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.
Last night we went to pick up our awards for DRYA at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club and it was a grand affair. We managed to clean up by taking 1st in w/l, point to point, J120 overall, and boat of the year on B course. Hardware won included the H C MacGregor and WJR Trophy. Most of the crew managed to come so it was an evening that was made that much sweeter. After the affair we migrated to the Bayview bar and had some celebratory hummers. In general it was a great evening. It has been 22 years since I have been racing my own boats and this the best season I have ever had. Rod Weston was also with me during that time so it was wonderful he was there that night. 
The same morning the first boat I raced on, a 45 foot New York 32 built in 1936 called Sapphire had been sold and was being shipped to Maine to her new home. She will be with 3 other NY32's and will be well taken care of. Penny Breck, daughter of the owner who bought her in 1968, Bob Neesly Sr., was no longer healthy enough to take care of her in manner that was needed. I went down to say goodbye to an old friend. I did my first Mackinaw race in her and have many happy memories. She was the only boat that I ever won a Mackinaw in. That year we took our class but also the entire CCA division. In the picture on the right taken in 1971 is me doing foredeck finishing in front of Mackinaw Island. 
COURSE 1 (river start) - 9.6 nautical miles
This race started in front of Bayview between a committee boat and a pin. Wind conditions were only about 7 knots to weather with a lot of direction and intensity shifts. I wanted to get good boat speed biased to the right of the other boats because I felt there was more wind on the right side of course inspite of the faster current. Ihnsanity was still to our right at the gun while the other J120's fought for the pin with Merlin grabbing it from the outside. We stayed on the right side of the river while most of the other boats went up the left side. After a couple of tacks I tried to do as few starboard tacks as possible because the current would just push the boat down stream. We did not go back on starboard until we were out in the lake. That put us ahead of the other boats. Here is where my first mistake was made. Instead of covering the other boats I let them get in on the Michigan shore and NM managed to catch up and eventually passed us to weather. We tacked at the front range light but kept most of the boats to the left. 
This regatta was a dented trapezoid course with the first leg starting at 67 degrees on a starboard reach. The right pin mark was extremely favored. I chose to come in on port and tack inside Night Moves and Jayhawker to windward. After the gun went off although we were within 2 boat lengths of the right pin Jayhawker started yelling at NM to move to windward. He kept yapping about he must have room to go up but did not seem to understand he had give to both of us room within two boat lengths of the mark since we had an overlap. NM put up their code 0 first since he was getting gassed and had room below to put it up. Since JH to leeward took their time putting theirs up we had to wait for them to slide behind us to put ours up. At the next mark NM got there before us and dropped the code 0 and went back to a headsail. We got up there and for some reason the furling line came up in a knot. The only thing I could do was point the boat up, go slow and make the boats behind us go below us. Fortunately we were able to hold onto second by doing our go fast act. We got lifted to the next mark but unfortunately we did have to take a short hitch at the end because of boats rounding ahead of us. Here we tried to tack but for some reason the spinnaker was tangled up in it and it was another disaster. Because we were so slow we had to tack behind Merlin and then round mark B for a downwind leg with the .6 oz. Creative, a J105 was doing some shrimping with his spinnaker so we had to take him on the right and do a set. Merlin did a jibe set and was on the other board ahead 
