Thistle Sailing

Mast Bend

2006-11-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

We have been told by a number of excellent sailors that mast bend is important to upwind boat speed. This is also covered in some detail in Tom Hubbell's book "Sailboat Racing with Greg Fisher". We initially struggled a lot with getting Dare's rig set up correctly and felt slow upwind, especially when there were a lot of waves. Chris LeBord provided some hands-on assistance at Nationals, shimming the mast to induce pre-bend. The boat feels a lot better to us and we now seem to be moving a little faster upwind, probably due in part to the improved rig settings. Pre-bend is about .5 inchs and I have attempted to measure the bend under sail using a couple of pictures taken at a recent regatta. Based on these pictures, bend in moderate conditions is about 3-3.25 inches. The pictures also show slight wrinkles in the mainsail, from the luff towards the middle of the boom which is a healthy sign.

I would like to understand the correct amount of mast bend under different conditions, and then see how our boat compares.

Great Pumpkin Regatta 2006

2006-11-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

Great Pumpkin 2006

Notes from a Clinic led by Bryce Dryden

2006-09-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

These are a few notes from a Thistle clinic that was led by Bryce Dryden who is a fantastic sailor that has won Nationals twice. Bryce sailed on our boat and led us through tacking and gybing drills, teaching us the basics of boat handling. Mike Ross, the current AYC club champion and expert Thistler supported Bryce during the clinic.

Key concept - solid boat handling skills are critical and need to be in place in order to make good tactical decisions. The ability to tack or gybe with confidence to get the boat to where you want to be on the racecourse is key. Bryce and Mike Ross focused the group on basic boat handling including roll tacking and spinnaker gybes.

Upwind - Roll Tacking (from starboard to port in this example)

1. Skipper moves back on the rail about 3 feet to lift the bow out of the water helping the boat to turn.

2. The tack is initiated by gently pushing the tiller away. The mainsheet is also trimmed tightly for balance of the skipper, and to tighten the leach at the same time which helps turn the boat.

3. In lighter winds, any crew on the low (port) side prior to the tack should move across the boat to the new low side to encourage the boat to roll (to starboard)

4. As the boat turns, the radius of the turn gradually increases, but at no time should the tiller be "hard over" as this is not needed and would create extra drag.

5. As the main fills on the new tack, the boat will heal to leeward (starboard) and the crew should stand directly up and start to cross to the new high side. The helm should be standing with their right foot where the rear of the starboard seat tank meets the hull floor and the starboard rail should be very close to the water.

6. The main should be eased to the transom corner and the crew should stay on the new low side (starboard) until the boom has crossed the boat.

7. The helm should cross the boat, diagonally and forward towards the new position on the port rail. The boom can be used to push off on as leverage in light winds, and the tiller extension handle in the left hand can be placed on the port rail to help the helm maintain balance.

8. The boat at this point should be below her normal close-hauled course by perhaps 15-30 degrees on the new tack, depending on the wind strength.

9. As the boat is flattened on the new tack, the main and jib should be sheeted in together and the boat steered up towards her close-hauled heading. If this is done well, with good timing and a synchronized crew, the boat will "squirt" forward, accelerating on the new tack. The helm should by now have swapped the tiller to the right hand (hand on top near belly button!), with the sheet to the left hand, taking a big handful of mainsheet, generally above head-height.

10. Through this whole process, the helm should sit up, moving with confidence across the boat in a smooth motion, and not hunch over in the middle of the boat!

Downwind - Spinnaker Gybes (from port to starboard in this example)

1. The middle and skipper are on the port rail and the forward on the starboard rail.

For balance either I and/or both I and the middle crew might sit in a bit from the rail.

2. Forward crew moves under the boom and gets ready to gybe the pole and middle crew unhooks the guy and has all the slack out of the current guy line and is handling the line, not directly above the rail through the block, but from the turning block under the rail. Once the guy is out of the guy hook, it is easier and more natural to fly the spinnaker from the block under the rail.

3. Helm confirms that the crew is ready and gives the command for the gybe.

4. Helm steers to starboard to a "by-the-lee" heading and sheets in the main a little, while the forward moves the pole to the new guy. The right bottom corner of the kite at this stage should be close to the forestay, making it easy for the forward to grab the new guy and connect to the pole.

