TACTICS SEMINAR (INFORMAL)

Dirty Little Secrets, by Tina Tenret

As our waitress raced around filling our beer orders and our commodore raced around a Thistles district course somewhere far from here, a gang of CSC members met in the back room of a bar to trade secrets.

You’re not being aggressive enough on the starting line if you’re not over early at least once every ten times, barked our race committee chairman Joleen Rasmussen. Easy for her to say since she’s not the one doing 360s and taking the hit – but what she means is, push the envelope! The other nine times, you’ll start ahead of the pack.

Rules wizard Eric Rasmussen showed us how to use barging to your advantage at the start. A windward boat is not entitled to room to avoid a starting mark. That means a boat can approach the start right next to the committee boat with no room for another boat in between. If that windward boat tries to force her way in, she is “barging” and may have to pay a price if the leeward boat must alter course to prevent a collision.

Dave Batchelor of Layline fame spoke about gaining trees: if you’re sailing neck and neck with another boat, you can tell which of you is going fastest by looking past the leech of their sail at the trees on shore. If you’re seeing more and more trees as you sail, you’re gaining on him.

But if you can tell you won’t clear the crossing boat, either tack or duck, depending on the wind’s direction. Lee-bow your competitor by tacking just below him – since you’ll wind up ahead, you’ll give him dirty air. You will know you lee-bowed correctly if he would have T-boned you a second after you tacked (thankfully you tacked). His jib should be less than half boatlength away if you did this right. Just don’t make him alter his course or you’ll be back doing 360s!

Don’t try too hard to cross – pinching too close to the wind can cost you, according to John McLaughlin. It is alway tactically more advantageous to sail fast, even if you duck the boat. A well executed "duck" will increase your boat speed, putting you ahead of the other boat the next time you meet. As you head down the home stretch, know whether your class of boat sails well dead downwind or prefers to be sailed at an angle, gybing downwind just as you tacked upwind. As Eric Rasmussen was kind enough to share, the extra speed of sailing the "hotter" angle more than makes up for the additional distance traveled. In light-moderate wind, it often pays to "sail hot", heading up a little to a faster point of sail. As the wind picks up, and you reach hull speed, you can "sail deep", heading back down to sail a shorter course. When the wind gets very strong, sailing directly downwind can increase the danger of capsizing, so you might want to switch back to a broad reach. And on those dead air summer days, you may want to break the rules – at least the rule of thumb that calls for full shape sail trim in light wind, flat shape in heavy wind. If the wind is very light, then a sail with a very full shape may not work because the wind cannot attach to the lee side of the sail. You’ll go slow. Flatten the sail until the wind can flow along both sides without "detaching".

Finally, Tanzer convert Eric Rasmussen revealed his prized tactical trick, preventing a boat from tacking. Let’s say you’re on another boat’s hip after rounding the leeward mark. Normally this would hurt you because you’re getting dirty air from the boat ahead. But if you can hang on or get far enough to windward to stay out of her air, then you can wind up ahead.

Here’s why: You must keep clear of the leeward boat, but if she tacks, then she must keep clear of you while tacking. So if you can stay far enough away to keep clear but close enough so she can’t tack and keep clear, then you gain control and can delay her way past the layline to the next mark – or the finish. Then when you finally choose to tack, you’ll be clear ahead!

Eric says he’s done this many times, passing another boat on the last beat to the finish.

Congratulations to all the sailors brave enough to share their secrets of success – but most of all, to the newcomers determined enough to learn them! As Olympic sailor Dave Perry says, the race just gets better if we sharpen our competition!

Starting Line Strategy --- by Dave Batchelor

At last months social we added a tactics Q&A session. There was good discussion about a variety of topics. There were several questions about where to start on the line. There are lots of things to consider but the 2 most important are which end of the line is further upwind and which side of the course is favored. The location of the windward mark is much less important than you might think.

