The Dark Art Of The Pin End Start With Jamie Lea

In the Melges 24 Class, perhaps more than any other one design fleet, the ability to consistently achieve good starts is a key part of a helm's ability. Managing to pull off successful pin end starts raises the difficulty level significantly. With race officers at Melges 24 regattas now often setting start lines with significant pin bias in an effort to spread the fleet along the line, the ability to get in and win the pin is even more important.

To try to get some insight into the black art of starting at the pin, Justin Chisholm sat down with someone well known for his finesse at the pin end - Team Barbarians helm and past double Melges 24 World Ranking Champion, Jamie Lea.

He started by asking about the preparation that he puts in before each and every start...

IM24CA: Jamie when you are preparing for a start, what key information are you and your crew trying to gather and exactly how you do that?

JL: Every team is different but aboard Team Barbarians we have a pre-start routine that we like to follow for the start of every race. For the first race of the day we aim to get to the course area in plenty of time so that we can sail upwind to determine the highest lifts and lowest headers on both port and starboard tack. We also begin to monitor the wind direction, taking readings by going head to wind every five minutes or so to get a feel for what the wind is doing. We write these down and generally by the time it gets near to start time we have enough data to compare with the day's forecast. Once we feel confident that we have this information we will sail back down to the start area, hoisting the kite and practicing a few gybes and drops along the way but also checking what the downwind headings might be when racing starts.

The moment the start line is in place we set about getting the line bearing. We do this like everyone else by sailing down the line a few times to get an accurate compass reading. We compare the line bearing to our wind readings to work out the line bias. Our final step is to obtain, if possible, a transit through the line and onto the shore. When we look for a transit, we pinpoint a landmark which is exactly on the line and for safety we also like to pick out another landmark which is a couple of boat-lengths below it to enable us to judge our final approach to the start. This procedure generally involves a conversation between me and the tactician where both of us are looking through the committee boat and the pin to the chosen landmark. Each of us describe what we see as I steer towards and away from the line until we agree where our ‘safe' and ‘on the line' transits are.

This work is our absolute priority and we will check and recheck it as many times as time allows.

IM24CA: How do you go about booking your slot down at the pin and then defend it? What are the dangers to watch out for?

JL: If you want to win the pin, basically you need to be the nearest boat to that end within the last few seconds before the start and you can do this a number of ways. One way is lining up early and leaving yourself enough distance to leeward in order to reach the pin end at max speed. This can be risky as you show the rest of the fleet your intentions very early and invite them to try to get to leeward of you. When using this method one crew member will need to be looking to windward and behind to warn the helm of any boats attempting to do this. This allows the helm to concentrate on controlling the boat, maintaining his position in relation to the line and the body of the fleet to stay clear ahead and maintain the leeward slot. If the bias is significant then it is unlikely that you will be allowed to get away with taking the pin unchallenged.

The other method is to set yourself up to leeward of the pin end and within the last minute approach the line on port tack. You would then aim to tack under the boat nearest to the pin end with about fifteen or so seconds to go. Again this can be risky because if this boat is already very close to the pin end you will run out of space.

In either of these situations getting in a battle for the pin end with one or more other boats usually ends up badly. Whilst being the first boat away from the pin is the best possible place to be, being the second boat away from the pin is often a complete disaster, as you can get squeezed by the boat who won the pin and then rolled by the boats to windward. Unless you are really confident of being able to take the pin it is often more beneficial to play it a little safer by settling for starting ‘near' rather than ‘at' the pin end.  Finding a clear spot about ten or fifteen boat lengths up from the buoy you are still taking advantage of the bias but without the added danger of getting into a punch up at the buoy! 

IM24CA: Good awareness of time on distance are vital as you approach the line in final minute to the gun. The Melges 24 can be difficult to slow down in these situations. How do you control the speed of the boat and position yourself correctly for a good start?

JL: In the run up to the start you will have decided where exactly you want to be on the line. In order to achieve this, you will have to be able to control the speed of your boat leading up to the start. The most common method for controlling the speed and slowing down is to keep the bow head to wind with the sails eased and flapping. This is ok for short periods but can be very risky if you come to a complete stop as the foils need water flow over them in order for the helm to steer and control the boat. If you sheet the sails in from a standstill you will find the boat will go sideways and all control will be lost. Personally, if I am trying to kill speed and lose time before reaching the pin, I sometimes like to sail dead downwind and then directly head to wind with aggressive rudder movements. This way you retain some speed so steering ability is not compromised and you kill some time without actually closing down the pin.

Good awareness of how close to the line you are is vital in the build up to the start. Having already established your line transit and safe transit, you either need to keep a fix on these yourself as helm, or have another crew member calling this for you. Obviously it is not always possible to maintain visual contact with your transit. However, if you use this method often enough, your awareness of the position of the transit will improve even when your visual contact is momentarily lost.

IM24CA: So let's imagine you have won the pin and are now coming off the line with a bunch of boats on your windward hip. The breeze is about ten knots with flattish water and your crew are fully hiked. As a helm what is your priority now? What ‘mode' are you looking for and what sail trim are you trying to achieve? What information would you want to be hearing from the crew? 

JL: The last thing you want is to be "rolled" in this position, as you would drop into their dirty air and that of the rest of the fleet and your race would effectively be over. Obviously as a helm you can't see these boats so you need to know exactly how fast you are compared to them. Accurate communication from the crew regarding relative speed against the boats on your hip is key in this situation. They need to be able to feed this information back to the helm without letting up on the hiking effort either!

Normally if you have won the pin you can go into low mode by easing sheets ever so slightly to open the leeches and footing off a little knowing there are no boats to leeward. You can then really concentrate on gaining speed out to the left side of the course and wait for the first heading shift to tack on.

There are times where the tactician might want to open up your options by forcing the boats on your hip to tack off by squeezing up into their lee-bow. This is where you would need to go into ‘high mode', by increasing mainsheet and jib sheet tension to close the leeches slightly, putting the boom on centre line and sailing the boat as flat as possible. As a helm you will need to be able to pinch by steering the boat on the high side of the tell tails to force these boats to tack off. This is where the feedback from the crew really is important because, in this mode, your speed will be down and if you overdo it there is a real danger of being rolled.  

IM24CA: What are your top tips for people looking to be able to make better pin end starts?    

JL: Improve your approach to the pin end by spending some time practicing your time on distance awareness.

Make sure you know exactly where the line is, either by using the transit method or a GPS system.

Have a designated spotter in the crew who looks for boats that could potentially steal your position.

Practice different ways to slow the boat down for situations when you are too early. Also make sure you practice getting up to speed as quickly as possible from a head to wind start.