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SHsPP JMG ACE R 1990 £1.65 $.S. Balboa Easybuild Freelance Cargo Tramp Steamer 77014 MM Al rR A & eSWED saa 2. = over a wide area of the hull. Even if the construction is of this standard, it also requires the boat to be located in the cradle with perfect accuracy every time it is put down. If it is not, the result is an unfair load and, inevitably, scarring of the paintwork. I speak with some feeling as I have been working on the boat; the score marks go well below the level of the paint and the wood has had to be filled to make good the surface before the new coats of paint have gone on. The stand has no form of padding, and so far as I can determine, never had any. This is not so surprising considering the materials available at the time. The padding material would have had to be cloth or felt of some sort and the adhesives available for a cloth to wood bond would have been animal glues or some form of rubber cement of the type developed for mending punctures on the new pneumatic tyres of the bicycles that had become so popular a few years earlier. This solution to the problem of the boat stand is not a brilliant one, o start with this month, a discussion of a neglected area of model yachting technology: the stand. All the evidence from both contemporary and historical sources is that very few model yachtsmen stand their boats upright in the open and that an essential adjunct of any lake used for competitive sailing is an area large enough to take all the boats engaged lying down on their sides with their rigs aligned downwind. Given the height of modern Marblehead rigs and the number of spare rigs and other impedimenta that have to be accommodated in the immediate vicinity of the boat, the extent of the boat park at a modern large scale radio meeting needs to be quite large; but in general enough space is found somewhere. The problem is quite different once the competition is over and the boat has to be housed under cover. Here, the need is to minimise the floor space used and this means storing the boat upright, preferably with her rig still on her if the ceiling height permits. In club boathouses especially the need is to cram boats in alongside each other as close as possible and this calls for a stand that will reliably support the boat in a vertical position, giving enough stability although variations on it may be found turning up from all periods of the history of model yachting. A better approach is to provide something that will hold the keel of the boat securely and provide a wide enough base to prevent the boat toppling. The hull is not supported and either stands entirely clear of the supports or has the slightest of side supports, against which it leans rather than presses. Photo 2 shows an example of a very substantial stand built in the 1890s for a very lightly constructed 10-rater, whose hull was made of paper. The weight of the deep keel stands on the base and is prevented from falling by deep slots in the vertical Heat Wave, a New Zealand One-Metre., designed by Steve Martin. Photo: Geoff Smale. wide enough floor area to prevent the boat from falling. An example is shown in photo 1, which is the stand made for a home-brewed, 36 inch model in 1914. Though the model itself is clearly not designed in any real sense and shows all sorts of evidence that the builder had Cradle type of stand, 1914. to avoid its falling over at the slightest touch. The way the problem is approached varies both with the underwater shape of the boat, which may call for differing forms of support, and with the degree of experience and engineering understanding of the builder. The obvious solution is to construct something that will cradle the hull in two positions and spread the load over a 22 only a small understanding of model yachts, the actual construction is to a very high standard and is probably the work of a professional woodworker. The stand seems something of an afterthought and is not as well made as the boat. It is made in quarter inch wood and has split along the grain so that part of the outer support for the hull has been lost. The joints between the cradle and the base have been crudely strengthened at some later date. A stand of this type works, if it works at all, only if the fit between the cradle and the hull is perfect at each location and the load is spread Support the keel, let the keel support the boat. Ten-rater stand, 1890’s. members. When the hull is mounted on the keel it does not touch the stand and, despite nearly 100 years of use and storage, the paintwork is in excellent condition. MODEL BOATS A Fifie supported by a simple slotted length of 2 x 17. With boats that have a long straight of keel and not too much drag, so that they do not need propping up for’ard, an alternative solution of great elegance and simplicity is to use a single piece of two by one with a suitable slot in it. Photo 3 shows a Peterhead “‘fifie” model which uses this system. Cheap, effective and it has the advantage of letting you see the shape of the boat. This is usually the last consideration of the stand builders but, for those of us who regard looking at models as an aesthetic experience, a distinct plus factor. Photo 4 shows the same idea adapted to a boat of rather different shape, which needs the slot to be formed at an angle in the block so that the bow is given enough support ensure that the boat is held securely and that the toe of the fin is supported in such a way that the boat does not fall forward. At each end of the crossways member is an upright, usually a piece of dowel, that bears against the gunwhale of the boat and prevents it falling sideways. It is simplicity itself to make, with one exception: the forward locating block needs to be hollowed to be a good fit to the fin of the particular boat and to give just the right amount of lift to keep the deck line level when the boat is on the stand. The normal practice seems to have been to make the block to fit by trial and error, using a swan neck gouge to remove the wood from the fairly