5. The spinnaker is best flown as much away from the boat as possible. Through the gybe, as the main comes across, the middle crew may need to tug just a bit on the original guy side. Immediately as the main has finished coming across, ease the new sheet and pull the new guy in a bit, not a lot (if you pull the new guy in a lot and do not ease the new sheet, the effect is that the spinnaker is sucked in close to the boat and under the main which in effect knocks out the wind in the spinnaker). As the spinnaker pole is attached, it will be easier for the new guy to be brought around more square to the boat, which actually depends on the angle the boat needs to head to the next mark. Don't worry about easing the main as it gybes. It might sound bad, but as long as the mainsheet isn't so long that the sidestay takes all the load of stopping the boom, it is ok to let it go full force.

6. As soon as the boom is coming across the boat and goes beyond the midpoint in the boat, then immediately begin heading back down doing the "S" turn. The skipper does not need to be in the middle of the boat or on the new side in order to begin doing so. The middle and skipper both stand and balance the boat while the forward crew finishes attaching the spinnaker pole. Once the pole is attached and the new guy is hooked by the forward, then the forward sits down on the lower side and simultaneously the middle sits down on the new high side. The skipper sits down once both forward and middle take their appropriate seats.

8. The boat should be heeled to weather until neutral helm in achieved, the amount to heel is dependant on the conditions.

9. The boom should generally cross the boat unassisted, although in heavy air, it will probably need to be pulled over.

10. NEVER release the boomvang in heavy air (or any other time during a less windy gybe). Doing so will make it even harder to have the boom come across because the leach is opened up and might actually go forward of the mast which can cause the boat to oscillate back and forth, proving to be unstable and uncomfortable for everyone in the boat. It is only advisable to have your hand on the vang line after a gybe is completed and the boom hits the water. Then it is appropriate to release the vang.

Wild Turkey Regatta - OSYC, Lake Sinclair, GA

2006-09-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Elliot on the dock with Dare, the breeze is starting to fill in a little in the distance. 15 Thistles were racing which was the best turn out for a number of years.

We removed Dare's red stripe which was faded to a light pink so now she looks like new with her freshly polished hull. The fact that we are now indistinguishable from 70% of the rest of the fleet did not stop us from being spotted over the start line early in race 3!

She looks good for 40 years old, we are proud of the old girl!

A shot of the "old-school" spinnaker pole that Elliot and I made out of spanish cedar. It works great but the lacing for the uphaul D-ring came undone at a critical hoist. We re-laced it and sewed it all together which should avoid a repeat disaster.....hopefully!

Although there was no wind at the dock, there was perhaps 8 to 10 mph out on the main body of the lake.

Good friends, Robert and Paul Mitchell who sailed well in their first regatta together.

I think we should have been hiking a little harder in this shot.

Elliot is trimming the spinnaker nicely...we seems to have pretty good downwind speed but were not so good at spotting the puffs and gybing in the right places.

Harry Reich is closing in on us to take our wind, we had a lot of close racing with his boat which made it a lot of fun.

I have trying to take big handfulls of mainsheet, as coached by Bryce, but still seem slow at trimming the main, especially at the leeward mark. Elliot was getting very upset with me when we let boats by on the inside a few times!

This is after racing was over on Sunday, we ended up paddling in as the dock was protected from the wind by a line of trees.

Garry Smillie and Sean Murphy, with Scott Harris in the background.

Dad always seems to end up with the paddle.....

We were really pleased with how we sailed with fewer than usual mistakes. Our spinnaker pole came unlaced during one race which was a big problem....a quick knot or two got us back up a running allowing a better fix before racing on Sunday. Our spinnaker halyard cleat also would not hold which nearly resulted in dropping it under the boat, so Elliot dismantled and fixed it later in the day.

Our starts were far better than usual as we followed a very simple plan.....stick with the fast boats! We also tried hard to sail to the favoured end of the line....if the wind shifts left...go to the pin, if right stay at the committee boat. The allowed us to sail with some of the best sailors...at least for bit, on the correct side of the course, on the lifted tack. We also tried hard to keep the boat flat by hiking and playing the mainsail, letting it flog if necessary. Another thing we focused on was to steer by balancing the boat to keep pressure off the tiller, especially going downwind. We practiced sailing without the rudder the previous weekend with a very experienced Thistler from our club (Jim Smither), and I think this really helped raise our awareness of the affect of sail and hull trim on steering. A book I am reading by Dave Perry (thanks to Chris for the loan) makes a really big point about staying on the lifted tack, so we were working hard to spot headers and also watch other boats to determine what the next puff might do. Elliot is great at helping by reading the compass and has a good feel for telling if a header is real or not. The few times when I have failed to take his advice have not been a good experience!

