The group debrief is something that we started in Ottawa and continued at the RCYC Skiff event. The group debrief is aimed to help close out the day and help the less experienced 9er sailors learn from their on-water experiences of the day. We are trying to raise the overall level of the fleet by encouraging racing, training, cooperation and sharing og information. Here are some things that we saw that needed work:
Saturday
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Get forward! Crew on foredeck, skipper trapping as far forward as possible. Depending on the breeze, the crew may or may not be clipped in to the wire
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Crank your main tight, but make sure it can “breathe.” In displacement conditions in the 49er, it is important to have your main in nice and tight with the boom on centre-line. Doing this will generate lots and lots of power. However, the crew needs to be sure that the leech tell-tales on the main are flowing nicely, stalling out periodically. So, if you start to feel a little slow or a little stalled, ease that main 1 or 2 centimetres to crack open the leech and allow the flow to stabilize. You should communicate this with the skipper and often when you do this, bearing off will help get you back to full speed and full attachment quickly. It is important to bring the main back in asap after doing this to get your pointing back.
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If you’re having trouble filling your sails in the light stuff, keep just a few degrees of leward heel, but no more than 5 degrees. The rule of thumb is that if you think you’re flat, you’re still probably heeling a few degrees so go with that. This works nicely downwind and less-so upwind.
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Body positioning: make sure that you’re comfortable, mobile and have a good view of what you need to see
Sunday
- Vang: in the light stuff, you don’t really need any vang. You may need to use a small amount in the bigger puffs when you can no longer generate enough leech tension with your mainsheet, or if your boom starts to come off center-line. This will depend on your settings, so there is no magic time to know when to put on vang, it simply goes by look and feel. Of course, be sure to take it off if you hit a lull and start to hook your leech.
- Gybe sets: If you’re going to gybe-set, make sure that you take a look at who / what is stacked up on the starboard layline. Sometimes, it might pay to set, sail for a few seconds, then gybe to avoid the giant lull of stale air under that starboard layline. Or, if you’re able to do it, you can gybe and sail above the layline…?
- Skippers: make sure that you are trapping (even from the centre-line) and not standing up!
That’s all we can think of for now. If you have questions, you can ask them on Formspring, or just post a comment below.
Thanks
Matt & Trev (aka French Fingers and Le Tigre)
CAN 123