Melges 24 Croatia Cup Trogir Race 3

Start

The start line was adjusted for the wind and the race course was shortened and was not as skewed as in the previous races.

Still there was a bit of pin-end bias, but not as crucial in the last two races. The main goal was to be able to sail to the left clean and fast, no matter higher or lower lane after the start.

Panjic, Mataran, and Point One were the boats that could capitalize on the start, and sail clean to the left.

1st upwind

The 1st upwind was all about maintaining a good lane to the left and tacking shy of the layline to use the left wind that lifts you to the mark. The boats that could do this were in the lead (Panjic, Point One, and Mataran). The fact that the wind was more left was also bringing the left corner more inside the bay where the wind could be more unstable. This meant that sometimes going too far left too soon was not good.

Also, the best-performing boats keep their boats flatter with the increased wind with a heel angle of around 13-14 degrees, compared to 15-16 of most of the others.

1st Downwind

The biggest gain went to Razjaren that brought the boat into the speed mode and kept it all the way down, even with 5 gybes on that downwind. By gybing, they stayed in the breeze and went back and forth through the gust. They have arrived from more than 100m behind the leader to less than 20m. Another good gain was done by Point One that allowed them to round the gate in the lead.

At the same time, Panjic (Purple) and Yikes (Black) sailed out of the wind on the full left side of the screen, losing quite some distance after the gybe, compared to boats that were gybing to stay in the gust that went down the middle of the course.

2nd Upwind

2nd upwind once again showed how important is to make a good leeward rounding and not sail in dirty air. By rounding the gate alone and going left, Rodop gained on the boats that rounded the other gate and went right in compromised lanes. The only survivor there was Panjic, that managed to keep the height after the rounding and stay just to windward of leading point one.

All the boats going right except the leader are full in red after the mark rounding. Clean lane helped CZE Rodop to gain a few places. Just going left was no longer the only option and the course became more open for playing gusts/shifts. Also, the average wind direction of around 225 degrees was not creating such a big left shift on the top. Once again the best performing boats are always a few degrees less healed to leeward.

2nd downwind

The 2nd downwind is a great example of sailing different modes. Here is the comparison between Mataran, Point One, and Panjic. Panjic managed to stay in speed mode and by staying in the gust took over the lead. The VMG gain with extra speed is clearly visible in the Polar graph. Especially while going fast to the leeward gate.

VMG of Panjic, purple, exceeding 10 knots with a speed between 12 and 13 knots. Mataran (brown) with low mode hardly made 7-8 kts of VMG.

Panjic took over the lead despite sailing the longest distance of all the fleet.

3rd upwind

3rd Downwind

3rd downwind was a good example of how you can go in speed mode only if you are in the solid breeze and not try to do it if someone else can do it somewhere else. On this downwind the 2nd group of the boats sailed the downwind the fastest due to the extra pressure they received with Amorwave sailing the fastest downwind.