Etchells World Championship – Inside tips and thoughts from top teams

by North American Etchells Class Association on 11 Jan 2016 At the recent 2015 Etchells World Championship in Hong Kong, teams led by Skip Dieball and Steve Benjamin fought neck and neck, down to the wire, to see who would earn the 2015 World Champion title, with Skip's team passing two boats in the last 100 yards of the penultimate race to earn the crown. We caught up with both of them to get their thoughts and tips on their incredibly successful runs in China.

Team Introductions

SKIP: When our team first formed, Jon McClean and I talked about sailing Etchells while attending the 2012 Highlander Midwinters. Our positions evolved over time; I ended up driving, Jon in the middle and our good friend Jeff Eiber accepted our invitation to sail in the front of the boat. With the addition of Jeff, our team would be close to the class weight during the event.

BENJ: With our team of George Peet (“Bear”), Luke Lawrence, and Meihan Chung we were right at the class weight, which is an important factor in the Etchells Class. In our preparation for the Worlds, we felt it was important for our team to practice every day, except during measurement, in Hong Kong.

Crew Responsibilities

SKIP: First and foremost, our team really gels well. Before each race, we openly discuss what we see, talk strategy and go through our pre-start ritual on the starting line before deciding what we are going to do for the start and the first upwind leg.

After the start, Jeff will keep tabs on the wind, what’s happening on the racecourse and talk through any strategy changes we should consider. Jon helps Jeff by looking for wind variations, comparing our speed versus competitors and whether there is anything happening on the extreme sides of the course. As the driver, I focus on boat speed all the time. Since I grew up sailing small boats, I prefer to trim the mainsail myself, which keeps me directly involved with managing the boat speed upwind. I’ll listen to the chatter on the rail about what’s happening on the course and interject anything useful (and sometimes not useful) as our strategy changes during the race.

Downwind, our team is usually in great harmony. Jeff looks behind and calls puffs and traffic, while talking with me about the compass headings. As Jeff is calling puffs, he relies heavily on Jon’s feedback as he is trimming the spinnaker, so that he knows how the boat and sails are actually reacting to the wind changes. Jon is good with his non-stop race related chatter, relative pressure in the spinnaker and wind direction changes. If there are waves, like we had at the Worlds, I am focused on surfing and developing a rhythm with the waves. Jon needs to help me with the relative pressure in the spinnaker and we’ll synchronize our trim and driving to maximize the waves.

BENJ: Our team has been working on the maneuvers with the four-person team, and prefers it. We certainly dedicated some of our practice time before the Worlds to perfecting each role on board the boat. The upwind roles are (from aft working forward); the helmsman steers and keeps the boat at full speed, the tactician trims the main, the “4th crew” hikes and is responsible for weight placement and the bowman trims the jib.

On the downwind legs, after the crew is settled following the spinnaker set and our position on the run established, the bowman takes over spinnaker trimming and the tactician moves to the foredeck to look aft for wind and traffic. Except in heavy air, the tactician continues to trim the spinnaker and the bowman moves to mainsail trim once settled.

Mast Position

SKIP: Started the event at 12' 6 1/2', but struggled with the forestay tightness up wind range. We moved the butt forward to 12' 6 3/4' and played the ram lever to control forestay sag and mast bend. The forward butt setting was our “sweet spot” for 80% of the regatta. (Please see Tuning Guide at website to see how this measurment it done.)

Headstay Length (Rake)

SKIP: We would leave the dock at 48' and then lengthen in the light or shorten in the heavy. Biggest breeze day had us at 47 3/8 inches, which gave us enough tension on the forestay, coupled with the forward mast butt position.

BENJ: Generally we followed the North Sails tuning guide, with two notable exceptions. First, we always seem to be better off with more headstay tension than the guide, and less rake. The only explanation I can offer so far is that the BAS is approximately 12 mm below maximum. (BAS refers to the mast length measurement maximum). If a mast is shorter the forestay will need to be shorter as well.

