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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 12/27/2010 : 13:37:47

Hi everyone, Sly McFly is coming along. We are in the process of installing all new Garmin GMI Wind, speed, and depth integrated sensors, and have 2 color multi function displays. We've been practicing and practicing.

The crew is new, I advertised for them in Craigslist, and so they have to learn everything. But they are coming along. We've gone out every Sunday.

Yesterday we had winds about 15 knots and seas about 5. We went up spinnaker and ran for the Coronado Islands (15 miles offshore). Then we practiced gybes. There was not quite enough energy to induce surfing.

A week ago we had winds about 25 to 30 knots and we went out and stayed in San Diego Bay. We had our main double reefed and the #2 jib on (we really needed the #3). We had numerous round ups and wipe outs. The boat was very difficult to control. Finally we got the hang of it. A big problem was, I'd give the command "get ready to tack" and 7 guys would move from the weather rail to the low side and we'd round up. They had to get the hang of not moving too soon!

Two weeks ago we just went down wind and gybed and gybed spinnaker until we started doing it right. They decided that doing a "dip pole gybe" works best on this boat.

So now we have our own Facebook page "Sly McFly Racing" Please join us. Both me and the crew are admins and so you'll see lots of stuff from their eyes as well.

We have "work days" and most of them show up for that, too. It is amazing how many boat chores 6 or 7 guys can get done.

Next race : New Year's Day race. This is a fun race in the bay. We are in Class 3 which is boats 120 PHRF to 174. There are 12 boats in the class so far. This will be a great test.

The new North 3DL sails are LATE and so we'll be racing dacron.

Next race and the first real test of boat and crew is the January 8 Cabrillo 1. This is a winter race around Coronado Islands. About 33 miles total. Want to have instruments and new sails working by then!

Dig out of your snow banks and come join us on Facebook and share some winter sailing with us!

Indiscipline 1978 FK SR #398

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/27/2010 : 19:24:37

Jim,
Sounds like you're having a ball and your crew is coming along. Reminds me a bit of my time on Silverheels, a J92 I crewed on in South Puget Sound some time ago. Keep the reports coming, they're fun to read.

You should post a link directly to your Facebook page here so it's easy for folks to join.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2010 : 14:41:03

Here is the link to the facebook site

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sly-McFly-Racing/184668994892031

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 12/31/2010 : 11:27:14

Happy New Years! The San Diego New Years Day race is tomorrow and it is the first race for Sly with real competition. There are 22 boats in our class including J/29, J/30, J/27, Laser 28. I wish we had our racing sails! I am nervous already but it is going to be fun!

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 01/02/2011 : 10:36:07

Bay races, especially in light winds with lots of shifts and holes, can be very difficult. They are also exciting and time is so compressed. We did not do well, finished in 15th place.

Lessons Learned Today

Race was delayed 30 minutes due to no wind. The main trimmer did a good job with the countdown timer, even with the delay. Lookouts did a good job watching the flags and we knew the course. Winds were very light and shifty and if you got stuck in a hole you were toast. We got in a hole at the start, were in irons, and were drifting towards the rocks. 5 minutes after our start I got us gybed all the way around and eventually on starboard towards the line but we could not cross the start line due to a wind shift and basically sailed down the line with the start of the next fleet. I knew a pin end, port start would be the thing but we got trapped on the committee boat end when the wind died about 5 minutes to our start. So our fleet sailed away from us and we had a nice race with the slower boats. The bad start was 100% on me. It was a bad call to run over to the starboard layline to the RC boat, head up to kill time. When it was time to fall off and run for the line we were locked in irons. We were just too close to the rocks and in a big hole. We could not get the bow to go to port for anything.

It happens. In a five mile race you cannot lose 6 minutes at the start and expect to be in it.

Crew has been practicing a lot but in race conditions mistakes were made. Our spin hoist was not good. Even though all lines were rigged at the dock, I did not give foredeck enough time to set up for the hoist. It was my mistake to call for the pole rigged on the wrong side. We spent way too much time moving the pole and then it was stuck under the pulpit.

We stayed way heated up trying to sail our downwind targets in very light air. We did a good gybe and moved the jib over for the upwind tack. Gybes we’ve practiced so much so they were good. We need to practice hoist, and douse.

Then at the downwind mark we got rolled by Stars and Stripes and other huge Class 1 boats. I have only $500K in insurace so got out of their way! So they took our wind and we drifted around the mark. Douse was good. Jib up, was good. Pole was stored quickly. Bow was ready to tack quickly. That part was very well done.

Tacking upwind we had some good tacks and would get good puffs but a lot of the course we were making about 3 knots. There just was not enough energy to get us moving. Trimmers did a good job with main and genoa upwind. Tacks were crisp and fast. That has been well practiced.

8 people on board in light, shifty winds is too much!

When 3 went down to repack the chute we sailed much better.

Good news – the new sails are in so we’ll learn to fly the asym in the next race plus new carbon fiber main and new carbon fiber #1 genoa. We are going to look hot. Next race 1/8/11 33 miles around the Coronado Islands, winter, ocean, night race.

Nice pictures on Facebook on Sly McFly Racing.

Edited by - on

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9081 Posts

Response Posted - 01/02/2011 : 11:42:05

Fine report! Sounds like the skipper has taken full responsibility for the overall performance--a very good thing. I've experienced otherwise, and it does no good. You took a good, long step toward big improvements. For one thing, your crew understands the value of practice even more now.

