Downwind Sail for Ocean Race

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

... One is a professional bow man with vast experience on all kinds of boats including TP52's. He'll be worth his weight in gold;...

Well, if he’s a TP52 bow-man then his weight, regardless of its exchange rate, should be pretty darn light.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

I half expected that you would bring a couple of ringers onboard.

So you will be able to raise the level of spinnaker handling accordingly

But above all, be sure to have lots of fun

Cheers. Yeah, 200m2 of spinnaker is not a joke to handle. I thought we needed some help. Also with tactics and routing. Routing is a big chess game, which I have enjoyed playing on some of the long upwind passages I've sailed, but I don't pretend to be any good at it.



The point of course is fun, fun and only fun. In the unlikely event we win something, the trophy goes to the club, and the money will barely pay for a nice crew dinner. There is little glory possible because if we win, it will be, in everyone's mind, down to the ringer crew, waterline length, outlandish 7.5m penalty pole, and/or sail area, whereas if we lose, it means we are just really bad sailors (or worse, the skipper was simply hopeless) than the slower or lighter crewed boats which managed to get past us. Thank God there is one grand prix boat so at least we're not the favorite. So at least one boat which will be even more nervous than we are not to let anyone get past, ha ha! Maybe others, since there are a few pure racing boats in the fleet, but other than in really light weather, we normally make short work of 40-odd foot racing boats.



And in the end, the weather will play the biggest role. If it's too light, we will be totally uncompetitive and maybe won't even be able to finish. If it's heavy, we start to be unbeatable, with this tough crew (which has crossed the North Sea together like 12 times), this tough boat, and our superb heavy weather sail plan. So praying for bad weather, and headwinds!