[frers-list]Reflections on 2012 Branford / Pine Orchard

[Edgar Smith]

Great idea Scott, I'll jump in to the discussion. Our main take-away =
from the races and Kattack tracks was how many boat lengths we lost with =
unnecessary tacking, and that boat handling makes a huge difference. I =
knew this before, but I was still surprised at how obvious it was. We =
made one ill timed cover tack after crossing ahead of Wolverine, got =
pinched off and were forced to tack to clear our air. Next time we =
crossed we were far behind.  In another race we botched our tack on the =
layline, had to shoot the mark and then hit it anyway. Doing the penalty =
turn took us out of a close second ended a potential shot at first for =
that race.  Each of these mistakes along with a collection of extra =
tacks added minutes to our time. While Wolverine has a boat speed =
advantage on us in some conditions, we have one on them in others, and =
Black Hawk does too. I think Wolverine won the series by out handling us =
in 3 out of 4 encounters. That's something they get from ten plus years =
in the boat.

As far as boat speed goes, I noticed that the speed and headings on the =
top boats were more consistent on the Kattack tracks. On Pachyderm we =
watch the speedo constantly starting right out of the tack. In lighter =
air, we don't finish sheeting in until we are within a few tenths of our =
average speed on the previous tack. This takes at least a minute after =
the tack. Any time speed drops, we head off a few degrees, ease down the =
traveler and when the speed climbs, we use a yank on the traveler to =
head us back up to our higher heading. If the drop is due to a decrease =
in wind velocity, we adjust the sails, both sheets and leads. This also =
applies in heavier air when we've feathered too much and stalled out. =
These adjustments actually levels out our speeds and I think this =
difference shows up clearly on the Kattack tracks and the VMG graph.=20

Downwind we did better with Wolverine than at Off Soundings this spring. =
There we saw a big difference in how smoothly we could jibe the chute in =
light air and we've been working on it to good effect. There is no doubt =
that Wolverine is good at sailing deep angles without losing speed, but =
if you add back what we were losing on our jibes, it put us right back =
with them.

Two things do make a big difference; sails in good condition, and enough =
weight on the rail in windy conditions. Anyone sailing with a short crew =
and blown out sails, has an up hill climb. Personally, I don't think =
there is a special sauce of equipment, rig tune numbers or lead settings =
that will make a big difference. We tune our rig in the spring and leave =
it alone. One exception is failing to get enough halyard tension before =
the upwind leg. That happens to us often and we find we cannot =
adequately adjust halyards once we are going upwind. There is great info =
in the tuning guide on the website about sail choice and tuning, but =
when I analyze the Kattack tracks, boat handling is the elephant in the =
room for us.  Pachyderm