We learnt a little about the racing rules at several points. We were on port with Jim Roberts and Bryce to leeward and ahead as we overstood the windward mark. We were gently asked by Bryce to tack and I thought we perhaps had broken the rules but we were in the right and could have sailed them to the opposite shore! We tacked together for the mark and somehow Jim got inside us! During one start were were probably too timid and backwinded our main to avoid going over early. Paul Abdullah was to leeward and slightly ahead and pinched us off beautifully....I wonder how he does that?? The over early incident was at the pin, I think in race 2. Greg Griffin (who won the regatta), was just to leeward and he ducked back over the line but we forged ahead. I was pretty sure I was over the line, but was hoping that our white hull had saved us from being spotted! I think there was a judge at the pin end that saw us....serves me right for cheating!

The closest Elliot gets to a smile :)

Congratulations to Greg for taking the regatta! It was really nice to see Jim Roberts do so well with Bryce as crew.

Rank	Sail No	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Nett
1st	3976	Greg Griffin	2.0	1.0	2.0	3.0	1.0	9.0
2nd	3980	Michael Lenkeit	5.0	8.0	1.0	2.0	3.0	19.0
3rd	3997	Scott Griffin	6.0	2.0	4.0	1.0	7.0	20.0
4th	3998	Jim Roberts	3.0	5.0	3.0	8.0	4.0	23.0
5th	1167	Bob McCormack	4.0	3.0	5.0	5.0	6.0	23.0
6th	3985	Paul Abdullah	1.0	4.0	WD	4.0	2.0	28.0
7th	3746	John Fewell	8.0	6.0	8.0	6.0	5.0	33.0
8th	3951	Sean Murphy	7.0	7.0	6.0	10.0	8.0	38.0
9th	3974	Scott Harris	9.0	11.0	7.0	7.0	9.0	43.0
10th	3783	Harry Reich	12.0	13.0	9.0	12.0	10.0	56.0
11th	3444	Maureen Bresnahan	13.0	9.0	10.0	14.0	12.0	58.0
12th	2177	Dale Newnham	11.0	12.0	OCS	9.0	11.0	60.0
13th	3335	Tim Chambers	10.0	10.0	DSQ	11.0	13.0	61.0
14th	2918	Robert Mitchell	14.0	15.0	12.0	13.0	14.0	68.0
15th	2450	Don Read	DNF	14.0	11.0	15.0	15.0	72.0
16th	3029	Kat Mahaney	15.0	16.0	DNS	DNC	DNC	82.0

The Old Goat Regatta

2006-09-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Fleet are around the point...Arlene felt that we would never come in..

First signs of Autumn, in the club camp ground

Drifting in after the last race Sunday

Most of the 47 boats on the way back in on Sunday

Tarrant, Jessica and Eleanor go for a sail after the racing

Thistle Nationals

2006-08-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Crossing a big river (not sure which one), on the way North.

We did not expect to see a Mosque one the way to Lake Erie!

Classic 70's concrete monstosity

Finally made it...Lake Erie!

The measuring tent

Eleanor and Jamie.

Elliot, Jamie, Eleanor and Gordon...new Thistling friends.

Jamie beating up Elliot!

The dinghy park...we had spot 25 which was nice and close to the hoist.

The channel from the club with Lake Erie beyond.

Shot from the roof of North Cape Yacht Club.

The pipers.....git in my belly....

Brian, Elliot and Michael returning to the dock after some pretty nice wind out on the lake for Junior Nationals.

Brian proudly displaying the ball of weed that was clinging to a trailing spinnaker line.......perhaps it slowed them down a bit....!

Orange Peel Regatta

2006-03-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

Preparing to round the windward mark at the Orange Regatta in Jacksonville Florida.

I think this is called a spinnaker broach. Note the rudder popping out of the water and the fear on our faces. Elliot is in the process of releasing the kicking strap/vang which allowed the boom to rise and the boat to right itself. We had just completed a gybe and managed to recover from this with only a foot or two of water in the bottom of the boat :)

On the way back to the dock....the weather was perfect.....

A nice shot of the fleet against the Jacksonville skyline. The boat on the right is Mike Ingham's who won the regatta and is the national champion. We, I am afraid are way off at the back of the fleet after another bad start.

The Great Pumpkin

2005-10-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Follow this link for the Bagpipe account

https://home.comcast.net/~thenewnhams/TheGreatPumpkin.htm

A Dinghy Cruise to Cumberland Island

2005-06-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

Pictures and a few notes can be found here, but follow this link for the account published in the Bagpipe: https://home.comcast.net/~thenewnhams/CumberlandCruise.htm

Trailers at St. Marys

Barge at St Marys

St. Marys harbour

Park and Pier at St. Marys

St. Marys Harbour

St. Marys Storm

St. Marys storm…we are starting to worry about cruising and getting caught in a storm like this!

