1Speed & Smarts #121

The newsletter of how-to tips for racing sailors May/June 2012

&smartsDavid Dellenbaugh’s™SPEED

THEME 2012 Lightning Circuit ..........1STRATEGY Regatta overview ............2SAVANNAH Races 1 and 2 ..............4SAVANNAH Race 3 ........................6MIAMI Races 1 and 2.......................8MIAMI Races 3 to 5 .......................10ST. PETERSBURG Races 1 and 2 ......12ST. PETERSBURG Race 3 ...............14MIAMI Race 6 ..............................15STRATEGY Looking back ...............15RESOURCES Regatta notebook........16

Regatta Lessons ISSUE #121

The Lightning Southern Circuit

Three years ago I devoted an entireissue of Speed and Smarts to the

lessons I learned (and re-learned) duringa week of racing in the Thistle Nationals.That was one of the most popular issuesof Speed and Smarts during the past tenyears, so I decided to do it again. Thistime the focus is a regatta I recentlysailed in another classic three-personcenterboarder – the Lightning.

The Lightning is a great boat to useas a case study for many reasons. First,the boats are quite equal in speed, sorelative performance is an accurate re-flection of how you are sailing the boat.Tactics and strategy are key, as is goodboathandling and teamwork. The fleetsare usually large and deep in talent, soyou get instant feedback about whetheror not you are doing the right thing.

The regatta I am writing about in thisissue is the week-long 2012 LightningSouthern Circuit (see box). The followingpages are filled with my notes, tips andlessons learned from 12 races we sailedduring the three separate regattas.

The Lightning Southern Circuit has been an annual midwinterfixture since 1964! The Circuit traditionally consists of three

regattas in mid-March that take place over two weekends andthe week in between. The first event is the Deep South Regattaat the Savannah Yacht Club in Georgia. This is a veryunique regatta because the course is set in theconfluence of two not-so-wide rivers. As a result,there is usually flat water, lots of current andshifty wind. And it’s the only leg of the Circuitwhere they still sail reaches!

The second stop is the Miami MidwinterRegatta at Coral Reef Yacht Club. The racing onBiscayne Bay offers great open-water sailing andthere is often strong wind and big chop. The final(and usually the biggest) event is the WinterChampionship at St. Petersburg Yacht Club whereyou can get almost any condition on Tampa Bay.

I had sailed each of these events once before, but 2012 wasmy first time doing the entire Circuit. There was an average of47 boats at each of the regattas this year, and 28 boats sailedall three events. There was a lot of wind in Savannah, moderatebreeze in Miami and very light air in St. Petersburg, so we hada perfect range of conditions for working on (and learning about)speed, tactics, strategy and boathandling.

Bill Clausen photo

Code for free access to the Subscribers’ Corner atwww.SpeedandSmarts.com: SNSCorner2010

Lessons learned from aweek-long Midwinters

1. Deep South Regatta Savannah Yacht Club

2. Miami Midwinter Regatta Coral Reef Yacht Club

3. Winter Championship St. Petersburg Yacht Club

2 Regatta Lessons

2012 Lightning Southern Circuit

Overview and strategyBefore sailing any event, I try to

think about all the factors thatcould affect the outcome and theoverall experience. Every regatta isdifferent and has a unique set ofconditions that impact the sailors.So it’s important to piece togetheran overall strategic plan for how tosail that regatta. Here are some ofthe things I contemplated before theLightning Southern Circuit.

Have fun! – We couldn’t be tooserious about this regatta because Ihadn’t been in a Lightning for morethan 20 years and the three of ushadn’t even seen each other, not tomention sailed together, for almostthat long. Of course, we wanted tofinish as close to the top as possi-

ble, but our bottom line measureof success was to have a good timeboth on and off the water.

Keep improving – One thingthat was very important for us wasto keep a learning attitude duringour time together. Even if we didn’tdo very well in the races, it wouldn’tmatter so much as long as we weregetting better during the series.That’s why we took notes aboutwhat we learned (see page 16),spent time tuning with other boatsand kept tweaking the boat (andourselves) to go a little faster.

Crew weight – The three of ustipped the scales at around 520pounds, which was quite a bitabove the regatta average (around

475 pounds I’d guess). We definitelywanted to sail together, and ourprospects for losing any significantweight before the Circuit were slim.So our challenge was to do as wellas possible with the weight we had.

Of course, a bit of extra beefhelped us when there was a lot ofbreeze (at least upwind), but ironi-cally we may have been fastest inthe light air of St. Petersburg. Thatwas a pleasant surprise which we’restill trying to understand!

Regatta format – The LightningCircuit consists of three regattasover nine days. Each event is scoredseparately and then all three arecombined for the overall Circuit.We planned to sail all the races, butinstead of worrying about the com-bined title we decided to approacheach regatta as a separate event,and just hope for the best overall.

Assessing risk – I am generallyconservative on the race course be-cause I think the best chance ofwinning, at least in the longer run,is by playing the odds rather thanrolling the dice. My assessment ofthe Lightning Circuit did not change

At the St. Petersburg Sailing Center after the last race: Hale, Kip, David

Resurrecting an ‘old’ Lightning teamIn early January this year I got an email from my old friend and sailing team-mate Hale Walcoff. He wanted to know if I would be interested in sailing theLightning Southern Circuit in March with him and Kip Hamblet. Kip, Hale and Ihad sailed a few Lightning regattas together about 20 years ago, culminating inour win at the 1991 Lightning Worlds. But I had not set foot in a Lightningsince that regatta nor had I done any sailing with Kip or Hale. Hale is a former sailmaker and very talented sailor who currently works

for sailcloth manufacturer Dimension-Polyant. He does the bow, trims the jiband organizes our sail program. Kip has many, many years of experience racingLightnings, served for three years as class measurer, and is our middle crew. Itwas Kip’s boat that we used to win the Worlds, and we sailed the same boatagain this year! This Lightning was built by the Allen Boat Company way back in1969. It was significantly older than almost every boat at the Circuit, but it hascharacter and still some good speed! As soon as I read Hale’s email, I thought that sailing the Circuit with them

would be a lot of fun, so I said yes. We spent the next two months organizinglogistics and then met up in Savannah in mid-March for the first regatta!

Jo Ann Fisher photo

First, find any anchored buoy thatyou can use to mark the positionof the starting line. Start yourwatch on a 10-minute count-down, and luff in position just toleeward and to the right of thebuoy (1). Each time your watchhits another minute, try to begoing full speed on a closehauledcourse with your bow right nextto the buoy (2). Sail past thebuoy for a couple boatlengths,then circle around and stop theboat in position so you canre-start on the next minute.

