Once more or less managed to learn the apparent wind sailing downwind with a chute (in my case with a Tiger) I have been thinking about downwind tactics. What does one have to take care of, especially in relation to other boats?

Say we have steady wind and no shifts, what do you have in mind when going downwind towards the gate?

Lesson learned: Pay close attention to boats on port from waaaay out that might have overlap at the gate - you owe them room at the right-hand mark, even though you are on starboard. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> Plan for it instead of realizing it at the last possible second (two-boatlength circle) and your rounding will be more tactical.

Dont worry about where the gate is until the latter part of the leg, the most mportant thing is to beat the boats around you.

If you are with another boat, either attacking or defending, you need to gybe just BEFORE he does.
How you are supposed to know when the other guy is going to gybe is another story - mind reading?

Paul

Ok, I suppose its nice to have room at the gate/mark, so it is generally better to come in on starboard to the left mark or on port to the right when there is lot of traffic. This decision probably is made by the moment when it is clear which mark is more windward, i.e. relatively close to the gate.

Paul, what is the advantage of gybing before? Without spi it is generally a good idea to be quite close to the other boat if you are attacking as you get a header from the winds deviated by the defender. If you tack before there is more space between the boats.

As for starboard/port encounters, due to the varying course and high velocity of both boats, it is very difficult to estimate if you on port will be able to pass the bow of a boat on starboard. Do you just wait for the last moment and then tack to starboard?

million dollar question....

If you gybe before someone they have to sail past you by either going higher and faster or lower and (maybe) faster. Neither is easy.

BUT

most people will sail off on STBD after the windward mark and so when you gybe, you are gybing back into thier dirty air. But gybe too late and people will have gybed on top of you, again dirty air.

The trick is to spot a gap and gybe into free air.

In an ideal world, you round windward mark 200 yards ahead, sail on for 200 yds (so next boat is at the windward mark) and then gybe, hopefully at this point, you have enough time to drive downhill and have fairly clean air.

Down hill pressure and clean wind are the winners. Yes, a header also helps, but depending on the boat you sail, a couple more kts of wind is better than 5 degrees of header down wind.

John,

This reminded me of crowded gate rounding at last year's OCR. We were approaching on S planning to round the right-hand gate mark. A large nubmer of boats (~30) were coming down on port, at least 50% looking to head to the left hand gate.

It's a tricky situation...how much room do you give if you don't know which mark the port tacker wants to take? If you give plenty for him to take the left mark, and then he takes the right, you're screwed. Gotta really watch the 2-BL circle border to your mark and know the traffic prediction all the way through.

We did an early douse in anticipation of the need for quick manouvering. Glad we did this, the extra visibilty sure helped. As we picked our way through the train...all port boats gybing to round the right hand mark had to swing wide to round...creating an ever growing pinwheel effect. Since we came in on S and without the spinny up, we could make a very tight tactical rounding...and passed at least 5 other boats on the pinwheel.

When possible we can get a pretty good determination if the crossing boat will pass ahead, behind or through us by watch how the other boat is moving relative to the background/horizon. If it looks like it's moving forward against the backdrop, it will pass ahead. Backwards means we will pass ahead. Little or no motion against backdrop means watch out, who's got rights and does he see us?!

Normally, we can see this develop from a long way out with this technique...so we can take small actions earlier to reduce negative effects on our position.

Nice move, Mike - and that illustrates the point. I start thinking about the gate about halfway down the leg - you're probably already set on which side of the course is favoured, so you have a good idea which side of the gate you need to get there.

As far as port-tackers headed to the left gate, you owe them nothing when you're on starboard headed for the right... unless the RC screwed up and overlapped the two-boat-length circles for the marks. If you hail "startboard" and the reply is "room," you can bet they're headed to the right side with you. If you give them room and they continue on to the left mark, then they fouled you and you should let them know it. If it is a huge pack of boats on port, I think you can give up on the right side, gybe (giving loud notice to anyone on your hip) and claim inside rights on the left. Odds are, anyone headed left really doesn't want you to do that - if they're smart, they'll avoid you and continue on their merry way. Sometimes, though, if the crowd is big enough, you might just have to accept that it is faster to avoid and get around the other mark, then get back to your game plan.

So, to sum up my personal challenge based on Claus's question, I try to start thinking about my gate situation loooong before I get there. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

The absolute best way to avoid this kind of situation is to be in the lead at that point. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Fighting for the favored side of a crowded gate rounding is usually less beneficial than choosing the easiest side when traffic is concerned.

It never ceases to amaze me how much I can learn by reading this forum (or how much more I need to learn).

Tornado, we have always used a similar method but by measuring the angle of the other boat with our course. However, our method only works for straight course (i.e. non spin boats), whilst yours works in both cases, if the background is far enough. Thanks for the hint!

It never ceases to amaze me over the years just how many sailors, even experienced racers, have not figured out this technique. My Dad must have taught me this when I was kid, since I don't recall ever not knowing it.

Another tip from my Dad that seems to be a shocker to others...how to best hand hold a loaded line:

To end up holding with the right hand, grab line with the left to take up slack. Now lift the right hand up under the taught line so that the line runs across the back of your wrist. Make a sort of karate chop motion to the right side & curl your right fingers around the top & under the line to grip it. You should now have the line firmly gripped & tightly held by your right hand using only four fingers...the thumb is free. The lazy side of the line is draped OVER TOP of your right wrist & still held in your left hand. Loop the lazy end UNDER your righthand thumb, passing it up between thumb & knuckle of the index finger.

This is much easier to do than to describe!

The result is that the load of the line is distributed across the back of your hand, just below the wrist. This does not create the crushing force that simply wrapping a loop around the hand does. Plus, you will discover it is extremely easy/quick to ease or dump the line just by opening your hand.

Enjoy the many hand-cramp free days ahead :-)

This has been a Public Service Announcement brought to you by Mike.

Yeah uhhh, we're cat sailors here...got a picture? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I'll see what I can do tonight...Sorry 'bout that ;-)

Like this, Mike?

I usually do this when buoy-racing...

That's it!

The second shot looks like a hand crusher to me. Might be harder to let loose in an emergency.

Did you just take these or did you have them laying about?

Saved me some time tonight!

Oh, nice callous free hands by the way <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ever consider being a hand model like George C. on Seinfeld? Watch out for errant clothes irons!