Home	Sail Trim / Race Clinic Island YC April 6, 2013

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Our Race Chair Kit Wiegman, with great support from the Island Yacht Club, put together a fun and informative Sail Trim / Race Clinic. 26 folks representing 12 different Islanders participated and everyone had a good time.

The day started off with a cool drizzle which chilled the Califia crew, coming two hours from Sausalito. The other five boats had only a short estuary run to arrive at Island Yach Club, which sits, basically in the center of Svendsen's Boatworks in a funky old building at the edge of the Estuary.

Here's the list of who was there:

Kit started things off with a review of the importance of the currents on San Francisco Bay. In particular, know the currents at the time of your race start (or cruise departure!) and for the next hour or two. He then directed everyone to open the tide books he had provided and find the page which showed the currents in the Bay as if we were starting a race "now." It was 1025 hours on April 6, 2013. Page 19 showed "April, Currents at Golden Gate Entrance 2013." On the row for Saturday, April 6th you found a maximum flood of 3.1 knots at 0824. Since it was now two hours later, on page 53 you found the current map titled "Two Hours After Maximum Flood at Golden Gate." He also explained about the cones of protected water around Alcatraz, Angel and along the Berkeley Circle.

One key to watch for is areas of smooth and white cap water. If there is an 8 knot wind from the west against a 3 knot ebb current, small waves will begin to develop. If you see an area where there are is smoother water, that is less current or even current going in the oposite direction. Choose according to your situation, if you want to go with the current, seek the rougher water; if going against it, seek smoother water. For real time and forecast wind information try http://www.sailflow.com/. This works everywhere, just enter your zip code!

Fleet champ the last three years, Rich Shoenhair (Windwalker used a series of PowerPoint slides to cover the basics of sail trim. For openers, your headsail is usually the powerhouse on an I-36. consider that the distance from the mast to the bow (headstay)is 14.5', but the measured boom length is only 12.75. That means a 100% jib is already bigger than the main. Go with a 135% jib and you can quickly see where the power resides. Your main, however, is a big contributor to heeling. It's much faster to keep 4" to 6" of hull out of the water -- put the rail in the water and it's like dragging a bucket. So, when it really pipes up, if you can't easily downsize your jib, reef your main. (Kit noted that he checks the forecast and if 20+ is expected he'll fly a 120% or smaller jib instead of a 135%.)

Use halyard tension & mast bend to control the shape of the upper 2/3 of the main, and the outhaul for the lower 1/3. Adding backstay tension bends the mast and flattens the middle of the main - a good thing to do as wind increases and you want less power. As wind continues to increase, lower the traveler and carry a bigger bubble in the main to keep the rail out of the water. As waves increase, try a technique of heading up just a bit into the face of the wave, then bear away on the back side. Trying to steer straight can mean losing one foot to leeward on every wave.

Here's a link to the very informative slide show that Rich put together: Sail Trim Slides (2.0MB).

Rick Van Mell passed out copies of some of the training materials that have built up on our web pages since 2004. As a convenience, links are repeated here. Rick talked about the importance of a crew working as a team. That means knowing what each position is supposted to do, and how your position relates to other positions. Many manoeuvers require signivicant teamwork: tacking; spinnaker set; gybing (with and without a spinnaker); and reefing are the most obvious. Practice and crew team-building will pay off hansomely on the race course. Kit chimed in that good crew work will easily overcome perceived obstacles like oldeer sails or a heavier boat.

Crew Tasks by Position: http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/crewtasks.html
How to Become a Super Crew: http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/supercrew.html
Discussion Quiz #1: http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/crewquiz1.html
Discussion Quiz #2: http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/crewquiz2.html
Discussion Quiz #3: http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/crewquiz3.html
Quiz Answers: http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/crewquizanswers.html

How To Be A Model Skipper (tongue in cheek):http://www.islander36.org/raceclinic04/modelskipper.html

Then it was lunch time and the Island Yacht Club team laid out a delicious and simple spread of clam chowder, hot and cold pasta, hearty sandwiches like 4" subs, simple salad greens with plenty of dressing choices, and even some bags of chips if that wasn't enough. And all of that for $10 a person. Well done and much appreciated.

Lunch warpped about 1230 and by now the sun was peaking through and we all moved onto the docks where Kit methodically measured rig tension on six boats: Petit Sirah, Mischief, Freedom Won, Califia, Cassiopeia, and Irish Rogue. He used a Loos gauge to measure tension which give a relative number in the range of 0 to 50, with 50 being the tightest. (Kit estimated they run about $100 at Svendsen's.)

Here is a link to Kit's table: I-36 Measurements.

In short, there was a range from quite tight to loose, with the biggest variable being the aft lower shrouds. Kit (and many racers) believe the boats sails best with a relatively slack aft lower to allow the center of the mast to move forward and flatten the main. On Cassiopeia, the aft lower was at a 12, but on some, well into the 30s. When we get the table, we'll link it in to the Race Clinic home page and the Rig information on the Maintenance page.

So enjoy the pictures and plan to join us for a fun season of racing.

Pictures by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Island YC ...	Burgee ...	Welcomes I36 Fleet	Tim & Rich
Dave & Jocelyn	Looking toward docks ...	and boats ...	Here comes ...
Luna Sea ...	lots of hands ...	to bring her alongside.	Jim, Lorraine & Brian
Jocelyn & Cat	Petit Sirah crew.	Kit gets things started ...	The most important ...
preparation is in ...	your tide book.	Find the current ...	on the Bay for ...
right now ...	today.	Rich covers sail trim	Lunch line ...
great chowder ...	tasty pasta ...	super sandwiches ...	& salad for $10.
Kit starts measuring ...	rig tension ...	on all 4 shrouds,	plus center & rake.
The crowd at Mischief	Painted eyebrow!	Rich C., Brian & Beth	Damien & Beth with John
Luna Sea	Checking Califia	Checking Cassiopeia	Irish Rogue's turn.
Freedom Won heads home.	Luna Sea sails	Damien & Jamie, and ...	Beth are happy.
Opti fun!

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