Perspective

I have often said that the best sailors seem to have an aerial view of the race course and analyze both strategic and tactical situations from this perspective. David Dellenbaugh’s magazine Speed&Smarts* described a way for all of us to gain that perspective. It’s called ladder rungs. It’s a series of imaginary lines drawn perpendicular to the wind. Every boat on the same rung of that imaginary ladder is equally distant from the next ladder rung as a matter of geometry. See the diagram and play around with the idea until you are absolutely convinced this is true. We understand that you lose a little when you tack, but the distance sailed is the same. The equal distant between rungs is why the location of the windward mark is not very important. A boat anyplace along a square line is equal distance from a mark anywhere along the top rung, unless you are over standing the mark.

When you are at the lake next time try standing up facing directly into the wind and hold your arms out on either side at 90⁰ to the wind. You are the center point of a rung. Find other boats or markers on that line and then swing your arms to starboard a little. Notice that the boat on your port side is below the new imaginary, i.e., behind at that time. The starboard side boat gained in this shift. Notice also that the further the boats are away from you the more they gained or lost. This is referred to as leverage by today’s journalist. Tacking lines on some boats are just a way to help visualize when other boats are above or below the rung.

Which end is Favored

Ladder rungs are the basis for deciding which end of the line is favored. Visualize the rung you are on and decide which end is above the line. Some people sail head-to-wind and hold their arms perpendicular to the wind, at least mentally, to decide which end of the staring line is further upwind. Another technique is to sail down the line and compare the compass direction of the boat to the median wind direction you have observed. This technique judges which end is upwind based on the average or median wind observed which is what most race committees use to set the line.

If the wind is shifty and the lines and race are short, as at Jordan, the head-to-wind method gives you a quick read at that time. On short legs there may be only 0- 2 shifts and you need to get any advantage you can at the start. It also works well in large fleets with long lines because a 5⁰ shift on a long line is a lot of distance. The run-the line method works well when the length of the line is short compared to a long windward leg where the wind will average out over the leg.

Which Side of the Course is favored?

This is where you would sail to take advantage of better wind, a geographic shift caused by the shore line or tide or current without other boats around. Hopefully someone better qualified than I will offer some tips next month.

Where to Start?

This is based on balancing the advantage gained by starting at the upwind end of the line with your ability to sail toward the side of the course you believe has an advantage, i.e., a strategic or a tactical start. Strategy influences decisions about where to start and which side of the course to sail to get around the course the fastest in the absence of other boats. Tactics influences decisions about where to start and which side of the course to sail towards when you influenced by other boats. This is where a good understanding of the rules is critical. You need to protect your rights to sail where you have an advantage and avoid becoming trapped. On short races

Short race decisions are more tactical than strategic unless you have the speed and position to have the freedom to sail just a strategic race. For long races Dellenbaugh recommends sailing the first legs based on strategic consideration. On subsequent legs using tactics will become more important as you protect your position or try to get past boats ahead using good tactics. One classical tactical mistake is not covering on the beat to the finish. Been there, done that and have the tee shirt.

Some sources that I find helpful are

· “Speed&Smarts”by David Dellenbaugh. This is my favorite newsletter/magazine. No ads, just a complete discussion about a single topic each time covering every topic of interest – tactics, strategy, sail trims, the rules... Only 12-14 pages, comes 10 times per year but the best for my money.

· “Racing Rules of Sailing” by Dave Perry which is a great book on tactics and the rules.

· “Performance Racing Tactics” by Bill Gladstone of North Sails is available in interactive CD as well as book form.

The books are available from Layline at 919-755-1901 or http://www.layline.com/home.asp

Speed&Smarts from http://www.sailingsource.com/speedsmarts/

Tanzer Monthly Report – April 2004

David and Paul Mobley decided to take an alternative to winter sailing at Lake Jordan and went to New Zealand and Australia in February. While in New Zealand, they arranged to go sailing on an America’s Cup boat from 1999-2000 campaign in Auckland. Here’s a report from both Paul and David of the experience.