Alyssa and Eleanor posing with the Trevor the trapped Turtle….we released him in the River a few moments later.

About to depart Crooked River State Park with the falling tide. Mo and Bill in Murphy’s Law, Richard and Alyssa in Free Range Chickin and Dale, Elliot and Eleanor in Dare.

Wayfarers on Crooked River.

Eleanor on board Dare.

The Thistle loves a breeze and is starting to move well.

Alyssa at the helm, moving nicely

Richard and Alyssa

Dale, Elliot and Eleanor cruising down Crooked River

Thistle and Richard's Wayfarer

The wind pipes up a little as we make our way to Cumberland

On razor oyster beach, just before the disaster where Eleanor had her shoes ripped off and feet cut.

We moved Dare and Free Range Chicken onto the floating dock to avoid the oysters and fast rising tide. We did not have permission but hoped the owners would understand.

Plumtree Orchard

Plumtree Orchard…..largetrees

Horse behind tent

The wardrobe tree

Elliot Rulz…..Cumberland Island!

Eleanor after tangling with the oysters…..

Elliot gets a wet hug from Dad….

Horse and foal.

Horse and Foal, walking the dunes.

Behind the dunes near the beach.

Trail…dodging horse poop is a routine challenge.

Cumberland foliage…..sub-tropical forest that is very unique.

Trail on Cumberland…..perhaps Duck Pond Lane.

Alligator pond on the Island

Making Camp

Camping at Yankee Paradise on Cumberland

Beached on sandbar on Crooked river, resting after a hard slog paddling against the current

Thistle interior with dry bags for camping gear

Club Racing Pictures by Nancy Molitor

2005-05-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

Nancy Molitor took some great pictures of Thistle 2177 sailing this weekend. Thanks Nancy, and to Art for driving the boat! Tarrant was at the helm with his friend Elizabeth and me crewing. It got pretty windy, at least for our lake and this was the first time sailing for Elizabeth.....she did really well.

Looking for the finish line....

Why are there always so many boats in front?

The wind was getting pretty gusty.

Another failed attempt to roll-tack...

Heading for the dock.....I think we were last but what the heck!

Atlanta Yacht Club Open Regatta

2005-04-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

A brief account of our experience sailing at the AYC Open regatta follows. Tarrant (17) skippered with Eleanor (11) and I crewing. The pictures are not great as they were taken from shore, but better than nothing!

The Thistle fleet getting ready for race one on Saturday. We were late by about 10 minutes, a dissapointing start but a lesson we will never forget.

Not a lot of breeze on Saturday, but enough for a race so we were happy.

The leeward mark was set near the trees and a reef marker making this a tough rounding. The wind was very shifty so the boats seemed to crowd together.

On Sunday, the weather improved and conditions were lovely. This downwind leg was nice, we actually got the spinnaker up at the windward mark without too much drama and it set quite well . A rare moment with a few boats behind us

The fleet of Thistles, Y Flyers and Snipes were a pretty sight.

We look like we are in the lead here with the red and white spinnaker, but you can't see the mass of boats off to the right! Still, we were going better than we usually do and pretty pleased with the boat speed.

The wind was starting to pick up sailing towards the gybe mark, so we got the spinnaker down before we got there. This also seemed to make sense as some other boats were not carrying the kite to the next mark. It was very crowded around the mark and we took a dunking as we gybed. Eleanor let out a blood curdling scream as we went over but she was smiling soon afterwards.

Bailing her out after the swamping. Not quite a capsize but very, very close! I think we need a bigger bailer...a bucket is clearly the way to go!

Most water bailed out and she is moving again, but too late to join the race!

Overall, it was a pretty poor showing by team Newnham but it was great fun and we learnt a lot. Key lessons:

1. Carefully read the notice of race (NOR) and stick it in your pocket for frequent reference. This way you will avoid being late for the start! (Follow Frank's lead)

2. Learn the start sequence and don't stray from the line too far, especially when the wind is light.

- 5 mins, Class (Thistle) flag up
- 4 mins, Blue and White (square) flag up
- 1 min, Blue and White flag down
- Start, Class flag down

Note: the flag overules the horn, so just go when the flag is dropped (thanks for the tip Art!)

3. When its windy consider bearing away and gybing before the mark to avoid a dunking (from Stuart Walker's book on racing small boats, and also how some others rounded near us)

4. Carry a big bucket as a bailer and make sure your automatic bailers are effective.