2014 Wayfarer Midwinters How the Win Was Won by Trevor Fisher ...

XV Midwinters, Lake Eustis Sailing Club, 31st Jan - 2nd Feb, 2014 Some thoughts… Or, to put it another way, trying to practice what I preach! I have raced at LESC on two occasions, in a range of conditions, and reckon that the organisation, from catering, pre-event info, race team, safety etc. is second to none.  Add this to the welcome that I have received both times and all the ingredients are there for very successful sailing.  On both occasions, the race team made the most of the conditions, this year managing three races on Day 1 and a single race on Day 2, in conditions that many race teams would have not been able to cope with.  In this part of the world, it is common for race teams to be pretty risk-averse, and spend a long time waiting for the wind to settle, before getting a race off.  On Day 2 of the Midwinters this year, I believe they did as well as anyone could have done, managing to get a race in, in what were very challenging, light winds. Many a team would have hidden under an 'AP' before abandoning for the day. Well done, LESC! As far as the racing goes, I always try to put across the idea that the crew that makes the fewest mistakes generally comes out on top.  Emily and I tried to eliminate as many mistakes as we could, but there were some things that we had no control over, and that were going to slow us down slightly.  We were definitely a bit rusty, having not been in a dinghy since the start of October.  Our tacking technique wasn't great, so I tried to avoid tacking as much as possible.  Unless we had a really solid roll tack, we were going to lose ground on every single tack and in light conditions, with potentially very close racing, that could lead to big losses.  In race one, there were probably only four or five boat lengths between 1st and 3rd, in race 2 probably one boat length between 1st and 2nd, so small margins can make a big difference. We were going to be sailing W 10682, a Mk4 Hartley Wayfarer.  I had sailed this boat previously, and was very comfortable with it.  The one area that I wasn't so sure about were the sails, as although they were in pretty good condition, I had very little experience of using them.  Uncle Al kindly lent me a suit of McNamaras - I had always raced with 'Macs' on my three previous boats, and know how they perform, so was very grateful for the loan. Wayfarers are quite big, and relatively heavy boats, so a key priority was going to be getting the boat moving, and once moving, try to keep moving, in the right direction.  This would mean less tacking, always trying to go for the favoured side of the course and keeping flow attached to the sails.  We quite often found that when we were sailing near other boats, we weren't pointing as high, but that we had really good speed. I did a number of things which I believe helped us in this regard.  I sailed with slightly less rig tension than I would normally use, and on Day 1, sailed with no chocks in front of the mast. As Uncle Al observed, our mast probably had more pre-bend than most - perhaps too much - but our speed didn't seem to suffer.  There would have been even more prebend with more rig tension.  If the wind had come up at all, we probably would have struggled for power.  In the really light winds, I also ensured that the luff of the main wasn't bar-taut.  I hoisted the main tight to the top of the mast, and then released it about half an inch, just to ensure it wasn't overtensioned. The only adjustment I made to the rig before the race was to rake the mast slightly.  It was raked quite far forward, so I moved it to the recommended forward end of the range.  If the forecast was for more wind, I would have raked it back further. I moved the jib leads back a hole, to open up the slot and keep the flow attached to the main. Opening the slot gives a bigger margin for error, but does mean that we weren't pointing as high as other boats.  Emily also ensured that the jib was never oversheeted.  On the Mk4, this meant that it was rarely pulled in tighter than the groove in the foredeck.  When the wind did pick up, she sheeted in harder and we moved the leads forward again.  It is really easy in light winds to oversheet the jib, completely stalling the sails and stopping the boat.  If in doubt, ease the sheets! One area where it is important to keep speed up, is pre-start.  Peter and Alex Rahn did a really good job of completely stuffing us at one start, so as the fleet sailed away, we watched them from a completely stopped Wayfarer.  In that situation it would have been very easy to take a big risk and go off out to one side or another, but we decided to 'do the right thing' getting clear air as much as possible, keeping the boat moving and letting others make mistakes.  In that race, we ended up taking second, behind David and Anne Pugh.  In all other races, we managed to have clear air and be moving well, in the right direction.  