General Boat Setup, by Mike
Guccione
(taken from the Sailpix email list archives)
Back stay pressure does two main things to your rig. It bends the mast
putting more pressure on the forestay flattening your jib and it
flattens
the main sail by bowing the mast. Its nearly impossible to give
you a number
to follow as it all depends on the sail and the winds involved
and how your
rig is set up when no pressure is put on it. This give you a way
to increase
pointing and reducing power but if you have a lot of chop then
its power you
need more of not point.
This is how we do it. We leave it off in light air but as we go
out to
weather our tactician will adjust it in conjunction with the
helmsman. We
use it to balance out the helm if I have to much weather helm
then more back
stay goes on.
As the wind come up we tighten the back stay and this flattens
the jib
allowing for better pointing angle. But as you do this you get a
flatter
main, ours will actually invert if we go to far. This is the time
to use
your running backs to straighten out the mast and make it full
again while
keeping the sag out of the headsail.
The fastest way to pick up 9 second a mile in speed is to
practice tacking.
Yes a series of good tacks can put you in the hunt.
Try this. After you make a tack look behind you and see what the
pattern in
the water is. Was is a c shape wake? If so the helmsman did his
job. If your
wake looks more like a J or a S shape then you over steered or
under
steered. Second tack in tempo with your crew. Don't go faster
than they can
move the sail. Next check your speed on one tack when you feel
you are at
full speed tack and start a time clock. Now on your new course
stop the
watch when you achieve the same speed on the new tack. I hired a
professional coach years ago and we spent the entire day just
making tacks
and improving them. By the end of the day we took 45 seconds out
of each
tack just by experimenting and timing.
Back stay pressure and the use of the running backs is a very
advanced issue
that is based on the look and feel of the boat and sails. You
will get much
more out of a good tack than you will from a perfectly set back
stay in all
conditions less than 14 knots.
Nearly everyone in this fleet tacks poorly and that is why we do
so well to
going to weather. We can gain more than three boat lengths
against the fleet
just on one good tack. The only reason we were in the hunt
against Ghost in
the last race was our tacking.
Bending the mast forward is called fraculating. The idea, used
widely in the
Schock 35 class, is to bend the mast forward for downwind
sailing. This put
the chute out future in front of the boat and move the center of
effort
forward. We ALWAYS remove all back stay tension when going
downwind. Then,
if you like, you can remove your halyard from the jib attach it
to the bow
of your boat and then crank on the winch this pulls the mast
forward. Does
it work? Yes but we don't set a fraculator. We take off pressure
from the
back stay but we feel that removing the jib halyard and putting
in back on
is one more area for a chance of a crew error and that is more
important to
us than a few seconds per race. In one design sailing its all
about crew
errors.
The key to being competitive is to forget all the little crap and
concentrate on the big picture. Of course you need to know how to
prioritize
and determine what not important. You can learn more from
watching Gyom and
I sail your boat for two hours than you will in two years of
reading about
what to do.
The number one thing to learn in racing is the rudder is your
enemy. If you
are sailing to weather and your tiller is way above center line
then you
have a brake working below not a rudder. Backstay pressure can
help that.
The more you use your rudder the less good it does for you.
If you raced with us you would find the following. Nobody talks
to the
helmsman directly. Only the tactician and I talk and we talk
constantly
about the speed of the boat and its point. If you wanted to ask
me a
question you would ask the tactician to ask the question to me.
Our
tactician does only one job, tactics. Our helmsman does only one
job, steers
to the tell tales. I don't ever know where you are without asking
the crew
where you are. I never take my eyes off the tell tales to see
where you or
anything is. The crew is constantly giving Gyom information on
the position
and speed of our competition, large waves, new wind. If we are
losing ground
we want to know fast and figure out why. Our bow man is
constantly looking
for kelp and the next mark. Gyom job besides tactics is crash
control. If
something goes wrong he is there to deal with it. In the last
fleet race we
lost our spinnaker halyard while going downwind, the chute fell
from the
mast and the boat sailed over it and the spinnaker halyard is now
at the top
of the mast. We had the old chute out of the water and a new
chute up inside
of 90 seconds. Crew work and practice wins races.
Controlling Headstay Sag, by
Harry Pattison
(from epsails.com)
A key "Go Fast" for any racer is the ability to control headstay sag
and genoa shape. However I find that at the mid-fleet level this is
often a concept not fully understood or applied correctly. For this
article I am talking about conventional masthead rigs. While the same
principals apply for fractional rigs, and masthead rigs with swept aft
spreaders, the techniques are enough different to warranty an entirely
separate discussion.
First it is important to understand that any headsail is designed for a
specific range of headstay sag. This amount will have been determined
by your sailmaker based on the wind range that the sail is to be used
in, the actual amount of sag that is present across that range, and the
amount of control available on the boat. To get the most out of your
headsail you need to control the sag across it’s range as conditions
change. In the light end of the range you will want to increase sag to
make the sail fuller and the entry rounder; on the upper end you will
need to reduce sag to make the sail and entry flatter. Headstay sag is
a function of the area of the sail, the amount of wind pressure on the
sail, and the amount of tension in the headstay. As wind speed
increases it exerts more pressure on the sail which will cause the
headstay to sag more, if more tension in not applied to the headstay.
As the headstay sags back it puts more shape into the headsail, just
the same as decreasing forward mast bend puts more shape into a
mainsail.
The main adjustments you have for controlling headstay sag on a
masthead boat are the runners and or checkstays. They are NOT for
controlling mast bend. If all you are concerned about is mast bend you
don’t need runners, just use more backstay when you want to bend the
mast more, and use less when you want less mast bend. Runners and
checkstays certainly limit the amount of mast bend you have but the
reason you use them is to transfer more or less load from the backstay
to the headstay. Imagine sailing along in 10 knot of breeze, the main
is trimmed just right, you have good speed, but you aren’t pointing
well. The genoa seems to be too deep and is too round in the front. You
can put on more backstay tension which does reduce the headstay sag,
but now the mast is bent too much and the main is too flat. To correct
for this you tighten your runners until you pull the mast back to its
original bend; now the mainsail looks just the same, but the headstay
has less sag and your genoa is flatter. In the same way if the wind
lightens and you need more power you ease the backstay and the runners
to keep proper mainsail shape but increase sag in the headstay.
I see too many people pull their runners tighter in light air and
loosen them in heavier air because they are trying to use them to
control mast bend; and this is just the opposite of what they should be
doing. In general; the heavier the air, the tighter the backstay, the
tighter the runners. Headstay tension and sag are critical elements of
maintaining proper sail shape. Keeping the entry and depth of you
headsail correct in changing conditions is at least as important, if
not more important, than changing the shape of you main. Well sailed
boats that finish in the top of their fleets are constantly adjusting
their runners, checkstays, and backstay to optimize headsail shape; and
you should be too!
