Distillation of Teaching The Core of Sailing

Coming straight back to a running theme of mine in teaching sailing, I decided to distill out an absolute heart of the matter. I am talking about reducing sailing to two manoervres and then adding others to the repertoire after they are tackled. This being from of course absolute beginner level, but also at any level in sailing.

These two manoevres are not tacking and gybing. Rather more basic than that, to which these two 'multiple element' manoevres belong. In the distilled elements of what you do when you are not sailing in a 'straight line' or otherwise trying to hold a course in a sea, the two are as simple as the Harden Up (aka Luffing) and the Bear Away (aka falling off the wind)

You can then take that tacking is a sub set of the ultimate luff through head to wind followed by a short fall off, and gybing being the reverse. The latter made more prominent by the rise of the assymetric, making the whole angle swung through and the exacting movements more pronounced than old fashioned bell shaped kites.

At the one end of the sport, the new beginner should be taught the harden up as the very first element they learn such that they can trim in the sail, get off the beach on a reach and then luff the boat up to the "basic safe" position with sails flogging. Then falling off is the next in order to get out of self imposed fake irons, the basic-safe.  After these two are understood and repeatable on command, sailing to a course becomes more comprehensible - wind sense is tuned before the tack and later the gybe are introduced as the means of 'abrupt and substantial' corrections to current course to attain objective destination.

For sailors advancing to becoming top flight racers or just looking to stop loosing those places on a wednesday night, hardening up is pretty much the weakest manoevre I see executed out on the race course. Let us start there/ why and when it is a weak point

Start at the Start...The importance of hardening Up and Falling Off Uncer Perfect Control

Firstly prestart> in some boats which are dogs on the reach, hardening up inject a large acceleration, which means that suddenly a boat which had been wallowing around on a low course, pops up into the action at of course "a rate of knots".  The same is true of much better racers who decide to go for a harden up prestart and get into trouble by trimming the sails in hard and picking up speed and way to much momentum to actually hold a correct ' burn time ' distance from the line or choose which side of which stern to route into for a start lane.  Finally as the start comes , burn time up, go for it, I see myself and other boats committing cardinal sins - usually either oversheeting and doing that quickly, killing boat speed, or steering the boat too high up on the wind, or a combination where also the keel is not 'biting' and the "groove" is long from being acheived.  

The text book harden up on a start line in One Design is actually verry similar to a new beginner getting speed on from being in the 'basic safe'' position. A perfect basic safe is about 50 degrees off the wind, just low of an effective beat, with the sails flogging. The skipper can either sheet in on the man and go up and forward, or sheet in on the jib first and fall off to get speed on and sail a lower course. If you sit on a dead beat you will not get enough speed on usually to get the foils working and the boat in balance, while of course sitting in irons can be completely counter productive leading to a drifitng ddw and a panic to get underway.

In a text book start in OD, you are racked up at just about burn time back from the line distance which varies with wind and tide. Usually it will be forward of this at the biased end as folk jostle for position and back of the ideal point in the mid line, where the mid line sag often developes due to an obstructed view of the ends and loss of line 'feel'. At the point when you want to move forward, you need to have stopped luffing the boat to windward up and you need just enough space to bear the bow away into, and a cooperating lee side boat, or hopefully a slow-joe who is not up on the game and will fall into your lee quarter wind shadow. You can take the bow fairly low, but remember you still have to make it up to the line.

Depending on conditions and wind shadow around you, the time to get to the line at speed usually increases by at least 5 seconds in the real start versus the trial start you did alone to determine the time needed and therefore count down the burn time until you sheet in and go. Being over early, as everyone says, a few times is much better than being late a whole racing career and having to dig yourself out of wind shadow every race.

