Any tips for first time in RTIR?

[ QUOTE ]
We went inside last year, no boats in front but were followed by a fair few, to say I was "bricking it" is an understatement




[/ QUOTE ] You probably looked like my avatar.
 
Yes definitely, especially as I was the one with the charts /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Although lots of work went into that move, and we did gain a huge advantage, I was studiously zoomed into two chartplotters, both checked for accuracy that day, not to mention the plethora of charts and notes! but it was still a sixpence/manhole cover experience!

No doubt we shall do it again Saturday if the conditions allow /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Hi Flaming,
as we are starting at 9.10 and are relatively slow in our ageing long keeler compared to some 'sprightly' young things, how much of your original advice would you change please, considering we will be on a very different tide to the early boys? We carry just the one spinnaker and it's our first time.
ta
Scotty
 
In many respects I think you'll have a much easier time of it. There's a reason that the overall winner often comes from the slower, later starting boats, and that is that the tide usually changes with you all the way round. Although this year is actually unusual, in that HW is actually 0939BST, after all of the starts, indeed some of the early starts will start into the last of the flood. Our own 0820 start is right at the start of the ebb, which will bring the back eddy along the green into play. I have to admit I knew it was later this year, but I hadn't fully appreciated how much later! The Sunsail boys, with their very early start but slow speed, will have a big choice as to what shore to aim at to get out of the last of the tide. Get that wrong and it's game over before you're even out of the Solent.

So you will easily carry favourable tide all the way to the Needles, then run into foul tide on the South of the Island.

When you are a slower boat the tide is a bigger percentage of your speed, especially in light winds. This might make inshore more appealing to you, especially with the back eddy on the approach to St Cats really getting going between 12 and 1.

If you signed up for the free weather updates from Chris Tibbs the first text came through yesterday, and he seems confident of a SW sea breeze in the afternoon, which I suspect we'll start seeing around 2, which will make closer to the island look much more appealing as it comes through. And as it builds the slower classes will spend much more time sailing in stronger winds.

In a boat that's slow to accelerate the advice to make clean air your biggest priority is almost more important. And the more time your spinnaker spends up the rig the better. If you're stitting there thinking "we might be able to hold it on this angle" then it should be up! The legs are long so there's plenty of room to discover that you couldn't quite and drop it again.
 
My tidal streams use HW Portsmouth which is 1005BST according to Wiley.

We are in the 0740 start, will the eddy off the green be active then? I don't have a tidal atlas with enough resolution to see!
 
Interesting, I have HW Portsmouth at 0939Bst according to "the internet".

According to winning tides the back eddy starts at about 5 hours before HW. You'd need to be very hard into the green to get the best out of it.
 
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