Sunday Night Race April 7th we had our first Sunday Night Race of the season. We had shifty north north westerly that allowed us to get four races off, although with some pretty massive mark moves.
The three takeaways from the evening were:
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Follow the main sail with your turn. The main sail helps the boat turn upwind. If you try to turn downwind before it is eased, at best you need to use a lot of rudder – which is slow – at worst in high winds the boat won’t turn downwind at all. This can lead to roundups, crashes or losing control. At the leeward mark a sailor can trim the main before the turn upwind starts. This allows the helmsman to use less rudder – which is faster.
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Ease the boom topping lift. The boom topping lift holds the boom up so it doesn’t fall to the cockpit when the main halyard is eased. It is a nice feature, but if the topping lift is to tight it keeps the mainsail form obtaining proper leech tension. Lack of leech tension spills the wind out of the top of the main killing the boat speed and the boat’s pointing ability.
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Don’t follow the leader. If you’re not in first then don’t follow the first place boat. It is very hard to pass a boat going the same direction as them. You want to split tacks from them to create separation. Then you can start sailing your own race. I wrote a whole blog post about it: https://www.annapolissailing.com/2024/10/22/monday-night-race-10-21/
Here are the photos from the night:
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