Racing Qs -- Slow Down Wind?

I just started racing our Ericson 32-3 (1989) and we have had some disappointing results, particularly down wind. Our flying sails PHRF is 177, NFS is 192. We have an asymmetrical cruising spinnaker with no pole. The handicapper commented that the sails were a little smaller than standard for the boat. While she goes well to windward we are losing head to head speed races with slower handicapped boats down wind and dropping to the back of the fleet.

Self diagnosis so far:

• Tune the rig (prior owner had it pretty slack). I have this scheduled.
• Larger asymmetrical, or add spinnaker pole fitting and full spinnaker. The asymmetrical is very frustrating in that we can't go dead down if we need to.
• We have a fixed 2 blade prop. Replacing with folding prop presumably makes quite a bit of difference, though I expect many of our competitors don't have folding props.
• Its not the bottom. We just had it hauled out.

For better upwind results we need to replace the existing No. 1 genoa, which is as old as the boat and shows it. However, we still do pretty well for pointing and speed. Its downwind that is really killing us.

So if anyone has experience with Ericsons racing and can share some tips to get us going faster, it would be much appreciated. A good source for used but serviceable sails would be helpful.

Many thanks.

general thought

I don't know if the 32 has a large J for its size like the 38. Our 38 is very competitve off the wind and is very hard to beat in the light stuff. A little more tricky if the wind pops up. The key is the 38 has a big J and a large chute. Although I own a crusing chute I do not use it for racing because it is not even close to the size or our regular chute and it hides behind the main. Often we are very fast ddw with the pole out wide to get the the chute in clear air. The other big thing is the prop the difference is huge.

Downwind sails

If the boat is really going well upwind then you are right, it is likely not the bottom. I think you have it figured out-you need to have a full sized spinnaker-although I do not believe it needs to be a symetrical kite. The important thing is that it be full sized and shaped as an all-purpose sail (or a runner if you have other spinnakers). Properly designed, you can sail equally deep (or very nearly so) with an AP shaped A-sail as with a symetrical. You DO need a pole for deeper angles with either either type of sail. Gybing techniques will be different, but both work well.

The other thing is to know the angles for best VMG downwind at various windspeeds. My guess is you could use the Polars for the 38 (unless you can find a set for the 32-3)-they should be close enough. This will help you know how deep to sail at various wind speeds to maximize your VMG, and should make a real difference.

So, full sized downwind sails and approximate Polars to use as a guide and I think you will see a BIG difference.

Happy sailing!

S

Thanks, this helpful. The standard J is 13.75 for the 32-3. I hadn't heard of Polars before. I started researching on this site and elsewhere. Can you give me a nutshell of how these work? It looks like they tie in with electronic navigation aids. I use a hand-held GPS only.

Simon
s/v Boadicea
Ericson 32-3

Well-as for the sail, PHRF allows a max spinnaker size of 1.8 x the J, measured at the max width of the sail (see "SMW" in the PHRF rules).
Polar charts (or graphs, or tables) are the desingers calculations of the expected performance of the boat at any combination of wind speed and wind angle (ususally this is calculated between 4-30 knots of wind speed). If the desinger did not create or publish them, they can be extrapolated from a measurment certificate (IOR, IMS, ORC, ORR). They will give you an idea of boat speed and VMG for a given wind speed and angle. They are not really related to navigation, as they are performance related. I am not aware of any 32-3's which have had a full measurement done, so thought the 38 (which has) would be a good reference. Of course, your speeds and VMG's will not be as good, but I would bet you would find similar angles where VMG is optimal (upwind and down), so you could use this info to decide if you get better VMG downwind at say 150 TWA vs 160 TWA in 8 knots of wind (as an example). Got it?

I have an E38 we do pretty well both up and down wind in the low key type racing. If you want to play the full on race game, in my opinion, a dual purpose 30 year old design is most likely not going to be competative, there are exceptions of course but I can't think or any Ericsons here on Puget Sound that race consitantly in the PHRF classes. There are several (like me) that do the beer can or cruising class races and do well.

If you are in the low key, beer can or cruising class racing your boat should do well.

