How to check your depth sensor

Mark Chisnell recalls for Yachting World how a tiny calibration error with a boat’s new instrument system turned a tactical move into an awkward grounding:

It’s the second day of a race weekend, an early season shakedown for boat and crew. A pleasant 12-14 knots is blowing from the eastern entrance of the Solent. The first upwind leg takes us eastwards from Hill Head, along the mainland shore towards Portsmouth and the shining white Spinnaker Tower.

We’re racing a 40-footer, and on handicap it’s the quickest boat in this fleet. So, we’re leading everyone towards the Lee-on-Solent beach, going to a mark that’s a mile away upwind. We know the left-hand side will pay on this leg, we’ve done it many times and, so far, the strategy – to win the pin and get as far in towards the beach as we can – is working. – Full report