3Speed & Smarts #121

The Lightning is one of the largest, most active one-design classes in theworld. It was designed by Olin Stephens in 1938, and more than 15,000boats have been built during the past 74 years! The boat that we sailed atthe Circuit this year was #11346 and is still fast at 43 years old. Here we aresailing upwind in the third race of the Deep South Regatta at Savannah.

this. Neither Savannah nor Miamiallowed any race scores to be dis-carded, and St. Petersburg permit-ted a throwout only if there werefive or more races (which thereweren’t). The overall Circuit couldhave up to 17 races, but therewould be only one throwout.

Overall strategy – It was clearthat success in each regatta andthe Circuit would go to boats thatsailed consistently well. Thereforeour goal was to be smart and fastand avoid disasters.

We were hoping to eliminateany letters (e.g. OCS or DSQ) fromour scoreline, make high-percent-age moves (no banging the corners),and avoid bad scores as long aspossible. It’s very easy, especially ata place like Savannah, to have abad start, miss a shift, get caughtin the pack (or in the current) – andend up 15th or 20th or worse!

Therefore, our week-long goalfor the start and first beat was to bein the hunt at the first mark. Thenthe plan was to slowly catch boatsfrom there. Check out the rest ofthis issue to see how we did. •

Priorities for limited practice time

2

Buoy (represents the starting line)

Once you are able tostart consistently ontime at the buoy withfull speed, move yourstarting point closer andcloser to the buoy (blue arrows). The goal is tosee how little space you can use to acceleratefrom nearly a dead stop to full speed.

Like many sailors preparing for an upcoming regatta, we did not have much time topractice before the Lightning Circuit. We all have jobs, we live far away from eachother, and it was the middle of the winter. So I figured we might have about threehours to practice on Friday afternoon before the first regatta in Savannah.A few hours was obviously not enough time to prepare for this regatta, especially

given our time away from the boat and each other, but it was the best we could doso I made a list of priorities for our practice session. It looked like this:

� Basic spinnaker handling – Set, jibe and drop the chute a few times� Starting line acceleration – I felt this would be key for the Circuit (see below)� Straight-line upwind speed – Only if we could find a fast boat to tune against� Tacks – Get our movement and timing sorted out (tacks are key in Savannah!)� New sails – Take a look at them and break them in a little� Communication and crew roles – We also needed to sort out who says and

does what at various points during the race, but this was one thing we could talkthrough on shore Friday night and during the rest of the Circuit. If we could accomplish all, or most, of this list I would feel somewhat prepared

for the first race on Saturday. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go according toplan. By the time we got sailing on Friday there weren’t any other boats on the river,so speed testing was out. We did a couple of sets, jibes and drops before we noticeda squall line approaching. We ‘broke in’ the sails and did some tacks, but that wasmostly in 20 to 25 knots as we hurried back to the club before it got really windy.The good news was that we had all sailed Lightnings a lot in the past, so hopefully

racing one again would be like riding a bicycle. In addition, the unique nature of sail-ing in Savannah (puffs, shifts, current) would put more emphasis on sailing smart andless emphasis on Lightning-specific skills like straight-line speed. At least that is whatwe told ourselves when we went to bed Friday night.

JH Peterson photo

On a crowded line, it’s critical to be able to hold your boat luffing in position andthen accelerate to full speed on a closehauled course without using up too muchof your hole to leeward. Here is an exercise that is easy to practice on your own.Though we couldn’t do this drill in Savannah because of the squall, it’s a great wayto get better at carving a good start out of a small hole on the starting line.

An excellent starting drill

1

4 Regatta Lessons

Savannah

WIND

Starting line

Windwardmark

Jibemark

current

SOUTHERN CIRCUIT – LEG 1 – Savannah Yacht Club

Deep South RegattaThe race course in Savannah is traditionally located at the conflu-ence of the Wilmington and Skidaway Rivers (see map), so it is atricky (and fun) place to sail. This year (the 56th annual DeepSouth Regatta!) there was a full moon just a day or two before theregatta, so I knew the rivers would be ripping. Fortunately, we hadplenty of wind. A large weather system brought two days of strongnortheasterly gradient to the Georgia coast. A few miles away onthe ocean the wind was blowing 20 to 30 knots, but on the more-protected river we had a very sailable 10 to 20. However, thereason we had less wind was because there was a shore with lotsof houses and trees just to windward of our course (see map),which made the wind very puffy and shifty. In addition we had46 Lightnings on the line, the largest fleet in Savannah in severalyears, which meant it would be tough to find clear air.

Race 1 started in a shiftynortheasterly breeze of

10 to 20 knots. The coursewas a triangle-windward-leeward-windwardwith the starting line set part way up the Skid-away River and the windward mark just to lee-ward of the Wilmington River’s northern shore.

We had a fair start toward the pin androunded the first mark about 10th which waspretty good considering we were still trying tosort out how to sail the boat. We sailed prettyconservatively from there, were able to catch aboat or two on each leg, and finished third.

SavannahRACE 1

If it’s possible to get a range along the starting line,I always get one. In all 3 races at Savannah (and in all12 during the Circuit), there were lots of objects onland beyond the pin end. So I always had a line sight,plus a ‘safety’ sight to help approach the start. Know-ing the exact location of the line is critical when youhave current or a long line (or both like in Savannah).Make sure your sight is very accurate by checking itseveral times, including just after your prep signal.

Laylines in median wind

Finish line

A

Layline in Right Shift

Layline in Left Shift

MEDIANRIGHT

B

Tackedhere on aright shift

With an oscillating breeze, the Savannah Yacht Club race committeeset the finish line square to the median wind direction. This meant thatin a right shift the pin (port) end was favored; in a left shift the boat(starboard) end was favored. Because the finish line was close under awindward shore, the shifts were quick and a bit random. It was difficultto predict which end of the line would be favored when you got there,so you had to keep your options open.We approached the finish of Race 1 in fifth place. As we got closer

to the line, we tried to play the shifts and figure out which end wasfavored. One thing we did well was to avoid overstanding either end.Boat A, who was in third, sailed almost to the starboard-tack layline tothe boat end. Approaching the line, A was still on a higher ladder rungthan we were, but the right-hand shift meant the pin was favored, so Awas at the wrong end and we just beat them.Boat B finished at the favored pin end, but they got too far left as

we all neared the line, and they were not able to play the last shift.We finished just ahead of them, too, which meant we were third.