In response to your points, unless the rig is way out of tune that shouldn't make much difference downhill, but get it tuned, for sure will help, especially uphill. A clean smooth bottom is very important I'm a bit of a nut on the subject but I wipe down the bottom of my boat before any big race, before going on vacation etc. it makes a big difference.

You will not believe the difference a folding or feathering prop will make, easy to sail to the difference in rating. In my opinion the maxprop is the best, but I've also had a Martec folder, much less expensive, and it worked OK (except backing up, anyone who has one knows what I mean!)

If you are going to race get a pole and a regular chute, you have a big J, use it! Get a big regular kite, keep the A chute for cruising. The regular chute can be squared back and you should go like a bandit dead down or close to it.

One other point you didn't mention, if you don't have a backstay adjuster, get one, big difference upwind. A must have to race.

Good Luck!

Marc
E38 WaveWalker
Gig Harbor Wa

We have raced our 32-2 (1970) fairly successfully. Some of the upgrades we did to improve performance included:

1. New sails - The value of new or newer sails cannot be underestimated. We are replacing our primary drive sails about every 4-5 years. Our performance results tend to fall off slowly and then shoot back up when we re-canvas.

2. Prop. We went from a 2 blade fixed prop to a 2 blade feathering max prop and picked up half a knot easy - especially in lighter air.

3. Hydraulic back stay. Having the ability to tilt the rig forward for downwind power has visibly increased our downwind speed.

4. Bottom. We scraped off 30 years of ablative paint layers, faired the hull, sprayed on a hard anti-fouling paint (Pettit Trinidad) and wet sanded the surface. We have done that every 3 years.

5. Instruments. We changed our instruments to get more wind information. I added B&G H-1000 (discontinued now but still effective) which gives us TWS, TWD, AWS, AWD and, among other things, charts shifts and oscillations.

6. Polars. Get your polars and understand them, especially for offwind tacking angles.

7. Rigging. We made several changes. We switched out the old main traveller and made it easily adjustable. We use spectra halyards and lightened our sheet/guys.

Not all of the above are cheap fixes, but it certainly improved our race performance. Hope that helps.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

Just some additions:

Seth. When we were gearing up for really racing Voice of Reason, I could not find polars for the 32-2. I ended up buying a program that calculated them, but I had to take at least 30 measurements that were not on the PHRF certificate. I bought and ran "Deckman" on my laptop with a feed of GPS and instrument data through a serial port. Deckman uses our improvized polars to calculate downwind tacking angles. I know US Sailing has some polars for Ericsons, but I cannot recall which models.

Voice of Reason has competed quite successfully in PHRF. We carry a rating of 180 both in buoy racing and off shore/off wind. We won Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta, PHRF overall. We've won Santa Barbara - King Harbor, PHRF overall twice (with 100 or more entries). Last year we placed first in PHRF and 3rd overall with the Maxis, ORCA, Sprit and ORR boats thrown into the mix. We won our class in at least 15 different races between 2005 and the present. We have sailed with the same team of 4 for the last 5 years, which may have something to do with it.

We carry 4 chutes. We have a Code Zero for tight reaching. We have our primary drive sail, which is a full sized 3/4 oz (Airex 600) "S-2". We have a light air runner and a heavy air "S-4". We have a standard, aluminum, full-J, end for end spin pole (nothing fancy).

For headsails, I chose to go with roller furling because of the shorthand racing I do. Because of that, my primary headsail is a North 3DL carbon/kevlar #2 and not a full 155 (which still has a good shape while being able to be furled on the headstay). I also have a kevlar 'blade' #3. We had to add jib cars and track to the deck for proper sheeting angles on the blade.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

what Seth and Jim said .. and my simple 2 cents

BIG kite, A or S and a pole to square back. we do mostly shorthanded racing but real well to our rating and downhill she's a beast.
yea, thats a J boat and a Moore 24

Let us know how it goes,
Greg

* would LOVE to see those polars Jim

Thanks

Thanks -- a veritable cornucopia of good ideas and very encouraging. On my budget I'll have to phase these in one at a time, but each item will make an appreciable difference. I would start with rig tune, then probably sails/pole and fitting, backstay, then prop.
I'll confess these polars are still a bit of mystery in terms of where to find them.

Simon
s/v Boadicea E32-3
Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island WA