94 November 2017
Get out of that
DaviD carr ON startiNg at the piN eNd
How to get out of that
David ‘Freddie’ Carr, grinder and bowman with
British America’s Cup challenger Land Rover
BAR during the 35th America’s Cup, considers
how to handle a port-biased start line. 1 Work out exactly what has
happened and keep crew
informed about the potential
sequence of events to follow.
2 Assign at least one
crewmember to keep an eye
out for boats on starboard tack
still starting.
3 Ensure a suitable sailing knife
is on hand in case you need to
cut the line free.Entangled at the pin?
T
he start of this highly competitive fleet
of J-Boats, here battling it out for the
best position on the line during a light
airs race at the J Cup, has turned out to be a bit
of a tricky one. As well as the light winds, it also
looks as though there may be a good bit of tidal
current running, which appears to be holding
the boats back a bit from the line.
With so many boats at the pin end of the line
it’s easy to surmise there maybe a good amount
of pin bias on this line. There are also a fair few
port starters looking to get out to the right early
but, as we can see, it can be fairly risky.
I would say the crew of the boat stuck on the
pin end might have been looking to win the pin.
However, they seem to have got carried away
with shutting the door on the port starters and,
in doing so, have given themselves very little
wiggle room on the layline!
The result is this potentially good start plan
has ended in all sorts of fun and games, which
looks to include the line of the pin-end buoy
hooked on the rudder. Not pretty and not fast!
As well as being left deep down in the fleet, this
team will have to remember to carry out their
penalty turns when they finally get free!Extracting themselves from this nightmare is
not easy, particularly in light wind conditions. In
more breeze the boat would be moving at pace,
which means the mark mooring line might just
run off the bottom of the rudder and free itself,
but in light air in a tidal stream, the chances of
this happening are fairly slim.
In the first instance, I think the logical thing
to do is to put in a tack with the idea of coming
out the way they came in.
With so much going on at this point it is
vital for the crew to keep a good lookout for
starboard tackers that are still in the process
of starting. They need to remember that they
already have one penalty for hitting the mark
and they definitely don’t need to carry out more
spins for a port/starboard incident as well.
Stressful though this may be, it is important
for the team to remain calm to ensure the
safety of the crew. Although the boat is