2011 Worlds and B6 Report (from Joe Bersch)

Long ago I promised Hendo and others that I would post about what we learned about the B6, the new rig, etc. at the Worlds. This is my second attempt at doing so, having “disappeared” my last post into the ether of the universe.  It is my hope that this post might spark Archie Massey or Mark Tait to post their observations of both the B6 and the K3 having sailed both of them one afternoon in about 22 knots  after sailing at the Worlds was prematurely binned for the day.  Cameron Puckey may also have something to add with his experiences with Hull 2.  Finally, I know there was a nice article done on all the new boats (B6, K3, Pickled Egg) by the DailySail during the Worlds.  If anyone has access to this article and can get permission to post it, I am sure it would be informative as well.  I am writing this from a Tokyo hotel room and will apologize in advance if it gets too being lengthy.

 To start with, we learned Lesson 1 again: Well prepared teams sailing well prepared boats win the Worlds.  I have not been to an I-14 Worlds before, but I was impressed by the caliber of the competitors, their preparation and by some of the really well thought out and simple rigging.  Having the fastest boat, newest gadget, whatever, is seldom enough to overcome practice and preparation.  There is no substitution for practice and time together in the boat- period.   Prior to arriving in Weymouth, Kris and I had only sailed the B6 together two days- both of those in the Gorge, fortunately.  We arrived 5 days early to practice, but due to weather only managed to get about two hours sailing before the first race.   Despite our limited time sailing together, the boat was pretty well sorted out.  Thanks to the village of people in Seattle (Kris H., Kim, Paul, Fritz, Kris B., Steve, Alan, Derrick and anyone else I missed) for helping out on this project and also to Jay, Pease and Alison at Glaser Sails.  The only real boat problem we had was our halyard lock which failed (due to my poor installation) on day 2 forcing us to sail with our main down about a foot for races 2 and 3. 

I am convinced that our halyard lock failure will lead to a positive class development in the future.  There was a lot of time spent on the beach in Weymouth watching 49ers, 470’s, etc. sailing on many of the days it was too windy for the 14’s.  First, off I want to point out that two boats (Olympic aspirants) tuning with one or two coach boats is a whole different story than safely running a 70 boat regatta in the same conditions.  Nonetheless, this situation resulted in a lot of talk about changing class rules to allow for two mains to be measured and other ideas for expanding the wind range of the class.  Seeing photos of our mainsail on day 2 made it clear to me that the new rig  which has consistent bend from top to bottom will lend itself nicely to a reefed main whereas other progressively bendy rigs will not.  We have added additional grommets at the tack and clew and will begin testing a reef configuration as soon as wind conditions allow.  At the Worlds, George Nurton made it clear that small sail plans on stumped rigs are still a competitive configuration, even in light air.  We will begin experimentation with the reef this winter and hope it will prove to be an equally competitive but more versatile option for expanding the sailable wind range of the boat.

I am really enthusiastic about the new B6 single spreader rig with high hounds and believe it has lots of potential. The rig is very stable even with one spreader and definitely generates more power in the low end than the Bieker 4 (2006 Worlds) rig.  I think it goes through the ranges really well, but the sails clearly require more adjusting than the other more flexible rigs with lower aspect jibs.  We are still learning rake settings, but I do not think that the boat with the new sail plan is less sensitive to rake than the B5.  The stiff rig makes the main very responsive to vang and cunno adjustments and the high aspect jib is super sensitive to jib leech twist.  Minor lead and sheet adjustments are critical.   When properly set up, I believe the new rig and sail plan is faster than other current configurations, but it may not be the right rig for someone who is not adept at control adjustments or who wants to “set it and forget it.”  In either case this is because of Lesson 2:  Keeping your head out of the boat and smart sailing wins more Worlds than having the fastest boat in a straight line does.

Aside from the new B6 rig, I think the coolest new rig I saw in Weymouth was the small mandrel, high modulous, high hounds Bieker 5 rig built be ICE and used by Dave Hayter and by Mark Kristic.  These guys were certainly quick.  Dan Wilsdon told me the B6 rig is just too simple to look cool!  Others ribbed us that it looked like a 420 rig!  If you want cool, then check out the B5 rig.  We are really excited that B6 Hull 4 owned by Terry Gleeson will be sailing with a C-Tech high modulous rig.  Once Terry and Brian get the boat sorted out, we will be able to tell how much of the sailing characteristics of the B6 are due to the rig rather than the hull shape. 

