Technique/Gear: Two spin sheets or one

When we started sailing Kraken she was equipped with sheets and tweakers, one sheet per clew and tweakers to bring the pole side down.

Our initial gybe approach followed the dip pole setup that I was most used to, so we added lazy sheets and guys.

A year into racing and while our gybes have improved significantly we're still not as smooth as we could be. While the fordeck seems pretty comfortable with end for end (we switched back) gybing using the lazy sheets there are often mistakes made in the cockpit, lines loosed leaving clews un constrained, wrong lines being pulled post gybe.

So we're going back to lines and tweakers. Initial tests have been positive though the wind too light too really tell.

The main concern is going to be how it affects the spinnaker when the foredeck crew are attaching to the new line, which will be active.

If I don't change things up every month or two... everyone would get complacent.

One other change I've made is that the downhaul can now be easily converted to a fore-guy in a few seconds. We've found that in gusty conditions, like those found under Point Loma where we race fairly frequently, the pole tends to dance around a bit, something that the foreguy tensioned against the afterguy alleviates. On the other hand the fore-guy setup makes setting and dousing harder and is an extra complication with frequent maneuvers. Now it's easy for us to prioritize tip control over the ease of use if desired, for instance in gusty conditions or on long spinnaker runs and reaches.

Technique: Gybing - End for End

We spent some time with dip pole gybes but never got comfortable. We got a few to work pretty well but there were always snags, the new guy going into the jaw the wrong way, the pole getting caught up on the lazy sheet, the pole pulling the sail down as it was dipped etc and really it never got as quick as I know it can be done.

So we returned to end for end gybes and things got fast immediately. Kraken has a Carbon Fibre pole, which is pretty light but it still gets unwieldy at times, so we're probably about as big a boat as you can manage the end for end on. Luckily for us winds in Oceanside in particular, but also San Diego tend to be on the lighter side which I think helps.

End for end also seems easier to accomplish single handing.

The succinct(?) explanation is:

• We turn the sail around the forestay and the boat through the wind at the same time keeping turning all the way to the new course. As the boat is passing dead down wind the sail should be past the front of the boat, will roll from one side to the other and the main is gybed. At the same time we release the pole, relying on the back of the boat to keep the sail flying as the boat continues to turn to its new course. Once the pole is set we switch control sheets / guys to the new side and high five as our competition sighs in appreciation of the awesomeness they just saw, though honestly they won't even know we've gybed until they hear the calls of starboard and have to luff horrendously rounding up in the procedure. Suckers!

More detail:

• Preparation:
• Helm: "Prepare to jibe!!"
• Pit: Make sure foredeck is in agreement
• Foredeck: We bring the lazy guy on the new side to the mast, ready to put in the jaws. [With one person, get it done. With two people, one is ready to snap in the new guy and one controls releasing the pole from the old guy at the right moment. With three the third person helps as needed, helping keep the sail flying as a human pole or communicating status back to the back of the boat and keeping an eye on things if hands are not needed.]
• Helm: Call the start of the turn "Jibe Ho"
• Everyone else: Critique as needed, the back of the boat is most likely to mess up the gybe so build some evidence to the contrary.
• Initial Turn to DDW [Dead Down Wind]  - 10 seconds:
• Foredeck: We bring the pole down to a height that is as high as possible while allowing the us to get the pole back on the mast. On Kraken the pole flies a couple of feet higher than you can reach comfortably. As the pole comes down the sail is less efficient and we are starting our turn.
• Pit: Slack on the uphaul as needed for pole drop, in unison with foredeck, extra slack as needed for pole disconnect. Assist trimmers, make sure sheets are in place for new course.
• Trim: The sail is rotated around to a deep configuration, pole back, sheet forwards. The sheet should be within a couple of feet of the forestay.
• Helm: As the sail rotates we rotate the boat under it.
• Main: Assist trimmers, making sure sheets are ready for new side
• The Switchover- 10 seconds:
• Foredeck: As the boat passes dead down wind we trip the pole, to allow the foredeck crew to work pit has given them some extra uphaul and down haul / foreguy slack. The sail will lean from one side of the boat to the other as the wind changes sides and this is the time to release the pole.
• Foredeck: Communicate with the back of the boat
• Pit: Communicate forwards and backwards. Call the trip when you see the sail rotate.
• Trim: Keep the sail rotating to its new side, don't over trim, make sure it is around the forestay before we go DDW and communicate with the helm if we are turning to fast or can turn faster. Keep the sail flying and don't oversheet and flatten it against the side of the boat!
• Helm: We don't stop rotating the boat but keep going through downwind to our course on the new gybe. Make sure we turn with the sail.
• Main: Pull main over to new side, catch it as it goes to take a little shock out of  the gybe
• The CleanUp - 20 seconds:
• Foredeck: Attaches the lazy sheet in the jaw that came off the mast and pushes the pole out and forwards (about 45 degrees from the bow) in order to reattach the new base of the pole to the mast.
• Foredeck: Gets pole back up to correct height
• Pit: Pole back up to correct height, downhaul and uphaul nice and snug. Assist with trim
• Trim: Switch control from old sheet to new guy (new guy in, then release old sheet).
• Trim: Switch control from old guy too new sheet (new sheet in, the release old guy).
• Main: Assist with trim as needed
• Helm: Concentrate on new course, work with Trim to keep the sail flying