America’s Cup Sailing – by Paul Mobley

As my Dad was planning our trip to New Zealand, he clearly had his priorities in order. Once we arrived from our 26 hour journey that spanned three days of time zones, first on the agenda was sailing! When I say sailing, I’m not just talking about any sailing; I’m talking about America’s Cup Sailing--Primo, as the Kiwis would say. We hopped on board the NZ41; 80 feet long, 120 feet tall, 13 feet keel with a 20 ton torpedo of lead at the bottom. As the crew brought her out of the Auckland harbor with a retrofitted half ton engine, the wind held around 10 knots after it had calmed down from a morning storm. We got out into the bay and started to hoist the main sail. Dad and I jumped on a grinder made for two people, one on each side. It took eight men to raise the sail and was not an easy task, but it has a self-cooling effect as it dumped a good amount of the morning’s rain on my backside, while Dad was left dry. We then hoisted a spinnaker, and set course downwind. The crew handled the raising of the spinnaker and obviously needed our help, since they got it in a knot right away. Some sharp words were exchanged between the captain and crew so and even someone on shore saw it and called up the captain immediately to poke fun at him. They got it worked out eventually after Dad and I gave them some pointers. The captain clearly knew a good skipper when he saw one and asked Dad to take over the helm. He took to it like a natural, and the Captain noted, “You must sail with a spinnaker often.” Dad handled the ship excellently and handed off the helm after a while. We sat on the rails for a while and enjoyed the ride as the wind picked up to 15 knots. We had a sudden storm come up, as is common in New Zealand, and we changed our course just in time to outrun it. We headed upwind and I took over the helm and leaned it over thirty degrees! It was so exhilarating! It is the best cure for jet lag that we could possibly be. The sad part came when we had to get off and return to being landlubbers.

America’s Cup Sailing – by David Mobley

Paul captured the thrill of the ride but I thought I would add a few details. As soon as we cleared the harbor, the spinnaker went up as the wind was behind us. After they finally got it up correctly, I took the helm, looked at the sail and set a course, surprised at how similar it was to sailing a Tanzer. The Captain suggested that I alter course about 10 degrees for max speed so I thought I had done pretty well. At the time, we were in a 7 knot breeze and the boat was doing 10 knots on a reach. I thought that was amazing. Paul took the helm when the wind had picked up to around 15 knots, and we were going upwind. He made a couple of nice tacks and went to right to maximum boat speed upwind of 9.8 knots along with the 30 degree angle of the boat. While knowing and sensing that it was a high performance sailing machine, I was surprised at how similar it was to sailing a Tanzer with all the major adjustments of sail shape and boat speed being very familiar. The Tanzer does sacrifice some speed but given that the America’s Cup boat was about $6 million at the time of launch, I decided that the Tanzer was a pretty good alternative for lake sailing in NC.

Tanzer’s For Sale and Sail

The Tanzer 16 Class Association is buying used boats and reselling them to prospective sailors. To encourage racing, the Association will refund $500 to the buyer who competes in 10 race days during the year. The Association has three boats for sale currently at approximately $1500. Interested sailors should contact Bob Macklen at 919-876-4873.

Tanzer Spring Social

The Tanzer Spring Social was held at the home of Donnie Holmes and Donna Parker on March 24. A lively group enjoyed lasagna with all the trimmings including libation. Naturally, the discussion centered on sailing as “wait til next year” is almost here. Everyone was excited about doing the maintenance to get ready (not really) and about the Tanzer Day at Lake Jordan on May 24 (really).

THISTLE CREW UNIVERSITY – TCU

Hi folks,

I would like to schedule the first Thistle Crew University for Saturday April 24th at Lake Jordan (Informal sailing series day).

John and I have pulled together a formal course and we have a number of folks that have already signed up for a learning session.

We will also be doing some additional promotion of the event in the coming weeks.

Please plan on bringing your Thistles down to the lake on April 24th for the class. If you want to leave one or both of your crew at home that would be a bonus too! The idea of the class is to provide some formal hands-on land-based training and then to split up the students between all of the boats and send them out for some real training during the informal racing.

Please let me know if you will be able to bring your boat down to the lake on April 24th.

Kevin Sheehan

Thistle 3674 "Spirit"

TRAVEL TO SUPPORT RACE OPERATIONS

Between two clubs, two fleets, race management, and Judge in Training, most all of our weekends are spent on sailing related activates from March 6-Nov 14. If you are interested in joining us on the road at regional sailing

events supporting race operations, just let me know. It seems that people willing to serve on race committee are always welcomed.