Back to technique though, you need to put the bow down and have the boat approaching keel 'fly' speed ( maybe 2.5 knots for a short cord, high aspect keel like a melges or M30, maybe 4 knots for a longer keel cruiser racer) before you then do the eventual harden up to cross the line beating. Ideally the start is hit at full target speed, on a beat, but in reality you will see nearly all teams in a good OD going for a bit of speed and then doing a final tune on the sails and helm once they are at full hull speed before being as hard as possible on the wind. These days with a big line sag, or a late or bunced fleet, and a very good gps readin for the line, you may be able to charge out and hit the line at full speed, full height.

In HC racing you may take a different approach depending on the strengths of your boat versus the boats around you, in order to achieve a lane which frees you up - this achieved by either stuffing or escaping the immediate boats to lee and windward of you. High and slow in OD can only really pay at the committee boat end when you are trying to get a high lane and squeeze out more later comers who are trying to nose in above and behind you. Otherwise luffing the boat to windward of you in OD is just a plain stupid mistake which costs you almost as much in the fleet as it will the windward boat.

Text books and dinghy sailors do say that you should sheet the jib in first in order to fall off at the start a little when burn time is T minus Zero, but really you need to get the slot working to give maximum acceleration. Also more of the main sail is higher and in more wind and less wind shadow, so right trim on the sheet for the right twist in this manoevre is vital. In a very blustery weather scenario, then I can see that you may want to get going away to the holy grail like 'lee space' you bought in the burn time ragging and luffing up to the windward boat, and thus trim on job first in order to avoid the mainsail broaching you up to windward when a gust hits unexpectadly.

Here then you have just combined the two distillations of my approach to teaching sailing, and BANG you are off the start.

Leeward Mark Hardening Up

Staying with hardening up in the order I present, we jump forward a little to that other bug bear of many a sailor, the leeward mark. Good racers recognise the leeward mark as a place to gain places while also an important part of maintaining position in the fleet by not messing up!

The main problems with hardening up here are usually nothing to do with the helm and crews ability to harden up in absence any mark or spinnaker. It is that they have a bad position going into the mark and this is usually caused by over ambuition in a) a late, or bungled spinnaker drop including the pole b) a wish to capitalise on any overlap or boats who have sailed too far outside the marks seamanlike turning circle. Some folk just do not understand the principle of wide in, tight out on this mark either and sail way too tight an angle into the mark.

Ok in some boats in some situations, where you have way-on and a short cord keel, you can hand brake round a leeward mark in a very tight manoevre in order to gain a lane height above boats sailing wide or coming out low from the mark, or in order to tack straight round to go left up the course again. Generally this sheds a lot of speed and you have to feel your way abruptly up onto a close hauled course in a series of small corrections which are also slow. If there is a car park of boats drifing 'south' of the mark that you can sail comfortably round while keeping clear (thus in this situation granting the dead ducks mark room because you did not further impeed their mistake) then 'hooking' round the leeward mark can be done, but it is not pretty and is to be avoided at other times.

One thing I learned a long time ago from an aerial photo of pro' yachties at a leeward mark was that you are a bit resigned to the slot you have, and you had better accept that and defend it. In OD fleets if you are clear ahead and have established your rights on boats whcih you have overlap on, then the best thing is to get the kite down early, and have actually done the " wee jobs" on the main in advance. Jib should be up and tensioned on the halyard early too. If you want to fly a little longer to defend overlap or clear ahead then practice a) flying (symmetrical) kite without the pole while  then also completely stowing the pole b) windward drop of the kite. Dont be tempted to come in too sharp on the bouy, rather heard the boats you have overlap on ahead out wide while calling the guys trailing clear astern not to poke their nose in. Remember wide in, tight out is the 'seamanlike' way of rounding and the rules corrall you only into not sailing too far 'south' of the mark now, and rightly so. A place for tomfoolery and professional fowls in years gone by.

