Hi Everybody!
This is in many ways my favourite point of sailing from a tactical point of view! You can jybe without losing the distance you would when tacking upwind and the waves are with you. There are just as many windshifts on the run as there are upwind and you have so many choices. Also you can relax and think a bit more as you are not spending most of your effort hiking. When there is a bit of breeze, say F3+ then you really can use the gusts to take the boat further downwind.
I never really looked at the tell-tales to see them streaming the opposite way, but surely when you look at the burgee and it it pointing at the back of the sail then you are sailing by the lee! I almost always have my main completely out with the whole sheet (Steve Sawford standard) out with just enough sheet plus traveller to reach the mast where I am.
Brian was absolutely right in his observations of my sailing. I want to get to that mark as fast as possible. Most of the time that means sailing very low, sometimes slightly higher but normally very low. Sometime I see an opportunity to take the boat very very low and sail right by the lee. It may be some good waves, a gust - this is the most common, another boat you want to cover or blanket or maybe it just feels good!
I look at the burgee at lot when running. I always am amazed at the people who don't sail with burgees as it is an absolutely essential indicator to me. Bridle indicators are too low to be effective particularly downwind. Typically my burgee it is either pointing straight backwards or towards the leeward quarter at the sail. In lighter winds sometimes it may be towards the windward quarter, but as the wind picks up this is rarer. I look back to see where the gusts are and I work hard to take every opportunity to sail low. It often helps to hold the mast to stop it from slopping around and you often see me sat on the front beam with the mast between my legs - it's just easier than using your arm all the time and it makes sure that you have your weight a good way forward.
You can also use your burgee to see if somebody else is sat taking your wind (normally Stuart Snell
) and you can use other people's burgees to direct you where to put your boat to sit on their wind!
As the wind picks up you will need to shuffle back a bit in the gusts, but when it dies, you need to get the weight back forwards to be able to pick up the waves. Of course when it is very windy you'll be right at the back, but at Thorpe bay it was only that windy on the last day.
I have found that the boat is fast even when the burgee is pointing at the sail, and of course you are sailing very low when that is the case. If you are not paying very close attention and get a small windshift, the burgee will flick beyond the sail and you will be gybing.... Heading up quickly when you see this happing will catch this, but you need to be on your toes.
Catching and surfing the waves the best way possible is something that takes a lot of practice to master. Sometimes you can just get it all wrong and the boat stops, but when you get it right then you really do get the extra speed that you can use to sail right by the lee and get the boat further towards the leeward mark. If I get a really good wave, I bear off so that I am right on the edge of gybing to make the most of the surf and get the boat as low as possible.
It takes courage to bear off low at the start of the run. Normally if other boats are right behind you, the best way is to bear off hard and fast right at the mark. If you bear off the most and fastest then you will have nobody above you. Gybing at the mark will also give you clear wind, but just try and balance all this with the fact that you can gain 20 yards by having a nice clean fast mark rounding with a nice slow turn....
Sometimes other boats will sail above you and sometimes they will catch a gust and overtake you, but more often than not sailing by the lee is the fastest, particularly when you are in waves and when the wind is F3+
I am glad to see this topic come up as I have often thought in the last few years that the 15 shares more characteristics with a Laser than most other cats as it is very sensitive to weight, you can actually sail by the lee and as it is small then some body kinetics can be used. I remember watching a video of Ben Ainslie demonstrating the technique that Dad saw in this talk a few years ago and that is what influenced the way I sail the run in waves. I was amazed by how much he turned the boat to try and get the best waves, easily through 90deg between the lowest and highest he was sailing. It looked a bit like this finn video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hujuxvo3 ... PL&index=2
I think that it a really good Laser sailer took a 15 out then we could all learn a lot from them!
I look forward to stories of sailing by the lee.
George
Andrew.
Blimey if everyone sailing Una rig starts doing this we'll have to adjust the relative PY's for una/sport for sure!
