How things change

After our light winds practice at the weekend I was left reflecting on how things change.

The boat was split, half experienced, half inexperienced. We started with basic trim upwind. I had intended on working on acceleration practice but with light winds and cruising sails up quickly scaled back to tailing, grinding and basic helming, getting people into new positions.

Downwind we practiced free flying the spinnaker with people trimming who hadn't been through this before (nor had much experience trimming) and pulled off a dozen gybes.

A year ago we were happy to do two.

Then we doused (mexican) and went upwind a bit again.

Next came a tack set.

And another mexican douse.

Then a gybe set.

And a windward douse.

So three sets, three douses, three different set types, all crisp and fast, two different douses also crisp and fast beyond a small matter of the hatch hot being open ready for one of them.

The hatch was the only major mistake.

A year ago we'd have managed a single hoist, a couple of gybes and would have considered ourselves lucky to not wrap the spinnaker hard on the forestay.

Halyard maintenance - End for Ending - a trick

After blowing our jib halyard in the opening race I built a new one but then started having nightmares (quite literally!) about the other halyards on the boat, all of the same age, and all with a strange lock(?) knot right in the splice that looks like it was just weakening the line.

So I started "end for ending" the lines. Moving the cover over the stripped and UV damaged core and putting the eye splice on the other end. The first line I did just pushing a foot or two along the rope at a time and it took forever. The second I tied one end to a door handle and stretched the line out, this allowed me to work a couple of yards at a time and the process went much much faster!

First test with my new halyard / rebuilt halyards was okay, sails stayed up. Each halyard has three splices - a locked brummel around a shackle for the eye, a cover bury at the point the core comes out and reaving splice at the loose end to allow a line to be easily attached and pull through. I also added a cover over the main wear point on the jib halyard - again buried back into the core.

Here's the new and bright yellow (most lines on Kraken are blue) jib halyard going up the mast, the others I can just use the existing halyard as a feeder but as the jib had blown I needed to feed again.

At some point I'm going to post a video of the climbing process. I use two ascenders, one to some foot loops and the other to a bosun's chair. I also rig a line to a climbing harness and wrap it around the mast, that way any fall would be checked by the shrouds or spreaders, hopefully before hitting the deck.

To climb you stand up in the loops and pull the chair up, then sit an lift the feet loops. Takes about 10 minutes to get up and down, perhaps less now - with practice!

Technique: Weather

We finally had enough wind to break out the #3 jib and headed upwind in 12-20 knots of breeze. The water was good and choppy and as we got the spinnaker ready for hoist the foredeck crew hit zero G a few times and we got the bow under oncoming waves a couple of times - so rare for Oceanside!

I've been reading a book called "High Performance Sailing". On chapter one at the moment it's all about weather and was talking about cloud and wind interactions. At one point we got hit with a decent gust and looking up where it came from you could see a big dark cloud with a thick rain storm under it. Textbook, the rain creates a down draft in the middle of the cloud that radiates outwards, this then combined with the base ?15knot breeze.

We hoisted the spinnaker but sadly noticed the boom gooseneck was coming loose before we gybed onto the faster down wave tack - had been hoping to beat our high speed but guess it'll last until next time there's good conditions.

The gooseneck problem is just a sheared cotter pin but it was tricky to fix in the waves, now I understand the connection better there will be spare pins on board and we'll fix it on the go if it happens again.

On the way back in we got another lesson in cloud wind influence. Just as we got back to the harbor the wind dropped from 12 knots, to 8 knots, to 4 knots spinning around in all directions and boat speed dropped to an uncomfortable and bouncy 1-2 knots.

We were running downwind and directly downwind of us was another larger rainstorm - pushing wind back in our direction. Behind us was another cloud, but n
o rain. This cloud was probably pulling wind into it and up, again working to cancel out the main wind. We were stuck in the middle.

After about 10-15 minutes the wind turned back on and hit nearly 20 knots.

What's crazy is to get good at racing we need to understand these cloud wind interactions, and be able to map them (moving!) across a race course and combine with racing rules and tactics.