A thing I am a bit obsessed with is sailing slowly to sail safely and to defend position while gathering your whits. The leeward mark position is like taking a queue number as soon as you are at three boat lengnths. If you are thrashing down into a pile of yachts or one slow one clear ahead at the 'zone' then you need to think of dropping early and even centering the main (as in aforementioned yachts and yachting aerial shot of a crew doing this( ) such that you brake the boat down. You have to go through at least 120' to get up on the wind. In a cheeky fleet then you may want to steer to a lane in this scenario, where you are running ddw on the bouy until you are very clearly in the zone. This squares your stern off to some itinerent starboard gybers who have otherwise a country mile of overlap on you, while also stating 'dont try to come in here' You can also use it as the line to gybe on to get to your final /correct side, and this also applies for assymetrics when you 'soak down' to the mark on the wrong gybe in order to book your ticket number for the rounding, while still needing one last gybe to get your gear on the right side for the rounding.

Dont be afraid of pushing boats wide when you have  rights on them, otherwise they may well squeeze round infront of you and then fall off at the last second.  Pushing other boats a little wide early as it becomes clear that the three zone overlap will apply, which can be a lot further back also helps them understand that there is going to be a nice orderly rounding and they need to communicated the call for this further along the 'food chain' to boats they have an overlap on. Remember you must sail your proper course, but this allows you good bit of room, at least a boat length perpendicular to the bouy leeward line to have a wide entry and round thus in a seaman like way.

If you have dropped early, stowed your spinnie gear, tweaked your white sail wee strings and halyards and are going on line, then the next problem is at the helm end, expecially in boats where the helm also does the main sail. In many boats you can start drawing in ont he main as you enter the three boat circle, but twitchy sports boats, or broaches old english ladies like the Sigma 33 can easily broach if the main is over sheeted as you round. on the latter old GRP Brigand even presheeting the genoa in can broach the bitch round and cause a mark or worse boat collision.

The team as a whole have to get the sails in, and get their weight out, which become very contracdictory functions at this mark in many boats. Ideally on a boat where the helm does the main, then they should either be completely comfy with this, or have a crew member stand on the windward deck and help take it in as far as just passed the bouy, then hopping down to hike out hard. The same is true of the tail trimmer, they have to be quick up onto the rail, while the lightest crew should do the winch in on the jib.

Back to basics here too. In 'powered up' and heavy airs you dont want to fight the mainsail here. So the helm needs to luff and the main follow as the pressure falls off it. The converse is true for light airs, where you should sheet first and let this steer the boat a bit, just helping with the rudder, or even just following the curve round on the helm.

The traveller is often a one/last/thing/we/forgot here as we harden up finally onto a close hauled course. It often slides down and kills the slot just as the pressure builds because someone forgot to cleat it, or because it  was not desired cleated off just in case you were overpowered. It is best to cleat it centred  to the traveller at three boat lengths out from  the bouy and then only slip it down if absolute need be.

Finally there is the tactical exit which now presents itself. This involves in fact two exagerrations of a normal harden up/ Firstly there is tacking away.

When to tack away?   most commonly when you are going to run into the stern or near bad wind of the guy in front b) when your strategy is to go left hand side c) when a following boat is likely to be able to roll over you ie usually a bigger keel boat

Tacking away can be planned for. If the boat ahead is less than two boat  lengths ahead and somewhere on the height of the 'out' layline from the bouy, then you must consider a tack. If you want to go left, consider how soon. Do you need to clear boats in a bunch of spinnakers who are on the last leg? Do you want to settle down in the abscence of dirty wind ahead, and check the wind angles and sail trim before making a tack? Or is it a case of a and b above and you must tack?

Wide in to the mark means you get to do a very seamen like harden up. You are eating up about 90' of that harden up to get onto the close line to sail passed the booy and then hardening up a further 30 to 45' to achieve close hauled. Tacking immediately then means that you ideally want to achieve close hauled such that you have speed on and clear the mark when you go through the wind. So  immediately is not on top of the mark unless you are avoiding collision ahead.

