Shifty Lake Technique

Roadie

Roadie

Member
I sail a Radial (unless really quiet) on a really shifty little lake. If I am sailing in an average wind of about 15 knots, where I can have the boat fully powered up and lots of 20+ knot gusts blow through for 30 seconds or so all the time, how should I set the boat up? Should I set the Outhaul and Downhaul for the average wind and the have the Vang tight at block to block and sheet the sail in the gusts. Or should I depower the sail so I am not overpowered in the gusts and bust my guts moving my bodyweight in and out? I would have though the first method is faster as you can keep the speed high and I have had good results with it but a lot of good sailors in the club use the second method to success. Others just feather the boat into the wind with the rudder and get stuck head to wind or stall out when the gust stops...
Any advice would be appreciated, any other ideas I haven't mentioned would be appreciated.
 
If you are sailing in an average of 15 knots it's most likely you are block to block. With puffy breeze though a slightly eased vang will help when you need to ease in the gusts. Remember a very tight vang will make it more difficult to ease so an eased vang is a bit more forgiving (I will set it for an ease of about 6"). Set up your cunningham so you are able to hike (a radial responds well to lots of cunningham). The key is that you should be able to hike the boat flat in the 15+ knots. As the breeze picks up and you are having hiking trouble put on more cunningham. You can also put on more outhaul to help keep control of the boat. Feathering in a laser doesn't work. You need to anticipate the puffs (and on a lake it should be pretty obvious when they are coming) and ease-hike-trim. Waiting to ease after the puff comes is too late. The boat heels, you lose your foils and BAM you are stuck in irons or capsized. As far as you first or second method it depends on your ability to anticipate the gusts and/or your fitness level.
 
I sail on a shify gusty inland lake too.

Usually I set up for the mean wind speed unless the gusts are really vicous. One you have done that it is all about getting your eyes out the boat and anticipating the gust hitting rather than reacting when it hits (which can often be too late).

Often the gust will be accompanied by a significant shift, these are usually hard to spot unless there are other boats around you or other indicators but if you can see the direction the gust is coming from this can be an indicator of the shift.

Once you have done that it is just a case of knowing what the gusts will do. Sometimes it pays to not over commit or hike too hard if it is very gusty and shifty as you can find yourself dumped in to windward so you lose more by being the wrong way up than you do by pushing the limit. This has paid me handsomely more times than I have lost out because of it.

Example this last Sunday, it was windy with some big gusts (30kts+) but not particularly shifty. On the run I chose not to gybe and gradually creep my way to the rhumb line. The boat behind me chose to gybe at the top of the leg and gybe back at the bottom (windy) part of the leg. He gained on me all the way down until he gybed back where promptly swam and never really recovered.
 
I keep misreading the title of this thread, which would be inappropriate for a family forum. Unfortunately it accurately describes my lake technique.
 
CoachK said:
If you are sailing in an average of 15 knots it's most likely you are block to block. With puffy breeze though a slightly eased vang will help when you need to ease in the gusts. Remember a very tight vang will make it more difficult to ease so an eased vang is a bit more forgiving (I will set it for an ease of about 6"). Set up your cunningham so you are able to hike (a radial responds well to lots of cunningham). The key is that you should be able to hike the boat flat in the 15+ knots. As the breeze picks up and you are having hiking trouble put on more cunningham. You can also put on more outhaul to help keep control of the boat. Feathering in a laser doesn't work. You need to anticipate the puffs (and on a lake it should be pretty obvious when they are coming) and ease-hike-trim. Waiting to ease after the puff comes is too late. The boat heels, you lose your foils and BAM you are stuck in irons or capsized. As far as you first or second method it depends on your ability to anticipate the gusts and/or your fitness level.
Click to expand...
If you don't have the Vang tight when to block then surely the sail will power up when easing in the gusts?
 
Roadie said:
If you don't have the Vang tight when to block then surely the sail will power up when easing in the gusts?
Click to expand...

To a point.

If you are that overpowered then cranking more vang on just makes the sail act like a door and you are more likely to get blown over or stuck in irons.

What you need to do is grind even more cunningham on and then loosen the vang but never off more than 'block to block'.

This allows the leach to twist off and excess power to exhaust out the sail up near the top batten.
 
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