Tuning: V1s at 40, D1s just on the gauge (3, gauge bottoms out at 2)

Technique: Tuning

Sailing today in super light winds (2-6 knots) it seemed like there was some power and the boat kept moving but honestly it's difficult to know exactly until tried out against other boats.

Before the Vs were at 47, I brought them down to 37 then while we were sailing down to 35 on the loos gauge. Post sail I dropped even further to 31, the NS guide for 4-8knots of wind.

Something that seemed interesting to me was that looking at the sail with the eye and then with a photo the depth seems different.

Looking at this is seems the draft was further aft than I wanted, though I did want it aft in the light winds and gentle seas.

Chick from Kea recommends running a little looser (2-3 on the gauge) than the tuning guide, given his local dominance that might be some good advice...

A reference picture from North Sail's guide for light-medium wind mainsail tuning is below. Draft is further forwards and the leech is more closed.

We'll see if the folks at sailnet can come up with some interesting comparisons.

Edit: Adding an image of mast bend with the shrouds set to 34. You can see a slight bend that seems fairly high up in the mast.

Technique: Tuning

Lol.

Finally had a proper look at the tuning on the boat. Assuming my LOOS gauge is roughly accurate we were setup for about 20knots of breeze, not the usual <10 we get. Not only that but the tension on the D1s was unbalanced and far too low so in the stronger winds we were probably still getting a load of side bend, just without the curve of the mast. I think.... this tuning thing is still a bit of a mystery.

I loosened up the Vs and D1s (outer masthead and lower diagonals). It took a while to get used to the way adjusting one side directly effects the other, so to reach a desired tension with a balanced finished result you need to progressively work on each side.

At the same time I did push the V's a little to the starboard side as the mast wasn't quite centered. It's closer now but I think I can push it some more.

Hopefully it's still straight....

Will be very interesting to see what difference this change makes this weekend.

Technique: Tuning

North sails new tuning guide for the 36.7 features a picture of Kraken and a nice complement. We were going well upwind that race, our problems were all downwind, hopefully improved since then!

Reason I'm looking at it is that this is one of the next parts to racing Kraken that I'm going to start pushing. Racing at the weekend I felt we could have got more depth into the main in the light conditions, straightening the mast could have helped. Racing in the Beneteau Cup we were a little over powered at times, but then again underpowered at other times. Re-tuning between races might have helped keep us in the groove, improving pointing in stronger winds and power in lighter conditions.

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: Twist

Generally we set Kraken up symmetrical on both tacks but this is something we'll now be changing. This has got us to the middle of the fleet but to get further up we're going to have to work our brains a bit harder.

Coming back from SD after the Beneteau Cup we had some wind in the middle of the day and were trucking along at 6-8 knots somewhere between close hauled and a close reach depending on the moment. As the wind dropped and veered we ended up close hauled and in the swell, slow.

Looking at the sails for a bit it seemed that the top third of the Jib might be pretty close to the back of the main. Though each sail had it's telltales flying well we were down to four knots in six knots of wind.

We opened up the top of the jib to the extent it was luffing a bit in the waves (keeping it strapped on the shroud at the bottom), and pulled the main in a bit tighter so that it was stalling a little at the top and this opened up the slot a lot better.

Without the wind changing we sped up to 5 - 5.5 knots, though I will admit that we cracked of 2-3 degrees as well.

During the Beneteau Cup offshore races this might have really helped. There was a sharp swell on the nose on starboard and the beam on port. On port we were trucking and on starboard we were losing a lot of momentum in the waves. Losing a couple of degrees to gain a lot of speed probably would have been a great bargin.

To get this right we probably want to open up the twist as we see bigger waves coming.

Race: 2014 Beneteau Cup

The Beneteau Cup was a fun event. Our final result was 5/8 and we're properly mixing it with the fleet, losing some battles but finally winning others. Fourth wasn't too far off and that would have us top side of the table. Looking at the distance to lead boat Kea there's a lot of work over next couple of years if we want to challenge but hey, that's why we're racing - if it were easy what would the point be!


