The ultimate goal in starting a sailboat race is to have your boat going full speed at the favored position on the starting line as the starting gun sounds. The comments below are designed to help you achieve this goal. Many experts have written on this subject and there are many books which can help you with every aspect of sailboat racing. My comments are gleaned from my own experiences, both successes and failures.

1. Before you can think about starting you need to make certain you understand the course, the wind, and the positioning of the starting line itself.

2. The course: make certain you know where the marks are located. For starting, the weather mark is the crucial mark, but having an idea of how the entire course looks will help you. If you can not visually locate all the marks, ask the race committee and fellow racers. Then make a imaginary trip around the course in your mind.

3. The wind: you should be out on the water early so that you can judge the direction and speed of the wind. Are there shifts? Is there a pattern in the shifts? When new air comes in, what direction is it coming from? On Webster Lake, we all know the wind shifts!!! Sometimes rather randomly, but sometimes there are nice oscillations which can be timed with your watch. Also, we often sail in very light air. During the race we may have drifting periods, but we know that new air will arrive. It is important to know, at least to make your best guess, what direction that new air will come from. Positioning your boat on the course to take advantage of this direction will give you the opportunity to get the new air first before the rest of the fleet.

4. During this period of examining the wind and the course, you should have been adjusting your sails and setting up the boat for these conditions. We all know the standard adjustments of tighter, flatter sails for strong winds and looser fuller sails for lighter winds, but making the exact adjustments to YOUR boat for THESE conditions is an art as well as a science. Talk to experts in your class about how they do it.

5. We are ready to begin thinking about starting. We know where the first mark is. Now it is time to examine the starting line. The race committee will try its best to make the line perpendicular to the wind. If this has been successful, then all positions on the starting line are essentially equal in a fleet of the same class boats.

6. Check to make certain the starting line is, in fact, square to the wind. You can do this in a few ways. One way is to cross the line on starboard tack and also on port tack. Was either tack favored? I.e., were you going more to windward on one or the other of the tacks? Another way to check the line is to reach along the line in one direction and then reach back in the other direction. Was there a significant adjustment in your sails on these two reaches? If so, the line is not square. Finally, check your mast head fly and/or the one on the committee boat. Is it pointing perpendicular to the starting line or is it skewed?

7. Check how long it takes you to reach from one end of the starting line to the other end, i.e. use your stop watch to measure the time. This will tell you how much of a time margin of error you have in judging your actual start.

8. Finally, make certain you know where the actual starting line is. Check shore line features, like houses, flag poles, etc., to tell you exactly where the starting line is. Of course, on the water the starting line is the invisible line from the front edge of the flag pole on the committee boat to the mark in the water. This line is most easily seen when you are reaching along the line. In a large fleet of boats, with experienced racers, you will not be reaching along the line just before the start! There will not be enough room and you will be forced over the line early.

9. We have all the information needed to plan our start. The two most important racing rules which come into play during the start are: A. Starboard tack boat has right of way over port tack boat and B. Windward boat must keep clear of leeward boat. If you take these two rules together this means that a boat approaching the starting line close hauled on starboard tack has right of way over all boats to windward of it!!!! ALL THOSE BOATS MUST GIVE THIS BOAT RIGHT OF WAY!!!, i.e., KEEP OUT OF ITS WAY.

10. In what follows, I am using the course lay outs as shown on the Webster Sailing Association sheet of Racing Instructions which assumes that marks are rounded to port. If marks are to be rounded to starboard, then in the narrative which follows, replace "committee boat end" with "right end" and replace "mark end" with "left end." When you are on the water, the proper end of the line will be obvious.
If we have determined that the starting line is square with the wind, then usually one of two positions will be favored. The committee boat end of the line or the mark end of the line. If the wind is steady, not shifting, then the committee boat end of the line will give the boat clear air for the beginning part of the race. Every boat wants to sail in clear air. You go fastest that way. If the wind is shifting, then the mark end of the line is favored. If you time your start correctly, you will have clear air at the start of the race and as soon as the wind shifts, you will be able to tack onto port tack and be above the rest of the fleet again sailing in clear air.

11. If the starting line is not square to the wind, then one end of the line will be HEAVILY favored. If starboard tack is favored, then the committee boat end (right end ) is favored. If port tack is favored, then the mark end (left end) of the line is favored.

