Sail1Design would like to welcome the newest member to our Airwaves team, Clinton Hayes. In College, Clinton went north to attend the University of Vermont. While there, he lead the team as they qualified for their first ever National Championships and was their first Coed All-American in 2008 and 2010. In the summer of 2008 he was fortunate enough to be a Lightning Boat Grant Recipient where he sailed all the major regattas and gained valuable knowledge about sailing opportunities after college.
After Graduating in 2010, Clinton took a job offer as Interim Head Coach at The University of Rhode Island. While there, the Women’s Team rose from unranked to National Champions. The first at URI since the 70’s. The Coed Team also qualified for their first nationals since the early 90’s. That summer, Clinton decided to make a big move West to assistant coach at Stanford University where he is currently employed.
Clinton continues to pursue competitive sailing, most recently Team and Match Racing. He is also very active in the Vanguard 15 class, winning both Nationals and Midwinters this year. Continuing to have fun, and learn more about sailboat racing are Clinton’s main goals. He plans to continue racing what he has fun racing while also trying to gain new experience in other parts of the sailing world. You can reach him at clinton@sail1design.com
{this article is reprinted from an earlier publication on the V15 website}
Some time ago, downwind sailing was changed forever when Laser Sailors invented the S-turn technique. Those who have it make massive gains while those who don’t are left in the dust. I remember watching a race during the 2004 Olympics Games where arguably the best Laser Sailor ever, Robert Scheidt, rounded the first windward mark in 23rd. After a steady 6-8 knot downwind, he rounded the next leeward mark in the top 5 on his way to winning a Gold Medal. One has to admit that move was a super human feat against some of the best sailors in the world. Nevertheless, it illustrates the massive gains can be made by sailing your boat well downwind and why you should focus so much on it.
Speed while sailing “Wing on Wing” in a dinghy without a spinnaker seems simple but there are tricks to the trade. One good example is angle. Your sailing wing on wing so dead downwind right? Wrong. Flow across your sail is the best way to generate speed so sailing as high as you can without the jib collapsing has always seemed to be quick. There are exceptions. Most notably would be sailing a little lower to catch or ride a wave. If those conditions exist that should be your first priority so catch a wave and ride it at the best angle possible for the longest ride then head back up to the ideal speed angle. That angle will depend on wind speed and sea state but in general the lighter the wind and choppier the water, the lower (closer to dead downwind) you will need to sail to keep your jib from collapsing. Never sail for prolonged periods of time by the lee. It is super slow! The easiest way to prevent doing this is having a shroud tell tail and paying attention to were your apparent wind is coming from. You can also tell your sailing by the lee if the top of your jib starts luffing but your jib is not collapsing. When in doubt, head up and check. Sailing by the lee is way slower then one collapse of your jib. These differences in angle are slight but very important. Work hard and experiment a little! Case and point…One thing I’ve noticed coaching college sailing(and sailing in practice sometimes) is that sometimes sailing a little straighter course to the mark is better(VMG) then trying to sail as high as possible wing on wing. The variables that favor this are shorter course, light to moderate wind, and flat water.
Jib trim is also more complicated than just filled or collapsed. Snipes have whisker poles that when deployed makes the jib very flat and holds it out much farther then your arm can. Your goal in the V15(Fj, 420, etc). is to make your arm like a whisker pole. Hold the jib out as far as you can to make it as big as possible. Is it possible to make your jib too flat? Yes, but at that point it will constantly collapse which is really slow. So, out as far as possible, as flat as possible, without collapsing. You’ll find that the lighter the wind, the more rounded it will need to be to stay full. If it’s really light, the jibsheet weight makes the jib too flat so raise it above the clue to help the jib stay full. On the opposite end on of the spectrum, in heavier winds, its almost impossible to flatten out your jib enough. Hold it out as far as you can while still pulling back to maintain a flat shape. Think “out and back.” In medium and heavy conditions your using the upper 1/3 of the jib as your guide. Try to keep it 90 degrees to your bow. A common mistake is not pulling back enough on the jib and letting the top spill open which just reduces your effective sail area. Again, super slow! Try extending your hand and trimming from the end of your pointer/middle fingers. This gives you another 3 inches and allows you to poke your fingers down and back to pump and keep the top trimmed correctly.
Speaking of pumping. When surfing conditions are present and your allowed to pump, take advantage of every opportunity. When you do this work hard to maintain shape in your jib. Again, think “out and back.” The pump itself should be quick but not so abrupt that you totally loss shape in the jib. I also like to hold the pump back for a split second until the boat starts to release in the puff or down the wave. People have disagreed with me on this but that’s how we always sail the V15 and I would say we are pretty fast downwind and we only get faster the bigger the waves get.
Other things to focus on when catching waves(and really all downwind sailing) are body position and steering. These go hand in hand because how your boat wants to steer depends on your body position. In general, you want just enough windward heel to balance your helm. In about 12 knots I sail the Vanguard almost dead flat. Centerboard is up almost all the way in light air and down in heavy air. I don’t freak out too much about centerboard, just go by feel. For fore/aft, the bow knuckle should just be buried. In lighter air, the V15 likes weight very far forward. The crew should be sitting backward with their butt pretty much right next to the mast. As it gets windier move back but don’t forget to(legally) move your body weight to help catch waves. Ooching is not legal in the V15 class but you can still move your upper body fore and aft with the waves as long as it’s not abrupt. This works surprisingly well, don’t be lazy!
As I said in the first paragraph, laser sailors revolutionized downwind sailing in waves with the S-turn technique. This is essentially always sailing angles to keep
wind flowing across the sail and hunt down waves. With a jib you can’t sail by the lee like laser sailors, but you can sail through about 30 degrees of angle while maintaining wing on wing. First, to catch a wave, sail at the fastest angle possible regardless of wave direction, many times this is higher then the direction waves are moving. I like to stare a couple feet in front of the bow. When it goes down, pump and try to move body weight forward. The bigger the waves, the more aggressive you need to be. Your pump also serves to line the boat up in the direction waves are moving so you might have to adjust based on where you want the bow to go. A large “back and down” pump will tighten your leech and steer the boat down. If you don’t want to steer down then release your pump sooner, sail the boat flatter, or a combination of the two.
Once you are surfing, work hard to keep the boat balanced. You need all the boatspeed you can to stay surfing or jump to the next wave. Any aggressive steering or cavitation of the rudder, however slight, could translate into multiple lost boatlengths. If its windy enough, and the waves are big enough try to link multiple waves. In this condition, your biggest enemy is the trough of the wave in front of you. Before you hit it, turn up a little so your bow doesn’t plow straight into it. When you turn up, work hard to blade the jib out(make it flat) so you get a burst of speed when wind begins to flow across it again. In 15+ you should feel a real pull and burst of acceleration if you do this right. Blading the jib out hard also helps prevent it from collapsing. The V15 is pretty light and likes to plane so the difference between maintaining surfing and getting stuck in the wave in front of you is huge. I think this is something that we did especially well in the big swell at Nationals(BBR) this year.
Downwind sailing is so fun because it’s more of an art form then an exact science. I also like it because there’s less hiking! However, if you’re just relaxing then boats are probably passing you. I’m often more focused downwind because there are so many feelings and variables to play with that directly affect boatspeed. So embrace the artform, use feel as your guide, and make plays on the run!
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