and get all flying. In that light weather a sensitive wind indicator and leech streamers are essential – many times I got indication of new wind from the wind indicator even before the sail responded allowing me to alter sheeting much quicker than those around me. Sometimes only the wind indicator and leech streamers could tell me if I had the sheet right – the conventional telltales were not setting. For example at the start of the second race I was about half way down the line starting with as much speed as I could get. (Never let the boat stop in almost no wind, it takes ages to get back to speed)  I rounded up onto the wind but just ahead was the Feva who had started a couple of minutes earlier. I saw the wind shifting so that the puffs were coming on a reach although the lulls were still a beat. Every puff I could ease sheets a lot and gain speed, then sheet back in for a lull before repeating. The result was that I footed straight through the lee of the Feva who stayed sheeted in – every puff his sail stalled so he didn’t accelerate properly. The same I think was happening to the solo to windward of the Feva because I was able to foot faster in the puffs. I think I was re-trimming each puff for a reach quicker than and so got more out of the shifting gust (if you can call a waft of force ½ a gust). The key thing in very light weather is keep the boat moving – in a puff it is literally possible to double your boat speed. Until the wind picks up don’t even think about pointing high, just get the boat moving fast and then if required very slowly luff to get back to close hauled. Because in a lull the wind always seems to come from straight ahead (boat moving faster than the wind) don’t be too keen to bear away hard. Glide on through the lull a bit before very gently bearing away if required. Often as the boat slows back down to the lighter wind speed you will find that you don’t in fact need to bear away at all. Any use of the rudder must be ever so gentle to avoid destroying your speed. If the wind picks up so you are starting to sit to windward you can think about pointing higher and once you are sitting out (but not yet overpowered) definitely look to point higher, but when the wind is really light so you are sitting in the middle or to leeward go for boat speed first.

I was watching the Toppers on Saturday – the front of the fleet completed one lap when the back had barely completed the first leg – this was because the leaders reacted to every tiny fluctuation in the wind whereas the back set the sails for where they expected the wind to be (so most of the time they were wrong, missing helpful shifts and usually being over-sheeted) They didn’t go quickly when there was some wind and didn’t know where to go when the wind switched off. We watched one poor Topper get within about fifteen feet of the finish only to miss a wind shift and sail almost straight sideways getting further away so that five minutes and three tacks later she was more like twenty yards from the finish line. Fortunately the wind stabilised a bit and she got going again, but someone more alert to the wind shifts would have gained over five minutes.

Light weather sailing demands patience and great concentration and sensitive instruments like wind indicator and leech streamers, but it can be just (well almost) as rewarding as blasting along in a blow – we are very lucky to sail a class that is good in light weather and also fun to sail in a blow.

Happy sailing

Gareth
4859

Not as much to report as usual because I was on duty and for once we didn’t have many solos on the water.

This was the monthly Pursuit race – we decided to try out Mike Jones idea for the anniversary pursuit – the idea being to give a course where you could fairly easily see where the current leader was, and to spread the boats out round the water. The course was all the way round every mark, but with an extra windward, reach, leeward in the middle.  I think the consensus was the that the idea was OK but using EVERY mark was just too much – too many mark rounding too short a legs.  Better to do something similar but miss out enough marks to give better legs. 

As far as the results went Mike Lipscombe soon overhauled the boats in front – a good turnout of Topper, Feva, Topaz, Magno but the lasers were always closing rather quickly, and from the start line a saw Peter Curtis start in more wind than anyone else. That set the tone for the race with the first few lasers getting past Mike, but Peter Curtis coming through with about 10 minutes to spare. I hear Mike took a tumble coming in miss-judging the step to the pontoon – hope that you are recovering OK.

