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Excellent Wednesday Night Race (long)

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Ben
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1234 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/06/2006 : 06:58:28

Hi all,

Last night was the first Wednesday Night race for my club since I'd been back from Nationals, and I was itching to show what I learned. Early on though, it was questionable if we'd even start! Our crew member, who those from Nationals have met, was late getting out of work and was fighting traffic; we were motoring out of our docks with about ten minutes until the start horn! That's cutting it close.

We made it on time tho, just raising the sails and raising the engine. Winds were pretty strong, 15mph with gusts to 20mpg, whitecaps all around. Immediately I knew we would be overpowered, but the race start was only 3 minutes away by this time. So I gave the tiller to my wife, jumped up on the cabin top and put a reef in. First time I've ever put a reef in when it wasn't just practice in 2kts of wind. (Thanks to Steve Milby for showing me how to reef!)

Anyway, we were heading for the line, and I knew we'd be late across, and sure enough, the horn went off and we were still far away, and ended up crossing the line last in our fleet, I think. No big deal though, we were reefed, the 150 was up, and we were going like gangbusters.

With a combination of boat speed, and I think good decision making on tacks, we were able to pass a lot of the boats in front of us on the first two legs. On the downwind leg, we shook out the reef, put the homemade spinnaker pole out, which now needs some minor surgery, and proceeded to hunt down a Precision 23 in our way.

Not sure if the P23 was in our fleet, but on the beat back to the finish line, we finally passed it due again to, I think, better decision making on tacking. We made the line on one tack, while the P23 had to tack twice.

No doubt about it, I'm hooked on racing. I think we may have finished first after starting last. Only 3 or 4 boats finished ahead of us, and I don't think any of them were in our fleet. Seems in heavy air the C25 rocks. I just wish other C25s in my club would race.

Anyway, thanks for listening, sorry if I bored you. Can you tell I'm excited! Next week I have race committee though.

But that gives me an automatic first for that race!

Ben
Beneteau 361
Viking Kitty
Columbus, Ohio

Edited by - on

Don B
Captain

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USA
317 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 07:13:38

Ben, Thanks for sharing the experience.

I'm curious...in those conditions, did you have to furl your genoa at all? Seems when I'm in 15-20 kt. winds, I usually don't reef the main but have to reduce the genoa or else I experience weather helm.

Edited by - on

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 08:11:54

15-20 is right on the edge the boat can handle full cloth but the sea conditions have to be right. The jib is almost all of our power on this boat, especially in heavy wind upwind. The main sail becomes useless after about the first 1/3rd or so. We carried full 155 and no reef for the first night of Nationals, where according to the race committee gusts were reaching 22kts right after the sun set.

Weather helm in that breeze is inevitable; you can fight some of it with good trim and crew weight. You want your jib and main halyards as tight as a banjo string and then make them even tighter. Your jib cars should be as far aft as the sail allow (ours are usually 2 clicks behind the stanchion at the coaming. Your jib should be sheeted to just centimeters from the spreader; we actually bring ours in to where it touches the spreader. Weight needs to be on the high side and forward. If it isn’t a class race, have the crew hang their legs you have to steer from the high side and the jib trimmer should probably cross sheet the jib. Here is the key - in 15 knots of breeze you should be perfectly fine. 18 knots is borderline area and can be managed with a bunch of crew. However, in a puff upward of 20 where you start to lose helm, have a crew member ease out about a foot or two of mainsheet – this is where the midline sheeting mainsheet that Catalina direct sells becomes key. Once the gust blows through, have them quickly trim it back in. (Bigger boats will dump the traveler. Our traveler is pretty worthless in this regard …way too short)

This is where we took a first in the Thursday night race at nationals. Mike Humphries was well ahead of us and every time the gust blew in he rounded up, we just de-powered for a moment. He lost two boat lengths on each gust.

If the seas are choppy or more than 3 foot waves I will reef earlier because you need fat sails to power you through the slop. Reef at about 14 and then take it out around 18 and switch headsails. Anything over 20 at the start is a full main and a number 3.

Bringing extra rail meat on a windy day is always good too.

So to answer your question, generally on an inland lake we wouldn’t take in headsail. My helmsman gets a weather helm workout, and he lets me know about it, but we will carry the full 155 pretty far out.

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 08:34:43

Sounds like another reason to attend the nationals ... learn good stuff!

Sounds like fun.

Paul

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Ben
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 08:36:56

Hi Don,

I do not have a furler, so I would not have been able to furl my headsail. And from what I had heard from so many people on this board, as Duane said, the first step in heavy winds is to reef the main. This was my first time trying this, and it seems to have worked. This did not give me excessive weather helm. In fact, the helm was more balanced than I anticipated; on tacks I was able to briefly relax my control of the tiller while I adjusted the traveler.

Edited by - on

djn
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1561 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 08:43:33

Hi Duane, you just answered all the questions I was asking myself during yesterdays sail. The guy I was with would head upwind everytime a gust would blow and I thought that we were loosing to much boat speed doing that so I was just letting out the main sheet then bringing it back in a moment later. I did not know I was cross sheeting. I just did not feel comfortable going down low to tighten the jib sheet. Thanks for your insight. Cheers.

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aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 09:46:27

Keep in mind also, that many of the sail handling techniques mentioned here can be used while cruising and day sailing. Racing not only teaches you these techniques but gives you confidence in your boat and your growing abilities.

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 10:03:49

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by aeckhart
 Keep in mind also, that many of the sail handling techniques mentioned here can be used while cruising and day sailing. Racing not only teaches you these techniques but gives you confidence in your boat and your growing abilities.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Well said; virtually every piece of racing gear is designed to depower the boat so it remains under control; that is a very desirable characteristic for a cruiser!

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Ericson33
Admiral

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USA
892 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 12:44:09

I would also like to add that you can also Vang sheet the boomvang, or tighten the back stay in puffs to twist off the main sail. I work our traveler allot to depower the main in a gust, but I know that the Catalina 25's traveler is not long enough to do this.

Edit: Last night Wednesday night race #4 I also was asked to do R/C work. It always gives me the other side of the coin, I learn the courses better, the rules, and safety. It is also nice to be able to go out and spend some time looking at the other boats that you race against, how they sail from a different point of view. I take my camera along to get as many shots as possible to review later that night, and go over the race again in my head, and think about what the person at the helm was thinking. It gives me a chance to look at sail shape, and the adjustments on the other boats. YEP the best sailing undercover work.

I had a mother come along with me that was watching her daughters sail in their first race on a Laser, It was nice to be able to take the chase boat and get in close so she could take some photos of her kids, to me this is what sailing is all about. I can't wait until my son is old enough to go sail with me on the boat. He always wants to go up to the lake and help me out with fixing stuff, Sunday I took him up and he held one of the hatches open so I could work on the battery box, He is three so it almost brought tears to my eyes knowing that he was helping me out.

So back to Wednesday night.. Here is a shot.

Edited by - Ericson33 on 07/06/2006 13:10:31

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