After this week's Thursday Night race I got some, let's say, constructive criticism, and it got me thinking about if there's anything I should've done differently.
Here's the situation - Upwind finish with very light (~4 kt) north wind, and current of about 3/4 kt also from the north. I was approaching the starboard end of the line on starboard tack. As soon as I was at the mark I went head to wind to nose across. I slowly fell back to starboard to get some breathing room from the mark, then slowly tacked onto port to get up-river and clear the finish line. Once I had the whole boat across the line and I was confident I had cleared the mark and wouldn't drift back down onto it I saw two other racers approaching the line, one on a similar angle to where I had been, and one coming from down-river on port. It looked like the two of them would converge just downwind of me, and I was making less progress in the dying wind. So I started my engine and went into forward at about half throttle while we began furling our jib and in-mast furling main, still on close hauled port tack upwind of the line. After we finished furling I turned back to see that the port boat (in my fleet and owed time by me) had fallen below the mark. It looked like he had ducked the starboard boat, or maybe he was just battling the current and dying wind. It took him several more minutes to tack twice more and cross the line.
Here's a depiction - me in the black boat, the other starboard tacker (from another fleet) in green, and port tack in red. I started my engine and began furling when my stern was somewhere around the E.
After the race Port said to me that by motoring and furling my sails while in the finish area I chewed up all the air, and that's what stopped him before the line. My initial impression was it was sour grapes that he had fallen back far enough to not correct ahead of me, after he was ahead of me earlier that leg. I didn't think that it would have been good of me to just sit above the finish line with my sails up, making a big wind shadow over the mark, and being burdened if he got to leeward of me. But I'm willing to learn, so if anyone thinks I should've done something else what ideas are there?
Here's the situation - Upwind finish with very light (~4 kt) north wind, and current of about 3/4 kt also from the north. I was approaching the starboard end of the line on starboard tack. As soon as I was at the mark I went head to wind to nose across. I slowly fell back to starboard to get some breathing room from the mark, then slowly tacked onto port to get up-river and clear the finish line. Once I had the whole boat across the line and I was confident I had cleared the mark and wouldn't drift back down onto it I saw two other racers approaching the line, one on a similar angle to where I had been, and one coming from down-river on port. It looked like the two of them would converge just downwind of me, and I was making less progress in the dying wind. So I started my engine and went into forward at about half throttle while we began furling our jib and in-mast furling main, still on close hauled port tack upwind of the line. After we finished furling I turned back to see that the port boat (in my fleet and owed time by me) had fallen below the mark. It looked like he had ducked the starboard boat, or maybe he was just battling the current and dying wind. It took him several more minutes to tack twice more and cross the line.
Here's a depiction - me in the black boat, the other starboard tacker (from another fleet) in green, and port tack in red. I started my engine and began furling when my stern was somewhere around the E.
After the race Port said to me that by motoring and furling my sails while in the finish area I chewed up all the air, and that's what stopped him before the line. My initial impression was it was sour grapes that he had fallen back far enough to not correct ahead of me, after he was ahead of me earlier that leg. I didn't think that it would have been good of me to just sit above the finish line with my sails up, making a big wind shadow over the mark, and being burdened if he got to leeward of me. But I'm willing to learn, so if anyone thinks I should've done something else what ideas are there?