Can you have a pre-where did you go post?
Prep work before the start of the B2K race tomorrow morning at 11am. The forecast is for 12-20 knots SE, but we;ll need to get out of the bay and offshore quickly to avoid getting caught in a lower pressure line that will creep up and out over the bay from the SW.
It looks like a fair bit of VMG running, about 150-160 TWA, so I am trying a new sail combo of using the staysail with the vmg kites. This is a bit abnormal , as the staysail is normally for reaching inside a reaching kite.
But after speaking with a few gurus, I think it will actually work. The main reason is by using the staysail I am narrowing the slot between main and spinnaker, which will force the airflow over the inside of the spinnaker to accelerate. This effect also causes an acceleration of the flow on the leeward surface of the kite as the air tries to match velocities as it comes off the leach. The faster and more matched the airflow is when leaving the leach, the less laminar separation and the more lift the sail generates.
The key to making ihis sail choice work is to not overtrim the staysail, you want it eased to where it is almost permanently luffing. If you overtrim the staysail, you cause the air to separate off the sail and create turbulence on the lee face, which causes the spinnaker clew that is to leeward to get sucked in (bad). That's the good thing about long distance, you have the chance to try things for 30 mins or so to see if you've improved or dropped speed, and then adjust to suit.
Down to the last item on the checklist, which has more poignancy this time as my 16yr old daughter is coming with us on her first ocean race. Now to get a good sleep, one final prayer to the weather gods, and fingers crossed we can stay in the pressure.
If you want to follow the race ( and watch all of my mistakes in real time! ) we're on Yellow brick, see the link following
yb.tl/b2k2019Screenshot of the course, some 340 odd nm.
Good luck to all the boats and competitors, stay safe and hoping for a great tussle!
as one of the judges. 
Phoebe Hang by Ben Graham
lydia said..
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