Walt wrote:
I've done some big boat racing, and the process of tweak something -
look at the gps, tweak it again, look at the gps is somehow unsatisfying...


It's also why the hotshot dinghy racers usually clean
everyone's clock in the big boats.




The new Laser vang is 15 to 1. More and more classes are understanding
the value of a powerful vang. Of course, all that force can break the
gooseneck if you forget to ease it when you bear off...


IMHO most of that purchase is wasted on bending the boom,
it's real benefit is that you can set the vang tension
without wrestling for it and you get a very fine adjustment
increments.




The top boats come roaring down the starting line planing on a port tack
with 40 seconds to go before the start, find themselves a gap, roll tack
the boat to a dead stop inches to leeward of the next boat, and then
foot off into the gap to accelerate into the front row. It's quite the
sight.


Heh heh the starting line is too long, or there are too many
people in the class settling for a second-row start. In
Laser & Lightning & J-24 & intercollegiate starts, the line
length is the total beam of all boats in the start - 1. It's
better when the guys who think they're hot stuff are
fighting for the favored end, then you can get a good open
slot 1/3 of the way down the line. Although I hate giving up
completely on the favored end, once in a blue moon you can
pull off one of those
'win-the-whole-race-in-the-first-5-seconds' starts that are
so memorable.



The good teams are really "one" with the boat. It's like they're
wearing it, rather than riding in it.


Yep. Plus it's really really fun. All it costs is time in
the boat plus some deliberate testing of limits.

DSK