Sail for gold

Its not about the end result! Well, sort of. Sailing out of Weymouth is not the most pleasant of experiences when you're used to an open bay within easy reach of a sheltered beach. The long delays between races and the long sail out/back each day certainly challenged my enthusiasm and reminded me of the reasons I stopped sailing back in 2003.

However, I was there to get some race tuning in and I certainly did. My results weren't anything to write home about but it was still an extremely useful exercise. I was yellow flagged for sculling on my first start and immediately approached the jury boat for an explanation. I learnt that sculling could only be performed to get the bow down from head to wind to close hauled or to get the bow through the wind onto a new tack. Sculling on both sides to maintain position was not allowed. So, the week from that point forward was all about changing my technique which was all useful practice for the worlds (even if it meant not getting a single sniff of clear air all week).

During racing, I worked myself into the top half of the fleet in about 3 of the 6 qualifying races and failed to convert any of those positions into results. Whether it be rustiness, poor decision making, poor speed or a just plain bad luck, it highlighted that I had some potential even if it was too late to make silver fleet. Having missed the cut then proceeding to collect a black flag in the first race on thursday, I decided I'd had enough of waiting around and sailed for home. Normally, I would have seen that as defeatist but I looked at it as lessons learnt and 7 days of top quality days in the boat. I was in need of a rest! I had friday off before sailing in my beloved Beer regatta and then spent the next week trying to loosen off my leags in time for Pre-worlds training at hayling.

I'm still feeling positive about my progress but there's nothing like getting a thorough whipping on the Laser circuit to bring you down to earth with a thud and focus the mind on the game in hand.

A whole month since my last post!

Its been quite a while since my last post. Up until now, most of my posts refer to club racing conditions so that everyone can relate to what I have to say. Seen as I haven't been club sailing much lately, I don't have a lot to say on that front. I shall be sailing again on Thursday and Sunday.

In the mean time, I thought I could just bring this post up to date with how preparations for the worlds have been going. An old sailing friend once said to me after I had suffered an appalling worlds in America that 'you cant do a worlds without doing a full months worth of sailing before hand'. So, about 3 weeks ago now I started sailing about 5-6 days a week on top of my usual fitness regime. Most of these sessions lasted between 2 and 3 hours and were based out of Beer with Mr Cornish. Most sessions consisted of at least an hours worth of sailing round 2 marks to sharpen up my mark roundings. The most critical part of this is to make sure every type of approach and exit is covered and all controls are adjusted every time. This encourages the 'autopilot' type execution of these manouvres. The rest of the time was spent doing boat speed work on all points of sail. In hiking conditions. Upwind speed runs typically lasted 20 mins to replicate the length of a worlds beat. These sessions proved very successful and led into the next step.

I turned up at Weymouth to start training for Sail for Gold on the Thursday before it was due to start. By this time I had aleady sailed on 8 out of the last 10 days with 4 days since my last break. With Ben unable to get out, I had arranged to sail with A very good laser helm by the name of Mark Powell. He was keen to get some big days in so we hit the water wfor 4 hours on each of thurday and Friday and then a further 3 on Saturday. It was pretty breezy and lots of the competitors from around the world were now on the water to start their own prep for S4G. It had been a while since I'd sailed against this standard of opposition but it was the best type of training you can have. Typically a long windward leeward would be set with one boat getting everyone away in a gate start. 60 odd boats of fairly even speed don't tend to get seperated by much over medium distances so crowded windward marks and impossible runs were the norm. This was exactly what I'd been hoping for and gave me a good indication of where I was.

I was fractionally off the boat speed pace upwind but it was good enough to round most windward marks around (but mostly below) half way. This represented a huge boost for me but unfortunately my lack of pace down the run made it hard to hold my position. over the 3 days I found my racing was improving and the hour long upwind sail home in the fresh southwesterlies were really giving my legs a serious test. Especially against Mark 'I will out hike you at all costs' Powell. I'd forgotten what it was like to walk down stairs after big Laser sessions and I will freely admit that I was basicly in pieces. However, with 2 and a bit weeks solid training under my belt. I felt like things were going in the right direction and was sort of looking forward to S4G with some optimism.

Next time.... How did it Go?

Sail Settings.