Can't wait to hear about your performance with your hot, dark sails! (They probably wouldn't have helped in yesterday's conditions.)

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 01/02/2011 11:43:13

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5902 Posts

Response Posted - 01/03/2011 : 08:43:01

Jim, light air confounds some of the best sailors. IMHO, eight crew isn't too much on a Pearson Flyer in light air.

I believe the least number of crew should be carried in moderate winds. In moderate winds, you don't need extra crew weight for movable ballast, to hold the boat flat. You only need the minimum number of crew necessary to work the boat.

More crew should be carried in strong winds and in light air, because you need extra movable ballast in both of those conditions.

In strong winds, extra crew weight helps to hold down the windward rail, keeping the boat flat and fast.

In light air, when sailing closehauled, crew weight should be positioned slightly forward of the shrouds, and on the leeward rail. By heeling the boat to leeward, gravity causes the sails to hang in that curved shape that generates drive. If the boat is upright, the sails hang limp, like a sheet on a clothesline, and they can't generate any drive. By orienting the boat bow-down, the boat's fat stern is lifted partially out of the water, reducing wetted surface, which, in turn, greatly reduces drag.

Finally, as soon as the wind goes light, the jib halliard and the main halliard should both be eased until the leading edge of each sail becomes slack. The adjustable backstay should be eased until there is some headstay sag. The mainsail outhaul should also be eased to created more belly in the mainsail.

The reason why most sailors are confounded by light air sailing is because, to sail fast, you have to do all these things. It's the combination that powers up the boat and gets it going. I see lots of racers on the Chesapeake who heel the boat, but who don't tilt it bow-down, or who don't ease the halliards or the backstay or the outhaul. Because you have so little driving force available in light air, you have to put all the elements together in order to maximize the available power.

Moving crew weight low in the boat doesn't help in light air. In fact, ordinarily it would tend to hold the boat more upright, instead of heeling it to leeward. If the boat is too upright, gravity won't cause the sails to hang in the shape that drives the boat. I suspect the reason why the boat sailed better when the crew went below to re-stuff the spinnaker is because the crew members all sat on the leeward side of the boat, causing it to heel.

Light air sailing isn't really that difficult, once you know how to do it, but it's hard to learn how to do it, because the people who are good at it won't tell others the secrets, because they don't want their "students" to turn around and beat them on the race course.

Edited by - on

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 01/04/2011 : 12:49:50

8 is not too many. put two on the keel. Heel just enough to get the sail to fall away from the boat and not straight down. Trim by hand with lines off of the cans. Switch out to 1/32 sheets if you have to.

For the amount of time you sail in light winds, it isn't worth it to the program you are trying to build to leave a guy or two on the dock. You need to build comradarie, teamwork, a finely tuned.... you get the idea. You can't do that with Billy Railmeat constantly being sent home. If you can get your crew to the point where 1 guy volunteers to stay on land and understands why he is doing it then you should consider it. But you are years down the road from that.

Keep in mind that for every guy you don't take, someone has to pick up the slack. Often that means multiple lines in a guys hand. No matter how well you built the priority matrix that 2nd and third line don't get handled in a timely fashion. In light air, stuff has to happen quickly, smoothly and sometimes in unison to maintain or build any boat speed. The two boatlengths you gain at mark roundings will make up for the extra weight.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 01/04/2011 : 13:41:37

Well the new sails have arrived. The local rigging company is going up the mast Thursday to install instruments. Put the new sails on Friday. Sail a 33.5 mile ocean race Saturday. Put in the digital knotmeter next week.

I told the guys, like a football team, look at what we did wrong and put it behind us. We have a game to win Saturday.

Everyone on the team is working hard designing our team shirts.

Another lesson learned that I did not share with them. These are all total beginners. But they are excited, motiviated, have shown up for practice in rain and on the day after Christmas. But it is nearly impossible for me to drive, get around marks, call tactics, pass other boats, AND coach them on how to raise the spinnaker, tie bowlines, or move the pole.

I've had a long talk with my bowman, who is the most dedicated of them all, and made him understand that he is in command of the hoist, douse, and gybes from now on. Once I give the order to do it.

And my partner, who is a totally experienced racer, was not on board New Year's Day but will be here Saturday.

Well, we are the fastest boat in the fleet so if we're not in front, we are losing!

There is no way I am telling one of them to stay home because winds are light. I've made my picks and already cut a whole bunch of good sailors (I helped them find other boats). But Saturday will be 7.

Yes, I did move them all around and induce heel.

We had the boat out in big winds and big seas and man does this boat need weight on the rail.

Watch us on Facebook. We're also going to start tweeting soon. The guys are really enjoying that. I am doing everything possible to make this "their boat".

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 01/04/2011 : 13:42:12

Edited by - on

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 01/05/2011 : 12:14:04

Ways to educate the crew:

See if you can get the loft that cut all the new cloth to come out and sail with you....they should! By default he will wind up teaching the crew.

Buy a bunch of racing books and pass them around - Walker, Whidden, Colgate, Jobson, Conners, Melges, Sailing World, Sea Horse, Dave Perry, RRS, RRS Casebook .... You'll be surprised and what will happen when they start to really understand what is going on.

Send them off to race on another boat when they can.

Edited by - on

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