Hello everybody, we just finished a wild day's racing on the SF Bay Knox
course, and came up with two bullets for the first time in years, so I
wanted to pass on some observations.
Meliki, Tackful and Tchoupi were probably as surprised as I was that we
managed to pass them on the long downwind leg of today's windy second race.
Here's how (I think) we did it.
First, everyone on the listserve should already know that if you are going
wing on wing, the backstay should be out a "long way", where long means as
far as you dare, pretty much. I think Meliki actually holds the current
fleet record for most backstay adjustment, but Carlos increased ours before
Nationals so it might be comparable now. Just be sure to pull it back in
before going through big wakes (unless you are a lot braver than I am),
maybe jybing (depending on the dexterity of your foredeck hand), and oh yes,
reaching the leeward mark.
Along with this you release the jib halyard until there are small scallops -
remember to pull this back in before the mark, too. I think all four boats
in our little school were already doing both of these.
So what did we do different? First, I think I sail with the whisker pole
further aft than most people (i.e. jib pulled in more). This gives a tiny
bit more area, but mostly it keps a nice smooth curve as the wind gets to
the forestay, instead of a sudden curve at the end (i.e. the draft of the
sail is less and is further aft when it's pulled tighter).
But the biggest difference may have to do with getting onto waves, thus the
subject line. I grew up sailing small boats, and after some experimentation
I basically sail my Tuna downwind as if I weighed 250 lbs but had no arm
strength and was sailing a Laser (OK, so I don't heel to windward as much).
In other words, I play the waves a lot and try to catch a good many of them,
but because Tunas are not ultralights I only get about every second one,
assuming it's windy enough to surf at all. The quip about no arm strength
means I do not pump either main or jib downwind (rules say only one pump per
wave), because I find pumping distracts me from timing when I dive down to
catch the trough, which may be earlier than you think.
I remember Mikey Murison used to pump all the time (legally), and I
certainly can't claim to be any faster than he was, but it doesn't work for
me.
Needless to say we had a great time out there today, though I kinda wish I
had brought the old flat jib, it was really honkin' in the slot! There were
quite a few calls to the Coasties, but none from Tunas that I know of, I
hope everybody else had a blast too.
Jan Grygier, "Carlos"
hydrophilos at earthlink.nethttp://home.earthlink.net/~hydrophilos/spigot.html
P.S. I have the "Season closer" listed as our next set of races Sept 26-27,
but I forget which day(s) we are sailing, or whether they count for the
season, spinny vs white sails... good thing I'm no longer fleet captain!
Does somebody who knows what we are planning want to put out the word, I
suspect some others may be as confused as I am about that weekend.
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