Strategery with Dave
"Boat Handling" - Part I
David Sample

This was written January 18, after the last race in Series I of keelboat season, but you should know that most of this holds true for dinghies too - just forget the backstay [on most] and of course some dinghies don't have a traveler. However, all of the mark rounding suggestions apply equally for dinghies, too. That said, here are my thoughts on some fine and not-so-fine elements of moderate to heavy-air boat handling.

Our recent keelboat races were sailed in moderate winds (10-15 mph, sometimes 10-20 mph). Notice I didn't say heavy air because, contrary to the opinions of some, we haven't HAD any 'heavy air' yet this year! We had one day that might be called moderately heavy, but the average from three long readings was still in the 17 mph range, but more gusty with bigger waves. It seems those waves caused folks to drastically overestimate wind strength. Wind conditions close to or at the upper range of most boats' ability to carry a 155% are not 'heavy air', folks...The race conditions January 18th were in this range. After starting the first race I took an approximately 3-minute average from the RC boat's front deck, with the Kestral about 10' above the water. That average was 18.2 mph. For the second race that average was 16.8 with one short-lived gust of 24.5. Ditto race #3 for an average of 10.6 mph. Motoring around the course and looking at different boats' sail trim, crew work, and mark roundings left me wondering what was going on in some skippers' minds. I'm not being critical, just addressing some "Boat Handling 101" skills that some haven't yet fully developed and for which some may need a little reinforcement.

Rule # 1: Sail the boat flat, period! Flat on most keelboats means around 10-15 degrees degrees. Heel is the primary cause of weather-helm, which when taken past a few degrees makes any boat hard to steer, unresponsive and SLOW! On January 18, most of boats in both fleets were more like 20-30 degrees. Everyone thinks they know about pulling the backstay and vang harder, dropping the traveler, trimming the mainsheet more to make up for the loose leach caused by the first adjustment, etc. When in doubt, pull even harder on the backstay, vang and mainsheet and drop the traveler more. A boat WILL NOT point with an open upper mainsail leach - it's that simple. When I talk to folks about this most say, "Yeah, I know..." So why do so few do it on the water when it counts? Likewise, not much that you do to the main will be of great benefit without the headsail working correctly. I saw a few boats on Sunday [some captained by very good sailors] using the genoa, but they never bladed the sail out, which causes lots of heeling, drag and supposed "backwinding" on the main. This is a no-win situation. To blade out the genoa [or any sail] it must be sheeted HARD!!! Notice that I didn't say tight...... that depends on the wind and seas conditions. The halyard must be set so that the luff of the sail is smooth [jibs] to just barely showing any wrinkles nnd the jib lead must be set so that when you sheet the sail to the point of touching the chainplates, the foot is stretched out flat. This isn't to say the foot SHOULD always be that tight, but sometimes you have to oversheet it to see if this setting has been reached. If you've done things right, the foot will be close to, touching or pulled against the chainplates. Both these things take some shape [camber] out of the upper leach area of the headsail. This generates more forward drive and less heeling movement but, just as importantly, helps keep the slot open so the main can work. I don't use a set number of inches from the leech to the spreader tip as a guide because all boats, rigs and sails are different. Instead, I look at the shape and angle of the leach of the sail in relation to the boat's center line and the slot between the two sails. Depending on wave and wind conditions for this wind range, the leach may wind up being 2" off [lighter side of range and flat water] of the spreader tip or 10". But where ever it winds up, the sail should look tight and relatively flat as compared to its normal shape. And the upper leach should match the curve of the lee side of the main. Once you have found the leach-to-spreader-tip setting that is fast for that wind and sea condition, you can use the same figure for quick reference and sail setting, but only as long as those conditions last or exist in the future. The boat will tell you what it needs and likes best, but not if you don't pull HARD on things, hike REALLY hard ALL of the time, and - are you ready for this?? - PRACTICE!

There's that ugly word again. Folks, you can make a 7-figure income and have everything that comes with it, including a new boat, new sails and matching outfits for yourself and the crew, but without practice it won't ever come together! I also know some of you say or maybe think you're "only out there for fun" and "don't want to work that hard", but I must ask you: Is it fun to be rounding up, accidentally tacking, struggling to steer the boat, struggling to stay ON the boat, getting unnecessarily wet, watching the fleet sail away from you, or finishing in a position less than you wish to achieve? I think not! These adjustments and trim clues shouldn't be done during a race UNLESS you forgot to do them before, because by necessity, somebody must be on the low side LOOKING at them, and this is a cardinal sin if you want to keep the boat flat. If you practice [even before or between races] you can get a good feel for when things are right just by looking at the foot of the genoa and the leach through the spreader window in the main [that's what it's there for!] so nobody has to go to the low side to check! I am not implying you sadjust the jib lead during a race, because conditions change! What I meant [if I lost you on this segment, or on Part I] was you should already know from pre-race practice where the optimum setting is for the jib lead AND what the foot of the sail will look like when the sail is trimmed correctly, when viewed from the high side. That way, nobody HAS TO go low to see what's happening. This and the spreader window in the main will help keep everyone on the high side as much as possible.

Rule #2: Stay on the high side of the boat, PERIOD! See the last sentence in the previous paragraph, please. Everyone should be cross-sheeting the jib sheet from the high side of the boat but NOBODY does, because they never practice it and get good at it. With the right blocks and techniques, cross-sheeting isn't rocket science, but it DOES take practice. When I give clinics or talk to folks about what's happening on the course, I try to speak in terms of boat lengths gained or lost, with minus being boat lengths lost and plus being boat lengths gained. Let's use your typical club racer tack [not very good] as our control boat. This means:
Control boat, #1:
a. going into the tack with too much heel and coming out of the tack with too much heel;
b. a genoa/jib that is undersheeted;
c. a main that wasn't eased or eased enough out of the tack for good acceleration;
d. the trimmer[s] being on the low side; and,
e. the crew kind/sorta on the high side or at least going that way.
Boat #2:
Now, let’s do the same thing again - only this time:
a. the genoa/jib is flogging for whatever reason;
b. the main hasn't been eased; AND,
c. the rest of the crew isn't on the new weather side [let alone on the rail!].

