Race Area
Pretty far from land, so probably no land effect. The forecast was giving the wind shifting right.
Start
The wind in pre race sailing was somewhere around 330 degrees. The wind at the start was at 346 and it created the bias of 8 degrees that makes quite a difference on 600m+ start line(80m). However, you need to check if the bias is caused by a wind shift. If you believe it is, shifting back will cancel out the bias, maybe even inverting it to the other side. In stable wind, taking 80m advantaged side would be a no brainer, in shifty and light, sometimes is not.
Once only disclaimer about the numbers: The numbers in table below are distance from the device to the start line at the gun. So with 1.1m behind, Arete was probably over the line. Also, in gps tracks, boat shape is drawn with Vakaros in the mid boat. Racesense also uses 10HZ when doing your calls so is more accurate, has your boat exact shape and rotation ot your hull. Make sure to calibrate your compasses so your heading is accurate for racesense use.
One thing that is sure is that with racesense, you all get very close to the line. i see many boats reaching just next to the line before the gun. Also, you will get called OCS even if 1cm over the line. System has no mercy and you cannot hide in the fleet anymore.
1st Upwind
Looking at the 1st upwind, the wind was the most right of the leg at the start. At that time, tacking to the right was forcing you to not go up the ladder much. The wind has been going left for the most of the upwind and boats going left were the ones gaining. YC Monaco and Ciclone getting the best of it. However, in the middle right, one third up the beat, there was big nice lefty that could be used and if you tried to get to the left after it, you could still save the upwind. Noticia did it well and ended up pretty solid at the top. Patakin and Tyra did similar.
- Right wind at the start. tacking right was taking you more away from the top mark.
- Whoever arrived to this area was using the full benefit of the left shift
- Some solid tracks on the mid right, still some chances for boats to get left after it.
Straight Line Sailing
Note that pitch is zeroed for all boats for this part of the race. So it shows zero. In all next slides, it tells you the difference between the one you had on this upwind. Pitch is very hard to calibrate between the boats so at least you can see where you went in next legs. Also have in mind that when the device is attached to the mast, it can also be affected by mast movement.
Top Mark
Sassy and Arete were the fasest up and down 100m from the marks. The rounding was pretty painful for the boats coming from the right side, over the layline and against the left shift. There was already quite a big separation after a long leg with wind shifting. At least it makes port tack top mark approach much easier.
1st Downwind
Straight set was the fastest option. A lot thanks to a big right shift at the bottom of the course. Still, Arete managed to do very well with early gybe, consantly gaining on the way down. Their only problem was that they still had to sail a bit on starboard tack and against the shift at the very end of the leg. In the left group, Noticia did the best, followed by Happy and Liquid Sun. YC Monaco losing with two extra gybes.
- Early gybe boats sailing solid with right shift
- At the end, right wind gave an edge to left boats, right group had to go very negative
- Some boats stayed green at the first gybe area (Noticia, Patakin), while some were not doing that well after the gybe.
Gate Rounding
The right shift has created solid gate bias, favoring the left turn. However, the wind was pretty unstable and not always the same, so it also depended on the time when you arrived to the gate. For example, Tyra had solid track after the right turn. I have some 28m of bias with wind set at 359 degrees.
2nd Upwind
After that big right shift, the wind went left again and left boats gained well. Sassy and Good to go had the biggest gains with different second part of the leg, G2G sailing more in the middle at the end. Leading pack, YC Monaco and Noticia were a bit stuck more right, Noticia losing a lot with some bad shifts more right. Was another interesting leg with difficult wind. Notice the big rightie at the top for Sail Racing and a few more boats. Again, the fleet was so far apart that you had different conditions depending on where in the fleet you have been.
Arrow shows the path of the quickest boat (Sassy). Very bright green at the top for starboard boats (big rightie)
2nd Downwind
Skewed leg with much more sailing on starboard. Still Crazy did early gybe and managed to sail deeper than the rest of the fleet. Gaining well on boats ahead. YC Monaco managed to stay just ahead of Noticia. The boats ahead had much better angle down on port tack. Mid fleet and behind had to sail longer to get to the finish. At the end, the left shift was giving gains to boats arriving from the right side.
- Lower angle for first group (more right wind)
- Trailing group went quite higher with more left wind direction
- Left wind made starboard tack approach to the finish favored.
