Strategic Moves

© Tim Wilkes Photography THE PORT TACK DUCK START When one side of the course is heavily favored by wind direction or current, experienced race committees will often skew the starting line to draw boats away from the favored side. Most racers are familiar with trying to leverage this opportunity by starting on port tack at the pin end and attempting to cross the starboard tack fleet. Yet, few have ever experienced the mirror image move of ducking the entire fleet at the start and starting at the committee end on port. The Rail to Rail team was presented with such a high risk option during the first start of Sunday’s racing of the 2004 Spring Keel regatta, which was hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club and sailed on San Francisco’s infamous city front. The Situation:. At 10:00 am, the Committee hoisted the postponement flag at the dock indicating the 11:00 am planned was likely going to be delayed substantially. When the sea breeze filled in around 1:30 pm, the 3-knot ebb had filled in across the bay. Rail-to-Rail was in fourth place and hoping to move up in the standings of the highly competitive top end of the fleet. While we knew we had great boat speed, we also knew there was great advantage to being in the strong current to the right. At the time of our start, there was going to be at least a 1-knot differential across the racecourse. Simply, if our team was going to finish the weekend on the awards podium, Rail to Rail would need to be the first J24 to hook up on the ebb’s freight train as the fleet sailed upwind. It was clear to our tactician that there was going to be a tremendous fight for position at the committee boat at the start as everybody tried to be the right most boat sailing on starboard tack. We also guessed everyone would get to the line early as they fought for position despite the strong ebb pushing them closer to the line. This would increase the odds the fleet would slide down the line towards the pin to avoid being over early. So the Rail-to-Rail team placed a huge bet that its analysis would play out. We expected a hole at the Committee for a port tack boat to fit through. Rail to Rail's starting plan worked out spectacularly. We launched our plan 90 seconds before the start by getting out of phase with the fleet; sailing on port below the starboard tack pack, waiting for a hole to open up at the committee boat at the gun. As we snuck our nose up into the wind, we let the strong ebb carry us past the committee and its anchor rode. We then bore off and drove hard out to the middle of San Francisco Bay. As we watched the rest of the starboard tack fleet slowly come over onto port, the Rail to Rail team saw ourselves conveyor belted to weather of the fleet and were first to the windward mark by four boat lengths. That is not to say the port duck start wasn't without risks. We knew the starboard tackers would start with one to three boat length leads on us. We knew we could get shut out at the committee boat if another J24 was late to the line. We knew that if things didn't work out perfectly, we would be deep and would never make up the distance over the race course. Nevertheless, Rail to Rail finished the weekend in 3rd place and captured our first trophy for the 2004 season. Lessons Learned: Determining the odds on the hole opening up at the committee end of the line at the right time is the key to taking informed and measured risks. In such a strong ebb, very few racers can resist getting to the line early. So the idea that the Committee would be lonely at the start was a fairly dependable bet. Knowing that Rail to Rail could virtually stuff the boat head to wind and let the ebb carry us over the line and past the committee boat’s anchor line was another factor in our favor. And, although we lost one to three boat lengths on the starboard tackers by ducking them, we knew we didn't need to tack until we got to the strongest ebb, while everyone else spent a boat length tacking back to port right after the start. Being the right most boat at the start and sailing only on port put us much closer than anyone to the ebb’s conveyor belt. First one to hook up to the belt is almost invariably the first to the weather mark in big ebb conditions on San Francisco’s city front. Seasoned racers know that 'flyers' are high risk/high reward opportunities, whose dreams of glory are often quickly dashed. However, as one's experience level grows, the occasional flyer can have big payoffs. The successful sailor knows well how to balance the rewards with the risks.