narrow excavation that is needed. The men who built their boats by the bread and butter method undoubtedly had the Minimal stand for a small toy boat. Boat 1920’s, stand 1990. right tool and the necessary skill to do the job. Why are so many of the stands that have survived so obviously inferior to the boats they were made for? I suspect that they were the last job and that the builders were not too particular about the fit. Photo 5 shows the locating block from the stand that Support block from stand for Caradoc, 1936. to stop it falling down. I wouldn’t risk it for a large boat, but for toys like the 25 inch hull in the photo it provides a very nice solution which does let you see what the shape of the hull is. The style of stand is conditioned to some extent by the shape of the boat and for a long period in the first half of this century the typical shape was a canoe body with a relatively shallow fin which incorporated the lead within its form. The base of the fin was sometimes parallel to the waterline, but often was not and, in nearly all cases there was a sharp turn at the toe of the fin, which was so positioned that if left to itself the hull fell forward on to its nose in an ungainly and unstable posture. This style of boat produced what is probably the most elegant and effective of stand concepts, which was near universal among competitive yachtsmen until the advent of deeper fins and bulb keels called for new approaches. Basically the stand is cruciform: the weight of the boat is carried on the fore and aft member, which is provided with locating blocks to NOVEMBER 1990 came with the 1936 10-rater Caradoc that I wrote about last month. It is a crude piece of work, quite out of character with the boat and fits where it touches. So poor is the fit, indeed, that it is heavily padded with hessian secured with carpet tacks(!). I had to make a new stand for First stage in the construction of a support block for the Sagitta stand. More pics over. 23 the last couple of days was wrong again. There will be a more extended report and some pictures next month. One particularly pleasing bit of news is that the two Japanese entries. Kazuo Takei and Minao Hirao, who competed in 1986, were going well in the heavy weather and enjoying their sailing. Last time they were very much at a disadvantage as their boats really weren’t built for a Fleewood blow. Kiwi Pictures I have had a little batch of photos sent me from Auckland by Geoff Smale, who is one of the New Zealand competitors at Fleetwood. One shows the RM of another of their World’s competitors, Leon Taliac. The design is a little unusual in that the rudder is mounted forward; this allows the fin to be even further aft than is usual on contemporary RMs. It’s not the first time I have seen this. There were some experiments in my own club in the late 1970s but it is the first time it has appeared at this level in model racing. One of the American 12 metres in the 1987 America’s Cup races at Fremantle sported something similar, but this was as part of a configuration including a centrally placed fin with bulbed lead and a pair of rudders fore and aft. The Taliac boat is also notable for very sharply hollowed forward waterlines, almost as though the bow had been grasped and pinched in while still in a plastic form. This may not show too clearly in the reproduction but I hope to have better photos after I have been to Fleetwood. Second stage in the support block construction. the 1937 Marblehead Sagitta that I was restoring to take to the RM World’s at Fleetwood and I had to face the problem of how to make the forward locating block. As I am not in the habit of carving boats from the wood, I don’t have the right tools. I could have borrowed them, but I didn’t trust my skill to get the sort of result I wanted without a number of time consuming ranging shots, so I cheated. The block is constructed as a hollow box from light wood and secured in the right position with a touch of epoxy (Photo 6). The forward member of the box is of a size to prop the boat up in the required position; if the side supports are fitted first, the boat will stand rather precariously balanced on the edge of the box. The keel hugging form of the block is created by filling it with plastic car body filler. The forward deeper end of the box is filled with some scrap wood to minimise the amount of filler needed and the filler is generously trowelled into the void. Then the boat is stood on the stand while the filler goes off (photo 7). The contact area is protected with plastic tape, so that boat and stand are not indissolubly joined at this stage. If the boat is removed as soon as the filler is fully set, final cleaning up can be done with sandpaper (photo 8). The result is a stand that matches the keel form perfectly and, if care is paid to the location and padding of the side supports, will hold the boat securely, using its own weight to provide most of the stability. With modern padding materials on the side supports (I use plastic pipe insulating foam) it is possible to achieve the ideal result, a stand that actually grips the boat and lifts with it when it is picked up by the internal handle, but which separates easily if the stand is restrained by putting a toe on it as you lift. Final stage. of striking achieved at some major meetings in other places and you can see another reason why all the world wants to come to Fleetwood for their sailing. In the heavy weather some skippers rather decided to give up until the conditions moderated; but the British, French and Spanish contingents were all revelling in the C2 conditions. At close of play after two days there were seven home skippers in the first ten places. It remains to be seen what happens during the rest of the week, as the weather is forecast to ease a little from now on. It looks as though my decision to go up to Fleetwood only for Another shot of Heat Wave. Photo: Geoff Smale. New Zealand One Metres RM World’s The other photos that Geoff sent me are of local Auckland designs to the One Metre Class. The scow Heat Wave is In