Monday, November 21, 2005

Only 47

The Laser racing on Sunday once again was simply superb. Sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. About 55 degrees. And a nice solid breeze from the southwest that had us hiking hard upwind and planing on the reaches. 47 sailors with big smiles.

The word "frostbiting" conjures up images of snow and ice and miserably cold weather. But this season (so far) has been absolutely magnificent. Gorgeous sunny fall days and perfect sailing winds.

And did I mention? "Only" 47 boats this week. Down from the 50+ fleets of the last few weeks. Many classes don't attract that many boats for their national championships.

This is the fourth week I've raced this fall and, at last, it feels like I'm getting back in the groove. Not that my results would reflect that. (Yet).

in a large fleet like this on short courses requires some special skills. It seems to me that there is a huge premium on being able to "read the fleet". Wherever you start on the line at some point you have to get across to the right side of the course. Getting trapped out on, or even above, the port tack layline is not a good recipe for success as you are likely to approach the first mark to face a wall of starboard tackers that you can't get through. Unless of course you are lucky enough to catch a nice lefty shift and get there first. But that's a low percentage play.

Problem is that there always seem to be several boats to weather of you that you won't be able to cross when you tack. So you have to decide whether it is worth ducking them. And you don't want to follow immediately behind the boats to the left of you that are deciding to cross the course as you'll then be in their bad air.

So there's this need to be able to divine what the boats around you are going to do and to decide when to tack across to the right at a time when you will have a clear lane that will get you close to the starboard tack layline without having to take too many transoms and without being pin-balled around the course by starboard tackers.

Then there's that all important approach to the starboard tack layline. Too close to the mark and you'll end up ducking too many boats. Too far away and you can only lose out on headers or lifts. Again a matter of "reading the fleet" and developing a good sense of when and where to make your final approach.

After 3 weeks of racing in this fleet I'm starting to get a better feel for all this and am not screwing up quite so badly as I was earlier in the season.

Downwind the waves weren't quite as good as last week. Not at all easy to get much of a ride. So I concentrated on getting out to one side or other of the fleet and was occasionally able to gain a few places on the runs. Which is definitely progress for me because, being on the heavy end of the weight range for Laser sailors, I always felt at a disadvantage to the lighter sailors off the wind.

The race committee gave us an interesting mix of courses. Some windward-leeward one lap races; one windward-leeward two laps; a triangle; a Harry Anderson; and a triangle/ windward-leeward for the last race.

I particularly enjoyed those two lap races. A chance to stretch my legs on a long beat and exploit my height and weight. Those kids may have the edge on me downwind but I can grind most of 'em down upwind. Ha!

The day was not without incident.....

But I'll write some separate posts about my apparent ability to blow the first race in a unique way each week; a curious rules incident that left me in the wrong through the other guy's stupidity; and my discovery after 20+ years of Lasering of how one little piece of equipment can make a huge difference.

Watch this space.

5 comments:

EVK4 said...

Nice teaser. Same Laser channel. Same Laser time.

Litoralis said...

"So there's this need to be able to divine what the boats around you are going to do and to decide when to tack across to the right at a time when you will have a clear lane that will get you close to the starboard tack layline without having to take too many transoms and without being pin-balled around the course by starboard tackers."

I was having the same problem in Star boats this summer...our fleets are usually much smaller but the margin for error is also smaller. There is usually a very short window of opportunity to decide when to get back across in a clear lane. When I am driving the boat I feel like I can make this call fairly well. But in a Star, where I am frequently hanging over the side as a crew, I can't see the course very well and any decision I do make is delayed by my skipper's response time and any discussion involved.
Even when we made it to the layline in what seemed like a good position, we often found ourselves falling into the dirty air of the boats ahead of us and then being crossed in turn by boats that had come to the layline late.

Anonymous said...

I'm ready for the "unique way of blowing the first race each week" post!

Carol Anne said...

In the so-called "frostbite" races in the desert, "only 47" would refer to the temperature and denote an unusually cold day.

We typically get somewhere around 10 boats, of all shapes and sizes, and there is a strong preference for upwind-downwind races. (Someone once commented to the racing chair, "What, your boat doesn't reach well?")

Just out of curiosity, as a relative newcomer to sailing and someone almost totally ignorant about how small boats work, and as a longtime fan of "Night Court," I'd like to know, what's a "Harry Anderson" course? Is it one of those with the complicated combinations of triangles and upwind-downwind?

Anonymous said...

Well so far our frostbite series has seen "gorgeous sunny fall days and perfect sailing winds"- and on some days this has attracted more sailors than we usually get in the normal racing. However this sunday we had our first taste of proper frostbite weather. It was very cold, it had been down to -5C overnight and was very icy. Due to this high pressure there was no wind and the lake was like a mirror- there were no wind ripples anywhere on it, which is unusual for our lake as there's usually some. This meant we did not sail. Guess whats forecast for the end of the week/ weekend... heavy snow showers- horray, i've never sailed in snow before!

Claire (England)

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