Beer Car Racing Start

[longjonsilver]

i have been crewing on a C&C 32 for three years now. Our races begin off the club house and usually (90%) begin on a windward leg. i notice that everyone is scurrying around before the start, some going upwind/downwind, and others reaching across the wind, tacking and reaching again across the wind.

i have been wondering why no one just heaves to a convenient distance behind the line and then at a propitious time put the rudder over and go forward on the favored tack? Why does no one do this?

[JimsCAL]

Two things come to mind. Trying to get a favorable position relative to the other boats, and the time it takes to get the boat up to speed. The second is a particular issue in light air.

[tkeithlu]

Ideally you cross the line one second after the gun at full speed on the right tack at the windward end of the line, having stolen your wind from your best competitor. But then, you're talking about club racing with scratch crews, and one of these days you're going to be in the middle of a 17 boat collision half a mile behind the line. Have a good time, and damn, get good at it.

[flee27]

Just guessing. If hove to on a starboard tack presumably you could sit there and be the stand on vessel as long as your position didn't put you in a crossing situation where you are the give way vessel. And when you hove to you aren't really stationary so you would still have to anticipate where you will be when it is time to get moving.

Other than that, generally you want to cross the line at speed. Staying back far enough from the line to get up to speed when you cross the line is probably just a difficult as maneuvering as boats normally do.


Depending on how many boats are racing and how serious your club events are I would not want to sit dead (almost) in the water with no ability to maneuver while others boats zip around me. As you know starts can chaotic and being stand on vessel or give way vessel has a very different meaning to racers than to cruisers. It is very much part of the strategy of racing and pushed to the limits.

I am interested to hear others opinions also.

Foster

[Rumrace]

I hold back till the end of the race cause someone will always buy dead last a drink.

[Rumrace]

Seriously it may be one of the best parts of a race finding some speed behind the line and possibly stealing a little air. The mistake we make is packing every conscience and spare imagined into our Cruiser/Racer. Mine even has the “Performance” with mattress toppers generator an extra water tank. Insure that stuff and leave it at the peer. I noticed a Swan removing its cockpit table preparing to race. Slick. I think the boat is balanced better with both water tanks full. Could be my imagination. In the past as a power boater observing a sailing race start it appeared total mayhem. I raced a Scarab in poker runs and starts we’re also finding clean air but under the boat and cutting in front of boats kills their speed real well.
I always appreciate the experienced sailing captain who takes some risk at the start to grab that slot to find some speed. One went flying behind a group of us
Crawling and turned across the start line at 3 times the speed we did, two tacks and he was way out ahead. .

[ItDepends]

Don't forget... when you are hove to you are still under way and subject to all the rules for right of way and collision avoidance--no exemptions. I'm pretty sure you'd not be hove to for long if anybody else thought that really gave you an advantage, they could easily force you to move.

You can take it to another level, and anchor on the line. Now boats have to avoid you :-) Actually the way I saw a local boat race start in the Bahamas. Everybody anchored on the line, and on the start signal, Heave! It was quite the scrum... fun to watch!

[Knotical]

I race regularly in our bay. When I initially started racing I would hang in the back to avoid colliding with others but quickly realized that it was very hard to make up the distance that I just gave up voluntarily. Now I am pretty aggressive and usually first or second across the line, makes a huge difference in the standings.

Our start line is not long and with 14-18 boats in the fleet it gets pretty crowded there, I cannot imagine sitting hove-to amongst the crowd without any helm control, right of way or not. Every start is different, most of the time we take off on SB tack but sometimes we had to tack to port to get away from the crowd, it all depends on our starting position, wind direction and strength, current, crew etc.

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by longjonsilver

i have been crewing on a C&C 32 for three years now. Our races begin off the club house and usually (90%) begin on a windward leg. i notice that everyone is scurrying around before the start, some going upwind/downwind, and others reaching across the wind, tacking and reaching again across the wind.

i have been wondering why no one just heaves to a convenient distance behind the line and then at a propitious time put the rudder over and go forward on the favored tack? Why does no one do this?

I have heard this called a Dinghy Start and it works ok for dinghys and very proficient starters but not someone of my level for sure. All it takes is someone on top of your air and you just end up in the second row or worse as boats streak by you while you are trying to get going in a keel boat.