passing I hear reports from Fleetwood at the end of the first two days’ racing that the wind has been strong and that by cracking on with the programme, something you can do when you have a really experienced race crew to run the event, each fleet had already had 12 races. Compare this with the rate 24 Leon Taliac’s Odi, an own design RM. The design process is by carving a polystyrene block and then glassing it over. The innards are only removed sufficiently to get the radio in. Photo: Geoff Smale. from the board of Steve Martin whose family company was involved in the construction of the NZ plastic 12-metres in 1986-7. The other is a design which features a wide deck beam allied to a much reduced waterline beam. This is by MODEL BOATS Carl Hollis. The standard of construction of these boats is high, as you would expect from men who are each involved in full size construction at the high tech end of the market. Geoff comments that most development in New Zealand and that the steady improvement in quality and reliability of performance has come in the main from attention to detail rather than major design breakthroughs. Southwold 1990 I was only able to get to Southwold on one day this year, as their series of regattas overlaps with the RM World’s. For the first time I actually sailed a couple of boats in anger, but without any great success. Instructive lessons from sailing in the Southwold style, massed starts of up to six boats and knockout competition, is that the draw for station x Another NZ One-Metre, this one showing its paces on a quartering run is by Carl Hollis. convert an apparent advantage into a real handicap; the race often goes to the skipper who has only one boat to worry about. I make no excuses, but I think that the yawl rigged Tempo 36 has real possibilities in this style of racing if she is pitted against other yawls rather than the sloops and cutters which made up most of the competition on the day I was there. All she needs is slightly better luck – and a more competent skipper. The only race I was in where I had any sort of chance, I managed to foul up by overtrimming the boat so that she ended up under the windward bank rather than out in the middle of the lake where the wind was. I was so pleased that I could get the boat to go to windward rather well that I slightly overlooked the fact that the course was a broad reach. The photos show the start of one of the other Southwold boats at the start. It’s not a premature starter; they give a time allowance against the . length of the boat. Note the swing rig on the nearest boat – taken at Southwold. is critical if there is any sort of wind shadow and that if you don’t win your first round heat, you have a long time to sit about and watch the more successful slug it out in the succeeding rounds and time to consider the inherent superiority of pairs racing on a tournament basis as NOVEMBER 1990 a way of conducting free sailing competition. Sailing in competitions organised in the way that was common at the turn of the century and earlier has clarified my historical understanding of the rapid adoption of tournament sailing when it was once invented. Many of the regulars come supplied with a large selection of boats and enter as many as four in a single competition. This means that you get to sail in four heats and have a better chance of having something to do in the later stages. If you are successful and lucky you can end up with two or three boats in the final. At that stage you can employ helpers to turn or hold the boats, but not to retrim them. The amount of running back and forth required to do retrims on two boats on opposite parts of the bank can quickly races. Though the basic concepts underlying the Southwold boats are as old as model yachting itself, many of them sport swing rigs and other modern bits and pieces. Even if you do use a swing rig to maximise the displayed area on the run, you still need a jib on the end of a long bowsprit to keep the boat pointing down wind when you have no rudder. Contact Addresses MYA Matters: Ian Taylor, 115 Mayfield Avenue, London N12 9HY. Tel: 081-446 1625. Vintage Group and Old Boat Queries: Russell Potts, 8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP. Tel: 081-850 6805. 25 A practical introduction to IMRU rules – DIAGRAM 1 “ROUNDING THE LEEWARD MARK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS RACE” ae WIND by Nick Weall – Part Six y the time you read this article we will be in Autumn and you maybe thinking that soon you’ll have to pack away your yacht until the Spring. Hold on though because lots of clubs keep their sailing going right up to Christmas and some brave clubs will run a winter series as long as they have water to sail on right through the winter. Ice or having the water drained out of your local sailing pond for safety reasons during the winter can frustrate these plans. For those of us living in the fairly mild south though, sailing right through the winter can be found if you look around a bit. Winter is traditionally the time for building new boats or checking carefully that everything on your existing boat or boats is working properly and that corrosion has not set in anywhere. Also a careful check should be made of all your electrical gear to ensure that all plugs are clean and that the dreaded black wire has not set in anywhere. If you are racing seriously it pays to have your winch serviced once a year and its lead and plugs replaced. The rudder servo (_)tsewaro series of articles, which is as most of you reading this will now know to introduce you to the International Yacht Racing Rules as applicable to Radio Controlled Model Yachts and to help you to develop your tactical use of the rules both from defensive and attacking points of view. To help illustrate all of the many points needed we are following the progress of our trusty yacht C being skippered by a novice, racing around an Olympic type of course with four other more experienced yachts. Back on Course A good example of R10R’’s beating up the windward leg at the R10R District Championships