‘Safety’sight

Dave

Play the shifts to a better upwind finish

Get a good ‘line sight’

Wind at finishFavoredat finish

Stay in the shaded area aslong as possible so: a) youcan keep playing shiftswithout overstandingthe favored end, andb) you can pickthe favoredend as lateas possible.

LEFT

Another time to avoid the pin is whenthe windward (committee boat) end ofthe line is favored. This makes it easy forboats to hold their lanes on starboardtack and difficult for boats at the pinto ever cross the fleet to windward(unless the left side is quite favored).

Don’t get pinned

Sincethe cur-rent washelping us,we tackedwell under the‘layline’ to themark. If we gotheaded, we wouldgain on the boatsto our right; if wegot lifted we mightactually make the mark.That’s what happened!

The pin end is not a greatplace to start when you don’thave very far to go on starboardtack off the line. This happens whenthe windward mark is close (above),which is often the case in college racingfor example, or when the first beat isskewed with the mark to the right ofthe wind (above right) as in Race 2.

5Speed & Smarts #121

Race 2 started shortly after the finish of Race1, and conditions were roughly the same. The

wind continued to blow 10 to 15 with gusts near20. We were a little closer to low tide, so the ebb current was a bitweaker and there was less water in the river; i.e. it was much shal-lower along the shoreline so the race course was smaller. We had amediocre start (see below) but gained with a good approach to thewindward mark and rounded 6th or 8th. Again we managed to passa few boats before the finish and ended up fourth.

SavannahRACE 2

The current was pretty strong in the river allweekend, but there were two reasons why itwas not an overwhelming strategic factor:1) There was a lot of breeze. We had 10 to

20 knots of wind for all three races, whichmeant the boats were at hull speed (or planingdownwind) most of the time. When boats aregoing this fast, the effects of current are less. 2) The current was usually flowing upwind.

When sailing against the current, you wouldnormally sail to the sides of the river wherethere is less flow. We didn’t see this on theruns, though, because we were sailing almostdead downwind in that breeze and the fleetdidn’t separate enough to escape the current.

Windwardmark

WIND

Layline

Start to the right on a short beat

DavePin boat

Shortstarboardtack

Start

Windwardmark

WINDLayline

Start

In Race 2 we had a good start close to the line with clear air and full speed.At least I thought it was good until I glanced to windward. Two thirds of thefleet had started between us and the RC boat (above), and they were lookingstrong. With flat water, strong breeze, an even starting line and a small lift justafter the start, it was easy for boats to hold their lanes on starboard tack offthe line. That meant it was difficult (or impossible) for us to tack and crossthem. Our problem was made worse by the fact that we didn’t have very farto go on starboard tack – the windward mark was a little right of the wind,so we couldn’t wait very long for a big header. By mid-beat we were in themiddle of the pack – the boat that rounded the windward mark first (TomAllen Jr.) had started right by the RC boat and no one ever crossed him!

Starting line RCboat

WIND

WIND

Don’t over-estimate the current

MEDIAN RIGHT

Layline in median breeze with current

Layline in right shift with current

Dave

Layline in median breeze - no currentWatch out for boat-end favor

Risky

OK

Watch out for laylinesWith strong current and a shifty wind, thepotential for mis-judging laylines is huge, bothupwind and downwind. In the second race wewere about 15th as we neared the windwardmark. Since starboard tack took us directlyacross the river, we knew the current wouldset us to windward (which meant we wouldget to the starboard layline sooner). Becauseof this, we tacked well underneath a bunch ofboats that reached the ‘normal’ layline beforeus. Then we got lifted on starboard tack. Withcurrent, a lift and clear air below the fleet, wewere just able to squeeze up around the mark,passing eight to ten boats who ended up over-standing the mark by a lot.

�

6 Regatta Lessons

WIND

Race 3 was Sunday morning and theconditions were not very different.

The northeasterly wind had blown hardall night and was still puffy and shifty. We were much closerto high tide so the ebb current was not yet super strong,and the race course was relatively large. This time we had a‘good-enough’ start in the middle of the line and were able toplay the shifts up the first beat with the top group of boats.We rounded the windward mark fifth, passed one boat onthe first reach and another boat on the second reach. Afterrounding the leeward mark third, we hit some great shiftsup the second beat, got ahead and were able to extend for acomfortable win. We needed one boat between us and DaveStarck to win the regatta but he sailed well and finishedsecond in the race so we were second overall by one point.

SavannahRACE 3 We almost got rolled at the beginning of Race 3. As the

start approached, we were luffing on the line with GregFisher (15181) just above us. I thought we were close tothe line but I must have been a little off on my line sightbecause Greg started accelerating before us. When Isaw this, I immediately bore off and we trimmed sails.Fortunately we had a good hole to leeward with roomto accelerate. We would have been fine except the endof the hiking stick slipped through my hand and westarted rounding up. I grabbed it quickly and bore offjust in time to have our wind barely clear ahead of Greg.From that point on, we kept the bow down and the boatrolling. For a few minutes our only goal was to go atleast as fast as Greg. Once we got our bow slightlyfarther ahead on him, we shifted into point mode.

PUFF

PUFF

YESYES

PUFF

WIND

PUFF

YES

Tack early in ‘fanning’ puffs

Almost buried at the start

Normal puff Fanning puff

Not all puffs and shifts are created equal. Themost common shifts/puffs move more or lesssteadily down the course (left). The leading edgeof these shifts is a line or shallow arc and mostof the wind in that puff is blowing about thesame direction. In Savannah, however, many puffs were of the

‘fanning’ variety (right) – they came down ontothe water surface and then spread out in a cir-cular direction. This happens when there is a lotof vertical mixing of the wind aloft, or when youare near a windward shore and puffs are comingover trees, hills or buildings (as was often thecase in Savannah). When you have fanning puffs, you should

usually tack early (as soon as you are headed)so that you get the maximum lift along the nearside of the puff. Try not to sail through the mid-dle of the puff; although you’ll have good veloc-ity there, you won’t be nearly as lifted as boatson either side of the puff. In these conditions,boats that are close together may have verydifferent wind, so don’t go chasing puffs.

JH Peterson photo

Dave

Rhumbline

A lee-bow on the first beatWe were nearing the crucialpart of the beat where the tworivers meet, sailing a port-tack liftin about fourth place. It looked likewe would cross ahead of GregFisher, who was on starboard, butthen he started getting lifted and we wereheaded. We decided to tack on the rightyin a lee-bow position but I didn’t go asclose as I could have and Greg was ableto ‘live’ for a while on our windward hip.

