Starting in Large/Quality Fleets - Tips

I always seem to struggle on a packed line - and I'm getting fed up with it!  I've got speed upwind, downwind, my strategy is decent 70% of the time...

But when I come up against a packed starting line I tank.  I get a clean start with good speed and room around me only 20% of the time.  It's getting me down, as at smaller open meetings I can nail it without any problems, but at big events I just get destroyed!

So, I've been trying to come up with ways to improve this - so I made a list of the things that I need to do in order to try and get a good start.  I figure if I  follow this religiously I'll reduce the number of times I turn a good position into an awful one before the race even begins.

Set up:

• Line transit
• Holding transit (a position a couple of boatlengths back in the position on the line I'm likely to start from)
• Acceleration test from stopped - how long, how far?  Add 3 seconds to the time to allow for messy waves, wind.
• Check drift rate and direction (tide)

So that's all the info one should need to get a decent start I reckon.

Then onto the sequence of actions:

• 2-1 Min look at how the fleet is starting to stack - if it looks like there isn't going to be a gap go and park up in one.
• 30 seconds to go.  Fairly stationary, bow level with boats around.  Hopefully just behind the holding position.
• 20 seconds, at the holding position, stopped, making sure that above all else the bow is level with those around.
• 15 seconds, get the bow out by half a boatlength, then down ready to go
• Acceleration time + 3.  Main in, GO!  Probably roughly 10 seconds in light conditions, 7 in medium and 5 in Max power/flat water.

So, has anyone got anything I should add to these lists?

How about general tips to help me avoid getting  parked up on the gun?  What about any left-field strategies, like reaching down behind the front row rather than parking up and holding?

Edited by bustinben

read 'winning in one designs' (can't remember who its by) but anyone racing at all, let alone in a one design fleet, should read this book.  Pop down to the dighy sho in a couple of weeks and you'll brobably be able to get a bargin on it too. 

My mistake when first doing big starts was to focus too much on being at the committee boat end of the line. More experienced racers than me would squeeze me so much that it took everything I had to just stay out of their way, let alone hit the line on time at speed. Boats that were mysteriously able to point way hiher than me seemed to luff me to a standstill and I hadn't room in the bunch to tack away without clobbering someone.

My solution was to look for less crowded part sof the line. 2/3 of the way between CB and Pin is generally less crowded and gives your boat and head more space. As said, clear air is king at the start. Starting down the line reduces your options for tacking for the port layline but if you have good speed round the course (and a OOD setting a good line) then you should be able to hold your own. Once you have done this a few times and have had good starts at the quieter part of the line you can use that confidence and start working back up to the CB end.

Also, what Craig says about foregoing the front row has merits. If the RH side of the course seems to have more wind then settle for starting late but being able to put in an early tack to the better side of the course.

Your problem, from what I read Ben (and I assume you sail Laser/Topper from your description of technique) is that perhaps you are focussing too much on the boat and less on the "plan". You need lots of plans. Certainly there is nothing wrong in the technique you describe.

You have to be a bit careful about books and their approach to starts, and
given the start is so very important to a good end result, but, it is what it
is, the start of the race and you have to work out beforehand what you
want to do in the race before you decide where you start.

Most of the folk in the line up do as you suggest and get carried along
with the fleet, even in the big events where starts can get crowded and
sometimes a tad aggressive or appear that way.

Now, I'm not an expert at doing this in a dinghy and there's loads I'd like
to know like how to stop the damn thing dead in the water when I need
to, but in my time I have been an expert at getting the start nailed and in
big fleets.

And the way you do it is first decide which side of the course you
need to go up, it's no good being down the Port end if you need to
go right however well favoured the Port end might be for instance.

And whatever you do it is fundamental that you get out in the first rank,
with your nose at the very least ahead of the guy upwind of you and have
his lee bow totally stuffed until he slips behind and away then you foot off
and make sure your lee bow doesn't get screwed by the guy in front and
to leeward, this is more important in OD fleets.

The rest i expect you know, the transits, watch for mid line sag, hunt and
peck, favoured ends etc, but never concede the front line, take em over
for a restart rather than, watch for tide, never start with the tide on the
weather bow, never start at the pin end if there's a wind bend at the
other, (like Garda and the cliffs), check who's calling the numbers and
watch where he/she's doing it from sometimes you can get away with
being well over by being close in to the committee boat under their nose.

And if you blow it bang straight over onto the losers tack out the back
it's your only hope, never never never sail the first few hundred yards
under the pack.

There's a simple old adage, stop for 60 secs at the windward mark you
might lose half a dozen places, stop for 1 sec at the start you lose 60
places.

Edited by G.R.F.

Originally posted by G.R.F. Now, I'm not an expert at doing this in a dinghy and there's loads I'd like to know like how to stop the damn thing dead in the water when I need to, but in my time I have been an expert at getting the start nailed and in big fleets.