So, the boat is on its ear and the driver has the tiller pulled up at a 45-degree angle to try and keep from tacking!!! Conservatively speaking and VERY open-ended, minus 1 boat length to leeward and 2 boat lengths straight ahead for a net loss of about 2.25 boat lengths as compared to control.
Boat #3:
a. the boat was in the groove before and after the tack;
b. with the proper amount of ease on BOTH sails to quickly accelerate up to speed and height after tacking;
c. the jib trimmer[s] is/are STILL on the low side; BUT,
d. the rest of the crew are on the new high side and hiking hard until boat is up to speed; and,
e. the sail is set for high gear, which could be 15-30 seconds.
Now where are you? Plus 1 boat length to weather and 2 boat lengths straight ahead for net gain of about 2.25 boat lengths. The difference between a bad club racer tack and a good club racer tack is already 4.5 boat lengths, and this is true for EVERY TIME you tack!!
Boat #4: let’s assume that all was done identically as in tack #3, EXCEPT that:
a. the jib trimmer went from one high rail to the other; and
b. was doing the trimming [properly] from the high side.
You are now plus 1 boat length to weather and 2 boat lengths straight ahead for a net gain of 4.5 boat lengths from the control boat and 6.75 boat lengths from the bad tacker!! Using a 24' boat that's 162' [6.75 x 24] difference net gain PER TACK from the weather sheeting boat to the bad tacker. On our average WLWLW course where the distance from the leeward pin to the A fleet weather mark is 1 mile [B fleet .75 mile] A fleet boats will sail 2 miles upwind and conservatively speaking might tack 8 times per leg. 16 tacks times 162' is 2,592' or a few feet less than a half- mile lead over the bad tacker at the finish line!!!!! You can all do the math to get the differences between the weather sheeter and the other two boats but the point is that even if you just tack like #3 [like VERY few at the club do] the difference at the finish between you and the average tacker is 864' or 2.88 football fields!!!!! Is this sinking in now? The little things in tacking add up to a GREAT DEAL at the finish line, either positively or negatively, and this is regardless of tactics and assumes that all tackers would be reaching the same speed eventually, which we all know doesn't happen!

Rule #3: DUMP the main and have ALL of the crew on the high side BEFORE pulling on the tiller to round the top mark. See the 3rd sentence in Rule #1!! I didn't say 'ease it out' - I said 'dump it'! Why would anyone try to turn a boat downwind when it's heeling to weather? The heel causes the boat to want to tack, not bear off! To make matters worse, many boats actually had the driver AND a crew or two on the low side while bearing off around the mark!! The boat should actually roll to weather when doing this maneuver. If you do as suggested in the first sentence of this rule the boat will bear away BY ITSELF and literally scream around the mark, want to keep going lower with increasing speed, and you will actually have to push the tiller to leeward to keep from gybing! Again, look at the boat lengths gained or lost from doing this well and doing it badly, and here the straight ahead boat lengths [although significant] can be way LESS to the boat lengths that can be gained to leeward, which is, after all, the desired destination. Conservatively one could EASILY gain or lose 4 to who knows how many lengths. Why? Because doing this badly results in possibly rounding up out of control which means you are sailing quite possibly 180 degrees from the leeward mark! Even if this doesn't happen, very few boats at GMSC [or anywhere else] round the mark and set off on the proper course for the next leg. ANY distance that is sailed higher than the optimum is just boat lengths upon boat lengths being thrown out the window.

Priorities oftentimes get badly out of kilter at the weather mark. The main priorities should be:
#1. keep the boat flat and fast, which by default mean not coming in overstood and having everyone HIKING.
#2. rolling the boat hard to weather by using the prescribed methods to make a great, low, fast rounding.
#3. getting the chute up fast and under control; and,
#4. getting the pole up and the boat rolled out to windward if it isn't already, which it should be!

I see NO sailors from our club doing this at the weather mark. Everyone is so obsessed with getting the pole up and getting the chute pre-fed that the boat is heeling to LEEWARD from the bodies that have come off of the windward rail. Worse still is the weight on the bow from someone messing with getting the guy hooked into the pole followed by the windage being made from all the folks standing up and/or running around the boat. Please believe me when I tell you that the spinnaker pole matters not a whit to making a great windward mark rounding! The chute is what gets you powered up and flying downwind and the chute will set, project and fly just fine [assuming the driver is on the proper downwind course] without the pole AS LONG AS the windward tweaker is down all the way. While I'm at it, on most boats and with most chutes, BOTH tweakers should be down all the way to keep the spinnaker from getting too high. Although this may look nice on the boat, if you could see it from the side and a few lengths away you would see that the leaches at the head of the chute are actually HIGHER then the center, because the center is connected to the halyard. This causes the head to constantly collapse and fill which is bad enough, but the whole head of the sail is 90 degrees or HIGHER from the mast. That means this part of the sail is making no forward drive at all except for the drag of the wind flowing over the sail! By keeping both tweakers down and the pole LOWER than the clew with the pole squared well back, the sheet can then be eased even further out without the sail collapsing. The more of the sail that is exposed to the wind, you are effectively showing a "bigger sail" than what you had the other way...... more boat speed, INSTANTLY, with even more control. Another win/win situation!!!

David E. Sample
Bullet Sails
501-569-9207 home/work
501-580-6885 cell