What a great session. Getting the pies in obviously helped me a great deal as I seemed to be going pretty quick. I don't always mention my sail settings but I think it's worth mentioning today. Upwind I was fully depowered. Cunningham cringle down on the gooseneck, kicker pulled on as much as I could manage (bent like a banana). The only place I left any shape in the sail was in the foot. I left a minimal curve instead of flattening it right off. I do that to retain a little power low down on the sail where it has less effect to help me get through the chop. Off wind I let it all off and had marginally more kicker on for the reaches than for the run.

You've now set the boat up to go quick, but how? Being quick in windy conditions is largely down to maintaining constant heal. Doing this is important as it allows the foils to work at their most efficient and reduces the amount of unnecessary steering (which acts as a break). There are two reasons why sailing in waves makes this harder to do. On top of the wave the rig is higher and so is exposed to the full force of the breeze. When in the trough the rig is slightly shetered and the pressure is reduced. The second reason is that water flows from the top of the wave to the trough on both sides of the crest. This current pushes you slightly to windward (giving you more pressure) on the back of the wave and pushes you to leeward (giving you less pressure) on the front of the wave. This gives a cyclic variation of pressure in the rig.

So the technique goes as thus. Approach wave, steer up into wave to get past adverse current on the face of the wave, sheet in and maybe lean in slightly for a rest. As boat gets to crest, bear away slightly. let the sheet out a foot or two and lean out to allow for the extra pressure. Sheet in and head up as next wave approaches and so on. Remember tht there will be flat spots when you don't need to sheet out as much and you ca n control the pressure with steering and hiking. Part of being quick is recognising the times when you need to use the skills. Also, every now and again some extra chops come along to disrupt your cycle. Use the 'Long haul' techniques for punching through these whilst sailing free (footing, sheeting out) before getting back into rythmn. Makes sense?

The sheeting technique will only work if you have loads of kicker on! If you don't have it on, the boom pops up as well as out when you sheet out from the block to block position. This straightens the mast and powers the rig up rather than releasing the pressure, the complete opposite of what you want to achieve. If you don't like tacking with loads of kicker on, let it off before the tack then pull it back on afterwards to avoid the dreaded 'irons'.

Following on from Rons rule 42 response. Here's my subtle tips for getting that bit extra out of the boat. When approaching big waves. Instead of just leaning out more over the crest, incorporate a rapid aft movement of your shoulders with a drive forward through your hips. This helps punch the boat over the wave and delivers an instant pulse of force through the rig to counteract the increase in power.

A similar technique can be applied with each 'jab' of a tiller in the chop technique. All questions welcome.

Got to post something!

It's nice to be away on holiday with Nat and the kids. Bit gutted to be missing
out on the good forecast for Thursday. I hope you all have a cracker. Thought
I should mention Sundays racing. Nice to get out and try it even if the breeze wasn't
up to much. As for my performance, it was mildly better than Englands and I
missed out a mark. So, I add it to a growing list of errors currently afflicting my sailing.
It only came to light whilst chewing the fat afterwards over a cup of tea. At which point
I'd signed off and no-one had noticed! Self policing at it's best ensured I subsequently retired.
What a disaster? 3 race day and all. Anyway, how to go fast round a track when the wind
dies......
Keep your bearings as the wind swings and sail the proper course!!!!

Spawn

Last nights race was certainly a bit of a challenge. Looking upwind before the start, I was completely torn. It looked as if there was more breeze on the left (presumably as it was outside the lee of the cliff) but the forecast had the breeze tracking right through 90 at some point in the next 2 hours. As it turned out the adverse tide made it difficult to make the left pay.

There were still shifts and holes to negotiate so simply plumping for the right hand corner didn't work either. In short, a very difficult breeze to read consistently well. Ron deservedly took the PH and LH bullets. Having a big rig helps but the breeze last night levelled the playing field and rewarded better directional decisions more than speed. I don't believe anyone got it nailed on last night. Perhaps Ron got 75% of the decisions right and the rest of us were between 60 and 70%. The last decision I made was to go right of Andy on the last beat. Based purely on the angle Ron was sailing further up the course. As the attacking boat I had to split from Andy to gain some leverage and then its all down to 'pot luck' and being a bit spawny as there were never any certainties last night. In the end the difference between Any and I was he got it right early and I got it right late. Its a cruel sport!

The only other thought I had about last night was my mindset. When I'm not doing as well as I want to be, I have to really focus on keeping myself 'together' in the boat. Its really easy to start making rash decisions and taking too many big risks. It also gets me fidgety in the boat which is not fast. Being quick in the light is about being smooth so stopping myself 'pumping and rolling' more than usual is also key. Trying to maintain a certain calmness allows me to think more about the breeze and the decisions.

