Need help sailing to weather. I pinch when block2block

SteveSailing

New Member
Two weeks ago, 10-12kts raced a couple W/L races. I noticed, when sailing up wind to the weather mark, I lose ground on other boats. I notice that when I'm block to block and hiking, there's a fine groove to sail in...if I pinch a bit (which seemed to happen a lot), I'd lose some boat speed and have to move my body in so I won't fall into the water.

To avoid the loss of boat speed, I would tend to foot off 10 degrees and ease the main about 8" between blocks. It felt a lot faster, however I didn't gain any ground up wind, I actually lost a couple boat lengths.

Is it just experience and time in the boat? What are your techniques sailing upwind? It seems that your trimming ability is severly limited when you're block to block...or perhaps, that's when I should be playing the vang more.
 
Assuming you are in a full rig, in 10-12 knots you shouldn't need to ease the sheet, or pinch to the point where you are falling back into the water. To go fast you should stay at block to block and should expect to be hiking quite hard - not 100% but not far off. From there, set the power controls in the rig to suit your body weight, then concentrate on keeping the boat flat and the telltales (wools or tufts if that's how you know them) streaming. Get those basics right (easier said than done!) and you will have better than average upwind speed.

Unless you have been sailing lasers for a while, don't worry too much about the nuances of playing the vang, etc. It's better to set and forget until you have the basics sorted - the nuances are the fine tuning that will give you the last one or two percent. The settings obviously vary a little with body weight, but at an average weight in 10-12, you should generally have the vang just a fraction tighter than block to block, the foot set about 8 inches from the boom at the deepest point, and the creases from the clew reaching about 3/4 of the way to the mast. With the sail set like that you should be able to keep the boat comfortably in mid-groove, and concentrate all your energy on keeping the boat flat.

From there, it's just time in the boat.
 
Pinching is not especially fast in lasers, more so in waves. When overpowered in a gust it is better to ease the main first to stay flat.
 
Thanks for the input. After thinking more about it. I believe it's a sail trim issue, since I had never had this problem in the five previous regattas. And I'd been trying more vang and cunningham.

It was like the groove was very narrow, when sailing block to block. With both W/L telltales flying, it only took a couple degrees coming up and I'd pinch and lose considerable speed.

What does the vang tension do to the draft position of the sail? More vang would move it aft right? And more cunni would move draft forward? What sail trim combinations would make such a fine groove?
 
I you have cunningham and vang cranked on way to hard it'll obviously make the sail very flat and de power it, unsure what difference that will make to the "narrow speed window" your talking about.

The fastest way to answer your own question is to head out half an hour or an hour before your race and play around!
 
Two weeks ago, 10-12kts raced a couple W/L races. I noticed, when sailing up wind to the weather mark, I lose ground on other boats. I notice that when I'm block to block and hiking, there's a fine groove to sail in...if I pinch a bit (which seemed to happen a lot), I'd lose some boat speed and have to move my body in so I won't fall into the water.

To avoid the loss of boat speed, I would tend to foot off 10 degrees and ease the main about 8" between blocks. It felt a lot faster, however I didn't gain any ground up wind, I actually lost a couple boat lengths.

Is it just experience and time in the boat? What are your techniques sailing upwind? It seems that your trimming ability is severly limited when you're block to block...or perhaps, that's when I should be playing the vang more.
I'm glad you asked this question! I'm having EXACTLY the same difficulties :(
 
I you have cunningham and vang cranked on way to hard it'll obviously make the sail very flat and de power it, unsure what difference that will make to the "narrow speed window" your talking about.

The fastest way to answer your own question is to head out half an hour or an hour before your race and play around!

Vang was maybe OK. If you have the cunningham cranked on hard it will be opening the '4th corner' of the sail (somewhere near the top batten, get a friend to crank your cunningham on when the boat is on land with the sail full and you will see the top batten 'fall away and the leech go floppy much like a windurfing sail) and power will be exhausting out of it. You only need to do this if you are overpowered. Try easing that.

Also you have not said what your outhaul setting was. I would imagine in those winds it was probably about as deep as you would ever want to have it when going upwind (unless overpowered).

I find that the outhaul setting can make the boat feel very strange as it moves the center of effort (as does the cunningham). You then have to work out where to sit (further forward or further aft) to balance the boat again and make the rudder feel neutral.

Sitting position is the most common thing I see with people in the Laser. It seems most people have a tendancy to creep backwards digging the tansom in and slowing the boat down.

Try it next time you are on the water, it is surprising how much difference the positioning of the body can make.

I have a group of cadets sailing round (there was virtually no wind). With their rudders up only using their bodyweight to steer. They were surprised at how much effect it had.

Just my 2p.....
 

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