Offshore racing - Wind vs. Waves

Finally taking #401 on an overnight race. Questions about strategy.

Looking at the forecast for the Charleston area, it looks like we will have something like 8-10kt of wind closer inshore, with 2-3ft seas.

But further offshore (within where we might reasonably travel during this overnight race), it looks like we might get closer to 15kt of wind, but with closer to 5ft seas.

If we were looking at a run, of course heading offshore would be the way to go, but it appears that we will be on an almost perfect beat if the forecast holds.

My feeling is that the J/30, being small and wide, will fare better in the lighter seas in spite of the less wind.

I'm wondering what the list thinks: what are the thresholds here? Are we going to be faster upwind in 2-3ft/10kt (with more shorter tacks), or 4-5ft/15kt (with just a couple very long tacks)?

What other variables should we considering?

Thanks!

-Dan

How much weight will you have on the rail and what is the period of the swell? Long period may be ok with the higher wind. If the chop is short, you'll do a lot of pounding that will slow you down. The key is to keep powered up to drive through the chop. This may dictate different head sails for the conditions.

Major variable is if those forecasted conditions turn out to be anything near reality and for how long will they affect you. If you're on the edge of a decision ... sail in the middle to see if one or the other works best.

Another problem is with higher waves at night you end up sailing by feel as you really have trouble not being able to see the variation in larger waves. So what might work for you during the day ... may not work in the dark.

Have fun. attached photo summarizes what night racing is all about.

The experience of your crew racing at night, off-shore.

Stick to wind and waves that you are comfortable sailing in for your first race. Pick a good solid coarse that leaves you the most options should things not go well for the crew or the boat.

Thanks for the advice everyone. We ended up with a forecast of 4'-6' seas and 15kts-20kts wind, with a forecast shift of 90 degrees over night.

If the seas were not too bad, the higher wind offshore looked very appealing, so we ended up heading offshore planning to tack back in if things were too rough.

The boat seemed to be handling everything fine so we stayed on that tack, cracking of a bit for speed when the shift came. The crew mostly handled things well (a bit of time was spent on the leeward lifelines, including yours truly...)

The 90 degree shift came just as expected bringing us back inshore on the same tack!

A lot of people in our fleet stayed inshore and the shift really messed them up, so we were able to carry the day!

http://www.charlestonoceanracing.org/C2G/tabid/355/Default.aspx



Granted our competition was all larger spinaker-equipped cruisers, there were 6 of them and we were more than happy with the result.

thanks again - Dan

Dan - those are great results! First place over some pretty rough competition. Congratulations.

You proved what the J30 was designed to do best.
Bravo.

Congrats!

Good Going. We have met Pied-A-Mer in the First Coast Offshore, why don't you come down south for this years event.

We like offshore and stronger winds. We find the Skimmer handles the waves and wind very well. It's the light air she doesnt like.

Graeme, your preference for stronger offshore conditions must be due to having sailed southeasters off the cape coast?

Sonskyn - I totally missed this from all those years ago!
Moerse sorry, china!
Yes, 40kt winds and 12ft seas make for great Wednesday afternoon racing, and even better for overnighters....