To this end, I wonder what peoples thoughts are on what rule 42 allows. I generally sail right on the edge of whats permissable. Having only suffered 3 yellow flags in 14 years of laser sailing, I think I rarely step over the mark. Comments welcome unless they're libelous!

Long haul.

Sorry for my late postings lately. I'm just running a bit behind time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the water on Sunday. I picked up on the fact that people didn't particularly get on with starboard tack so here are my thoughts.

Going out on starboard took us right across the main rip of wind over tide and was providing some quite steep chop at times. Being quick was down to choosing the flatter spots in which to sail high and trying to anticipate the bigger chops. Once I saw that a bigger chop was upon me....

The Approach - I induced a little more leeward heel by steering a slightly lower course without dropping any sheet and leaning in a touch (if there's not enough breeze to induce heel). This gives the boat shape a bit more 'rocker' (curve) and reduces the slamming effect whilst also allowing the majority of water that comes over the bow to slip off the deck before filling you up. It also powers the rig up so be careful not to overcook it!

During - My steering becomes quite aggressive. A sharp stab of the tiller away from me as the bow approaches the chop prevents the bow being 'knocked down' on successive chops and therefore helps maintain height in your lane. Its a bit like trying to get the bow to 'punch' through the chop. I combine this with some body movement which involves rolling the shoulders aft at the same time as thrusting your hips forward (ie on starboard, hips right / shoulders left). This drives the boat forward and flicks the leech to give the boat some extra pace into the chop and also helps lever the bow up a bit. Complete this movement in a cycle (always returning to your standard hiking position) for every nasty chop until the 'set' passes.

After - Having gone through a bad 'set' of chops I would then sail higher again by squeezing the boat flat with extra hiking power before reducing my body movement and steering. Conserving energy in the flat bits is vital if you want to be quick in the choppier bits. Its also very hard work! The key to it all is anticipation.

Breeze on.

Another good race last night in a strong North Easterly. Congratulations to Jamie for edging me out despite the extra 4 kilos of rust he was carrying. Perhaps he should turn out for windy stuff more often eh?! It was a thoroughly engaging race. The general principles for getting round in good shape included massive amounts of kicker in the windy bits and sailing free to keep the boat moving on the beat. Offwind, Just trying to line yourself up with the breeze. The other factor was a very high work rate. I think its the most tired I've been after a single race in a long while!

Looking back at the race highlighted a few things to me. Firstly, the importance of staying in touch (engaging the boat ahead). Wherever you are in the fleet, being close to a boat in front inevitably applies pressure. Seen as I'm used to showing a clean set of heels to the fleet, having to constantly defend a narrow lead prevented me from dedicating my efforts to my own race. It had a surprising effect on my ability to be a smooth operator in the boat too. Rushed tacks, dropped sheets, hasty decisions and poor anticipation were just some of the areas under attack, all becasuse the pressure was on. All of which shows that staying close enough for long enough as an attacker can really unravel your opponent. Boo

Secondly, always try to sail the longest tack first on a one sided beat..... Unless sailing at Beer in a North Easterly! In which case do the shortest bit first and then utilise random 20 degree lifts like Jamie. Ha Ha ;-)

Finally, always let out the frustration immediately after the race in order to pacify yourself! Must do better next time.

The Westerley that tried to go in.

We sailed a little further out than usual today. Being able to see sidmouth put us in a slightly different breeze than we're used to. Previously the windward mark may have been further in to Seaton giving us an array of shifts coming off the caravan site and out of Beer. Going that bit further exposed us to a more consistent breeze coming down the coast in well defined bands. Combined with the strong tide under our transoms, things usually felt better on the left (seaward side) of the course.

However, there were plenty of holes (some of which were unavoidable) and some patches of breeze on the right coming out of Beer. Because they were coming out of Beer I felt that they probably wouldn't last as long despite the favourable headings because of the shelter of the cliffs. As ever, it was pressure that was king. If you could pick the darkest side of the course early on and called it right, generally things were ok. Generally, if I couldn't decide what was looking good when I came round the leeward mark I went left looking for pressure.

On the speed side of things, the increased chop in the exposed course area meant that a bit of leeward heel was quite quick in the worse bits, especially when the wind dropped! Making use of the waves to get low on the reaches was only really possible when the breeze filled in. So when it did, I wasn't afraid of steering big angles to get going down the front and then heading up as soon as the ride ran out. The only other ingredient was a bit of luck when it got tricky!