What we should have doneThe problem with what happened is thatwe were pinned; we could not tack untilGreg did. Luckily for us, Greg tacked onthe next shift, but you can’t rely on thatboat to tack when you want. That’s

why your lee-bow needs to be verytight. Don’t worry about beingnice – just tack close enough soyou can force that boat to bailout as soon as possible. Thiswill open up your optionsand make it easier to stayin phase with the shifts.

7Speed & Smarts #121

In shifty wind, do the ‘right’ thingWhen the wind is shifty and puffy like it was in Savannah, youhave to play the wind first and worry about competitors sec-ond. Races are won or lost by playing the shifts, so your firstpriority should always be to make the correct move for thewind. Basically, sail on the lifted tack and stay in the pressure. During the races in Savannah, for example, we often

chose to sail in bad air to stay on the correct tack. Becausewe had strong breeze and flat water, the wind shadows fromother boats did not hurt our speed so much. In these condi-tions it was usually better to go the right way in bad air thanthe wrong way in clear air. The ideal strategy is to play the wind and ignore your

competitors. Sometimes, however, you have to play yourcompetitors in order to be able to do the right thing. InSavannah the wind was shifting so quickly that you alwaysneeded the option to tack. If you suddenly got headed but aboat to windward was pinning you from tacking, you couldeasily miss an entire shift. So we tried hard to keep our op-tions open while sailing upwind (see right).Our philosophy of ‘doing the right thing’ changed a bit

when we got near the front of the fleet in Race 3. We keptplaying the shifts, of course, but we were willing to takesmaller lifts toward the competitors we were covering.On the first beat, for example, we were willing to give updistance to the four boats in front of us in order to makesure we stayed ahead of the 41 boats behind us. This wasgood insurance against a random shift, and is especiallyimportant early in the race when boats are close together.

Dave

Dave

Dave

Savannah is one place where the Lightning Class stilluses reaching legs, which was fun and interesting inpuffs from 10 to 20 knots. Here we are in Race 3 infifth place, just behind Greg Fisher. We are up in the‘high lane’ hoping for a pass, but Greg was tooquick and stayed ahead of us.

Strategy for the reaching legs

Greg

I like windward-leeward courses, but occasional reaches bringsome welcome variety. The reaches in Savannah were especiallychallenging because we were sailing along a windward shore thatcreated big changes in velocity and direction. Though the conditions were unique, my strategy for the reaches

was the same as usual. Because reaches usually spread the fleetapart, we did several things to stay as close as possible to the boatsahead and extend as much as possible on the boats behind:1) Followed the rhumbline. On a typical reach, the leading boats

extend because most of the fleet sails an arc high of the rhumbline.We stayed closer to the leaders by not sailing extra distance. 2) Sailed a zigzag course. This may sound contrary to sailing fast

down the rhumbline, but when the wind is shifty and puffy you can’tsail straight. Go down in the puffs so you can plane, then up in thelulls to maintain speed. Down in the headers and up in the lifts. 3) Don’t get tangled with other boats. The last thing you want on a

reach is to get involved in a luffing match. In many races, the beststrategy is simply to ‘push’ the boat(s) ahead of you fast down thereach by following behind them and not threatening their breeze.The goal is to get both of you farther ahead of the pack behind;then worry about passing them later in the race. If a very slow boat is holding you back, try to pass at least

several boatlengths to windward of them (see photo). By the timethey realize you are about to pass them it is usually difficult orimpossible for them to head up and defend. If possible, go for thepass in a puff; if you can get planing first it will be easier (because if they head up to defend it may be tough for them to get on a plane).

JH Peterson photo

Dave

Greg

Free to playthe next shift

Pinned

Before you make a strategic plan for any leg, decide whether you are playing thewindshifts as oscillating or persistent. This decision is critical because it usually leadsto a choice between two completely different courses of action (see diagram).In Miami, we had a hard time figuring out how to play the

wind. At the starting line the wind was oscillating 15° in afairly regular pattern. But at the top of the course thewind was usually 5° or 10° farther tothe left (because it was coming throughthe gap at the northern end of KeyBiscayne). The wind was oscillating andthere was also a geographic persistentshift toward the windward mark,so we had to play it as oscillat-ing persistent (see next page).

The second race was sailed in conditions very similarto the first. At the start, the pin was favored by 5°

on average and we were still seeing 15° shifts. Westarted about one third of the way up from the pin on the windward side ofthe pack at the leeward end. We tacked on a left shift and looked great inthe middle of the course, half way up the beat. But then the wind startedto go left and about 10 boats crossed us from the left. We finished 13th.

The first racewas sailed in

an easterly windof 10 to 13 knots. With the breezecoming directly over Key Biscayne,we were seeing oscillations of about15° around a median wind directionof 095°. We didn’t have great speedin the choppy conditions after thestart, so we had to bail out early.The rest of the race we spent tryingto go faster and working out somekinks in our boathandling. Wecrossed the finish line 17th.

8 Regatta Lessons

Biscayne Bay

WINDCoursearea

CRYC

SOUTHERN CIRCUIT – LEG 2 – Coral Reef Yacht Club

Miami Midwinter RegattaThe Miami Midwinter Regatta is sailed in the middle of BiscayneBay, so conditions are usually quite different from the rivers inSavannah. The wind was still blowing fairly hard (and it was stillfrom the northeast!), but the direction was much steadier and thewater was no longer flat – we had quite a steep chop, which wouldput a premium on boatspeed. In anticipation of a windy series inopen water, we did a bit more fine-tuning of our boat to makeboathandling easier. This included one-to-one jib sheets (insteadof two-to-one) for better tacking; a new hiking stick with less play;and a shorter tiller so I could sit farther aft and cross the boatmore easily in tacks. We had a deep fleet of 42 boats and sailedsix windward-leeward (twice around) courses over two days. Wehad three good races and three not-so-good races, ending up sixth.

Key Biscayne

Miami

MiamiRACE 1

MiamiRACE 2

Left shift

DaveStarting line

Beware of fast boatsI thought we had a pretty good start inthe first race, but as we came off the lineI looked to leeward and saw Jim Cranetwo lengths away. Jim is a perennial classchampion who has been going fast inLightnings for a long time. If the waterwas flat we might have held our lane alittle longer, but I had a hard time findingthe groove in the Biscayne Bay chop andwe quickly fell into Jim and had to tack.Lesson from early in Race 1: Don’t startclose to windward of a fast boat (espe-cially in choppy conditions where it’shard to ‘live’ to windward of any boat).

