Sailing Notes-All about Pressure
Hi We sailed last night, Tuesday for the first time this season. It was a great night and only four of us sailed. I believe the threatening weather and the relatively early start of the year threw off a lot of sailors… I will make some notes here that I feel may be of value, especially to those who are new or working there way up their way up the fleet.
Yesterday was shifty from the north. In general, there is a saying, “if you are sailing somewhere that looks like a beach, sail to the beach.” Also at WP, if its out of the north (wind coming off the shore) sail to the shore. And is it was dying, learn from the light air days and SAIL FOR PRESSURE. The more wind one has, especially in a light day, can mean several boat lengths gained in a matter of seconds.
Jim Ryan, Race Officer and Judge, has a rule of thumb for dinghy starts- “when the sounds get closer, get closer to the line.” For a sunfish, this means you might want to be near the line at 30 seconds and trimming in and sailing by 10 or seven seconds. If you wait until the “gun”, meaning 0 seconds, to trim in and get going you WILL be rolled (passed) and spit out the back… and the back of the fleet has BAD AIR.
When Reaching, keep your air clear, and make sure you defend your lead at the end of the race…. what I am saying, is that on a reach most people follow and don’t gain or lose too much, UNLESS you can steal someones air, then the one who got robbed falls behind due to bad air. But early on in the race you may not want to get involved with a boat on boat fight… HOWEVER, at the end you have to protect you lead (as long as you don’t let several others pass you on another part of the race course.) Rule of thumb: When in front of someone (especially in the last leg) keep in front or in between the boat you are beating and the finish line.
PAY ATTENTION: it was shifty, now going up wind, you can see the sail luff dramatically when you get “headed”… however on a reach or downwind, it’s harder to see the shifts… but you must KEEP your sail PRESSURED up… in other words, sail like you are flying a kite… if the kite loses air, you’ll feel less pressure in the main sheet and at this point you will be slower than someone who has pressure. SUNFISH TIP, some people like to hold the sheet from in front of the block, they may get a better feel for the pressure.
Never give up… keep in the race, especially when it gets shifty. This weekend I was Match Racing at the Dinghy Shop in Vanguard 15s… Marguarite Koehler was kicking our butts (I was sailing with Eileen Korinek) and in a match race it’s WIN or LOSE… so when we found ourselves about 100 yards in back of them, and all they had to do was round a leeward mark, it was all over…. EXCEPT they hit the beach with their centerboard and completely stopped! So we made a nice smooth rounding, laughed ( we did the same thing in an earlier flight) and won that race… maybe the PRESSURE of us not giving up forced them to make that mistake?
One last thought; make sure you rig your boat right… everyone who has sailed a Fish has put the rudder assembly on over the traveler and don’t find out until the main sheet is all tangled up and you cant steer the boat… so take your time, set the boat up right on shore so you don’t feel the pressure of haveing to re-rig your boat on teh water with those whistles getting closer and closer…
See you on the water…