Currently, we have scheduled:

April 24-25, Lightning SELD, Catawba Yacht Club, Lake Wylie, North Carolina

http://www.sailsoutheast.org/2004CottonwoodNOR.htm

We have not been to Lake Wylie before, but have wanted to get there. Catawba is also the home port of the Vanguard 15 fleet. Catawba has offered to host events for any of our fleets as well. Currently, the Lightnings

sail there.

Memorial Weekend, May 28, 30, NCYRA 2004 Championship, Beaufort, NC

http://www.ncyra.org/

We served as Judges/Race Committee last year and had a great time in Beaufort, NC. Big Boats, Mark racing in the Ocean.

June 12,13, NC/SC Offshore Governor's Cup, Long Bay Sailing Association,

Myrtle Beach SC

http://www.longbaysailing.org/Pages/gcsch.htm

This too will be a repeat visit for us. Once again, PHRF racing but with a very laid back attitude. And hey, if you would prefer to race, rather to run race committee, we can probably find you a spot.

August 14, 15 Spar Wars, Hilton Head, SC

http://www.scyachtclub.com/SparWarsPhotos2003.htm

NOR not yet posted. We may have a conflict with the Isotope Calendar this weekend. Just not enough weekends in a year.

October 23, 24 Michelob Cup, Black Water Yacht Racing Association, Smith Mountain, VA

http://home.carolina.rr.com/byra/michpic.html

A true favorite of ours. This will be our fourth year serving as PRO at the Michelob Cup. Gives us an itch for big boats.

-Joleen

US Sailing Club Race Officer

Carolina Sailing Foundation Activities

The Foundation has experienced a banner year thus far!

- Monetary donations allowed us to pay off the debt we incurred in the purchase of last year’s OPTIs.

- The profit from the sale of George Smart’s Lightning to the Turner family will allow us to purchase a 5^th OPTI this season.

- Paul Sadlowski’s generous donation of a small motor craft gives the junior program a dedicated coach boat.

- The Foundation paid the test fees for many CSC members to become certified in race management.

- Will sponsor both the Governor’s Cup and The Oriental Sailing Social

With your help 2004 will continue to be wildly successful. Your tax-deductible donations are always welcome to support the Foundation’s mission of promoting the amateur sport of sailing in our area.

Flying Scot Fleet News

The inaugural Flying Scot Atlantic Coast Championship will be held in Edenton August 7^th and 8^thhosted by Flying Scot Fleet 27(CSC) and the Edenton Yacht Club. The event will also be the district championship for the Carolinas Scot sailors. This is a great sailing venue with hoist for launching and a large harbor protected by a sea wall. The southern hospitality is top notch and we will have a great race committee. CSC commodore John Norton and other CSC folks will be in charge of the windward mark and jibe mark boats. Claude Summers who is a member at LNYC and helps with our junior program will be in charge of the line set boat. The PRO John Slater and most of the signal boat team from last years Flying Scot NACs at Lake Norman with run the races.

This event is being held as part of the Edenton Bay Challenge, an annual regatta. Tanzer 16s and Windmills will share the course with the Scots sailing on the Albemarle Sound. We partitioned the Flying Scot Sailing Association for sanctioning as the Atlantic Coast Championship during the recent Midwinter’s and there was good enthusiasm for the event. The Carolinas District and the Capital districts will alternate holding the event.

Dave Batchelor hopes to get control of his crazy schedule at Lowes so he can get back to sailing again and we look forward to having several new folks join fleet members Dave Batchelor, Jane & Dave Stanhope, John & Bradford Hunter, Dan Albert and sons, and Chuck Curtis as the weather warms up a bit. We’ll be scheduling a workday to repair, refit and tune Scots in the near future if there is interest. Let Chuck or Dave know if you need help getting ready for the season.

Race Committee Sign Up (Reminder)

If you are not signed up for two days yet, now is the best time to visit the CSC Race Committee website, look at what is still available, check your calendar, and enter your name in the slots of your choosing. Remember, this is a first come/first serve process.