Oscillating or persistent? (Or both?)

Play the shiftas oscillating

Play the shiftas persistent

Dave

WIND

Bill Clausen photo

In Race 2 we did not get to the favored left side until late in the first beat.Because there was a persistent left shift at the top, we should have been will-ing to ‘bite the bullet’ sooner and cross behind the lead boats from that side.

Dave

Fast

Slow

NO YES

When we set up for the start of the firstrace, the next boat to leeward of us wasfast. We should have tacked into a differenthole with a slower boat to leeward.

Whatwe did

What made this day a littlemore complicated was the fact

that once in a while two or threeboats sailed all the way to the right

corner, ignoring the shifts, and gained alot on most of the boats that went left.

If I wereto sail thisbeat again, Iwould have doneseveral things:1) Start closer to

the pin end (so wewould be more in themiddle of the pack that washeaded to the left side;2) On port tack, tack on even

the smaller headers (because weare looking for any chance or excuseto sail toward the left);3) On starboard tack, tack only on the

biggest headers. Sail through the smallershifts so we keep going left unless there is abig reason to go right temporarily;4) Try mostly to ignore other boats; be willing

to cross behind them to get left and don’t everseparate too far to their right.

When the wind is oscillating around a median directionand that median is shifting persistently to the left (orright), you probably can’t play the wind simply as oscil-lating (by tacking on all the shifts) or as persistent (by

ignoring the shifts and sailing to the corner).The top boats will sail some combinationof the two based on the size of the oscilla-tions and the rate of the persistent shift.Also, they will implement their strategy forthe entire leg. On the beat shown here,we played the wind as oscillating andwere leading half way up the leg – but

by then it was too late to switchto a persistent strategy. Theboats in the left corneralready had so much lever-age on us that we werenot able to stay in touchwith them, no matterhow well we playedthe second halfof the beat.

Half way up the beatwe were the farthest boatto windward, but the boats inthe left corner had a lot of leverageon us. The beat was 1.25 miles, so therewas half a mile from the middle to the leftcorner. Just a 5 degree shift means that thoseboats would gain about 10% of their lateralseparation (0.5 miles x 10% =.05 miles = 300 feet= 15 boatlengths). That’s a lot of distance!

This beat started off so well for us, but we ended uprounding the windward mark around 12th or 14th.What should we have done differently?

Our main problem was that we were playing thewind as a straightforward oscillating breeze all the wayup the course. This worked well for the first half ofthe beat, and we were leading (at least we wereon the highest ladder rung) mid-way up theleg. But when we got closer to the wind-ward mark (and to Key Biscayne),the wind started going left. Thisallowed a bunch of boats fromthe left to cross ahead of us.

In hindsight, we weretoo slow to realize that weneeded to work muchharder to get to the left.Here are a bunch ofnotes about this leg.

‘Ladder rung’ in median breeze

9Speed & Smarts #121

Windwardmark

RACE 2: First beat rewind

Laylines in median breeze at start

Median breeze inbottom part of beat

Dave

Median breeze intop part of beat

090

085

095

083

092

081

088

079

085

082

Start

These boats were firstto the windward mark

The course we sailed to playthe windshifts as oscillating

The course we should havesailed to play the windshiftsas oscillating and persistent

Mid-beat

WIND

Dave

Race 4 was the final race on the first day of theregatta, so ditto for the wind and weather. We

started toward the pin and headed left. We weren’t inthe lead pack of boats, but we managed to play the left side with clear airand avoided overstanding. We rounded the first mark around 7th andstayed between 5th and 8th for the whole race. We ended up 5th after acouple boats ahead of us were scored OCS.

10 Regatta Lessons

MiamiRACE 4

Race 3 was very similarto Races 1 and 2, at

least in terms of the windand waves. Fortunately for us, the result wasa little different. After getting crushed in themiddle of the previous beats, I decided it wastime to hit the left side pretty hard. The pinend of the line was favored by 5° to 10°, so westarted there and were able to tack and crossthe fleet. We played the left side of the beatand held on for third at the finish. Maybe thelessons we learned from earlier races werestarting to pay off.

MiamiRACE 3

WIND

Starting line

DavePinboat

Keys to a successful pin-end startBill Clausen photo

Here we are in the bad air of Tom Allen Jr., who would have won the regattaif he hadn’t been OCS in this race! We didn’t mind being in bad air here forseveral reasons: 1) It’s windy enough that bad air doesn’t slow us much; 2)We are far enough behind Tom that his wind shadow doesn’t have too mucheffect; and 3) Tom is about to round the windward mark and give us clear air!

I usually don’t like to get involved in the melee at the favored end, butsometimes you just have to go for it. Race 3 was one of those times.The left side of the beat was quite strong and the pin end was ‘favored’(i.e. farther upwind) by almost 10°. We decided to be one of the firstfew boats at the pin end. To pull this off, we needed several things:

A good line sight. Even though it’s easier to judge the line near anend, this is critical for starting as far to windward as possible.

A port-tack approach. I like to be the last boat on port sailing pastthe pin boat’s stern. This way I can tack underneath the lead boat thatis luffing on starboard tack (assuming I don’t think he is early).

A gap to leeward. A pin-end start won’t work if you have to pinchto stay above the boat below you. Try to get as much space as possibleso you can put your bow down at the start and get going.

The ability to tack. If you can cross the entire fleet at the start,that is usually a good idea. To do this, you need to be right in front ofthe boat on your windward side, with good speed at the gun. Oftenthat boat will let you tack and cross them if you ask.

Avoid bad air in wavesIt’s never fast to sail in another boat’sbad air, but sometimes this is more hurt-ful than others. In light air, for example,wind shadows are larger because whenthe air flow gets disrupted it takeslonger to re-establish itself. The same is true with waves. When a

boat is bouncing around in chop, her sailplan disturbs the wind flow more than ifshe was sailing steadily in flat water, soshe casts a larger wind shadow. In addi-tion, that wind shadow is more detri-mental because it takes away some ofthe power that is critical forany boat sailing inwaves. So try toavoid bad air whenyou have chop,especially inlight wind.

