Had my first races for BISC's (my home club) season on sunday. Was a beautiful day and a stark contrast to saturday, which was rainy and 30+ knots on the bay, being sunny, 33C, and unfortunately almost no wind. The first race at 11 am resulted in all boats going backwards when the starting hooter was sounded, and as such was abandoned. A slight sea breeze developed and a second race went underway at about 2pm, with winds around 5 knots with the odd 7-8 knot gust, and moderate tides.
Having rarely raced in this kind of weather (most of the time i race its 10-20 knots due to sea breezes), i found i had a lot of trouble with my sail trim in these conditions, not to mention im a heavy crew (95 kg), which really doesnt help in these conditions. Further more, this was the first time id used my spinnaker in anything under 8 knots of wind.
Looking back on my performance (a very experienced maricat sailor/club champion etc, kept up with me upwind, a big shock, i normally blast away from him, and even more shockingly, kept up with me downwind, he ran square, when i was under kite!!), i believe i was for most of the day chocking my main, both up and downwind, and running far too high downwind with my kite.
Fortunately, my girlfriend and her dad were out on a little hire tinny to get photos of the racing for the club, and as such has given me some good photos to review my boat and sail trim settings, which i will post here to receive advice/feedback on.
Ill start with upwind.
Upwind, in light conditions, i find my self having to point almost directly into the wind in order to get the leeward telltales to fly, or ease the traveller out considerably.
I find that when i try and ease main sheet a little, i slow down, so how do i remedy this, i know im over sheeted and choking the main, but when i ease the main sheet i seem to go slower. is it that i dont have enough twist in the light stuff? How much should i let the main sheet off? Should i let the main off alot and keep the traveller centered to increase twist? I know some people say in the very light stuff u actually have to pull downhaul etc on harder, but at what point do u do this? whats the difference between light (no downhaul) and very light (downhaul on)?
Upwind photos:
Note: When viewing the photos, when you first go to the links below, you can click on the photo it self, and the photo will be reloaded and will allow u to zoom in to better see things like traveller position, telltales etc.http://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1282rc3.jpg http://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1281hu8.jpg http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1283ex7.jpg Downwind, i found i could get good speed with the spinnaker, just not in the right direction. In fact, i at one stage, when the wind was very light, must have been 2-3kts, on an upwind reach, i hoisted the spinnaker, and had better upwind speed than one of the nacra 5.8s, i must have been about 50-60 degrees off the true wind, with the apparent wind at about 35-40. However i found it very difficult to go on a decent downwind angle, i tried heading up to build speed and then bearing away, but in order to get speed i almost had to head up to an upwind angle and was then only able to bear away to about 110-120 off the true wind, so in essence, my downwind runs consisted of lots of fast reaches, but i must have covered a huge distance, as when i got to the bottom mark, id find that i hadnt increased my lead on the maricat who just laid on his tramp and ran square at a very leisurely pace downwind .... reminded me of the turtle and the hare, quite embarrassing actually.
After talking to one of the nacra 5.8 sailors, who didnt run their kites on the day, i spoke to him of my sail settings, and what i was focusing on in terms of sail trim. From everything i had heard from people about spinnakers, was that u had to have the traveller centered or close to it, and the mainsheet on fairly tight to not allow backwinding on the main, and also to stop the mast from bending. What i found was that in order to get the leeward telltales on the main flowing, i had to pull the spinnaker sheet on moderately to strongly, but then the spinnaker leeward telltale would stall, so i would head up, to get both the spinnaker and the main leeward and windward telltales flowing, this gave great speed, but i was essentially then just going back and forth across the course, and not making much ground towards to leeward mark. So explaining this to the nacra sailor, and asking him about his settings, he told me he doesnt even look at the leeward spinnaker telltale, and that as long as it has shape, and the windward is flowing (air is coming into the spinnaker) all he focuses on is his jib and mainsail telltales, and that in the light stuff he lets his traveller out to the footstrap and has his main let off considerably, and downhaul off completely. So my question is, what is usually the optimal settings for main sheet, traveller, downhaul, outhaul, mast rotation, spinnaker sheet and spinnaker halyard (luff tension) settings, in very light, light, moderate and strong winds. Also i am wondering if anyone can give a good explanation of how spinnaker luff tension affects the spinnaker. From what ive read from a Singapore catamaran clubs site, when interviewing greg goodall about the viper spinnakers, greg said that increased luff tension (pole kept low and halyard pulled on tight) actually causes the spinnaker to curve more and take more shape, and that easing the luff tension causes the spinnaker to get flattened? This almost seems backwards to me logically, so im wondering if anyone can give me a different explanation.
Downwind/Spinnaker Photos:
http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1191sp1.jpg http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1220sm8.jpg http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1224iv3.jpg http://img22.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1226ft8.jpg http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1231ty4.jpg http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1233xb6.jpg http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1240fc6.jpg http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1245xh1.jpg http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1193gb6.jpg http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1285yq9.jpg http://img18.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1287pz9.jpg Accidentally dropped the tiller extension in this photo, which touched the water and then got dragged right back to the rudder housing, did this a while back in much much stronger winds going much much faster, which is why my tiller extension is so bent, the drag from the water bent the tiller extension around the tiller bar and rudder housing. Havent been too keen to try and bend it back too much (it bent almost into a half circle when it happened) for fear of creasing the metal and either breaking it then and there, of having it break out on the water.
Anyway, any advice and comments on the photos and what i can do to improve my sailing is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Michael.
