September 2006
End of season!
Why not go to the Burghfield Laser Open on the 29th October.
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Laser Dinghy Park Spaces
Dinghy Park places have just finished being allocated – look out for notices on racks soon! Due to limited space, laser rack spaces have been allocated on 2005 race turnouts – i.e. the more races you start the more likely your boat will be allocated to a bottom row rack space. New this year! – places will be re-allocated on 1 July, based on the first part of this season’s race start turnout (this includes Ladies Fri am starts too) – this should be particularly helpful to new Laser members.
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Local class rules
The reason for the above is to make the class racing fairer and also to make creating the results job easier.
Enjoy your sailing, and remember to make your declarations.
Details on above from John Shone(Laser Class Captain)
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The aim upwind is to avoid hitting as many waves as possible. Think of these as small bumps in the road which are best avoided, and in some cases they are small hills. Our aim is to spend the minimum time climbing them. The
main indicator is the sound of the hull slamming down when it becomes airborne (a ‘quiet’ boat is a fast boat:)
Bow lifting over the wave
However a far worse problem is if the bow buries itself in the waves. As well as loading up the rig and slowing the boat down, it will often fill the cockpit with water, which will continue to slow the boat down for some period of time to come. As the wave approaches, you need to pull your shoulders and upper body back, whilst at the same time keeping your legs locked into the boat (and hiking hard!)
Your hiking position should be to keep the boat trim as flat as possible. If the boat is ‘slamming’ more than it is ‘burying’, then move forward; if it is ‘burying’ more than it is ‘slamming’, move backwards. The exact position is class specific, but usually starts around the back of the centreboard casing, and you move progressively back as the wave height increases.
In terms of your hiking style, you need to make sure you are well locked into the boat. This is a compromise between having the toe strap loose so that you can project lots of bodyweight over the side of the boat, and tight so that your legs remain gripped to the side deck. Remember you should be able to hike as hard up the final beat of the last race as you did off the start line of the first… Hiking pants are strongly recommended!
You want to minimise the time you spend climbing waves. To do this, you need to head up over the waves. Allow a small amount of leeward heel to help the boat turn towards the wind without excessive rudder movement. You
need to ensure that your weight is far enough forward so that the bow is in the water, as its shape will naturally help the boat turn the desired way. In lighter winds you may wish to move your upper body in slightly.
Boat slightly heeled to head up over wave
When going down the wave you want to bear away to get the boat back up to full speed, ready to head up over the next wave. In order to bear way, the boat needs to be dead flat (or if possible heeled to windward, but in practice this is not possible in some boat designs as your bum will hit the water!) and perhaps move the bodyweight back slightly to stop the bow burying (when bearing away the bow naturally goes down.)
In the upper wind range it may be necessary to let out some sheet or let the traveller off slightly in order to bear away. Remember the change in steering (pulling tiller towards you), hiking (extending your upper body) and
sheeting (allowing the boom off the back quarter in single handers – dump both the jib and the main in doubler handers) need to be as close to simultaneous as possible!
Boat dead flat, to make it easier to bear away
In terms of sail set up, the rig needs to be set for the average conditions of the beat and the average pointing angle. As you bear away, the rig will power up, and as you point towards the wind, it will depower… Ideally you should never be sitting in (when there is enough wind to hike) or overpowered.
It is always a good idea to get out to the race track early and familiarise yourself with the conditions, as waves come in many different shapes and sizes, and sailing in a long swell is very different from sailing in a short chop. As a rule of thumb, your steering should always match the waves: so short sharp chop needs short stabs of the tiller, whereas a long swell demands slow, smooth steering.
However there may become a point where the wave length is so short you cannot steer through them. At this point, depower the rig and ‘foot’ (sail fast and free) so as to punch through the waves as quickly as possible. Likewise sometimes the length of the waves may be so long that you steer in more or less a straight line and play the control lines, as there may be a lot more wind at the top of the wave than at the bottom!
If the waves are coming more or less straight on to you, the issue is maintaining boat speed as the waves will tend to knock you back and slow you down: here you need to concentrate on accelerating the boat up to full speed after each wave. As soon as you slow down it can become very hard to get going again! You may have the boat slightly more depowered than usual to make it easier to bear away.
When the waves are coming more side on, you have a different problem. Here it is very easy to get knocked sideways (to leeward). Now the priority is to head up sharply over each wave so as to minimise the time the wave can push you sideways. It may pay to have the boat slightly more powered up, to make it easier to head up.
Good wave technique, like most things in sailing is gained through time on the water!!!
Jon Emmett