How to sail at Frensham

Introduction

This information is certainly not definitive - but hopefully it is at least helpful! The intention here is to provide some help for you to get the most out of your time on the water, in terms of both enjoyment and success.

Apologies in advance to the 2.4 and Access sailors - but I am sure you will be able to spot where bits of this advice do not apply to you.

Frensham is not easy - which is a good thing

The best thing about sailing at Frensham is that it is most definitely not easy. This is a truly good thing. Someone once defined sailing as “adapting to change”. In a typical one hour race at Frensham there can easily be more change than in a day’s trade-wind sailing across the Atlantic. Consider an average of 4 laps, each with 8 marks and wind shifting 45 degrees every minute or two and strength fluctuating between force 2 and force 5.

However, there are times when Frensham can be truly exasperating, but it is the same the trick is to turn those challenges to your advantage.

Another famous adage is that it only days a couple of hours to show someone to sail, but one lifetime is simply not enough to master sailing. That is why ours is the ultimate sport.

Adapt to those changes

A fundamental error people make is confusing the priorities of trimming sails correctly and being upright. Except in an absolute drift perhaps, the boat needs to be absolutely upright. If sitting out as hard as you can does not do the trick (and the rig setup controls are of course about right) you must to ease that mainsheet (and jib in extremis, where applicable) in the gusts so the boat is always upright (or/and bear off going downwind). This simple correction in priorities brings a major advance in results
Anticipation - Re-acting is not ideal – we all need to have our head ‘out of the boat’ and watch the breeze coming; that way we stand a chance of being ready. This might mean sitting out harder and heeling slightly to windward in anticipation of a gust for example. Upwind, crews can really help their helm here, looking around and reporting and what they see. Downwind of course, it is well known that a spinnaker will flap as soon as the crew’s eyes glance away for even a millisecond, so crews are exempted (no forbidden) from looking around if the kite is up. This makes it the helm’s job both to observe and communicate to the crew downwind
Another way of getting a clue as to what is about to happen is looking at the boats to windward – many’s the time this has saved me from a swim as the gust, header or wind-hole hits a neighbouring boat first
Next; keep flicking an eye to both your tell-tales and your burgee (if you don’t have these get them straightaway). Tell-tales positioned one-third back along the sail should be streaming horizontally. If the windward one is not, the sail should come in (or you need to bear away) and vice versa. Lining up the burgee with a boom, until the boom goes out to right-angles (or as far as it will go) is another useful guide
Your sense of touch is vital too. Mainsheet cleats and ratchet blocks completely take your feel away. In a different way, so do hats. Do without as much can. The difference can be amazing
Downwind as the wind fluctuates, your sails need to be trimmed (moving in and out) the whole time with the wind’s constant changes. If your downwind speed is not up to scratch, you are not working hard enough at this. Main and jib (and spinnaker if applicable) should move broadly in unison. Trimming one but not the other is not good, although jibs are less important if you are flying a spinnaker
Don’t forget that as you accelerate in a gust the apparent wind comes forward so you need to sheet in – and vice versa as the gust passes, speed dropsand the apparent wind moves back. [Apparent wind is the combination of the true wind and the breeze the boat creates through its own movement]
Upwind, all those windshifts give you the opportunity to make some major gains. The shifts at Frensham can be so big that there are sometimes opportunities to either get the shifts right and tack along virtually a straight line on an upwind leg, or conversely sail for 5 minutes and get no closer to the next mark. I strongly recommend the former! A good method for working out which shift to choose is to imagine concentric circles radiating from the windward mark then take the tack that cuts those lines quickest
Downwind, as most boats go slower the lower you go, take the opportunity in the gusts to get as low as you can – you can then come back up in the lulls and so maintain a higher average speed. Done properly, the extra speed more than compensates for a sailing a bit further
We do lots of changing of direction. Try and use heel and adjusting sheets to help steer around marks – after all, the rudder is a brake. Two-sail boats should practice rudderless sailing occasionally (use half-plate only though or you will likely get very dizzy)
‘Trim’ is about positioning your weight correctly fore and aft. Many people sit too far aft and in double-handers, too far apart as well. Observe and copy where your class leaders are sitting because trim is surprisingly important
Compete at the start. It is much easier to sail at the front of the fleet. You have the luxuries of clean air, less chop and freedom to manoeuvre – so try not to make it extra-hard for yourself from the outset by letting everyone else go first! However, you don’t have to fight for absolute pole position – but do get yourself into the first rank and try to be free to go the right way
Last, deliberately, is boat set-up, but it is important. For example, a Laser is virtually unsailable in a blow if the rig controls are set wrongly. If in doubt, get someone to show you the base settings for different wind strengths – you may be amazed how hard you should be pulling things on and how much easier things then become

In summary, observe, think, sit out harder, move more and play those sheets constantly – downwind for sail-trim, upwind to be upright. But please don’t use this advice as an excuse to rock or pump – it is cheating. If you want to row, buy a rowing boat!

