From: Mark McCarthy, Slàinte Date: Mon, 28 July 2003
Subject: RE: Downwind Tips

Depends on how much light air you are talking about. Spinnaker work requires a few major categories, pole position, and trimming. Pole height is critical and vary from the cut of chute you have, however, generally should be lowered as the wind decreases. A good rule of thumb is to have your clews even at all times. Trimming really varies on sea state, however, mostly you should have the upper windward shoulder just breaking, and if there are move waves, less break is generally better.

Pole fore vs. aft really depends on feel of the boat based on wind and sea state. For light conditions, I generally start with the pole 2-3' back from the headstay, unless it is below 5 kts, then pole on the headstay. After setting, keep the boat heated up for 5-6 boatlengths to figure out your best speed in the wind, and to get your apparent built. Once you have this, very slowly steer down squaring back a foot at a time. You will find that you can probably only go down about 10 degrees and pole back 2-3 feet before you run out of steam (apparent dies), and you have to head back up to rebuild your apparent. When you drive down, the trimming has to be flawless and you have to drive down very slowly, so you bottom out no sooner than ten boatlenths achieved. You will quickly realize how low is to low. I never let my speed die more than 1 kt before heading back up. Gotta keep the apparent moving, and keep burning it down to be successful, a fine line that can easily be abused on either end ( to long up or to long down). As you burn down, you gain boatlengths to leeward, however, give up speed.

If the sea state is flat, the above becomes easier, and the margin of error becomes bigger, because there are no waves to slow the boat, or shake the chute/boat. When the sea state gets bumpy, it makes it much harder to burn down. Play the narrow groove always understanding that a boat/sails bouncing around is SLOW!

Basically, in 5-7 I am about 2-4' back (no more than 45 degrees of the headstay). In 8-10, I am working from 45 to 90 degrees back, anymore, I am squared. There are polars on the website, I sail by feel. Never want to be to fast or to slow downwind. Takes some practice to get it right! [ Polars & Target Boatspeeds ]

From: John Bodden, Hawk Date: Mon, 28 July 2003
Subject: RE: Downwind Tips

This could get you a million answers!!!!!!!

For any type of boat there are certain things that I like to do exactly the same way.

Set the outer end of the pole to where both clews are the same height, then adjust the inner end of the pole until it is parallel with the water top. This gives you maximum pole projection. I (nearly) ALWAYS like to keep the pole at 90 degrees to the apparent wind. A tell tale on the shrouds or wire attached to the pole is helpful with that. When the clews are at the same height the spinnaker should break evenly from top to bottom. This is what I go by rather than trying to eyeball clew heights. Try raising and lowering your pole as you sail along and see how it affects the position where the spinnaker first begins to break. In light winds I try to keep crew weight as close to the keel as possible, so nobody in front of the mast and anyone in the cockpit sits forward. I also let the boat heel to leeward a bit, butthat is more to keep the mailsail full rather than the spinnaker. Some people send the crew down below in very light winds, but that is where the rum is kept and I have a hard time getting them back up afterwards. I constantly trim the spinnaker by easing it until it begins to curl and then trimming back in to take the curl out.

The only changes I make in spinnaker work throughout Light, Medium, and Heavy wind is to move crew from the leeward side to the windward side and then aft. The spinnaker sheet comes across the cockpit to the winch on the high side of the cabin top and someone braces themself in the companion way with a winch handle to trim the spinnaker back in when it can no longer be trimmed by hand.

George has given you good instructions on how to work your boat to leeward with optimum performance. I have never raced my boat against another Soverel and I know that a lot of the things that I do would not be fast against another Soverel but it works good for me in my fleet. My main competition is a J-35, a J-37, and a Beneteau 461, so I use the strengths of the Soverel against them. For example, I quite often sail lower than I should, dropping my VMG, but it drives them crazy to not be able to sail as low as I do and sometimes they will gybe away from the favoured tack in frustration. My loss of VMG is recouped and more if I can force the opposition into a mistake. Another tactic that I use is to engage them in tacking duels and use an old trick of Dennis Connors by tacking before the boat is back up to speed. Tacking back and forth before you get the boat back up to speed is not good for you, but you should see what it does to a heavier boat that is trying to cover you. And remember they are ALL HEAVIER than the Soverel.

Now back to your downwind speed. Again use the weight of the boat to your advantage because it will surf very easy. This becomes a big disadvantage if you have to punch through waves, so you could be losing a lot of speed by not sailing the waves properly. In light winds I would not have any backstay tension on going to windward, but in all conditions I would ease the backstay as I turn to go downwind. I also release the jack stays, but keep them loose around the winch in case the mast starts pumping.

You might also want to look at your vang tension. The leach on the main might be too tight or too loose. Keep everything the same and pull on the vang until you find the position that gives you the best speed. Even though most of your downwind speed will come from the spinnaker, don't neglect main trim or ignore the waves. The polars on the web site are a good place to start, and as George said "Practice, Practice, Practive".

From: Mark Yancey, Manhattan Magic Date: Mon, 28 July 2003
Subject: RE: Downwind Tips

What boats are your competition? you should be walking away for them down the breeze, especially in the light stuff.

You can try moving your crew weight diagonally across the boat as the wind increases, windward and back in big air, to leward and foward in light air, as for sending crew below, we sail on the gulf coast and I don't care how much Rum is below, it's to hot for them to want much, but it works. You can also try keeping your pole low and foward, this does two things: 1. it "forces" the spin to assume an "A-kite" kind of look, with the leech open. 2: when a puff comes along, you will push the apparent wind foward and for that you need the pole foward.

When you have enough air to keep the sails full, try a heel to weather, you will raise the effective sail plan, for more wind (looks funny but it works).

I can tell you that when I got my first Sov 33,.we used to love light air, thats when we would lap the fleet (6knts or less).

From: Matt Dalton, Ka Ching! Date: Mon, 28 July 2003
Subject: RE: Downwind Tips

How closely have you looked the bottom over?