Boat Handling Questions

Here's a list of things that a lot of crews should be asking about, but only one of you did.

I'm having trouble with executing my tacks and gybes well. I was wondering if you had any tips for improving upon a few things that I need to work the most on:

1. The "bunny hop" over the traveler bar


2. The correct form/how to hike when gybing


3. When exactly to trim in and let out the jib (on both tacks and gybes)

The Bunny Hop
You have to keep your feet together and under you. Also, you're trying to roll too much on your back and not enough on
your side - this helps with balance. Once your timing improves, the motion of the boat actually helps you pop right up. Kinda' like a see-saw.

Form/Hiking on Gybes
On the gybes, it depends on if you're going reach-to-reach or wing-to-wing. They are very different. Just remember, it's not a true roll. More of a carve. You can't roll too early in a gybe. Remember, as your weight comes to windward, the boat bears off. That's the goal.

Jib Trim on Tacks
The jib needs to go from full to full - no luffing. Personally, I release the jib as I roll, and then punch my arm through the boat to get it in on the other side. This gets all but the last inch or so. Then, as my skipper trims in the last bit out of the tack, I bring the jib in the rest of the way.

Jib Trim on Gybes
Jib Trim on the Gybes: Basically, think about flying the jib through the entire turn. You never want to force it at any point. This means that on a reach-to-reach gybe, you want to wing the jib just before the gybe and then be ready to have it flying on your new course as the skipper flattens. On wing-to-wing gybes, the trick is to NOT try to wing on the new side too early. This is why you have to have the sheet in two places before the gybe. If the skipper over rotates the boat, then you can fly the reach until the boat bears off and then wing it. With down-wind jib trim, it's all about the pressure that you feel in your hand. If the jib gets soft, then you need to either go to a wing or have the skipper head up.

Tactical Tip #4

Yesterday, the breeze was up-and-down, and swung about 30-degrees to the right during practice. Roy shifted the entire course around. That said, here are 3 observations:

DO NOT LET BOATS GET TO THE RIGHT OF YOU ON THE LAST LEG!

In the 2-3-6 drill, the team had converted to a 2-3-4. However, the 2 boat sailed out to the left of the course while the entire fleet went right. At the top, 2 had gone to 6. The 2-3-4 needed to have been balanced to the right of the fleet in order to stay in control.

DO NOT SAIL DOWN THE COURSE

Off the line, a number of you sailed a parallel course, away from the mark, to the left. While this seemed to be the lifted tack, you were actually on the wrong side of the shift. As soon as the boats on the right tacked (yes, they were headed a bit off the line), they all had you. Crews, this is why you have to watch the boats on your weather hip. As soon as the pack to the right tacked, you had to try to get over as many as you could.

Also, crews let skippers sail well past lay-lines yesterday. You need to literally point at the mark with your up-wind hand and make sure that you are still sailing at it.

LIGHT AIR SAILING ISSUES

Top reasons why some of you were dog-slow:

1. Skippers were trying to sail too high. Foot off a bit for speed and then come back up when you have power in the sails.


2. Crews, do NOT strap the jibs. You should have never had the jibs cleated yesterday. When your skipper says that they need power, you should have been able to ease about 1/4". When they feel up to speed, bring it back in a hair.


3. Stop the rudder from moving. Skippers, press the tillers to the deck. If you need to head up, have the crew ease to you and then gradually bring the boat up. If you need to bear off, just slide your shoulders to weather a bit and ease the main about 1/2".


4. Timing! You are all rushing your boat-handling and trying to throw the boat around. It's counter-productive. If your timing is off (and it is for almost all of you), all the roll in the world won't do anything. Don't roll your tacks until the jib backs. Crews, you should NOT flatten the jibes out (except for maybe when sailing with Norfleet). Skippers, you're not going to be able to jam the rudder over and have the boat do anything but stop. Just relax!


5. The second that you get on the water in light air, you are racing. One bad tack could leave you dead in the water and cause you to miss a start. One bad jibe and you're out the back. Every motion counts. On a light air day, every move needs to be perfect - even if the start has not yet counted down to zero.

