TUNING BETWEEN THE EARS

By Lloyd Roberts 2/2/98

We have seen a lot of good info the last few years on tuning . After some 20 + years of DN sailing I am beginning to get a grasp of the fundamentals but implementing them before the regatta is over is really hard. A retrospective analysis of sailing the ‘98 Doc Fellows reveals the usual pattern, I eventually got it right.

The ice was slow with about 3/4 in of sticky snow, and rough ice on about 2/3 of the course, smooth ice being found along the right edge of the course extending over to open water . There was an 8 knot NW wind of varying intensity and direction. This was not really light air but the slow conditions suggested light air tuning. For me that is forestay shortened to "0" on the "Staymaster" and side stays tight so there is just enough slack for mast rotation. I don’t have an adjustable mast step. No tension on the foot of the sail increased sail fullness. Runners were inserts of mid range rocker. This worked OK, only half a lap behind Jeff.

The wind seemed to be picking up so I let out the "Staymaster" to 1 and tightened the foot of the sail a notch to usual tension. The second race I got "parked" at the start, just couldn’t get going, the third I "parked" at the upwind buoy. During lunch break it dawned on me that I should go back to the original arrangement on forestay and sail foot. The fourth race was better with no parking. Then I wondered if my 20 year old narrow "T" irons would make a difference in the increasingly sticky snow. These are very light spruce bodied cold rolled "T" iron (unobtainium) with a minimum thickness web that I have only used in one other regatta, a Doc Fellows about 15 years ago. They look very fragile and I wouldn’t dream of skidding them around the leeward mark, but why not try them? Well, revelation, I had some real boat speed, and without 10 pounds of massive indestructible insert runner out there I could hike gently much of the time by scooching forward in the cockpit.

Having come in third in the fourth race I started next to Jeff and I wondered where Jeff had been all day, hadn’t seen him on the course. I had been doing the usual staying in the middle of the course trying to work wind shifts routine and simply hadn’t seen him. So, follow Jeff time. Lo and behold Jeff was sailing way out to the right hand edge for the good ice, jibing around the windward mark, and going right back down the smooth ice next to the water. There was an added bonus of a favoring wind shift most of the time so that just as the anxiety of getting wet intruded you could ease u to windward and sail along parallel to the edge of the ice for a while and make a good conservative shot at the windward mark overstanding it a bit for good measure to insure boat speed at the mark so as not to get parked there. There was often light air beyond the mark if you stayed on the starboard tack after rounding the mark, on the other hand a "U" turn jibe right at the mark in the sticky snow really killed boat speed, so it was a good idea to overstand the mark and have a good reaching speed going into it.

The right runners, the right tuning, and using the best part of the course worked out pretty well, I was only 100 yards behind Jeff in the fifth race. He somehow still was motoring off to windward about 5 degrees higher than I could go with the same boat speed. Mast bending to flatten the sail and point higher was not part of the game that day in those conditions, every time I thought I was moving and could shift to overdrive by flattening the sail I slowed down.
The real question is how to make the right decisions in "real time" without several races sliding by. Why didn’t I redo the tuning after the second race when I couldn’t get going instead of a repeat performance in the third race? Why didn’t I put on the thin "T" irons to begin with? Why didn’t I make use of the smooth ice early on (I noticed it in the first race)? My small mind gets totally taken over by the process of sailing the race and I don’t seem to be able to think. Perhaps it is related to the problem of not being able to count laps. Maybe some sort of worksheet used between races to keep track of conditions, decisions, and results would help. I used to keep a pocket notebook of tuning settings, race conditions, and results. I haven’t done that for years, laziness or complacency or both I suppose. The hardest tuning is between the ears.