Working Together on the Boat While Racing: The Speed Team
On a single-person racing dinghy the speed team is you. With mainsheet in hand, you have control. Add another crew or two on a small boat and you have to communicate about trim and setup, but it is still an intimate conversation. Things get tricky as the boat gets bigger. You can’t play your own mainsail controls and steer anymore. The mainsail trimmer becomes as much of a driver of the boat as you are. The headsail trimmer needs to coordinate with the mainsail trimmer and the driver. Oh, and on a bigger, more sophisticated boat with running backstays you need to add a fourth, the runner trimmer, to the mix.
Getting everyone in sync can be tricky and demands a good, if quiet dialogue between the team and an awareness of how their job effects the others. All have to be tuned in to the feel of the boat and guided by the same indicators of performance. Let’s look at how this team works together as you go upwind through the breeze range.
Light air
In light air (before all the crew is hiking) the headsail trimmer has a full-time job. In light conditions the breeze is unstable in terms of direction and velocity. Small changes, a puff or a lull, make a big difference in apparent wind angle. The driver’s primary input are the telltales. Keeping them flowing straight aft for maximum power is key. However, the constantly changing apparent wind angle will leave the driver chasing those telltales and steering too much. Since over steering kills boat speed, the headsail trimmer has to help.
In a puff the apparent wind will shift aft, and the sail can be eased so the driver doesn’t have to head up as much. Turn the puff into speed and very cautiously begin to head up, being very careful to not be greedy! In a lull the apparent wind will go forward, and the headsail will need to be sheeted harder to keep the sail from luffing and gradually be eased out as the driver gently heads down.
The boat will slow, and the apparent wind will gradually shift aft as it does. You don’t want to bear off too aggressively to chase the telltales, or you will just give away height. The trimmer and driver have an ongoing dialogue about where they are.
“Well eased here; I think you can come up.” “Coming up slowly. That looks about as high as I can go.” “Agreed, I would call that max trim.” Boat speed and wind angle numbers are highly volatile and not particularly useful.
The mainsail trimmer is following along, easing in the puffs, trimming and easing in the lulls, essentially mimicking the headsail trimmer. Both sails will be setup for maximum depth and power. Mainsail traveler up with boom on the centerline, sheet eased. Runners will be barely on. The runner trimmer will not have much to do and will probably have moved forward where weight is more appropriate. The game is to try to achieve a steady state with minimum turning, instead letting the sails do the steering.
Medium air
Once everyone is up and hiking, the game changes. First, with the headsail trimmer up on the rail they will be limited to periodic changes. Fortunately, conditions will usually be more stable so fewer moment-to-moment adjustments are needed. Still there is a feedback loop. The mainsail and headsail trimmer need to discuss the balance of trim between the two sails. They should check the other’s setup.
A classic case is when the jib trimmer has their sail setup to perfection, but the mainsail is being affected, causing the sail to backwind and luff more than it should. With the mainsail set for the correct amount of power for the wind speed, is it breaking up? The mainsail trimmer needs to ask the headsail trimmer to open up the jib. Lead back, lead outboard, less trim, or some balance of the three to get the sails to match up.
The mainsail trimmer is now working full time controlling helm and heel. They will focus on the telltales, angle of heel, boat speed, windspeed, and wind angle just like the driver. Usually in medium conditions there will be a target boat speed and angle based on either observed performance (one design) or velocity prediction program generated data.
If trimmer and driver both see that it is a struggle to get to target speed, they might try a little less mainsheet or traveler down to allow helm to press and sail a little lower and faster without heeling over too much. “Always faster than target, let’s try sheeting harder. Maybe the jib can come in as well.” The jib trimmer can also give feedback from the rail about performance (height and speed) relative to other boats. Once you find a good mode, wind angle and boat speed can become the goal and focus of dialogue. It’s time to write the settings down so that you can get back to them next time conditions are the same.
If the boat has runners, they need to be played just like the mainsail controls. Runner down in the lulls to power up and on in the puffs to get rid of power. The driver will feel the impact of more or less runner immediately in the helm and needs to give feedback about what feels right for the moment.
Heavy air
Heavy air means you are starting to get overpowered with too much heel on a regular basis. Everything is as flat as you can make it. Time to open things back up and keep the speed on. Mainsail and headsail trimmer need to discuss how much the jib needs to be opened up. The goal is a balanced luff so that both sails are luffing some as opposed to having the jib perfect and the mainsail completely luffing.
In the big puffs if trimming setup allows, the jib sheet can be “burped” or eased an inch or two to help with a balanced depowering. On boats so equipped the lead might be dropped outboard or let up in the puffs. For the mainsail trimmer and the driver, the dialogue continues about how easy or hard it is to get up to speed. Slow and we need things eased; fast and we can trim harder. New target angles and speeds need to be set for the conditions. You might find a faster, slightly lower mode works best. Waves will have an impact. The driver may need to press (sail lower) to build speed for a set of waves. The main trimmer must be ready with extra ease so that the boat doesn’t roll over as it bears off. The mainsheet is moving a lot!
The runner trimmer is on the rail. They have wound the runner up to maximum (the point where the mainsail is just beginning to invert as shown by diagonal wrinkles running from clew to mid mast). Their part of the speed program is to hike like a fool. ~By David Flynn of Quantum Sails
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