Bumpy water

Flat water

Dave

Favored by 5° to 10°

X

�

The course for Race 5 was a bit skewed.With the wind to the left of the windwardmark, plus solid breeze and surfable waves,the runs were sailed almost entirely onstarboard jibe. How did we play this?Imagine you are racing upwind and

you find yourself far from the windwardmark but very close to the layline. Wouldyou pinch and go slower and aim at themark? Of course not. You would put yourbow down and go fast on the longer tack.The same is true downwind. If you come

around the windward mark and you arealmost fetching the leeward mark, the lastthing you want to do is sail below your VMGangle or speed. That’s what some boats did –but it’s like pinching on a long upwind layline. We tried to sail at (or even slightly high of)

our VMG angle in this situation. Because the runwas so long, there was a good chance the windwould change before we got to the leeward mark.If it shifted left or increased in velocity, there was a fairchance we would fetch the mark on starboard jibe. Ifthe wind went right, we could jibe across the boatsthat sailed lower. In either case we would gain the mostby sailing fast down the run without worrying aboutfetching the mark until we were very close to it.

When another boat tacks onyour wind, tacking awayis not the only way toget clear air. If you likethe direction you aregoing, foot off to getyour wind just clearahead. This will saveyou two tacks andit will get you tothe favored sideeven sooner.

We started the first run about two or three boatlengths behindTito Gonzalez, a four-time Lightning world champion from Chile,and it was fun trying to catch up to him in the surfingconditions. We had a slight advantage because aftergetting a couple of good waves we were ableto latch on to the tail end of his wake. Itwas then easier to catch other wavesand we slowly gained.The tricky part was knowing what to do

when we got closer to his stern. The biggerwake there was easier to surf, but harder tobreak through, so we steered more to leeward toget separation from his boat. We had moderatesuccess at that, but ran out of time and Tino waseasily able to round the right gate ahead of us.

The regatta’ssecond and

final day broughtthe last two races and similarbreeze. The wind direction wasabout 10° left of the day before(with the median around 075°),and we had a little more pressure(roughly 11 to 14 knots). We had agood start in Race 5 and roundedthe top mark fifth. We were quitefast on the run (see below), caughtone boat on the second beat, butlost a boat that went all the way tothe right corner, and finished fifth.

11Speed & Smarts #121

MiamiRACE 5

WINDMinimize tacking in wavesWe had a pretty good second beat inRace 4 and didn’t lose any boats, but wemade at least two extra tacks near thetop mark, and that put us farther behindthe leaders. Tacks in chop are slow, soavoid them whenever possible (andwhen you do tack, make it as good aspossible; e.g. by picking a very flat spot). To reduce the number of tacks, plan

ahead. Tack only when there is an obvi-ous benefit, and try to avoid having otherboats tack on you. Here are some ideasof specific things you can do:– Don’t tack on every shift. The cost

of tacking may well be greater than thegains you make by playing the shift.– Use a ‘blocker.’ On starboard tack,

find a lane on the windward hip of a boatthat will prevent incoming port-tackersfrom lee-bowing you. – Avoid obvious places to tack. Don’t

put yourself in places (e.g. on the layline)that invite other boats to tack on you.

Surf the wake of boats ahead.

Sail fast on the longer jibe.

See Miami Race 6 on page 15.

VMG laylines

Dave

Sailing by thelee at VMG orslightly slower;almost layingthe mark onone tack

Sailing a fasterangle (at or justabove VMG) willlikely lead to gainsif you get liftedor headed, or ifthe wind velocityincreases.

The wind goes right.

The wind goes left or increases.

Dave

Tito

Foot off to keep your wind clear

Bear off behind a starboard tacker

Let a port tacker cross ahead

When you can’t cross a starboard tacker,don’t automaticallylee-bow them. If thereis no strong reason togo left, bear off behindthem instead and saveyourself the cost ofdoing two extratacks in chop.

Don’t yell ‘Starboard’ when-ever you converge with a porttacker. If that boat tacks in alee-bow position, they willforce you to tack away to

clear your air. Avoiddoing an extra

tack(s) bylettingthem goahead.

Cross!Go ahead!You got it!

Windwardmark

Leewardmark

As we approached the finish line, we were leading the fleet invery light air. The second-place boat, Matt Fisher, was severalboatlengths to leeward of us. The 3rd and 4th boats were behindus on port tack, just above our line. Then the two of them tacked!We wanted to cover Matt because he was closest to us and

the right side had been better. But in the light conditions weknew it was risky to let the other boats split. Matt also wantedto cover the boats behind, but he was afraid that we would tackon him (and force him to make two extra, costly tacks). We ended up staying with Matt almost to the starboard layline.

Luckily, we just crossed the others at the finish and won the race,but Matt was fourth. In hindsight, a better (i.e. less risky) solutionwould have been for us to yell over to Matt that we would not

tack on him. Once he tacked (and headedtoward the other boats), we could justapply a loose cover above him on star-board tack, and both of us would

have been happier. My opinionis that this would be

legal under therules.

With 54 Lightnings entered in the regatta, the starting linein St. Pete was long. The race committee later told me theyset the line at 0.22 miles, which is equal to a little over1,300 feet, or about 70 Lightning boatlengths!To get a good start on a line like that, you must be aware

of what happens when the wind is not square to the line.We know that a 10° change in wind direction means boatswill gain or lose roughly 23% of thelateral distance between them. Forexample, if we are racing up the beatand I am 20 boatlengths to your rightwhen we get a 10° right shift, I willgain about 5 lengths.The same was true at the

start in St. Pete. When the pinwas ‘favored’ by 10°, a boatthat started there wouldcross 16 lengths ahead ofa boat from the otherend. This is a hugedistance that can’tbe ignored whenyou pick a placeto start.

The first race was sailed in 3to 6 knots of wind from the

northeast. The water was very flatand there was half a knot of current coming fromthe south (pushing boats toward the pin end of theline). We had a pretty good start, but were eventuallyforced to tack and found a good lane on port. Ourlight-air speed was surprisingly good. There seemedto be a little more pressure on the right and we werelooking good relative to the boats on the left, so weplayed that side and rounded the top mark second.We lost one boat on the long, slow run, but passedtwo boats on the final beat and won the race!

12 Regatta Lessons

WIND

Tampa Bay

WIND

current

CourseareaSPYC

TampaSOUTHERN CIRCUIT – LEG 3 – St. Petersburg Yacht Club

Winter ChampionshipThe regatta in St. Petersburg is usually the largest of the threeSouthern Circuit events. This year there were 54 boats and it wasthe 65th annual Winter Championship, which is quite a tradition!The races were run over three days on Tampa Bay, and the windwas predicted to be light. That was worrisome because our crewweight (520 pounds) was well above the fleet average, so weworked on the bottom, moved weight forward, bought a lighterspinnaker pole and got rid of the spare pole we had been carrying. As it turned out we saw a maximum of six knots of wind during

three days, and we were lucky to get three races total. At least itwas warm and didn’t rain!With our mediocre results in Miami, we weren’t so optimistic

about our chances of winning the Circuit overall. We decided todo the best we could in this regatta and just see what happened.

