Original Gestures Class

Welcome to the Starboards Yacht Club and to this lesson on using GESTURES and designing them. It is impossible to discuss using GESTURES without some discussion of when you use them and why. From the NOVICE Class all of you know that boat speed is best when the sheet angle is 1/2 of the wind direction.

You will ALWAYS sail fastest when you have properly trimmed your sail to 1/2 of the wind direction. If you did not do it then, memorize this now!

I am now going to introduce a new term – POINT OF SAIL.

Point of sail is the term used to describe a sailing boat’s course in relation to the wind direction. On the Tako HUD, your Point of Sail is the Wind Dir indicator. The graphic below shows the Tako Hud for a wind direction (POS) of 35 with a properly trimmed mainsail.

All Points of Sail (POS) are NOT equal in terms of maximum possible speed. Different boats have different characteristics and therefore different fastest points of sail. The TAKO’s three fastest points of sail are: 35, 90, and 150 degrees. All comments in this presentation regarding points of sail refer to the Tako and will not necessarily be true of other boats

MEMORIZE THESE Points of Sail !

Let’s talk just a bit about each of these, because each is a bit different. Close hauled is that point of sail when to go closer to the wind means you would begin to lose speed. In the Flying Tako that point of sail is 35. When the POS is 35, your sheet angle should be 17 or 18. (See graphic above) When you have this configuration you are close hauled in a Tako. This is a precise POS, if you get closer to the wind than 35, you will slow down quickly. That is why in the novice class, we suggest that you aim for 40 wind direction and 20 sheet angle. This gives you a bit of a margin of error.

SUMMARY: Wind Dir = 35, Sheet Angle = 17 or 18, be very precise!

Alternatively Wind Dir = 40, Sheet Angle = 20, you don’t need to be quite as precise.

—— POINT OF SAIL = 90 ——

When the POS is 90, your sheet angle should be 45. THIS IS THE POS WHERE YOU CAN BEGIN TO USE YOUR SPINNAKER. For any wind direction that is 90 or above, a properly trimmed spinnaker will INCREASE your speed.
If the mainsail is up the optimal spinnaker sheet angle is always wind angle minus 90. This POS is called a BEAM REACH and is the very FASTEST point of sail.

SUMMARY: Wind Dir = 90, Sheet = 45, Raise Spinnaker, Set Spin at 0.

—— POINT OF SAIL = 150 ——

When the POS is 150, your sheet angle should be 75. Your spinnaker should be up and set at 60 (150 minus 90). The optimal setting for the spinnaker is always wind direction minus 90 or in this case 150 minus 90 or 60. AT WIND DIRECTIONS OVER 150, YOUR SPEED WILL INCREASE IF YOU RAISE YOUR CENTERBOARD. In the Tako HUD you will see the centerboard indicator move from straight up and down to a 45 degree angle.

SUMMARY: Wind Dir = 150, Sheet = 75, Spinnaker is up and trimmed to 60, CB is up

So what do these POS have to do with GESTURES?

Ideally, you will attempt to use these POS as much as possible to get around a race course as fast as possible. Please note that not everyone uses gestures, as a matter of fact, some VERY good sailors do not use them. Using gestures to achieve these POS will allow you to be more precise in your sailing, and help prevent lag from killing you. Gestures will help you go EXACTLY to the sheet angle and spinnaker setting that you want. Gestures are simply a way to automate (normally using ONE key) the multiple key strokes that you might want to use. The Tako “listens” to chat commands on Channel 1. So you can silently say commands such as:

/1 raise

This has the same effect as saying just “raise” in the chat line.

—— USING GESTURES ——

To see the contents of a gesture, find it in your inventory and then right click it and select “Open”. Here is a gesture that could be used for Wind Dir 35. Notice that the sheet is first let ALL the way out:

/1 Sheet 90
and is then pulled in by the following
/1 sheet -72

The combination of these two commands sets the sail at 18 degrees. We need the first command, so that the sail is at a known starting point. The Tako command is: “sheet X — sheets in or out the mainsail by X degrees (“sheet -5″ will pull the sail in by 5 degrees”).

In the example shown on the screen the HOT key for this gesture is F6. You can change this to any allowable HOT Key.
Be sure to click the box next to Active, at the bottom of the dialogue box. This will activate the gesture. I also have a gesture for Wind 40 which allows for a margin of error.

—— GESTURE FOR WIND 90 ——

Here is the gesture for a wind direction of 90. Notice that you raise the spinnaker with a separate gesture. The process would be: Raise spinnaker, then use this gesture. It adjusts the spinnaker to zero and the sail to 45. Remember that this BEAM REACH POS is the very fastest POS for the Tako.

—— GESTURE FOR WIND 150 ——

Here is the gesture for a wind direction of 150. Notice that if your spinnaker is already up, then you can simply use this gesture to adjust the spinnaker to the correct angle. You will also want to raise your centerboard using another gesture.

—— GESTURES FOR FINE ADJUSTMENTS ——

Here is the gesture that adjusts your sheet and your spinnaker at the same time. Remember that if your spinnaker is not up, then the spinnaker command does not do a thing. Also note that you need to START with your spinnaker set to the correct angle. Use this gesture to respond to changes in the wind direction when you choose NOT to change the direction of the Tako.

This graphic helps explain why the spinnaker changes TWO degrees for every ONE degree that the sheet increases. You can see that for every ten degrees in wind direction change, the optimal sheet angle changes by five and the optimal spinnaker changes by 10 degrees. Hence, the result that for every ONE degree that the sheet angle increases or decreases, the spinnaker angle will change by TWO degrees.

—– MY BASIC SAILING GESTURES ——

Above is a list of the basic sailing gestures that I use. These gestures are included in the Gesture Class Box. The Box (has the Starboards Yacht Club logo on it) is on the floor next to the podium in Starboards Yacht Club in Second Life. Below is the SLURL:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hollywood/87/117/22

You can click it and get the contents. Included in the contents is the text of this class along with the graphics for the slides. There is a LOT of detail here, so I thought you might like to be able to review the notes later.

Some of you use the Button Hud. It can be programmed to do a variety of things. Here is a gesture which allows you to program the button hud in one easy step. PLEASE do this out of chat range of other sailors. Please feel free to modify the gestures that I have provided. You may decide that these do not fit your needs. If that is the case, please feel free to make your own. I hope that this helps you, let me know if you have questions or suggestions for improving this class.

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