Hi P & C - I have set my course up a few times, and as in your situation, the wind is a fair ways offshore. I enjoy kayaking on the lake near my family’s house so I set my course by paddling out far enough for the wind but not so far as to be difficult to see the boat and the marks. There are a lot of inexpensive plastic kayaks, though elegance seems to be directly proportional to cost. You may know someone that could lend you their kayak.
As to times, my course is either dead calm or blowing, there doesn’t ever seem to be an in between. Except for the very early morning, before the mist lifts, the water is bobbing calm to whitecaps so it is too rough for very good times to be set.
The three minute times are the result of the perfect set of conditions and a well sailed course. Ideally, on a well sailed course, upwind legs have just one tack, perfectly fetching the windward mark. Then a graceful bear-away loop around the mark, no sharp maneuvers to slow the boat down. I stay a few feet out from the leeward layline and the leeward mark in my approach so that my turn is smooth and wide and I pass close to the mark while hardening up to the beat. Since the leeward mark in this type of course is free floating, and should be directly downwind of the windward mark, variations in wind direction can move the leeward target. By staying wide of the layline you won’t have to make any adjustments in the boat’s downwind trajectory until you are close to the leeward mark.
There is one gybe to be made on the downwind leg and as with the tack on the windward leg there is the right time to do it. Consider the gybe like an ace-in-the-hole, you wait to take it at the right moment. You don’t want to gybe right after your windward rounding or too close to the leeward one. After the windward bear-away the boat needs to get back up to speed and the path downwind established. Gybing right after the turn may mean gybing a couple of more times on the downwind leg in response to wind changes. More maneuvers slow you down! You don’t want to gybe too close to the leeward mark either. There are some very experienced skippers that can combine gybing with the leeward mark rounding but for most guys and girls the maneuver is choppy and has a momentum killing pause between the gybe portion and pulling in the sails while rounding up. More maneuvers slow you down!
The place to gybe should be where a maneuver does the least harm to boat speed. Unlike the windward leg where the spot to tack is a question of geometry, the spot to gybe downwind is not always easily revealed. I find that there is usually an obvious place to execute the gybe on the downwind leg but you have to know what to look for. After sailing around the course a few times, getting a feel for the wind on the course, there might be one place thats right. More likely, unless the timing of wind shifts corresponds with the time it takes to sail a lap (very unlikely) the place to gybe will shift around. Keep your eye on the water well behind the boat on the downwind leg. In areas with variation in wind speed (are there any that don’t) the gust coming up aft will likely lift or head in relation to the wind the boat is currently in. A change in direction or velocity the gust is bringing up may be an advantage. The time to gybe would be just before it arrives so that the boat will be in position to use all of it.
Most skippers only watch their boat. They miss wind shifts or gusts until it actually hits their boats. The better skippers are looking beyond their boats and that is why they seem to always jump out in front when the wind shifts. The idea is to tune your boat so that it stays on course without all your attention, freeing you to scan about for opportunities.
I’ve focussed on the downwind leg because that is when most sailor’s relax a bit. To get your best times on the Internet Course there is no time to relax. You are sailing against the clock not against the fleet. It is paramount to keep maximum speed up with very few errors to get near a minute a lap.
Personally, I find sailing this course pretty dull after a few laps. I don’t sail in conditions that will give me near competitive times so when I do sail this course I mostly use it to tune for boat speed. I enjoy the tactics of fleet racing, something that is just now becoming possible as Footies have gained numbers. For isolated Footy folk the Internet Course is still a great way to see how they match up and see where their boat may need improvements. Find a site that has moderate wind and flat water for the best times. And kudos to Brett for keeping the flame burning!