Classics National,

Well that was the nationals of sorts that was. Really a very sharpened local fleet fighting like heck over two or three top class visitors and some tools who knew how to cheat and most often get away with it on the starts.

We really got slapped around on day one: just rolled on the starts and buried and then I just lost the nerve and messed up. However we had strong wind settings for the forecast and this gave us only good shape for the lulls. Also we were the heaviest crew, with most people opting to sail with two or at least only 210 kg of three-ness.

I won't dwell on the very unusal westly tide which ran 2.5knts and took me onto the windward mark once, and the finish line marks 3 times! 28 boats out and we dived down to a terrible 24th due to a worsening performance the next day with the owner on the helm.

But okay, this was the worst result I have had in a long time given a goal setting of about 15th to 18th place as realistic. My best was 17th. So what did we do right?

Well on the third or fourth race on day one I did have a very good lane, rolling over some boats which tried to gain height to push my leeward acceleration zone. However, the guy on the line decided to fall off hard at 5 seconds to try and save an OCS. When it became obvious he was not going to follow any sense of rule 11 or 14, we bore off onto the boats eating my leeward zone : he followed suit as now he had earned a second from the gun, thus we hit him and the boats came up on us. So it would have been the best start, but still lacked speed as I was too high at 5 seconds. However, my go right for our own air would have worked despite being under-taken!

On the very last start of race 2 day 2, we decided to start at the pin end, the fleet were a little early, but not so early that they were crushing the pin. Roy J knew the score and had gone for a clear wind pin end, go far left start. We were low and rolled by a couple of boats.

However the point being we had a good view of the fleet. They were all sharp reaching along the line, not laying it at 12 seconds. All of them playing the game in their own lane because speed is king. This was the learning money for me: they line up, get a lane and then dare not luff others out unless they are right on the line. They sit about 1 to two boat legnths low of the line and gun it out on a tight, tight reach, only coming up 3 seconds to the gun, and even then some just carry on JUST laying the pin end.

So my previous boysterous start positionings were too early and too high. You cannot start these boats anywhere near a beat at one minute in light airs. As the wind builds on our usual start, so does the angle, but the principile is the same.

This is why it is worth chancing it in on Port because you steal a lane from a guy, erm, like me, which has happened in two of my starts.

Because the classics are long keel, it pays not to have tide on the beam too long. We did win out on one leg going right to recover from a bad start. I think it was this leg that we managed to hold off five boats back us and then I spotted both a central wind band and a wind shift within it, to swtich back over and secure a fast shot in towards the finish. We came in with maybe the boat end a little lower on the wind and with better speed than pin end aimers to take back another four places to get the best 17th of the day!

One thing I eventually seemed to learn was the course, and more so than other boats: there was a band of wind funneling between the islands from a gap about 1.5 miles from the start. The fleet split on single tacks to the ends of the diamond: left you could avoid the tide longer and maybe get a land lift 200 m from the start. Right and you could get out of the worst of the tide to the safe reef. In the middle, there was more wind and you could work the shifts. But it meant some more beam tide on stb which was the favoured angle by in large, with the back-shift being to still a bit stb bias.

What did we do wrong though?

firstly rig and sails: rig setting unkown, loosened off randomly by Berger, I spotted the wooden stick was bent to port about two inches. Seondly sail qaulity: we had a poor finish on the sails and a shape which was a bit too deep, undecided while also hooked on the leech.

Then we were heavy as crew and with a fair bit of crap on board: 20 meters of heavy rope on a coil, loads of clothes and drinks: which we did use up though.

The next thing was pinching, speaking relatively. In these boats you need to sail VERY low in wind and either come up on the puffs or work the shifts.

Coming off the start line was also there: max tight reaching speed before a slow crank up at 3 seconds to the gun or so depending on your distance from the line.

Tacks were not too bad, and our gybe lines were worth a place each round by the standard. Spinnaker work for joorls was poor to pish, with late hoists and twists. Then it was a bollox, but actually not worth losing places: on day two I did the kite and the wind was very unstable.

The wind lifted off the water about 3 boat legnths from the leeward mark, which meant the fleet (who were packed in!) were tantalsiingly close as we were still in wind.


On the learning side, I was still poor at hardening up, but managed a couple of okay ones, which feel weird because the boat does by no means accelerate in light winds;: it just turns and then sits at 1 knt boat speed on the right track to go at 47' upwind or so!


I think with just the two of us we could have sailed much faster and also juust been able to follow the leaders or at leastestablish free air.