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Excuses
NO
EXCUSES. Bill
Symes’ interview with Jonathan McKee after the 1996 Tasar Worlds
You said you thought it was
pretty obvious off the start which way to go. How do you see these things?
One thing that we did was,
before almost every race, we would split with another boat. With 15 minutes to
go before the start, we both would sail up in different directions for a
couple of minutes and then come back. You could usually learn a lot from that
about what was happening. It wasn't necessarily the same way when the race
came around, but you could kind of see what the variables were, and that would
kind of tell you if there was more wind on one side or the other. We were
always one of the first boats out to the start, and we actually would sail
upwind and sail on both sides of the course to try to get a feel for that.
Do you use a compass?
No. I don't think, at least for
the way I sail, that you need one in a river like that where you have the
shore. It's such a good gage of your shifts. You have a good horizon in other
words.
Are you referencing the shore a
lot as you sail to windward?
Yeah. I mean, it's not like, oh
we're pointing for that, necessarily, but in your mind you are totally, so you
can tell when you dial down or when you're lifted up.
You seem fast in a wide range
of wind strengths. Can you tell me a little about how you change gears to keep
the boat moving.
Yeah. The jib trim is real
important, I think - probably the single most important variable. If you want
to go faster just ease the jib; then by definition the main will end up going
out more too.
We had a
couple of races where the wind died. Did you make any major changes to rig
tension, etc.
If it died a lot-like if it
went down to light air-yeah, then we would make all the adjustments. We would
move our shrouds forward, we would ease our cunningham and outhaul, we'd ease
the main sheet considerably. We'd generally go a hole further in on our jib
leads. You know, the usual stuff; nothing magical, nothing different than what
I think most people do. I mean most people seem to have a pretty good idea how
to set the boat up.
How about mainsheet trim in
light air. What do you look for?
I'm basically using those upper
telltales on the leech, trying to keep them just barely going and feel the
speed of the boat. If you're going slow, it's pretty simple: just ease the
main and if that doesn't do it then ease the jib a little bit too. And when
you're up to speed then trim it in a little bit again. So you have to
sensitize yourself to the speed of the boat. And that applies in stronger
winds too.
As the wind comes up then, how
do you set mainsheet tension?
We kind of have one spot that
we go to generally. If it's really strong, like over 20 or 25, we'll ease the
sheet out a little bit more. But generally, in any wind from about 11 up
through the low 20s, the mainsheet stays in pretty much the same place. The
leech telltales are still flying. It's hard to explain that one; I mean it's
hard but not too hard.
It looks like you're sailing a
little less hard than, for instance, Jay and Lisa. They look pretty strapped.
Yeah, but I'm not sure if
that's from mainsheet tension or vang. I think we use less vang than them. But
it could have been in the lighter wind they probably do pull in the mainsheet
a little tighter than we do. The other thing we try to do all the time is sail
real flat upwind. I think we sail flatter than probably almost anyone else.
Are you hiking harder, or
depowering more effectively?
We just get used to the boat
being more fiat. Everyone's hiking hard. And in fact sailing flat keeps you
from hiking too hard because you drag in the water more. Maybe we would just
point up a little bit higher or maybe I'd drop the traveler a little bit more
or whatever, but getting used to sailing the boat real flat I think is good in
many conditions. Now the one time when that's tough is when you start to get
big waves, and then you have to sail with a little bit more heel; otherwise
the crew's dragging in the water all the time, which is definitely slow.
Some of us have trouble
depowering and keeping the boat from heeling. Should we be dropping our
travelers more or sooner?
It's usually a combination of a
lot of things. Easing the jib sheet and being a little further out on the jib
lead. We would go one hole further down on our clewboard to get the jib a
little flatter too. And we'd use a lot of cunningham. Anytime when we were
really overpowered, we'd really pull the cunningham hard.
Are you using more cunningham
now than you were before?
Yeah, I think so; more than we
were a year or two ago, definitely. We're now using consistently more
cunningham in the strong winds, partly because we don't use as much vang, I
think.
How about outhaul? Are you
really strapped?
Not really super cranked, but
fairly strong. I'd say we're maybe going a little tighter on that than we used
to.
Are you adjusting that much?
No, not really. Although if the
reaches are long, we'll ease the outhaul for the reaches--if it's not
overpowering. And when it gets light again, it's important to ease it off.
Any other new ideas for sail
and boat trim in heavy air?
Not much. I mean our diamonds
and our shroud tension and such are pretty similar to what they've always
been. I don't think there's too much different there.