OK, I see the pros doing it. I’ve heard that it matters. But I’ve never felt it before. I’ve never noticed its impact.
But now I have!
With the boat tuned much better, we are starting to notice the finer details. A few cm of trim on the mainsail tweaker can give us an extra degree of pointing ability….and so can one more guy on the rail!
It was a perfect night for noticing the finer details, with steady wind right in the range that PERSPECTIVE loves best. With the new #1 flying tight and the mainsail drawing fully (just a flutter of backwinding), we could focus on a technical race. As each lad came to their spot on the rail, we pointed one more degree closer to the wind.
Kiwi gave us another great start, and we held our lane on Battlewagon, eventually climbing up to put them in our bad air. Meanwhile, Top Gun came out to play, and we held our lane on them too later on in the race.
All the tacks were crisp. Here’s a nice example, with a little treat at the end as all three boats were in close quarters!
Yep, that was Battlewagon just crossing the bow of us and Top Gun. Looking back at the upwind leg, we probably put in an unnecessary pair of tacks, losing a couple of boat-lengths. Then, someone (the flibberdigibbet on the mainsail) misjudged the layline to the mark, so we needed another pair of quick tacks to round. That threw off our hoist, and when we finally got flying downwind, there were just too many boat-lengths to make up.
It felt like we made up some of the distance, but not enough to overtake. Top Gun got the gun, Battlewagon second, and we were a bit behind.
Results just came in…we did just enough to claim 1st for the Tuesday Spring Series. Way to go guys!