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PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 5:38 pm 
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Site Rank - Captain

Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:54 pm
Posts: 53
Location: Norman, OK
Anyone have any good suggestions or readings that will help with reading wind?

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Josh Benge
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 6:25 am 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2003 7:02 am
Posts: 17
Location: New Jersey
That’s a good question. My first source of information is to watch the rest of the fleet. With some practice you can discern minor changes in the heading of the other boats on the course. A couple examples:

If you round the gate and are going upwind on starboard, you look back and see the boats behind lifting up inside you. You should probably tack over to port, cross them before flopping back to starboard in the right shift.

You are on port heading for the starboard layline. The boats ahead near the layline are getting lifted. You might consider tacking so your approach to the mark will be on port in the left shift.

You can also use fixed reference points like the marks you have rounded. By comparing your current heading to a straight line between you and the mark you can discern if the wind has shifted since you rounded.

Then you can always use a compass but it won't tell you what the wind is doing up ahead and I have found that if I watch the fleet the compass just tells me what I already know.


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:01 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 1:20 pm
Posts: 418
Location: West Maui
Learn to read your telltales, watch the color and texture of the water, check what other boats are doing.

See the wind, feel the wind, be the wind. Nuu nuu nuu nuu nuuuuu. Muuaa muuaa muuaa muuaa muuaaaaaa.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:54 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:21 am
Posts: 83
Location: USA
hobie1616 wrote:
Learn to read your telltales, watch the color and texture of the water, check what other boats are doing.

See the wind, feel the wind, be the wind. Nuu nuu nuu nuu nuuuuu. Muuaa muuaa muuaa muuaa muuaaaaaa.


There is an incredible amount of truth to this, about getting you "head out of the boat"

Take your weather vane off your boat, feel the wind on your cheek. Watching the other boats is cheating, learn to see the puff coming, react accordingly and quickly, when you're leading the race, the followers are learning from your reactions to the wind. You must somehow be faster to maintain the lead.

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 6:43 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:13 pm
Posts: 280
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20762


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:29 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 7:21 pm
Posts: 904
Location: Thunder Bay,On
Great read Bob thanks.The other thing we discuss on our boat besides how long till the puff,is we sort out if it a single or double trapeze strenght puff.If it is a short duration puff the crew goes out.If the puff is longer in duration then I will go out.It is also a good idea to sort out if it will hit as a lift or header.This is some times very hard to predict as puffs tend to travell in a parabolic shape.So they can start as lift and then head.


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