Wind weight
"Today has been tough on the guys as we try and feel out what the boat is wanting in this building breeze, the wind is quite a lot softer in weighting then in the cooler temperatures where we have been doing all our testing, so we have found ourselves a bit down on our targets and needing to put bigger sails back up. In fact in the past four hours we have been through all four of our downwind sails, and for now have finally settled on our middle-size flying gennaker."
Look, I'm not making this stuff up. The paragraph above was written by Mike ‘Moose' Sanderson, who as skipper of ABN Amro One has just won the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Spain to Cape Town. The quote is from one of his daily messages off the boat, when they were just a few days past the Equator in the South Atlantic. So you see I'm not the only one that thinks that wind has a different ‘weight' in different parts of the world.
It seems that in writing about ‘wind weight' a few issues ago in Rolltacks that I have unearthed some Newtonian cult who are threatening to burn me at the stake as a heretic, because I dare to question Newton's three laws of motion. Sorry, Three (immutable) Laws of Motion in capital letters - this is important stuff we're talking about! I really didn't mean to offend you, I was just wondering aloud why wind feels different in different parts of the world. But please don't shoot the messenger. I didn't even know I was transgressing Newton's sacred laws in suggesting that not all wind is born equal.
It's hard to recall a topic that has brought such a deluge of letters before. Of all the things that have been discussed in Rolltacks over the years, I wasn't expecting this one to elicit such a vehement response. There have been some wonderful letters both for and against the notion that the power of the wind can vary for a given windspeed. Personally, I choose to believe the ones that support my original theory, but I'm sure others will remain equally trenchant in their view that a 20-knot wind is a 20-knot wind, no matter what. What has become clear is that great minds do not think alike, and so in the absence of a clear consensus, I think I'll revert to listening to what the world's best sailors have to say.
Now, sailors like Mike Sanderson may not have PhDs in physics, aerodynamics or any other related field, but for me they are the cutting-edge scientists of the sailing world. I would wager they've spent more time thinking about what makes a sailing boat go fast than Pythagoras or Newton ever did, although Einstein was a huge sailing fan - although reputedly not a very good sailor. If the world's great sailors think that there's something to ‘wind weight' or ‘lee-bow effect', or any other mysterious phenomenon in sailing, then that's good enough for me.
Of course it would be nice to understand the reasons why these things occur, but a sailor's first priority is to know what is going to make him go faster. And on certain occasions there are things going on in sailing that defy conventional understanding. It would be foolish to ignore these phenomena just because the text books don't have an explanation for them. For me, practical experience beats theoretical dogma every time, although it's amusing to see how passionate people can get about such a dry topic.
Buoyancy Aids
OK, so here's another topic to get you going. Buoyancy aids. Clearly one reader feels very strongly about them as he sent in a letter decrying the Merlin sailors who were featured on the front cover of a recent Yachts & Yachting, sailing sans-buoyancy! Heaven forfend! Burn them at the stake too! But hang on a moment. If you know the picture I'm talking about, you'll recall that the crew is sitting in the middle of the boat and the helm is wearing just a rash vest, so I'd surmise that they were probably sailing in a gentle Force 2 on a warm summer's day. Is there really much need for buoyancy on a day like that? Well, maybe. Much depends on the competence of the sailors, I suppose. But seeing as a Merlin Rocket is quite an expensive, technical boat, we might assume that the sailors in the photo were actually quite competent. Perhaps it should be their choice as to whether they want to risk not wearing a buoyancy aid?
Alright so I'm playing devil's advocate, but only to an extent. For me, there is a time and a place for wearing buoyancy aids, and that is that they should be worn on the majority of occasions for most types of sailing. In the case of the Merlin sailors on the Y&Y cover, however, they seem to be in very little imminent danger. And contrary to the expectations of the reader who sent in the letter, I don't think it is for Yachts & Yachting to have to censor pictures in the magazine based on whether they fulfil certain criteria of political correctness.
Of course, every time you go out sailing you put yourself at some risk, no matter what the conditions. And so wearing buoyancy makes sense most of the time. And I can quite understand regatta organisers stipulating that all competitors must wear adequate buoyancy at all times while afloat. These are litigious times, after all, and the average sailing club could ill afford a multi-million pound lawsuit against it for negligence.
