MR1: Mr Aggressive

The yacht club has traditionally organised a year long Match Racing regatta, which involved two boats on a Saturday morning, and some pretty fierce competition. However, with the purchase of six (!) brand new J80s and forming a match racing "class association", this year promises to be something special - no hanging around for the two boats to finish a one sided race, the chance to finish a regatta in a weekend, and a boat that is a little less tender to sail in a breeze.

To find crews for the extra boats, we had a training session last weekend aimed at beginner match racers, with a pre-seminar, drills on the water, racing, and excitingly a video debrief. I've put a team together for the season (I've been pretty excited for a while!) and jumped at the chance to try it out. Having never helmed in a match race before, it was a little nerve wracking but ultimately great fun. It turned out that having a team racing/small boat background was a great help - I seemed to adapt better to the large rudders and small turning circle of the boats, and perhaps had a bit of an advantage in the situations during the prestart. Still, we had some good racing, and managed to win every race apart from against the Singapore national team, who were in Hong Kong practicing! Not too much shame in that...

I learnt a huge amount match racing - the rules are the easy bit, it's the execution of them that matters much more.

• It's all situations, situations, situations - you must know going into a manouvre  how you are going to come out, and what you hope to gain from it. 
• Once you know what a situation should involve, execution is even more difficult. For instance, the dialup (which I'd assumed was just a simple head to wind move) involves a large amount of skill in judging your speed going into it, so that your position relative to the other boat allows you to hold them where you want them/get out of a port side trap.
• Time on distance - if you don't know how far away you are from the line, the final approach is near on impossible.
• Speed. If you've got it, even a bad start can be overcome and you can get back in touch - it gets you out of a lot of trouble! Luckily, I had an excellent main trimmer, and could rely on him to get the boat going fast upwind.
• On the short courses we do, there has to be something really special going on the left side of the beat to make it worthwhile to go for the pin. It's close to impossible to make up enough distance to cross the starboard tack boat at the top mark!
• I need to tell my crew what I'm up to prestart...

The race against the Singaporeans was a fantastic challenge. While I didn't cover myself in glory (penalty on entry for port/starboard, over the line at the start, and passed on the way to the finish line) there were a few glimmers of what is possible against challenging opposition! I managed to escape from a controlled position in the prestart and chose to lead back to the start, and also managed to gain enough on the first beat to almost cross at the top mark - probably helped by being over.

The other exciting bit was the video debrief - there is nothing like having a cameraman on the back of your boat, watching your team's every move and recording every conversation, and then having it replayed and your mistakes analysed in front of everybody afterwards! Luckily, I didn't swear/shout at my crew/fall out of the boat, but I did get a reputation as "Mr Aggressive" for the day - always chasing penalties!

Hopefully, the video should make it onto the internet pretty soon, and the season should have quite a good media presence if the sponsorship deal comes off...

Anyway, must get back to some bedtime reading with the Call Book.

RN7: How to ignore your own advice

The sailing season has finally started, and with a bang! Autumn Regatta this weekend, and after being depressed for most of the week about the forcast 0 to 2 knot westerly, I was pleasantly surprised by a variable 0 to 8 knot breeze on Saturday, which increased to around 10-15knots for a two race blast on Sunday.

Westerly winds are pretty rare in the harbour, and most of the accepted ideas about what to do go out of the window. Coupled with this, we were racing on the plateau of an odd diurnal tide pattern that meant the tide was fairly slack for most of the day - so it often became about finding a band of pressure and staying in it.

TIde Patterns, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Harbour - www.hko.gov.hk

We didn't have a spectacular event, but there were a few moments of note. Firstly, most of the mark roundings were to starboard, meaning that you could barrel in shouting for your rights, but it was more often an exercise in risk management. Especially in the light winds of Saturday, starboard didn't mean much if the guys on port couldn't get out of the way! I had to make this call at one point - starboard to four Etchells who had just rounded and were going nowhere, or carry on? I carried on and had to turn back downind to the upwind mark - I should have seen the problem earlier and not put myself in that position.

Sunday's heavier winds were fantastic fun. Especially the second race, where we were planing consistently downwind - a fairly unusual occurance in Hong Kong, and something I haven't had a great deal of experience with. Fleet management was much more an issue when planing, as you had to think much further ahead than usual and at greater speeds to prevent yourself being stuffed to windward and broaching and/or forced to leeward and falling off the plane by the boats in front. Both were slow!