Attitude and mental approach

Our constant wind changes create lots of opportunities to improve your position, and threats from others trying to overtake you. This is a great leveller – Frensham has some great sailors (I will not embarrass them here and name names) who can go out in the most dilapidated, clapped out looking boat and beat us ordinary mortals sailing our brand new, immaculate, pride and joy. How do they do it? I believe a major part of it is about mental approach. Things like:

Never complain about your bad luck. Over the course of a race or season, it really does even out. What’s more, studies have shown optimistic people are more successful, so don’t whinge at any perceived misfortune. Instead, laugh (aloud if you must) and deal with it. If you get pipped on the finish-line, draw strength from the pain and remember it will be your turn next time. If you get overtaken in the middle of a race, keep doing the right things, rightly confident your break will come. Who was it said “the more I practice the luckier I get”?
Keep concentrating to the last. I never cease to be amazed how I can struggle to overtake someone for two-thirds of a race, but then if I do get past, within a couple of legs that boat has often disappeared backwards? Why? How can that happen? For sure it is not that I have not suddenly turned into Ben Ainslie!
Similarly to a congested motorway, the lulls and gusts on Frensham can bunch the fleet up then spread it out again. Unlike the motorway though, it is possible, with the application of some nous, to actually put yourself into a position to get the next gust first and get away from those you have caught-up. Learn to recognise these situations, engage cerebral mode and get sneaky. It pays handsomely and feels great when it works
Don’t go hitting the corners or sailing out on a limb unless you are doing so for a genuine, rational reason that will stand up to scrutiny in the bar afterwards. The national lottery probably gives better odds than the 12-horse accumulator that is equivalent to such a race strategy. So spend a quid on a lottery ticket afterwards if you need a long-odds gamble, but on the water I recommend strongly a more rational approach
Keeping your ‘bottle’ nearing the finish, particularly when you are doing better than you expected. Failing to do so is a form of vertigo, I reckon; a very common trick of grasping defeat from the jaws of victory. Remove all thoughts of ‘pecking order’ from your head. If you have been ahead of someone for 59 minutes of a 60 minute race you have sailed better than they have thus far. Would you bet on them at 60:1? Roles reversed, would you back yourself to overtake them in the last minute? Given the choice, would you choose being the boat in front or behind? Hopefully these are rhetorical questions – so keep calm, focus on doing the right things, sit on their wind if you can and close it out
Conversely, if you are catching the boat in front, keep them nervous. Smile; look confident, focussed and purposeful. Pinch a bit every time they look back at you so it looks like you are going higher than them. Do the fundamentals well and if you catch them, then fantastic. If not, tell them ‘well done’, think back to where you lost that half a boat-length in the race, vow not to do the same again and you should get them next time
Never think ‘it does n’t matter’. That one place foregone now may make all the difference at the end of a series – if not to you, perhaps to someone else

Topology

You may have noticed that Frensham is surrounded by small hills, but worse, by large weeds sometimes and erroneously known as trees. This lot are a big part of the reason the wind is so eccentric. Dealing with their effect includes some obvious and some less obvious tricks. So:

Stay away from the windward, sheltered shore as much as possible. On the beat, that might mean leaving the weather-shore-approaching tack as long as possible. In a typical south-westerly, this means doing most of the port-tacking bit first and approaching on starboard (ie going right) as this generally pays. The same principles apply downwind, particularly in an asymmetric spinnaker boat
Don’t get sucked into following the fleet as they all luff each other into a wind-shadow. This happens regularly having rounded 1 to starboard at the start of a westerly course. Often, a whole fleet will sail into the shadow of the shore by mark 2 where there is no wind. Create yourself some space and gybe off instead
Conversely, on the lee shore, the wind will divert along the trees rather than climb-over. So again, in a south-westerly, the breeze is both stronger and bends around the shoreline on the way to 2 on the far shore
There are lots of effects like this – I cannot describe them all here but you get the idea I hope – so get on to the water a few minutes early, have a look and a think, then test your analysis before the start

The next paragraph is the most complicated in this article but also possible the most enlightening, so stick with it, as it explains why it is so easy to capsize to windward at Frensham