earlier this year at Gosport. should simply be replaced with a new one and the receiver should be treated to at least a new aerial. If it really does not matter quite so much if you get a radio control problem in the middle of a race, then you can of course simply wait until something goes wrong and then replace the offending problem. For myself when I started to race Radio Controlled Model Yachts, I could not get enough of it and the thought of missing a race through gear failure was more than I could bear. As soon as I could afford to I got spare batteries, a spare rudder servo, then a spare winch 50 and a spare transmitter/receiver set. These days of course I need all of those spares more than ever. During the course of a days racing you can possibly afford to lose one race through an electrical malfunction, but you need to be able to rectify that malfunction very quickly so as to be back in for the next race. Remember also that if you are racing in a fleet system, you will have dropped a fleet by having an unreliable yacht, that is the sort of thing that can ruin a good day! Enough of the perils of radio failure and on with the real reason for this Last month we left yacht C about to round the leeward mark for the first time in third place, but with two other yachts claiming overlap on her. That means that C has got to leave enough room for A and D to round the mark in a seamanlike manner. See diagram 1. Now foolishly I used this diagram to set September’s question. Since I now have to deal with rounding of that mark and the continuation of the race up the windward leg, I think the best thing I can do is cheat a little and slightly alter the situation so as not to spoil the chances for anyone who has not yet had a go at the question. Also if you are not yet bothering to have a go at the questions please do, not only is it a bit of fun, but it provides me with valuable feedback of what is going through readers’ minds. That way I might spot MODEL BOATS things that I need to clarify in the future which could be of help to many of you. Back to the race, yacht C as she alters course towards the mark picks up a bit more speed that A and D, the two boats she is obliged to leave room for whilst rounding the leeward mark, (because A had an inside overlap on C at the magic four boats lengths and D at that time had an inside overlap on A). Thus C draws clear ahead of A and D with that little bit more speed and cuts close to the mark, hardening up to close hauled and proceeds to beat up the windward beat still on the same tack. Now C as a novice did not know any better, but the fact of You will notice that D has got “command” over A. That is to say that A cannot at present tack to starboard without tacking in the water of D forcing D to tack to avoid A. This of course is not allowed. Remember the rule? No, well here it is again to refresh your memory. Rule 41 changing tacks – Tacking and Gybing. 41.1. Basic Rule A yacht that is either tacking or gybing shall keep clear of a yacht on a tack. 41.2 Transitional A yacht shall neither tack or gybe into a position that will give her right of way unless she does so far enough from a TO THE WINDWARD, MARK fin. The fin being somewhere near the centre of the boat on the fore to aft plane means that as the bow swings around to the new starboard course the stern is swinging backwards and to leeward right into the path of A. The trick is to execute the tack to starboard very gently to start with. This should have the effect of taking your boat slightly to windward of any yacht following close behind directly in your wake. Once you have gained that little bit of space to windward you can speed up your tack swing across to starboard and drive away. Talking of driving away, one of the very common mistakes novices make is stalling the boat immediately after tacking. There are several ways of achieving this rather disastrous state of affairs. Giving the boat full rudder and DIAGRAM 2 ARTICLE 6 (isin) remember that if you alter course sharply a fin boat will pivot about the ~__WIND DIRECTION i swinging it violently round will stop it very effectively. Full rudder will mean different things on different models, some rudders can swing through ninety degrees either side of straight ahead, these will be the best sort of brakes you can use, others may swing through 45 degrees either side of straight ahead or less. The only times having a lot of rudder movement is useful is before the start in tight manoeuvring positions or when trying to avoid a collision. The disadvantage of having so much rudder movement is that in the tension of racing one simply tends to apply full rudder whenever tacking or altering course especially for the poor old novice of course. As time goes by you tend to remember to be a bit gentle with the old rudder control stick. So that is one way to kill all boat speed whilst tacking. The next favourite way is to tack into a head to wind position or into such a close hauled position, say twenty five degrees to the wind or so, that the wind cannot possibly supply you with motive power. Tacking into irons is a very expensive mistake because it certainly does take a little while at least to recover. There is no simply drawing clear ahead of an inside boat that had established an overlap at the four boat lengths from the mark does not remove C’s obligation to allow room at the mark for A and D. As long as she manages to keep clear ahead with slightly better speed she can risk cutting close to the mark, but if whilst excuting this manoeuvre she slows down and A and D catch up without there being any room left for A and D between C and the mark, then there is most definitely going to be trouble! At the very least A and D will have to bear off to avoid hitting C and will protest her, or much more likely they will try to squeeze in with much shouting for water and contact will be made and again protests will be shouted. C will be the guilty party either way, so do be very certain when closing the gap on yachts that have a legitimate overlap on you; if you don’t get it right it can be very expensive in position terms. By the time you have done all of your penalty turns the fleet will be disappearing into the sunset! As we said earlier C had beginners luck and got away with it, D retained her actual inside overlap on A and so we get to the position in diagram 2. NOVEMBER 1990 RA‘s beating to the Windward Mark, again at Poole this year. yacht on a tack to enable this yacht to keep clear without having to begin to alter her course until after the tack or gybe has been completed. 