If you want to keep going 'right' or want to get onto a close hauled course but are going to run into dirty wind a stern of boats ahead, then the other killer tactic is the exageerated  luff, where you round at good speed and then luff hard up to almost head to wind, just as the start of a tack when the jib folds in on itself at the luff. In a dinghy with little way on (momentum) this is a single, very quick luff, which can be done several times once you have some speed on in fact in a  series of jerks. These all slow you down though! The aim is to book a lane slightly higher of the boats dirty wind ahead, into which you were going to sail anyway, or to get a higher lane than the following boats who will then be more in your wind shadow for longer because you are more upwind from them while a little less ahead.

In bigger keel boats you can often luff really far up and get a good boat lenght of pure windward distance before falling off onto the close hauled line.  You can also decide if you are going to clear the boat you were driving up into the stern of, or if you need to make the luff into a tack becasue that boat has been able to luff up. As mentioned a lot of boats struggle to even get the mainsail in, or the crew are messing about still with the spinnaker. You can often buy yourself a nice high lane to roll over a lower pointing boat, even in OD, by this tactic if you have a heavy, tonne derieved racer cruiser. However say in a Melges 24, such as I sail, you have very little momentum and the boat will stop sailing and drift backwards if you have been slowing down to avoid the boat ahead *as happende last wednesday* as you go through a 'crash tack' and you will likely not gain enough line to windward to get over a heavy boat ahead.

The Windward Mark and the Trip Mark

For better or for worse, the trip mark is a feature of many yacht races at nationals level or other larger fleets, so it is really there where the big bear away happens these days. This gives you time to get the spinnaker gear sorted and allows boats to settle into the procession for the run, without a stramash of boats on the beat coming in on you there.

The biggest mistakes happen when people forget the basics and  concentrate too much on their spinnaker hoist here. The main has to be set up right - in most all boats, the kicker should be released at the windward mark and eased further if needs be on the trip leg. A little out on the outhaul helps speed too on that little reach. The traveller should be centred and cleated on both sides to avoid uncontrolled slinging and people getting caught. The boat  should also be heeled  if possible to windward at the rounding to help it bear away. This helps on even some 40 foot keel boats, by moving crew weight, but an early over ease on the main can lay a boat nicely flat for the bear away no matter the size. Ready and early on the main are good here if you want to inspect spinnaker work from the back of the boat and not presume all is well.

Just as in a gybe, you may likely need to correct the bear away a little on the helm, either helping it go further or correcting the main sails wish to take you up to windward before the spinnaker fills.

The Gybe

As  i mentioned the gybe and the tack are just two means of exagerrating the in going luff or fall, while minimising the converse as you come out of the manoevre.

For a gybe this means that the bear away is total relative to the wind, and in decent blowy conidtions, the harden up is minimal as you try to sail as low a course as possible on the new gybe. Light winds and sailing an assy' of course pronounce the whole gybe, making it an avereage of over 120 '. In the traditional scenario you want to ease the boat down to dead down wind, get the pole across and then whip the mainsail over and ensure you come off DDW onto a safe, new course. On boats of under 35 feet, crew wight on the winward side helps the bear away to DDW as does completely sqauring the pole while keeping the kite flying. A key problem with the gybe is being too ambitious and wanting it all to happen in the blink of an eye. The pole needs to go off and over in good time such that the spinnaker is stablisised on the new course before the main fills. Th biggest mistake is gybing the main too early and leaving the crew struggleing to get the pole on and thus making the kite unstable and liable to help broach you.  The kite blows out to lee and heels you, while the main wants to broach you as the pressure eases off the belowwing kite. Whiley crew often get the pole off early, hiding the fact that it is loose at the mast by propping it between shoulder and mast eye. You do not want to trip the old guy side before you are on the new as a bowman, and you want to get the pole down in order to control the swing, a bit like a hanglider control, on boats which are of course maneagbvle to do this on * +40 footers usually do dip poling which is slow but safe*  I have end to ended a single sheet rigged First Class Europe in force 8, which was hairy, but not in much sea so it went ok, given that there were two of us on foredeck. It is best on any boat to have someone help you get the new guy inboard, although 'barener hailers can help.

