Words of Wisdom

Words of Wisdom – 11-20-05 - Steve Kirkpatrick

Jack McVicker made a comment to me at the AC after sailing on Sunday that I thought was worth sharing with the fleet. He said:

“Last week I had the best (frostbiting) day of my life. It was amazing; I never got tangled up with anyone and seemed to avoid situations where congestion slowed me down. Today, it was quite the opposite; I had a rough day as I found myself locked up in tough situations that took a while to get out of, while everyone else sailed off. It seems the guys who finish at the top always seem to be able to avoid the problem situations and keep moving.”

Jack’s comments hit the nail on the head. Avoiding congestion helps you get around the course more quickly.

The trick is how to do it. Since most of the congestion occurs at the start, on the first beat and at the top mark these are the areas on which I will focus.

As Mark noted last week, starting away from the ends is one way to avoid congestion. In order to have a good mid-line start, you need to know where the line is. This will keep you from being “sagged back” or OCS. The two best starters in our fleet, Ed Adams and Scott Ferguson, routinely check and re-check their line sight before every start to know where the line is. This gives them the confidence to start anywhere on the line, including the middle. They are confident in their acceleration and deceleration techniques and can hold a spot well enough to start wherever they want. Having the ability to do this is a powerful arrow to have in your quiver.

Once off the line, the game becomes speed, lane management and staying in phase. A few times on Sunday I lost my lane after about 100 yards of sailing. Fortunately when I looked over my shoulder there were convenient ways to tack on to port into an open lane. This allowed me to get out of disturbed air and start working the shifts in clear air. In a few instances I even intentionally slowed down slightly to facilitate an easy tack and duck maneuver. Thankfully when I did this the breeze seemed to cooperate by going further right, rewarding the small bit of leverage I had put between myself and the rest of the fleet.

When you finally get clear of congestion, you have the flexibility to get on the tack pointed closest to the mark and sail to the puffs / avoid the lulls. Sunday was interesting as the shifts and velocity changes were both very dramatic. In these conditions, I think it is really important to keep your boat set up more for the lulls than the puffs and to keep your eyes out of the boat to ensure that you are in the maximum pressure. Sailing into holes can be devastating and should be avoided like the plague.

As the beats are so short in frostbiting, it is imperative to assess the likely situation at the top mark. In general it seems that conservatism and good boat handling pay big dividends at the weather mark. You need to be confident in your ability to slam a clean tack in below someone on the starboard layline, or duck and then tack without t-boning anyone. In general I prefer to duck a boat or two and try to grind them out on the run to spinning a 360.

Once around the top mark things get a lot easier in terms of traffic avoidance. As such, I try to find a lane and focus on speed. The only speed observation I have on the runs is to be cognizant of the direction of
flow on your sail. If you are by the lee and the flow is from leech to luff, it seems fast to ease your vang to twist the upper leech. Mark Bear goes really fast downwind by doing this well. When you are reaching up a
bit from a run and the flow is from luff to leech it seems fast to bend the mast a bit with the vang, this will take some depth out of the luff and tighten the leech which seems faster to me.

That’s all. Have a great Thanksgiving.