41.3 Onus A yacht that tacks or gybes has the onus of satisfying the protest committee that she completed her tack or gybe in accordance with rule 41.2 41.4 When Simultaneous When two yachts are both tacking or both gybing at the same time, the one on the other’s port side shall keep clear. There you are, rule 41.1 and rule 41.2 cover the situation we are talking about. Thus A cannot tack on to starboard until D tacks to starboard or until A can not only pull clear ahead but slightly to windward as well. In the positions shown in diagram two even C has got to be jolly careful if she is considering tacking to starboard, because you must easy way out of being in irons. If your boat is sitting there with no way on, then moving the rudder is going to have little effect, the wind pressure being the same on each side of the sails is likely to keep the boat in irons for several seconds at least. As soon as you see the boat beginning to fall off to one tack or the other, encourage it to continue in that direction with your rudder, ease the sails out a little until you can spot some forward motion, bear off a little more, get up speed, sheet back in and assume a proper course towards the back of a rapidly disappearing fleet. Do not get into irons. In fact the best thing to do is practise getting into irons and finding your own solution to the problem. Once you’ve done that, practice tacking again and again in all strengths of wind, so as you don’t ever get into irons again! Getting into irons just before the start is always a good one, think ahead all the time to avoid being forced into such a situation. The final favourite way of killing all speed whilst tacking is to slam the boat across losing all speed and assume the same close hauled direction as boats ahead, but boats that have way on. (Way by the way, excuse the pun, means motion i.e. the boat is moving ata 51 speed greater than the current of the water in some direction or other. A boat normally thus will have “way on” as it proceeds forward in the direction it wishes to go. If it is beating up to windward it will also have a certain amount of leeway, that is the wind tends to push the boat not only forwards but sideways towards its lee. Leeway is resisted by the action of the hull biting into the water, the fin and the rudder.) The boat that has assumed a close hauled windward course immediately after tacking without any forward motion will simply make an awful lot of leeway with very little forward motion if A contrived sequence trying to illustrate Rule 43. Yachts are getting too close to the bank for comfort. 90 calls for ‘Water to tack.’ 4425 replies, ‘You tack.” DIAGRAM 3 ARTICLE 6 DISTANCE BETWEEN WINDWARD & LEEWARD MARKS AROUND 250 YARDS O° 1e) WINGMARK WIND DIRECTION START & FINISH MARKS ° LEEWARD O MARK i ° | ant | _p SKIPPERS USUALLY WALK UP & DOWN I “ THIS BANK UP TO THE LEEWARD & ti ————- WINDWARD MARKS. lacs = sis ea ae, ROUGH PLAN OF GOSPORT WATER & THE USUAL COURSE SET. any. The trick here is to let your sails out just a little so as the wind can flow over the sail more easily and start to push the boat forward. As the boat picks up speed you can sheet in the sails to their normal close hauled position again. Do remember that a normal close hauled position does not have the main boom yanked right tight into the centre of the boat. The actual position will vary from boat to boat according to the set of the sails and type of rig. However as a rough guide perhaps around five degrees off the centre line for the main boom and ten to fifteen degrees for the jib boom. In light to medium winds the best method of tacking seems to be to be very gentle in turning through the first half of the tack, then give slightly more rudder for the second half of the tack. You will then find it is possible to retain quite a bit of the boat’s speed right through the tack and into the new course. This then of course cuts down dramatically the 52 chances of going into irons and also the chances of losing so much way that leeway is all that is being made.In heavy winds you have to pick your moment much more carefully. The first thing to try and choose, if you have any choice in the matter, is a moment when the wind is not at its strongest. Try and look ahead on the water for those tell tail signs of a gust coming – dark patches on the water rippling towards you. Thus either tack before the gust or wait until the gust has passed. Next study any wave formations that maybe about, a wave can either help you round to the new tack or simply push you back onto the old tack – it all depends on the angle of attack. Sailing into the wave at less than 45 degrees may push you back, at over 45 degrees there will be more chance of it helping you around. The final thing is maintain good boat speed or get good boat speed by bearing off a touch, sheet the sails out a little and throw the boat around to slightly beyond a close hauled course on the new tack, gently sheet the sails back fully in gaining speed at the same time and resume a close hauled course. Having mustered the art of tacking a little more the next thing we have to do is start to think ahead. We have successfully rounded the leeward mark and thus have mastered to some degree all of the basics required to get our yacht around a course in one piece. We are now entering our first full length windward beat and there are of course a number of options open to us as to how we zig zag our way up the length of the course to the windward mark. More by luck than judgment our trusty yacht C would appear to be third at present in our