When single handing:

• Use the autopilot!
• Rotate the sail and turn deep but not DDW (say 160 to 170 depending on track AP can run and shiftyness of wind).
• Gybe the boat and the main to new side. Sail deep again to keep the sail in front of the boat, but not so deep that epxected windshifts or autopilot wander will lead the boat below 170 true.
• Slack the uphaul and downhaul and go forward to move the pole over (bring pole down, put to new side, take back up, take uphaul forwards to snug it)
• Return to the cockpit, make sure I'm happy with the up / downhaul and adjust sheets
• Get to proper new course according to polars.

When done correctly this takes about three minutes at the moment, so I'm not gybing on minor shifts but I often make mistakes and it can take up to 10 minutes to properly settle on the new course. Practice....

Video: Dolphins

Dolphins came back to Oceanside. Been a while but last week we saw a few and yesterday I saw hundreds.

More solo spinnaker sailing and trying to tune upwind. Also recorded the sail at raceQs.com - there's a nice replay using google earth and it allows you to easily see your speed variation during the track. Reminds me that I've really got to push on my own recording and analysis code that also had all the instrument data.

RaceQs though does seem like it will be able to highlight differences in tacking efficiency, speed etc pretty nicely.

Technique: Been doing it all wrong

More solo sailing today. Working to reduce my reliance on the autopilot I got the boat out of the harbor sailing without it and then took a brisk few tacks upwind without it. Having cleared a few miles offshore in a building breeze I turned back on shore and set the spinnaker. Doing a "gybe set" (meaning in this case, gybe then set the pole, then hoist) took a while and getting the pole setup was taking ages so I started using the AP again - beats running bow to stern all the time. Knowing to press the +1 and -1 on the Raymarine ST60 to adjust the accuracy is awesome!

Once set I took a 045 course heading for the pier, some way off, and played with trim. For this last year we've been playing the spinnaker with the pole just above head height and the shoulder breaks, perhaps the top 60-70%. Today I started pushing the pole up, first six inches, then a foot and finally about 2 feet higher than normal. This brought the break right down to the middle and lifted the speed .5kts, perhaps more difficult to tell as the breeze lifted from 8 to 10kts while I was playing.

The spinnaker felt a bit more skittish when trimming but what was really interesting to me was that when I turned downwind and gybed it seemed a lot steadier than normal - I always avoid Dead Down Wind as the vortex off the main wraps the spinnaker around the forestay in a jiffy but today I was sailing just a little above DDW without worry. I also feel that the speed was held deeper than before which could be very useful.

Three gybes complete, all pretty quick and painless and I came up on a reach, (about 100 to 120) back towards the pier. As the breeze got up to 12kts at times the AP was definitely having problems holding the course and I hand steered a bit. Probably could have done more to help it as I released the vang but didn't otherwise try and depower the main. Didn't spend much time on the reach but next week I'm going to experiment with pole back down again to try and pull the draft forwards, vs up to flatten the sail.

I learnt a new trick during the gybes, perhaps more obvious because of the higher pole position - snugging the uphaul pulls the pole forwards to the kite on the new guy. Getting the afterguy, uphaul and downhaul all nice and snug helps hold the pole forwards (I'm still debating foreguy vs downhaul - see downhaul vs foreguy).

Speed peaked at somewhere over 8 knots.

Managed to keep the kite dry on the drop this time and got home in time to put Wyn down for his afternoon nap.

Gotta remember to mark the new pole position.

Really happy with the new trim. We've been sluggish downwind, not terrible just sluggish and as well as doing lots of reading on tactics but getting a bit of extra boatspeed would be killer!

I wonder about rigging a small line from the wheel to the bow so I can steer from up there.....

Technique: Single Handing the Spinnaker

I've been wanting to single hand the spinnaker for a while but two things have been standing in my way - firstly the worry of getting a wrap and secondly getting the spinnaker down without fuss.

