hey guys, here are my unsolicited comments. first, thanks to my son alex for being a tad too light to sail. i promised that had the original forecast held he would race. one wing tip vortex changed his mind! boat set up those that listened carefully to andrew campbell would have set their boats up for the lightest conditions that could be expected on the next leg. at a puffy 5-15 and flat water i had loose vang, outhaul about 1 fist from center boom and a few small wrinkles in the the luff. upwind i generally had my blocks 1 foot apart except in the few 15 knot blasts. i never had the vang on hard all day. down wind i had my vang and outhaul pre-set so i could blow both at the weather mark and be fully powered downwind. i noticed a couple of boats still have crazy clew rigs. make sure that you use either 1/8 spectra core triple wrapped around the boom or a rooster velcro clew tie---in the up and down conditions you need maximum leech control. a loose clew means your mainsheet and vang are less effective up/down and laterally. most folks have decent vangs. if not just throw bullet blocks into the old Holt system. make sure to put a 'max loose' knot in the vang line for brainless rounding. cunningham-go harken 3:1--5:1 under a spectra 2:1 through the cringle in the sail. if you cannot pull the eye to the gooseneck then go 5:1. i use 4:1 just to avoid spaghetti in the cockpit outhaul- what ever rig you use make sure you have a enough purchase to trim your outhaul going upwind. again , use harken blocks so that you do not have to force your outhaul loose downwind. again, pre-set a max loose stopper knot. upwind i felt was a choice every race between a pretty solid wind line with a fair amount of south in it on the left and a chance for a lighter but solid north shot on the right. the middle, as in many races where obstructions are immediately to weather, was no man's land. i paid zero attention to the strong tide given the vast difference between windstrengths. my basic rule was to not tack onto port unless i was almost laying the weather mark given the near guarantee of a powerful lefty if i sailed to the layline. i did ride lower course lefties up to the top of the course in a couple of races but found the northerly shots less powerful once there. downwind i felt the 2 major strategies were 1] get the rig powered asap to catch the smallest puff to separate from the fleet and 2] making sure i played the current correctly. in my 4th place race , which max won, i strayed from a light but decent northerly puff[ from 1/2 a boatlength lead] crossed the fleet in search of that power plant shot and found myself down current and slow ! moral is always judge the current when there is not a HUGE pressure or direction advantage to be gained otherwise. good sailing everyone ! |
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