Annika looking casual downwind. I'm at the back, screaming. (c) Guy Nowell/RHKYC

Still, we had excellent speed downwind, but there is still work to be done upwind. We weren't helped by being at least 80kg underweight, but I was the main culprit - completely ignoring what I wrote about last week (RN6) and also experienced at the similarly heavy wind 2010 Spring Regatta. Also known as - take the inside of the bend! I went right up the beat and forgot about the wind bend you get around North Point. As I was constantly being lifted, it felt great, but everbody inside me sailed a much shorter course and disappeared. All our downwind theatrics were a little wasted...

A great weekend though, and a couple of good photos, including a brief appearance on the front page of the SCMP. Yes, that's my mast on the extreme left.

Front page of the SCMP 20th September 2010.

Tack Tracker link is here - we're the one without a name (pink I think). Not all the Sportsboats fleet seem to have handed in their tracker.

Results (don't look...)

RN6: Harbour Rustiness

My first post for almost a month - mainly due to a holiday in New Zealand, but also a general lack of sailing! However, the Hong Kong "season" has now started in earnest, with class racing back in the calendar and hopefully the stronger and more consistent monsoon winds to come in the autumn.

As there was no Magic racing, I was coerced aboard an Etchells for racing in the Harbour. Now, I haven't raced in the harbour for six months, and even then I never really knew how to read its confused tidal/wind patterns. Hence, a race at the front of an Etchell was always going to be a challenge.

Wind direction and guesses about tidal flow

The prevailing wind in the habour comes from the east, and is channelled through the Lei Yu Mun Gap and onto the regular racecourse alongside the old Kai Tak airport.This means that W/L races are generally a beat against or with the tidal flow, with all the classic decisions this creates! Left or right on the beat? Tidal flow over wind strength? Are the eddies in the bay worth chasing? Are there permenant lifts/headers around the headlands?

This weekend was an incoming tide, and a nice 5 to 8 knots of breeze with the tide. The regular understanding is that the left (the Kai Tak side) doesn't pay against the tide as you usually you also get the wrong side of beneficial wind shifts and stay in the tide for longer. However, we took a choice to go left as it looked like there was more windstrength, and we managed to get off the pin end of the line in good shape! This worked very well for the first beat, rounding third, and gaining a place down the run.

The second beat unfortunately was very different - we went left again, and most of the fleet went with us. And we all got stuck in a hole at the top, while the back markers (who'd gone right) sailed past us. From second to sixth in one easy step!

We gained a few downwind again, but lost them again as we miss-read the course, set off to the right side for a no-existent third beat, and then hurried back accross the tide again to the finish line. Sixth overall - one way to brush off the rustiness.

Sunday was spent back on Strewth, but it was nothing to write home about - a race officer set a 25nm in a dying breeze, so we got most of the way round and then abandonned after about an hour sitting desperately trying to get a kite to fill.  Next weekend is back on my Magic - hoping for a good fleet and a breeze.

RN5: Anchor Watch

Last weekend was the annual Mirs Bay race, run by HHYC as part of the Typhoon series. It's essentially a coastal race, running from Port Shelter into Mirs Bay on the Hong Kong/Chinese border and stopping at Wong Shek Pier in Sai Kung Country Park for a barbeque and prize giving. Generally people anchor overnight then race back again the next day, though after this year some people might rethink that...

The race up was quite good fun - an easterly breeze providing a fetch for most of the way. There were many holes in the wind, and places were gained and lost by being in the right place at the right time! We thought we were flying (I was back on Strewth) after using a tidal eddy out of a bay, getting a puff of breeze, and setting the code zero to romp to the last island turning mark. We were miles ahead! However, turning the corner we dropped into a hole and were almost caught by Mandrake and Jelik V.

Port Shelter to Mirs bay - Course for IRC A.

After a Michelin starred BBQ (What steak... It's handy to have a restaurant general manager in your crew) and a quiet drink or three we retired to the boat, to find a north/north-easterly breeze throwing 30 knot gusts straight into the harbour. If you look at the map above you can see that it's not particularly well sheltered from that direction! 

Normal Wind direction in Hong Kong in August - notice nothing from the north!

"It's not normally like this" - and it actually isn't! However, it required anchor watches to check whether we were dragging, and to watch out for rogue catamarans sailing around their anchor chain. It didn't turn out to be a fun night, and everyone lacked sleep.

The race back the following day again gave us all conditions from zero knots on the start line to 18 knots at times, and we used every sail in the warbrobe. As downwind trimmer for much of the race, I was absolutely shattered by the end of the day - sail changes, high loads, concentration on the 25nm course, and new sail cloth materials completely wore me out. 