Day 1
On our first race we were pretty solid up the first couple of beats and run. It was gratifying to see our downwind now as a competitive tool rather than a scare.... until the final leg when we got the biggest knot in a spinnaker to date. Five minutes spent sorting this out on deck without a head-sail up of any description saw us lose three boats, dropping from fourth with boats ahead in reach to seventh without. Lesson learnt - if its bad enough to drop a spinnaker too the deck and you have a spare packed throw the spare up and deal with the mess later.
On the second race we were again mid race and in a building watched the other boats have spinnaker issues, headsail issues etc. Then sat on our laurels and saw boats we'd passed round the top mark ahead of us. Lesson remembered. Play the shifts. Always play the shifts.
Now we're mixing it on the downwind legs we're learning new things there. We pushed above Adventure and Sorceror to get an inside overlap but went too far to windward and couldn't hold speed to the mark. On day 2 we took this lesson and during the first race drove up over Adeline and ate their wind.
Another lesson, at a bottom mark we rounded just behind Sorcerer with Fandango right behind us. Sorcerer was slow and we tried to drive under them only to become pinned. Bad idea.... eventually we tacked to clear our air but by then Fandango was long gone and ahead.
Final lesson, the current was strong and the safest course to the mark was a port tack. We didn't hit the mark but dropped the pole two times out of six roundings to emergency tack to clear. Other's weren't as lucky.
Beyond basic sail management and tactics I also wonder if we needed more twist on starboard as we were pounding into waves. Experimentation to be done....

Day 2
Day two were two WL races outside harbor island. This was an interesting variation but I certainly had some trepidation about local knowledge and suspect this might have been well founded.....

First race we went right when everyone on the fleet went left. We did this from a pretty good position and had to stall out a bit to make the tack. Ended up in third around the mark. Had a slow hoist again and were a couple of places from last at the bottom mark. Made a place back on the next upwind leg and caught up with the bulk of the fleet at the leeward mark but with everyone and their dog having an inside overlap on us. Went in low, picked up speed to the mark with a leeward drop and managed to squeeze up back into fourth. Were comfortably in fourth when we had a horrible shift on our tack for the line, having to throw another in to make the end we hadn't been intending on hitting but doing so seconds ahead of the approaching pack. FUN!!!

Second race we were slow.

I still don't understand this... but I guess the left was paying off better than the right. Looking at the data Kraken was sailing better than we've ever sailed. Tight (for us) tacks, high on polar speeds, speed over ground agreeing but somehow running last place until the final few hundred meters where we clawed a place back. We had one major mistake with a spinnaker drop but it only cost five to ten boat lengths and shouldn't have placed us in last place.

I'm missing something about wind or current in the bay.

Race: Hospice regatta

This was a two day event in Oceanside with five other boats in our class. Day one was three WL races and day two a random leg race.

I went in with some expectation to be mid fleet but the first day we were missing a person in pit and a new person on board and the other boats ahead of us were all on form. Our results were 5/6, 5/6, 3/6.

The next day we went in with an extra person so had pit properly covered. Our sailing was a lot better but it was difficult to tell how we were were doing as one of the slowest boats in our class. When we got the results we were once again 5/6. Damn... especially when the silver lining though is we were 49 seconds off first place on corrected time after an hour and a half on the water.

Looking at the track we lost this race on two decisions. Firstly at the leeward mark where we wiggled deep to drop the chute and lost position to a boat in a different class, taking a slow wide rounding. Secondly I didn't commit properly to the wind going left, and sailed up the right of the course not the left. The wind then shifted left. We should have been on the left of the course.

Our starts were solid, winning two and being close on the others. Our tacks great and boat-speed felt pretty good. We're in the fight now.

Technique: This week we practiced a "stretch and blow". This involves setting your upwind sails, sheeting them in, pulling the spinnaker across the leeward side of the boat and blowing the halyard. Advantage is that you can smoothly transition to the upwind leg from a reach.

I was bow for our practice and while it wasn't quite windy enough (the wind is meant to cushion the sail above the water) and the spinnaker did get soaking it also came into the boat super easily.

That would get us halfway up the board on the RLC, then playing the shift correctly probably would have placed us near the top..... next time! Err, next time there will be something else.

