The Perfect Race.....

Okay so what is my idea of "the perfect race"?

Or rather since this is a hypothetical or visualising process in this lecture, what is the perfect mind set and exercise for the perfect race?

Firstly this is going to be all about being on the water with a predictable weather pattern. I'm not a trite git who would rather give a lecture on "the first thing is actually the years of preparation for this event...." It will be a given that you have a well prepared boat, with any rig tweaks done before leaving the quay. Second only to that is that you have built team together

So it starts with walking done the gangway or rowing out to the boat. You will have a regional weather forecast and be lookign for

1) Has the predicted pattern set in locally? or is it late ? Has a front actually gone over early? The same with tide or current.

2) What will be the local breeze modifiers? convection and friction?

3) which long standing wind bends, shadows and other geog' effects will be in play with the current and predicted wind pattern? What will the wave pattern be?


Experience tells me the weather to within a knot or so of wind stregnth under 22 knts and also I can smell rain or just cloud-gusts and even sea breezes setting in. For more wind than that or just to confirm my nose I'll look at the anonometer, windex and take a glance at the weather forecast again.

On board we start getting sails out probably just on the motor out to the course. Not worrying about the crew's ability to choose the right sails, instead I'll be looking at flags and smoke ont he land to catch any information or just confirmation! In fjord and estuaries the convection may not have set in on the shaded sides and may be strongest on the flat land, islands and peninsulas around. In these areas there is often a top-current/swell effect modulating or even annulating the lunar-tide. Keeping an eye out on nav bouys and moorings as we trott out and even the beach to see if it is wet or dried.


With the main laid on deck I swing her into the wind, or lee area if it is blowing, and at head to wind take a note of the true wind direction before and after the hoist before we bear away. Nine times out of ten mainsails are set completely wrong on the first hoist so we will fall off, reach and then near the start area we harden up again to tune it a bit more for the expected conditions. This is another shot at the true wind and also given no real land effects at the hoist area compare the new estimated TWD (true wind direction).

Now if we are very lucky, or just a little late out, then the committee boat will be at anchor with some flags or other giving a line, alhtough maybe not a pin-end set yet. Also given someone even more enthusiastic than us is out, they may be up at the windward mark area already or arriving from there, so we can see what angle the (hot) boat is beating to and any windshifts as they come down under kite (spinnaker).


So maybe now we motor down a little low of the comm'boat and take her back on the wind to hoist genoa and see if the TWD is the same and how the presumed (or laid) start line will be for the starbord tack out.


A little bit of car trimming and some final adjustments to the main, and I call "weight up" as we aim for the (presumed) start- line. Over the line we note the kind of angles likely or that laid and we maintain optimal beating angle.

Once over I'll be lookign at the instruments for boat speed and maybe a GPS derived VMG as we sit on starboard. If there is something obviously worth a look, like a land bend on the right then we will tack over immediately- this can later save us from a bad start or from a good one give us an overwhelming controlling position of cover on the fleet (for a port hand rounding that is)

given no real land effects I will try my best to tack up a presumed (or if course is set, actual) 60' cone to the weather mark (area). I'll think in the usual boat tacking angles and best VMG polar chart for the wind and see how we are doing. Then also try to see, on a long enough beat, if there is any pattern or associated cloud-gust set up we can utilise. Most often this is difficult and in fjord areas it is better to rely on known, set land bends than try and premept much. Instead we are now prepared for compass swings of say over 5 ' warranting a tack.

Once at the top mark I intend in my perfect race to shoot the breeze, come head to wind that is once again. My crew will have no nerves about the bear away and hoist or gybe. So we shoot the breeze and maybe take a look at the GPS track for tide effects, noting any current on the bouy if it's there or nearby nav marks, or just our own drift. I may, in my hypothetical prowess, choose to sail a little longer to windward to look at the weather and wind angles ahead, and even then bear away down to come into the mark on the layline again to see if it is changing.

Then comes our kite-drying manoevre - a nice gybe set otherwise to wake up the crew. Once agin if they stuff it up.



Now we track down on the fastest side of the course under kite to arrive at the start area around about 10 mins before the start (on new ISAF 6 minute typical calls). We either do a drop harden up at the now laid lee mark or at the pin end.

Then maybe one more shoot the breeze and given little traffic a parade up and down the start line so to speak to see if there is a boas already. In a dinghy this is advised with the ol' main sheet technique.



Given we are very early and have little traffic or better still, a willing One Design sparring partner for a practice start, we line up RHS and go for a imaginary gun.


Wednesday nights seldom afford such luxus. More often they are a hurried affair once the stonger afternoon breeze dies and a new pattern of airs establishes - often sinking out over the course of the race!! So for wednesdays or just late arrivals we go to the next phase- waiting and observing:


So we have a good picture of the patterns as they were for maybe now 20 mins. Genoa down, engine on, we sit away at the leeward area to the pin end to relax and take a drink and saite any appetite. We discuss now how it was and what will effect the day or evening, in a rogues council. Everyone has a say and we look at the weather forecast for into the race. Now we do our final personal admin, and checks on the boat equipment.


Before the kite gear is properly set up we take a tour now to windward of the committee boat. We sit here and look at the line and other would-be-winners shooting the breeze and coming out on practice tacks. If there is a big shift we shoot the breeze too and even take a practice beat/tack angle if conditions are notably changed in wind or tide for that matter. We check the bearing 90' mid line to the weather mark if we have space. We also time the time to reach along the line and maybe to come up on a beat to the line or an extenion thereof given lots of traffic or an earlier start in front of us.


