Thoughts while sleeping

Thoughts while sleeping.

With the heavy wind behind us and often by our lee there were times when maintaining control was difficult.  John was doing a great job of warning us of impending winds.  Later it occurred to me that we should have put both twings on hard and let the pole forward to allow the spinny to be more in front of us.  

Moe

On May 1, 2017 1:26 PM, "Dennis Damore

Fred,

Agreed, BTW, I did have both twings on hard for that very reason. I never did ease the leeward twing after the set. As to the pole, every time I attempted to put the pole forward, the spinnaker would collapse. It is my experience that when we are by the lee, our mainsail disturbs the air so much that if I ease the pole forward, it blankets the chute and i get a big curl that I can only correct by pulling the pole back and then getting flow off of the main into the body of the chute. We could do a bit of practice and see if there is a happy medium. Easing the pole forward and hardening the sheet does not seem to work. Also, gybe set was the way to go. In a big breeze with the big main out, we don’t lose much distance on the set. Further, had we done bear away, we would have been much farther to Oregon, and then had to fight it out with Keith. Moreover, a gybe in that kind of breeze could have gone terribly wrong.

I do think that upwind it might have helped if we had taken the car out a few inches and eased the fairlead to open up the top of the jib to spill some air. It likely would have kept us on our feet better. 

I think also that any WNW breeze calls for us to be exactly on the pin for the start. Jim and Brian did that all season last year even if they were a tad late to the start. Every boat length to leeward is a boat length we need to make up and given that they are pointing higher on that board, it is a sure way to have to play catch up all the way up the beat. 

Lastly, I want to check mast rake. As I said, I shortened the forestay about 2 inches to put that toggle on and I’m concerned we don’t have enough rake, which could affect point.

D