#76 in Melbourne, FL

[Robert Bernard]

Fall Regatta, just a couple of photos. We came in dead last in PHRF racing. But I think my spinnaker is not too suited to light wind racing. It seems a bit small and flat.

[Justin Scott]

Well,,,,,,,from the wet and cold North, dead last in Melbourne sure looks good. I can't wait for Miami!

In super light the smaller flat chutes usually can hold the breeze a little longer. Once it picks up a bit you want something with some ooomph. What rating are you trying to beat?

[Robert Bernard]

We were sailing against 2 lindenberg 28's and a J-30. It seemed like the small chute couldn't sail low enough in the light breeze.

[Dan Tucker]

Robert,

Based on the photos, I'd say you're not sailing the boat flat enough, upwind or down. Looks like maybe 6-8 knots? No reason to not be bolt upright upwind in that. They shouldn't really be waterlining you to death upwind in that stuff.

Downwind might be tough in those conditions where those leadmines can square back the pole and point at the mark. Again, based just on the photo, you may be sailing too hot downwind. Under 10knots, maybe 12, we're in displacement VMG mode too, not heat it up and plane mode.

[Drew Harper]

Some quick observations.

- Jib tack is too far off deck. Jib cars look too far aft. In the moderate breeze you should be able to point WAY high. Slight barberhaul with windward sheet (foot to deckjoint). The jib is a HUGE part of the upwind motor. Not sure where your numbers are but you should be averaging 5.5-5.8 knots upwind in flat water 10 knots of breeze.

- Jib halyard looks boned. In 10 knots the jib should have some small scallops. You've probably depowered the jib by making it look pretty. Remember, in 10 knots TWS...ugly is fast :-))

- HIKE. The flatter, the faster you'll go and the better your VMG will be. Hiking get's the blades working.

- Make sure you get your kite hoisted all the way and I'd lengthen the tack line 2-3" for PHRF racing. It's all about getting the boat down and fast in the light stuff. You need the kite to project to weather and some distance at the tack will help.

- Don't bone the vang in the light stuff. It can turn the main into a big brake.

- Keep your weight all together. On the upwind shot you all should be butt to butt with the first butt up against the shrouds. In the very light, that first butt is in front of the shrouds.

- Are you sailing with a knotmeter? If not, get one. Once you develop your feel for the boat it'll not make much difference but as you're developing your chops, it's great feedback.

Before long, you'll have everyone there wanting a Viper.

Sail Fast, Sail Long

[Matt Sole]

Drew pretty much has it covered.

Your advantage over the big lead mines is your hiking is much more effective. So HIKE!
The general rule of thumb is if the leeward rail is in or near the water you are not flat enough. That leeward rail is all drag so keep it dry.
The viper has a big fat draggy ass in the light move forward to get it out a bit.
Downwind the boat should be pretty much flat even in 25kts. Sail lower. The front guy should have his back against the mast looking backwards for the puffs. He can jump pretty easily to the hike position when needed. If he is doing hos job he should be prepared to hike as the puff hits.

[Robert Bernard]

Awesome!! Thanks for the input guys! We'll put it to use.

[Peter Ruggiero]

Guys,

    Thanks a lot for the tips, I'm that great looking guy in the middle.

Couple thoughts:

Not sure what day those pics were taken (2 day race) but the winds were pretty gusty and were usually over 10 knts (Rob can correct me if i'm wrong).

The jib shape is my fault, I always felt like I was pulling on the halyard too much but it seems if I didn't the jib luff would just look ugly (and wrong to me), but like Drew says sometimes fast is ugly.

Maybe we should check our forestay too although I'm pretty sure it is right and I believe Rob had neutral helm.

We will definitely have to play with the jib more, perhaps we had it too flat.

If we had the halyard on too hard that would shift the draft forward and potentially hurt our pointing ability.

I felt like we were getting out pointed big time but at the same time I don't believe we every got to the windward mark last and in fact got there first once.  Usually we were in there second or third (only out of four though) but against Lindenberg 28's and a J30 like Rob mentioned.

Our upwind speed probably averaged a little higher than 5.8 and we were 6.0 and above above when those gusts would come in.
       Rob probably has better data from the velocitak stored data.

Downwind was just horrible, it is just akward sailing so high, so maybe for that wind we should have been going much deeper.  This is something we will have to work on.  Towards the end we were using the GPS (VMG) to keep a good heading to the mark and I believe we were keeping around 6.0 knts towards the mark with probably an avg. speed of 8-9 knts.

We are starting to get out of the honey moon stage with the boat (where we just go out and try and hit 15 knts in heavy breeze) and are starting on sailing smarter.

Thanks again,
Pete