The wind does not move along always at the same height (thankfully, or we would not get any!) So, much of the wind, particularly the gusts, blows downwards, sometimes at quite a steep angle. As the moving air hits the water it spreads out in perhaps a semi-circle from the impact point. Sailing upwind, this can have a devastating effect. What happens is that as you reach one gust cell, first you get headed – perhaps 20 or 30 degrees. Then almost straight-away you get lifted and lifted and lifted and lifted, well above the direction you were going before the header. This feels fantastic at the time. Trouble is, the next gust cell is approaching rapidly and you are now pointing well above mean wind direction, perhaps by 35-40 degrees. And the first part of that next gust cell will now present itself as a huge header of more than 45 degrees. This spells big trouble – as you are likely sitting out hard in a gust and the sails are about to fill on the opposite side. Uh-oh. Splash.

And that is why you keep capsizing to windward.

All this is nice and scientific, but what can you do about it? Well, first, know its coming – fore-warned is fore-armed. Second, rather than head up and bear-off so dramatically in each cell, sail a more average course, ease the sails in the lift, stay upright and go for speed instead. Third, be ready to move fast, even if this means not sitting out to the ultimate (but keep the boat upright of course). Fourth, particularly in a Laser with its low freeboard, sometimes you can let the water take your body-weight, aided by the buoyancy in your lifejacket, and relieve the windward heeling force that way. Don’t forget that grabbing the far toestrap or gunwale is actually helping pull the boat over on top of you!

How to spot windshifts up the beat

There is a line of wind coming at a visibly different angle
Are you now aiming at different trees along the approached shore A tree further to windward means a lift, to leeward means a backer
Has your relationship to other boats changed? If boats behind now look further to windward than before (and you are doing the same to boats ahead) you are on a lift. Vice versa is a header
Has this new state persisted for more than a couple of seconds?
Are you sure the wind has changed direction not solely strength? Lulls pretend to be backers; a gust can give a momentary illusion of a lift as you speed distorts the apparent wind. Give things a chance to settle down if at all unsure
Frensham’s winds can be very localised. It can pay to sail into a new heading breeze properly to ensure you are truly in it. Tacking straightaway can mean sailing out of the favouring breeze and watching others zoom by - very annoying

Common sense...

…is all too rare – we all have made at least one of these silly mistakes – don’t fall into traps like:

Rigging the boat wrongly (always hoist a spinnaker before the start, check it, gybe and check again)
Being late for the start
Trying to start on the wrong start line
Sailing to the wrong mark (losing track of where you are)
Rounding marks the wrong way (unwinding and rounding properly is really messy!)
Hitting a mark when no one else is nearby pressurising you
Not looking out for other boats and so having to do a 720 degree penalty return for fouling someone
Losing track of how many laps you’ve done and either missing the finish or losing a place trying to finish early
Missing shorten course instructions - there should be both flags and number boards visible at the race hut, showing the mark from which you have been shortened. There is a flag and board for each class start, both going from left to right for the first to last start.
Not signing on (or off) the entry sheets in the clubhouse lobby – which means you will be excluded from results calculations

A summary of the key Sailing Rules always to remember

Always avoid a collision regardless of whether you are obliged to give way or not
Port gives way to starboard (you’re on starboard if your right hand is nearer the bows when looking at the sail)
Windward gives way to leeward (windward means nearer to where the wind is coming from)
Keep clear when coming from behind
If in doubt about whether an overlap was established within 2 boat lengths of a mark, start a conversation about it. You should give room if asked for it and not barge if denied it – then protest if you disagree
Give time and opportunity for another boat to keep out of the way before any manoeuvres.
There is a new arbitration scheme that is designed to make incident resolution easy and less stressful than a full protest

Get feedback and advice

Frensham is a friendly club. Most of us recognise that we are not sailing a final, medal-deciding race at the Olympics, but we enjoy tight racing nevertheless and want to see more boats racing and doing well. Don’t be afraid to approach your class hotshots and ask for advice; I am sure it will always be forthcoming. We are looking to introduce ‘buddy’ and ‘mentoring’ systems across all fleets to help with this – talk to your class captain about it.

Of course, the best way to improve and move up the fleet is to spend time on the water. The training in our Cadet class is legendary and the Laser class has been working hard in this area too. Talk to your class captain about what training is available for you – and come and join in.

Best of all, race as much as you can – it is what we are here for. And its fun – after all sailing is the ultimate sport.

Clive Eplett
January 2008