little fleet of five. As such we have positions to lose and possible positions to gain, we are at least in the thick of it and have the opportunity to think things out a bit rather than simply be tagging along at MODEL BOATS the end of the fleet following the rest of them. From the leeward mark, if the course has been laid correctly, the windward mark should be directly upwind! That of course is rarely the case because of wind shifts, but since we are on the novice level of rounding the course lets assume that the wind is remaining in a constant direction coming directly from the windward mark to the leeward mark for the moment. What are the things we need to think about before making a decision to tack? The first point is that tacking most definitely is going to slow us down a bit, some more than others. The second point is what boats are around us? Can we even tack if we want to? The third point is what obstructions are approaching or are we approaching. Obstructions approaching us could be other yachts crossing our intended course on starboard and the most usual obstruction we would be likely to be approaching is the bank or edge of the lake! The usual way courses are laid out on lakes and ponds tend to have the start near to the bank and the leeward and windward marks nearer to the control bank than the wing mark, which is usually right over the far side of the water or a fair way away from the control bank. Diagram three shows the sort of typical layout you might find. This is a very rough layout of the Gosport Model Yacht Club’s water, a purpose made pond constructed early this century for the racing of vane controlled model yachts. The pond is around 900 feet long and two hundred feet wide. The Club have hosted in their time all of the major National and International Events. It is a marvellous facility and is without doubt the best water available in the South of England. The entire area around the lake is paved and it enjoys fairly open aspects on all sides. There are however various banks and buildings in the middle distance that influence the direction of the wind causing local bends etc. which are enough to test anyone’s awareness. Obstructions The point I am trying to illustrate here though is obstructions. Let’s imagine Diagram two on the Gosport water at the leeward mark and you will see that an obstruction in the form of the bank soon presents itself to boats that having rounded the leeward mark stay on port. (Not for long if they wish to keep their bows looking pretty!). This now brings in a new dimension for our novice skipper to consider and one that he needs to consider fast! Thus all choice of tack is removed for him or her, there is only one thing to do and that is tack to starboard to miss the bank. We have already in this article pointed out to the skipper of C that C must not tack in A’s water, and gave out a few tips to avoid that happening. Thus C swings across to a starboard tack and misses the bank. What however about A? A has a big problem, she cannot tack to starboard because she has D sitting on her windward stern port quarter and under rule 41 she cannot tack in D’s water. REPLY: 4) “YOU TACK” DIAGRAM 4 ARTICLE 6 ~< WIND A contrived sequence trying to illustrate Rule 43. Yachts are getting too close to the bank for comfort. 90 calls for ‘Water to tack.’ 4425 replies, “You tack.’ HAIL: “TACKING FOR WATER” BANK (ii) IMMEDIATE REPLY “I'M TACKING TO STARBOARD IMMEDIATELY” 169 and 4118 call for water to 4425. She replies, ‘Take my stern.”” HAIL: “WATER TO TACK” BANK (ini) “YOU TACK & TAKE MY STERN” 90 follows 4425's instructions and tacks - 4425 slows a little to miss 90 and K4118 and 169 tack to take 4425's stern. If K4118 cannot clear 4425's stern it will be 4425's fault! She instructed K4418 “‘to take my stern!” HAIL: “TACKING FOR OBSTRUCTION” BANK NOVEMBER 1990 53 What is she to do? Well as you have no doubt guessed, since the Racing Rules are all about fairness, there has to be a rule to cover this situation, otherwise poor old A could just be forced into the bank! A quick flip though the racing rules enables us to find a rule that mentions exonerate herself by accepting an “You tack”. alternative penalty when so prescribed in the sailing instructions. 43.3 When an obstruction is also a mark. (a) When an obstruction is a starting mark surrounded by navigable water, or the ground tackle of such a mark, and when approaching the starting line to immediately or exonerate herself by accepting an alternative penalty when so prescribed in the sailing instructions. That is it folks, this month’s dose of straight hard rules is out of the way. You imagine trying to read all that lot as you approach an obstruction and you'll see why it is better to have some idea of the obstructions, Rule 42, desperate reading of the rule sheds no light on our awful plight, however just as we are about to fling the rule book at the skipper of D for being such an inconsiderate so and so, we notice Rule 43; close - hauled, hailing for room to tack at obstructions. This is the rule we now need to study and since we are now 16ft. high and dry up on the bank, let’s take a little time off from the nail biting action and study this rule in its entirety: 43.1 Hailing When two close-hauled yachts are on the same tack and safe pilotage requires the yacht clear ahead or the leeward yacht to make a substantial alteration of course to clear an obstruction, and when she intends to tack, but cannot tack without colliding with the other yacht, she shall hail the other yacht for room to tack and clear the other yacht, but she shall not hail and tack simultaneously. (c), When, after having refused to respond to a hail under rule 43.3(b), the hailed yacht fails to fetch, she shall retire Marbleheads beating nowhere but pointing in the right direction! RM Midlands Ranking Race at Dovecote 1990 ~ a day of light and extremely variable hints of a breeze! bare bones of the rule. So here are the bare bones. Rule 43 only applies to yachts that are close-hauled, that is beating to windward sailing as close to the wind as