Class Association
Asymmetric Sailing by Championship-winning dinghy sailor Andy Rice has tips, advice and some great shortcuts from expert sailors to give you the inside knowledge to get ahead of the fleet. Covering standard & advanced moves, boat speed, racing tactics & strategy, the racing rules and much, much more; this is an essential guide for all RS200 sailors.
Here’s an extract from the book to give you a small taste of what you could learn!
CHAPTER 4
SURVIVAL SAILING
Once you’ve got the basic manoeuvres squared away in light-to-medium winds, you can then start looking at wrestling the boat around the race course in strong winds. Sailing high-performance boats in big wind and waves is not for the faint-hearted, but then you’re not one of the faint-hearted, are you! Let’s kick off with one of the biggest manoeuvres of all, bearing away in a big breeze. . .
Extreme Bear-Away
Bearing away from a beat onto a downwind course can be very challenging in high-speed skiffs and multihulls. We’ve already mentioned the danger of the ‘death zone’ in the previous chapter. Well, this manoeuvre takes you right through that zone, so the key is to minimise the time you spend there. In a 49er – one of the most difficult skiffs to bear away in a breeze – the key is to go from upwind to downwind in the shortest possible time.
As you approach the windward mark, release the vang to its downwind position, get the jib out of the cleat ready to ease. Just before the crucial moment, get to the back of the boat, with the windward wing down flat to the water, one foot in the footloop for the helm, ease the jib and pull her away. But don’t even think about bearing away unless the boat is flat or slightly heeled to windward. If it’s not, bail out, get yourself ready again, and start from the beginning. Even if you’re sailing well above the windward mark by this stage, it’s better to go the extra distance rather than lose patience and fall in.
As for who takes the mainsheet at this stage, it’s whatever you feel more comfortable with. As the helm I like to take the mainsheet for the manoeuvre, but it’s personal preference.
One universal rule: be committed to it. It’s about clear communication, and you might even count down into the bear-away. Waves are an issue, so better to sail on a reach to sail clear of other boats, before you do the manoeuvre. The bear-away and the kite hoist are totally separate manoeuvres, so treat them as such. Wait for your moment before you hoist the kite.
Extreme Conditions
Straight line survival with the gennaker
Getting downwind in big breeze with the gennaker can be scary if you let the boat run away with itself. In most boats, you’re trying to drive them as hard as possible all the time, but if you do that in high performance skiffs or multihulls there’s a danger of nosediving and pitchpoling, sending you flying over the front of the boat – or worse, into the rig.
If you’re sailing significantly faster than the waves, then you’re at risk of nosediving. At this point you should treat the gennaker sheet as the throttle on the engine. The closer you set the gennaker to optimum trim, the faster you will go and the more risk you are taking. So you have two options: oversheet the kite or flap it.
If you are consistently too fast, then oversheet the kite as much as you need to feel comfortable. The more you oversheet, the slower the boat will go.
If you can cope with max speed most of the time, and it’s just the occasional wave where you think you could come to grief, then flap the gennaker until you’ve overtaken the wave and the moment of danger has passed. Then oversheet the kite and get going again.
Keep the mainsheet on fairly tight. With a masthead rigged asymmetric, the mainsail leech will help support the mast and work as a form of backstay. But even if you’re sailing a boat that doesn’t have a full-hoist gennaker, keeping the mainsail sheeted in will stop the top of the leech leaning over the front of the boat. This will help reduce the tendency of the rig to drive the bow down, and the boat will feel safer and easier to steer.
Survival Sailing without the Gennaker
In a lot of asymmetrics it’s easier getting downwind in survival conditions with the kite hoisted. The sail provides extra lift to the bow, and if you do nosedive, the water has a much clearer run through the boat and the empty chute. With the kite in the chute, any water rushing over the bow has a much harder time moving through the cockpit, the resistance builds up and . . . over you go.
That said, in extreme conditions, getting the kite up in the first place is easier said than done. And, in any case, you need to know how to get downwind without the kite for getting position for the pre-start and other situations outside of racing. You need to know how to get safely downwind without the gennaker.
Oversheet the mainsail
As we mentioned in the previous section, the problems arise when the boat is travelling faster than the waves, setting up a perfect scenario for a nosedive. So the answer is to try to match wave speed. How to achieve this? By oversheeting the mainsail. If you are running downwind and you have the boom out to the shroud, you are presenting maximum sail area to the wind. By pulling in the mainsail, then, you are effectively reducing sail area. In other words, over sheeting is a very crude form of reefing. Crude, but effective.
Steer across the waves
The other thing you can do is to always steer across the waves, never directly into the back of them. Mimic a Laser, which alternates between broad reaching across the wave, and then bearing away until it’s running by the lee. This will mean the wind is blowing from leech to luff of the mainsail, and you are not far from a gybe. So this method is not without its risks, but it might be preferable to constantly spearing into the back of the next wave and pitchpoling.
Tacking
Part of what makes lightweight skiffs so attractive – their light weight, that is – is also what makes them a real beast when trying to tack them in strong winds. With a lack of hull weight, the boat stops easily, particularly with all the wind resistance and drag of a big, fully-battened rig as it starts to flog. The boat slows down easily and, if you hang around too long during the tack, it can stop altogether or start going backwards. I’ve even seen a B14 capsizing backwards, bow over stern!
Half way through a windy tack, the boat is at risk of becoming very unstable and unpredictable. Just as a fast gybe is a safe gybe, the same is true of tacking a high-performance skiff. Coming into a tack, aim to sail the boat totally flat, steering slowly into it. The more controlled your entry, the better your exit. If you go through too heeled, it swings through too quickly on the new tack, or refuses to tack at all. Getting blown into leeward on the new tack is the most common problem, so you might have to watch the crew and see how quickly they react. Be ready to let the jib go if they are slow getting on to the new side. The helm’s priority is steering and, as long as he holds it head to wind long enough to give the crew time to move to the new side, you should be fine.
If you have a self-tacking jib, ease the sheet six inches before the tack, this will give the helm a wider steering groove out of the tack. Oversteering out of the tack with a tightly pinned jib is sure to capsize you.
In a singlehanded skiff like the Musto Skiff, you have no jib to help pull the bow away from the breeze. The important thing here is to maintain enough speed to drive the boat all the way through the turn and out on to a close reach. Don’t even think about pointing up on the new heading until you’ve got the boat moving on a close reach. As always, the key to getting through the tack is a flat and fast boat, and when you don’t have a jib this becomes even more important.
In waves, look for a flat spot in which to complete your tack. Be clear with your commands, and when you go for it you’ve got to be committed to it.
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Asymmetric Sailing is published by Fernhurst Books, who are proudly supplying the “Survivor Trophies” at this year’s National and Inland Championships. The boats with the most points, that complete all the races, will be awarded with this fantastic title.
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