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4 REVIEWED Amati’s New – Bedford Whaler j/ ; re f Vd / j f ey | The R.N.L.I.’s Latest Lifeboat CONQUEST Seiner /Trawler Drawing UM in 70 g n i c a R Match sn’t it amazing how words written in all good faith have this inevitable habit of back firing on the writer. I don’t mind this happening once because I’m only human, but it has happened to me twice on different subjects in two consecutive race meetings. Let me explain: 6 Metre Sail Plans Bill Green on 6 Metre sail plans, and start of season events In an article I wrote some time ago for their low draft, usually about Yins, 6’s Marine Modelling in which I was have very stable hull forms and can carry promoting the 6 metre class I said that the 10 years sailing the class in which I had a normal sail area even in a decent blow and remain controllable. So it is logical to exploit the best performance by having the right “engine” for the conditions, hence the only used 2nd suit once, and that was for two top suits. potential owner really only needed one suit of sails. This was based on the thick end of just two boards in one race. A fair statement to make you’d think, but I forgot about divine intervention. As you are well aware the class in its radio form is now established and three out of the last four Match Race events have been sailed in what can only be described as The skinny main is probably something quite foreign, the logic is again quite simple. The normal measured area of a current 6 is in the range of 1050-1150 sq ins, this is an actual area of about 1300 or more sq ins, so a logical form of reduction is to leave the ‘A’ and ‘B’ measurements ee a triangle. This achieves the previous points but at the same time dramatically lowers the centre of effort of the sail making it easier to handle. What is more to the point is that the hull form is sufficiently stable enough to carry. it even in a very reasonable blow; 2nd and 3rd suit are really only used when desperation is setting in. The normal wind speed change points are 0-5mph: light suit, 5-10mph: normal top, 10-15 mph skinny main, 15-20mph: 2nd suit, 20mph onwards 3rd suit. These figures quoted are a generality because different designs and skippers have their own little foibles but they will do as a starter. I hope that has clarified the points that I previously made but I still maintain that a normal top suit will cater for the vast majority of the sorts of conditions that we sail in this country. Now for the second faux pas! This is on the subject of boat maintenance during the close season, a subject on which I waxed lyrical about a couple of years ago. Imagine my embarrassment when I turned up at the “A” Team National and the boat that I was sailing suffered all sorts of gear failures because quite simply I had not touched the boat for the best part of two ‘ years and I expected it to be in pristine condition for a major event. I know we might have one or two kind fairies in the bottom of Bournvilles’ boat house, but non of them had laid a paw on my boat in two Stan Smith and Olly (Peter) Salt, skipper and mate of Taffy for the Bournville ‘C’ team. Do they remind you of a famous pair? Insert is Red Dwarf leading Dolpin around the windward ‘Frog’ at Dovecote during Race 2 of the Match Race Series. trifle drafty conditions. The last suit that the same and reduce the allowed roach anybody needed to be in has been top. So please let me revise my thoughts. If vane practise is followed by the radio fleet then the norm is a light weight full cut light airs suit, followed by a normal top from 4in to 2in. By doing this alone you have removed about 120 sq ins of sail, equivalent to a 10% reduction in sail area years and removed some of the Fleetwood clag. I will not elucidate further except to pass on to you fundamental words of wisdom known as Roberts Philosophy or the “Six P’s’: Proper Preparation Prevents p*** Poor Performance. This is now ever dear to my heart, I am humbled. suit, then the next is a skinny flat cut and you have increased the aspect ratio of the sail, making it more efficient. There is an alternative view point on the skinny main with the normal jib, and then 2nd main, which is to keep the foot equal to the Turner Rose Bowl, 36r Bournville, 7 April 1991 and third suits. This is a strange concept ‘B’ measurement ie: very flat cut, and from This event normally has a good turn out for your average radio sailor but quite logical when you know the class. In spite of the normal lower batten point to go but for some strange reason this year only straight to the head board forming a five turned out to play. The conditions SEPTEMBER 1991 19 R6m MATCH RACE SERIES 1991 RACE 2 DOVECOTE 6 APRIL 1991 SCORE SHEET Entrant BOARD 1 BOARD 2 Score M Kemp B Corley 2S D Trippe gP R Neeve 10P | R Ferraday 1S R Utley 4p 2S D Mann 8S M Ewart 7S R Palmer 2P P Knowles 10S{ 0 G Williams oP W Green SP W Akers J Daines | BOARD 3 Score gp 1 8P 4p 1 oS oS 10S | 1 1 BOARD 5 Score 0 | 10P] BOARD 6 Score 1 4p 1S 1 9S 10S | 7P 6S 1 BOARD 7 Score 2P 4 oP 1 1 6P 1 3S 4S 1 oP 0 8S 0 gp 6S 0 7P 1 10P 7S 10P | 1 oF 1 8S 4S 1P 1 9S 0 0 10S | 0 7P 6P JS iS tS oP 9S 8P 4S 1 1 2P 1S 10P | 0 1° 0 | 2 1 te 0 10S 3S 6P 1 1S 9S 1 2P 0 { oS 3S 1 _|BOARD 10 Score 4S | 9S 1P 1 4p oS 8P | 6P 1 3S 1 1 SP | 0 1S 0 2P 1 1 6S 0 7P 4p SP 4p 0 oS 8P 7P | 6S JS 4S sou 28 0 Of 28 ze} SP | 0 0 BP eG 0 0 1P | O | 7S | O | 10P oP 1 isa 0 fhe 1 {Board 1 Score 1 4S 9S |BOARD 11 Score 6P 10P is 0 BOARD 9 Score 1 9S 1P le BOARD 8 Score 4S 0 6P BOARD 4 Score 10S 25 | 0 4P} 0 | SS] 1 0 6S 0 gp 0 | 10S | 0 Scoring:— 7S 1pt win, 0 6P 3S 0 2P 0 1S Opt loss were utterly unusual for