2024 Etchells Worlds, Race 1

Race Area

Start

Quite a big bias to the RC side. Large amount of meters to catch if not there. Just note that African Queen is listed as leader at the gun. They were above the RC at a time so Lisa and Highlander were the ones in best position at the gun.

1st Upwind

The wind in general went right, but still with some shifts to be played. There were chances to still fix it if standing good on left and using the lifts to cross. The boats that tacked after the start were the ones clearly having a big advantage. Of the left boats No Drama has used the shifts very well to cross. All the boats further left had harder time. The race area also became skewed due to that shift.

mostly going right with a bit of a left at the top mark

big gain for right boats
No Drama with two great shifts
Boats that continued more left sailed pretty low for a while

1.5:1 starboard vs port ratio with 10 degrees skewed course

Just straight line sailing data. No maneuvers and mark rounding. Sorted by VMG

Top Mark

Harder for the boats behind. Difficult to choose whether try to jump in on port with possible large bearaway or to go over the right layline. Lisa had easy time to jump in in front of all the right boats that went way over the layline.

1st Downwind

A big shift made this leg a straight line to the next mark. Whoever gybed at the mark has gained. Especially the boats in the back (probably less wind shadow from the offset boats)

Magpie, Tango, and Plum were the biggest gainers, with African Queen losing the most places

Gate Rounding

When the wind shifts, there is usually only one gate to be taken. The other one ends up way too low and RC will hardly ever try to fix it. You need to sail your downwind thinking about only one mark to be rounded. Then just check it once approaching if is maybe not the case.

We can see that all the boats doing the right turn have lost a lot. They were even worse than strugglers at the left turn (except Highlander that was in big trouble). The boats going right turn sailed around 40m more upwind distance sailing. Avalon with solid rounding has sailed 65m longer straight line than Tango.

2nd Upwind

Slightly skewed course still, even with the new mark and probably boats expecting the wind to shift back. Most went to the left, some even in not the easiest lanes. Still, the wind decided to go even more right and has favored the boats on the right side.

Difficult time to cross for left boats with the right shift

no maneuvers and rounding data. Sorted by VMG

2nd Top Mark

Looks like boats coming on port end up doing 360s.

2nd Downwind

Still pretty skewed. Favoring the boats behind and the ones gybing early. But not too many passing lanes or places going up/down. Privateer had solid one, gaining some places.