Shroud Tensions

SKIP: It seems that the newer Aretas (1396) enjoys being one step up from the tuning guide across the board. The lightest we set up was 17 on the caps and the heaviest was 24. We spent much of the regatta with the caps between 19-24. Lowers were set up relative to the mast side sag. We had about 3/4-1 of mast width of sag in the lighter winds and in column in the biggest breezes, which yielded about 20-22 on the Loos gauge at the end of the day.

BENJ: We seem to go better with relatively less upper shroud tension and more lower shroud tension as the wind increases. USA 1262 has die-form uppers and lowers, and the shroud tensions matrix may need to be fine tuned with the wire construction. As a comparison USA 1228, our other boat, has 1x19 uppers and requires more upper shroud tension as a result. The theory is that die-form wire achieves its higher tension quicker (with fewer turns added) and maintains its tension better over time.

Mast Ram

SKIP: Depending on the need for forestay sag, we played the ram either full-aft or forward 1'. I would use the forward setting in some tight lanes, which seemed to help us maintain our height well. The ram is a nice tool to have to trick the set up if we were caught with the wrong forestay setting.

BENJ: We always tried to sail with the mast lever rammed all the way back at the partners or up to one half inch forward if the wind decreased, and adjusted the mast step and headstay accordingly.

Sail Selection

SKIP: Before last year's Worlds in Newport, we chose to tune with Marvin Beckmann’s team. During our preliminary sessions, we chose to switch to their same setup as a base so we could better evaluate any gains or losses our team was making. This included our sail selection, which was the North PC-F Main, North LM-2L Jib for light air and North LM-2H jib for the higher breeze. In the end, we trained together, had our afternoon debriefs and we were able to share tuning notes, etc.

For the 2015 Asian/Pacific's/Pre Worlds, our team used a North GM 6.5 jib as our up-range headsail. When comparing the GM to the LM-2H, we felt we had a bigger overlap in the two headsails if we went with the LM-2L and LM-2H, meaning we could take the 2L up-range a bit and the 2H down-range. Headstay tension really was the determining factor for us on when to use one over the other. If, before the racing, we found we needed a slightly softer forestay, we would opt for the 2L. If we found that the forestay needed more tension, we’d go with the 2H.

BENJ: We are an all North program and have learned to trust the North’s class standard sails including North LM-2L and North LM-2H jibs, and VMG and Runner spinnaker. Before the event in Hong Kong, we were worried that the LM-2H jib was a bit full for winds over 18 knots with flatter seas, and as a result, we tested the JR1-V5 radial jib extensively as well as the GM jib. Possibly because of the rough seas we had in Hong Kong, we never felt competitive with the GM, and concluded that the LM-2H had more consistent speed and pointing than the JR1-V5. Our decision was to commit to the LM-2H as our heavier air jib for the regatta. The fastest jib trim has continued to be open enough at the upper leech not to stall, with the jib lead position changing with the wind speed variations and upwind sailing mode.

As it turned out we used the LM-2H for nearly every leg of the regatta. The only two exceptions were when the wind died during the race and we changed to the LM-2L on the downwind leg. We do feel faster at the low end of the LM-2H that at the high end of the LM-2L. For whatever reason we have rarely been successful using the long luff snaps on the LM-2H.

One note about the downwind jib change is that it can be very disruptive. In our two cases during the Worlds, the upwind speed gain in under 11 knots true wind speed was worth it. In one of those two races we missed a major shift on the following beat, which was possibly due to our preoccupation with the jib change on the downwind leg. So the pros and cons of changing must be carefully weighed not only in terms of boat speed, but also the distraction that will surely create.

After the second day of racing at the Worlds, our support boat remarked that all the top boats are sheeting their mains really hard, with very tight vertical leeches. This included the regatta winners on USA 1372 who had a particularly effective high pointing mode with the notably tight mainsail trim.

North Sails is proud of our continued commitment to developing the fastest most durable sails for Etchells sailors. The proven performance along with our incredibly deep team of Etchells experts, to help you and your team to achieve World Championship speed, is unmatched.