Racing wisdom - the race start

[Birdseye]

Lets see if those keen racers on here can give useful advice to the less experienced.

The first topic is one that I always find difficult, particularly in tidal waters. How do you ensure that you arrive at the start line at just the right time and in just the right place. Like a lot of tyros, I have in the past tended to hang back and make a timed ruch for the line rather than sail along the line. One reason is discomfort at mixing it with other race boats milling around close to the start.

So over to the Flamings of this world.

 

[Kerenza]

Wel that should keep the forum running!

I think the issue is compounded with wide ranging handicaps and I've struggled with this for some time. Chart plotter and iRegatta help a lot, not forgetting bow man of course.

 

[flaming]

Lets see if those keen racers on here can give useful advice to the less experienced.

The first topic is one that I always find difficult, particularly in tidal waters. How do you ensure that you arrive at the start line at just the right time and in just the right place. Like a lot of tyros, I have in the past tended to hang back and make a timed ruch for the line rather than sail along the line. One reason is discomfort at mixing it with other race boats milling around close to the start.

So over to the Flamings of this world.

Anyone who saw my last couple of attempts at getting off the line wouldn't be turning to me for advice! In mitigation I've not done a huge amount of sailing this year, and I'm a tad rusty. Which I guess is tip one - practice!

That said, over time we seem to get good starts more often than bad, so for what it's worth, this is what I do.

1. Decide with the tactician which end of the line you want, or if you want the middle.
2. Determine if you're going to be swept over the line by the tide, or held off it.
3. Unless the plan is to start right at the starboard end of the line, I tend to favour the "tack in" approach - which means approaching on port tack and identifying a nice gap to tack into with about 1 - 1.5 min to go. You should tack into the windward part of the gap, leaving yourself a gap to leeward. And try to be bow forward on the chap you tack under.
4. Once on Starboard and in the line up it's all about 2 things - how far off the line am I, and how fast am I going. Ideally with about 30s to go I want to be going quite slowly, but with a nice gap to leeward to accelerate into, and about 2 lengths off the line. I will protect that space hard. If I see someone coming round my transom I'll bear off early and try and prevent them from hooking me. If I see someone coming to tack into that space I'll point the boat at them and try and spook them into tacking early.
5. Then pull the trigger, bow down, accelerate quickly to target speed, then up and at the line. For a long time this was my weakness, I would get into a great position, then forget to actually pull the trigger! Having a second person I trusted telling me it was time to go sorted that out.

If you're determined to win the boat end, or the pin end, then different tactics will be needed

 

[blade]

As the subject is all about the start, thought you might like to have a look at another start filmed from our boat, we are on a Jeanneau 36i, the white boat leeward of us is a First 47, the blue one caught up in the mix is a Bavaria 42. The Bavaria was coming in on port and was going to tack around the back of a boat coming across on starboard, before they could even start the tack they had the First squeezing them up - and then it all gets a bit close for comfort, I had to luff up to keep away from the First. Eventually we all got away, no contact - luckily we don't have tides to think about.

Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgg7N2a4nKU

Out on the water tomorrow for another regatta, will post any links if of interest.

Blade

 

[lw395]

In a word practice!

I think the main things to train on might be knowing exactly how long the boat will take to get up to speed.
And judging exactly how far you are from the line.

It's also important IMHO to understand the other helms. What works well in a club PY fleet will not be effective in a one-design nationals.
The stuff that sounds good in textbooks doesn't work so well when you're starting a club race with a biased line and a pack of locals who decline to learn the rules.

 

[Judders]

I've spent most of my sailing life in smaller boats in mixed fleets. Of late, the Impalas dominate IRC4 so much that it's actually been more like OD starts, which in my view are much easier.

In any event, clean air is king. It's more so when you're racing an E-boat against 35' cruisers and I guess if you're in one of the bigger/fast boats in your fleet then you may well find that you'll be able to power off into clean air soon enough but only if you're sailing well.

Another rule (and this is where I sometimes get it wrong) is hit the line hard. The trigger pull that Flaming refers to is all important. You need to know when it is for your boat. For mine it's thirty seconds out.

To get the trigger pull right, you need your trimmers to be listening intently (they don't need to watch other boats, that's the tacticians job) and you need your bowman to be confident of their transit and their boat lengths.

Before you get into your starting sequence, really get to grips with how long it takes to tack and how long it takes to gybe. There's nothing worse than calling the gybe to get into a slot and then missing it (it seems to take an age to gybe Magic from broad reach to broad reach).

Once you've got those right, you need to think about where you want to start.

 

[Foolish Muse]

I'm surprised at how many boats just go to the start and just wing it, guessing at the timing based on their experience. I always do one practice start just prior to the 5 minute gun. With this I usually pick some mark to start from, like a crab trap on the water or a house on shore, or even the committee boat itself, and do an exact timing of how long it takes to get to the line - and to the place I want to be on the line.

If I was to give one piece of advice is to always hit the line at full speed, and always be in clean air. If you are not at full speed then someone else will soon be ahead of you, giving you the dirty air you want to avoid. I believe that hitting the line at full speed and in clean air is far more important than hitting the preferred end of the line, where you will no doubt be in a crowd of boats, heading each other up and thus at reduced speed and in the dirty air of the boats in front of you. (Look again at the video posted above. All of those boats are heading eachother up, and thus none of them are anywhere near full speed. This is just rotton.)

So my best advice is to stop thinking of the preferred end of the line and concentrate on full speed and clean air. And to achieve both of these, make sure to do a practice start just before the 5 minute gun.