Bournville, an Easterly ad straight down the lake and ; eieg! nicoe blowing seven bells. At one stage Martin Dovey, sailing the new Deduction, was in sixth suit. A club member said that during one run by Martin only the lead was in the water, the rest of the hull was well clear and literally flying. Two complete rounds were sailed with Martin Dovey, Evolution, roearp a a cori 1_|M_ Kemp |B Corley 3 ID Trippe 4 |R_Neeve 5 |D Mann 6 |M_ Ewart 7 |R_Ferraday 2 winning from Peter Hopkins, Ewok, Anne 8 venture in a major race came a creditable 16.4 eelleison be guaranteed at Bournville we have 43 Garter Etherington, and Flake, with her first |R_Uttley 9G __Williams third. If only these sort of conditions could 100 200 88.89 174.6 85.71 85.71 62.5 71.43 28.57 83.33 77.78 50 37.5 57.14 169.04 163.49 112.5 108.93 85.71 28.57 57.14 85.71 As ENG a 42.86 DNG SHIA 5; : a |G 100 85.71 20 one oe Ta aa 42.86 skippers from every where with deep joy 74 1B Balmer DNG 37.5 375 on their faces instead of the deep 15 Daines 375 0 375 confusion. 16 [P Knowles 17 Bright 6 Metre Match Race Series 18 |P_Heys As you might have guessed from the weather conditions at Bournville that Se Dovecote was smitten with a fairly decent George William’s very nicely turned out Wild whale of a time. Match racing has become particularly tight and competitive as all of the skippers are now familiar with the tactics and of course with each other. The conditions took their toll on the participating boats with a variety of failures. Mike Kemp kept up his clean sheet with another 100% but he had a tough race hieth Mike Ewart sailing his new Dolphin. Brian Corley sailed his Revival consistently well as did his club mates David Trippe and Roger Neeve. It was good to see a couple of new faces in P. Knowl i k John Dates ics: Aaah The lads from Emsworth, Richard Uttley {A — Birmingham MYC Birmingham MYC INDIVIDUAL RESULTS — _ Pos Entrant 1= |M_ eet 28.57 DNC 28.57 21 |W_Green DNC 16.67 16.67 22 |W_Akers DNC 0 0 4 Sa 2 |N 3 |M_ 4 TT Team Boat Name ! 28.57 ae oo . Design Score Sharpe Birkenhead Leeds & Bradford URI2 Robot Venceramous 2 55 Kinder Bournville B Kaos Synaco 54 |M — Harris Boumville A Sakina Synaco 45 5= |A_ Austin Boumville A 22U2 Robot (Mod) Elliott ; Birkenhead Whiskey Chaser|Venceramous 2 38 Percival Leeds & Bradford |? 38 Bo 1= Roberts 33.33 DNC Those that want to Match Race will, and continue to do so. It is important to recognise that the class is not purely for Match Racing, it has just been the way that the class has established itself. It is also interesting to talk to some of the recent converts and gain their views, but I’ll leave you to do that. Match Racing has its place within the MYA, just as fleet “A” TEAM NATIONAL Race Officer: Peter Lock 33.33 ae Rumour is proving to be very quick in a blow. 20/21 April 1991 DNC 28.57 AG — Race 2, Dovecote, 7 April 1991 dose of the same. 20 skippers entered but by the time to start had arrived 10 had withdrawn either because their sail wardrobe had been equipped in line with the recommendations of a certain 6 metre “guru” who shall remain nameless, but is not a million miles away from this keyboard, or because of gear failure due to the conditions. Those that remained had a \J 5= |P Hopkins Birmingham |NVEE 39 Hippie ? a) 39 and Russell Ferraday, made everyone sit up and take notice with their glass Terns and their high standard of sailing. 7= |G _ The series is shaping up as very tough 7= |F and competitive events but I do appreciate 9 Iw G 9= |C_ Hartland that Match Racing is not everyone’s cup of tea; the answer to that is simple. There are enough R6m’s about now to ait il aanais. 3 Birmingham ‘ substantiate sensible fleet racing if that is 11= |P Salt what the skippers want, and it is up to the clubs to organise events for the class. 11= |C Etherington | Bournville C 20 Bournville C ; maohyew Venceramous 2 k Time Warp Taffy Lolli is Venceram ous : Afrit Roaring Forte | Lollipop a 26 aa 20 MODEL BOATS d 13 |Board 14 Final | RACES Score| |% SAILED 1 6 6 100.00% 1 8 9 88.89% y 6 83.33% 0 7 g 77.18% 1 4 7 57.14% | 4 7 57.14% 0 0 4 8 50.00% 0 0 3 8 37.50% 3 8 37.50% 3 9 33.53% 1 9 20.00% j 0 6 2 16.67% 0.00% 0 8 0.00% 1 1 0 0 0 0 TEAM RESULTS 1= |Birkenhead 93 1= |Leeds & Bradford 93 3 Boumville A 84 a Boumville B 80 5 Birmingham 65 6 Bournville C 40 racing and free sailing has, and it will have its advocates just as the others do. My only hope is that the spirit and the attitude of the current Match Race fleet will carry itself over into fleet racing. The results of the event along with the series summary is shown and you can see that apart from Mike Kemp it is a tightly packed bunch all looking forward to the next event at Lee Valley and of course to the National at Windermere. “A” Team National, Birmingham, 20/21 April 1991 Six Teams from Birkenhead, Leeds, _ Birmingham and Bournville clubs contended this event. There were a couple or three brand spanking new boats all being used in anger for the first time. Two were Syancos, one of which is Bill Sykes, Gold Medal winner Sakina, the other was built by Martin Kinder. The other new boat was Peter Hopkins’ Hippie. We were expecting the Fleetwood club to descend en mass but unfortunately they couldn’t make it. Saturday was cool with a moderate breeze giving a two sail reach in both directions and a reasonable amount of head scratching. Birmingham’s lake in these sort of wind conditions is a little difficult to fathom and after a day’s sailing there was no clear leading team so it was all to play for on the Sunday. The wind had swunga little and eased for the Sunday to give a long leg beat and spinnaker run. Choice of berth was