Polishing pays… three-time Olympic medallist Rodney Pattisson prepares his Flying Dutchman Superdocious ahead of the 1968 Olympic Regatta in Mexico. After a DSQ in race 1 and now under pressure, Pattisson and crew Iain MacDonald-Smith won the next five races with a cautious 2nd in race 7 to take the gold medal. This marked the start of a new era in Olympic sailing, Britain’s FD winners bringing a far higher level of preparation and attention to detail than ever seen before. In 1968 Pattisson’s burning focus upon anything that might make his boat faster, however tiny the benefit, included fairing in all of the sheaves on his Allspar mast to reduce windage… near on 60 years ago. After gold in Acapulco the Poole sailor won the next three FD world titles in a row before winning his second gold medal in Kiel in 1972, now sailing with Chris Davies and without any need to go afloat for the final race. Inset: coming along nicely… Rod’s latest OK sail is taking shape
to the leeward side… that works against the righting moment, it makes the boat heavy, and you already know my feelings about that. If it’s sloshing water, man oh man, you might as well drag a drogue behind your boat all day.
Two things with water and racing boats: keep it out and get it out. In most boats it’s a matter of sealing everywhere you can. Especially the mast and forward hatch. A forward hatch is like a vacuum for any water it can find. And hatches are always hungry. The slightest wave over the rail and the vacuum will devour the lot. So close the hatch and lock it whenever you can. In dinghies it’s a bit more like trying to stop the tide from coming in. About all you can do is seal or deflect around the mast gate at the deck. I did this for the last OK Worlds as Brisbane Bay can be a choppy venue. Did it work, yes. Did it matter, not sure but it’s in the plus column. A very tiny plus but a plus all the same. And if there is an open cockpit up to the mast the whole point becomes moot. That brings us to getting water out of the boat. In dinghies you have suction bailers that are exceptionally efficient at sailing speeds. What I don’t like is the drag of the bailer when it’s open unneces- sarily. Like dragging your big toe in the water. To counter the problem of drag I can open and close the bailer from my hiking position on each side. One string open (water out) and other string closed (drag reduced). Best of all worlds in drag vs water. A note: water is much
worse than drag!! When in doubt leave the bailer open. Second note: if you see water in the bilge you messed up with your strings. One more thing: take a sponge. Check that – take two sponges. In case you lose one, which I have (unintentionally dropped the sponge overboard, full of water, in the middle of a race!) and then you have got a problem. In very light wind the boat might not go fast enough for the suction bailer to work. In that case you’re back to Opti style, bailing and racing at the same time. Bottom line, water in the boat is slow so get it back where it belongs. Boats too big for suction bailers need pumps that are easy to use and have the pick-up in just the right place. An electric one with a float switch if the rules allow, making it all automatic. If not, pumps you can use from the rail. But use them, for Pete’s sake. Waiting until after you finish the race to bail the boat is not a very smart option.
Sails. Sometimes the sailing public act more like sheep than thinking athletes. We used to laugh: if we built a pink Star jib with the shape the same as our standard Star jib, then proceeded to sail a magically lucky day with the wind shifts, we would sell 50 pink Star jibs the following Monday. You gotta have this latest sail, it’s so fast! (Drink the cool aid!)
The tip with sails is it really does not matter what logo is on the tack of the sail. What matters is understanding the sail and how you use it and get the best out of it. And that, my friend, comes from a relationship with the sailmaker or other good guys in the class. They are the ones who can educate you to the tricks of a sail. Like the cunningham, ‘that is the throttle on this sail’ or what- ever you do ‘keep your hands off the cunningham’. Think of it as each sail brand has its own personality.
The point is each sail brand has its own go-to and stay-away from controls. Concern yourself with that, not the colour of the jib or the logo in the corner.
OK, we got the bottom cleaned, no water in the boat, and under- stand how to use our sails – 85 per cent there in speed world. Congratulations, you’re up in the fleet now. These points are not a once will do it, more of ‘rinse and repeat regularly’. Stay on it.
SEAHORSE 33
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