How to Call Puffs, Upwind and Down
How to Call Puffs, Upwind and Down
On a windy day, especially as you fight your way off the starting line in close quarters, you can hear the calls from the talking heads of your nearest competitors: "Puff in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . followed by a lull and two steep waves." Getting this kind of input back to the helmsman is critical, not just at the start, but all around the racecourse, because as you know, huge gains can be made by taking advantage of puffs and lulls, both large and small.
It's important as a crew to communicate what's happening with the wind, and do so with confidence. To call a puff effectively, you need to recognize one, determine its size, estimate how strong it is, and figure out what direction it's moving. But before I go any further, let me stress that it's just as important to call the lulls preceding or following a puff.
Remember, a puff is simply an increase in breeze-big or small. When I'm calling puffs to the helmsman, I refer to them as fan puffs or directional puffs. A fan puff is the leading edge of a gust, a mass of air dropping from aloft and fanning out from its center of impact as more air piles on top of it. A directional puff is essentially the remnants of the fan puff, overcoming the initial surface contact and moving in the direction of the upper air mass from which it came.
The initial puff is always a fan puff. Its appearance is generally darker and more solid than a directional puff, and it will appear on the water as an expanding oval. After a short period, the puff stops spreading as the air overcomes the initial surface resistance and moves in the same general direction-now it's a directional puff. Puffs will come from the prevailing wind direction, so figuring out where they're coming from is a matter of scanning the area to weather to see where they originate. Watch to see if a puff is expanding to the sides: if it's still expanding, it's still fanning. If it's just moving straight, it's a directional.