Edit: Video of dolphins during the practice sail!

Technique: Tacking

Tacking, on Kraken.

We have better tacking days and worse. In general they are getting better and better. We've tried a few ways of doing this but what follows seems to be the procedure that's working.

Tacking is a teamsport, and getting it right can make all the difference in upcoming crosses with our competitors.

• Prep
• As soon as we've tacked we get ready to tack again, the lazy sheet on the winch with no slack to the sail, the working sheet belayed ready to run free.
• Ideally the helm gives some warning - "Tacking in five boat lengths", though this is not always posible
• Helm: call "ready to tack". Everyone responds "Ready" of course... if not clearly call "NOT ready and give a time estimate, "NOT ready, need 30 seconds". Timing of tacks is normally critical happening either in response to the wind, or a tactical decision based on the fleet positions
• Main: Secures the lazy traveller to prevent the main running across the boat
• Trimmers: Makes sure enough wraps are on the new winch with the handle in place
• Trimmers: Make sure the new jib lead is in the power position (#7 with our secondary #1 sail, #5 with our 3Di #1).
• Helm: call "Helms a lee"
• Tacking
• Main: Release the backstay
• Main: as the boat starts turning the main trimmer goes to the low side and releases the working jib sheet as the headsail luffs. This makes sure there is space for the trimmers and tailer who otherwise often pin the main trimmer highside.
• Tailer: Start aggresively tailing, watching the clew position, when it reaches "just the right place" [which for a #1 headsail is around the shrouds on the new side and before the sail starts to fill] the tailer launches themselves to the new high side taking the line with them and continues applying pressure from the high side. If timed correctly this pulls the sail inside the lifelines and leaves it in about the power position. Thinking about it we should mark the lines so this is can be done consistently.
• Grinder: Grind the drum as fast as possible, this makes sure overrides spin out and means there is no pause between tailing and trimming.
• Bow: Skirt
• Main: Bring the traveller up to the new side. Wait until the sail fills and then let a little sheet out (unless in strong winds) as the helm drives down to meet the headsail's power position. Use the fine tune to let this sheet out.
• Helm: Drive down a little (sail to the headsail in it's power position)
• Grinder: The grinder becomes the trimmer. We're looking for the head of the sail to be about a hands width outside the top spreader for the initial power position. 
• Recovery
• Trimmer: As speed builds (>5 knots) starts letting the jib lead come back to the pointing position, about #3 for the crappy headsail, perhaps #1 for the good sail. At the same time trim in further until the base is close to the shrouds and the top of the sail just about touching the shrouds. In low winds the tailer can manage the jib lead while the trimmer trims in the headsail to its final pointing position.
• Helm: Bring the boat up as the headsail changes to its pointing positions
• Main: Bring the fine tune in to close the leech and drive the boat up.
• Main: As speed builds pull the backstay back on

The backbone of a good tack here is - start with full wraps on the winch and the handle in. Spin that handle and the grinder goes straight into trim mode.

Modifications

• Light winds
• Roll tacking, pit forwards shifts weight low at the start of the turn to help the boat around, swaps back to the original side (now the low side) as the sails fill and shift back high side to bring the boat back upwards.
• Leave the sails a bit deeper, leave the jib lead forwards closer to the power position
• Really light winds - just trying to get the boat moving.
• Perhaps flatten the sails again
• Take up another sport
• Strong winds
• Go straight to pointing trim rather than fighting the under powered jib lead (we're going to beef these up a bit but likely still a bit underpowered). Not roll tacking, weight goes highside and hikes as hard as possible
• Waves
• Trim: Leave a bit more twist in the main sails, don't sheet in quite so hard.
• Helm: Time the tack so the next wave helps pull the bow down on the new side
• Single handed
• With autopilot:
• Lock main traveller, get both jib sheets in hand
• Trigger tack on AP (-1&-10 or +1&+10).
• Sheet like mad to power position
• Trim main quickly
• Adjust AP to get sails pulling
• Start fine tuning
• Get back on helm and sail to the wind
• Without autopilot
• Same as above but using the wheel lock and stopping the tack from in front of the wheel

Technique: Don't luff all your telltales.... perhaps even stall a few

Our practice / casual race #1 sail has seen better days.

