First, thank you for comments. Every bit helps. Responses below:
here is Berts comments posted...only comment correction I believe is to move fair lead aft not forward for twist and depowerering sail...moving forward and sheeting headsail closes the leach and powers it up
Comments on Racing Video
1. When sailing to windward, helmsmen sails the boat by the jib telltales. Main sheet sheeted in an main adjusted continually by adjusting traveler, according to pressure on sails. You need to get an adjustable traveler system. Only adjust mainsheet slightly if you want more or less trim. Most helmsmen I knew sailed sitting to leeward ( I know, weight to leeward not good), concentrating on jib tail tales.
He and I talked about this. He is pretty experienced and feels the boat well. Personally I always sit to leeward, but I'm happy with his performance where he is at.
2. By the look of your mainsheet, and the position of boom, it looked like your main was too far out. Your tacking angle did not reflect this. However that may be due to a lee bow current. what is your tacking angle. Only way to know is by compass direction on one tack, then compass direction on another tack, right after you tacked. may need to check a couple of times due to wind shifts. Apparent wind and gps have to many variables.
The main was eased because we were overpowered the first leg. So I eased it so it just started to luff. We felt it was overpowered both by heal (over 20 degrees) and the amount of helm needed.
3.Other boats did not appear reefed, and you did not appear over powered. Didn't reef on 2nd windward leg. Had wind dropped?
Yes, it dropped substantially.
3. Set jib leads so all tell tales break at same time. Mark track. If you want some twist in jib, move lead forward so top breaks first.
We did this. (well, but we moved it aft for more twist.) On my 110% jib, the point where they all break at the same time is almost the back of the inside track. So not much room to go back more. My helmsman and I actually went out on a pleasure sail and played around alot with job trim. We need to do this more.
4. Crew weight to windward, on rail. Might want to train lady as windward helms person, just focused on tell tales. Man in yellow jacket on rail.
Yes, we did better with this during the first race. Then totally forgot during the second.
5. Sailing down wind, put on boom vang, even if not out to rail. I think it can be on all the time.
I know this, but need to actually do it.
6. Sailing downwind wing and wing is slow. In winds under 15 knots , boats with symmetrical spinnakers tack downwind. Sail 140 to 145 apparent. Should give you 160 true. If you sail wing and wing need whisker pole.
We tried the spinnaker pole during practice. We decided against it because we need more practice. We would have lost more time trying to get the pole attached than we would have gained.
We have discussed sailing a broad reach, and always decide against it at the last minute. The broad reach takes us into a counter-current (which helps us on the windward leg) One race we did one d/w leg wing-on-wing and the other d/w leg a broad reach. The times the two legs took were seconds apart.
7. When trimming sails crew should stand be aft of winches, with shoulders over winch, looking forward at sail they are trimming. Better mechanical advantage.
Are the winches in the same location on all 382's? By far the best place in terms of mechanical advantage on mine is fore of the winch, with your back to the sails. Not at all convenient. Aft of the winches you are behind the wheel. The are positioned well for single handing.
8. Practice. Sailing is one of few sports that people participate in and don't practice. If time is an issue, and it is, practice going out to the starting line, and sailing home. Go out early.
We always go out early, and had a solid "pleasure sail" day where we practiced keeping speed up during a tack and experimented with different ways to depower and trim the jib. One thing that surprised me was that if we were really over powered, (> 40 degrees heal) reefing the jib resulted in a drop of speed and reduced pointing. It seemed better to depower other ways or remain overpowered than to reef the jib. (remember my jib is only 110%)
And yes, practice is everything.