Up to Speed & Smarts with Dells

The bigger your fleet, the more boats there are to get in the way of your strategic gameplan. In order to stay on track, therefore, you need good boat-on-boat tactical moves. In a small fleet, you may choose to maneuver tactically against one or two other boats, even early in a race. These moves let you follow your strategy, but they also help you beat those boats. With a big fleet, however, you can’t afford to mess…

Before we talk about how you can use sail controls to change the shape of your headsail, let’s quickly review how we look at that shape in the first place. Let’s discuss how the various headsail controls affect four basic measures of sail shape: overall depth (fullness), the position of maximum draft, the leading edge angle and twist. Each of these has a large effect on the sail’s total power and performance. Depth of the sail –…

When your position in the race suddenly takes a nose dive, it’s time to re-focus your gameplan. Don’t discard your well-planned strategy, but consider making a few adjustments. Take a deep breath. Before you follow a knee-jerk reaction (which seldom works), pause for a moment and assess your situation. Think about questions like: • Is it early or late in the series? • Do you already have a throwout? • How good is your boatspeed? • How…

A number of years ago, I read a quote from four-time Olympic gold medalist Paul Elvstrøm. His words seemed so true they have stuck with me ever since. He said, “The good sailors all know how to race very well, but the champions have won the regatta before the racing even begins.” In other words, preparation (i.e. everything you do to get ready for the start of the first race) is super important. Unfortunately, I didn’t have…

Editor’s note: Part 1 of Dave’s article can be found here.   Luff tension Like the mainsail cunningham, the jib halyard is not intended primarily for removing wrinkles so the sail looks better. The main purpose of the halyard is to adjust luff tension and thereby control the position of draft in the sail. Pull the halyard tighter to move draft forward and make the sail flatter; ease it to move the draft aft and make the…

Even though most genoas and jibs are smaller than the main- sails they team up with, your head- sail should get at least as much careful trimming attention as your main. That’s because a jib feels no disturbance from the mast and sails in an eternal lift created by flow around the main. As a result, your headsail provides more than its share of your boat’s power. For these reasons, it’s important to work hard at finding…

When you’re trying to catch other boats on a windward leg, the good news is that the fleet usually spreads out a lot on beats. If the wind changes very much in direction or velocity, this separation creates good passing opportunities. But the bad news is that the boats you’re trying to catch are all between you and the wind. This means you must constantly dodge wind shadows, especially when you are sailing toward the ‘favored’ side….

Editor’s note: We’re doubling down on Dells for this edition, with more great photos from the 2024 Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta by Block Island Steve Cloutier. When you’re picking a crew for your next regatta, it’s not easy to find someone who is the perfect weight for your boat. It’s difficult enough to find teammates who are skillful, eager and available, so how much they weigh is often a secondary consideration. As a result, many sailors end up…

The easiest way to explain the concept of velocity shifts is to start with an example. Imagine you are sailing upwind, close-hauled on starboard tack. It’s a very puffy day, with lots of increases and decreases in wind velocity. However, the wind direction remains exactly the same during all the puffs and lulls. As you sail along, the wind you feel on your face is called your ap- parent wind. It’s a vector sum of the ‘sailing…

The middle of the racecourse is one of those “love it or hate it” places. Some sailors are always trying to make the middle work, while others seldom go there. In a big fleet, the central part of the beat has unique advantages and disadvantages. No matter how you feel about the middle in smaller fleets, you might want to reconsider your opinion in bigger fleets, for the following reasons. The case for the middle In a…