As a result, I’ve deployed a new weapon in our arsenal, one that I’ve wondered  about trying for some years, but somehow never got around to.  The Dinghy Start isn’t something I’ve had a lot of experience with. While I learned to sail on Lasers and FJs out on San Francisco bay, I never took it to the next level and race them.  By the time I raced, it was as crew on bigger boats, and, you don’t do a Dinghy start in a J-105 or a Cal (at least, not where I’m from). 

But, we always call the J/24 a ‘big dinghy’ and she certainly is sensitive to weight, and yes, a dinghy start is powerful in certain conditions.  This was how our basic pattern went, wait for a start with moderate wind, 6 to 10 knots, let’s say, get your boat up on the line (or maybe just 1/2 boat length or 1 boat length off the line, with ONE MINUTE to go, on a close hauled course.  Then, ease everything, and I mean, ease it all the way.  Let the main all the way out, let the genoa, all the way out.  Then, wait. At about 30 seconds, trim everything in, and go!

We had two really good starts thanks to the dinghy start out on the lake two weeks ago, but there’s a lot to learn . The critical things are 1) there’s no major current on the lake, if there was current, it certainly would add an element of timing and distance that’s completely different. 2) You have to stop your boat and hold her, on a closed hauled course. Use a point on land or use your compass, but don’t get into irons, you need to be able to trim-and-go.  3) Luff those sails.  If you don’t have the main all the way out, you’ll still move forward, which is not the idea.  4) Learn how long it takes to accelerate. I’ve found about 30 seconds in 8 to 10 knots is about right.  But, once we got rolled by boats that came powering up under us.  We should have trimmed way earlier. I think we waited until 10 seconds to go one time, which was wayyyyy tooo late.. argggghh .  

The reason I like this start a lot is that it forces you to get to the line, in the front, with one minute to go, and so, you’re there.  Next, you’re on starboard, so that’s cool.  Any boat approaching to windward, well, they don’t have rights anyway, so who cares. As to the leward boats, they HAVE TO give you opportunity to keep clear. They can’t just come and barrel into you. They have to give you time to trim in and head up.  Also, any boats that were to leward of you before you luffed, are now gone, because they didn’t luff.  

The negatives with this start are that you may feel that there is a lack of control.  But as long as you stop the boat, close hauled, trimming in and going is pretty easy.   Also, you have to watch you equipment, boom and genoa, and make sure you don’t foul anyone.  

Find a spot on the line and give this powerful method a try the next time you’re on the lake!

*2) Vang* – As much a I wanted to stress the vang on Sunday, I think I still underestimated it. The amount of vang required to keep the main flat is intense, which is why some boats blew out their vangs altogether.
Equipment issue: Not enough purchase to put it on tight. Not properly rigged to blow it easily if needed. UPGRADE YOUR VANGS TO MAXIMUM PURCHASE ALLOWED BY CLASS RULES.

*3) Downwind spinnaker* – Definitely my weakest point. One of my constant fears is accidentally gybing caused by the action of the waves. After just a minute of talking through my fears, I realized that accidentally gybing the main in heavy air is not going to easily happen under spinnaker. It’s hard enough to gybe the main even when we _WANT_ to gybe, because the main is pinned against the shrouds.

Being by-the-lee a bit or being dead downwind for the entire run and getting pushed by waves isn’t going to do anything to move the main. So, then the question becomes how to control the rolls, and the answer is moving weight back in the boat. We should have had everyone much further back, and we should have been twinging in hard on both sites to better control the kite.
Equipment issue: Twingers rigged aft instead of having their own cleats near the beam. The rear cleats are too crowded..twingers get in way of spinnaker trim.

… More in Part 2…

Peter asked me to start by contributing some observations about the Sound OD Championship on Oct 6/7, 2007 and since then I’ve traded some emails with other skippers about how we could have done better in this extremely heavy air regatta.

So, without further interruption, I’m going to include my initial race report below and then in subsequent posts for the next several days, I’m going to add some hits and tips I’ve gathered. The source of these tips asked me not share them with too many boats, but at the risk of never getting advice again, I’m going to throw discretion into the wind and post all of it in the coming days. After all, I don’t think there’s anything you read on a blog, read in a book, watch on YouTube or discuss over drinks at the CYC which is going to make you better at boat handling (with the exception of really learning and understanding the rules).

Here is my review of the regatta:

It was a great weekend, I was impressed with the performance of the top boats and how flat they were able to keep their boats. We certainly learned a ton.

Moving the mast butt forward, being properly adjusted on the shroud tension and bringing the Jib in as tight as possible, as well as moving the jib car back to induce some twist in jib seemed to help a lot, but we didn’t make these adjustments until Sunday. We also put the vang on much tighter on Sunday by sitting on the boom, sheeting in hard and cranking on the vang, but it’s clear to me I need more purchase on my vang, because it really wasn’t on enough. Same thing with our outhaul which we couldn’t get on hard enough either.

It blew like stink both days except for right before the last race on Sunday when it calmed down to about 14/15 knots and about a 1/3 of the fleet put up genoas. Then, it got up into the mid 20s during the race, with some stronger gusts, which was really something to witness.

On Saturday the race committee had a number of issues with the whalers and they were unable to start the racing for more than an hour and a half. We used some of the time running the course and trying to practice, but a whole lot of time was spent doing the gravy train around the start line and getting exhausted.

Congrats to Suspense and everyone who made it out!
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Next I will post about some of the jib trim settings I was corrected on, as well more on all things heavy air, including the vang, the crew position, avoiding the accidental gybe, trimming the spinnaker downwind , the outhaul, shroud tension and tacking in big wind.