Any RACERS out there?

[Tim Diebert]

I am crewing on an Olson 25 weekend after next for a 2 day regatta.

Headsail trimmer I shall be....in this case a 160 genny.

It is the first sailboat race I will have ever been in...officially.

Any advice or guidance to help me out? You know, other than, "don't drink too much beer and bring suntan lotion". 8)

[barnacle5]

c production and clubman then moved into the vintage classes as I got older. now I just do an occassional trackday and hope no one runs a 200 mph bike up my rearend . Oh, you're referring to sailboat racing. forgot which forum I was on for a while . nevermind. always the best. barnacle bill and darethea

[Tim Diebert]

hahahahaha.

Never raced bikes but did lots of solo car racing scca stuff. Gymkanas, sloloms and track days on a road course. Some of the best fun I ever had.

I bought a brand new Honda Civic in '76 for $2600 and spent $3000 modifing it to race while under waurenty. The Service boss at the dealership was very understanding......he always said, "your'e not racing this thing are you?" with a big grin on his face. I had the tranny in that thing replaced in stages oiver about two years, all under waurenty.

...I am thinking the roll cage might have given me away....not sure though.

Hey, I always thought I might of been one of the first guys to ever mod a Honda......would never stand out these days. Mine was slammed with fender flares, meats and wheels etc etc. Fun car but it died too soon.

Motorcycles I do as well....but sold the last one a couple of years ago. I am being grateful.... I rode many stupid miles and never got hurt. Trying to kill myself via water now.

[barnacle5]

still like my bikes. don't have the time to ride like I used to though. they are all vintage now just like me. mostly big singles and twins . my leather customers expect me to ride though. that is the first thing many will ask" do you ride/race?" funny how the older you get the faster you were though. got several scars and missing organs to prove it too. about th eonly thing I over rev these days is my sewing machines but i can still touch a knee down on the track if the need arises . just glad it is not an obsession anymore. always the best. bill and darethea

[John B]

Watch the woollies Tim. Keep em flowing. They'll no doubt set the trim with the car position to known settings but watch out for a closed leech.. don't let that happen. Back on the cars for more twist and more open, forward on the cars if its too open. Oh and enough leech cord but just enough to stop flutter if it has one. don't let it hook.

[PAR]

Every sail has a "groove" it likes to live in and pulls the hardest. While you tune up and gather around for the start, find this set. Tells tails can help, but most headsails, on modern sailboats, like the windward tails just starting to dance, rather then streaming dead aft, when they are hooked up and in the groove. Also keep an eye on the upper most and lower most tail, so you can keep a good lead on the sheet. An example would be a "powered up" headsail, that has it's lead too far forward. The upper leeward and lower windward tails will break. The reverse is true if the foot is getting too much tension (lead too much aft). Grind away and have fun.

[Tim Diebert]

John B, thanks. Great advice.

Even on my own sails the leech cord is too short and I can never back it off enough. Hopefully not the case with Ken's sails. I do love to trim a nice headsail.

Thanks to you PAR as well. I never would have thought to compair the upper leeward and lower windward woolies to get best overall sail shape. I tend to trim to a set...usually the middle set. This makes way more sense.

I learned an interesting lesson about headsails a few weeks ago. Later in the evening the wind came up big for Annie and I decided it would be a good time to see how for up I could sail under Lapper alone. I moved my daggerboard full forward and set off with no main. Man, on a port tack I was making pretty good progress through a mean short chop. It looked to me like I was sailing at least full and by and was quite pleased. I tacked through nicely and it all went to hell. I could'nt make any forward movement at all. Tacked back to port and off I went again. I did not figure out why until the next morning. Earlier that day I had changed my sheeting angle on the startboard side to see if it would be better next tack. Next tack never came, I hoisted the Gollywobbler and used that for a couple of hours.

Anyway, that sheeting angle turned out to make the difference between going somewhere and not. I thought that was a dramatic lesson.

Thanks guys, I learned something new this morning as well. Good deal.

Since we decided to get this new boat.....I have been wondering if they would allow a 17 foot boat to race in the Wednesday night around the bouys stuff. I guess they would have a minimum length and would not want to have to wait for some wee toy to cross the line when there is perfectly good beer waiting to be sampled at the yacht club bar.

If that is the case I will wait until they have a long distance race or an anything goes kind of thing. I shall do some research.

John, is the boat out right now? Or sailing through the winter this year? I know you have a buddy with a plastic racer you crew on as well. Cheers.

[John B]

Par did a much better job of describing what to do than me. 8)

We won a regatta Tim, and the prize is a wet sand prep and antifoul care of Altex.The conditions that come with the prize though :roll: .. has to be booked out at a particular( expensive, my cost) yard, time frame etc etc.....So I'm thinking to hook it out for a week and forget the rest.A bit worn out this year it seems.

Yes still racing every second weekend on a 70's foam core plastic boat . That boat is bulletproof. A bit frustrating watching the light moderns bursting past us but we have fun.