Keeping momentum is key for most boats, especially ones who lean to the cruising side.

[wingssail]

I think you probably realize by now that this is totally unworkable.

In the first place most boats do not accelerate instantly. So while you are accelerating the rest of the fleet which was already at speed is sailing away. If you get going early enough to compensate for that acceleration period, you've gained nothing; you're right back in the mix up.

Next, someone else is going to take umbrage to you're being sitting there. You'll be on one tack or the other, even while hove too. If on starboard somebody will come up to leeward of you and take you up, to which you'll be unable to respond, and you're out. If on port somebody will come along on starboard and you'll be unable to respond, and you'll be out.

The best starting strategy in my opinion, for beer can races or club races or even major events is:

Tool around before the start and get an idea of the conditions, the speed you can go, and where you might like to be at the start. Then get to the vicinity of that place a bit early and look where the competition is approaching from. Now the hard part: You have to assess the developing situation with probably several boats of varying speeds and angles. Visualize, without thinking about it, where everybody is going to wind up in the last 30 seconds, including yourself. Make some adjustment if needed to your approach to fit in in the best way you can. Sometimes you will succeed, sometimes you won't, but with practice, and maybe having another person with you giving a little advice, ("Ok, watch out for Joe, he's positioning to take you up, better slow down and let him go ahead") you will get better.

For me this is one of the most fun parts of sailboat racing and with the help of my wife Judy who sits aft and watches everyone and everything, and my mainsail trimmer Richard who works with me every second of the way, we've gotten pretty good at doing starts. Ah, but we blow it pretty often too.

[Cwens]

Originally Posted by longjonsilver

i have been wondering why no one just heaves to a convenient distance behind the line and then at a propitious time put the rudder over and go forward on the favored tack? Why does no one do this?

If you watch a collegiate or high school race with strong teams in small boats that accelerate quickly, that's pretty close to what a start looks like. On some starts, for the last 15 seconds everybody is stopped, a quarter of a boatlength from the line, with about six inches between boats. Big boats that don't accelerate fast, if you tried to park the boat, you'd run the risk of getting absolutely rolled by someone coming over the top of you, or, alternatively, protested by someone coming up below you hollering at you to come up.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by flee27

Just guessing. If hove to on a starboard tack presumably you could sit there and be the stand on vessel as long as your position didn't put you in a crossing situation where you are the give way vessel. And when you hove to you aren't really stationary so you would still have to anticipate where you will be when it is time to get moving.

No such thing as "stand on" under the RROS

You are either the "give way" vessel or you have "Right of way" in which case, you are quite at liberty to get into a favourable position and force a hove to vessel to move. Even if he's hove to on a starboard tack, it would be pretty easy to get below him and force him up - heck skippers do that all the time when both vessels are moving.


That said, heaving before the start is quite common in dinghy and and beach cat racing, but it's not really practical with heavier, less manouverable keelboats.

[psk125]

Heaving to at a "convenient" distance from the line and then getting going "at a propitious time" would be a brilliant way to start a race. If you can figure out what the distance needs to be - (perhaps a hundred yards?) and when the propitious time (about two or three minutes before the starting gun, depending upon wind strength and boat inertia?). The hundred yards would give you the space you'd need to get up to speed and also probably put you far enough away from the other competitors so they'd leave you alone. The trick would be to time it so you arrived at the starting line at the gun, going full speed. This would tend to put you into the crunch of boats all starting jammed together, of course, since they're all trying to do the same thing. Most people find it is easier to get up to full speed when they're already sailing, which is why they sail around instead of heaving to before the start. Dinghies that can sit on the line and accelerate instantly by simply sheeting in the sails can do the "hove-to" start more easily than keelboats, but still have to be careful about boats coming in to their lee and heading them up and over the line. For a different take you might want to look up "Vanderbilt start".

[Flagman101]

When I get on a start i usually will be going back and forth and then uo and down to time myself.
By the 5 minutes gun I usually know where I should be at the 1 minute warning.
Hoping that I timed myself right and get on my tack and fast to the staring line 1 sec after the gun.
If I just heave to...i have no way of knowing haw fast I will be.