At each start I was just trying to ensure that I got away in clear air, with the ability to tack and cross the fleet on the first heading shift.  We weren't always in the prime location on the line, but I reasoned that if we were at least moving well, we could get a jump on others who were fighting for prime position. It seemed to work. As far as the mainsheet goes, I never oversheeted.  I adjusted the bridle quite a lot, and depending on the wind strength, had the main anywhere between block to block and three or four inches off the centreline. Again, as the wind increased, I would bring the boom in to the centreline and adjust the bridle so that when the main was block to block, the top tell tale on the leech of the main was on the point of breaking. If/when the main felt like it was stalling (just not working) we would ease both sheets, foot off slightly for speed and then work back up closer to the wind, without ever getting into 'pointing gear'.  The two controls which I never used during the regatta were the vang and cunningham (downhaul).  I would only use the downhaul when overpowered upwind, and that never happened during the regatta.  Similarly, I wouldn't use the vang, until the wind increased beyond the point where both Emily and I were fully hiking out, the main was block to block on the centreline and the top telltale was starting to break.  I would then ease the main to keep the boat flat and moving, and pull the vang in until the top telltale started to break. This never happened during the regatta! The vang was also slack downwind. This year, there was a bit of a lottery on the Saturday race! One of the most revealing parts of the weekend was the 'press conference', when the top MC Scow sailors were asked about their race. To a person, they all said that they had planned to go left on the first beat.  I had planned this too, as one of the golden rules is that in light or dying winds, on a lake, there is generally more wind close to shore.  Before the race this seemed to be the case and at the start, I headed off on starboard, hoping for an increase in wind strength.  Very quickly, it became obvious that the boats that had gone right (Jim and Cynthia Best, Izak Kielmovitch/Bill Hemphill, Jim Heffernan/Jim McIntyre and Nick Seraphinoff/Craig Yates) all seemed to be in a streak of wind.  I tacked across as soon as I could to get into this wind and managed not to lose too much ground. The Pughs on the other hand, continued towards the shore in a dying wind and ended up struggling to get back in touch with the fleet. The top Scows all changed their plan on the evidence of the Wayfarers going right and three of those Scows managed to pull out a huge lead on the rest of their fleet. Downwind, we tried to keep flow attached to the sails, generally easier on the reach.  On the runs, we broad reached, sailing lower when the wind increased slightly.  On the run in the final race, we had a large fleet of Scows upwind and although we were sailing on a broad reach in very light conditions, I made the decision to drop the spinnaker and concentrate on keeping the boat reaching.  This was probably not the smartest thing to do, but I felt that I was not doing too well at keeping the spinnaker flying and every time it dropped, I seemed to stop.  I reasoned that if I had no spinnaker to worry about, I could sail the last 100 yds to the leeward gate without losing any ground.  In the event, it seemed to work and having committed to the right hand side of the gate, we managed to be first to the next streak of wind. Overall, I believe we never made any huge mistakes.  We had one bad start, where I managed to stop the boat on the line and be left behind by the fleet. I misjudged a gybe on one of the runs, letting Peter and Alex past, which I should have avoided, and as I said previously, our tacking was pretty poor!  We made lots of other mistakes, never getting great starts, never pointing really high, quite often not being the fastest boat, but overall we were very happy with our performance. If the wind had increased, our focus would have been on keeping the boat flat, using the vang more upwind and concentrating on keeping boat speed up. These are all thoughts that I had.  Perhaps some of them are 'wrong' or don't make sense, but I was happy with most our decisions on boat tune and strategy.  As I mentioned, you should be comfortable with your reasoning about avoiding mistakes.  There is no point doing something if you don't believe it will work.  If somebody told me that increasing rig tension, sheeting in hard, using the vang or sailing heeled were good for light wind sailing, I would need to be able to reason 'why?' If I couldn't reason why, I probably wouldn't do it, but would do what I felt happy with in my own mind. As Dr. Stuart Walker says, in light winds you need courage to go with your convictions, in medium winds you need boat speed and in strong winds you need great boat handling (keep the boat under you!). ...