end of the season: MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

[Richard O'Brien]

Last races of the season: Match races where you challenge a boat with similar phrf. I raced a Lancer 25. He won, I was single –handed, and reefed my sail due to high winds initially, then later when I wanted a full main, I wasn’t able to successfully raise it. Winds were variable 8-22 mph. I found that I could point higher than him, largely due to the Idasailor rudders I added 2 weeks ago. I think that I can beat him on a reach, but every time I have to come about, the big stern of the Mac with the heavy motor just doesn’t come around like the other boats. I think Lease , our Austrailian friend pointed this out recently, and I believe he’s right. I felt that I was catching up, and then I’d have to come around the buoy. The wide stern provides the stability needed for the motor, but sacrifices agility I think. How do you guys trim your genoas on a reach. I hang the main out, and trim it in until it stops luffing, but how about the genoa? I always trim it close? Should I let it hang ?Any thoughts. I wish I cold run parallel to another M , and then experiment with trim to see who gains sometime. Since I don’t have a nearby ocean, I get the most fun out of trying to maximize with what I’ve got. One race left on Oct. 7, The Columbus Day Regatta. Anybody wanna Join me? Baldbaby, Windqwest?

[normo]

How do you guys trim your genoas on a reach. I hang the main out, and trim it in until it stops luffing, but how about the genoa? I always trim it close?

This is what I do:

On a close reach you trim similar to beating but ease off the spreader a bit, ease the sheet until the leeward starts to luff and tighten a tad. Check the leech to see if you need to move the car (forward) so telltales low, mid and upper all lay back. On a broad reach you definetly do NOT want to "trim it close". If you trim the sail in "close" it will be stalled. It may look like it is full and pulling but the telltales will be hanging and the sail will not be producing nearly the lift it is capable of.

As the apparent wind goes further abeam the sail becomes much less efficient as the shape no longer resembles an airfoil. To create lift ease the genoa sheet until the telltales on the leeward side (outside) begin to luff and then tighten until they lay back. Pay no attention to the inside telltales as they are meaningless on a broad reach. Next sight up the luff to see that the telltales near the top are also laying back. If not adjust the sheet blocks, probably forward, so they are. It helps to mark these positions so you can move the blocks beforehand. If you are trying to go fast the most important item is selecting a crew member that is willing to pay attention and continually ease and tighten the genoa sheet to keep the telltales flowing.

[baldbaby2000]

Sounds like you had fun Rich! I use the tell-tales on my genoa to set it. When on a reach adjust the sheet until the leeward one lays back (follows the air flow) and the windward one either lays back or is on the verge of falling away. I have 3 sets of tell-tales at different levels. If the bottom set flows correctly but the top ones don't you can set the position of your block. If the top windward one is falling away, move the block forward. If you're trying to depower because of high wind move the block aft to spill air at the top. Remember as you pick up speed the apparent wind shift will require you to sheet in more.

If you're pointing with the genny, it's a judgement call as to how tight to sheet it. Too tight and you may point higher but not have much speed. If you're on the spreader that's probably too tight. In light air I've found that it's better to have a rather full genoa and not try to point too high. Normally on a beat one sets the headsail and then adjusts the boat's heading to get the headsail tell-tails to flow. In general it's better to have the genoa too loose than too tight. If the leeward tell-tail is falling away or flowing forward that's a bad thing; the windward one falling away isn't necessarily bad as long as it's not extreme.

When sailing downwind just try to keep it full; the tell-tales aren't useful.

Here are my opinions on tacking and rounding marks. When you talked about loosing ground on a tack it reminded me of my Hobie Cat racing days. Hobies need to be turned slowly or too much speed is lost. A race could be won or lost on how the bouy was rounded, especially the downwind mark. When tacking upwind, do the tack slow enough that you don't loose a lot of speed. Expecially with your big rudders you don't want to put the brakes on. After the tack and the inevitable loss of speed, ease the sheets to give the sail more shape until you pick up speed again then sheet them to where they need to be as your speed picks up. After the tack and loss of speed the apparent wind moves aft which is why you ease the sheets until speed builds up. If you're rounding the downwind mark don't go right for the mark, leave some room to turn. When you get to it slowly turn so you come close to the mark as you're heading upwind. Gradually sheet in the sails during the manuever. These tactics may change if you're jockeying for position at the mark because of right of way rules that may apply.

