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Mark Rushall's notes from the Burton Cup 

I hope that you have all recovered from "the longest run in Burton cup history", and that there was much alcohol induced self coaching at the dinner last night. Here are a few thoughts from the rib:

Before the rain began, it was reasonably easy to see where the wind was and where it was not! I saw the first two boats out to the starting area do a split tack (3 mins on each tack) The boat on the left won by a significant margin, I think because there was more breeze on the left at that time. What were your conclusions? (Note: if you want to be really sneaky when you do a split tack, bear away onto a run as soon as it is clear who is ahead, before you cross, so the boats back on the start line don't learn what you just have!)

Wind direction:

12.38:                       165

12.56:  145

1.06                  160

1.09           155

1.18        150

1.23    145

1.31                 165

Note that the windward mark was always radioing wind significantly further right than this.

General recall start at 1.20: line at 265 around 20 degree port bias!

new line 255: approx square

Burton start at start time

After the rain came in, was much much harder to spot light patches. Normally that sort of drizzly cloud kills the wind so I was surprised that the boats which sailed straight into the one on the right  found any wind at all. Once the rain came through the wind started trending right: that may have been the edge of the front we saw on the weather map. The wind also seemed to be generally (but not always) filling from the right. Speak to Nigel Playford, Graham, and Ian Gore to see what they thought made the difference on the first beat, and to Richard and Tom to see what they thought they got wrong!

However you may remember in the briefing that I thought that any persistent shift would be too slow to affect us: just shows you can't trust the coach. I think this was helping to favour the right after the rain passed

1.35        155

1.39                       165

1.46                               170

1.53                                      175

etc: the windward mark ended up at 195!

However there were plenty of shifts and pressure variations within this overall trend, as you all spotted.

Other thoughts:

With the wind up and down, especially with that nasty chop, its really important to adjust the look of the sails with every small variation. Pulling the rig upright for more power also has the effect of straightening the rig (the spreaders work harder, and the mast ram and lowers push/pull harder.)  That creates a deep main with a hard leach: fine when we are sitting out and there is enough energy in the wind to follow the sharp curve. But each time the wind drops we need some twist to stop the main stalling. The air particles just get lazy if the curve is too great and fall off the middle of the sail. Its particularly hard to see this in the wet as the leach tell tales are stuck to the sail. If you feel underpowered, lack of weather helm, and the boat is bouncing up and down going nowhere in the lulls, the sails are probably stalled. Look at the picture you will see what I mean.

The helm is having to push on the tiller. From behind all I can see is the leeward side of a deep, closed mainsail. Ease the vang, so you can ease the main but keep the boom on the centreline. Ease the jib one click. Make sure the outhaul is in (foot straight but not hard). Hopefully the boat now starts to go forward and the forward motion helps you get some lift off the foils.  When the gust comes in, hike hard, and squeeze on main and jib, as Tom described yesterday. Don't de-power by feathering or pulling on the vang, the puff will be gone in a second! In the puffs, the more you can hold onto the main and keep the boat flat by hiking, the higher you will point. The boat is already at max speed it won't go any quicker.

Now the lull comes through. As the crew moves into the boat, ease main a little to twist and top the stall. That's why the vang must be eased: if it were on, the boom would go out not up. In the really light bits it may be worth easing the ram/lowers to flatten the mainsail a bit. The process is a continuous one; there are some good examples on the video. Overall, we have adapted our sailing style significantly compared with Monday's overpowered conditions.

In that chop every tack costs dear. That makes the mark roundings even more important: two tacks are a disaster, especially when it looks like the wind is going right.

When a boat is fetching the windward mark, if he has to luff above close hauled to avoid a boat which has tacked inside two boats lengths, the boat which tacked has fouled. That's in addition to the usual tacking too close to another boat rule. But if the starboard boat has overstood, and the port boat can complete his tack in good time, the starboard boat probably wont need to luff above close hauled to keep clear. So if I'm the starboard boat and have overstood, I always bear away down to the layline (or even below) well before 2 boats lengths so there is not a chance that a boat tacking inside will be able to do so without fouling. Mean, but at least I get round the mark first! If you point a boats length below the mark as the port tacker approaches, he'll either have to duck, or tack so early he won't lay the mark.

Alternatively, stay high and let him go first: I know the 12's are supposed to be a friendly fleet!