possible. Next it applies to the boat clear ahead or to the leeward yacht that is going to hit the obstruction first unless it puts in a rapid tack. This is the boat that hails “Water to tack”. In our racing situation that we left a few dozen lines ago it would be up to A to hail “Water to tack”. D is now obliged either to tack immediately or to reply with an instruction such as, “You tack”, or “You tack and take my stern”. Let us look at these alternatives a little more closely. PORT LAYLINE f ee LONG TACKS PORT SIDE =~ / N77 / on eal WING 8.4 al a f / TM a CENTRAL ROUTE 2-4 6 6 / / f 32-2 ~ g =n Poa / / O = J ae 1 ae ~ ° LONG TACKS STARBOARD SIDE 2 4 14-3 11-5 32-2 7 SS TM / ~ STARBOARD LAYLINE / = een Sse OPT!ONS AFTER ROUNDING THE LEEWARD MARK, ASSUMING THE WIND IS 54 / Shey COMING FROM A STEADY DIRECTION STRAIGHT FROM THE WINDWARD MARK TO THE LEEWARD MARK (A VERY, VERY RARE OCCURENCE!). (a) tack, in which case the hailing yacht shall begin to tack immediately she is able to tack and clear the other yacht; or (b) reply “You tack” or words to that effect in which case: (i) the hailing yacht shall immediately tack and (ii) the hailed yacht shall give the hailing yacht room to tack and clear her. (iii) The onus of satisfying the protest committee that she gave sufficient room shall lie on the hailed yacht that replied 4 / ‘ possible moment after the hail shall ; ~W ~é 43.2 Responding The hailed yacht at the earliest / = fe / Sneed ~ 4. # /\ / ~ se ~ LEEWARD aie d pre : / e. / / / e we Loa / 3 ——= either: “ose / 4. 5 ‘ / 6 1 / oe / 6 \ start and after starting, the yacht clear ahead or the leeward yacht shall not be entitled to room to tack. (b) At other obstructions that are marks, when the hailed yacht can fetch the obstructions, the hailing yacht shall not be entitled to room to tack and clear the hailed yacht, and the hailed yacht shall immediately so inform the hailing yacht. When, thereafter the hailing yacht again hails for room to tack and clear the hailed yacht, the hailed yacht shall, at the earliest possible moment after the hail, give the hailing yacht the required room. After receiving room, the hailing yacht shall either retire immediately or F / / > DIAGRAM S~ ARTICLE 6 Take a look at Diagram4 (i). In this situation D as boat clear astern has two options, the first is to immediately tack to starboard without making any verbal reply. In this case as soon as A sees that D is tacking she must immediately start to tack herself. If she simply holds on her original course she opens herself liable to being protested and would be obliged either to retire or to accept an alternative penalty (720 turns). The second choice D has is to reply “You tack” or words to that effect, again A must immediately tack. D is obliged to keep clear of A as she tacks, but D now has the advantage of being able to sail a little nearer to the MODEL BOATS obstruction before tacking and thus get into a position where she is sailing a starboard course slightly to windward of A, which in theory at any rate gives her command over A. In Diagram4 (ii) the only option D has practically is to tack immediately and hope to keep slightly ahead to leeward in clean air. The alternative of trying to slow down enough to duck under A’s stern would not really work, because as soon as D replied “You tack”, A has to do just that; she would consequently slow down somewhat and D has nowhere to go except to tack to miss A anyway, with the additional handicap of being in the wrong if there is nowa collision! In Diagram 4(iii) D could tack immediately with no reply, in which case A again is obliged to immediately tack herself which would keep her astern and slightly to leeward of D. The better onus is solely upon the yacht clear ahead or to leeward to determine what is and what is not an obstruction. This usually again concerns approaching the bank, where it is known that the water gets shallow. Once the boat clear ahead or to leeward thinks that it needs water to tack to miss whatever it may hail, the hailed boat must respond as set out above. It cannot reply rubbish, there is plenty of water there, it must respond. The hailed boats only recourse is to protest the hailing yacht after the manoeuvre has been completed for making an incorrect hail. This is a pretty difficult protest to make successfully so the hailed yacht better be sure of its facts and be sure that a race observer was watching the incident otherwise she stands little chance of getting the hailing boat penalised. Do bear in mind that weed growing in the shallows near the The Windward Mark. RA’‘s at Poole. option of D is though to reply, “You tack and take my stern”. D has to be sure when making this reply that A will in fact be able to miss D’s stern if she tacks immediately she hears D’s instructions as she is obliged to do. If as a result of obeying D’s instructions A touches D then D is in the wrong. This is not to say that A can simply aim at D in an effort to penalise D. A must simply execute a normal tack from the close-hauled course of port to the close-hauled course of starboard in this case. You may notice that A hailed something different in every example above, this is simply to give you an idea of the common hails you will hear. Any of those hails would have done in any of the situations illustrated. The replies however are pertinent to each particular situation. The most important point about Rule 43 is that after having made your hail you cannot do a thing until you hear a reply from the hailed boat. If you do not hear a reply then hail again. The common mistake is simply to make the hail for water and to immediately tack without waiting to hear what reply the hailed boat wishes to make. This mistake will render you immediately liable to being protested either by the hailed boat, race observers or other racing yachts. This is an important rule; use it wisely. The other point about the rule that is commonly misunderstood is that the NOVEMBER 1990 side of the pond can also be considered to be a legitimate obstruction. After the Mark All other sorts of obstructions come