Start:
Wind: W. 8 knots
We decided to do a short-handed Vs crewed boat start strategy, ie have a goal of being in a great position in the fleet 30 seconds after the gun goes off but not worry about that position right at the line. The reason for this is that if you pick a spot to leeward of the other boats in the fleet, you end up blanketed by everyone. If you pick a spot to windward of any boat, because you have a lot less weight on the rail, the boat will inevitably heel a bit more thus reducing the amount of lift the keel will be able to provide and you will be driven down onto the other boats, probably forcing you to tack or duck.
The short-handed Vs crewed boat start strategy means that you pick a lonely spot on the line, typically the unfavored end of the line. Saturday's line was fairly square with a slight advantage for boats near the committee boats. Since all boats also tacked early to get to the North side of the course, the RC boat end was definitely the favored end.
We picked the pin and hit the line 3 seconds after the gun went off, with a genoa up and we tacked immediately after crossing the line in the direction of Angel Island.
With this wind speed, we were actually keeping up with the other boats in the fleet, keeping the boat flat and fast.
Upwind Leg:
Wind: W - 15 - 27 knots
Unfortunately, the wind picked up which meant that with our genoa we were overpowered and we started sliding compared to the other boats in the fleet if we wanted to keep the same boat speed through the water, or keep pointing with the boats, but have a lower boat speed as it would mean pinching a bit. We made a mistake in hindsight: we should have gone straight to the #3. The thing is with 15 knots, we were still doing well and creeping up on some boats in the fleet. Around the gate, the wind picked up but we assumed that it would abate after the gate.
A sail change is a major undertaking upwind when you have hanks (a typical short handed and ocean set up) as it is a) a lot of effort on a short handed crew and b) forces you to go barepole for a while. We estimated that the short distance to the bridge (assuming the genoa would be up after the bridge) would be OK and we fell off a bit to keep boat speed up acknowledging that we wouldn't point as high. We heavily twisted both sails and this helped depower the boat.
By the gate, we were very overpowered in nearly 30 knots of true wind speed and about 30 of apparent wind speed and looking over our shoulder, the wind picked up even after the gate and all the way to Point Bonita, so as soon as cleared the gate, we placed ourselves in favorable current and changed down to the jib.
This is hard work, particularly in heavy swell. You really tried to minimize the amount of time you spend bare pole by removing the lower hanks of the sail you will take down and by clipping on all the hanks of the new sail. You then take the lazy sheet of the current sail and put it on the new sail. You then, remove the tack on the current sail (and release a bit of halyard tension (the sail will ride higher but be blocked by all the other hanks on the new sail and you start taking it down and as you take it down you remove the hanks one by one. Some of the sail is still flying and providing a bit of lift, albeit negligible given the lack of halyard tension. You then swap the halyard from one sail to the other. I often just tack the boat to get the new sail up, and then change the now lazy sheet, and give myself plenty of sea room to be able to do that. If that's not an option for any reason, then you obviously have to swap the sheet before you hoist the sail.
The boat is also slower because you weight is at the bow and not on the rail, a double hit.
We lost probably 10 min doing this (I manage to do this in about 5 min after practicing. The genoa is a particularly big sail. Changing down from the #3 to a #4 or a storm jib is easier because the sails are much smaller. Usually, it will be higher more pertubed seas though, so it will take roughly the same time. We probably lost another 5 min by sailing well over-powered the whole time (and taking a reef would not have helped, the imbalance between the sails would have been greater, putting the boat even more out of control!)
Once we moved down to the #3, Nat was driving and back in her element and favorite sea conditions (also because the boat behaves so well in these conditions: heavy swell, about 20-22 knots of wind. We were able to repower a bit of the main even to plow through the waves and our boat speed was up again (it had gone down to 5 knots or less under the 1 and it was back up to 6 knots after the swapping of the sail)
We overstood a bit at Point Bonita, set the kite at the mark and headed over to the South shore to get current relief. We surfed on waves reaching a top speed of about 12 knots. We gybed near the beach to the South Tower, then gybed back after we passed the gate. By then, we were looking at about 25 knots of wind - we tried the heavy air single-handed gybe, but because the driver is not a 'dumb' driver like an autopilot, it actually made things worse. We probably should have done a typical heavy air gybe: gybe the kite first, and then the main.
The spinnaker ended up wrapped, we unwrapped it once by sailing briefly by the lee (a technique I perfected during Pac Cup, it works great in many occasions), but we managed to wrap it again :) We just took it down not to wear the sail by flogging it unnecessarily. We hoisted the 2nd spinnaker which was wrapped, probably losing a couple of minutes, during which we were driving back on course.
We then decided to do a non race move (we were probably DFL and time did not matter) as we stayed in unfriendly current just for the fun of flying the spinnaker (the wind came from the SouthWest by then and it was forcing to ride quite high, which is not always possible with a spinnaker up in higher winds.)
This drove us into The Hole, an area with no wind by the Bay Bridge, when there was wind a few boat lengths away from us to the right. Had we crossed on the other side of center span, we would have been ok.
We then drove on a reach or above as the wind speed allowed for it under spinnaker all the way up the Alameda channel.
We turned around as we crossed the finish line, hoisted back the #3 and sailed back home with oysters to keep us company.
Learning:
- Better to have a smaller sail than a larger sail short handed as sail changes as really expensive - and better to point. In hindsight, it would have been fine starting with a #3. With a full crew on the rail, we probably could have carried the #1 all the way upwind even when the wind picked up higher than 16 knots (the top end for the #1 with a full heavy crew on the rail on Elise), and depowered the #1 quite a bit by adding twist.
- Best to gybe the spinnaker double-handed like regular crewed gybes (as opposed to short-handed gybes) at least for now and the driver can keep driving under the spinnaker?
- Definitely verified the lift Vs boat speed compromise against the other boats.
- In heavy air, short-handed Vs crewed boat puts the short-handed further at a disadvantage (doh!), thought we'd just confirmed that in case you were not sure ;)
- It takes longer to tack a genoa short-handed Vs full crew (no one to skirt for instance) however our tacks with the #3 were FASTER than the tacks with a full crew. We had very very good tacks in challenging wave conditions.
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