My calender

With the worlds in Hayling and sail for gold in weymouth looming in August I thought I could offer up some of my thoughts on how I approach these kind of regattas. Sail for gold is up first, a top level grade 1 event on the world tour. I plan to use this as a major training regatta for the worlds which is always the hardest regatta (reputedly of any class) in the year. Tiny mistakes are punished instantly and harshly at these regattas so a good deal of planning is required.

In my opinion you can peak your physical performance 2-3 times a year. I started the year by blitzing 2 months of training both on and off the water in time for the qualifiers and I reaped the rewards. Having backed off a fair bit since then, I'm now starting to wind it up again through June and July so I arrive in August in the best possible shape. After the worlds, Southampton boat show will give me a short break before I need to perform at the Autumn qualifiers. This plan has been loosely in place since the Laser nationals last year (which was the last time I trained hard for a result at a regatta). Its now time to firm up the plans... More to follow.

Sunday funday

Ok, so I've been a quiet over the last few days. Unfortunately the breeze just didn't materialise in the bay on Thursday and the 6 of us who made the effort to get out were left to float about for a bit. Ah well. The forecast for this sunday looks remarkably similar to last sunday so I think we can expect similar conditions. Some fairly wild shifts.

Looking back at Dad's comments from last week, I'll now be looking to see if we do have any sea breeze influence on the westerly. It seems like quite a reasonable hypothesis. It also makes due to the influence getting stronger through the morning. i.e. the biggest left shift at around half past 12. This week it looks like there will be a fiar bit of low and medium cloud cover in the morning so it'll be interesting to sea how much sea breeze influence there is, especially as the breeze is due to freshen from mid day onwards.

I'm likely to stick to my reduced leverage plan so as not to sail myself out of contention on the first leg. After that, I'm just looking to start another run of results. Getting another chance in the conditions which saw me undone is a good place to start. However, I'll certainly be more wary of complacency.

Why sail a laser?

The reason I sail a laser is for days like today. An awesome breeze and good turnout followed by a good cup of tea and a large slice of humble pie. I've dominated most races this season and today I was taken to task. Step up Dad, awesome race. I just couldn't match him for smart sailing despite being quicker in a straight line. I stuck gamely to my plan and never wondered to far from the 'safe' area of the course and was duly beaten by someone who was more confident in what he was doing.

Commiserations must go to Ron who suffered gear failure that ended up sending him home. You're gonna need a cunnigham in 15 kts in a full rig let alone a big Rig!

As for my thoughts on the day, it was a very unstable breeze, perhaps even more so than Thursday. And bloody windy at times too. If you were able to make good use of the the big pressure then you were always going to have a good day. Overall, a good days sailing with some glam reaches and more than enough shifts to keep you guessing.

Westerly or north westerly?

Won't get a chance to to write anything tomorrow morning so I thought I'd get it in early. It looks like more of the same for sunday. The low pressure system centred over Ireland today should move off to the north sea and drag the current southerly breeze round to the north west by late tomorrow. Therfore, I'm guessing we'll have racing very similar to Thursday. Shifty breeze with significant variations in pressure.

Predicting my first beat is very tricky and has so far proved as futile as it should be! Instead, today I'll offer up my general theme for my first beat on days like Thursday and tomorow. Up the first beat, I will generally stay somewhere in the middle of the course area. If I think one side is favoured then I will try to stay to that side of the bulk of the boats to gain some 'leverage'. ie I think right will pay, I will stay to the right of the majority of the fleet. Where I end up on the course is then ditated by where the fleet chooses to go. So, if the fleet heads left I will probably end up just left of middle. If the fleet stays in the middle, I will go right of middle etc. This principle ensures that if I am correct, I will gain a small advantage but equally, if I'm wrong, I will only make a small loss and still be in contention. As the race moves on through the rounds, I try to build up a better picture of what works and will then get more confident of going my own way, seeking to make bigger gains. This is a 'safe' way to build a race. However, It doesn't always work like that! Sometimes, events at the start force you away from the group to gain clear air (which is paramount in anything other than 20knots), just remember the further you go, the more you'll be looking over your shoulder and worrying about tacking back!

There are times when you need a big gain to get back in the frame so I don't want to discourage people from taking risks and going for glory. After all, it is part of the fun. So, expect me to hit a corner on sunday! ha ha

Best yet!