We found that we had excellent boat speed in all conditions both upwind and down at the Worlds.  At about 345 pounds I suspect we were one of the lighter teams in the top 15.  Upwind in all conditions we had good speed and better than average point.  In the breeze, we certainly would have benefitted from an extra 30 pounds on a taller, stronger  and younger crew.  In all conditions downwind we had the ability to go lower with equal or better speed.  I think our weight was less a factor in our downwind speed than the new hull shape and a really good Glaser kite.  Surprisingly, while we could go really low and fast, we also were able to sail higher power reaching than many of the heavier teams.  Imagine the feeling of a couple of little guys being able to consistently go over the top of way heavier and stronger  teams.  (Not that it is always the right thing to do - sorry about race 1 Eike!)  I am not sure what to attribute this downwind versatility to, but I think the rig may play a factor here (easy to twist and flatten main into a low drag shape)  in addition to the Glaser kite shape.  I think the best speed we showed relative to other teams was in the 6-8 knot range upwind.  Race 4 off the line was a long port tack drag race.  Due primarily to boat speed we rounded the top mark in 3^rd.  Unfortunately, due to missed shifts and other unforced errors we finished the race 7^th.  We clearly had racing winning speed that race but failed to capitalize on it due to Lessons 1 and 2 above, which is a nice segue to Lesson 3!

Lesson 3:  Being on the line in clean air with a lane going in the right direction is nice.  Being able to tack on the first shift is even nicer.  Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 are important to successful implementation of Lesson 3.  We were not very consistent on 1, 2, or 3 but we did have consistently good boat speed which made up for it.  We passed a lot of boats during the Worlds and did so one at a time.  Because of the confidence we had in our speed we never felt the need to shoot corners or excessively leverage ourselves to pass large groups all at once.  As a result, despite some atrocious starts and plenty of missed shifts, we never had a really terrible finish where you turn one bad break into a really bad one.  It also seems like a better result when you are passing boats the whole race.  It does get you down though when almost every single race of the Worlds was shortened before the finish of the posted course.      

I think we can improve on our main sail shape, especially in 20 plus, through some small adjustments in luff curve.  I don’t believe that we had enough twist up top and could have a little more power down low.  Since the Worlds Jay added a little luff curve in the lower third of the main and took a bit out in the top third.  That being said, everyone at the Worlds  who was playing with new rigs was surprised that we had only had to recut our main one time to get it to fit our rig as well as it did.  Of course this is the result of Jay Glaser’s expertise, his development of a similar rig on Howie’s 18 and some good static mast deflection numbers before building the first sail.  We will see soon how these minor tweaks will impact our speeds through the ranges. 

I continue to be most amazed by the new hull shape.  We have now sailed it in the full gamut of conditions and it seems to excel in all of them.  The bow shape is the most notable change and just cuts through the waves even though is a fair bit fuller than the B5.   It generates quite a bit more lift than the B5 allowing for more foil to be applied up and downwind.  At the Worlds we came in to the leeward mark in 20 knots with our retriever line hooked on the bow and refusing to come off.  Imagine being able to go all the way to the bow while downspeed, kite flogging and take it off without capsizing!    I believe the boat also tacks way easier in breeze than the B5 which was an important criteria of our initial design brief.   I think this is due to a bit more fullness aft and a higher chine than the B5.  Everyone who has sailed the boat comments on how differently the boat feels than the B5.     

When I decided to crew for Hendo at the Worlds it was after what I thought was careful research on the requirements of a crew at the Worlds.  The description I got from everyone (as confirmed by the notice of race) was one race per day, long legs and a typical Worlds course of windward-leeward-windward-triangle-windward-leeward, maybe a windward finish.  7 days of racing with a lay day in the middle sounded easy.  Even though it was more than twenty years ago that I last crewed in a trapeze dinghy or sailed a World Championship, and knowing full well how hard it is to pull up and down the kite, I concluded that even at nearly 50 years old I could pull the kite up and down 3 times a day for 7 days.  Had I known many of the courses would be more like collegiate racing I never would have given up my cushy steering job!  On race day two, we sailed 27 legs during two races.  That is way more hoists and douses than advertised.  Thank god we never capsized during any of the racing or I might have really been exhausted (or worse yet knackered)!  Lesson 4: Crewing in a breeze on a 14 is not easy. It is nice to have a tall, strong and heavy crew who likewise appreciates steering isn’t a piece of cake either.    I don’t know how other middle agers like Andrew Perry and others do it, but they are tougher than me.

With a new boat and limited time sailing together, Kris and I set a goal of finishing in the top 15 and finishing one or more races in the top 5.  We were not disappointed with our 12^th place finish but would have liked to capitalized on several opportunities for a top 5 finish.  We were very happy with what we learned during the week and how we worked and sailed together as a team on the water and in the boatpark.  We met some great people, made some new friends and got some new ideas from others in the fleet .  Overall, I would say the B6/H2 was well received and showed a bit of its potential to a lot of people.  We accomplished everything we wanted and more.  The B6/H2 project continues with boats 3 and 4 being delivered this week to Kirk Twardowski and Terry Gleeson and another going in the mold soon thereafter.