From the August 2008 Edition of the Windmill Class News

Nationals is always a great time to rekindle friendships. I appreciate on the water interactions and particularly looked forward to the moderate sailing conditions at Lake Winnipesaukee. As we said our farewells on Thursday, to many folks that I consider very good sailors, it seemed like the first time we had spoken all week! Consistently good starts had largely limited our interaction to folks like Nick and Arthur, as we gradually sailed our way back to mostly mid-fleet finishes. We did have the opportunity to, time and again, help Arthur teach his son that preparation, perseverance and superior skill can overcome a competitor tacking directly in front of, and forcing one off, the favored tack.

Less these saving good deeds, on the course social interaction seemed different. Out of frustration over this social injustice, I write this exposition on the techniques Al and I used to accomplish a top 5 start, or better, in every race at this year's Nationals.

This audience knows that on most courses, if one gets in phase quickly and stays in phase without getting pushed to a layline too early, the race will likely turn out Ok – especially if one can do all this in clear air.

What this audience may not know is that if the committee sets the line so that the favored end shifts from port to starboard as the wind oscillates, whenever the port end is favored, port tack is also the "in phase” tack.

Whenever the starboard end is favored, starboard tack is also the “in phase” tack. So, if in phase in clear air is your priority, starting on the favored third of the line, with room to tack and cross, is more important than competing for the that highly contested most favored end spot.

In some of the races we would use up space to leeward before the horn, so we could tack and cross on port at the horn. This is counter intuitive to most of what is taught about starting on crowded starting lines.

Oh, and we had a technique to make sure we never started in a crowd.

In up and down conditions, where the wind velocity is changing over the course during the 5 minute starting sequence, the fleet is almost always either early or late at the favored end of the line – usually in a big clump. This has to do with how folks process information. Even though few explicitly use the "sail first away and then back toward the line for equal amounts of time" method, mentally, folks process boat speed as if it will be constant for the entire starting sequence. By watching the wind on the water, and the fleet position with respect to the favored end, it is pretty straight forward to figure out if the fleet is going to be early or late.

If the fleet is going to be late, lead them in making them even later, while keeping boats off your lee bow. If the fleet is early, trail in making sure you can tack if port tack is in phase, or making sure you can drive off for clear air if starboard tack is still in phase.

Most folks of driving age know what a stale green light is. Well in the same way a traffic light can get stale, the favored tack (end) at the start can get stale. Since this starting method usually puts the boat in the middle third of the line, one can shade the start line position and boat spacing to account for a stale favored tack (end).

Other stuff that we did, but do not attribute any particular success to, is:

1) Determine the favored end by sailing across the line close hauled on both tacks. This gives you a sense of where the line is by looking at the mark and the boat and their backgrounds in context. It also can give a sense of how stale a favored tack is, and

2) Use the second hand on an analog watch to time the start (taught by Bill Dodge). If the horn will sound when the second hand hits the 12, starting is just getting the bow of the boat to hit the line at the same time as the second hand hits the 12. Since it is really easy to lose track of minutes with this method, skipper and crew have to talk about that – and in the process get a shared sense of how stale the favored tack is.

In summary, decide if the fleet is going to be early or late. Avoid the clump. Start in clear air on the favored tack toward, not necessarily at, the favored end.