It's leech hooks horribly, even after some basic surgery.

It won't point.

It's teaching me how to sail upwind better, I think....

Traditionally you are taught to get all your tell tales to lift at the same time. Doing that with this sail leaves the foot loose, and sailing to the lower tell tales left us tacking through about 100 degrees.

So.... Forget the "all telltales luff at once" approach. I'm going to thank the North U trim book here, which honestly I need to thank on many many levels as it's generally awesome. Trim the foot in so the bottom telltale is bordering on stalling while the top tell tales are on the verge of luffing.

Having tried this, once, in light air, I can testify that we managed to point pretty well, better than we could before.

My guess is also that the twist this adds to the sail works two fold, firstly it allows the bottom to point higher as its sheeted tighter and secondly as the boat pitches it means there's some part of the sail that still works.

Three boats out in our class tonight. Two short WL legs in a dying breeze. Led through first WL then lost it on the second upwind. Came out deep from our first tack and then had to duck Shamen, if we hadn't messed up the first tack I think we'd have pretty much laid the mark in the persistent shift we were seeing, and won, but oh well.

I need to practice helming tacks, again, and again, and again....

This may or may not provide a link to the track.

Our baggy #1 has gone from a 8 -> 4 jib lead position. Our good #1 was sheeted at 5 before, what will it be now?

Going further with this....

The deep "all tell tales lift at the same time" is good for acceleration. So good off the line and good coming out of a tack, then bring leads back and sheet in at the same time to move to pointing mode.

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....

Technique: raceQs2 - leeway

My muscles ache. No spinnaker today, just a short WL course and round it five times.

I tried to tack on the shifts, but when I looked at the course in raceQs it looked like I was just taking through 90 degrees. According to the output I'm slipping sideways a lot, getting on for ten degrees of it going upwind. Going to need to get that down.

There are two obvious changes - clean the bottom and use race sails - but I think trim and tacking technique can also help.

Next week I'll have another go, once my shoulders are functional again. I'm going to try several different configurations (assuming the conditions are similar, 1-2 foot slop, 8 knots of wind).

- More backstay, less headstay sag
- Headsail out a little
- Mainsail out a little
- Main and head out a little
- Main and head out a little, then trim in as the boat goes a bit faster (try and get the boat into the 5s before trimming in).

Quite a lot to test in one session, may take several to get a better understanding but I'm sure it can be improved.

Visual example of the leeway

And the whole track, why my muscles ache!

Oh - somewhere in there Kraken did a lovely luff around the windward mark, I got lifted close to it, didn't try and lay it but shoved around it using momentum, another new trick.

Addendum: This is what I've learnt - try it out yourself!

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: New tricks

New tricks.

Had a good practice, barring one blemish that we'll need to work on - but knew we needed to work on.

It was all simple stuff, but it went well. We practiced coming up close to the wind, blowing the headsail to avoid backfill and being forced to tack. Got up to about 10 degrees off the wind with the main super high. Boom was above centreline to do this, perhaps we don't need to do that? Also need to practice the fall off and acceleration to find out how long it takes to get to full speed in different wind conditions and how many boat lengths that equates to.

Downwind we practiced scalloping (ventilating in Buddy Melges speak). Winding the boat up above ideal course to pick up speed then trying to work down. We also switched back to end-for-end gybes and after the first one they were pretty smooth, the spinnaker flying well through the maneuver and course changes nice and precise. The other thing we had a shot at downwind was lazy gybing, leaving the pole on the same side and switching to the other course for a few boat lengths before switching back.

The only blemish was our gybe set, which took several minutes to get the sail full and pulling. Need to work on this, seemed like we had several issues to resolve including a large twist in the spinnaker, a slow pole set and genoa drop. This was the first time we've actually tried to practice this outside a race and we'll be back again - looking to get the time down. I actually think it's gone faster when we've done it in a race, probably due to sheer panic.

