Last weekend we had a regatta in very light wind (4 to 6 knots).

In the fleet we were sailing we could keep our normal position in the fleet as with more wind, on the downwind however we were lost places, while in more wind this doesnt happen.

Would this entirly be my skills or do F18 have an advantage in these very light conditions? Oh yeah, our spin is 3 years old, the spin on the F18 new.

Anyone having a Landy spin of 2007 and how much tension do you have on the leech?

Gill

I'm not an expert, but here are a couple of things that I have been told/coached on....


1. In really light winds like your talking about, don't be afraid of letting out on the main to get the leeward tell tales flowing. If it's really light, you might want to drop the traveler down a few inches-less than six, but not centered. The mast isn't going to break in those winds with the spin up.

2. This takes a lot of coordination between you and your crew, as your are heating the boat up, as the crew feels the spin sheet pull, head back down. The crew will tell you when this happens. A lot of times, which I have a problem of doing when the winds are light, people tend to try to head up too much, there for going too high. If you have ratcheting blocks, in those conditions, you might want them to be free. This way, the crew can feel the pull of the spinn better.

Again, things I need to work on also, but I try to do these things and they seem to help.


Mike

Of course we can blame the equipment
The usual weight management would also apply. Move forward and leeward to get the transoms out. As said, let the main twist. Plan on sailing mild not wild. Only heat it up for the speed boost.

Quite noticiable on Sunday at Datchet with two equal boats, same spinnaker and sails, heading for the mark in about 5knots of wind, both Dave and I started at the same point almost together, he went almost straight to the mark, I went slightly more tradional, Dave won fairly easily.

In addition to the above you might want to let out your spi sheet some more to sail deeper, depending on how you usually sheet and sail of course. Build virtual wind as described, but try to carry it with you as well as you can with the spi sheeted out a bit more than usual. You can also try building virtual wind and as you fall off you sheet the spi a bit out.

Downwind sailing is an art and developing the feel for it, both in strong and weak winds takes time and hard work. Basic concept is always to build virtual wind and carry it with you as you fall back to your best course. No sailing on one hull in these conditions!

I find I'm normally quicker than my local F18's downwind especially in lighter winds and normally up to around 15mph.
If I'm defending my position I tend to sail lower than them but maintain the same speed as them and if I'm attacking I sail at the same angle as them and due to the differing weights go faster.
If the wind is so light I can't lift a hull then I let the traveller down the track up to 300mm from the centre. Ease the mainsheet just enough to open the leech and steer 50%to the spi luff and 50% for optimum VMG.
A little tip I've used in the past especially for longer courses is to centre the rudders and sit on the tiller, play the spi sheet to keep the luff tell tales flying and in my case sailing solo you find yourself doing very long 'S' curves down the course. Don't attempt this if you think there is enough wind to fly a hull! It's better to steer and sheet to keep the hull flying all the time and at all cost.
Going back to your question I don't think F18's have an advantage, both you and kathleen on your Blade are only a couple kgs more than F18 with no one on it, yea they have more sail area but they need it just to move. Sometimes this is an issue as once they are moving in the lighter winds they certainly don't stop as quick due to their inertia, where as us light boats tend to both accelerate and slow down quicker.
Maybe you just need a more positive attitude when competing against F18's in those types of conditions, once you start to overtake one or two or prevent them from overtaking you I think you'll find everything will change.

In those conditions I ease the main untill the leeach tell tales are flowing. The traveller is a bit out as Mark says but the main is not as loose as you would do on a monohull.

I thought easing the main too much would cause that the spinnaker has less effect as there is a lot of dirty air coming from the main.

Kathleen sits on the leeward hull almost at the front beam, I'm on the windward one ofcourse at the front beam.
This makes it very difficult however to play the main, so in lighter wind I usually leave it in the same position on one tack.

Boards (high aspect) are up as they are for heavy winds (halfway, a little higher then the rudders). Only in moderate winds pull them not that high to generate the lift.

Kathleen trims the spin so the front is on the edge of collapsing.

Anyone changing the tension of the front of the spin for lighter versus stronger wind? (easy the halyard a bit or setting the spin pole a litter higher)?

Concerning the steering I'm sure I can improve to make the S curves longer, which should keep more speed in the boat.

Well, I hope we still have some nice sunny light wind days... :-) to practice...

Hi Gill,

In up to 8 knots we're about as fast as an average F18 crew.
Doing almost the same as what you are doing, but on my boat I do need to rotate the mast manually to about 80 degrees. If i don't put my foot against the rotator or boom the mast will rotate back to about 60 degrees and that's not fast.

Geert

Geert,

why does your mast rotate back? High shroud tension?

Hi Rolf,

Don't think my shroud tension is higher then average for a F16 boat. But it's not just this Blade, All my previous boat had this tendency. Probably a side effect from having the mainsheet connected to the sail in stead of to the boom. So there is not enough boom pressure to rotate the mast enough.
And maybe a bit too much friction in the mast rotator lines/blocks. So when meeting a wave, the mast shakes and rotates in a bit and doesn't rotate back.
(only in light conditions)

Geert

Great thread, thanks guys!

Dave

Geert,

surely you have some outhaul on? Or is the foot of your main so short that it is just above the aft beam?

Here's a photo of Geert under spi but it is fairly windy. The mainsheet appears to have a near vertical angle so is having a neutral effect on the mast rotation. I'd prefer to have the main sheet angled to promote some mast rotation.

Ok, thanks Mark. Only solution I can see then would be to actually increase friction betwen the mastfoot and the maststep, which leads to other fun situations

Looks highly rotated to me. Near 90 degree judging by the diamond wires.

Looks like decent wind as well, and this problem only comes in weak winds me thinks.

In light air, if I have a crew, the crew goes forward and to the low side to trim the spin AND holds on to the mast rotator bar to keep the mast rotated rather than flopping around with every wave. When sailing alone, I usualy slide my front leg up to the rotator bar and hold it out with my foot. Some A cats have rotator lines to pull the mast over, but you have to remember to release it before you gybe.

Many years ago I played around with the take off point for the mainsheet. At one stage back in the 80s I even had it so it was adjustable on the water.

Moving it further aft of the traveller helps induce mast rotation in light air but makes good controllable leach tension a little more difficult. This is especially so in heavy air because a component of the force applied by the mainsheet is trying to push the mast forward. To make things worse in heavy air the mast has the rotation reduced which increases distance the take off point is behind the traveller and therefore the component of force pushing on the mast and as the distance from the sail to the traveller shortens the force on the mast increase further because of the changing angle of the mainsheet.

At one stage I made up a shock cord setup that automatically rotated the mast once the rotation limiter was eased and this seemed to work quite well and required no intervention at all once the boat was rigged.
That way I could rig the boat with the take off point where I needed it for trimming the main because the shock cord took care of inducing rotation.

While is is fun to play around. It is faster to just go sailing.

Can you describe or sketch the shock cord arrangement to induce rotation?
Thanks!

Dave

Next time, try leaving the boards all the way down. they will develop a lot of lift and get you up on one hull earlier. the wetted surface of a hull is nothing compared with a dagger board.

Its actually documented in the capricorn tuning manual.