Conditions exactly the same at our place.

It's obviously more apparent to us hanging onto the boom direct, but it's exactly right what you said, it was tougher yesterday, I'm still struggling with the concept of sailing sheeted out using the kicker it's all a bit alien to me, but it certainly was the only way to survive towards the end of yesterdays race especially having a busted footstrap on one tack (the one I had to use more often naturally).

What about a Streaker Rupert? It keeps coming up Streaker on this lake, another one has appeared, one of the bandido bros had to use it because Pancho Villa now has a job guarding the nations shores on shiftwork, anyway he was making himself a right nuisance amongst the Lasers and just wouldn't get back down the back of the fleet where they belong...

Temperature effects air density: colder = denser (no surprises there)

Altitude: lower = denser (clearly)

Atmospheric pressure: Higher = denser (obviously)


but the surprise for me was moisture. I thought damper = denser but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Water at the molecular level weighs less than air by quite a margin

Moist air is lighter than dry air.

so the heaviest most powerful air is: High pressure, cold and dry.

edit......not sure what happens if there is solid water (rain drops) in  the air though.

your rig gets wet, therefore it's heavier to handle?

Molecular weight of dry air (average of it's components) is approx 29 g/mols


edit ....see above, Al posted same time as me, didn't see it.

That's quite a good joke for a chemist.

As per my answer on the 300 site: you were cold (and old).

Here's a different whacky theory Mr B...

Inland, some days the breeze is quite 'clean', relatively stable in strength and direction. My guess is that most of the air flow here is horizontal. Other days, the wind feels all chopped up, just all over the place; burgees spin and tell you the opposite to the tell-tales, the boat won't settle into a stable groove. My interpretation (FWIW) is that there is a significant element of mixing of the layers, with down drafts, up drafts etc.

In the latter case, it's virtually impossible to get the rig working efficiently, perfect trim in one bit of the sail is totally wrong on another. As a consequence, you work harder and the rig fights back; harmony and equilibrium just ain't gonna happen.

I reckon this is what you faced. Further, I'd wager that if you spoke to someone trying to trim an asymmetric kite in the same race, they'd say it was noticeably even more of a bitch of a job than usual.

On these days, I've been on a run in my laser and had the lower quarter of the sail blow up and back as if the wind was blowing out of the water and up at 45degrees from in front of me.

, whilst the rest was happy I was indeed on a run.

In Clive's http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/for-fun/vocabulary-of-wind/" rel="nofollow - vocabulary of wind t his is called a "what the ****". 

I like to classify gusts as rollers, movers, lines and splats.  A variety on splat is the bouncer which doesn't do a conventional splat fan and spread, but stops and starts on it's progress down the lake (you need a long lake and a good vantage point to see this effect).

Pfft! The slightly vague description is because, eg, a mole of water contains three times as many atoms as a mole of helium. A a mole of common salt would be 6.02x10^23 sodium ions plus 6.02x10^23 chloride ions- thus "other".