Mirs Bay to Port Shelter. Course for IRC A.

Still, it was an awesome course, and we got relatively high speeds out of the boat.  I wasn't really expecting the last sausage, and was incredibly grumpy by the end of the race. A beer and a 12hr sleep restored me.

RN4: Mark rounding photos

Thanks to the awesome photography of Joyce Ravara (Chaos Photos - some great shots! Apologies for borrowing this sequence...) here is the leeward mark rounding from last weekend!

Behind Merlin (we have the blue kite)

Coming into the leward mark rounding, and going wide - only just got mark room on Barnstormer outside us.

Rounding inside

Ahead!

And this is what I meant about bigger boats - that's me in the middle, with an 79ft yacht on my lee bow.

All photos (c) Chaos Photos

RN4: Line Honours in a class of two

I was a little shocked this weekend at the drop in fleet numbers - is it something to do with people leaving Hong Kong for August? Cowes Week? The forecast light wind? Whatever it was, we went from a fleet of eight Magics to a fleet of two.

However, it was still a fantastic couple of races. We (I) decided to go out early to check out where the wind was, and ended up about 30 mins early for the start... I'll factor that in next time. Promise. We determined that there were major wind variations as you moved north of Port Shelter Island, and decided that going right would pay.

Wind and marks in Port Shelter before the start of the first race

The race committee put the windward in underneath the island, but we stuck with our original plan and got a boat end start (at the second attempt!). Tacked off to starboard along with only three other boats and gained a lot on the first two thirds of the beat. However, with the mark so sheltered, the top third was very difficult and we ended up completely out of phase with the shifts. Rounded behind Steve on Merlin by about a minute and the gap stayed for the rest of the race.

Second race - similar strategy, much better start (first rank, and held until there was clear air to tack off), and just in front of Merlin at the top mark.The run was close, with Merlin just to leeward and able to get inside at the first leeward mark. We let him in, went wide, and were able to do a great gybe/drop and nip in inside them coming out of the rounding. From there it was as if we were match racing - covering tacks, and not letting him get away! We were helped by Frank (another Magic sailor, but driving a big boat) being happy to let us play silly buggers and keep out of our way...


After a momentary panic as we got a wrap on our final gybe to the line, we crossed for our first race win! It was a shame that only two were out, but I got plenty of chat from the race officer at the prize giving, as well as some shiny flags and a t-shirt. A good weekend's sailing!

RN3: The delights of modern sail cloth

This weekend's racing was back on Strewth for the Typhoon Series. I was backup trimmer - my couple of races involved cutting sheets, grunt work on kite gybes, and ensuring the cockpit was tidy.  Unfortunately this means I have no real concept of what was happening tactically, so not a great deal to share. I did notice a couple of things though, mainly in the quiet periods on the starboard approach to the line!

The fleet is split into IRC divisions that group the fast 40ft-ers with the 52ft-ers, so it's quite a wide range of boats on the startline. With two W/L races, everyone was keen to get perfect starts and hence were grouping at the biased committee boat. Absolute carnage appeared to ensue! We avoided by being a little bit late...

I've always felt that relying on a gap to open up on a crowded start line is a slightly risky strategy, as the likely result is a slow start on the second row. However, good decisions from the back of the boat seemed to result in two starts that were actually reasonable. I think my impression of a bad start is still influenced by being able to accelerate very quickly (i.e. dinghy/small boat sailing) whereas being up to speed before the start in a big boat is very beneficial. We managed to shoot through the committee boat end gap in the first race, and found one mid-line in the second.

However, the most exciting part of the day was the "new" 3DL mainsail on the boat. It had a very large roach, but given its shape it looked like a delight to trim. It always surprises me at how versitile the new sailcloths are - the roach of this sail would twist off in a gust (gust response helps the boat maintain course and speed in large variations of wind strength) but then the sheet tension could be increased to bring the roach back in and create a flatter sail shape. All with the same initial lightweight sail shape! The other remarkable thing was that this sail could be picked up by one person on their own. Amazing stuff.

So all in all, a good day - we finished with two second place finishes and one line honours gun. I also felt a little better about last week's trimming performance when it was discovered that all the batterns in the jib had been put in the wrong way round...

RN2: Shenanigans, or how not to cross the start line...

Saturday was the first race in the new boat, and it was a day of mixed results. There are lots of areas to improve on!

The two races were being run by Hebe Haven Yacht Club, as part of their regular club racing. The particular difficulty with this series is that all fleets start at the same time, which means anything from 25ft (i.e. us) to over fifty are looking for the same part of the start line. This wasn't my first experience of it, but it was my first attempt at a good start in such a fleet. Unfortunately, it defined the races for us.