Loose Footed Mains

Matt Knowles - Jeff's brother - and I have been talking about how to trim the loose footed mains. Here are bits of the conversation:

On the Class-Legal, 420 mains we go pretty tight with the outhaul pretty much all the time - not boned, but definitly tight enough so there is never any horizontal space between the foot and the boom. if it is nuking we'll max them, but since you're in vang sheeting mode by then it doesn't make much a of a difference. if i'm sailing in waves or chop i go a tiny bit looser to try to cary a bit more power, but really never that loose - it seems slow as soon as you've got a big horizontal gap at the foot spilling breeze.

we don't bother to let the outhaul off downwind, have done some speed testing and it doesn't seem to make any difference, better off just getting the vang set perfectly. one thing that does seem to help a lot is always running the cunningham over the slug rather than through the grommit (sp?) until it is so windy that you can't get it down far enough for that - this lets you get some luff tension without messing up the whole foot of the sail / making a deep pocket.

the other sail we use is the Vanguard/north "intercollegiate" cut main that is used on both FJs and 420s. we have it on our FJs, and BC has them on their 420s, so i've played with it on both. with this cut (which sucks, btw, they made a lot of compromises so it'll work on both boats) we go *max* outhaul all the time on the FJs except very light air when the wrinkles look nasty, in which case we ease a little bit. in 420s, i think the same holds, except probably want to trend a little looser since the AOA is different than an FJ. with this cut, the luff tends to be pretty short on 420s, so you actually need to have a bit of cunningham on even in light air so the foot doesn't get pulled up from the boom near the tack.

one other thing about the new Intercollegiate cut mains is that with the big stiff headboard it is pretty easy to put the main up too high in light air, in which vase you get the head twisted to windward in a funky way. in breeze it doesn't seem to matter.

Tactical Tip #3

Saturday, it was really shifty. A few things to note.

1. DO YOUR PRE-START ROUTINE - Ellie and I kept count of every time someone took a line-sight, a lay-line, or a time around the boat. It was not all of you.


2. Do not let 2 boats get off to one side unprotected. There were at least 2 races where 2 Opponent boats got out to the right and were not covered. Yes, the shift did come from the left, but what if it hadn't.


3. Make your Opponent sail through you to get to the finish. In the super light race against MV, we were hipped up on the fleet, but not in front of them. What if a massive header had come through? What if the breeze had gone all the way around and from the right?

Last note, do NOT forget your boat-handling as soon as you start team racing. A lot of you were painful to watch. It is especially critical in light air. We lost boat-lengths on poor reach-to-wing transitions (remember, this is all crew). Our tacks were mediocre, and we almost stopped at times trying to gybe for position. As soon as you get on the water, the entire time that you are on the water, you should be working on this.

Questions from the week

Here's the list of questions - and answers - from the week:

1. So today in our meet, I was having some trouble with my flattening off
   the tacks in the big wind. We weren't rolling much at all, and we just
   couldn't seem to snap the tack flat.
   
   EASE!!!! That whole, "bring your hand to your ear thing" is critical
   in big breeze. As you cross the boat, you should get about a 2 foot
   ease. Also, you may be over-steering. Make sure you keep the boat on a close-hauled course (or even higher for a second in big breeze) as you come out of the tacks.


2. When I was spinning yesterday, I would come out of the tack and ease the
   main all the way as I was bearing off. When We rolled the boom would hit
   the water, and I couldn't flatten and steer up at the same time. When I
   didn't let the main out all the way, it solved both problems, but it felt
   slower. Which is better?
   
   Sounds like you're spinning too tight in both circles. Don't just blow the main,
   ease the main. Remember to sail the boat through the circles - don't spin it.


3. I still don't know what to do about windward sheeting
   
   Remember, a 420 has a lousy setup where the jib leads are actually in the wrong place. That said, you use windward sheeting to get a better angle on the sail. It's a bit hard to explain in an email, but here's what you're looking for... If you get down in the boat and look straight up towards the top of the mast, you will see the leech of the main and the leech of the jib. They should be parrallel to each other as they go towards the top - this is called the Slot. The best way to get the feel of this is to rig a boat on shore and then play with sail trim. If you strap the leeward sheet and have no weather sheet, you'll see that the foot of the jib is closed off in that slot. If you have less leeward sheet and lots of weather sheet, you'll see that the top of the sail gets closed and that the foot is out.


4. How much jib halyard should I have?
   
   When you apply halyard tension, you are pulling the entire mast forward. As you let it off, you are letting the entire mast go aft. The best way to judge is to get the boat sailing upwind, and then have the skipper let go of the tiller. You want to have a little bit of weather helm (the boat should want to head up on its own). Just remember that during the course of a few hours, you may need to adjust your rig tension if the breeze builds or lightens.