under rule 42 as does the shore line when not approaching it close-hauled. Having got to grips with the basic problems of calling for water at the bank or other continuous obstruction, let us return to consider the options that are before us immediately after rounding the leeward mark. There is always the ever popular choice of swinging immediately onto the starboard tack and away. I think it seems to be a natural progression from the sweep around the leeward mark. To my mind there are two things wrong with it. Firstly you are in great danger of losing all of the acceleration that can be gained as you sweep around the leeward mark and onto a close-hauled course. Secondly you are, by tacking immediately, onto starboard sailing a course that will put you through all of the wakes that have been or are being created by boats still reaching down to the leeward mark. Even if you are the only boat on the water, you will put yourself through your own wake. This has the effect of slowing your boat down to some degree and thus ought to be avoided. I guess perhaps the big worry to immediate starboard tackers is that a boat hard on their heels might gain an overlap to windward and thus hold command over them. The trick to stop that happening is harden up and sail a very high course for a few seconds before reverting to your normal close-hauled course; this should make it very hard for the following boat to get above you. So in my opinion you are far better off simply to continue on the tack you round the leeward mark on, making the most of the little turn of speed you can get if you co-ordinate the rounding of the leeward mark with the correct speed of sheeting in your sails. This is quite a difficult manoeuvre to execute correctly and is certainly worth practising. The easy way of getting into the groove is to use very little rudder and let the sheeting in of the sails swing you round and up to the close – hauled position. Obviously if you can do this better than your surrounding opponents you are going to gain some ground. When you have sailed some little distance from the leeward mark and you are proceeding at a normal close-hauled speed for the prevailing conditions, that is the time to make your choice of course up the windward leg. (Provided there is enough water available for you to stay on your existing tack.) Right, having retained good boat speed we are now in a position to look ahead and wonder what on earth we are going to do to get ourselves up to the windward mark and still be in the race. Ina moment we will rejoin yacht C in our imaginary race, but before that a useful tip for the novice skipper would be to copy whatever the club star is doing. If you are so new you don’t even have a clue who the club star is, copy the boat that is leading. Follow the sort of course he or she is following and you will have a better chance than simply worrying yourself silly as to which tack you should be on. Do keep an eye out for what the boats around you are doing and do remember if you are on port or starboard tack so as you will know if it is you that has to give way to a boat on the opposite tack or vice versa. Have a look at Diagram 5 a minute, which again shows the prevailing course at Gosport. You will see that I illustrate three courses all of which cover more or less the same distance. In theory they will all be exactly the same distance if the wind holds a steady direction. The course up the middle of the lake sailing fairly close to the rhumb line, that is the direct line from the leeward mark to the windward mark, would be the recommended course from a safety point of view, because you would be well placed to take advantage of any wind shifts that might occur. However you would put in two more tacks, which would have the effect of making the course a bit slower. Thus if I knew the wind was that steady (it never is) I would opt for the course that had me approaching the windward mark on starboard. Why? Because then at the important time by approaching the mark on starboard all other boats coming in on port will have to give way to me. This leaves me free to concentrate on rounding the mark without hitting the thing. One of the lucky things about model yacht racing is that we have lots of races 55 happening in one meeting. Thus if you have your memory banks in gear you ought to be able to remember from the immediate past race what sort of things the wind is up to and what sort of course to the windward mark appeared best last time. This does not always help since the wind does swing about, but it should give you some clues. It certainly should help you to identify who is sailing their boat best and thus is the best person to try and get near to copy their course. Now let’s cast our minds back to our imaginary race which for the sake of realism and to tie in with some of the diagrams in this article, might as well be prepared to gamble, also there is a fair wind blowing so she is heeling over nicely thus drawing less depth of water, with a quick tack she stands a good chance of getting away with it. A of course must bear in mind that she has D sitting upon her port stern quarter. Thus she must leave enough room to sail on her present course towards the bank to allow time for her hail for water to tack to be answered before she can actually tack. So a couple of boat lengths from where she wishes to tack A calls for water to tack, D immediately tacks to starboard without any reply. The moment A sees that D is definitely WING MARK fe) tacking she must immediately start to tack herself, even if there is a dramatic windshift that would favour A to continue on the port tack. In that case she would still tack to starboard as obliged, regain speed and tack back to port to make best use of the change in wind direction. We are not going to cover wind shifts in any detail at present. We will cover wind shifts when we are racing around the course again at intermediate level. For the moment be aware that such things exist and as suggested keep an eye on what the hot shots are doing. The important thing to appreciate at
