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On 7/30/2016 4:28 AM, Francis Upchurch wrote:
> Thanks Bill,
>
> yes, you are right.Ocean racers do need the maths as you suggest, and
> even during  our local  cruiser race from Penzance, round Scillies, I've
> been known to draw polar diagrams with the help of calculator, GPS/
> Autopilot, slide rule etc.But my dinghy (Laser)  sailing son usually
> corrects my course by "feel" of the wind ,tide, leeway etc and gets a
> better result than with  my poor maths.

Francis

All the opinions expressed are correct in way or another. I had the
pleasure of being slipped next to a Tartan 10 meter? (hull #1) racing
sled in Dusable Harbor, Chicago, IL. It had all the pods etc even for
for round-the-marks racing, and had a diver cleaning its hull pre-race.
Serious folks.

I raced a Hobie 16 in a Portsmouth fleet on our local pond, so a lot of
hard-and-fast rules go out the door. For example, I can rarely point
high enough to roll an M Scow, MC Scow or Finn to weather. If I try I
will be "upped" into oblivion. With a good run, thanks to a
high-aspect-ratio sail plan with a tall stick, I can duck through their
lee a few boat lengths away without getting stalled out by a wind
shadow. Also interesting is the concept of sailing a "proper course,"
especially after rounding a mark. What may be a proper course for a mono
hull (hull challenged:-) boat that can tack on a dime may not be the
proper course for a Hobie which may lose a lot of ground when coming
about or gybing. Same when I am tacking down wind and the fleet is at
hull speed and on the rhumb line.

That combination of algorithms and heuristics, my blow-boat racing
friends, is what makes it so much fun. Part science, part art. Truly a
case of "everything you know is wrong" quite often.

   

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