St. PetersburgRACE 1

Pinboat

Starting line (X)

RCboat

‘Herd’ your competitors toward the finish

Know the value of starting line bias

Advantage

Pin end favored by 10°

23% of X (line length)

Finish

Dave

Matt

If either end is favoredby just 5° (which is verycommon), boats starting therewill be ahead of boats at theother end by about 12% of the linelength. On a long line that is significant!

On the downwind side of any windward mark there is an area of badair and disturbed water caused by the continuous line of boats thatapproach, round and exit the mark. This zone is usually a good placeto avoid, especially in light air.In Race 2 we rounded the offset mark in fourth place with a line

of boats rounding the mark just behind us. We didn’t have a strongpreference for either side of the run, so we decided to do a safe,simple bearaway jibe and get away from the crowd.The three boats ahead of us all jibed right after the mark

and they had a hard time getting their chutes filled initially.We continued for a couple minutes on port (it was a longrun) and then jibed when we were well clear of the top mark,with a clear lane and a slight bit of extra pressure. We easilycaught the third-place boat, were closer to the first two, andlost to a boat that stayed on starboard longer than we did.

13Speed & Smarts #121

The second race at St. Pete wassailed on the second day in con-

ditions almost identical to the firstrace: a 3- to 6-knot northeasterly with half a knot offlood current. We had a good start, played the middleleft of the first beat and rounded the windward markfourth. We gained one boat and lost another on therun, so we were still fourth at the gate. On the last beatwe did a great job of staying in pressure and favoringthe longer port tack to the line. As a result we caughttwo boats and finished second behind Matt Fisher.

JH Peterson photo

Here we are sailing from thefirst windward mark to theoffset mark in very light wind(yes, we should have set ourspinnaker already).

When you have an offsetmark, it’s much easier to do ajibe set because you comeinto that mark on a reach – soyou have more speed and lessturn (plus you may be able tohoist on the offset leg and justdo a jibe at the mark).

However, jibing at or justafter the offset mark is not agreat idea unless you reallywant to exit the mark on porttack. That’s because there is ahuge wind shadow to leewardof the mark created by all theboats approaching it. In lightair, especially, this vacuum isnot conducive to going fast.

Avoid the ‘danger zone’ at the top mark

Tune up on the way out!

WIND

Dave

One thing that helped our speedwas tuning up with another boateach day on our way out to therace course (which was all upwind).We were always one of the first boatsout of the harbor and waited for someonefast who would sail upwind with us for 15 or 20 minutes.This allowed us to get ‘in the groove’ for the conditions andhelped us learn about the wind each day. The sail out was aperfect speed opportunity and we didn’t want to waste it.

Windwardmark

Offsetmark

DangerZone

Risky

There is a ‘danger zone’ at any top mark, but whenboats must also round an offset mark the zone iswider and harder to avoid. If you have a strongpreference for the left side of the run (lookingdownwind), it can be worth sailing through this areaof bad air and disturbed water; otherwise it’s saferto exit the mark on starboard tack and wait to jibeuntil you are farther from the parade of boats.

� ‘Fat’ layline at first mark – One error that almostcost us a lot was calling too thin a layline at the windwardmark. In light air, make sure you overstand the mark by alittle so you can put the bow down out of the tack and getthe boat rumbling. This speed will help you defend againstother boats and have a better mark rounding and hoist.

� Sail through shifts – In light air, tacking is costly soyou can’t tack on every little windshift. Keep looking atthe big picture (pressure and major shifts) and be patient.Resist the temptation to tack every time you get headed.

Dave

St. PetersburgRACE 2

When you’re at the front of the fleet, youhave several options at the gate, but whenyou’re in the middle of the pack, you mayhave to take whatever is available. Oftenthis means forgetting your strategicwishes and simply looking for a wayto get around the mark quickly.When we got to the leeward gate

in Race 3 we were in about 35thplace. We didn’t have a strong strategicpreference on the next beat, so we triedto find clear air and sail fast to a side.As we approached the left gate mark, the boat

just ahead of us rounded tightly and slowly. I couldhave stayed behind her, but we had no chance of surviv-ing on her windward hip and would have had to tack. So Ibore off hard (about 15° below a closehauled course) andwent behind them. I kept our bow down until we were farenough away to be in clear air. Then we sailed all the way tothe right corner, tacked and caught 10 boats by the finish.

14 Regatta Lessons

YESNO

Wind

Dave

Gate

� Avoid the middle – In light air, sail more toward the sidesbecause there is often less wind in the center. The middle maywork if you are at the front of the fleet and sure of clear air –otherwise it is common for boats to beat you from both sides.

X

X

X

X

Dave

The problem with our start in race 3 was that I let my guard down a little too early.We were lined up and luffing in great position with not too much time to go. I wasn’ttrying to protect too big a space to leeward, so when I saw the starboard-tacker (S)approaching I didn’t think there was a big chance he’d go in there. But I was wrong.He did a slow tack right up underneath us and then I had no option but to sit andluff almost until the gun. I should have taken this threat seriously and been moreproactive. If I had borne off and aimed directly at S before he tacked into our hole, Icould have convinced him to try somewhere else. I would have used up some of ourhole to leeward, but that certainly would have been preferable to what happened.

Protect your space before the start

OK, we had a bad start in Race 3. We had to bail out and find clear air, but probablywe should have waited a little longer before tacking. I was frustrated with our startand wanted to get out of our bad situation, so I tacked pretty soon after the gun.Unfortunately, we had to duck a lot of boats that were on starboard tack. It shouldhave been obvious, however, that many boats to windward of us (X) were in bad airand would tack soon. If we had been more patient, some port-tack lanes would haveopened up. The amount we lost by sailing in bad air during that time might have beensmall compared to the cost of ducking behind all those starboard tackers.

Wait for the right time to bail out� In one of the recalls before Race 2, wehad a close encounter with the pin-end RCboat. We hit their anchorline but were ableto clear ourselves without touching any partof the boat. This was fortunate because theboat’s ground tackle is not considered partof the mark. If any part of our boat or crewhad touched the RC boat, we would havehad to take a One-Turn Penalty (but only ifthere was not a general recall).

