First Heavy Air Day...

BarePoles

BarePoles

New Member
Having only sailed lasers a half dozen times and in nothing over 10kts I had my first shot at heavy air sailing in our frostbite race today. Winds where a steady 25 kts gusting to 36 kts. Things couldn't have gone worse.

I headed out to the course fine upwind, but once I got there and realized I had not business be there so I decided to head in, however this is where the fun started.

I couldn't even tack, every time I tried I would get stuck in irons. I couldn't get any momentum for every time I moving upwind I would get knocked over by a gust or get slammed by the chop. The boat seemed to have a massive amount of weather helm?? After much effort I finally made it back only broaching hard a dozen times of so and fully turtling about every third one.

Please any advice to this very newbie to laser sailing. Why were things so terribly difficult? My confidence in sailing is totally shot. I can only hope next week it is another light air day. :confused:

Thanks for listening.

BP
 
You need to steer through the waves. Crank on everything in that air, except the main. Boom block should be about 6' from the deck. When you Gybe, MAKE SURE you let the vang off. If you dont, you're boom will hit the water. If it does, your @#$!.
 
Ever hear the joke about the Pirate? Soooo... this infinately wise pirate captain had been ruling the seas for many years and survived many battles. One day his crew came to him and asked, "Capt, how do you survive so many battles?" The captain looks at his crew and says, "Son, before each battle I put on a red shirt so if I'm wounded the enemy won't know." The men were amazed at their captain's wisdom. Just then.... the lookout noticed the entire Spanish Armada approaching off the bow.... Captain goes, "Arrrggg... I should have worn my brown pants today...."


You had what I like to call a Brown Pants Day. I was in your situation last year.... and still am as heavy air takes a lot of getting used to.

The tacking issue is simple.... You're not steerig aggresivly through the tack. During a regular day of sailing everyone trys to carve through the tack to minimize boatspeed loss and disturbance over the foils. In heavy air you need to make sure you complete the tack otherwise you end up in irons. With the increase in windspeed, you will see a noticeable deceleration as you come head to wind and will not regain forward momentum if you spend too much time in the tack.

Also, ease the mainsheet through the tack. It does kill boatspeed and you lose power, but in those conditions it's more important to say upright, as upside down is not fast. Once you feel that you have the boat back under control, trim in and head up. Heavy air days put a premium on your abilty to feather the boat. Hike hard, steer aggressivly, tighten down your control lines... and above all... keep going out in the stuff as the only way to get better is to do it!!!!
 
You sir are correct, I defenitely needed my brown pants this weekend and lets just say I was glad I was in a wet suit and not a dry suit. After thinking much about what happened I realized I really need to go over my techniques of triming and steering. It seemed in the wind I couldn't do both efficiently at the same time and therefore couldn't get things going upwind.

So...should the tiller be held sorta behind me instead of in front of me up around my chest? This would give better leverage, because I was sitting mid boat and couldn't seem to steer the boat straight. It continually jumped to windward, i'd slack and it dive to leeward.

Anyway, thanks for the tips.
 
Keep your tiller in front of you with it coming out the back of your had, kind of like you would hold a dagger. This helps you to sheet in and out really quickly which is what you need to do keep your boat flat.

The weather helm you are getting is probably coming form the fact that you are heeled over all the time. To combat this crank on as much cunningham as you can, pull the grommet right down to the boom, this takes a load of power out of your sail, then crank on the kicker so that when you shhet out your boom goes out not up.

Then as you are hiked out going up wind you need to be controlling your power by sheeting in and out, it's hard work but what you need to do to go fast, initially this will result in big dumps of your sheet followed by your boom hitting the water and you swimming but as you get more into it the amount of sheet you let go will be less as you react quicker and keep the boat flatter.

I'd avoid stuffing the boat into the wind too much to depower it (although its worth doing it a bit to gain height) it normally results in ending up head to wind with no speed and a spot of bacwards sailing to get going again.

Once you've got it all mastered there won't be too much load on your tiller, the laser rudder is so small it will stall out long before any extra leverage you exert will be used.

Steve Cockerill gives a really good tutorial in how to sail in heavy airs in his boat whisperer DVD's have a look at these and get practicing!
 
Steve Cockerill gives a really good tutorial in how to sail in heavy airs in his boat whisperer DVD's have a look at these and get practicing![/QUOTE]

The statement above is very good advice. The DVD's are perfrect for the problems you have experienced.

The Laser is a tricky boat in breeze and you have a ton to learn, but you will learn, it just takes a lot of time on the water in ALL conditions, talking w/fellow Laser sailors and reading/watching material.

The great thing about this is it will NEVER get boring. I've been in the Laser since 1983 and I still learn new things every year and every regatta.
 
Thanks Rob B. PS- where do you sail out of District 12? I'm on Lake Lanier in GA. Thanks again for the tips and you are correct I have lots to learn, I need a couple of medium air days before I try the heavy air stuff again.
 
I'm in Beaufort, SC. I hear you guys have quite the frostbite series up there. How's Martine doing? Tell her I said hi.

Work your way up to the heavy stuff. You have to get out in it to learn, but it's best not to do so on a race day as it can get a little demoralizing, (I've been there, done that!).
 
It has been a nice series. We haven't had less than 15 boats on the water and most days we easily have 25 or more. Very competitive fleet, I struggle to stay mid-pack, although this is my first series, only sailed a laser once before the first series race. Will tell Martine you said hi! Thanks again.
 
It's also a litte easier to get up the nerve to practice the heavy stuff in warmer weather... as the consequences of going for a swim are not quite as drastic.

Conversely, the air is not as dense so 20 knts in the summer isnt quite the same as 20 knts in the winter....


Just keep sailing and have fun.. that's the whole point of the game.
 
If you're sailing in survival conditions, then let the kicker off a fair bit. Having it on keeps the power in the leech of the sail (near the back). WHen you tack the first bit of the sail to power up will be the back. This pushes the stern away and the bow towards the wind, putting you irons.

Letting the kicker off will let the power out of the leech, so you can bear away and start moving out of the tack.

Same reason people dump their kicker on the start line when it's windy... If you don't you can't bear away from head to wind.

The advice about cranking on the kicker and working the boat through the waves only works up to a point. When it's so windy that with main fully dumped your body weight still has no effect on the boat then it's time to follow laserben's advice ;)

Believe it or not, dumping the kicker when I can see a monster\unmanagable gust coming has actually won me a club race. The reason? It's faster to have your boom in the air than your mast in the water.
 
Thanks all for the tips. We had another race today, with winds forecasted 10-15 gusting to 20. Needless to say I was a little nervous after last weekend, but by the end of the day I really felt I had improved 150% from last week. Although I was still in the back of the pack, I was able to get in a groove upwind, tack, gybe, round, etc. with only a couple of wipe outs, all the while having an absolute blast.

So again thanks for the tips and I can't wait to get back out on the race course.
 
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