important particularly for the run you needed to be in the right place at the right time to catch the wind after the boat had cleared the shadow of the boat house. The beat was equally entertaining, again choice of berth was critical. There where two stripes of wind, one which took a boat to the finish line, the other sucked you up onto the lee bank. As the wind was veering SEPTEMBER 1991 Top, the John Simpson design Hippie which has proved itself to be competitive. This one has been built and is sailed by Peter Hopkins. Top right, Black Jack with its Dave Potter tri-radial spinnaker heading off to find the wind which is about 20 yards or more away. Above, Martin Roberts (right) and Graham Elliot repair a detached jib rack on UR12. slightly your anticipation of the swing to be in the right stripe was equally important. Rather interestingly the event was won by two clubs, Birkenhea’ -n4 Leeds, but it was impossible to have su. off to decide the winner as a flash flood made it impossible to get to the start line for the beat so the teams concerned decided to share the spoils. “M” National, Fleetwood, Preview At the time of writing this article I have just heard of the most remarkable entry for this institution of a vane race. A total of 36 boats are entered, which is virtually double last year’s entry. 20 boats are from the host club. This I consider to be a testament to the efforts of the Fleetwood Club and Dereck Priestly in particular to encourage vane sailing. At a conservative guess I reckon that there will be over 100 people involved either as skippers, mates and officials. Wonderful stuff. Who says vane sailing is dead? I think it has just been resting, which is what I’ll be doing for the next month. I dread to think what the entry size will be like for the “A” National, but I’ll be there. Ian Taylor will be the OOD and I am given to understand he has become a born again urban terrorist in his determination to complete the full schedule. When I spoke to him he was asking questions like “what time does day break?” and “when is lighting up time?”. I can tell you that my answer was unprintable. I did say that the “M” National is an institution and I for one fully expect to be in one. come Monday night. I think I’d better get out and do a bit of maintenance, having just remembered Roberts Philosophy, on my latest all alloy wheeled zimmer with carbon/kevlar dropped handlebars for reduced drag and improved traction on the bandstand straight. 21 Nick Weall moves into his second series with the accent on how to improve your sailing his is the second article in the intermediate stage of a series that overall will cover radio controlled yacht racing from beginner to expert. At this stage we are looking to improve the performance of the club Skipper who has been racing for a year or two and who wants to try to do better within the club. Whether you want to win club events or simply improve your position within the pecking order of the club fleet, there should be something in these articles to help you. If these articles are not giving you what you want, then please write and let me know what it is you’d like to see included! Last month we reviewed some of the things that you really ought to cover before you even put your yacht on the water to race. I realise that we covered some points that would be painfully obvious to a lot of readers, but please remember that hopefully some relative newcomers to our sport might be reading these articles as well. All those people who found the first series of any help would certainly need to know most of what I cover. So for some of you just whip through the article and pick out the bits that might help, I’d be surprised if there was not anything new in any article for you to think about! As I have tried to put across many times, our sport of yacht racing presents many levels of challenges. Enough in fact to suit the most demanding of competitors. The underlying theme however must be enjoyment! There is an awful lot of fun to be had yacht racing. If you are not enjoying your racing, then step back for a moment and consider the problem. Analysis Is it because your boat keeps letting you down? A light wind start at the RM Worlds in 1990 at Fleetwood. If that is the problem, reread last month’s article and then discuss the problem with some of the more experienced members of the club. Is it because you are letting yourself down? You are not getting the results you feel you ought to be achieving? If that is the case, are you pushing yourself too hard? It does take time to get yourself completely coordinated with your boat. It takes a lot longer to be able fully understand the ways of your competitors, the rules, the wind and the tactics required on different legs of the course. Maybe you should just relax a little more and concentrate on one thing at a time; until you have perfected that one improvement and got it well fixed in your mind don’t move on to the next. Set your sights a little lower, don’t try to win the race, just try to beat the yacht that regularly finishes one ahead of you. When you can beat that one regularly, move on to try and beat the next yacht. Try and appreciate the immense fun that can be enjoyed having close battles with any yacht within the fleet. In my opinion that is where the real enjoyment is – in having a really close race all the way through with a group of yachts, where all 1990 Ranking Race at Dovecote start sequence of five pics. The shot shows ‘A’ fleet a second or two after the start. They should be moving left to right across the picture! 