"Don't race in light air." ?!#$@#%?!!! Gray hair? Check. Other maladies? Jesus, where do I begin??

The first rule of PHRF racing in the lights is that if you're lucky enough to get an AP, quickly drink all of the beer and "process" it over the stern while you wait for the wind to fill. Move what's left into the V-berth and try this:

We tried sailing the polars in light air for a couple of years and, frankly, got worked. In 3-5, sure, 90 deg apparent is as far from the wind as you want to be, but in anywhere from 6-8 knots true and (here's the key) flat water, we heat up to 105 or so and then soak down to 120-125 as long as we can coast. Most of the boats you'll sail against in PHRF will sail much, much deeper angles so esp when you get out in front on the upwind (which you will in this boat, thanks, Carl), sailing lower down will help you keep between them and the mark...so long as they're not blanketing you.

Other tips: everybody forward. Helmsman should be in front of the traveller, bow at the hatch and everybody else save the bag trimmer in front of the companionway bulkhead. Raking the mast forward doesn't hurt, but how much it helps is probabaly up for debate. One other one: outhaul. Upwind and down, we keep it on pretty tight in lighter breeze. The idea here is that projected area means more than shape when little puffs hit.

As far as the mast head option is concerned, my feeling is that, fun-factor, it's a good thing on the Express and in moderate breeze, it's worth the hit, but in the lights, it's almost never (read: except for chop) going to be worth it.

Good luck,

-Jason

:: The polars are in this web site under Articles. If the
:: wind was really 5-6 knots, then you'd be sailing close
:: to 90 degrees apparent and doing around 3+ knots of boat
:: speed. Just a few degrees too low and your boat speed
:: suffers bad. You want to be generating all the apparent
:: wind you can, so sometimes you just have to heat up and
:: wait for the boat speed to come back.
::
:: I've seen that in these lighter conditions the cut of
:: your spinnaker can make a huge difference. If you have a
:: kite cut for running, it can be very slow in these
:: light-air reaching conditions compared to an AP or
:: reaching spinnaker.
::
:: Masthead would certainly be faster, but not clear
:: whether it would pay with the adjusted rating. And of
:: course, it would always be tempting to fly it too long
:: and possibly tweak the unsupported top part of the mast.
::
:: Best solution: don't race in light air. It causes gray
:: hair and other maladies...
::

:: --brendan

::
::
::
::
:: :: HELP we sailed a light air race lastweekend 5k to6k
:: :: smooth water.800 pounds of weight. 2 times around
:: :: windward leward 1.5 mile legs. Sat on by olson 40 at
:: :: start, tacked away ran down a pearson flier and J29 mast
:: :: head. sail past to leaward tacked and crossed. Went to
:: :: far left but still rounded close behind. Could not keep
:: :: time down wind even passed by olson (2) 25s mast heads.
:: :: This is PHRF but is still fun. How hot should we sail
:: :: off the wind and would a mast head spin pay in these
:: :: cond. thanks for any help.