Reaching Legs in Sailboat Races
Should sailboat races have reaching legs?
This has been a big topic in some circles. We don’t have as many reaches these days and a lot of people have been saying they want them back. So what’s behind it?
In recent years many races have had new courses which are just windward leeward courses, maybe several times around. The jibe mark, where you have ro reach out to it, jibe around and reach back in to the leeward mark, has been dropped. They have added other features, like short (very short) reaches at the top mark to a second top mark before you turn downwind just to keep the offwind boats away from the upwind boats still coming to the mark, and there have been gates added in place of a leeward mark which allows the boat to go through the gate and then turn either right or left before going upwind.
Well, aside from the fact that it is twice as much work for the race committee, and just won't work with permanent government marks, I never saw the reason for these changes. I think they were brought in by folks who either take things too seriously, or who just can't leave a good thing alone. I say let's keep it simple. We've got enough complication in this sport.
As for the reaches, I really miss them.
I love the reaches, and its not because we get this big "Wa Hoo" factor when we take off on a plane like the J105 guys; my boat won't plane in any circumstances. But there is little in sailing that we do which is more exciting then a hard reach with the pole on the headstay, the biggest kite up in 20+ knots of breeze, and everyone on the boat is totally wired. I love that kind of sailing. And I don't buy the idea that the reaches are just parades. There are still opportunities for overtaking, particularly on the reach to reach jibe, and when you are on the edge of control and catching up to a competitor at the bottom mark with a 6 knot speed differential because they did an early takedown...now that is exciting!
I remember one CYC race in Shilshole bay on a blustery fall Sunday when the reaches were right on the limit for spinnakers, at least for most of the crews out there that day, ours included. Well, we're keen, so of course we set our 1.5 oz anyhow, and after a bit of a rough set,and a lot of ruckus, we got it flying and we were off and charging down the first reach. Sachem, with Carl Buchan driving, was ahead, also with the kite up. Yeah, the jibe was hairy, but we did it and then we saw that Sachem was sailing with a jib, no kite. So, as we approached the leeward mark we were flying up on Sachem, and we had to decide whether to go over them or duck below. I gave Carl a shout, meaning to ask him if he'd let us go, because the last thing we needed was for him to take us up sharply in this breeze. I saw him turn around and look at me, but he didn't say anything or make a signal, so I decided, possibly a bit too late, to duck below him.
Well, I am never in my life going to forget the next few seconds. I pulled up on the tiller and we blasted through his stern wave about 20 feet behind his transom, going about twice his speed, and going as fast as WINGS ever goes. I didn't really know if we were going to get through that stern wave or if it was going to cause us wipe out, but at that point all any of us could do was hang on and see what happened next.
We made it, and let me tell you, there was plenty of "Wa Hoo's" going on aboard WINGS as we swerved around Sachem to leeward, hardly slowing at all, and came up infront of him at the mark, dropped the kite by blowing off the halyard, only as we turned up wind and couldn't fly it anymore, sucked that big sail under the jib and headed off upwind.
Well, I think Sachem probably made a cleaner rounding, cut inside us and beat us to the top mark, but it sure was fun.
Put the reaches back in.
Fred Roswold, SV Wings, Hong Kong
This has been a big topic in some circles. We don’t have as many reaches these days and a lot of people have been saying they want them back. So what’s behind it?
In recent years many races have had new courses which are just windward leeward courses, maybe several times around. The jibe mark, where you have ro reach out to it, jibe around and reach back in to the leeward mark, has been dropped. They have added other features, like short (very short) reaches at the top mark to a second top mark before you turn downwind just to keep the offwind boats away from the upwind boats still coming to the mark, and there have been gates added in place of a leeward mark which allows the boat to go through the gate and then turn either right or left before going upwind.
Well, aside from the fact that it is twice as much work for the race committee, and just won't work with permanent government marks, I never saw the reason for these changes. I think they were brought in by folks who either take things too seriously, or who just can't leave a good thing alone. I say let's keep it simple. We've got enough complication in this sport.
As for the reaches, I really miss them.
I love the reaches, and its not because we get this big "Wa Hoo" factor when we take off on a plane like the J105 guys; my boat won't plane in any circumstances. But there is little in sailing that we do which is more exciting then a hard reach with the pole on the headstay, the biggest kite up in 20+ knots of breeze, and everyone on the boat is totally wired. I love that kind of sailing. And I don't buy the idea that the reaches are just parades. There are still opportunities for overtaking, particularly on the reach to reach jibe, and when you are on the edge of control and catching up to a competitor at the bottom mark with a 6 knot speed differential because they did an early takedown...now that is exciting!
I remember one CYC race in Shilshole bay on a blustery fall Sunday when the reaches were right on the limit for spinnakers, at least for most of the crews out there that day, ours included. Well, we're keen, so of course we set our 1.5 oz anyhow, and after a bit of a rough set,and a lot of ruckus, we got it flying and we were off and charging down the first reach. Sachem, with Carl Buchan driving, was ahead, also with the kite up. Yeah, the jibe was hairy, but we did it and then we saw that Sachem was sailing with a jib, no kite. So, as we approached the leeward mark we were flying up on Sachem, and we had to decide whether to go over them or duck below. I gave Carl a shout, meaning to ask him if he'd let us go, because the last thing we needed was for him to take us up sharply in this breeze. I saw him turn around and look at me, but he didn't say anything or make a signal, so I decided, possibly a bit too late, to duck below him.
Well, I am never in my life going to forget the next few seconds. I pulled up on the tiller and we blasted through his stern wave about 20 feet behind his transom, going about twice his speed, and going as fast as WINGS ever goes. I didn't really know if we were going to get through that stern wave or if it was going to cause us wipe out, but at that point all any of us could do was hang on and see what happened next.
We made it, and let me tell you, there was plenty of "Wa Hoo's" going on aboard WINGS as we swerved around Sachem to leeward, hardly slowing at all, and came up infront of him at the mark, dropped the kite by blowing off the halyard, only as we turned up wind and couldn't fly it anymore, sucked that big sail under the jib and headed off upwind.
Well, I think Sachem probably made a cleaner rounding, cut inside us and beat us to the top mark, but it sure was fun.
Put the reaches back in.
Fred Roswold, SV Wings, Hong Kong
posted by wingssail at 12:04 AM
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