Table of Contents

I. Introduction 7
II. Masts Matter! 13
III. Go Faster Upwind 18
IV. The Problem With Talking to Experts. 47
V. Figure Out the Beat 52
VI. Start to Win 59
VII. Weather Insights 64
VIII. It’s Never Like This! 68
IX. Compass Techniques 73
X. The Free Legs: Getting Lower Faster 86
XI. Speed Through the Turns 94
XII. Sportsmanship and the Rules 99
XIII. Catching up 105
XIV. Weather On Board the Boat – The Social Atmosphere 109
XV. Crewing the Three-Person Boat 113
XVI. Communication in the Boat: Or, How to talk so your team can understand each other. 121
XVII. Be Fit 125
XVIII. Success on Shore 128
XIX. Appendix 131

[Excerpt: Speed through the turns]

JY 15’s in a pile-up at the leeward mark.

Tom: I couldn’t begin to count the number of times we’re moved up several places in a race just by knowing the heading to the next mark. On the other hand we recently gave up the lead in a heartbeat by bearing away to the rhumb line too soon on a right-triangle reach. I was too preoccupied with getting down the course and getting the chute up to defend against two quick jib reaching boats.
Greg: Right. A lot of distance can be made when mark roundings are made efficiently.
We have to talk about setting up the turn. There are tactical issues. There are speed issues: how to accomplish the turns while keeping the boat at top speed.
We need to set up well ahead so the opportunity is there to make a speedy, controlled turn.
Tom: Controlled means “not sharp” here, right?
Greg: Correct. We want a smooth turn that is controlled. Not a sharp turn because that is slow. It should be obvious that a sharp turn requires a lot of rudder action. Using the rudder to turn the boat quickly means using the brakes. Also, when we turn sharply, the boat will tend to heel a lot more. That is slow, too. Just as when sailing a straight line up wind we try to use as little rudder as possible, we want as little rudder action on the turn as possible. Boat balance and sail trim (easing at the weather mark or sheeting in at the leeward mark,) are the best tools to turn the boat at a mark.

Stars in a jam at the leeward mark. No winners here.

Tom: Besides using minimal steering, what are your other boat handling techniques for the weather mark turn?
Greg: As we come abreast of the mark I like to ease the main sheet about 2 feet and have the board immediately hoisted to the half-way point. This will greatly reduce weather helm and aid the boat in bearing off.
We work hard to keep the boat flat or even slightly heeled to weather at the beginning of the turn. Allowing the boat to heel (to leeward) makes it a lot harder to get the boat to bear off. You probably noticed this the last time you were on port in a big breeze trying to duck a starboard boat. Anyway, the main goes out to assist in keeping the boat flat or slightly tipped to weather. In a good breeze the main may be eased to the point of a lot of luffing in order to create the slight roll to weather and allow the boat to bear away with very little rudder action.
Although I ease the main, we do not ease the jib much if at all. We want it to help pull the bow down to leeward.
Tom: The experts always say not to go all the way to a lay line “early.” How does that affect making a fast rounding?
Greg: Approaching the weather mark we want to avoid getting to the starboard lay line too soon. If we get to the starboard lay line too soon we risk having to sail in bad air, the slow lane. Or, we risk not being able to benefit from a further lift on starboard.
Instead, we should approach the mark on port tack, three-four boat lengths away form the mark. That allows us to play the shifts right up to the last few lengths from the mark. We would like to have made that port approach without anyone on port just ahead disturbing our air. It’s a no-brainer. Clear air is faster: the air is more likely to be clear on port near the mark than on the starboard lay line.

Ed Adams Snipe making a perfect weather mark rounding.

