Here’s a well-done video from the International Sailing Academy showing the importance of shooting up to maintain your gap on the starting line.  This video shows the technique in Lasers, but is applicable to other small  boats.
6 thoughts on “Starting: Shooting Up to Maintain Your Gap”
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Wow this is really cool. My takeaway is that when shooting up, it’s important not to use the force against the sail to heel, as this increases slippage. More effective is to move weight low to increase heel at close hauled, then move the weight to the windward side to shoot up into the wind.
When practicing this in the past every time I try to gain shoot-up momentum I slip sideways 3-4 feet because I have the sail trimmed in and I’m hiking.
That’s a great comment. I was really paying attention to how the windward boat managed to keep within their space and not get too low and foul the leeward boat. This is clearly a skill that needs to be practiced. Opti sailors should be able to really capitalize on this technique.
I’d add another snippet that it’s important to not get so close to the boat to windward that the corner of the transom hits the boat to windward, keeping you from bearing off enough to accelerate. At the Invite a few weeks ago I did what I thought was a devastating job working up on the guy above me, but at 10 seconds I couldn’t get my bow down enough because my transom was hitting his leeward rail. I couldn’t accelerate fast enough and got rolled by the boat above both of us.
In the situation that you describe, it’s important to note that the boat to windward has to make sure that you can’t hit them with your stern when they’re keeping clear. Good point though.
If you’re the leeward boat, and you are close enough that when you turn down you hit the windward boat with your stern, I think you have failed to give him room to keep clear. The windward boat has no ability to keep clear in that situation. Anyone else agree?
Yes, I’m afraid that’s true.