Dave

Danger Zone

Risky

Be flexible at the gate

� Leeward mark ‘danger zone’ – There is an area just towindward of the gate marks that is similar to the area belowthe windward mark. This zone may actually be worse because,in addition to bad air and very disturbed water, it may be filledwith boats going downwind on both tacks and dropping spin-nakers. Unless there is a lot of wind, it’s usually not a greatidea to round the mark, tack and sail through this dead zone.That is what we tried to avoid in Race 3.

Going into thethird race of

the Winter Cham-pionship (which turned out to bethe finale), we had a two-point leadin the regatta and the Circuit over-all. The wind was very light againfrom the northeast. We had a greatstart in the first general recall, butunfortunately not in the real race.As a result, we ping-ponged all overthe first beat in search of clear air,and we finished 25th. That put usfifth for the regatta and secondoverall for the Circuit. It wasn’t thebest ending for the week, but we didre-learn some good lessons.

St. PetersburgRACE 3

15Speed & Smarts #121

Skipper S1 S2 S3 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 P1 P2 P3 Total1. G. Fisher 7 6 3 9 3 7 3 9 8 5 5 (24) 652. Dellenbaugh 3 4 1 17 13 3 5 5 22 1 2 (25) 763. T. Wake 5 2 19 19 (36) 14 1 7 2 9 11 3 924. E. Oetgen 16 8 4 15 9 2 8 10 4 6 10 (29) 925. J. Crane 13 5 (48) 11 10 4 16 12 13 16 6 14 120

2012 Lightning Southern Circuit – Final Results Overall

The sixth race of the Miami Midwin-ter Regatta was very similar to the

second race, unfortunately. The windwas still blowing 11 to 14 knots from the northeast and,once again, we tried to play a persistent breeze as oscil-lating. We started just to windward of the pack at the pinand were looking great half way up the beat. But thenthe wind slowly started to go left and lots of boats fromthat corner crossed us. We didn’t have a good plan on thesecond beat, lost some more boats, and finished 22nd.

MiamiRACE 6

Early in the race, play the wind and fleet.In the middle of a sailboat race, it’s easy to become fixatedon beating the boats around you, but that is not always (oreven usually) what you should be doing. Sure, you want toget ahead of nearby boats as you approach the finish line.But earlier in the race, if you focus too much on the smallpicture, you may beat the competitors that are close butlose to all other boats in the fleet. That is one good lesson I took away from the first beat

of Race 6. We had a good start and were playing shifts inthe middle of the course. At that point there were onlytwo other boats that might have been ahead of us, andthey were to our left. About half way up the beat we wereon starboard tack, converging with these two boats onport tack (see diagram).Here is where I made a common mistake. Instead of

looking at the big picture, I was thinking about how wecould get ahead of those particular boats. I didn’t wantto cross behind them (because that would be admittingdefeat, at least temporarily), so we tacked to leeward andahead, which is what you must do in an oscillating breezeto stay close to them.Unfortunately, the wind was not oscillating so much any

more. For the rest of that beat it slowly shifted left and,worse, the majority of boats in the fleet were to our leftat the moment we tacked to port. Since it was early in therace, I should have forgotten completely about those twoboats. My entire focus should have been on doing whateverwas the right thing relative to the wind and the fleet.

When the regattas were all done and theboat was packed up for the final time, I washappy we had done ‘the Circuit.’ We saileda lot of close races in a variety of venuesand conditions. Basically, it was fun.

I saw a bunch of old friends, met a lotof new, friendly sailors and got to hang outfor 10 days in the sun and warmth. And,of course, I sailed with Kip and Hale for thefirst time in more than 20 years!

I was pleased that we had a good bit ofsuccess after such a long absence from theclass. But when I look back at the 12 raceswe sailed, what sticks out is how inconsis-tent we were. Eight races in the top fiveand four races between 13th and 25th –that was quite a roller coaster ride!

I’m generally a conservative sailor andconsistency tends to be a strength, so itwas a bit strange to be so up and down.But I think that was due to the depth ofthe class, plus a few mistakes we made.

One of the best things about sailingthe Circuit was learning (or remembering)a lot about tactics, strategy and boatspeed.I think Lightning racing requires a greatmix of these skills, and I’m sure this willhelp me be more consistent the next timeI go racing in any kind of boat.

Looking back . . .

JH Peterson photo

Wind

Most of the fleet

Dave

What we did

What weshould havedone

16 Regatta Lessons

&PO Box 435, Easton CT 06612 USA

smarts™SPEED

Itry to write something in my sail-ing notebook after every day ofracing or training, and I was prettygood about that during the South-ern Circuit. The hardest time wasthe first day in Miami when we hadfour races in breeze and waves. Alot to write about, but not so muchenergy after hiking all day!

Most of my notes from Savan-nah, Miami and St. Petersburg arepacked into this issue. I also have afew other Lightning-specific notes,but most of what I wrote down eachday were notes about tactics andstrategy that might apply to futureracing in any boat.

My personal philosophy is thatevery sailor should adopt what I calla “no-lose” approach. You can’t winevery race or regatta, but you canalways can learn something fromeach race you sail. And that will

give you a better chance of winningthe next time out.

For many people, the best wayto learn from a race is to write (or atleast talk) about it soon afterward.You can do this by yourself or withyour teammates or coach. If youkeep a written notebook of com-ments and questions, it will helpyou for a long time.

Here is a page from one of mymatch racing notebooks. For me,writing what I learn on paper helpsme remember it, even if I never goback and read it again. Of course, ithelps more if you review your notesat least once in a while!

www.SpeedandSmarts.com Speed & Smarts (ISSN 1075-5772) is published by Four Winds Inc.

Address: PO Box 435, Easton, CT 06612Phone: 1-800-356-2200 or 203-445-0734 Fax: 203-445-0735 Subscribe: 1-800-356-2200 E-mail: SpeedandSmarts@optonline.netWeb site: www.SpeedandSmarts.comFacebook: www.Facebook.com/SpeedandSmartsPublisher: David Dellenbaugh Manager:Joanne DeLuca Art: Brad Dellenbaugh

© 2012 Speed & Smarts All rights reserved. Subscriptions: We offer two versions of Speed& Smarts: Email (PDF) or Paper. The Emailversion is available everywhere for $35 peryear (or $60 for two years). The Paper versionis available only in the U.S. ($45, $80) andCanada ($50, $90). Speed & Smarts ispublished bi-monthly. Issues are numberedsequentially, and issue dates are approximate. Postmaster: Postage paid at Bridgeport, CT Changes to: Speed & Smarts, P.O. Box 435,Easton, CT 06612 USA

121&smarts™SPEED

RESOURCES

Keep a ‘regatta notebook’

JH Peterson photo