Tom: Aren’t we taking a leap of faith here that there will be a hole between the starboard tack boats on the lay line?
Greg: Sure. That’s not a bad thing to wish for, is it? I “expect” there to be a hole! If there isn’t, well, maybe the next time around will be better. Actually,` there nearly always is a hole in the starboard line up. Even if you have to duck behind someone, it is faster than if you had lined up in that group of starboard boats way back from the mark: that is, too early on the starboard lay line.
What we’re really trying to do is approach the weather mark from about _ to 1 boat-length above the precise starboard tack lay line. In other words, we want to avoid getting stuck in that group of boats sailing a slow pinched heading just below the line of boats that are on the lay line. We’d much rather be just above the boats that are right on the lay line.
Tom: It seems like wanting to be just above the lay line is wasting distance. What’s the point?
Greg: We’re trying to position the boat on the approach so that we pass close to the far side of the mark as we turn down wind gradually and ease the sails. On the other hand, if we had approached right on the lay line then we would have to keep the sails trimmed in and keep steering on the beat until the end of the boom is past the mark before we could begin to drive off down wind. That’s a set-up that kind of forces the skipper to make a sharp turn; that’s bad.
Tom: Are we dreaming here? For those of us who tend to arrive in a crowd, how do we do this in traffic?
Greg: Ok. You’re right. It can be much more difficult to make the smooth turn when you are crowded by boats close around you. But to the extent that you can do it, you will gain considerably on those boats.
Tom: So, when do you start thinking about where you’re going to steer after rounding the weather mark?
Greg: Ideally, we will have figured out where the gybe or leeward mark is before the start and we have that heading written down on the seat. Then a few boat lengths before we get to the weather mark we’ll look down and find that heading written on the seat. If it isn’t visually obvious, I find out the heading from the crew a couple of minutes before we get to the weather mark. We need to know this so that we bear away just the right amount. We may need to hold high initially to avoid being rolled by boats close astern. It really helps to know where that mark is so that we don’t waste time or distance sailing too high or too low right after the weather mark.
If the next leg is the run, knowing the compass heading will help you be quicker at recognizing which gybe is better.
Down wind we want to plan so that we arrange to be inside at the mark. That can take a crystal ball, but it is worth mapping out. This planning for the turn needs to start earlier than you might think because we’re probably sailing faster than on the beat.
Tom: So you want to be inside, get there in better wind, and get there by sailing a shorter course as long as it’s fast.
Greg: Just like the weather mark, your intent is to sail a smooth, gradual turn so that you end up close to the far side of the mark. We don’t want an abrupt turn. We want to go from the higher downwind speed to the slower close hauled speed without slowing more than necessary.
Tom: You don’t have to have sailed many years before you notice how the transition from a fast reach to the beat results in the boat heeling way over, skidding sideways, and stopping. You watch the better boats sail by while you ponder what happened.
Greg: Right. No sailboat turns like the Batmobile. You cannot cruise up to the turn at full speed and turn 90 degrees without stopping the boat. That’s what we’re talking about: making a smooth transition from higher to the necessarily lower speed of the beat without slowing excessively. We’re going to do that by dropping the board well before the turn. Of course we need to get the chute down well before the turn. It seems like a lot of sailors hold the chute too long and then have an abrupt slowing when they turn the boat. We’ve got to keep the boat flat as in not heeling, that’s with a capital H. Some people feel that heeling the boat to help the turn is good seamanship. I’m in agreement with that if we’re talking about only a couple of degrees of heel so that the boat carves a gradual turn with only a minimal increase in windward helm. More than a slight increase in heel results in excessive helm, more rudder drag, and more difficulty controlling the amount of turn.
Tom: What about sail trim?
Greg: We create that slight helm, and I mean slight, by trimming the main. How quickly you trim the main sets how rapid the turn will be. Obviously a little practice in the mechanics of trimming the mainsheet goes a long way in helping the skipper execute a more smooth turn.
The jib trimmer plays an important role. Over-trimming the jib in relation to the amount of trimming of the main results in pulling the bow to leeward. The boat finds its way to a lower track coming off the mark. Instead of trimming the jib early, keeping the jib eased until the boat is on the close hauled course helps the boat come up to the highest track closest to the mark. In fact, on our boats the jib is completely luffing until we are on a close hauled course, then the crew snaps it in. This is popular with the crew, too, since it is so much easier to trim.

Wrong! Need the main trimmed more and the jib not so much yet.

Tom: Mark roundings are often congested. Any special comments about dealing with that?
Greg: Fouls are slow. Accept losing a boat or two instead of committing a foul and turns or damage. That’s another reason that anticipating and planning the mark rounding are important. You’ve got to figure out how you can accomplish a fast and clean rounding well before you get into the fray.
Developing the skills and technique to be fast through the turns can be practiced with just one boat by itself. With practice, you’ll be able to tell when you’re making the turns better and leaving the mark at top speed. You will see the results at the finish line.