Shifting Gears in Light and Variable Wind by Rich Bowen

The key to keeping the boat moving in light winds is clear communication between the helm and the trimmers.
We've all heard people use the term shifting gears when talking about sailboat racing. Surely a lot of folks scoff at first when they hear this. There's no transmission on a sailboat. Sailboats are slow and they lack the kind of gear-shifting we're accustomed to in cars. But actually, shifting gears on the racecourse follows exactly the same concept as it does in cars. Put yourself in the following scenarios, and you'll understand how best to react to the hills and straightaways out on the racecourse.

Remember, on sailboats, one of the most important factors when it comes to shifting gears—especially on larger boats—is communication among the speed team, that is the trimmers, the driver, and the tactician. All of these people need to be aware of what is happening or what the goals are in particular situations. For instance, the tactician needs to know if the boat is at max trim in a close, port-starboard situation, because if it's not, he or she may want the sails sheeted to cross the other boat, or eased out to duck it.

"Having the trimmer provide feedback to the driver and tactician while making minor adjustments can make the difference between preserving your spot among the leaders and sucking bad air in the cheap seats."
Here's the scene: It's early morning and the crew is gathering at the boat on Day One of a regatta. The tactician arrives with the weather report and gives everyone the low-down on the expected conditions—light and variable. Someone says 'We'll need the entire newspaper and a Sports Illustrated to make it through the postponement.' Look on the bright side, it could be raining.

The first critical adjustment for these conditions—tuning the rig—should take place even before leaving the dock. Your boat's tuning guide (obtained from your sailmaker, class association, or boatbuilder) and whatever notes you've taken while practicing should indicate the best rig settings for light air, so make sure you've got this covered. The next call is which sails to use. Depending on what kind of boat you are campaigning, you may have the latitude of selecting different headsails and downwind sails for the day's activities. Obviously for a light-air day, you should think about bringing an appropriate spinnaker, not the heavy air 1.5-ounce kite. And you might want to leave any heavy air jibs on the dock and instead bring the light jib and an AP (all-purpose headsail) if that's an option.

Now let's fast-forward to the start. The brain trust in the back of the boat has gotten your team off to a perfect start, you've got a clean lane at the favored end with full speed on your way to the favored side of the racecourse. In these light and variable conditions, the headsail trimmer is always on the job, sitting in to leeward, at the winch, with the sheet in hand, not in the cleat or the self-tailer. It's important that he or she constantly provide feedback to the helmsman and tactician while making minor adjustments in sail trim according to the demands of the situation. This can make the difference between preserving your spot among the leaders and sucking bad air back in the cheap seats.

As you sail along, your boat speed starts to drop and the headsail begins to luff slightly as the angle of heel begins to decrease. All these are signs that the apparent wind is going forward, meaning that you're sailing into less pressure, which is like starting to climb a hill in a car. OK, it's time to downshift. The jib trimmer or tactician should communicate to the rest of the afterguard that the boat is sailing into less pressure. Then, working in unison with the mainsail trimmer and the driver, he or she can begin to get the boat moving as fast as possible.


It's those subtle adjustments you make to the trim of the sails and the trim of the boat that can keep your boat moving through even the least inspiring zephyrs.
Generally, the initial reaction in these situations is to begin easing the jib immediately, knowing that the sail is now sheeted too tight for the new wind. The trimmer should ease the sail gradually so that it doesn't cause the driver to over-steer and essentially chase the tell tales down in order to find his or her groove. So ease the sail just until the tell tales start flowing again. A typical exchange in such a situation might go something like this:

Trimmer Tim: "We're losing pressure and slowing down, I'm going to give you a slight ease."

Driver Dave: "OK, keep us moving."

Tactician Tina: "Yeah, we'll need the speed because we want to tack in the next two minutes."

Trimmer Tim: "All right, I'm eased three inches and the speed is beginning to come back."

In extreme situations, where the wind has dropped drastically, you may want to ease the headsail halyard tension and the backstay as well as move the sheet lead forward. If you make these adjustments, make sure all of this is communicated to the driver and tactician. Knowing how much the boat has slowed down and how much the wind has decreased will determine the amount of ease needed to get the boat back up to speed. Once the boat is going well enough to resume normal upwind angles for the new conditions, and the tactical situation permits, the headsail trimmer should begin sheeting in and telling his cockpit partners that he's getting it back to maximum upwind trim.

The second possibility in these conditions is an increase in pressure, which would be like starting down a hill in a car. An increase in pressure, when racing upwind, usually allows a boat to sail closer to the wind. When building pressure comes down the course and gets to your boat, the outer tell tales may begin to lift, indicating that the course your driver is steering is too low. There's usually about a two-second delay before the crew on the rail begins to yell: "You're heavy, head up!" Remember, a big change of course made rapidly in light conditions will result in a dramatic loss of boat speed, so don't let the driver over-steer in these situations.

