First time single-hand race

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by BubbleheadMd

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The next mistake I made, was to foot way off to SW to take the waves on the forward quarter, instead of directly on the bow because the chop was grinding me down to 3kts...

FWIW, they key to sailing upwind in a chop is to actively steer the boat to avoid pounding. Every time you hear/feel a thud falling off a wave, you lose a knot or so. The trick is to sit/stand high to windward so you can clearly see the waves, as the bow goes up a wave, head up slightly, as the wave passes the bow, head off slightly. When you get the steering right, you will progress without any pounding and maintain a steady speed. Since the wind is typically strong, a little pinching doesn't cost anything compared to the value of avoiding the pounding.

[captflood]

GREETINGS EARTHLING; If you're thinking of reefing it sould be done already. remember the 7 Ps Rule ! Planning Preperation, Practice, Prevents Piss Poor Performance, Beeing from across the Pond I do not know your area but it sounds fun Well Done That Man. ( Shallow water the waves only have one way to go and thats up) GO SAFE.

[BubbleheadMd]

Sailingfool- I'll work on the active steering. I wasn't nearly so active in trying to avoid the waves and just kind of sat there and took it.

[AdamLein]

Originally Posted by sailingfool

FWIW, they key to sailing upwind in a chop is to actively steer the boat to avoid pounding. Every time you hear/feel a thud falling off a wave, you lose a knot or so. The trick is to sit/stand high to windward so you can clearly see the waves, as the bow goes up a wave, head up slightly, as the wave passes the bow, head off slightly.

The worst pounding we experienced was beating north from the San Juans in February a couple of years ago. Every two, three, four, or five waves, the whole boat would vibrate. One really annoying thing was the waves sometimes "plateaued"; we'd go up the face of the wave but there would be no trough behind it. One wavelength later there'd be another tiny crest, and then finally a trough. The waves were 4-6 feet and about the same length as the boat. There were four of us and we took turns trying to predict whether we'd pound or not after the next wave, and nobody could seem to come up with a rhyme or reason for it; that in itself was the most unnerving part.

Anyway conditions can just be really weird sometimes and while it would be nice to be "active" and steer around the waves, sometimes it just doesn't seem to work.