- Local News for Southern Sailors - January 2003 Next Story
Racing
Starting Preparation
By Lin Robson
As is the case for a number of Southern sailors, summer is often the time for travel to other spots for racing. This past year was no different, as travel plans for us included New York and Portugal to race Flying Dutchman with and against other performance boat enthusiasts.
I always learn something new and have old lessons reinforced when away from home. In thinking about some of the factors contributing to our team's sailing successes and failures in races this summer, a recurring theme emerged. Preparation, long, medium and short term, had more effect on the final result than any other factor.
In most really competitive fleets, the start can be 80 percent of the race, because the top boats are traveling at about the same speed and the leaders make fewer mistakes. These factors make passing lanes more difficult to find. In one-design racing everything is compressed, and sometimes there just is not enough time, speed or good fortune to recover. How do you formulate a strategy that will make success more likely? For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that your boat speed, boat handling, and physical fitness are at least as good as the top group of competitors. (Because of all that good preparation!)
Before a regatta I try to obtain the best weather information available, which yields clues about what significant features might have an effect on changing the wind direction over the course of a day. This information might come from both marine and aviation sources. Even though most one-design championship races do not last more than an hour and a half, knowing what the wind is doing at your altitude can tell you what direction the wind wants to take in the absence of the drag of land, heat from city streets and other factors.
Before the start of a race, getting out to the course without a feeling of being rushed is important. Make sure you have time to acclimate yourself to the sensations of temperature, the motion of the boat, to check in with the committee, and to observe how often and how much the wind direction is changing. Recording the close-hauled heading on either tack over a period of time can let you know at what phase you are in a particular oscillation. This is also important because if you get a heading well beyond the recorded ranges, it indicates a strong probability of a persistent shift. Being on the wrong side of a persistent shift is usually a major stress factor, so be really alert for that.
If the course comes anywhere near land, be aware that in the absence of other factors, the breeze likes to exit the shore at a perpendicular angle. Also, in lighter air the shore is usually where the higher wind velocities are, due to larger differences in the air temperature above the land and water.
With the new starting sequences now in use, you have less time from the prep signal to the start. That means it is even more important not to venture too far away from the starting area. Current effects can be easily detected by looking at the committee boat, the start flag, government marks or crab pots. A local navigational chart study is valuable to determine if the race course is laid out over different depths, which would have an effect on the direction and strength of the current.
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Determining where on the starting line you want to be and what direction you want to go after the start can be determined to a large extent by that previous data collection. Your priorities are to position yourself in such a way that you are acting upon your plan, as opposed to having to react to someone else's. An example would be something like this. You have determined that the wind oscillates about ten degrees every eight minutes or so. The current is not a factor. In your final wind check, which can and should be done within the five-minute sequence if possible, you determine that the wind is at its right-most direction, and has been that way for about five minutes. You then might want to start heading toward the left-hand side of the course, feeling there is a good probability the wind will shift to the left in a short period of time. Others probably will not be blind to the same factors that formed your plan, so often starting at the end that would seem to yield the best position in relation to that upcoming shift might be in a congested area. A position a little more toward the middle is usually less crowded with other competitors and can allow you to start in clear air, with the freedom to tack away into the next shift cleanly. A start down at the flag end in this scenario works only if you are free to tack onto port exactly when you want. A skilled and persistent starboard tacker on your hip can make that difficult, and if he pins you there too long, you can miss that all important first shift.
Because it is sometimes more difficult to judge where you are on the line in the middle, there is often on longer lines a substantial "sag" there. This is particularly true if the black flag or the around-the-ends flag is flying. Once you have determined ranges on the flag or committee boat on the shore, or where the line sight person is standing behind the flag on the committee boat, you can gain an advantage from a middle of the line position. There is also less risk there in case that shift scenario does not play out as expected. When a particular end of a starting line is favored, sometimes only one boat can get the best start, so weigh the risk / reward ratio carefully as you plan.
In several starts at the FD Worlds this summer, the midline sag effect was very pronounced in some of the races. My partner and I were able to utilize a different technique that can be applicable to a lot of boats. Typically in a large fleet at a World championship, starting lines are very crowded, making a good traditional start difficult. Boats are very close to one another, going very slow, inching up to the line with flapping sails and excited hails in different languages going on. For some of the races we would set up above the line with about a minute or so before the gun depending on the wind speed, with clear air and water going around the foils. This allowed a great view of our competitors, and usually with a few seconds to go, a hole would open up allowing us to quickly duck below the line and start at speed and in clear air. This only worked because there was not a one-minute rule in effect and because of that line sag. It resulted in single digit finishes every time we tried it, but it is just one of many techniques you can use with different situations.
Whatever particular technique you employ at the start, with a successful start and first shift management, you should be leading, ahead and to leeward of your group and on the lifted tack toward the next shift. If you are able to achieve that position, to pay attention and sail fast with clear air, it is likely you will finish near the top.
Lin Robson is a multiple National and North American champion, a former yacht captain, and is a sail consultant for Doyle / Ploch Sails in St. Petersburg. |