Assy's should be a piece of cake to gybe, with some different tricks to employ in your armoury, but the same mistake with the crew weight and mainsail are made often. See other bloggs of mine for discussions of assy sport boat and j109 gybing.

The Tack

Tacking of course varies a lot less than gybing in terms of angles and what you do with the sails. In any weight of wind it is always an exagerrated harden up, followed by a minimised falling off.

Roll tacking in light winds is though both an exaggerated harden up and fall off and really a bit beyond the scope of this blog. Worth practicing though in any boat up to say 40 foot long and  then picking uyp some of the subtleties which can be included in tacks in heavier winds.

You want to let the boat induce the tack with a little more heel than usual followed up by a nice, controlled , firm-but-fair and other wise fully judicious use of the tiller to coax the boat up and round.  But also the mainsheet needs attention.

One key point from theory is that 'is there a point beyond close hauled when you are still sailing?' and the answer to that is yes.Many a sigma 33 or x99 sailor has reverted to using a polar table in order not to sail too high! Boats have close hauled when the top tell tale gives away all the compelx physics by simply breaking 30/50% of the time, but that can be a little high just the same for optimum VMG. For any boat what so ever though, this means that going through a tack, it pays to sheet in a little as you come up head to wind. This means that one, you gain a little forward drive which you would otherwise loose, and secondly there is less drag from the sail as you hit head to wind.

When falling off, you want to then not let the boat heel to far in a normal wind as the wind builds. The main should be eased to a known amount so that the helm can fall off to a point where the top tell tail stalls and the either slip the main out, or sail up a little depending on the weight of wind. This is a lot better than waiting for the jib, and of course particularly, genoa to be trimmed. many helms do this and end up pointing to high or low and being dependent on the last part of coming out of the tack to make it a good tack!

Boats like the Melges 24 and the Impala 28 I have sailed on, really need weight hiked out over the rail at above force 3 in order than the boat can find its groove and not sit unbalanced and pointing too high, with too little keel effect. On light displacement boats the lift of the keel is quite marked so much so that when it is way too high off vertical on the beat or in a broach, the effect of the top ballast is reduced. So this exacerbates a tack where the crew are slow over to the new rail. Fast choreograhpy is the route to scucess, but for an ordinary wendesday night or satruday memomiral race, you can just slow the tacks to the condition of the crew.

In wind of above say 7 knots true, you can then continue to roll any boat into the tack, follow this naturally hul driven luffing with the helm and the mainsheet trim in, and then get the boat through irons quickly, while concentrating on getting the right angle on the new tack and weight up on the rail. In many conditions, a bit like in a rally car, you can actually steer the boat a little off wind to induce heel and a little mini broach- the boat will often pick up speed as you bear off, heel and round up to the wind. You can choose to hard in on the sheet to help this, or use the helm more and follow it by the sheeting in.

The traveller is also a bug bear in tacks and ideally the helm or main man will go over and pull it up to centre on the old lee side before the tack is complete, to avoid shutting the slot as the boat falls off.

Basics, Back to them ASAP ......

Being able to coordinate helm, sheet and then heel are basic dinghy techniques all young sailors should learn and most old salts could learn from once again, informing their big boat sailing. Hardening up and falling off are the two most challenging elements for new beginners yet also a source of serious mistakes from very experienced racing sailors. Mastering these two elements off the race course in terms of just cruising will then help prepare a helm and crew for racing, or achieve improvement in a racing team who need to perform better. Racing is still  a test of sailing skills despite what ever technology is used or speeds achieved, and in breaking down our understanding of the bare elements of manoevres, we learn finesse from the race course.