the Mississauga Wayfarer/CL Regatta Mississauga SC * Sept. 15-16, 2007 race pics 3.1 by Gord Leachman, Gaetan Benoit & Michael Clayton ... |
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Tom Broderson checks out the
weather with a critical eye as we take a quick lunch break before race
3 gets underway. ... |
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Lunch time aboard the mark boat
for Mike Clayton (l) and ... ... |
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... Eric Schaefer. ... |
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Coming by to pick up their lunch
are ... ... |
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... Tom (l) and Al. ... |
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Even in the "heat of the day",
the weather is not exactly toasty!! But ... ... |
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... the winds are great, just
right!! ... |
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Just after the start: (l to r) Geoff, Marc, Al, Colin ... |
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Hard to see in front of Geoff
(9483) are the Taylor brothers who must beat Al in this race to retain
any chance of ... ... |
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... handing Al and Tom their
first loss ever in nearly 20 years of sailing MSC Regattas. ... |
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(l
to r) Rodrick, Geoff blocking our view of Mark, Marc, Al Though you can't really tell from this shot, Mark and Paul got the leeward-end start uncontested and are now moving like gangbusters!! ... |
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I have used this photo and the
next to illustrate an article
that stresses just how important proper main leech tension is to good
pointing. Some relevant quotes follow: "The real
difference is made by mainsail leech tension. Mike McNamara once told
me, "You point off your mainsail leech." After nearly 40 years of
racing, I was surprised by this, since one instinctively thinks of the
jib as creating the pointing. I still am not quite sure why it works,
but I do know that it does! ... On our boat, we
put on lots of boom vang (North American for "kicker") to keep the
mainsail leech tight even when we eased the main out to keep the boat
from heeling too much. The rule of thumb is that your top batten should be parallel to the
boom. So, you sheet in ... until the top batten is properly
aligned with the boom. And if there's more wind than you can hike down,
you tension the vang, such that when you ease the mainsheet to spill
wind, the upper batten still remains parallel to the boom. The other
guys on our cruise were letting their mains twist off too much and we
outpointed them to the extent that, three or four times, we ended up so
far ahead, that we hove to and had a beer while we waited for them to
catch up. All this without our working hard or hiking: the whole
difference was mainsail leech tension!! ... in very light
winds, the weight of the boom will make the mainsail leech hook to
windward, in which case I modify my batten rule to read: top batten parallel to the centre line of
the boat, i.e. in drifters, I sail with the boom end out more or
less over the corner of the transom, which gets my top batten about
parallel to the centre line of the boat ... Above: Notice how
my crew (who
was sailing my boat that day, 3rd from right) and I (2nd
from right, sailing a friend's boat) have very little
twist in our mainsail leeches, while Colin (right) is sailing with
too little leech tension - either too little mainsheet tension or too
little vang tension. And notice how his top batten is nowhere near
parallel to his boom." - for full-size pic, click here
... |
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"Moments later:
Colin (right) has fallen right
down into Tom and me (600). Again, notice how our main (600) has a nice
even angle to the wind all the way up, and a nice, tight leech (aft
edge of the sail). With the vang on good and tight, we can ease for a
puff and keep this shape and keep pointing, but look at what happens to
the sail (929) that has too little leech tension!!"
...Meanwhile, back at the race. In these conditions Mark and Paul, who have tacked to port and are already crossing the fleet with some ease, seem to be perfectly in tune with their boat and have the best speed among North American Wayfarers. They won two races in our Nationals in conditions just like these. - for full-size pic, click here |
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Mark (7673) duly crosses Al, his
final challenge. Colin has tacked away for clear air, but ... - for full-size pic, click here ... |
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... even here, you can tell that
Mark is ... -
for full-size pic, click here ... |
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... outpointing him by a
considerable amount. ... |
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More vang would also bend
Colin's mast, flatten the main entry and lose some of this backwind. ... |
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Eric Schaefer looks on as Mike
Clayton does ... ... |
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... the duelling cameras bit.
Note the increasing wave action. ... |
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Aboard the RC boat ... ... |
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... Gaetan Benoit (l) is the other duelling camera.
Tom Broderson (r) looks on while PRO, Gord Leachman signals to the mark laying boat. ... |
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The first run: Mark (7673) leads
by perhaps 50 metres over Marc (3854) and Al (600). - for full-size pic, click here ... |
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Mark raised some hopes as he
sailed into a soft spot about 2/3 down the run. |
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