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Racing Strategies for the South

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Racing Strategies for the South Racing Strategies for the South Bay and Redwood Reach Appreciation to Sequoia Yacht Club Andrew Lesslie Racing Coordinator Spinnaker Sailing One-Design Fleet Let’s get to know each-other… Some icebreaker questions ● Do you sail with a chartplotter, ipad or portable GPS device? ● Do you have a steering compass? ● Does the boat you race carry a spinnaker? ● More than one spinnaker? ● Can you spell “asymmetric”? ● Do you have a polars for the boat you race? ● Is your sailmaker on speed dial? ● Does the boat you race draw more or less than 5’? ● Does the boat you race have a depth sounder? (one that works) ● How about a refrigerator? ● Can you see your jib tell-tales from your helming position? ● Does the boat you race rate more or less than 100? ● Have you argued about why your rating isn’t fair, ever? ● Do you know the magnetic bearing from S to Y? Strategy vs. Tactics? Strategy is the plan you make so you can sail the race course in the shortest possible time. Strategy is based on your boat and the sailing conditions. Tactics are the actions you take relative to other boats, so that you are free to follow your strategy. Your strategy is always your priority Your race is against the clock, especially when handicap racing The strategic process 1, 2, 3 Research the expected wind, current and sea state for the race area and the time of the race. Once we have the course, overlay our predictions on the course. What circumstances do we expect to see on each leg? Make a plan to sail the course in the shortest possible time, given the characteristics of our boat. (Draft, sail choices, running angles, etc). We’re not talking about boat handling today, but… The better our boat handling, the more strategic options we have. Good tacking skills give us the option to tack away to clear our wind, to short tack along the favored side and to exploit wind shifts. Good spinnaker skills let us hoist sooner, keep our wind clear, sail VMG angles, douse later. Three key environmental factors Wind, Current, and Waves Can be favorable or adverse How do we make best use of favorable and avoid the worst of adverse conditions? Wind predictions Local Sources National Weather Service Forecast for “PZZ531” and Forecast Discussion Watch the trend on the harbor weather station “RTYC1” Big Picture NOAA Ocean Prediction Center for surface analysis and synoptic weather 3rd party sites, Ventusky, WindyTV, Sailflow, etc What are the wind factors we’re looking for? What wind strength do we expect? ● Mean speed and gusts ● Increasing or decreasing? ● Under or over powered? ● Sail Strategy, fly the correct sail for the conditions What wind direction do we expect ● Stable or shifty? ● Persistent shift expected during our race? ● Local wind bend? ● Wind strategy: anticipate and sail the shifts What do we expect to see in our race area? < WindyTV zoomed in to display our racing area On this day, we had a NW synoptic wind, plus a strong sea breeze. There was a wind bend up towards the SM bridge. Average wind speed was 16kts, with gusts to 20kts. What sails would you carry? Now let’s overlay our marks and a course Today’s wind is from 290°m at 12kts, gusting 16kts W PRO sets a course as follows: Start 1300 at 3-4 Xp, Ep, Sp, Yp, Ep, Finish 3-4 Wind direction and strength are the most critical parts of our race plan so we’ll start with wind and add current and sea state later. From our icebreaker quiz: A direct course from S to Y is prevented by the shallow water and marker 12. Sail to 12, then to Y But first… a really handy web page www.sequoiayc.org/sycracingmarkers Locations of SYC markers Bearings and distances between marks (or make your own, mine has bearings in °mag) Let’s plan the first three legs Difference Notes for crew Use T or M, between brg for to prep for next your preference leg and wind leg W Leg Brg & TWA Notes dist Wind (290) 3 - X 340° P50° #2 Jib, full main 1.5nm Start close to M3, drive for speed. 