Andrew Gould (Musto Skiff) from Emsworth Slipper SC swept the board in the Fast Asymmetric fleet last year to add to his collection of the coveted Race Week plates. Here are his top tips.
1. Get a good transit at the start.
2. Use the tide shadow of the Winner bank to get to the windward mark first.
3. Use the back eddy off HISC to get the lee bow effect on a northerly beat.
4. Avoid East Head when running against the ebb.
5. Shout loudly if you see an asymmetric spinnaker bearing down on you. They may not have seen you!
Guy Mayger’s home club is Felpham SC. Both he and his son Alex were 2015 winners, in Solo and Laser 4.7 respectively. This is Guy’s advice:
1. Before racing do your homework on the forecast and tide. Even if you don't get great results immediately learn from the experience and use that later in the
week.
2. Watch and learn from the fast locals. Keep a close eye on the fleet ahead of you for more clues on where you should be going.
3. Brief/debrief onshore with family, friends or fellow club competitors. Last year it added to an already great week that Alex and I could discuss our experiences and then apply our findings in the following races.
4. At low tide, before racing, take a moment to study where the banks are and their location relative to the channel markers.
Third contributor is Mark Harper from Chichester YC, a regular in the Solo fleet, who echoes the need for familiarisation with below-water landscape (Stocker and Winner banks especially), the main channel navigation buoys and the yellow permanent racing marks (for position guidance – they’re not normally used as course marks). He recommends the online Navionics chart
(https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#boating@11&key=gv_uHv_rD).
Mark also says:
1. Read the SIs, remember you must sign out for your race event and sign back ashore.
2. Get a compass and know how to use it, particularly to identify the windward mark from the bearing given on the committee boat and to confirm wind shifts. Start lines tend to be quite long, and it can take several minutes if the breeze is light to get into position at the favoured end.
3. Get out early to your nominated race starting area, identify your committee boat and know your event class flag. If the wind is light stay close to the start line, up tide, but keep clear of classes starting earlier.
And two reminders from the race team:
The shoreside programme this year includes a How to Win Race Week workshop from two of the harbour’s best tacticians,
Roger Palmer and Keith Walker, and there are links to more racing tips on the event website.
Enter now on line for early-bird rates (until July 1) and enjoy what we believe is the South Coast’s premier dinghy regatta week.
