Powering Up
By Mark Reynolds
When the wind is light and the water choppy, invariably you are looking
for power. The number one question is usually "How to keep the crew over
the side?". Other than sailing with a super light crew here are a few tips
for getting the crew over early and powering up for these conditions:
Crew Weight: Being able to get the crew over the side is fast
in choppy conditions because of the reduced windage and lower center of
gravity. You also don’t want the boat too flat where you slam into the chop
either. As the skipper I will sit
almost inside the cockpit to keep my crew over the side in this condition. It
even gets hard to see the tell tails sometimes! If it is flat water I don’t
have the crew go over as early so I can sit out and see better.
Steering: You want to keep the boat moving so you must
really concentrate on keeping both tell tails streaming aft on both sides, and
not pinch. In light air it's more important than ever to have the crew doing
the looking around so the helmsman can concentrate on precise steering. If you
are going fast you are developing more power and you will end up pointing
higher than the other boats.
Sails: You need to keep those sails powered up. Use your
fuller main if you have one. Often a slightly older main will be better in
conditions where you need more power. The draft will be further aft giving you
a bit more helm and power.
Rig: It's important to have a straight or slightly sagged
mast. You don't want the mast poked to weather at the spreader with the tip
falling off in light wind. When the rig is set up properly you will
automatically have the right bend in all conditions. If your mast is poked to
weather in 8 knots you need to loosen the intermediates and the lowers. There
should also be a little bit of looseness at the mast partner to keep the mast
in column.
Outhaul: As soon as you are no longer full hiking you
should ease the outhaul a bit. You can't ease it much but enough to get a bit
of shape in the lower section of the sail. Use the lowest seam in the main, it
should be pulled straight when over-powered but can drop away at the middle of
the boom as much as an inch when you need some power.
Cunningham: The Cunningham should be eased to keep the draft
as far back as possible. Leave plenty of wrinkles in. If the wind has dropped
uncleat the Cunningham and ease the mainsheet real quick to get the mainsail to
move up the mast track. Spraying a little McLube on the mast track and on the
main luff rope will also help.
Backstays: It's very important to have no tension on the
upper backstay. This will give the jib maximum sag and fullness. The lower
backstay is a little trickier. You don't want to pull it on too soon, if the
crew is not hiking you probably can't use the extra fullness but as soon as
your crew drops over the side you can make the main fuller to develop more
lift. This will help to keep them over the side and result in more height as
well. The helm will increase but in this condition this is a good thing. You
just have to experiment to see how much you can pull on. Watch the boats around
you.
Jib Trim: Make sure you have just enough tension on the jib
downhaul to pull out the wrinkles but no more. You might want to keep a few
wrinkles in to make sure you are not too tight. Jib lead stays the same but the
crew will need to trim the sheet a little more often as the wind changes
keeping the leech on the mark on the spreader.
Mainsheet: More trim will give you more power. Just make
sure you don't overdo it and put on the brakes. You just have to look at the
boats around you and experiment with more or less mainsheet tension to see
what's right for the conditions.
In summary if it’s light and choppy power up as much as you can and get
the crew over the side. You need to sit in to get the right heal angle. If the
water is flat then get comfortable and have the crew balance the heal angle.
Iain
Murray sailing in light conditions, sitting
almost inside the cockpit to keep the crew over the side.