Upwind pointing

Sail # 212 - "cyrocco" We just bought the boat in August and have raced PHRF at our club and one regatta since. Mike Thompson (formerly Rampant) has been invaluable helping with rig tuning. We have had some great races, including yesterday, 12 mile race, in 12 knots of wind, sailed with Quantum #1 for the upwinds and .75 oz for a long spinnaker reach home. We beat all boats over the line with the closest being a modified Cal 30 who was 4 minutes 5 seconds back, he corrected over by 12 seconds. The fleet includes J27's, Kirby 30, J 30, CC 34's, Capri 25, Luna 31 and the Cal.

We seem to be moving well in all points of wind, except we don't often point as well as some of the larger boats, ie CC34, Viking 34, especially in "slop"

What tricks/advice does anyone have to try on pointing. We have played with traveller position, back stay tension, mainsheet tension, genoa halyard tension.

thx

 

I agree completely with Foghorn's comments.  I would only add that if you are having that much fun sailing PHRF at your club just think how much more fun it would be sailing class at CORK next year.  Seriously think about reserving those dates now.

We'll look forward to seeing you at CORK. The handicap in Montreal for the Laser 28 is actually 123, as is the J27.

Cheers,

Voila rated 146 in BC when brought from Kingston in '98 as a stock class boat. We raced PHRF-BC for 3 months and chopped 5.5 inches off the spinn. pole and moved our rating to 152 because carrying that hit for 2/3 the time upwind did not make sense in PHRF windward/leeward courses. This year we get an extra 3 because of old sail credit. BC is different from all areas because of added 10% to all ratings over N.America. Don't ask me why. Our sistership Noel's Ark had a longer pole hence his 143 to our 146 at the time. This year our division is racing under OCR because of split in fleet with boats having a S/A Dipl. greater than 19 racing OCR. Stay tuned for results of that.
George Streadwick
L28 #166 - Voila

Andrew:

ORC is a VPP based ratings/scoring system that essentially takes the boat hull form models in the existing IMS data base and modifiies them as per rig, displacement, and sail measurements to produce a two component rating. This two component rating is a similar idea to what americap are doing and allows for dis-similar boats to compete in differnet wind strengths and different courses.

The scoring accounts for wind strength through the use of course distance versus time allowances.

A more complete explanation can be found at www.orc.org

My PHRF rating currently stands at 134 less 10% or 120! (I do have an over size pole, hoist and spinnaker).

 

 

Andrew,

I would like to compete OD however it's not the game in town.

How did George decide from the many possible mods that cutting his pole was the way to go to improve his handicap?  I presume it is not as simple as that.  You must have to have a smaller 'chute too. 

I can not speak for George... however I do not agree with giving any credits to a One Design Boat. In other words why allow an owner to pick at a broad spectrum of PHRF credits which apply to all PHRF boats and decide which credit his particular boat would benefit most from.

I actually have a large downwind inventory with my largest spinnaker and raised hoist giving an additional penalty of 12 seconds per mile over the One Design Rated boat. I made these changes earlier in the year to compete in a faster rated division against J29's, J27's Santana 35's Olson 30's etc.

That division (Division II in VARC vancouver Area Racing Council) sat down and as a group decided to experiment with a new VPP based system. I believe this was done to serve two purposes. Firstly to stop the PHRF appeals/credits problems. Secondly to allow more accurate scoring. This system uses Performance Line Scoring.

By two component handicap do you mean that corrected time is no longer a simple function of elapsed time.  It is quadratic or linear with offset?

Performance Line Scoring produces a TA (Time allowance in Seconds/Mile) based on prediced wind strength. This is a straight line, however the slope of the line is considerably different for various designs. What does this mean...

For instance My Laser 28 (which is highly light wind optimized) owes time to a J27 until about 10 knots of wind. We owe time to a Santana 35 upto about 5 knots of wind. A J29 is faster in all wind strengths but the differential increases as the wind strength builds.

 Who in your club/ fleet decides which handicap system to use?

We agreed as a group to try this as an experiment this year. This only applies to our division in VARC. We club race under PHRF.

What happens to other owners when they are disadvantaged by changing the handicap system?  Does everybody buy new boats or leave the club?

 I don't understand the term disadvantaged.... My personal belief is that I try to sail the boat as well as possible around the course and trust that the handicapping system takes care of the rest. I am distressed at people who try to gain specific benefit from a ratings system.

Some other points to consider

I have a huge sail inventory.. For the most part these sails are no more than 2 years old but I only replace the "work horse" sails on a regular schedule. I don't think I spend any more money on sails that a compeditive OD sailor however I have (6) spinnakers of various descriptions and sizes. I have (3) usable Genoa's for different wind strengths. I also have a good lapper and a good Jib. My main has a slightly larger roach than One Design would allow and is less than a year old.

I have modified to boat to go as fast as possible... not to beat a handicapping system.

I have had my boat now for almost 7 years and I am still finding ways to make it go faster... That's whats fun for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Quote: Originally posted by Chris Ladd on 12 September 2003

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•  I don't understand the term disadvantaged.... My personal belief is that I try to sail the boat as well as possible around the course and trust that the handicapping system takes care of the rest. I am distressed at people who try to gain specific benefit from a ratings system.

Chris:  My question was perhaps clumsily phrased.  I certainly did not mean to imply that your divison had been persuaded to use a different handicapping system for your personal advantage.    I guess I was more interested in the politics of changing the established order.  In my area at least we are mired in a situation where racing as a OD class has removed any possiblity of influencing the handicappers.  It follows that few L28's wish to race in open PHRF events in our area.  It seems from what you say that first you have to build a field then they will come.

I was interested in the ORC web site and particularly their philosophy which as you say is heavily influenced by the desire to get away from special cases and more to concentrate on the inherent characteristics of the boat. The ideal goal of which would be to have only one "virtual" design keelboat.

I have had my boat now for almost 7 years and I am still finding ways to make it go faster... That's whats fun for me.

I agree too.  Squeezing out that last tenth of a knot is what counts and keep me coming back to try again.

 

 

 

 

 

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