Before the driver begins heading up, keep in mind that when the outer tell tales luff, it's also an indication that the sail might be over-trimmed. The headsail trimmer (sitting with the sheet in hand, ready to react) should communicate to the driver that he or she will ease the sail three inches, or whatever amount is necessary, to make the tell tales flow evenly again. This is when you start shifting into a higher gear to go down the hill. As the boat speed begins to increase, the driver can begin to head up toward the proper upwind angle and the trimmer can begin sheeting the headsail back to max trim. Remember, communication with the driver while sheeting will keep that person from heading up too far. Once again, the headsail halyard and backstay tension may also need to be adjusted for the increased pressure.

If there's one thing you can be sure of out on the racecourse it's that the wind is constantly changing, so you have no excuses for not practicing the technique of shifting gears. The next time you're out sailing upwind in light air, take a moment to sit down to leeward and start making some subtle adjustments in sail trim. If you pay attention to the tell tales and the boatspeed while you're doing this, you'll eventually develop a feel for how much ease is enough when the wind drops and how much trim is necessary when a puff hits. Good luck and good sailing.

Things we learned this year to go faster

I have posted my top entries where I thought it helped us go much faster this

year. If anybody in the crew thinks they have anything to add please do so in the comment section. I will add it to the list.

Lee bow defense – when a boat tacks in front of us the best defense we can use is to point higher when they cross and then go down for speed. To make it work the trimmers had to over trim and then trim for power. Then we would about every 15 seconds go up half a boat lane and then power off for speed. Most of the time if the trimmers were in form we could backwind their sails.

Mark roundings - in general when rounding marks try to approach wide and then cut it close. This will make it more difficult for the boat behind to sneak into the inside and give you problems.

At the leeward mark on windward / leeward courses try to come in on starboard to do a Mexican takedown. Usually we can sneak forward a number of boat lengths on our competition because we can keep the spinnaker right up to the mark.

Try to be on the left side of the starters on the committee boat side. By doing so we usually can bottle up and then stall the boats to the right of us.

Hang on the starting line when necessary to keep the position you want to start at. When we wanted to just hang on the line we would keep the main trimmed and let the headsail go to drop speed. In heavier air the main should also be eased so the boat can turn down when needed. When we wanted to accelerate again we would trim the headsail and head down. Also on a crowded line you can hold your position longer while normally the boat to leeward would skid down the line leaving you a clear lane after the gun.

On windward / leeward courses bias towards the left side of the course. By doing so we could very often avoid the traffic ahead of us thus disturbed air. It is always gutsy because it is required to get to the top mark on port but usually pays off.

In moderate air always turn up to a hot angle after a jibe. In order to sail low effectively the boat must be sailing its targets as soon as possible.

In heavy air the crew must jibe differently than in moderate air. The sheet must be pulled down instead of back when jibing in heavy air. It is also important the trimmer let the sheet go super fast after the spinnaker fills.

Shroud tension is very important. We would have the top of the mast fall off in conditions of 7 knots or less. Anything above that we would adjust it to keep it straight.

To save on slowing the boat down for spinnaker changes we would try to perform a jibe peel under the right conditions. This was done by raising the new spinnaker at the same time taking down the old spinnaker when jibing. We have found that peels have slowed the boat down to 4 knots so this is a great move.

Helmsman position in heavy to moderate air. We would as soon as possible after a tack have the helmsman sit on the high side of the boat behind the mainsail winch and the mainsail trimmer just in front of it. This way we would constantly work together on boat speed, trim and point. We could talk to each other without the crew talking over us.

In light air overtrim the main. By doing this the boat will register a little bit of weather helm. Otherwise the steering gets really squirrelly and to compensate the helmsman has to move the wheel around a lot to keep the boat straight.

If you hit a dead air hole with the spinnaker it is better to dump the spinnaker before you do anything. This will prevent the sail from collapsing into the shrouds to slow down the boat like an air brake. By just going bareheaded for a short time the boat can coast for a longer distance.

Put together a written sail selection guide and modify it as lessons are learned to what is faster. This is done by the intersection of apparent wind angle and wind speed and showing which is the best sail.

On a downwind leg spinnaker pressure is most important. We would have a constant dialog between the trimmer and helmsman regarding boat speed and pressure. By doing so we could point lower and as fast as any J/120 out there.

If in the lead cover, cover, and cover the closest competition. It does not matter if you win by 1 minute or 10 minutes. If you stay between the other boat and the mark or finish line it reduces the chances of getting rolled.


Subject: Still Learning...
Hey there - I know I have only been on the boat a few times, but the hours add up on two Macs and the Chimo Race!

Weight placement sensitivity is something that I've learned over the past few years... and racing on Carinthia and being on a chase boat for Friday of Harbor I have witnessed VERY different approaches to weight placement in the J120s. I have a decent amount of video that the class could actually analyze this winter if you're interested... It really seems as if the 'slower' boats were generally stern-heavy.

First hand, this year when the air got somewhat light in the PH-Mac, Hot Ticket was probably a good 1.5 miles away with their jib up, I was driving, we put up the Code 0, shifted some weight low, and some dogs-in-the-house...and we reeled them in.