Notes from Yesterday (3/31)

Top 10 Observations from yesterday:

1. Skippers - get the main in tight before the tacks


2. Crews - keep your feet together at all times; the only time you straddle the centerboard trunk is when sailing wing-on-wing


3. Skippers - drive with your main and not your tiller. You have to make sure to have an over-hand grip on the mainsheet (Will, this is you) so that you can easily ease and trim


4. TIMING - especially on the tacks, skippers do not roll until the crews roll


5. Wing-to-Wing Jibes - Remember, especially with our boats at school, crews always have a jib sheet in each hand and do NOT let go




• Board down


• Feet back


• Reverse the Tiller


• Crews take the jib sheet from the skipper's hand, grab the vang, and SIT


• Skippers reach up and grab all 4 parts of the main sheet


• Pull the main over and do NOT let go


• Skippers flatten and pump


• Skippers exchange and reach for the jib


• Crews, as soon as the boat is flat, stand straight up in the middle of the boat, put your weight on your windward foot, and wing the jib by pulling straight up through the lead


• Board up


• Re-set the vang




6. With reach to reach jibes, crews keep their feet together


7. Skippers flatten the jibes and stay forward


8. To find the lay-line to the boat, try ducking the boat and then sailing on a close-hauled course. You know that you are on the lay-line when you just barely clear the stern corner of the boat when sailing up-wind


9. When sailing up-wind, make sure that you are always "pointing at the weather mark." Crews, it is your job to make sure that you are sailing the lifted tack.


10. To slow your boat down-wind, put the board down, slide your weight back, over-trim your main, and center the jib

Tactical Tip #2

Hannah sent these questions from yesterday, so here are the Tip(s) of the Day.

First, downwind, you do want a little bit of vang, right? so that the top batten is parallel with the boom, which would be more vang that in lighter conditions.

Vang gets tricky. You want enough on so that the top batten is parallel, but not so much that it actually makes you capsize. To bear off huge, you want to be able to ease the vang. This means that at the windward mark, you want the vang off. You can then re-set it for down wind. You will see a happy sailing around with absolutely no vang when it is nuking and they will stay up for a while. This is because with no vang on, the sail is totally de-powered. However, with no vang on, it also means that you don't accelerate in the puffs. That said, have the vang on to keep you in control. This means that if you are wing-on-wing, have enough vang so that the boat isn't rocking like mad. On the reaches, when you pump, the whole sail (top & bottom) should come in together. Basically, you are going to have to adjust as you sail. You can't just set it and forget it.

Also, is it better to sail hotter angles and gybe a few times downwind than to sail low or wing on wing?

If you are good, you will be able to hold the wing. Cookie passed 5 boats in the last 50 yards to the leeward mark yesterday because he had the guts to blow the vang and sail low. You can plane a 420 while on a wing. It's scary, but it's fast. An FJ, however, in major breeze is a different beast. You sail angles more in light air than when it blows.

And, when sailing angles how do you know you are sailing too high an angle and losing?

Think about it this way: you always want to feel like you can bear off to the mark. Which gybe will give you the best angle on the breeze and to the mark? If you were sailing up-wind, you'd know that you can't point directly at the mark until you are on the lay-line. It's the same thing down-wind. Yesterday, a group of you all reached on starboard way to the right (down-wind right) of the mark, and then gybed back at a hot angle. If you cannot bear off and point at the mark, then you need to gybe.

Sail Trim

Now that we have new sails, we are going to have to think about how to trim them.

Yesterday, we noticed that these sails are really bladed.

Today, List commented "After messing around with windward sheeting on the jibs in Florida, what should we do differently with the windward sheeting on our boats?"

Thoughts? Add your comments to this post.

Tactical Tip #1

Today, we knew that a front was going to come in from the NW. However, at first, the sea breeze was trying to fill from the SE. For the first few minutes on the water, the breeze was oscillating back and forth between those two directions from a westerly direction. As the breeze died down, you may have noticed that it pulled left. The stronger puffs came from the right - the direction of the front.

When you know that a new system is coming in, look for the stronger pressure to come from that direction. Similarly, when the sea breeze is trying to fill, and you are in the Northern Hemisphere, look for the breeze to go right as it builds and then back left as it fades.

There is a decent article by Ed Adams about sailing in a sea breeze in Newport on the Sailing World website. Henry HIll also did some decent illustrations.

Rigging Check List

Now that we are on the water, just a reminder of what you should check every time you rig your boat. You should also check things in bold before every start.