Our Flags Pop Up. Our navigator / course responsible comes back to stern and shows the course and we agree on it being what we all think it is. We double check the flags, as comittees often don't, and then wait for a prep signal. We discuss which way to go, who will be big on the starting line, if people look like they are arriving late, the quality of general starters, their wind shadow and earlier tactics or failures!

In heavier wind with a tight fleet, we will reach off and come arond the back of committee boat road-hogs, way to leeward and work our way up for the 5 min gun.

5 mins bang.



In the fairly good breeze we bear away and look for those line-lingerers and lurkers up at the boat end. On a port bias we move over at least away from the RHS. But we are in control of the boat and will choose to either just creep forward for a mid line punch out (full speed away from the bunch) or to come in fast and play at the favoured end, finding a gap. This is prudent when everyone is really early. A punch out may not be practical and you can get a good windward end place



3.30secs.

we gybe around in heavier breeze to our prefered stalking area. In light airs we probably tack to make sure we are in shooting distance and not late or blanketed by higher boats reaching in. We are int he stalking area and take a look at our optimum beating angle or if it is a cramped OD start, shoot the breeze again in free water, falling off to starboard. We maybe do a practice tack and then gybe away to get some run in "depth" from the line if it is blowing.

2.30 secs

Now time can go very quickly and the boat can easily be trapped in a negative situation rather than any positive. So the focus is on positioning as the early birds start to line up and the near-line-chargers start barging down from the boat end. What is crucial is also to keep the boat safe- less experienced, careless boats, or just crews fixing a problem may not see us so we keep the boat moving slowly with a usuable amount of helm.


1min 45 Now it is time to committ to the line in either heavier winds or lighter. It will be clear if the boat end is goign to be chaos in which case from our position we can choose to bear away suddenly and pick a place or go up hard and defend at some point down the line. Given a lot of early boats we can take a final tack up and then line up for an optimal start a the boat end.

(light airs; we hold ourselves to the RHS of committee boat and then at 2.30 manoevre down to assess a start by squeezing in at the boat or reaching down the line for a clear airs start or LHS flyer. Alternatively in a breeze with a big f-off cruiser racer sititng in a pro-start position on the pin, shadowing all challengers, we can choose to sneak out on his stern- he'll soon sail away and we can tack right if that is paying or avoiding the handicap fleet shadow, us being say a platu or L28)

1min ; now we defend and shut out at all costs. We do our best to stop any boat coming in over our top on a reach and sitting on us, hitting us, or coming up to leeward to close our acceleration. Now we should control a couple of boat legnths to leeward, which will narrow up, but give us the vital edge of acceleration. If in a big OD fleet, the first rack of boats are now lined up, maybe with a mid line sag but that is immaterial to us given a constant wind. Now we make the final choices on the boats around us and are committed

We will defend in a bigger fleet by either having the boat ragging at a reach angle to sail over low challengers who want to come up on us, closing the loing time gap to the boat "below us". We may even have enough time for a tack up into our hole again given we see off only the one challenger who is below us. For those above us it is a clear threat position, we can harden up quickly to defend while either not taking all our space and height if we are longer back or by coming higher of our space and sailing up. The genoa is more off than on, but we keep sailing and an eye paranoically on the wind direction and the shadow development.


30 seconds. Now it is vital to:

1) Know Where the wind is coming from, tape on the shroud and look at the windex

2) Know when we will get out of shadow- point our bow long enough forward to do so in an OD and have enough to leeward to accelerate away from the big lead miners inevtiablly above us near the com'boat.

3) know where the line is by sight or transit-sighting. In an HC fleet we will move at a different pace than the lead miners so we cannot afford to shoot out early without confidence. Even then a lazy coms boat with a few people over may just call us by virtue of being able to see us.

4) have steerage and that means enough way relative to keep the bow out or to shoot down into the leeward hole for a final defence and closure, or to avoid being OCS or just to get speed if there is much windshadow or the wind has reduced or gone left big time.

we do our final sail sets as far as cunningham and kicker, backstay and any cars or in haulers go.

15 secs

We know where we are or ar atleast hidden from the spotters ont he comm boat, we have some free wind and we can match the other bows for a line of air at the bow. If everuyone is back then it is just power on and given any space to lee nowl, bear away as we move forward to our final sight line


10 secs last chance for a correcting raggin of sails or a luff or to roll over a leeward boat who is too high. If we are all very near the line it is going to go slowly and predictably we just point the bow out to the top of the line. Now if we are all far back or if we are punching out, all sails are powered on at a low beat angle - we check this once again and ease her up.

5 secs, full charge- let us risk an OCS , yep, risk one!!

In the big OD scenario we have either all started powering out in a neat line or we are all too close and it is goign to be a "forward of line start" - that is we only have power on long after the gun. We go conservative.

For the punch out we must be at full speed now for pointing to establish. We can keep low to get a real head and some play area on a bigger boat, but more likely that should have been at the 30 secs or even earlier times point.

In the latish, big OD fleet we are charging out set for speed and with most wieght out. The final jib trimis done with now only say the outhaul or last bitty bit of kick and cunn to be done. Helm drives the boat with the main man and the rail start looking ahead at the conditions.

yee hah, " we're racing" I call once over the line