36 MODEL BOATS DIAGRAM 2 DIAGRAM 1 IF THE LINE JS NOT SQUARE TO THE WIND- ARTICLE 2 SERIES 2 PB, TO LOOK WHAT HAPPENS! X= 5-2 + 3-3 + 19 + . PBy TO SB, TO X= 12-9 + 0-7 + 5-2 = ARTICLE 2 SERIES 2 WHATEVER COURSE, FROM WHICHEVER START LINE COVERS THE SAME DISTANCE [O THE WINDWARD MARK. (SPME COURSES REQUJRE MORE TACKS!) 1663 1-9 + 7 + 52 = 20-7 Xe 734 414154334194 0-74 52 = 21 SBy TO X= 11-3 + 5-2 = 165 Ay TO Xa 6-14 1-5 + 33 + 199 + 0-7 + 5-2 = 18-7 Ag TO X= 12-8 + 0-7 + 5-2 = 18-7 sorts of tactics are successfully employed and positions regularly swapped. Then the final result hardly matters, what does matter is that you have had a jolly good race and that you probably enjoyed several laughs during the race. Good clean fun – that is what yacht racing ought to be all about. You do need to appreciate the skill of others when they beat you. You need to able to record in your mind the tactics they employed against you to overhaul you during the race. Maybe they got a better start and thus never had to overtake you! There is no better way of winning a race than by getting such a good start that the rest of the fleet can only follow you round like a load of sheep! It may not provide the It is too easy just to say well if there are twelve yachts on the water it is obvious only one or two can get a really good start! What did those one or two yachts do that gave them the edge? Do the same yachts seem to do it race after race? The answer to the second question in most clubs I suspect would be yes. The easy solution to this problem might try and record what is going on and why. The other danger is skippers that are very good at starting are also likely to be very good a scrapping off any opposition. Your proximity to that skipper’s yacht may well lead him to believe that you are a threat to his starting manoeuvres. That might then result in your yacht being suddenly put Pic 2 and still the yachts struggle to get to the line so as to start most enjoyable sailing for you, but it certainly can provide wonderful results! A you might expect or even know from bitter experience, it is one thing to get a flying start and be well in the lead, it is quite another to-hold on to that lead right around a triangle and a sausage of a course! That is something we will cover as this series progresses. For the moment let us consider the start. Making a Start How is it that when a small group of yachts are all milling about in the same general area before the start, only some of the yachts or maybe only one of the yachts manages to get a good start? SEPTEMBER 1991 be simply to stick like glue to one of the most successful starters during the run up to the start. Whilst this may help you get a better start than some of the fleet, it is not going to help you beat the successful yacht or at least not at the start. The other thing is you are using his brain not yours. So if you do elect this course of action, at least into such a position that forces you to break away from your shadowed guide. This may well come as bit of a surprise to you and you are likely to find yourself in the wrong place at the start in a far worse position than if you had just got on with planning your own start. Having given that warning though, it certainly can help 37 you whilst improving your start to be well aware of what the most successful yachts are up to before the start. The main differences between club race starts and the larger open meeting starts are that you usually have a much smaller number of yachts starting in an internal club race and that the level of skills are likely to be much more varied. After all within the club we should have the relative newcomer to the sport, developing Let’s have a look at what all this really means with the help of some diagrams. Have a look at diagram 1. In it I am trying to show the effect of having a line laid central and square to the wind direction and the windward mark. That is the line between Al and A2. I have projected lines from each end of this start line up to the layline for the mark and then plotted the windward mark. Again starting at this point can be done on port or starboard, the distance to travel will be the same, provided you tack on or before the layline. Diagram 2 shows quite plainly, I hope, that although it is to be preferred that the starting line is not only laid square to the wind and the windward mark, but also evenly across the projected downwind line their skills, your average club racer and the top club skippers who at the moment gather up all of the clubs internal race cups. An open meeting will by its very nature, usually have a much higher proportion of experienced skippers all used perhaps to achieving the odd win at their home club! We are concentrating on club racing in this series and we are participating in one internal club race where fifteen skippers are attending the day’s meeting. Only twelve yachts are racing in each race, because the other three are acting as Race Officer and observers. Naturally the three not racing rotate in every race so as after five races everyone in fact has raced on the water four times. total distance travelled to point X just by Pic 3 and no. 91 leads the fleet away from the Observation travelled is the same from either end of the line or in fact from any point on that starting line. This is the perfect unbiased from the windward mark, you will still have to sail exactly the same distance from One last thing to do before we put our yacht on the water is to look to see how the windward mark lies in relation to the start line. Is it square to the midpoint of the start line? Is it directly upwind of the start? Because although that is how it should be, it often is the case for many reasons that it is not! If