1. Drain tanks
2. Make sure to have a bow line
3. Check and tape forestay ring-ding
4. Check and tape jib tack pin ring-ding
5. Check and tape shroud pins
6. Check shrouds, forestay, and halyards for frays
7. Use pliers to tighten twist shackle(s) on vang
8. Check jib cleats
9. Check and tape ring-ding on vang shackle (if not a twist shackle)
10. Check and tape ring-dings on mainsheet blocks (2 on the boom + the ratchet block)
11. Check mainsheet for frays
12. Check jib sheets for frays
13. Make sure you have an outhaul and cunningham
14. Check centerboard up-haul and down-haul lines (do not leave the dock without them)
15. Check knots in the vang, mainsheet, and jibsheets (if you are rotating into a boat, check halyard cleats and main halyard head)
16. Check hiking straps to make sure they are tied up to the traveler bar
17. Check hiking strap tie-down line (check the knot and the condition of the line)
18. Check tiller universal for cracks
19. Check rudder pintle
20. Check and tighten rudder bolt

Questions from PJ

Over break, Pete emailed me some questions. Below, I've pasted in most of the discussion. Anyone else have thoughts?

Pete's questions

First question: to reduce weather helm, should you move your weight forward or back?

Second Question: At the start, if you have to come back around the boat from right on its stern (i.e. the same position
as if you were timing it), is it better to foot off, accelerate, and then begin to come up and go around it, or should you take the shorter route and just get the main in and go (or is it more situation dependant than anything)?

Third Question: can we talk about downwind shifts and playing the angles next week?

Fourth Question: When you are sailing in the summer, how do you do you time shifts? I can't seem to figure out the best way to do it... and I don't have a compass... solution?

Beth's Answers

1. Weight and weather-helm: I would ask first, what are the conditions? To be honest, I think that weather helm is more a function of rig tune that weight placement. In light air, weather helm is ok. Moving your weight forward - which is also good - will reduce some of it (think about how the crew hikes forward to bear the boat off). However, if it's choppy, moving your weight forward too far will just fill you with water. I also wonder, if you have too much weather helm, and you think your rig is tuned correctly, are you flat? That could be another factor.

2. Coming around the boat: again, what is the situation? Is it light? Do you want to go right? Where's the fleet? Where is your pair? What are the conditions? This is why it is critical to know the time around the boat! I sailed a J24 race one time where we were over early and came around the boat. The skipper footed off a bit for speed - it was light and lumpy - but then sailed us directly under the fleet. We ended up footing out to the wrong side and got stuck on the wrong side of the shift. However, had he rounded the boat tight, like a mark rounding, and then tacked right away - what I had wanted to do - then we would have been footing out to the correct side of the shift and would have been golden at the top of the course. See, lots of things
to consider.

3. Down-wind shifts - yes! Most important thing is that some one has to be looking backwards the entire time downwind. I've gotten to a point where I ask three questions the whole way to the leeward mark: where's the pressure, where's the fleet, where's the mark. As long as I am sailing DOWN to the mark, in pressure, and in position, we usually do fine. It's not as hard as some people seem to think.

4. First off, if you are sailing long courses in open water - not on a lake - then invest in a compass. We get numbers before every start when we are sailing in places like Long Island Sound, Niantic Bay, etc. Basically, we sail for about 3 minutes on each tack and just watch the compass. We come up with a high, a low, and a median number. Then during the course of the day, we start to watch how long it takes for each shift to move in. However, if we are sailing on a lake - which we do a lot - it just has to do with looking up the course. This could actually mean watching the clouds move in over the land. In one regatta, we realized that when they started to shift, we could anticipate the next shift to come from under the clouds.

To be honest, the only time when I can really say something like "It pulls back to the left after 5 minutes and 43 seconds" is when I'm coaching. You have to be able to watch for a long time to really be able to time it. Usually, it's when you have a gradient and a sea breeze - or a gradient and an incoming front - when this really happens. Usually, you have a persistent shift (like when it pulls right as the sea breeze fills) on top of small oscillations. This means that you can work to stay in phase while also working to the right side of the course. We see this a ton.

Things I learned in Florida

We had a great few days of practice down in Stuart. I know that I learned a few things. How about the rest of you?

1. Crews have to flatten tacks on their BACK foot

2. Crews keep the water out of the boat when doing multiple reach-to-reach jibes

3. The improved "Bermuda Fitted Dinghy" Drill

4. For small skippers, it is all about control and very little about boat-handling

5. Skippers, on reach-to-reach jibes, make sure you go from trimmed to trimmed. In other words, the "Pedrick Jibe."

First Day of Practice

Well, it's blowing 30 and raining - must be time for spring sailing. Today, we will start right in with rules and team racing. I will try to get my Team Racing Combos book to you after spring break.