Great to see 13 on the water. I think thats a seasons best for any day, brilliant. Cheers to Jamie and mike for the course in testing conditions for both us and them.

There were plenty of shifts and big variations in wind strength. Predicting the shifts was pretty difficult so I opted to sail for pressure first then worry about the heading second. The wild starboard lifts in the top half of the beat combined with bigger patches of sustained pressure coming out of seaton further down meant we spent a lot of the beat on starboard. For this reason I tried to put in the lion share of the starboard leg work in early, this allowed me to pick a couple smaller port hitches later in the beat to work my way over to the right side near the top. The key was to predict the gusts ie track them from further up to windward than the mark and try to intercept them. If you sail to where the pressure is , it'll be gone by the time you arrive. Downwind I sailed radical angles to intercept the pressure. On the reaches though, pot luck. Some you win some you lose! Some you gain massively (as I found on round 3), you gotta love private breeze!

Its fair to say the breeze turned out a lot different to the forecast so I'm hoping I can be forgiven my plan. In the end though I stuck reasonably close to my plan, middle left for the most part but with a crossover to the right for the final approach! You just can't always trust Windguru.

Sail setting wise, when the breeze is up and down a lot I reckon I adjust the kicker more than any other control. Probably between 20 and 30 times per beat, 3-5 times per reach or run. The cunningham and outhaul, 5-6 times a beat, once or twice per reach or run. Two reasons for this. Its the easiest control to adjust as the cleat swivels to look at you and it has the best purchase, plus, it controls the largest amount of power. I try to have the loop close to hand so I can pull it on just before a gust hits (dropping it in time to concentrate on keeping the boat flat by feathering and playing the sheet) and ease it immediately when the pressure fades.

Reaching. Boat to boat tactics: attack or defend?

On the first reach (on starboard usually). Attack: to windward if you think you can get past and break the overlap before the gybe mark. Attack to leeward if you don't have time to get past and hopefully establish an overlap in time to get the inside line at the mark.
Defend: Difficult to defend on a reach, just sail as fast as you can! Once most of the reach is over try to keep faster boats on your windward hip and keep the inside line.

On the port reach. Attack to windward to get an over lap. If you're very fast it may be worth going low, but you have to be 50 yards or more lower to avoid a wind shadow. Sailing low is far riskier but potentially rapid. To defend, sail high to stop people gaining overlaps and force them below you.

Obviously your course is also dictated by other factors but those are my simple thoughts. Boats overtaking to leeward have no luffing rights and must stay clear of the windward boat whilst sailing a reasonable course. Boats overtaking to windward must stay clear.

Better than last time!

Checking out the pressure chart shows a shallow low to the north of scotland which is enough to give us a couple isobars across the uk and a reasonable breeze for tonight from the north west ish ness. After last weeks plan turned out to be a little wide of the mark, I'm hoping this week will be better.

The north westerly / westerly at Beer usually gives us some good racing with plenty of shifts to contend with. The current should be going west to east outside the head encouraging you to overstand on port. My plan would normally be to start in the middle of the line and go middle left up the beat. Although, there is usually at least one beat where Alan goes right and comes out smelling of roses!

I will try to work out roughly how long the shifts last and then predict which way the wind will shift first off the line. Then start at the favoured end to make maximum use of the shift. The most important thing is to sail the lifts and not 'hit the fleet' because boats are being lifted inside you. 9 times out of 10 the breeze will come back!

I usually set the boat up so that I'm hiking at 70-80% in the lulls and simply work my ass off in the gusts. In 10kts this would mean a small amount of cunningham, a snug amount of kicker and a tiny bit of outhaul. If a gust looks strong then I'll probaby grab the kicker before it hits and pull a bit more on. Its the easiest control to play. For more sustained gusts I go for the downhaul instead then a tiny bit more kicker. I will always try to sail in areas of increased pressure so sailing the boat flat whilst looking around is the most important asset to speed up the course. Down the reaches I try to take a lower line when the gusts come through with half an eye on the boats behind me. Its always a danger that boats behind going higher get to the new breeze first and 'roll' down over the top of you. So, sailing the rhumb line is usually difficult. I will try to stand up and look for breeze behind me on the run then make a concerted effort to get there. If boats are catching in more breeze then I will try to protect the inside line at the bottom mark.

Sunday

Ah well, not a lot of sailing to talk about this sunday. I enjoyed the time in the boat with Mike and my little boy, but no amount of wishing could bring the breeze up once it failed.