the wind has the windward mark. The total distance line! The start line PB1 to PB2 is far from square to the wind and as such presents an unfair starting line in so much as one end is biased. That is to say starting from that end will enable you to sail a shorter slowest start in history! a start-line that has been laid square to the wind and mark. Problems do start however if this is taken to extremes and one can simply lay the mark in one without tacking as is nearly the case from position AS. In reality of course you would easily lay the mark in one from position AS, since I am using the forty five degree approach, when in fact as we all know a modern fin boat will sail much closer to the wind than that! The basic theory remains exactly the same what ever the angle of approach to the wind a boat can sail at, presuming that it is the same on each tack! If it isn’t then that individual boat has a problem, not the course layer! You’ll notice that in the second diagram I put the warning that some courses will require more tacks than others! Tacks waste time and potentially speed. It is to be preferred that they be kept to a minimum! This however has to be balanced by other tactical considerations that we will cover whilst on the windward beat. So far we have considered lines and windward marks that have the wind coming directly from the windward mark, established a regular swinging shift for example, the windward mark may be laid right in the middle of the arc covered by Note 17’s position – Roger Stollery’s yacht that in pic 1 was at the back on wrong side of line! Many clubs simply use permanent laid buoys, thus they can only use the mark that lies nearest to the direction of the where as PB2 to X is 20.7 long. the shifts. wind. The point of looking for this, is that whilst we can fairly easily determine if the line is biased one way or the other as regards the wind direction, there may well be an overriding bias to consider if one end of the line is much nearer the windward mark than the other! In that situation it is a waste of time starting at the favoured end of the line as regards wind direction if the other end of the line is much nearer the mark in the first place! 38 course to the windward mark! You will see that the course PB1 to X is only 16.3 long, The same problem of course is shown in the opposite starting line SB1 to SB2; here the course from SB1 to X is 21 long, where as the course from SB2 to X is only 16.5 long. Thus the line SB is described as being starboard biased and if you start on the gun from that spot you will have less distance to travel to the windward mark whether you start on port or starboard! It would of course be somewhat dangerous to attempt to start on port at the gun on the starboard end of the starting line! The line PB is said to be Port Biased because again the port end of the line provides the shortest course to the although of course in Diagram 2 if you choose the line A2 to A4 or any of the other offset line options, the wind is most certainly not coming directly from the windward mark at all! Would it make any difference if a start line around the area of A2 to A4 was not only offset but not set square to the wind? Let us have a look at diagram 3. Once again we can easily see that the start lines PB1 – PB2 and PB3 – PB4 are Port biased. The fact that PB3 – PB4 is further offset than PB1 – PB2 does not seem to alter any of the basic facts at all; one end of the line is biased and allows a shorter course to be sailed to the windward mark. The greater the angle that the starting line is off square to the wind, will increase the bias. The longer the actual line then the greater the distance to be travelled by a yacht starting at the MODEL BOATS unfavoured end. The only other consideration that comes into play is that if we were to start on starboard tack at the SB4 end of the startline SB3 – SB4, then we would be able to easily lay the mark in one! This is grossly unfair if the rest of the starting line does not allow this to happen. It is also fundamentally bad course laying, because the whole object of the windward beat is to set a course that requires lots of tacking up to the windward mark. The reason for this is of course to allow Skippers the opportunity to engage in fine tactical battles that exercise the mind and to allow the alert Skippers to make maximum use of windshifts! In any serious racing strenuous efforts line square to the wind. When the wind is on a regular shifting pattern you should lay the line square to the average direction of the wind. If the wind is just slowly and firmly backing or rounding as the day progresses, then you ought to be changing the course as the day progresses too. In Practice Now it all very well for me to sit here drawing neat little diagrams laying down to law. How do you manage to do all this from the water side? With great difficulty I hear some of you cry! Not really, the first thing to do is to watch the surface of the water. The wind, except in very very light conditions will always leave its mark upon the water. It is up to you to read what it is saying. If you don’t believe me I suggest you take some time off racing and sit on the bank or preferably as high above the water as possible and watch. Watch a race or two and just look at the patterns upon the waters surface. As the wind moves over the water it gently ripples it in light winds. The way a yacht on a close-hauled course behaves is also a good clue of course. You already know that it is likely to be sailing between forty five and thirty five degrees to the wind, so it shouldn’t be too hard to work out the direction of the wind from