problem I have with following is unless you can get higher than them you will suck their bad wind and just get further behind. what does everyone else do if you have a somewhat poor start and are behind everyone? I know the correct answer is to have a better start (I am not as aggressive as I should be starting... just plain not good at it)

to clarify: if sailing on stbd and you get persistent lifts (meaning wind is shifting right?) then you should tack and go right?

You can't really go right in response to headers/lifts - it's too late at that point (see below). Taking advantage of those gradual course-wide shifts is a game of anticipation. If we were scientific enough to measure and chart the wind before a race, we would likely see some steady patterns to work with...since this isn't usually practical, use the forecast to see which way the wind is expected to shift to throughout the day.

This is something that Astella's online sailing simulator (can't recall the name at the moment) helped me to really visualize and I offer you this exercise. Visualize a race course in front of you with A-mark near the ceiling. Hold your hands out as the "boats" who are dead even on port tack with one further left and one further right. Now, give them both an equal header (the wind is shifting right across the entire course) and turn your hands appropriately as the skippers compensate for the header. Notice now that the boat on the left immediately lost ground on the boat to the right and is now looking more at his stern whereas they were dead even before the shift. It's an instant boost to the boat that was on the side the wind shifted to (upwind).

If you wait for the header before you go right it's too late. You have to be there when it happens and the more cross course separation you have from your opponent(s), the more gain you make if the shift shows up. Playing the anticipated course shift is a little gamble but if it's gradual and persistent, it's usually worth a boat length or two if you position yourself properly for it - but you only gain on boats that were on the wrong side for the shift.

While I reading through Jake's explanation, spot on by the way, I thought about other issues that have not been mentioned. Boat speed and boat handling. If you are losing by a couple of boat lengths and wonder how you could have them back then a lot of what is mentioned here applies. But if you are 30 seconds or more behind you need to look within. Do you have pace with the other boats? If yes then, do you have equal boat handling skills? I am not only talking about whether you think you are steering and turning corners correctly, also how are you meshing with the crew, providing you are sailing with one? If you are single-handing against double-handers I think you are at a disadvantage tactically. It is beneficial to bounce ideas off of someone else.

Just trying to gain some different perspective:
Dan

Basically I drive like a tourist... Oh wait! I had crew, it's all her fault.

Seriously, my game could stand a lot of improvement all the way around. Mostly, what I didn't do was work the shift to the right. For some reason I had it in my head that later in the day there would be something very dramatic and as a result missed the whole thing.

My crew was just fine, btw.

Joanna? You want to chime in here?

We started at the pin end almost every race. Stayed on starboard until we got about an 8 degree header, flopped to port, and sailed in foot mode all the way to the weathermark. I don't think we ever rounded out of the top 5, and more than once, we were the first boat to the weather mark.

Traffic at the gate dictated whether we went left or right on the next upwind leg. Left was my preference, but we went right on a couple of legs and didn't seem to loose any boats.

Pete,

Sounds like you are looking for the obvious. Most of time sailing is about playing trends and not having some huge literal sign telling you to go. Watch where you are sailing on each tack every lap and compare it to the previous times. In a race like Tradewinds there are boats everywhere, be very aware about who went which way and how they did, this will tell you loads about favored sides.

As Dan pointed out you realy need to be honest about your relative boat speed. If you can not make the start and have equal if not better boat speed than everyone else, upwind and down, then all the course reading tips in the world will not help one bit.

This is a great thread. I want to second what Matt is saying above, particularly with catamarans. Boatspeed and VMG can have a huge impact on my perception of a race as well as the shifts and tactics. And with catamarans in particular, different sailors can get significantly more or less out of the boat in terms of this boat speed and VMG. Life gets a lot easier if you can go fast.

We sailed an N20 and worked both sides of the course to good effect when we were sailing well. The classic land effects noted above were there, but people could do great by seeing what was going on ahead of them through other boats' point\speed\heel as well as breeze on the water.

BTW, I felt like the start line and course generally got more square over time.

And we often were surprised by the header on the final short beat to A.

Maybe you'd like to come aboard as crew some afternoon and give me a few pointers?

Go left, go right?

Which thread am I on anyways?

;-) LOL

[quote=Just Todd]Go left, go right?



"Yes!"

Yes, good thread.

Have you guys in Florida who are always racing against each other ever considered licencing the Kattak or similar software? With everyone's GPS track you can see how far you sailed and how fast you were versus the other boats on each leg. It becomes pretty easy to see who read the shifts, where they were etc.


CRAW used these in Racine and now most of the members have a Garmin so we're able to track each race. Embarassing for some (like me) but a great learning tool.

What is this -Kattak- you speak of?

And more importantly, what does it cost??

;^)

It's a company that does sailing race tracking software. I don't know exactly how it works or the exact cost. It might be a little pricey, but when you split it up among a group, it may be more reasonable.

How it works is X number of boats get a GPS. You can put it just about anywhere - tramp pocket or even in your hull. After the race, someone gathers them up and reads them in to the software via a USB cable. You mark the start and marks and assign names to each participant. It generates a movie of each race.

Anyone can watch the race on-line once its posted. There are two players - one is a web player with limited functionality and another is one you download. The one you download gives you all the metrics to analyze the race. You can toggle on and off the various boats to track whoever you want to track. You can also tell it to follow a certain boat.

What I like about it is that it seems to work with a wide variety of GPS. I don't know if they have to be Garmin, but in CRAW, I think there are about 3 different types of Garmin GPS now being used.

It is the reverse of the Velocitek model where you buy this expensive tracking unit and the tracking software is free. I believe that Velocitek only works with the Velocitek units and I think you can e-mail race files to each other, but no online viewing.

With Kattack, you buy a cheap GPS, but license the software each year. We pay for it out of our CRAW dues. I think about 20 boats now have a compatible GPS.

Here is their web site. Anyone can register and watch races.

Kattack

I like the level of analysis you can do. For example in one race, I think I found about 10% of the difference between my time and the boat I benchmark myself against was due to poor start, 20% due to slower tack/jibe/round times (this requires you do additional analysis not done in the software) and the rest due to sailing further/slower on the downwind legs.

Others have heard me on my soapbox before, but I believe with software like this you can mathematically analyze a race and pinpoint why a boat won or lost. You can have stats like baseball. Within a single race, I know it can work, but forming a basis for comparing like statistics between races or regattas still has me scratching my head a bit.

I think Kattack does something to the GPS's and you have to get them through them. I know JJ couldn't take the tracks off of just any GPS.

Somebody really needs to get them in touch with the Velocitek folks and make them function with it. I would think it would add appeal to both products.

Sounds very interesting, I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

You could be right on that, but I thought he said it did work with other units with a USB port, just not Velocitek.

I don't see the two companies cooperating, because they are after overlapping markets. I haven't checked out Velocitek speedplay recently, but it didn't give you the metrics like Kattack. I used GPSpar, the free one, because I liked it better and it gave me the ability to export the raw lat/long data.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/53372119

This is from my Foretrex 301.

I like how it brings in the map.

Does Garmin give you the ability to do an animation of your sailing?