DISCLAIMER:
At this point in my sailing career I spend more time watching boats start than actually starting myself so do what I say, NOT what I do.
As most racing sailors know a good start is a huge key to success on the race course, especially in Boston Harbor where the courses are so short. It’s much nicer to get bow out on the fleet than to have to fight your way out of the second row. Especially if you’re skippering in a Rhodes 19. The shape of the boat (think Lazyboy recliner) and the fact that it’s somewhat underpowered causes all sorts of problems for Mister Second Row Skipper. Believe you-me, I’ve been in this position and it’s no fun.
So what’s a skipper to do? You want to be in the first row – DUH. As I say to my youth racers, “You’ll never get to the start if you aren’t on the starting line.” Sort of a sad attempt at a “Yogi-Bearism” but I try. The bottom line is, don’t be shy! Get up there in the mix and be aggressive! Every successful racer is over the line once in a while and you will be too. But you’ll never develop good timing if you don’t put yourself in a position to be successful.
Start and stop on a dime
The correlation between boat handling and good starts is obvious, but which skills are most effective. First of all you need to be able to stall your boat to defend your position on the line without going into irons or inadvertently tacking. Envision yourself sailing up to within a boat length of the line. Techniques to stall the boat include luffing the jib and main and if need be briefly backing the mainsail. Once the boat is stalled how do you protect your position? The jib trimmer should be ready to back the jib, this effectively turns the bow off the wind. I’m not a big fan of sculling (jerking the tiller toward you and back to centerline. It’s a bad habit to get into when backing the jib is much more effective (and easier on the equipment!). Your movement while stalled will be akin to a seesaw effect; driving up into the no-go zone, and then slightly off the breeze. Give yourself enough room to leeward of the starting line because you will move forward slightly and if you’re on a crowded line you most likely won’t have much leeway. If you’re too close to the starting line you’ll be in danger of being over early.
Know the performance characteristics of your boat
You should know how long it takes to start and stop your boat. What is the glide distance in various conditions? How long will it take you to get the boat moving again? What happens in clear air, or dirty air? When to power-up for the start: 20 seconds, 10 seconds? Some boats power-up relatively quickly, the Rhodes 19 doesn’t.
Note the conditions before you start
• When is high/low tide?
• What is the current doing? Because we have two large rivers, the Mystic and the Charles, that empty out into Boston Harbor, current becomes a huge factor. The Rhodes 19 is especially susceptible to current and if you learn the boat’s behavior in current you can use it to your advantage.
• Which side of the line is favored? In Boston Harbor (and no offence to our crack Courageous race committee) a square line is about as rare as an honest politician. You name it, we’ve got it: strong currents, shifty wind, and overenthusiastic ferry operators. After all we are in the midst of a huge city. All these conditions make for challenging starts.
• Where is the pressure? “Reading” the breeze is a skill that every sailor—racing or not—should know. Due to the narrowness of the harbor and the city’s geography, wind conditions can be especially challenging. I won’t go through every iteration (I have to keep a few secrets) but remember that breeze tends to turn perpendicular to the shoreline and depending on where the race course is situated the breeze can actually “split”. Alternately it may be one direction on windward leg and another direction on the downwind.
The diagram (below) illustrates a typical Harbor scenario. The prevailing breeze is NW but as it shoots down into the race area it is affected by the land configuration and begins to bend. The net is two breeze directions with a lot of turbulence in middle. Blue boat starts at the pin and goes left. He gets a header about 3/4's of the way up the course, tacks and is lifted to the mark. Red boat goes right into a successive header. He bangs the corner, tacks and also gets a lift up to the mark. Poor Mister green makes the mistake of tacking to early and sailing into the middle of the course. He is stuck in turbulent air, tacks on repeated headers but doesn't seem to get anywhere. My advice: Stay out of the middle of the course!
PRACTICE:
A great way to learn the characteristics of your boat is to find a mooring or put out a mark and sail up next to it. Stop the boat (note the glide distance) and try to hold it next to the mark for 30 seconds. Experiment with sail trim. For example: trim in the main and luff the jib and vice versa. Note how the boat reacts. Trim in to accelerate and note how long it takes to get back up to full speed.
Every time you go out for a sail you should be trying to read the breeze. Learn the different (most common on the harbor are NE, SE, SW/with a bit of W, NW) directions and how they behave in relation to the geography. Pick an upwind spot and sail to it keeping a closehauled course at all times. Go left, go right, go up the middle and note what happens. Do the same thing sailing downwind. By sailing in different breeze directions you will start to learn their characteristics and pretty soon you’ll be sailing smarter, and faster.
As always – try new stuff, have fun, don’t hit anything, don’t break anything. Be safe.
I welcome you comments and suggestions for topics!
Look for new postings to “Center-of-Effort” every couple of weeks. Topics include aspects of racing tactics and strategy, boathandling, and interviews with some of our best Boston area racers. As always I enjoy hearing your comments and topic ideas.