that. Yachts on the reach and would be made to lay a proper course. In fact any race that resulted in the windward mark being laid in one from the start would be recalled and the course relayed! At the club level of racing this is not always possible or considered convenient by the members racing on a particular day. If you belong to a club where the water is long and narrow, then when the wind blows across the narrow width of the water, you certainly do have a major problem setting a proper windward beat direct from a start. In such circumstances it may well be necessary to lay a reaching start that later in the course puts the fleet around a leeward mark before they beat across the narrow width of the lake to a windward mark. If no one can see along the length of the start if laid square to the wind, then again a compromise has to be reached. But, whenever possible get that Just what you don’t want at the so-called Lo first windward mark – peers ARTICLE 3 SERIES 2 a raft of yachts broad adel“com oe Roger Stollery, went on to win. on the run also give a fair indication of where the wind is coming from. The little : flags or streamers that some Skippers love to hang at the top of their masts do not tell you where the wind is coming from, unless the yacht underneath the flag or streamer is at rest! In all other circumstances such flags and streamers show the APPARENT wind, not the true wind. Oh gawd! What is the apparent wind? Mtg Apparent Wind Questions like this get me in a flap running to my reference books so as to give a fairly accurate description. Then you get “3 DIAGRAM 4 ARTICLE 2 SERIES 2 TRUE WIND SB AS BOAT SPEED INCREASES SO DOES THIS ANGLE! DIRECTION hy SPEED 4 KNOTS AO rigid ini *s SEPTEMBER 1991 PBy—> Xe bBo 9 6 6 6 MM = 224 (orente ig PB) X= 9 + 91 = 16-1 DISTANCE ) F see race ) PBLX= thPESTS + 36 + 49Se+ 36RE + + 91BES= WES 226) (oPPEReNCE = BOAT SPEED 4 KNOTS DIRECTION BOAT 39 so bogged down in technical explanations that you can end up more confused than when you started. So here is a basic crude attempt to explain: Um! as stated above if your boat is not moving then and only then the burgee at the top of the mast shows the true wind direction. As soon as your boat starts to move it is generating a ’ different wind itself. For example as you walk fast on a perfectly calm day you can feel the wind in your face; if you start to run, your hair may start to blow backwards in the wind and yet it is a perfectly calm day! The same will happen with a child’s windmill on a stick, on a calm day you have to whizz the thing around you to get the windmill spinning! So now it gets a bit more complex, the true wind starts to provide the motive power to push your yacht along in the water. That in turn generates another wind which wants to come from directly in front of the direction of motion. (Usually going downa slalom course. If your boat is sitting dead in the water in such conditions you need to be able to spot the next direction of the almost non existent wind as quickly as possible and preferably before any other skipper. Then, a light weight burgee is worth its weight in gold! (not that that would add up to much of course!) So there is a phenomena called apparent wind, it does exist, but it doesn’t really course and note the angle at which you cross the line. Now do the same on the other tack. Which tack had the greatest angle between the line and the course you were sailing?! Because that is the tack that currently is the favoured tack. The end of the line corresponding to that tack is the end of the line most favoured. If there is no difference in the angles then the line is unbiased at that moment. Do bear in mind that the wind can change and Martin Mickleburgh makes a good start at the RM Worlds. His boat is jib No. 98. 39 is Roger Stollery; 133 Chris Dick’s; 1 is Germany’s Janusz Walicki; 61 is Robert Brown; 92 lan Cole, and 13 is France’s Chris Boisnault. The sequence continues on the opposite page. forwards!). The faster your yacht moves forward then the more the wind direction is pulled towards the front. This may be simply defined as the faster a boat under sail is moving through the water then the greater the angle will be between the true wind and the apparent wind. Diagram4 gives the visual clue. To tell you the truth apparent wind is of far more interest to planing dinghies than displacement yachts like we use. Multihull, land yachts and ice yachts all need to consider the effects of the apparent wind because of their speed relative to the speed of the wind. Land and ice yachts regularly move at speeds in excess of the . you are interested bother us that muchIf in learning far more about apparent wind take a book titled “Wind and Sailing Boats” by Alan Watts out of your local library and get studying! It is a marvellous book well worth buying in fact, especially if you are involved in full sized racing as well! 1 Metre boats at Eastleigh in better sailing conditions. true wind speed. The result is that they are sailing what appears to be a close hauled course on a heading to the wind that we would be sailing a very broad reach! ‘When you are actually sitting upon your vessel gazing up at your burgee then apparent wind means a lot more, because the wind you feel on your check is also the apparent wind. Then of course you need to have a fair idea of what to add to the apparent wind to find the true direction of the wind. When we are standing on the bank we can get a fair idea of the true direction of the wind from the wind on our face, the set of the sails of the other yachts and the patterns of the wind upon the water. Where I find burgees very useful is in light and