But my view, shared by many skiff sailors, is that in some circumstances buoyancy aids can cause more trouble than not. There is a parallel here with air bags in modern cars, which have been responsible for saving numerous lives since they were introduced 10 or 15 years ago, but there have been a few occasions where they have caused accidents too.
My own personal preference for sailing the International 14 is not to wear a buoyancy aid, as getting my not-inconsiderable bulk through the narrow gap between double-floored-cockpit and boom is difficult enough. Some might point out that I was already carrying adequate personal buoyancy as it is! But the far greater reason for not wishing to wear buoyancy is the risk of being trapped under the sails in a capsize. Whereas a conventional, semi-battened or unbattened Dacron sail remains relatively soft and flexible when lying flat to the water, a fully-battened Mylar/Kevlar sail is much more rigid and immovable in the water. You can't just poke your head up and expect to find an air pocket for a quick gasp of air. So the easiest way to extricate yourself from the situation is to swim down and out away from the sails. This becomes much more difficult when you're bobbing like a cork with your buoyancy aid.
I know of one International 14 sailor who punched his fist through the Mylar mainsail because he was trapped under the sail. And I've heard Rob Dulson, chairman of the 18-foot Skiff class say he wouldn't be competing in a regatta unless the organisers changed the rule saying that buoyancy was compulsory. That's how strongly some people feel about it.
Having said all that, I would only not wear buoyancy in a two- or three-man skiff, based on the notion that you are always likely to have a team mate to help you out if you are knocked unconscious or get severe cramp in the water. But as for sailing a singlehanded skiff where you have to be much more self-sufficient, I'd say wearing buoyancy was probably the more sensible option. By the very nature of sailing singlehanded, you are operating in a more risky environment. There will be no one else to help keep you afloat in the event of being injured or incapacitated, so on balance the buoyancy aid is probably more of a help than a hindrance.
Removable hooks
All controversial stuff, I know, but sometimes blanket safety regulations can cause problems in a few specialist areas of the sport. One foolish new regulation has thankfully been averted at the recent ISAF Annual Conference, when the decision to make releasable trapeze hooks compulsory was postponed. Talking to sailmaker Dick Batt, who is also chairman of ISAF's Equipment Committee, I learned that the vote to make this new technology compulsory has now been postponed until 2009. This is eminently more sensible than the original plan to make releasable hooks obligatory by January 2006. While the concept of a releasable hook is good, as there are rare occasions when a hook does cause entrapment issues, the notion of imposing such untested equipment so soon would have been foolish in the extreme. Now Dick says that the plan is to develop an International Standard (ISO) for a releasable hook, obliging manufacturers to meet minimum requirements in the design and construction of such equipment. That's much more reassuring.
Dick also told me that there will be no carbon topmast for the Laser Radial this side of the 2008 Olympics, as there was thought to be insufficient time to develop a top section that could be guaranteed to be reliable and of consistent quality. That seems a sensible decision, with less than three years to the next Games, although the lighter-weight women in the class will be disappointed at the prospect of having to pile on the pounds to be competitive with the existing aluminium mast.
Firefly 60th
From news of the newest Olympic class to the latest from a class that made its guest appearance at the London Games in 1948, when the Firefly served as the singlehanded class at the Olympic Regatta in Torbay. This was the regatta where the world first heard of Paul Elvstrom, who at the age of 18 went on to beat the great names of the day. If you ever find a copy of his book, you should read it, as it is fascinating and inspiring to learn about his exploits. At the Torbay Olympic Regatta, he tells of how he raced on a windy day with just the mainsail for the beat, hoisting the jib for the downwind legs before lowering it again for the next beat. How he managed all that while remaining upright, I don't quite know, but it proved to be a winning tactic.
Anyway, the Firefly is to celebrate its 60th birthday in 2006, and a number of big events are planned for the year. The two big highlights are the 60th Anniversary National Championships at Abersoch (5th to 11th August) and the 60th Anniversary Dinner at West Kirby (26th to 28th August 2006). The Firefly Class would like to encourage Firefly sailors old and new to join them for the celebrations. For more details visit the class website www.fireflysailing.co.uk. The great thing about Fireflies is that even some of the very old boats are still competitive, but apparently there is such a rush for boats right now that you'll be hard pushed to find one!