Disappointment all round but at least the food and tea was good as ever. Still 13 boats includng 1 mirror signed on so things are still going strong on that front. Now I'm looking forward to donning the wetsuit once more on Thursday evening.

As for offering some wisdom on the conditions. Easterlies (approximately) have always been the same at Beer, they never quite get here like they should! I hoped the sun may give us some thermal enhancement and provide us a draft but the haze never allowed it to get going resulting in a breeze vacuum all day. You just can't win them all.

On a positive note, the high dominating current affairs appears to be moving enough to allow for some decents gradients in a couple days time. wa hoo.

Thursdays Plan

Ok, sailing is a pretty good sport for keeping you humble. The plan worked for the first round but saw me loose ground on the next two. Starting at the heavily biased starboard end gave me enough edge to lead at the first mark despite the boats to the left of me (looking upwind) getting more pressure on port. I still felt right would work so I stayed right of Dad on the next beat without going all the way. Basicly, not getting greedy. That saved me as it was left that was paying and it ended up reducing my losses. As the race wore on I got more confident about the consistency of the left hand gain and culminated in the 'bell ringing' (going to the corner) which got me back in the race.

I still stand by my pre-race planning, despite it not quite working. I reckon 9 out of 10 times my theory would have worked. However, there were pointers that should have made me re-assess my plan before the start rather than during the race. It was an unusually large hole underneath the cliffs meaning there was a risk of less breeze on the right. The course area was slightly further east than usual meaning the classic Beer sea breeze strategy may not pay.

As for my own racing, I must mention the doomed gybe mark manouvre. I'm always up for trying new things and discarding them when they fail! Overall, I was happy with the result as I didn't take any risks and kept myself in contention depsite suffering setbacks. It was one of the more enjoyable races so far this season as Dad, Andy and Ron were all sailing well enough to take the bullet. In the end, Ron prevailed on a day which could easily have provided trouble regardless of the rig.

I generally sailed the boat flat upwind with the sheet block to block. I eased them 6 inches and allowed a small aount of lewward heel in the light patches. On the reaches, I tried to maintain a consistent heel whilst pumping the sheet the maximum permissable amount of times in a reasonable subtle fashion so as not to disrupt air flow too much over the sail. Once a wave/gust. On the run, I failed to clear my air from under Andy but successfully covered Dad second time around. I took care not to over ease the sheet beyond 90 degrees and benefited a huge amount from a more relaxed approach second time around (the first run had me a bit on edge after being overtaken) rather than my flustered first effort.

Lastly, apologies for not reading the comments last time around. I will do in future. To answer Rons Q. I would try to anticipate big waves and either pinch above or foot below them. If they're unavoidable then easing sheet witha a bit of leeward heel and going for speed would be the last resort.

Thursday Morning

Part of my routine on a Thursday is to check the forecast and the the tides in the morning. Basicly, because sailing has so many variables, I like to gather as much information as possible before hand. This makes it easier on the water to weigh up the options. I use a mixture of windguru, xc weather and the atlantic pressure chart on the BBC to keep up to date.

The weather looks dominated by a fat high pressure slapped over the uk so any breeze is likely to be light until at least next week (bearing in mind most forecasts are only really accurate over 2 to 3 days). Today windguru has aout 3 knots sw for 7pm combined with high cloud cover and high tide at 11pm. With neglible thermal enhancement, I don't see it being more than a light sail. However, a bit of current against the breeze should make it feel a bit better than 3 kts.

Bearing this in mind I'm already considering the race. Here's how I see it, first beat is all about going right. Reasons as follows.
1/hopefully catch stronger current near the cliffs giving the effect of more pressure in the sail.
2/as the night goes on, the likelyhood is for the breeze to go right due to the forecast (west 3 kts at 10pm)
3/sail the rhumb line on the reaches and look for extra pressure on the run.

Having a plan always helps, if things are different to how I predict when I get out there then its always easier to change a plan than to make a new one! Here's mine. I'll probably try to win the starboard end and be first to tack off. I usually don't like early laylines but I think it would be worth trying to 2 tack it on this occasion. Other than that, I reckon some soothing music on the ipod on the way down and a softly softly approach on the tiller will help me stay quick today. Smooth baby.

Hints and Tips

Just a quick note to see if anyone is out there?!

Thursday - it paid to go right up the beat to stay out of the tide taking small shifts along the way. Spent a lot of time with the blocks 'popped' for more speed over the steeper chops. Especially on starboard.