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Race Area
The wind coming over the land at Key Biscayne. Some shifts caused by land.
Start
6 degrees of bias resulting in 31m of upwind distance between the sides. The 6 degrees bias is known as 10% bias. Meaning that the upwind distance difference is at 10% of the start line length. Not the easiest bias to spot, but at such line lengths is already significant. The wind direction used for this data is the wind that boats had in the first few minutes of racing, as soon as there is a bit of sailing done on port tack, too.
I even have some boats over the line at the gun. Possibly a bit more conservative line ping. You can see the green and red dots, representing unused pings. Using the higher ones would probably have only 311 over the line by a bit. No boat really suffered a lot in the first minute of sailing, only M Sun dropping a bit more than the others.
1st Upwind
There was a left shift soon after the start and then right shift mid way up the beat. The boats that took the left one and the right ended up in the front at the top mark. (GhostRider, Gamecock, 238). As an example, have a look at the green colored port tack sailing mid way up with huge left shift. The average angles went from as low as 41 for GhstRd to 48+ Shaka and Brass with more than 300m more meters to sail.
Top Mark
If Boomer has made the mark, then clearly many boats were over the layline (especially since it looks like a small righty at the mark). So left approach by the leading boats was probably the better option.
1st Downwind
The right shift (wind at 92) made the course skewed (1.7:1 sailing on port vs stbd) so gybe-set looked like a logic decision. Also the gate marks were more close to the RC, skewing it even more. Kuai had the best downwind, a minute quicker than Boomer.
Gate Rounding
About 14m of gate mark bias. Already pretty large and important to take the higher mark.
The gate bias is the most underestimated area with huge gains/losses. With hundreds of race reports, I can say is the area not many people care about and is very important.
Here are some tips:
If there was a wind shift, like in this case the right shift, assume the right hand (looking up) mark is favored. RC will hardly ever fix the marks once they are in.
While approaching the marks, notice the wind direction (usually by looking at the smallest waves), then try to see if one mark is higher regarding the small wave direction. If you can clearly see that one is higher, then is higher enough to go for it no matter what. We approach the marks with an angle where is difficult to judge bias so if clearly visible, is big enough.
2nd Upwind
GhstRd with the fastest upwind, using the shifts well and not sailing over the right layline. Some boats sail pretty bad angles at all times, could be the setup/speed issue.
2nd Downwind
Sentinel with by far the best performance. Overtook quite some boats. Looks like strong gust for them mid way down. Avg SOG of 11.4 is by far the highest.
