COACHING - JAN 2001

IF YOU DONT MEASURE IT, YOU CAN'T CONTROL IT!

As we are playing with a very complex and multivariate piece of kit, the unlovely management motto above is remarkably appropriate. Marking up the controls is a pleasant enough way to spend a winters evening, after the swim, jogging and gym sessions are complete, of course. How much should we decorate the boat with a waterproof, bleedproof magic marker? Hugh Myers is a very ‘seat of the pants’ sailor - lets pull a bit more on - with very little graffiti, where John Best has it all labelled up with lights, dials and buttons like a helicopter cockpit, to easily reproduce settings. Cathy and I try to have things pretty simple, and use a mixture of markings, and limits of throw, to help us know whats going on.

Hull first, and, if we had one I would definitely mark the centreboard carriage, to know when the board can be pulled up into the boat. We just keep the board right at that position, you never need the carriage further forward, and about 150 travel back. With our cheap and cheerful boat, we just pick the board up as the breeze builds and we rake the rig. Its nice to have an idea of how much board is outside the boat, roll it on the grass and have a look, but the amount of trailing edge showing above the case is good enough for me. When it gets a bit exciting its good to have marked the c/b up and down lines so you dont pull the wrong one and swim. Other hull stuff includes every split to each side control line, marked on their centrepoints, so we dont end up with nothing left to let go on one side, when you need the kicker off NOW! The kite halyard is marked at max up and the twinners are marked at max on so we know to stop pulling.

The primary rig control is the genoa halyard so we need to keep a close eye on that. Its marked for the bottom of each clew on the coarse side, both by a mark on the tackle where it cleats, and on the mast below the gooseneck. To find max vertical for clew one, tug the leech down firmly, and it should be 50 - 75 above the deck, the other clews on deck level. When we dump all of the coarse, to the hand sized bowline loop in the end, you get bottom of clew four. We dont mark the fine side, I just watch the block up and down the cockpit. Total travel on the mast from max vertical, using both coarse and fine, from block to block to real mad bastard is 450. The shrouds left uncleated will run out to their stop, exactly right for the light wind max vertical rig, with shrouds just slack. The lower shrouds at the limit of travel - same hand sized bowline loop - allow the mast to prebend a bit in no wind, and keep the mast dead straight with the mark at the cleat. We dont mess with it much after powering up from no wind to maxed up; as we start to rake, the mast moves back towards the lowers allowing more bend to depower the main, lovely. Other stuff for the genoa can be seen through the upstairs window. We mark 150 from the end of the underside of the spreaders, and ensure the leech telltales are easily visible when I sit out. At least I can see whats going on, even if I dont understand it. We have no uppers and downers, or inners and outers, and I would suggest leaving them in the centre of their travel until you know what you are doing would be a good idea rather than spending time fiddling with them and then bothering the Samaritans. Cath just phoned, and is talking about a mark on the genoa sheets, 150 out from the normal cleated position, as a max out for light air beating.

For the main, the cunningham at the limit of travel allows lovely horizontal creases, and the outhaul is rarely anything but max on with the clew slug against the boom end stop. The kicker fully dumped allows the boom to sky enough to claw up to the wing mark, well, most times. The top batten telltale has caught up round the batten ties again, bloody, bloody, hell! - either tape up the ties, or move the telltale out of range - same for genoa luff telltales, these should be out of reach of velcro like sail seams if you want them to work.

The trapeze hoists let out to the stopknot - same loop again - are correct for max vertical rig, with the J hooks 350 - 400 above the deck, and block to block are right for really mad days. Cathy doesnt play with the running adjuster very much at all. The pole launch has a mark for the stopknot to avoid the line hanging below the boom and garrotting either of us, and when the pole hoist is let go completely its right for very light winds. The boom has P and S written on it - if you see the letter, thats the tack we are on, and by the main halyard cleat is written TALLY? to remind us to check in after returning to the shore, especially on ‘kiss the slipway tarmac’ days when we might forget. The trolley and trailer have the sail number and boat name on them, and in memory of other, less gentlemanly, classes, so do all the removable components and our clothing.

For the benefit of little Englanders, and Americans who dont realise there are other countries, all measurements are in millimetres. To know what to do with it all is a different matter, see Hugh Myers in the FD users manual on the GBR website, and a Nederlander article from a bulletin in 1992-94 which needs scanning in sometime. Thats enough for now, surely something has been forgotten, or someone disagrees, please let me know. More stuff next time..................