fickle winds which chop and change direction quicker than a skier 40 Right your boat is on the water, and at the launching of your boat you were wise enough to just double check that the electrics are in fact switched on and are controlling properly both rudder and winch. If you own a yacht with even more exotic controls then check that they are all working as well! Check that your drain bung is in and the pot lid well screwed down, especially in rough weather. The set of the sails you checked earlier so they should be O.K Once on the water, quickly gain speed and clear the launching area, so as others may launch their boats. Throw in a couple of tacks and then do a couple of circles. All under control and looking good? Then proceed to the starting area. Once at the start the first thing you want to do is to check out the line for its current bias if any. Don’t rely on the last race’s experience, the wind might have changed directiona little. Checking out the Line Sail across the line on a close hauled often does between you checking out the line and the start. Many is the time that I have checked out the line and made a perfect start at what I thought was the pin end, only to see the rest of the fleet heading away on a lifter from the other end of the line because they were alert enough to notice the wins shift! Hm, well we all need a handicap every now and then! You’ll notice so far we have spent an awful lot of time checking various things out and we still have not even started prestart manoeuvres. There is of course little point in starting pre-start manoeuvres until you know which end of the start is the favoured end and which are the boats to cover or copy. Since we have to start somewhere let us start by accepting that on this first start the line is unbiased. Thus all things being equal the starboard end of the line is going to be the favoured end, with most if not all of the fleet wanting to start on starboard at the pin end. By pin end, in model yachting terms we mean the favoured end, whilst the line this time is unbiased, the starboard end of the line becomes the favoured end because most skippers realise that if you approach the starting line on a close hauled starboard tack you avoid a lot of problems. For one thing you do not have to give way to boats on the other tack, they have to give way to you. MODEL BOATS The surprising thing is though that often port tack boats at the start do not give way to starboard tack boats!!! Their skippers panic or freeze and the blooming thing carries on its destructive way regardless! Now the problem in that situation is this, whilst as the blameless starboard boat that got hit by the port tack boat resolves you from doing turns, nothing in the World is going to compensate you for the time wasted in getting clear of such a Jonah. The rest of the fleet is off into the distance as you recover from being put into irons. It quite often is the case that the port tacker finishes his two penalty turns and sets off after the fleet before you get under way! Now whilst this is grossly unfair, there is little in the rules that can be done to give you redress. You are certainly welcome to appeal for redress under rule 69., but what can the protest committee in all fairness do. The incident happened of course right at the start of the race, it would be very difficult to say where you direction. A few seconds before the start you sheet in and cross the line on the gun still accelerating. What are the dangers of this sort of popular start. The first one is fairly obvious, a boat coming from behind with good boat speed will simply power past you, to leeward or to windward. You certainly will not have the speed to luff them up, so you will just have to smile as they pass you! The next point is that you are very exposed to sudden wind changes, if the wind swings to a direction that effectively puts your stationary yacht in the position of being in irons, you are going to look rather foolish as the rest of the fleet sail on by! Admittedly this rather unlikely, but it could happen! were going to be placed in the race, even if you were going to get a perfect start. Some committees would throw your request for redress out, others might award you your average position for the remainder of the position in the races done so far during action, not you. If your evasive action concentration, so much is packed into these couple of minutes, that a lot of real time experience is required before you’ll come really proficient. Luckily at club level you are unlikely to have the number of yachts starting in a race as you will later experience in an open meeting and the range of abilities will be much wider. Some of the skippers within the club race will not have their sense of timing perfected and thus arrive at the line far too late or far too early. You should be at the line before the late comers and after the early birds. Thus our immediate objective is identified – we want to be at the pin end on starboard at thé gun in clear water! The problem is still going to be so will a few others, hopefully not too many! The first question is how are we going to ensure that we are where we want to be when the gun goes off. There is more than one solution to this problem, although it may transpire that there is in reality only one good solution for your boat and you. If you have a light weight boat with good acceleration then you could hover around the pin end say ten to fifteen seconds before the start, with your sails out and the boat pointing in a close hauled SEPTEMBER 1991 appropriate moment. Twenty seconds is the sort of maximum time I am looking for and ten as the minimum. My