The only time I really try to take out a reef is when I'm going off wind. Then I can do it without loosing speed. Trying to do it going upwind without totally messing up the sail shape while doing it is tough so I usually live with the reef on that leg.

Something to keep in mind in those variable winds is that changes in wind speed look like changes in direction but really aren't; for example, if you're trimmed for 15 knots on a beat and suddenly the wind drops to 8 knots without the true wind changing direction, the apparent wind will make it appear to be a "header" because of the boat speed. Try to ride these through (unless you think it's a true header) instead of the temptation to head down to fill the sails or worse, tack because you think it's a wind shift. As the boat slows the sails should fill again.

I wish I could crew for you but I think we'll be pulling our boat out of Granby this weekend. My wife is leaving town with the Suburban and if we don't get it out I won't have a vehicle. Let me talk it over with the Admiral. Maybe we can pull it Sunday instead of Saturday. What time is the race?

BB

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Besides not producing as much lift, a sail that is trimmed in too much on a reach produces a lot of heel which takes away from your forward speed. This is especially true right after a tack when you are accelerating. As your boat speed picks up though, the apparent wind angle turns more onto the nose and you have to trim the sail in further to get it right.

[mtc]

I've found that, unlike the Hobie which accelerates like a crotch rocket after a tack with the sails immediately trimmed tight, the Mac does better when I trim in loose, let the sails fill a bit, get some speed up then trim true.

Next we'll work on flyin' a hull on the Mac.

Michael

[Richard O'Brien]

Great way to finish the season! Daniel (Baldbaby) came down to crew with me for the Columbus Day Regatta. Winds were predicted at 13-18 MPH gusting to 25. In actuality it was far more. Four or five spinnakers were lost. several broaches including one crew thrown under the hull, and picked up by another boat. No injuries .but quite a wild race. 4 races with six classes, with no pauses. Seven hours of straight racing. I really don't know how we did, nor care completely. On race one we were headed off on a beam reach, (the only one in the race almost) the water sounded like a long piece of paper tearing. You know that sound? We were really hauling, and even beat a Catalina 25 who'm I've never touched before. Daniel's a pretty good skipper, and the new rudder's are a certain improvement. Most of the races were a long uphill battle followed by a dead downwind. this was for the spinnaker sailer's benefit. Mac's are best on a reach. We still did ok having lost 2 battens, and torn a hole in the main. that's not so bad. One large sloop lost his whole big laminated main. did I say this was a wild race? Daniel at the helm likes to heel a lot crawling upwind. He had been talking about steering submarines 600 ft. down, and how he could still tell there were big storms on the surface when he was in the Navy. when I could see the windows covering with water through the open hatch, I kept thinking"He does know this isn't a submarine, doesn't he?" I half expected him to say" I'm taking her under Richard, Prepare to blow the ballast tanks". I figured he might have one of those flashbacks I've read about. There was a lot of water down below on the carpet, maybe an inch or so?? It turns out Daniel was right. At 30 degrees we were making 4.1 kts., and at 20 degrees were only making 3.8. We were really sheeted tight, and then when a microburst heeled us past 30 I would release the main, dump the air , and quickly trim it in again until the next burst. Incidentally, the water on the carpet was from the cooler ice, Thank God!
Michael, youre right too. when we came to the marks Daniel suggested I let out the main, and as we came about we'd sheet it in as we picked up speed unless it was ddw , of course where we did wing on wing.
we couldn't see the genoa tell tales, so I never entirely figured the ideal trim for it?

[baldbaby2000]

Had a great time with Richard. As he said we did well on the reaches. There was a lot of congestion at times; the start line was poison during the race so all the boats were sneaking around one end to get to the downwind mark. We caught up to a Catalina 27 on a broad reach and I had to slow down to keep from hitting him in the transom until we got past the start line. Finally took him to windward.

A lot of boats were overpowered. One of the boats that broached lost a man overboard who was picked up by another sailboat. We finally put in our second reef and things were more controllable. There was a 26D in the race that seemed to do well.

I saw on the news today that there were some injuries during the Columbus Day Regatta. They said a boat was being towed by another and someone hit them. It wasn't clear from the story if they were sailboats, they just showed a woman being taken away on a stretcher.

We need more Macs to race!

Bald Baby