A couple of weeks ago I was sailing with my Mum and step-dad and got the wrap from hell, while we ended up sorting it out after a lot of fuss it inspired me to actually research how to get out of it. Gybing the main and sailing deep / by the lee can, after today, be confirmed as working, at least once.

Watching this video (part of an AWESOME series) convinced me that the takedown wouldn't be too bad.

And so it was!

After a hour and a bit of working upwind to get space I hoisted the kite, let the autopilot do the steering and trimmed to it's somewhat meandering course.

Having settled down I did three gybes. On the first one I forgot to slack the uphaul so it took ages to get the pole off and I got a wrap but gybing the main cleared it up nicely.

My approach to gybing was:
- Run about 160 deep
- Square back the pole (get clew to near the forestay)
- Push boat through the wind and gybe main
- Go swap the pole
- Trim pole, new sheet

This might not work in stronger winds, as the pole had some load on it after taking the boat through the wind. I took this approach as I thought it would be less susceptible to wrapping, but I'm not sure that's the case. Next time I'm going to try gybing the pole first, then swinging through the wind and gybing the main, as we do when sailing with a crew.

As it was the second two gybes worked perfectly, taking me about 3 minutes to get from trimmed on one side to trimmed on the other, next week I'll have another go and perhaps reduce this.

For the takedown I controlled the halyard with my backside, released the guy and pulled into the companionway and it was all super smooth.

A couple of shots from up the mast. Position has great potential for amazing photos and video but I need to get the camera better mounted to the rigging (and without it being a hazard!).

Video: Double Digit Speeds

After skirting with the high 9s for the last year we finally made it to double digit speeds. While we got there on several occasions one of them was on camera.... a couple of times surfing waves we hit 10.7 and a couple of other times 10, with lots of time spent at 8 and 9 knots.

Would have been great to have a little more wind and slightly larger waves to get surfing more frequently but now I'm getting fussy and we need to build up steadily!

Technique: All wrapped up

Bringing Kraken back to Oceanside from SD an unfortunate set of events concerning a kelp wrapper, kelp flosser, pot of coffee and absent minded autopilot led to the spinnaker wrap from hell.

I think the central section rolled around the forestay twenty times, tightened and ballooned out to hold itself snugly in place.

After twenty minutes of pulling at it ineffectually I unwound the bottom section, then the top section, pulling the spinnaker around the forestay repeatedly, first the little bit left, then more and more of the sail until I was pulling 900sq ft of angry, well at least resistant, nylon forwards and backwards.

This worked. My muscles still ache and my legs are still bruised from straddling the forestay pulling air filled nylon for about about thirty minutes. My stepdad kept the boat reversing for this time, fighting an inverted rudder against sloppy waves but reducing the air flow I was fighting. Overall it was a mess and a day later my shoulders still ache, I figured there has to be an easier way to sort out as mess like that.

The first thing I found....

Another suggestion was to gybe the main to reverse the vortex.

Next time I'll try those - as it sounds a bit more straightforward, but nice to know that if all else fails I've got a slow and laborious but functional out - better than cutting the sail away!

Sailing: Finally some wind

Finally got out in some stronger breeze, where stronger was 12-14kts. Also had my data recording working and got a chart of our speed.

Pretty obvious that its going to take a while to get a race crew settled. Initially we sailed upwind, working on tacking then raised the spinnaker and ran for a while. Almost hit 10kts on a small wave but not quite into double figures yet. Next time!

We gybed about 5-6 times and only the last one wasn't a disaster - hopefully no-one was watching. Wondering what the difference was between this and the previous week was, where the gybes were a bit slow but not disasters I came up with a few reasons:
- The wind was stronger
- Because we were a man down I worked mast myself, thinking I could see the whole boat, I couldn't and this left two novices trimming without enough oversite. I need to stay in the afterguard.
- Adding lazy spinnaker lines simplified life up front but made trimmers lives more complicated, which combined with the above point was a problem.

To fix the problem with the lazy lines I think we need to steer down under the spinnaker, swap the pole and sheet trimmer and have them sheet their new line in on the new side until the line it replaces goes slack, then get that line off its winch asap. Sounds simple in practice but with 7 people clambering over the boat who don't know what they are doing it's surprisingly not at the time.

Next time....

Having said all that it was a perfect sailing day, lovely weather, fun people to be on the boat with and we steadily got better during the day!

Here's our speed chart, when I've got the data crunching app in a bit better shape I'll add it to the software section (but still leave the really basic connection code there as a starting point if needed). Max recorded speed 9.67kts.

Thanks Hongo for the pictures!