Hopefully there are a few sailers on this board. I need help setting the layline when racing up the windward leg. I’ve found lately that I consistantly second guess myself and go way over. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Very generally speaking, you’re on the layline when the windward mark is abeam of your boat (90 degrees from the boat’s centerline.) Some things will cause you to over shoot the line. Slow tacking, wind shifts, and current are among these. If your boat and crew can’t turn on a dime, you can start your turn early. If you turn too early, you’re forced to make 2 more tacks to make the mark. If you turn too late, you’ve wasted a few seconds of sailing, but you can increase speed by sailing a little off the wind on your way to the mark (footing off.)
Right, that’s my problem, how to tell when its directly abeam. I have a feeling the real trouble is understanding the pivot point of the boat. Any sujestions there?
The layline is not directly abeam, unless your pointing angle is exactly 45 degrees. Every hull and sail combination will perform differently, so you need to learn your boat to know how close your “close-hauled” really is.
Having said that, you should actually avoid trying to hit the layline unless you are close to the mark, as a wind shift will screw up your line. If you get headed, you now need to tack twice to make the mark. Conversely, if you get lifted, you have now overshot and need to bear off - granted, reaching is faster than sailing close hauled, but the difference will generally not make up for the extra distance travelled. Of course, there is an exception to every rule, and by my experience, races are generally won on the downwind leg - I recall one particular race in which I laid the mark upwind, but then got lifted, but instead of bearing off I stayed high, until I could reach to the mark with the chute up - doing so saved enough time rounding the mark and starting downwind that I ended up consolidated with the fleet again.
Upwind tactics will depend on leg distance, number of competitors, grouping (proximity), wind and sea behaviour and history, and handicap system. If sailing a one-class division or against vessels with similar ratings, it is sometimes advantageous to race not against the clock, but against your immediate competition (meaning that match racing tactics like covering / wind shadowing at the expense of a bit of time are used). Forcing penalties by driving an opponent into the mark, for example, may lose time but put you well ahead by comparison.
As a general rule, don’t lay the mark early. If you are worried about tacking time, practice this with your crew to make them as fast as possible. Instead of driving out to the layline on one tack with the intent of driving to the mark on the next, keep consolidated with the fleet (unless you anticipate a favourable wind shift). Doing so prevents an unfavourable wind shift from pushing you back too far by comparison.
Back to the OP…
Although there are lots of considerations, most boats do sail close hauled at something close to 45 degrees. So the problem it seems is when to know you’re abeam. Generally what you want are sight lines on the boat; i.e. draw a line (or tape, or whatever) that is at 90 degrees to the centreline of the boat. An alternative is to use existing rigging, winches, whatever as a sighting device…have one of the railmeat sitting at a particular point let you know when you are lined up directly (using another point opposite to sight).
If you still come out overstood all the time, you’re either pinching like crazy (which may or may not be fast…depends on all those things again…) or the boat sails a tighter close hauled course (you can assess this based on your fleet…how do you point relative to them, etc, or depending on the boat, you can get a polar plot of performance).
When you know this, you can adjust your sight lines appropriately.
Eventually, you’ll get a feel for what the line looks like to the mark from where you’re sitting…then you won’t need the sight lines so much.
as for some of the sailiing tactics…Fuji makes both some good and bad points. The start is by far the most critical part of the race. After that, upwind legs (particularly the first), and finally downwind. Upwind is more critical because you spend much more time on it and sail essentially 1.4 (sqrt 2) times the distance (once again assuming a 45 deg close hauled angle). You also get more wind shifts since you are both there longer, and sailing into the wind. And this is why Fuji’s point about avoiding the layline is critical. Once you’re there, you can only lose to the rest of the fleet. A lift brings you above the layline, sailing extra distance now that the competition doesn’t, and you’re the boat most dramatically affected by any header. You lose both ways. As for boat on boat tactics, remember you’re in a fleet…so these tactics, while they might stop someone from passing, or allow you past a single boat, will cost you against every other boat in the fleet. You generally should save these for the times when you are well ahead and well behind all the other boats, where it does in effect become a match race.
one more thing I forgot…
the pivot point of the boat should have little influence. Even on a 50 foot boat, you’re only ever about 25 feet away from it…generally this distance isn’t very significant from an overstanding perspective…i.e. if you’re only ever overstanding by half your boat length, then you’re doing better than me (and probably most everybody else).