objective is to hit the line at full speed say half a second after the gun has gone off. At club level the second objective is to be close as possible to that pin mark, and now we have a problem! Why, well as already mentioned other yachts have exactly the same plan as well. Admittedly they will execute that plan to varying levels of success, but at least half the fleet of twelve are going to be « milling around that pin mark with the same objective in mind in so much that they at least will want to be at the pin end at or shortly after the gun. They may have different ideas about the speed of the boat that they want at that point, but that is where they want to be. This is where the whole game begins to come to grips with this problem you need that day’s meeting. So although you were the innocent party you probably suffer. Thus you need to be very aware of exact what is going on at the start of the race, prevents the port tack yacht from keeping clear, she will have a valid protest to lodge against you! This little example should help to show you that you must keep on your toes and ultra aware of everything at the start. It is the time of the most intense round and then you ought to be able to charge off at full speed for the line at the get a bit complicated! Because in order to races that day, or award you your average not only in your little group of starboard tack yachts but also every other yacht approaching the line. If you see someone approaching on a port tack that looks as though they might come too close to you, shout a warning to the skipper, identifying the yacht by its jib number. Be prepared to take evasive action if necessary, but realise at the same time that the onus is upon the port tack yacht to take avoiding accurately. Having found your point, you then time the yacht in seconds from the mark to the point!, just by counting off the seconds in your head or by using the first part of the minute count down to establish it. You need to allow a bit for turning In this shot 91, Graham Bantock; 47 Martin Roberts and Frenchman Philip Sol 26, now come into view at the best end of the line. Leon Talaic 10, also comes into view at the lower end of the line, 00, Francois Beaupain is in the middle while no. X10 Alan Gardener from Canada is just windward of 133. This was an ‘A’ fleet stage early in the week. Considerations that are more important are that you will acquire an obligation to keep clear of a leeward yacht, once it has given you room and opportunity to so do. You have to respond fairly quickly by sheeting in and heading up, if you don’t you could easily find yourself with a couple of penalty turns to do! That will ruin your starting plans! It is better to be sitting a distance away from the line ,that requires you to sheet in and get under way, say twenty seconds before the start, that way you are in better control as you approach the congested areas. Whether you use this second method or the method I recommended in my first series you will need to establish the following. You need to know how long it is going to take you on a close hauled course to reach the line from a preselected transit mark. This transit line is something selected by you as a line you can easily refer to between your position on the control bank and something on the far side of the water or a fixed object anchored upon the water. As your yacht crosses this projected imaginary line you have a reference point, now you only have to set the angle from that point to the starting mark to have a point on the water you can gauge fairly to have very wide eyes before the start. You need to be looking at all the other prospective starting yachts and try to see what sort of start they are going for. Those that appear to be sniffing out a port start we can ignore for a moment, unless there are so many of them that it may be that the wind has shifted. The yachts hanging well back we can ignore for a moment too, once we have established which end of the line it looks like they will be approaching. That should leave a manageable handful of yachts in contention for the favourite spot! If there are only one or two and you recognise them as the usual fleet leaders, you could simply allow them to take the favoured spot, planning to come in hard and fast behind them and as close as you dare to the starting mark. (Without getting hooked up on it!) The plan can then be to try to sail a course slightly to windward of the fleet as it progresses up the course on starboard. You will then have command over the entire fleet and thus should in theory be able to do what you like with them all! This again was our objective in the first series and frankly at club level it is as good a plan as any. Another approach to the starboard pin end of the line is to come from the windward side of the course on a broad starboard reach coming in fairly tight to the pin end mark;as you pass the mark you swing round hard and fast up into a close hauled course. This can give you excellent speed and good command over the fleet if done well. Needless to say it is also therefore a fairly popular manoeuvre. Never the less at club level it remains a very useful ploy and should be practised. If too many boats are attempting it, then it loses its value and thought should be given to an alternative. Yachts that favour this sort of start are usually fairly easy to identify, since they have a habit of practising the manoeuvre during the count down. Next month we shall continue to study starting options and look in greater depth at the rules that apply generally at the start and pre-start, plus those rules that are applicable only at the start! 41
