Weighty Matters

The Boston area winds were fine yesterday for my weight and a full Laser rig. We, Master sailors and women who have to choose between full and radial rigs, love it when we don’t have to make close-call decisions; yesterday started as clearly a full-rig day for me.

I currently weigh 155 lbs (70.3 kg), right on the cusp of the radial/standard rig choice point. Because I live in New England with its moderate breezes and primarily sail on a lake, I use my full rig most of the time. If I wanted to best set myself up for the full rig, I would gain weight and try to put on a bit more muscle in my upper body for hiking leverage. But, at 5’ 10+” I am healthiest at 150 (68 kg) and don’t need any encouragement to gain weight, and I need to baby my shoulder just a bit, so I have to give up the dream of really fitting into the full rig and see myself as a radial sailor who has the option of the full rig in lighter breezes.

This issue of weight is both a personal one – How hard am I going to work to make my weight best fit the boat? – and a between-races topic – What weight is best for the breeze conditions? We all seem to have these notions in our heads about how weight is crucial to success in Lasers. Yesterday another sailor and I walked through the options.

I had won the first race and, as we waited for the next start, he noted that my light weight (he’s 185 (84 kg) or so) was an advantage in the lighter conditions (8 to 10 mph or so – I was hiking 75% at moments). When I came in third in the next race, the breeze was puffing into the 12 mph range, he graciously underlined his point. (I was aware I had had a poorer start and had blown a tactical decision that gave away second.) In the third race, as the pressure increased a bit more, I was hiked all of the windward legs with 95% effort at important times and I crossed the line two boat lengths ahead of him; now he complimented me for my tactics but no mention was made of the weight differential.

I’ve decided that the weight game is one I need to play with myself. Until I’m over whelmed and straight-leg, toe-pointed hiking won’t hold the boat flat despite a cranked down Cunningham and vang, I have a chance to place against sailors who miss a shift (as I did in the second race yesterday) or stop maximizing their effort in some other way.

This attitude has helped me bring control of the race back into my boat. In some breezes I can beat the heavier sailors by out hiking them, in other situations I can wear them down with better boat handling and in all situations I can potentially sail the best race anyone of my weight could hope for.