Lesson # 3
Trevor’s comments:

• Only one person leaves the rail…prefeeding the tack and helping the chute go up the middle of the boat
• Chute always comes out the bag.
• Do not leave the rail until boat flattens (especially if pinching to the mark)
• No panic, no rush
• Halyard and pole out happen together
• Jib trim (amount that it is eased) is important

Douse:

• Get hands on the foot of the sail, then halyard
• Sail trim needs to match the turning angle (don’t trim in too early)
• Tactitian helps with mainsheet
• Looks like most boats release tack line and halyard once the gather has begun – deal with the pole later.

Lesson #2 : Light air gybing.
Trevor’s comments:

• Note the crew moving to the windward side to initiate the gybe
• Floater person helps pull spin around – note final pull on leech is straight down.
• Spinnaker comes through before main (early on the spin)
• Crew weight stays on leeward (new gybe) – Do not flatten until spinnaker is full and driving…We have been too anxious to flatten too early in the past!

Great article which includes a lot of light air tips…

Link to article>>

Lesson #1 – Tacking

• Light to medium – Note how crew does not go immediately to the high side but just spins in the legs…ready to move together to high side to flatten.
• Tactian helps with traveller when 5 person crew.
• Note outhaul: We may have this too tight sometimes in light air
• Notice how little rudder the driver uses…crew is turning the boat
• Hold the roll (roll tack) in light air see how they aggressively hold the weight to leeward then flatten together
• Crew on rail are all together and forward!

Wednesday evening race #20

Shoot the mark and then do a gybe set…one of our first attempts at this manouver!!

Video:

Wednesday evening race #19

Video of start:

Video of first leeward rounding:

Wednesday evening race #18

North Westerly winds at 3-8 knots. Race course was 2 X 1 X

Includes exciting footage of how NOT to round the windward mark…!!

Solid start, got very close to Hallel, debatable whether we got too close? I shall consult with Peter Blacklock…See video:

Got to the windward mark in third – see rounding:

Parade fetch down to X, but stayed ahead of Ricochet just behind us and managed to pick off Addicted, rounded in second behind Desperado; Nice rounding see video:

As has happened many times in the last few races this is where the string starts to unravel somewhat. Whether it is the pressure of over boats catching up to us…over thinking the tactics?? Instead of sailing our own race we got ourselves into a situation where we were pushed out to the port layline by Ricochet. In hind sight we probably should have kept sailing longer on port under Desperado, until Desperado tacked or Ricochet tacked behind us. I then made a HUGE mistake, probably described as “dumb move of the season”, at the windward mark as will be evident on the video.

Lots of screaming about rights from Ricochet – actually we had rights up to the point where we probably would have fouled Ricochet under rule 18.3(a). Presumably Ricochet is very familiar with this rule (as we all should be) since they fouled us in this same scenario earlier in the season when we had John Vanzee on board who politely asked them if they realized they rounded illegally?

18.3 Tacking in the Zone

(a) shall not cause the other boat to sail above close-hauled to avoid contact or prevent the other boat from passing the mark on the required side

See the video:

The look on Scotty Millers face…!! He’s thinking WTF is Trevor doing?

Wednesday evening race #17

North Westerly winds at 8-10 knots. Race course was 3 1 X 3 X 3

Don’t go to that layline too early…!!

Good solid start towards the boat (boat was favored by 10 degrees). Tacked a little too early and let Ricochet and Desperado get leverage on the left.

A few words about getting to the starboard layline a long way from the mark…”DONT DO IT”. We were tacked on by Desperado and Ricochet, also tactically you loose the ability to play any shifts and increase your chances of over standing. We corrected this mistake on the second beat to number three mark and made massive gains when we tacked below the layline and were almost lifted to the mark. See video:

Parade from 3 to 1 and from 1 to X but actually made some gains and rounded third with Ricochet and Desperado about 10-15 lengths in front.

Here is the video of the second windward rounding that I talked about:

Solid race, ended up 4th with “Chicken soup” correcting over Ricochet into second place.

Governors Cup August 31st – Sep 1st

No F*&%$ing wind…!!

For a flavour of the weekend see below:

Wednesday evening race #16

North Westerly winds at 8-12 knots. Race course was 3 7 3 X

Small mistakes give up the first place…!!

Quite a large left shift and lull right at the start…see video:

Covered successfully and played a little to the left in the breeze down from the channel – rounded in first place. See video:

Early gybe was the move here…maintained our lead…maybe jib up a little early?. This was the Leeward rounding:

This is where the concentration slipped a little with some small mistakes on this beat, primarily letting Hallel go to the right of us 2/3 up the beat without covering. See video for rounding:

Gybed early again and managed to catch Hallel and beat them boat for boat. Finished second.