Hello folks, I have a question on tactics for downwind sailing in a light wind race. the boat I crew on races only JAM, and this past Wednesday the wind died down to almost nothing halfway through the race.
On the downwind run, of which there were three because of massive wind shifts, where we usually deploy our genoa on a whisker pole, most of the time during that race the wind was so light it wouldn't fill the genoa, and in fact the genoa was backwinded a considerable amount of time.
My thought is that the sail fabric for the 150 was simply too heavy for such light wind. Our speed through the water was between 0.7 knots and 1.2 knots. Should we have just furled the genoa and sailed on main alone? It certainly didn't appear as though the genoa was doing anything for us, and I'm wondering if it being backwinded actually hurt us.
I thought that during the race and wonder if I should have made that suggestion. Everything ended up nicely though as we finished first, and the second place boat finished 23 minutes behind us. The rest of the fleet had to abandon.
The boat is a Ranger 26-2, and we had the keel up on the downwind runs.
Thanks for any advice!
On the downwind run, of which there were three because of massive wind shifts, where we usually deploy our genoa on a whisker pole, most of the time during that race the wind was so light it wouldn't fill the genoa, and in fact the genoa was backwinded a considerable amount of time.
My thought is that the sail fabric for the 150 was simply too heavy for such light wind. Our speed through the water was between 0.7 knots and 1.2 knots. Should we have just furled the genoa and sailed on main alone? It certainly didn't appear as though the genoa was doing anything for us, and I'm wondering if it being backwinded actually hurt us.
I thought that during the race and wonder if I should have made that suggestion. Everything ended up nicely though as we finished first, and the second place boat finished 23 minutes behind us. The rest of the fleet had to abandon.
The boat is a Ranger 26-2, and we had the keel up on the downwind runs.
Thanks for any advice!