The first race was a two lap windward/leward race. I started somewhere in the middle of the line, but was a little late pulling the trigger so was quickly buried by some bigger/faster boats, and struggling to get clear air. So we tacked off to the right hand side of the course.

























Saturday's tides and wind in Port Shelter. With apologies to GoogleMaps.

Unfortunately, this meant we were in tide for much longer than those that went hard left. They punched through the tide (and also got a little more pressure) so rounded a little way ahead of us. We were sixth out of eight, and it stayed like that!

Race two, and I had a spectacularly bad start. We decided that the only way to get to the favoured left hand side was to win the pin. I know, kind of arrogant for only my second start in a fleet of 40 yachts! There were two of us out there, both with the same idea. The other was the eventual winner (Black Magic) so at least it was the right place! I was a little early for the start, luffed a little, slowed too much, and was suddenly below the layline. Right - time for a quick tack. Tack - oh bugger, now I'm on port with three forty foot yachts bearing down on me. I tack back, failing to complete in time and hence fouling Avantgarde. Then I ran into the pin.

Time to disentangle myself from the anchor chain and do some turns! We managed to gain one place in the race, but ended with a seventh.

However, far from being a total tale of woe, there were lots of good points. One was my crew - it was pretty top notch, with Ollie, an ex- 18ft skiff sailor, being the new addition. Secondly, downwind speed was good, and once we'd made the first mistake with the tide we were generally going in the right direction at the right times. It was a shame that once we realised that it became a procession - there was really only one way to go (upwind and down) and therefore very few passing lanes. The other great point was that there were 8 Magics sailing, with two to three regulars still on the dock. Hopefully that will continue next season.

Same again in two weeks time. I have a similar crew, so here's hoping that I discover some starting skill in the meantime!

RN1: Trimming lessons on Strewth

One of the other boats I sail on currently is Strewth, a first generation TP52 (formerly Trader). Having previously never raced anything over 38ft*, it is a big step up in terms of loads, complexity, and crew work. She is currently being worked up for the Hong Kong-Vietnam race, and then (maybe) the whole calendar of blue riband Pacific offshore races in 2011.

I'm very new to the boat, and so am taking whatever chances are thrown at me. This weekend included a huge (and probably un-merited) promotion to main jib trimmer, and as one of two downwind trimmers. The adrenalin was pumping as I took the kite sheet for a tight reach down to Basalt Island!

Upwind trim is where I have most to learn. Points to remember:

1. Oversheeting = slow. We only started hitting our target numbers once the jib was cracked off to the 3rd mark on the spreaders. In my defence, it's difficult to trim a jib that big and that new at first glance! However, it did mean we lost a lot of time on the first beat to the Ninepins
2. Percentage calls help tell the driver how near he is to being in the grove. 100% trim should only occur when you're at target speed, at target headings, and at a constant boat speed. Once it does, trimmer is probably best up on the high side until something changes. At which point, he'll probably be shouted at!
3. In-haulers close the slot. Sheet must be eased at the same time, or see 1.
4. Jib car forward reduces twist and adds power to the foot. Use as breeze gets lighter.
5. Jib car back flattens sail, and increases twist. Use as breeze builds.
6. The back of the boat is always right.

Downwind:

1. Face backwards to talk to grinders or they can't hear.
2. Code 0 trim is like a jib with a flexible luff - be prepared to let it roll.
3. Having a good foredeck means the back of the boat think nothing of sail changes.
4. Inside gybes and outside gybes need to be communicated, and speed of turn altered. 

Other things to note are:

1. There was a massive lift and better pressure under Table Island and the CWB Golf course.
2. Suncream needs reapplying at any quiet moment, otherwise your nose gets a layer of skin shorter.

Sorry, no pictures on this post. Maybe next time!

*Incidentally, the difference in length (14ft) is just about the length of the first boat I ever owned - a leaky Laser, purchased for all of 50 pounds sterling. It seemed like a lot of money as a student, but wasn't all that bad value given it was sold for a profit!

Racing Notes

Another thing I might use this blog for is my notes on what I've learnt from the various races that I do. These will be considerably less interesting than the general interest posts - apologies!  Blame Stewart Walker and Jamie Mac - jolly good sailors with an encyclopedic record of their races. I have no illusions that recording everything will make me anywhere near as good, but I may as well try.

My enthusiasm might also wane, so blame this preparation on good intentions!