The web address is: www.carolinasailingclub.org/racecommittee/

Kerr Lake Series – Fleet Social Responsibility

As a fleet, we are responsible for the social one weekend this summer. Our slot is in September. I need your help. Anyone willing to volunteer (organize and lead)?

Our fleet is responsible for all the food and drinks for the entire weekend. I'll provide the coffee, cups, plates, ice cooler, condiments, etc. Here's the 4 events to plan on:

Saturday morning Light breakfast and juices
Saturday afternoon Heavy snacks, chips, drinks
Sunday morning Light breakfast and juices
Sunday afternoon Light snacks, chips, drinks

I encourage you have a fun theme for Saturday afternoon's social, like the Thistles did last year with a Beach Party theme. I'll bring the CD player for you.

New Member Committee

On March 21^stthe crowd gathered for a Winter Series race at Ebenezer Church Point. The crowd included a couple of new people that found out about CSC at the boat show and through our announcements in the News & Observer. Sarah Crouch joined up and brought chili for the social another new crew Susan Hagberg also was there to sail as Chuck Curtis’s crew.

The last races of the Winter Series at Vista Point, March 28^th, found us with fewer new members since they had been blown away on the 21^st. Don Turner with his crew of Evan and Abby showed up but decided that since the wind was pretty high and gusty that it would be better to ride with Chuck Curtis than take out there recently purchased Lightning. Dave and Jane Stanhope also came out but the wind was too much for their young daughter to feel comfortable out on the water. We are hoping to get their daughter involved in the youth sailing. Sarah Crouch again offered to help with the social bringing food for the Commodore’s Bash.

The new members committee has been fully manned with the addition of Howard Mendlovitz and Terry Murphy.

LONG DISTANCE CATAMARAN CREW NEEDED

New member Bill Setzer is actively seeking a crew for a long distance catamaran race May 09,04 . From sandy Hook, NJ to the Statue of Liberty and back. Open ocean racing. Big iron( ships) traffic. Swift currents. 2 up crews required. from a Isotope to Hobie,Nacras, Inters, A cats, etc. Do we have any Isotope sailors up for a challenge or others that want to ride a cat?? Roy Rysdon New Member and Rear Commodore.

INSURE YOUR BOAT

Over the winter we have had a couple of boats collide with each other and sometimes the Race Committee boats. Please remember if found at fault you are responsible for the repair of the damaged boat. More then once a barging boat has collided with an anchored RC boat causing damage. I was at a regatta in Jacksonville recently and a Thistle mast became entangled with an outrigger on a sport fishing boat that was acting as the signal boat for RC. As a result the outrigger was bent and needed to be replaced to the tune of $1500. I have personally been involved in a collision that neither boat was found at fault so we split the repairs which cost both our insurance companies $1500.

There are many ways to obtain insurance. US sailing has just announced a plan for members. You can find more information at:

http://www.ussailing.org/membership/insurance/index.htm#One-Design%20Insurance

You may also want to talk to your insurance agent and see if it can be added to your homeowners policy.

TANZERS FOR SALE

The Tanzer 16 Class Association offers Tanzer 16 #379 for sale, $1,200. This boat has a rich racing tradition, is equipped with a spinnaker, launching chute and trailer, and is approved by the Class Measurer as a good racing boat.

The Tanzer 16 Class Association offers Tanzer 16 #566 for sale, $1,200. This boat has an excellent galvanized Performance trailer with 10" wheels, a new style anodized rudder and rudder head, a blue canvas deck cover and is approved by the Class Measurer to be a good racing boat, with a few minor improvements. It appears this boat has never been raced. It has very few modifications from stock factory issue. Sails and running rigging are original and the boat is in good condition.

Buyers must acquire a $500 Racing Bond from the Class Association to be eligible to purchase boats from the Class Association. Racing Bonds are refunded by the Class Association after the new owner completes 10 races during any calendar year.

Contact Pete Thorn for details pthorn@nc.rr.com

OPTI racers come out and share your enthusiasm for the sport!