When in doubt - test it out...move some folks around while watching the boat speed. Obviously if its super-duper light you don't want to be pouncing all over the place, but...stay in the game. People on the rail should always be engaged w/r/t where they should be sitting. They should know what "move the rack aft (or forward)" means...

:-) Lynn

Windsor Wednesday Race - Chimo

This was a river start in front of the Windsor Yacht Club. We got there a little early and found that there was wind at about 5 to 6 knots on the right side of the river coming from the south (mainland side) and in an upwind direction. I decided to start on the yacht club side as close as possible in order to not get caught in the traffic, thus disturbed air. Merlin started to our left with a little more speed, Jayhawker to the left of them about a 100 yards over and Night Moves was somewhere down stream fighting off Flyin' Irish. We were right on the line at the gun but started very slow. Merlin managed to get a little ahead of us by less than a boat length and Jayhawker was even a little more ahead. We all had to eventually go to the left side of the river as the wind speed dropped to about 1 to 2 knots in the middle and boats on the island side were moving out. I tried to stay on starboard as long as possible as tacking to port was really ugly. The current would pull us down the river. Just past the seawall we tacked back because there was a hole in the fleet. That turned out to be a mistake. Jhopper stayed on starboard behind us and got lifted to DP5. We did however passed DP5 in 2nd about 5 boat lengths behind. About a quarter of the way to DP7 the wind started to go right so we put up our code 0. We got it up before J put up their .6 oz and gained a little. Essentially we worked on catching J all the way to R8 with the code 0 round only a boat length behind. We got it partially down tacked and finished the take down. I made a small mistake where I thought that the code 0 had pulled into the headsail but did too early. That slowed down the foredeck crew so I needed to turn the boat down again. Fortunately for us at the mark Jayhopper had problems taking down their chute and ended up doing 360 degree turn. At this point we went into our conservative mode with only a headsail. We decided not to put up a code 0 inspite of a 50 apparent wind direction in case we got headed. As long as the boat behind us did not raise one we did not need to do it. When we got in the mouth of the river however Jhopper came in with some wind and got a little more pressure on the right side but it was not enough to pass us at the finish. Incredibly also there were other boats just leaving the river when we got there.

This was great finish to a great season. This was the 4th 1st place in a row we took this fall and this race cinched us for 1st place for the overall Windsor night series. I feel that the crew and our experience has carried us a long way. We are still making some mistakes but not enough to hurt our finishes. Talking to the crew I am sure that we want to continue to make our program better.

COURSE 1 (river start) - 9.6 nautical miles
Start to DP5 leaving it to port

-then to DP7 leaving it to port
-then to R2 leaving it to starboard (025M)
-then to R8 leaving it to starboard (054M)
-then to DP7 leaving it to starboard (225M)
-then to DP5 leaving it to starboard
-then to finish line.

Result: 1st out of 4 J120's
Link: http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Chimo%20Race.pdf

Yacht Club Team Challenge Race

Since we were representing Bayview we got some veteran club members for crew. Nick Cost served on the mast, Dane Christy as trimmer, Tim Prophet as trimmer, and Carl Kuspa as tactician and fireman. Regular crew members Colleen did halyard, navigation and trim, Rodney on the main, and Nancy on bow. Challengers in our class were Jayhawker representing LSSC (J120), Hard Attack (Mumm30), and Mr Bill (j35). This was a windward start with the committee boat slightly favored before the start. We ran the line on port and started at the committee boat side on port. After a short time we tacked to starboard and eventually Jayhawker crossed us. Karl had me come up a little as he crossed and then turn down a little as he tacked on top of us. This enabled us to get our nose out a little. A little scare occured when one of the trimmers let the main sheet winch loose and the main flogged, slowing us down. Thanks to the crew getting it in quickly and me turning the boat down a little we were able to recover our speed. From there on Rod and I worked on speed accelerating and then pointing to get us up into their lane to interfere with their sails from leeward. We got up to the windward mark with Jhopper about 10 boat lengths behind us. After rounding the top mark we made our second mistake. When the spinnaker went up the halyard got unattached when it was put up. The spinnaker fell to the water but the crew calmly pulled it out of the water reattached the spare halyard and put it back up. At this point the rest of the race was spent trying to get enough distance and half covering the J35 to get them on corrected time. We did that by 13 seconds, a little close for comfort but still a first place. This was a little bit of a navigational challenge since we were the first boat and they gave us the last trhee marks at the third mark but Colleen got us through it without a hitch. The other BYC teams Epic took first, Seafever took first and Jim Coolidge's boat took second. There was a little bit of a wait for the flags because Epic got protested for the length of his wisker pole in Jam but it turned out to be bogus and he prevailed. BYC takes 1st in the regatta for the 5th straight year.

Course: 199 degrees 2.6 miles, 19 degrees 2.6 miles, 200 degrees 1.32 miles, 198 degrees 1.29 miles, 78 degrees 1.26 miles, 350 degrees 2.24 miles at finish

Result: 1st out of a mixed fleet of 4