Feeling like a New Beginner

Well I feel a bit like a new beginner again, both because I have a learning curve with the 4 knt woodwork and because I have yet to get my spurs as a helm in the fleet.

Saturday I helmed not just competantly, but competitively! Boat speed was only poor off the start line and against lighter boats, and out of tacks.

The real area I am a beginner again in, and it is not so far back for me to fall really in the grand scale of things, is starts. I have four places up for grabs by getting a start:

Key things are I don't have a feel for luffing and accelerating and boat legnths yet, and as I wrote yesterday, no feel for the line position: which is ok, not fully my job.

Once off starts at 6th place say, then I can play :

1) shifts- one place on someone who doesn't spot them, three if I spot one ahead.

2) roundings: two places possibly more with a good lay line: the fleet is conservative so the windward mark is worth a place on a windward boat / ahead to lee. The lens mark is worth one place on either an overlap or a hard luff to a higher lane, or a fast tack to clean, lifted air.

Starboard into the leeward mark too is worth a bit.

3) finish line; with it being OD the final beat or run to the line means that a slight boat speed and angle advantage on any bias there will take a place.

The big, big place winner broken down for the start, ignoring prep, just :

a. get the green light for the run in right: tack up in light airs to keep right, gybe in heavier airs or with tide pushing you over. Get the prestart wide lane right with boats right above and not rolling you to be on tyour bow or lee bow.

b. Cool off more in the run in, if boats are rolling over and falling off then there will be space on the committee boat end. ease, check for it and double tack to a new higher lane over the group of "rollers"


c. know the acceleration for the day and the angle to sail and where the wind is.

d. Is it a line up or a usual early mess ?

Line up: get your bow up on a lo boat with space to fall off into: even the bow to theirs. Wait. Keep the air coming in but have a safe transit to bail out at with too much forward movement. At this transit at 8, 10, 15 seconds sheet in, start to move, then fall off a little.

Late mess; remember at 45 to even seconds you can still double tack to get a better lane high and right of the early birds. Otherwise, rag the sails and luff the bow a little to brake off hard and take a call to maintain your lane out.

Choose the lane and check you can lay it with a cracked beat, or choose a lower one if you need to tight reach to gain speed.

e) the final position, the "early gun" for you to accelerate: this is the crucial bit, you can be a bit low at 10 seconds but not 5 : at 5 you need good height but speed too, so not super high.

THis makes it hard to be rolled: keeping fast and a little high gives you the sharp luff option to take a boats bow behind you or press a low roller high

BIG MISTAKE: personal blind spot over the RH shoulder. Very common myopia in sailing circles.

On the field, this now gives me 6th place with three good starters and two optimal boat speeders to my lee and lo. I have to keep my wind clear and get over the 7 or 8 boats behind me to the first shift or opportunity to break to port to clear a little air and pressurise the boats who are holding right.

Tacking back to starboard has to be both tactical and defensive: ie I tack to maybe hold off a boat on his port run or gain a place over boats previously ahead but to the left of me.

On the lay line I will have at least three boats ahead of me so I can call the line. I can choose to double tack too, or with port boats over me, point the bow down and oversheet to make it look like I am not laying the weather mark, thus getting a couple of boat legnths over faster boats coming from behind me.

The bear away, in the nationals I can always set with a sneake guy if possible : forward of the shrouds, over the job sheets. But if it has lifted on the layline in or there is more wind "RHS" (new left) then I need to gybe set. Or if there is a pile of boats ahead or behind I want to think about it. Bear away hoist is maybe actually pretty slick in these boats given a slight header and a sneaked guy with an on-the-bouy hoist.

Being slick may win me a temporary place on the run.

I then have to settle to the angle of the day and avoid the holes. In 20 - 30 knts wind like saturday then it is clearly a deep run, by the lee even.

Defence will also mean following Roy and the best boats when there is no obvious need to expose myself to people behind or on the other gybe. THis is true on the beat too, and lost us a good third or fourth start when we went right into the cliffy shit.

defence here also means SAIL THE SHORTEST COURSE to the mark and b-ear away on the gusts, while we are still talking about the run here.

After a mediocre start, I could try zig-zagging a little to see if it pays and gets me a starboard lane into the leeward mark with a BIG number of overlaps. THis is only to gain and not to defend though. A closer to the mark luff followed by gybe to starboard outside the zone on an attacker will work too.

The drop is tactical too: Do you hold for max speed and depth or drop early to get a better rounding?

When I do get into fourth position then it is a case of holding place and covering boats behind me up to the line: get a free wind lane and stay in it behind roy, peter, eric and the usual suspects like 110 geirs crew or ashbjørnsen. On the way to the line it is a short diamond so you can't risk baning corners, just follow in free wind and cover.