Will Welles' Wondrous Words of Wisdom (Say That 5 Times Fast!)

So someone remind me why we aren't sailing tonight? It's a beautiful evening with a fresh southerly blowing. And there's no work tomorrow. Well I guess I've beat this one to death. Don't forget to sign up for the Coastal Living Newport Regatta next weekend. (If you're competing that is) Here's a few pearls of wisdom from fleet co-captain Will Welles, who had a first and a fourth to close out the spring series.

This past Thursday night was probably the lightest of the season, with a light southerly that died through the night. How did you set your boat up for the evening and what sort of general changes do you make in how you sail the boat in very light conditions?

Well I usually stick pretty close to the North sails tuning guide numbers! I then go upwind for a bit to see how the boat feels and the sails look. I may go a touch tighter or looser from there depending on what I see and how the boat feels. If I think it's going to die I make sure I am on the lighter end of things instead of the tighter end.

The key moment in the first race came a third of the way down the first run. You jibed back in to the Fort Adams shore while the other three lead boats headed into the middle. It paid off as you were able to vault into the lead by the leeward mark. What did you see along the shore and why did this move work out so well?

The breeze certainly shut off at this point. We rounded about four boat lengths ahead of the Pipe Dream boys and they carried a small puff down with them which made them overlapped to leeward with us. We never really had the puff so that we could drive off....it was a tough situation. We felt lucky to get sprung off to the shore by ourselves. There were three boats that continued towards Rowe's Island and it seemed like they were going slow together and then sailed completely out of the breeze. We were able to work the boat up and down with better breeze and it paid at the end.

Starting a J/24 in light air, in a larger fleet, can be challenging. Do you change your starting tactics as the wind drops into the single digits? If so, how?

Yes, I try and maneuver very little and keep the speed on.

The run of the second race was a real drifter. What’s the key to making the most of those conditions in the J/24, both in terms of boatspeed and tactically.

The spinnaker trimmer and I work really hard to keep the speed on all the time...up in the lulls and down in the puffs. The communication between the trimmer and the helmsman is key here.