2024 18ft Worlds Race 5

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Race Area

Most probable left bend in the wind, favoring the left side. Some chance of right wind getting squeezed at the Shark Beach, affecting the mark approach. Hitting the first cape properly would be important, as going too low can take the boat under.

Start

Bias of 4 degrees only already creates quite a difference, since the line is pretty long. It is pretty hard even to notice it and it still brings 27m of upwind distance difference. If the line is long as this one, as soon as the crew can notice the bias, they should go for it. ANDOO was called back and of the other logged boats Shaw had the best start position. However, they could not hold the lane and Vaikobi popped out in the front.

1st Upwind

The whole goal of the upwind is to hit the cape at the right position. If you end up too much leeward, you lose pressure (Vaikobi and Black Kn) and too much windward and you get to sail in the direction of the boats under you (Shaw).

The next important thing is to know how much space you have till you hit the land. If it comes too fast, probably you cannot gain enough to tack and cross. Here it looks like there is enough stretch and Yandoo could cross after the tack and take the lead. Vaikobi tried to tack and could not get through and has lost the lead it was holding. Is better to bear away and pop out in the direction of the mark than to tack again and get rolled. I cannot see most of the boats so is hard to tell what exactly happened. Shaw ended up way over the layline with a long way back to the mark. There was even a small right shift at the top, affecting more Andoo than Yandoo.

The wind shifting left a lot with a small right kick at the end

Top Mark

100m to and from the mark stats

1st Downwind

Yandoo and Andoo with very similar performance. Andoo going higher but faster. Andoo stretching out a bit, but losing with an extra gybe,

Gate Rounding

Andoo with the cleanest rounding. Closed the gap on Yandoo. All the others with quite worse rounding.

2nd Upwind

Again all was about getting into the land exactly at the cape. Andoo did it and has gained a lot to Yandoo. Shaw has struggled a lot to hold the lane on port and has lost many meters. Andoo with a good cover and protecting the lead till the top mark.

76 meters less port tack sailing for Andoo in this part of the upwind. Result of the wind bend at the cape.

Andoo, brown, hitting the shore just right.

Leeward boats lifted on starboard
Left shift in the channel and left approach pretty green.

2nd Downwind

Hoist issues and Yandoo takes the lead. Vaikobi losing due to two extra gybes. The wind bend also favors the single gybe in the corner.

you don’t want sailing on starboard where wind bend favors port tack

2nd Gate

Left shift and huge bias. Clearly visible how Andoo takes over the lead. Aldo the drop was smoother.

Positions where the boats started the 3rd upwind. Yandoo 18m below Black Knight and 17 under Andoo. That means 18m upwind distance sailing down and up extra. 57 meters more straight line sailing.

57m and 17 seconds more sailing for Yandoo. If you can see the gate bias, go for it. From the angle the sailors look at it, is hard to notice so if noticeable, it is big enough to always take it. Also once you have the wind shift, assume that RC will not move the gate, so you sail with having a single mark rounding in your mind and recheck it once approaching the gate.

3rd Upwind

Even though Andoo just snatched the lead, they were pointing too low to get the cape at the right place. Yandoo used this to take the lead and protected the left after.

Vaikobi struggled with the height on port tack. Shaw showed that there is no life on the right side of the course. Always against the wind curve and headed hard.