 

[Birdseye]

I find that I have real difficulty in juudging the distance to the line and the time it will take us to get there at full speed. I did try putting the start line into a GPS as a track and using the XTE as a distance guide but that didnt work because the distance measured was at right angles not on the sailable course.

 

[Kerenza]

I find that I have real difficulty in juudging the distance to the line and the time it will take us to get there at full speed. I did try putting the start line into a GPS as a track and using the XTE as a distance guide but that didnt work because the distance measured was at right angles not on the sailable course.

As I mentioned, iRegatta (and other more expensive software) will get you there - with our start line the observed tide difference between practice and start can be amazing.

Cheap way is to go towards the line and set a waypoint where it might be a good place to be at your chosen time.

Ive extracted the admiralty charts from my planner software and drawn the normal start line and some other important lines on it, then reimported to the plotter.

M

 

[Foolish Muse]

Birdseye, this is exactly why you want to do a practice start. Forget the electronics; do the practice start just before the 5 minute gun. Use a stopwatch to time each section of the practice start. Then just count backwards when in the real start. Eg, it takes 45 seconds from a turn at the crab trap to make it to the line, so I have to be making my turn at the crab trap 45 seconds ahead of the gun. Likewise I time that it takes 30 seconds to get from the house on shore to the crab trap. If I don't quite make it to the crab trap at the right time, (either ahead or behind) then I just make an adjustment to when I turn towards the line. But no matter what I will hit the line at speed.

My feeling is that if you are watching a computer as you are heading to the single most difficult and congested part of the race, then you might as well be driving a car while texting. Get your eyes out of the boat.

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

Another little tip for you. Your boat will go at roughly the same speed as it does close-hauled if you steer the reciprocal course, so in tideless conditions sail away from the line for half the time to go to the start, gybe round and you should be at the line on the gun. If there's some tide, do a practice run and see how early/late you are and adjust accordingly.

 

[Kerenza]

Just to put some perspective on the individual situation here.
Birdseye will be RO this afternoon. The line will be a transist on land, with an ODM which may be close to the line, depends on tide. The sinker has to cope with 14m rise. Today we may have 10m
Start time is about 2hours before HW when the tide may still be flooding at the ODM and further out for a stbd tack approach, but ebbing inshore or some other dynamic combination of relativity. So no amount of practice will be accurate and everyone will be looking for the ODM end and to get on to port and in the tide ASAP - depends exactly where he sends us.
Of course he may do a downwind start, a general recall.....
Instruments are the only way to get a dynamic idea what's going on - although people have raced successfully without for many years of course.

 

[awol]

Advising practice runs is all very well but they aren't so useful if your start is late in the sequence of lot of classes. Having a trial run in a slow old tub like mine while IRC1 or 2 are under orders is not popular! I am of the clear air and boat speed persuasion and usually manage at least one OCS a year.

 

[Birdseye]

Of course he may do a downwind start, a general recall.....
.

Is there a hint in that comment?

 

[Kerenza]

Influence the RO. Me. Never
Anyway we will be too busy avoiding the 130 boats in the cod competition.

 

[Javelin]

Starting on a line with no other boats is easy but only if you have done a practice run.
I normally decide which end is favoured and sail away on a broad reach from my proposed starting position (usually committee boat end) for 2 minutes.
Either take a transit or bung in a waypoint, then the rest of the time is checking who is where and what the wind is doing.

I usually know who I'm racing against, I know the guys who tend to stuff it into the wind and those who power down and those who hang back and those who are just opportunists and they also know me and know that I know the rules.
I ensure I've got enough room above the stuffer or I get below him,
I ensure Im above the guys that don't point as well as me if they have better boat speed.

If the line has lots of bias due to wind or tide and the fleet is bunched, they are usually nowhere near full speed at the start so I also take the option of starting a boat length or so late, right on the pin or CB but at full speed.

After the start have a dammed good reason to tack, don't just tack because you feel you should or because others have.
In dirty air power down to get clear.
Know how much the wind needs to shift to make a tack viable and on this first one add 5 degrees and make it a good one.

 

[savageseadog]

Books can be written about starting (and probably have been)

 

[Ingwe]

It depends quite a bit on the level of experience of the bowman on your boat, as they have the best view of what is going on and can judge where the line is much better than the helmsman, so if they are good enough they should probably take 90% of the responsibility in the last 30 seconds before the gun.

If you don't have an experienced enough bowman electronics are a wonderful thing! I personally use a Prostart (but there are a few other options available for example tacktick systems can do this as well as the custom pieces of hardware) to display distance to line and the countdown, you just need to make sure the display is in a good position so that the helmsman doesn't have to move their head to look at it on starboard tack. It takes a bit of practice to get used to but especially if you are starting in the middle of the line you will probably be over half a boat length closer to the line than the boats who aren't using electronics as it is just so difficult to judge the actual distance to a transit.

 

[Judders]

Today I nailed a Lane so wide you could have got a super tanker down it. We hit the line at full pelt, on starboard with the National Champion in our pocket.

Goig on the foregoing, we nailed it.

Came sixth.


Life is a turd sandwich.

 

[rwoofer]

Good advice from others. A lot also depends on the nature of the fleet. When I raced 707s 15 years ago, the start lines were packed so you really had to claim your position early. Coming in late usually meant no space. With mixed handicap, you don't want a faster boat to windward, otherwise you'll eat dirty wind pretty quickly, with no where to go until the fleet spreads a bit. Similarly if you can't pinch relative to others, protect your leeward space at all costs....

Starting at the ends is often easier due to line sag that even seems to effect Olympians.