12. If starboard tack is favored, your best start is to approach the line close hauled on starboard tack as close to the committee boat as you can come. Any boat above you will need to give you room. Those boats reaching in from the right have NO RIGHTS. They will need to head up (and maybe come about) to avoid hitting both you and the committee boat. Remember that the committee boat is not considered an obstruction so you do not have an obligation to give right of way to any boat which is in danger of hitting the committee boat. It is that boat's obligation to avoid the collision. You have only one danger in making this start. Do not let a boat get too close below you, i.e., on your port side. That boat may have luffing rights and can luff you up so that your boat points directly head to wind. Make certain you have room to avoid the committee boat should this happen.

13. If port tack is favored, your best start is at the mark end of the line. There are two techniques for starting in this situation. Remember that starboard boats have right of way even though port tack is the favored starting tack. So, one starting technique is to approach the mark on starboard tack, cross the line on starboard tack and immediately tack onto port tack. Timing is crucial here. You do not want to let any boat starting on port tack to get between you and the mark. So your start must be timed very closely. A second concern is that there are other boats behind with the same idea. If these boats are too close to you and they DO NOT TACK ONTO PORT, you are pinned on starboard tack until you have enough clear room to tack. This danger is relatively minor since expert racers will be wanting to tack to port also.

The second technique for starting when port tack is favored is to approach the line on port near the mark end of the line and pick a hole in the line of boats approaching on starboard. If you are racing with experts, the hole may be very far down the starting line and you will have a very late and ill positioned start. However, sometimes the starting line so heavily favors port tack that essentially every boat in the fleet is starting on port tack. Then your best start is close hauled on port tack just inside the mark.

14. One more observation is needed. Close hauled on either tack turns out to be "the best". But we need to protect our leeward side. You can do this in a couple of ways. One way is to pick your approach to the starting line with ample space on the leeward side already. If this is not possible, a second technique is to allow enough time so that you can head up and fall off once or twice on your way to the line. By heading up, you create a larger distance between you and the boat below you. Of course, your boat slows down in making this maneuver, thus the need to allow more time. Also, you want some room below you immediately after the start of the race to allow you the opportunity to fall off a bit to accelerate your boat. Once you are going nicely, you can head up to close hauled.

15. On Webster Lake we often sail in light to no wind. In light air when there is the possibility of it dying, ALWAYS stay close to the starting line. Getting more than a few boat lengths away from the line can lose a race for you. It is better to be parked on the line with almost no boat speed than to be several boat lengths away from the line and have the wind die completely. Stay between the committee boat and the mark quite close to the line.

16. You now know everything I do about starting. Remember that your goal is to be on the starting line going at full speed when the starting horn goes off. DO NOT LAG BEHIND THE LINE. Every boat length it takes you to get to the line after the horn sounds is a boat length you are GIVING to the rest of the fleet. BE AGGRESSIVE. Insist on your rights. Some racers say that if you are never over the line early, you are not being aggressive enough. What to do when you are over the line early is another lecture. GOOD RACING AND GOOD STARTING.

We've all heard the experts talking over and over again about sailing your boat flat. I came across an excellent article explaining what can go wrong if you do not sail flat and the reasons why things are going wrong. In the Flying Scot, the rudder is a bit small for the boat. So heeling in strong airs often causes the skipper to lose control of the boat if the heel is too severe. LOOK AT THE ATTACHED PHOTO. Harry Carpenter, current owner of Flying Scot, Inc., gives the following explanation:

Note the large amount of water built up on the leeward side of the hull versus not much water on the windward side. This is why the boat develops a weather helm (the tendency for the boat to steer to windward) as it heels. The water building up on the leeward side offers more and more resistance as the boat heels over. The boat seeks the path of least resistance and begins to turn to windward. The second problem is that the rudder is being lifted out of the water as the boat heels over. So with less rudder, you have less drag available to correct the mounting weather helm. THE ONLY CURE is to flatten the boat out to even the water pressure on the leeward side to the windward side and put the rudder back in the water. This can be done by hiking harder and getting more weight to windward or by easing the main to reduce the heeling force. This is why all books on sailing a dinghy, like our boats at the club, emphasize the importance of keeping the boat flat. Everything that happens as the boat heels over is bad from a performance standpoint.

Good Sailing to All,

Mel Tews