Watch for heavily biased finish lines- throw in an extra tack to get yourself across the finishline sooner rather than sailing along the line.

I had a Buzz at sea and we could do ok but only IF we had a chance to get the kite working, that's the Buzz's big weapon. We took a long while to hold our own upwind, has to dead flat and don't let yourself slip too far aft and drag the transom. All the newer ones had full length toe straps and putting them in my old one helped me helm and hike much further forward.  

At our place, surrounded by huge weeds (erroneously named trees by the un-knowing) the challenge is to get out of their wind shadow asap. Hoisting often just sails you into a bigger dead-zone, so often i gybe off and get down into the better pressure asap. You still take some pain, but earlier and hopefully for less time. More wind is generally king here.

RTC every boat is different - you can hold a 200 kite quite high, in the 100 you rarely can. Not sure about a Buzz. But keep the plate down fully (up just tends to give lee-helm and/or see you slide sideways) and don't be too worried about having the main more centred (but filling) than usual if the kite is still pulling forwards not solely sideways

Judging the angle is a challenge. Once in the pressure, the rule of thumb is that, if you can plane on heating up, do it. If not, soak as low as you can whilst keeping the speed on with what apparant you can build. This is a real skill - in a two-hander communication is key - if the sheet goes light or wind comes aft and the kite is in danger of collapsing, (or vice versa) the crew needs to be telling the helm. Meanwhile, the help watches the pressure, telling the crew if a gust is arriving or finishing (the crews eyes never, ever leave the kite!) When it goes light, you will need to head a bit higher, but soon as you get some pressure, get low low low. Oh and try and steer with heel rather than lots of rudder.

As helm, I prefer to be able see the kite too, so when its light both sitting in the middle can be preferable to one each side as happens in symmetrical kite machines

Worth an experiment when you are going slowly, if nothing else it'll keep your concentration up. 

If its light and we are both sittings in the boat then we would soak low, swing the kite around the front as Do Different suggests

If its easy trapesing up wind then we would aim to power up down wind but without the crew on the trap

And if it was flat out upwind then we would sail as low as we could downwind but still keep the crew on the wire.

But then all that was on open water, might think again in a more confined area.

Finally strongly suggest you get along to a meeting. No one will complain to much about your modifications, I did talk to the class technical officer about off the boom sheeting myself a while back, and although not supporting its use he wouldn't complain as long as a) the helm still handles the main and b) your not winning everything.

Ian

 

 

 

You have made it clear that it is fun in your Buzz you want and better results, NOT A NEW BOAT guys!!!

 

So here is my tuppence for improving:

 

1) train with tuning on the boat for different winds outside the racing nights, if you can. Compete in as many races as poss, esp APR / Pursuits which are fun and will let you see how you are doing relatively in your own air. Learn the gear changes in the rigging and style of sailing with the pressure of near boats off.

 

2) for a good number of races forward: start right and stay right: even start on port tack just behind the fleet on the RHS. Tack back and you will be able to learn from the fleet about wind shifts in particular without having many boats to thread your way between. If right is not favoured then hey! you have learnt something and you can see the course and understand this bias.

 

3) sail to keep the speed with your spinny up, high as you need, and learn to gybe on the lifts and spend most time on the angle which will take you to the leeward mark over the shortest distance.

 

4) You aren't going to be popular, but on the leeward leg go over to your port side of the course and come in hard towards the mark on starboard. You then have both overlap and STB tack so those places you are dropping while joining the mid/ back of the qeue will start to be fewer! Drop early or learn windward "mexican" drops after you gybe the boat to round. (unless of course,  they are a stupid, stupid club like mine who set STB roundings on round the nav'bouys )

 

5) once rounded the leeward mark get some speed on and get the crew out on the wire, then luff a little hard with good coordination with the crew to win a slightly higher lane over boats behind you. This will give them distrubed air if not direct shadow and you may sail over boats infront of you.

 

6) start is the sprint for clear air: in a buzz you will need space so once you progress to getting the best part of the line to start on, you need to learn to defend your space from the various slower boats which will point higher and mess up your start if you cannot foot off to leeward with 10 secs to go.

 

7) Where possible, duck slower not trapeze boats on the beat rather than tacking. You maybe want to reduce the overall number of tacks and as I say above, stay more on the right hand side of the course while you are learning wind shifts and how to sail to your own desired speed rather than maybe letting other boats get in your way and destroy your boat speed, which may be one of your problems.

 

Getting better at sailing your boat will help, because you'll get less tired, likewise not blasting up and down between back-to-back races will also help conserve energy.  Have a snack too.

 

You need to fight the urge to just sit in the bottom of the boat and relax because "it's just the run to the finish" or "we only have a short upwind to go to the line", you gain 5-10 secs there, that could be the difference, never mind if you can spot a shift or layline that little bit more accurately, that could get you a minute or more.

 

Wear gear that keeps you warm too, if you're thinking about how cold your feet are, then you're probably not thinking about the right stuff!!

Quite valid. Probably more so over a longer event. Our last time out was for a club cup race, three races b2b on both Saturday and Sunday. Midway through Sunday we were capsizing all over the place. Once because I simply let the tiller extension slip out of my hand. Absolutely knackered!

 how about losing four places on a course where there was really only one way to go, just because it's so boring you make something up in your head that has a 1 in 10 likelihood of working just to do something different..

As long as you know, every time, why you lost, and can pinpoint an alternative action that would have placed you better, then you're learning and can still take something from the result.

And if you don't, then make something up in your head, it'll make you feel better

The very worse thing however is knowing you knew it once upon a time, but have now forgotten what it was you were supposed to know.