7.2kts, 12.5 mins Mode for beating prior to mark X - E 275° S15° Tack at mark, sail close hauled 1nm on S for 0.6nm 6.1kts, 6 mins, tack to P E - S 195° S95° Jib reach, target 7.5kts, 8mins, 1nm prep MH runner for gybe set Summary, so far We research the expected conditions: We plan our race strategy Wind direction and strength For each leg of the course: Current direction and strength Depth of water (tide) What is the bearing to the next mark? Expected changes during race Can we lay it directly? What sails do we want? We attend the skipper’s meeting to What’s the preferred first tack / gybe understand the course Are there obstructions? What’s the course to steer? What’s our start time? Target speed Where’s the start line? What are the signals? For each mark of the course Which marks, which order? Do we know where the marks are? Which way around? Which way round? New course to steer Where is the finish? Sail evolutions Target speed We re-assess as we race and make any adjustments we might need Be ready to refine or even discard our plan and improvise Racing to windward Later in the race we have a long, upwind beat from Y to E W Wind is still 290°, brg to E is 300° Our boat tacks through 90° so our tack headings will be S245° and P335° Generally we would always want to sail the tack that lays closer to the mark first, in this case P. Why might we not do so here? What can we do instead? We’re constrained by the shallow water to the NE We have to sail our beat in the W available water We’re watching our depth carefully, either with instruments or with reference bearings Note we start with shorter tacks, then make longer ones in the middle, then back to short tacks. Factors such as current and sea state might encourage us to sail further into the channel, or avoid it. Current Strategy: Use or avoid tidal current Last hydrographic survey: 2005 Last tidal flow survey: 1984 Tidal current data is sparse, we’ll need to apply some general principles Current Strategy, ride favorable current, escape adverse current when possible Deeper water flows faster In channels, water flows faster on the outside of bends Water accelerates through bottlenecks Shoals indicate slower water, undercut banks indicate faster water Same leg, this time with current Stbd tack W Current vector S260° 7.7kts 295° 2kts 1kt S245° 6kts 2kts 295° Port tack 2kts Current vector P335° P325° 7.1kts 6kts A strong current is a powerful strategic factor. It has ‘shortened’ our leg from 4.7nm to 4.1nm (-0.6nm). At 6 kts, that’s a time difference of 6 minutes. If we had spent half of our time in the 1kt current, what would the effect have been? What about sea state? Minimize slamming / stalling upwind Promote surging / planing downwind Does your boat slice through waves as Does your boat leap onto a plane and if they weren’t even there? skip and dance over the waves? Or does it feel like it’s being knocked Or does it wallow and roll like a back by every wave? barrel? When wind is against tide Given sufficient fetch, wave speed is ~⅔ wind speed, so in 12kts of wind, wave speed will be 8kts. If we have a current of 1kts against the wind, wave height will increase to 130%, wave spacing will reduce to 70% 2kts If we have a current of 2.0 kts against the wind, then wave height will increase to 1 kt 200% , wave spacing will reduce by to 50% Depending on our boat, a steep, head-on sea state might slow our progress by as little a 5% or as much as 30% It certainly has an effect on crew morale Strategy for steep waves and chop, upwind Wind is 30° left of wave path, e.g. as afternoon sea breeze develops Port is taking waves on the bow, waves will Stbd is taking waves against the hull, waves slow the boat. Strategy: Trim for will bear boat away. Strategy: Trim for acceleration and steer a path between pointing and pinch up over biggest waves biggest waves wind wind Let’s revisit our upwind leg with wing against current Stbd tack Waves push us W sideways at 0.25kts S250° 7.3kts 295° 1kt 2kts S245° 6kts 2kts Port tack 295° Waves reduce our 2kts speed by 1.5kts P335° P325° 6kts 5.6kts The beneficial effects of sailing in favorable current can be negated by wind against tide conditions. It might be favorable to give up some current for flatter water Did it work out? Dashed red line is our track, when It’s possible that your boat may sail a affected by severe chop in wind faster leg by taking the green course. against tide conditions. Advantage of It gives up some current, but there will seeking current has been reduced be much less chop What about windshifts? Take advantage, whenever possible Gusty = Shifty Gusty wind is generally associated with low pressure systems. Gusts are pockets of descending, faster moving air. Stronger gusts = bigger shifts High pressure and sea breeze winds tend to be steady.
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