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

This is the second part of an article that was written by Dave on January 18, after the last race in Series I of keelboat season. (See the Winter Edition of the Mainsheet if you missed PartI). Of course, while it waswritten for keelboats, you should know that much of it holds true for dinghies too. That said, here's the rest of Dave's thoughts on some fine and not-so-fine elements of moderate to heavy-air boat handling.

The second part of a great set is NOT easing the jib sheet too much! "What?!" you say? "Heresy! The sail will be stalled out slowing the boat down!!" In fact, no, it won't... nothing could be further from the truth if you think ahead 10-20 seconds. Yes, the main should be DUMPED which unloads the back of the sail plan and lets the boat roll to weather. Unloading the sail plan on the back of the boat means the sails' center of effort has now moved forward which creates lee helm and makes the boat want to bear away WITHOUT turning the tiller! More win/win situations! How good can this get? Even better: By easing the sail only enough to open the slot so the main can be dumped and then cleating it, the chute will now come out and go up without getting stuck and wadded up with the foot/leach of the genoa/jib. This makes for really fast setting and filling of the chute AND keeps the foot of the genoa/jib on the deck, inside the lifelines so when the jib halyard is blown the sail comes down there and not in the lake. In really windy conditions the headsail may have to be eased more just to get rid of enough heel to make the boat bear away, but as soon as the boat does so and comes flat, trim and cleat the jib again.

The better way is to do as they do in the America's Cup and blow the jib halyard with the sheet still in, just eased a little. This opens the whole head of the jib and unloads the top of the sailplan, letting the boat pop upright AND filling the spinnaker quicker, but because the bottom of the sail is still trimmed in it pulls the bow down and ADDS to the helpful lee helm. It only takes seconds. Now the boat is flat or heeling to weather [better] and flying downwind and we're not 1/2- 1 boatlength past the mark! It's WAY easier and way faster to raise the chute under control on a flat deck, without people losing their balance and falling to leeward [YIKES, we're heading UPWIND AGAIN!] with LESS apparent wind in it than when heeled over and fighting the tiller, everyone coming off the rail because you think the pole needs to get up and the chute needs to be prefed. I know some of you think me wrong. Do yourself a favor and just try ALL ofthese suggestions one time. Why do you think this is how a windward rounding is done in the America's Cup? Sure, they have the pole up or going up MOST of the time, BUT they also have 17 people on board and the crew are NOT being used as a major part of the ballast as on small keel boats! Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Now you can put the pole up! :)

Concerning the importance of having the tweakers pulled down to the deck in the winds previously discussed: They are short but they are a 1:1 system. Any stretch in either side lets the trim of the chute change a little but, just as importantly if not more so, when the tweakers ARE down to the deck, the spinnaker clews are pulling UP on the deck of the boat somewhere around the mast area. When even the lee side is off, the sheet is pulling up on the stern area which causes the bow to want to dig in the puffs. The former setting actually lifts close to or in front of the keel, helping to keep the bow from diving as badly and unloading the hull. With this thought in mind, you could all do yourselves a big favor by replacing your tweakers with a quality, ultra lowstretch line. Pure Spectra doesn't hold worth a hoot in some cleats but Vectran does.

Although I stressed the importance of keeping everyone on the rail and explained how the windward mark can be rounded under control WITHOUT messing with the pole, in the lower end of the applicable wind range, it's possible to get the pole up without doing much damage as far as heeling is concerned, although the windage of someone standing up is still an issue. For this to work, the pole controls MUST be led to the starboard side cabin top and be on swivel cleats. There?s NEVER any reason for the foredeck to run up to the bow and put the guy in the polejaw. All that needs to be done is stay on the rail hiking, pull the pole back so the forward end can be reached and the guy clipped in, then push the pole forward about halfway. At the "pole up" command, the mast person can reach in from the rail while still hiking and raise the pole while the foredeck stands, turn 90 degrees to face the bow while still standing on the rail where they were sitting, and snaps the pole on the ring while holding the pole 90 degrees to the centerline of the boat, facing outboard. Then they just push the pole forward and start raising the halyard at the "hoist" command. If you?re going to do this, there's no need whatsoever to do it early: There are no awards given for the earliest pole set, just as there are no awards given for "winning" the start. Nothing matters except where you are at the finish. Everything that happens on the boat should be done with that constantly in mind. This pole setting maneuver can EASILY be pulled off .5 - 1.5 boatlengths from the mark - if you must! I see so many boats whose foredeck actually stands up and then, for reasons I can't fathom, move to the middle of the foredeck in front of the mast to connect the pole. WHY??The pole doesn?t care what direction it's pointing when it's connected. By moving to the middle of the deck the foredeck is coming off the rail, causing the boat to heel AND pushing the bow down (which adds even more to weather helm) AND causing much drag [windage again] at the lower part of the main/jib/slot area. One last thing: If something needs tweaked, cleaned up, etc., the crew should stay on the rail and turn onto their stomach with their legs extending out over the high side to keep as much righting arm as possible. Proper housekeeping (like halyard tails) also prevents having Chinese fire drills? at the bottom mark. There is NO NEED to have people off the rail still trying to get knots out of the halyard and the chute into the boat! Having said that, even these two things [if you DO have a SNAFU] can be done while hiking or AT LEAST sitting on the high side, and it doesn't take the whole darn crew to do it either!!

Remember: Priorities!

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