Need some help getting up to speed

I'm now competed in two different Laser Regattas. I've gotten dead last. Kind of what I expected. So now it's time to consider how to get a little faster upwind. So I have a couple of questions. I'm hoping someone might be to help out here.


All these questions relate to going to weather.

Question 1: How much outhaul should be on, or maybe another way to say it is how far from the boom should the sail be when the outhaul is adjust appropriately? Now I know the answer proably depends on the wind strength. So let's pose two situation. Situation 1, the wind is very light. Situation 2, the wind is strong enough the you need to be on the rail, and hike occassionally in the gust.

Question 2: Where should the traveller block be when the sail in 2 blocked? Next to the leeward fitting, or a 6 inches from the leeward fitting, or some where in between.

Question 3: Related to question 1, how far in should the mainsheet be in when the wind is situation 1? How far in on situation 2?

Question 4: When do you start putting on cunningham, and how much do you put on?

These are just general "rule of thumb" and you might want to play around with them.

Q1: Outhaul = Power. Max off setting should be about "watch to finger tips". Don't pull it in unless you get overpowered

Q2: Traveller should be as far outboard as possible.

Q3: Max power is the blocks 8 inches apart. (set your vang to this setting too) Pull it in to block to block once you start hiking.

Q4: Slowly pull in the cunningham once big creases start to form diagonally across the sail. Pull out most of the creases, but not all. As you get over powered start cranking it on.

Search the threads here, lots of discussion about it..
Grab a couple of Laser specific books (lots of discussion about those here too)

But the most important thing - time in the boat. Do whatever you need to do to get out on the water and tune with guys faster then you.

Your traveler should be as tight as possible. And in light winds your main should have about 4 inches between the 2 blocks. In any thing else it should be block to block. Don't put on more outhaul until you are overpowered with the cunningham fully on. use the cunningham to get rid of the wrinkles near were the top and bottom sections meet and crank on the cunningham as you begin to get overpowered.

This is what i do in my radial and i think it goes the same way in a full rig.

There is an article on the main North American Laser Class website under Racing Rules and Radials and it really helps...There is a lot of good stuff in there.

Tim

more basic technique- move shoulders back when the bow moves up the wave forward when getting over the wave, (dont move butt...) better to be too tight than too loose when dealing with the mainsheet. light air never two block. After sailing at Rolex OCR i noticed Andrew Campbell sails in under 5 kts with about a foot of eased mainsheet. As many of you know, He is probably one of the best light air sailors in the united states (fighting with funk). I think alot of your problems will be solved with the traveller (keep it tight so blocks are on the edge of the boat, not in the middle).
Both of these conditions you described do not seem heavy, so sailing your ticks (tell tales) are very important so you dont go too low or high.

This is more basic stuff, once you have this little stuff mastered, you will no longer be in last, but it isnt going to turn you into a winner!!!!!practice

When you say the sail is out a foot in light air are you saying you let the main sheet out about 1 foot or are you saying the boom block and the traveler block are a foot apart.

we are talking about the traveler and boom blocks.

I'm asking if the 1 foot difference is between the block on the back of the boom, and the traveler block. Or does the let it out a foot mean you let 1 foot of line run though your hands. If it is one foot of line being let out of your hands then I'm guessing the distance between the back boom block and the traveler block changes only around 6 inches.

we are talking about a 1 foot difference beetween your back boom block and your traveler block.

In Dick Tillman's book it says this about how far the sail should be away from the boom at maximum draft:

In light air it should be 4 inches in flat water and 6 in chop.

Now I don't know about the rest of you but my watch to finger tips is more like 9 inches. So is 6 inches about the max you might ever want from boom to sail at the maximum draft point?

yes

It's more about feel than "inches". Is the boat stalling, underpowered or overpowered? If you think about all the adjustments too much your likely to miss a major shift and loss more than you have ever gained.

For me, the biggest thing seperating me from the front runners is fitness. If you sail with a heel upwind, or don't fully torque the boat downwind you just are never going to be fast. I'm attempting to rectify it by following a fitness program. The results are slow, but even small gains seem to be reflected by increases in speed on the water.