Watching from the bank, and watching lots of the juniors I think there are a few things to consider. The wind was quite sharp at times, probably 2 gusting 4. Watching how people deal with gusts is very revealing. The top sailors just go faster – they probably anticipated the gust because they were watching the water, their boats stay flat but their course changes in response to the gust – you see their sail momentarily free slightly shape as they absorb the gust.  What happens further back down the fleet is that the sailor fights the boat – leans out harder (even though that isn’t enough), pulls the tiller hard to hold the boat straight, and only when the boat is heeled way over (and nearly stopped) is any sheet freed.  Using the rudder = putting the brakes on. Don’t wait until the boat is heeled over before reacting, ease a bit of sheet and point up a bit (if beating) to keep the boat flat.  You have to anticipate to go fast. Look for the gusts coming towards you (dark patches on the water), monitor if the gusts are tending to head or free (and watch the boats ahead to see what happened when they got the gust).  Flat is fast, heeling over macho fighting the to keep the boat straight is not!  Particularly with a boat like ours where the key is keeping the boat moving – in a steady wind we all go at much the same speed so the differences come in how we react when the wind changes and in the direction we point. Avoiding the brakes (lots of rudder) keeping the boat balanced is one of the keys to boatspeed.

Results this week:

4859 Gareth G
3649 Robin P
4073 Peter C
4252 Alex A
2052 Andy F
3861 Dave C 

Overall results are on the web site. I'll be trying to keep that up to date each week.

Great result from Robin keeping Peter at bay - good start and kept the position - Robin obviously read last week's blog and spotted the port end bias and shift to even more port and then had the nerve and timing to go for a port end on port start, so he was going the right way at the start of the beat from the favoured end. I reckoned the line was a bit short for a start on port so I came down the line - Robin ducked me and got away cleanly ahead of the rest of the fleet. I tacked as soon as he was well clear under me. I didn't want to tack too quickly because if someone bears away under you and you tack as soon as possible you end up with them on your lee bow - just in front and to leeward and they get pulled up through you. I think I had a slight edge in boat speed in the gusts so I was able to pull away enough to get clear, but at the end of the beat Robin was clear second and with a healthy lead over Peter who kept threatening to catch and overtake, but Robin sailed a very clean race keeping half an eye on Peter and half an eye on where he was going (except for the last leg where it looked as if he almost forget to check where he was going but just stayed left to have inside at the last mark).  Behind, Alex was keeping Peter on his toes with good boat speed but losing out a bit on mark rounding - too wide rounding up onto the beat losing a few lengths at the start of the beat - start a bit wider and end close to the mark hard on the wind.  Although the positions stayed the same each lap there was a lot of close racing.  

The start was much the same as last week - shifting between very port end and almost even - when we started it was very port end so that meant we were being headed on starboard tack so it was important to get onto port tack as soon as possible to be on the lifted tack. For those new to racing, if the wind shifts when you are beating against the wind, on one tack you are pushed further away from where you want to go (headed), but on the other tack you can point up nearer to where you want to go (lifted) - obviously if you are always on the lifted side you sail a much shorter distance. You'll see we often talk about headers and lifts meaning the wind shifted to be less or more favourable. I'll try to always define terms, but if I forget just ask! In a shifty wind you have to know which shift you are in. I think from weather forecasting you can predict if the air will be less stable and shifty, but I generally just observe the 10 minutes or so before the start. If the wind is shifting back and forth you have to know which shift you are in at the start to get in phase with the shifts. If the wind is generally stable you have to look for bends in the wind rather than shifts which is a whole different game - I'll cover that another time.

ANNIVERSARY PURSUIT 20 Sept
You should have received emails from the club about the anniversary pursuit, more details on the web site. We want as many teams as possible, and as many members sailing in teams as possible. (You can and should also enter as an individual if not part of a team) I'd like to get at least one, preferably two solo teams (I expect I will be sailing for the club team so I'll be looking for team captains). The lasers will be doing the same - I'd love the solo fleet to have bragging rights over the lasers... Could you let me know if you will be available so we can decide on our team captains and teams, or if you want to form your on team just let me know. 4 boats per team.

Finally a big welcome to Nikki Daly and Peter Renn who have joined our fleet - Nikki has bought Wyn James' boat (older members will remember Wyn who passes on his best regards) and Peter has bought Malcolm's boat. We look forward to helping them get on the water and up to speed. I think/hope we may have a few more new members soon.

As Wyn said to me
Hwyl fawr
Gareth