“We want occasional reach legs” and “Reaches are parades” are two often heard phrases on Scuttlebutt. Most reach legs have become parades with few strategical options and as a result most big regattas are all windward-leewards. It didn’t used to be that way. Here is what happened.
In the 1960’s many, if not most, one-design races were long modified triangles. The reaches were so long you couldn’t see the reach mark. They were physically demanding in breeze and very strategical in variable winds. In the 1970’s US Sailing (NAYRU then) began emphasizing better race management. Gold Medalist Bill Bentsen was the race management mentor/guru at the US Sailing Center at Association Island, NY (Lake Ontario) where race management was greatly refined. Using a combination of Inland Lakes (ILYA) methodology and Bentsen’s creativity, sailing instructions were standardized, starting lines were mobile for wind shifts, and windward legs were optimized. With the leeward mark a tenth of a mile up from the start, the reach legs became short. After ten or fifteen years of this reach legs became eliminated as W-L’s became standard. Gates were introduced (by Paul Elvstrom) improving upon the W-L course.
Gary Bodie, former US Olympic head coach, once said that the demise of one-design racing is partly a result of better race management. With courses away from land set square to the wind, the fastest win and the slowest give up and disappear.
Reach legs are attempted now and then and indeed too often are parades. Bring back the big modified triangle especially in heavy air and while we’re at it, how about a longer point to point race such as the “Round the Island Race.” Let’s do the math…If we have a one mile beat with a right triangle (45-90-45 degree angles) and the leeward mark is at the start, then the reaches are only .7 miles long. Now, same windward mark but the leeward mark is one mile downwind. Increase the reaching angle with an equilateral triangle (60-60-60 angles) and voila, two mile reaches which are no longer parades. Instead reaches become a test of sailing skill that, like RC’s setting the best angle and length reach legs, is a lost art.
My next regatta is the Snow and Satisfaction at Yale in 420s. Some of my best memories in the sport are the long high speed surfing and planning reaches on the widest part of Long Island Sound during one of the windiest times of year, November. It’s been awhile because in recent years the RC has attempted reaches by dragging a gate mark out for short broad reaches instead of the epic modified triangle reaches. I don’t ski, don’t surf, don’t skate board, but I can still plane a club 420 in the right conditions.
Ken Legler
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