Coming in at the end we passed a 41s5. While it was obviously not a racing boat but setup for cruising it was interesting how much faster we were, being able to luff up from several boat lengths below to a boat length above, have a good look, then dive off and head for home underneath them (being polite).

Oh - finally saw some dolphins, its been weeks since I've seen them around Oceanside but there came up and swam under the bow right as we were dropping the headsail. Beautiful view of them but no time to slap a camera in the water. Good to see them back again!

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!).

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!

Gear: 3Di - the shape of speed?

New 3Di Headsail to complement the 3Di main. We've actually been hanging pretty well upwind so it'll be interesting to see what this does for us. Certainly going to be nice to have a fast sail without a leech hook.

Overall the sail looks a bit deeper (inches) than my current #1, both at the foot and the upper leech. The airfoil looks smooth and in theory we'll need less halyard tension to keep the draft forwards.

Sadly its going to be a couple of weeks before we get wind, or so it seems right now :( Can't wait to try it out.

Racing: First Race

A long time with no posts but post the release of GTA sailing has been happening, including Kraken's first race. This post is my takeaway from the race.

In a field of 8 boats we finished 7th, 6th and 7th. For me the main thing was turning up, getting across the startline and making it through the main components of racing Kraken, and on that basis the day was completely successful!

Overall we got the boat going at speed a fair few times, both upwind and downwind. I think we've got some well matched boats to race against in the local fleet and they seem pretty well sailed so we can have some fun getting to grips with then and it'll be good preparation for larger races elsewhere.

We were definitely short handed for spinnaker flying but by the end of the day we were working much better.

For our experience level it was a pretty good start though I'd have to say Jordan saved the day!

The really good news is that we lost buckets of time (minutes here, minutes there) in ways that are hopefully pretty easily remedied to get better results quickly.

Next time I'll make sure to organize some food!

Starting

• First start wasn't too bad but could have been a lot tighter, it was a miracle we made the last two :) on the second start we probably should have continued on port looking to duck the fleet but I was worried about them leaving a gap in front of the committee boat, I think it would have been better to try this than the slow tack and consequent slow start we made.
• From what I could see the fleet tended to start slow and bunched at the committee boat and there might be some good room for clean fast starts a little clear of all the trouble in future races.
• I've ordered a starting watch with 5 minute countdowns...

Upwind

• We were a little off the pace but I didn't feel that boat speed was horrible overall. 
• I was definitely a bit wandery as a helmsman and need to work on holding a more optimal course.
• Jordan had some ideas about getting our tacks slicker. There might be some clues here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy2zxgFpFcI
• That headsail needs re-cutting / replacing. That's a project for this winter, probably the next major project I have for the boat.
• After initial trim the headsail needs to come in tight - just about touching the top spreader. While its important to get weight highside fast the trimmer should wait long enough to see if the sail pulls further out as the boat accelerates and it powers up.

Downwind

• We had one roundup when bearing away, need to make sure the main goes out before doing this when traveling at any speed as it just has too much power and overrides the rudder. I'd read about this but this was the first time it had happened to me in Kraken.
• It would be good to change the headstay, headsail hoists and drops are way too slow with the roller furling unit. I have another headstay but will need help swapping them out.
• Need to pick the longer leg first, with our speed of maneuvering downwind we need the time to setup the gybe at the moment. Also of course, its better tactically in general.

Spinnaker

• Need to practice raising and lowering the spinnaker - too much reliance in Jordan who had to work his ass off. If people are up for it we could do a couple of lunchtime practice sessions. This would include setup, launch, gybe if the wind direction allows, takedown and repack, all at the dock.
• Watching some videos of 36.7s racing (for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESqUsucDEDo) the standard on downwind legs is dropping into the forward hatch.

Tactics

• I had no idea which end at the start was favored (didn't check)
• We weren't tracking wind shifts. We only tacked on one.
• After the first two races we should have packed the spinnaker on upwind leg and concentrated on getting the headsail set, getting to the start late was a killer blow each time.
• On race two's second spinnaker leg (the reach to the shore) we should have raised the headsail earlier.
• On race two's last leg we should have gybed then set, might have made a position this way.