Bart wrote:
Walt wrote:
Bart wrote:

Describe one rigging change you made to your boat that
made you life easier. [1 pt]

Jib halyard led back to the cockpit with 12-1 purchase. I can fine
tune it myself while hiked out flat, instead of having my crew come
into the boat and adjust it (incorrectly).

Same thing with the vang, but 16-1. Since I tweak the halyard more
often, it wins by a nose.

What kind of boat do you have Walt? Do you have any pictures?

Here are some from about a year ago. Me and 100 of my closest friends.
I'm in there somewhere if you know where to look.

http://www.albacore.ca/2005canadians/pics1.html

//Walt

Walt wrote:
Here are some from about a year ago. Me and 100 of my closest friends.
I'm in there somewhere if you know where to look.

http://www.albacore.ca/2005canadians/pics1.html


Wow that looks like fun, Walt!

There are some fleets of Albacores racing on the Chesapeake,
we've gotten mixed in with them. They look like fun boats if
you don't insist on a spinnaker...

One thing I noticed about the racing pics, in most of them
there are big differences in vang tension. Do you play the
vang off the wind? In most boats, especially in waves, the
vang is a throttle all unto itself.

Fresh BReezes- Doug King

DSK wrote:

Walt wrote:

Here are some from about a year ago. Me and 100 of my closest friends.
I'm in there somewhere if you know where to look.

http://www.albacore.ca/2005canadians/pics1.html

Wow that looks like fun, Walt!

There are some fleets of Albacores racing on the Chesapeake, we've
gotten mixed in with them. They look like fun boats if you don't insist
on a spinnaker...

Well, actually you can put a spinaker on them, it's just not class legal
for racing. I've been thinking about hoisting a kite just for fun one of
these days. There are some old 470 kites hanging around the boathouse
that should work acceptably well.


One thing I noticed about the racing pics, in most of them there are big
differences in vang tension. Do you play the vang off the wind? In most
boats, especially in waves, the vang is a throttle all unto itself.

Yes, optimal speed off the wind is obtained by playing the vang . The
better teams sail with the crew holding the jib sheet in one hand and
the vang in the other. I'm not on one of the better teams, but I do try
to play it somewhat. Although, mostly my strategy in the planing
reaches is along the lines of "hang on tight and try to remember to
breathe."

The 16-vang is de-rigeure these days, and you have to be able to adjust
it without moving in from the rail.

//Walt

Walt wrote:
Well, actually you can put a spinaker on them, it's just not class legal
for racing. I've been thinking about hoisting a kite just for fun one of
these days. There are some old 470 kites hanging around the boathouse
that should work acceptably well.


Yes, if the hoist is in the right ballpark that would be
idea. 470 spin'r's are small & flat, idea for power
reaching. You can put the hardware on strops, that will be
easier to remove & lighter for class racing than adding a
bunch of eyelets where you won't want them later.



Yes, optimal speed off the wind is obtained by playing the vang . The
better teams sail with the crew holding the jib sheet in one hand and
the vang in the other.

It affects the rudder quite a bit too, more upwind &
reaching than downwind (unless you start death-rolling, then
you want to vang in hard and keep the boom tip from digging in).


I'm not on one of the better teams, but I do try
to play it somewhat.

Get alongside one of the hotshots, & do what they do. If you
watch the 2nd batten (from the top) you'll be able to see
what they're doing with the vang out of the corner of your
eye. You should be able to feel why it's right in the helm
and in the seat of the pants.

Keelboat sailors refuse to understand this last bit, they
think looking at a knotmeter makes you go fast (shakes head).


..... Although, mostly my strategy in the planing
reaches is along the lines of "hang on tight and try to remember to
breathe."



Yelling "YEEE-HAA-AAA-AAWWW!!" helps with the breathing.


The 16-vang is de-rigeure these days, and you have to be able to adjust
it without moving in from the rail.


That's a lot of purchase! I had a 12:1 on the Lightning at
the aft controls, 6:1 at the forward (it was 4-ended so the
fwd crew could blow it in a spinnaker broach). If it runs
really smooth.... modern technology is wonderful... then it
gives a very fine range of adjustment.

The problem is that you end up with a loose tail underfoot
which then gets sucked into the Elvstrom bailer.

The really top crews are the guys who, when approaching the
leeward mark, can gybe cleanly & get into the right lane &
get the board down & close up the bailers & pull the outhaul
to "on" & roll the boat into a turn & miss the other boat by
inches & remember main first & and decide whether to tack or
cover as they exit... all smooth & quiet. Whoever said
sailboat racing was boring simply had no clue what all was
going on!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

DSK wrote:

Walt wrote:


Keelboat sailors refuse to understand this last bit, they think looking
at a knotmeter makes you go fast (shakes head).

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...


..... Although, mostly my strategy in the planing reaches is along the
lines of "hang on tight and try to remember to breathe."

Yelling "YEEE-HAA-AAA-AAWWW!!" helps with the breathing.

Huh. So it helps to sail like you're Howard Dean? I'll keep that in
mind next time.

The 16-vang is de-rigeure these days, and you have to be able to
adjust it without moving in from the rail.

That's a lot of purchase!

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...

The problem is that you end up with a loose tail underfoot which then
gets sucked into the Elvstrom bailer.

Solution: continuous controls. The top boats have continuous vang and
halyard control lines. No tails, the slack is taken up with shockcord
and kept out of the way. Mine aren't continuous (yet).


The really top crews are the guys who, when approaching the leeward
mark, can gybe cleanly & get into the right lane & get the board down &
close up the bailers & pull the outhaul to "on" & roll the boat into a
turn & miss the other boat by inches & remember main first & and decide
whether to tack or cover as they exit... all smooth & quiet. Whoever
said sailboat racing was boring simply had no clue what all was going on!

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.

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

//Walt
//
//Small boats and cold water - no better way to learn.

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

DSK wrote:
Walt wrote:

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.

It depends on the boom. Yes, the Laser boom bends at higher forces. So
does mine, but I've got an older Proctor boom. The newer SuperSpar
booms don't bend nearly as much. The mast on the other hand...but
that's the point, isn't it?

But what you say is mostly correct. Ease of adjustment and fine tuning
is a bigger part than sheer gorrilla-osity. Especially with the halyard
tension, which I have not found to improve things with increased tension
after a certain point.



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.

Yes, there are some RC that set a cruelly short line, but I think you
exaggerate with the total beam -1 figure . It's not musical chairs, you
know.


For instance, I was RC for the Laser districts this spring. We set a
reasonably generous line, and it wasn't even really blowing. This was
at the direction of the poobah District important-sounding title guy.
And at the intercollegiate races we host at our club we shoot for a 1.5
ratio for the starting line. Sometimes we'll deliberately set a too
short line for practice, but the norm is to allow enough room for the
entire fleet to be on the line at once. (and of course they aren't -
second and third row seats abound)

BTW, I think there's always a gap in the line somewhere, bucause with
90% of the fleet camped out with a minute to go nobody can see the
entire thing. Except for the hotshot coming down the line on port...


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.

And the other non-blue moon days you're stuffed up with a dozen other
boats trying to win the end. No thanks.

That good open slot 1/3 of the way down is pretty attractive.
Personally, I'll gladly give up a boat length or two for clean air.

//Walt