My great friend and sailing compadre, John Morran, has a 12 year-old daughter named Meredith. She is rapidly becoming obsessed with racing her Laser 4.7 with our fleet of 25 or so Lasers on Wednesday nights here at the Austin Yacht Club.
Meredith is truly passionate about the sport and is like a sponge when it comes to absorbing information. The best part of what I see in Meredith is that she is absolutely fearless! It doesn't matter how hard it is blowing or how many times she capsizes. She is giddy when she is out sailing her Laser.
A few Wednesday nights ago, I was set up near the pin end of the starting line, defending my position from the boats to windward of me and was confident that I was going to win the start. With about 10 seconds before the start, out of no where, Meredith comes cruising in from behind with speed, ducks to leeward of me and absolutely nails the pin end at the gun with great boat speed.
She doesn't have the experience yet to maintain a top position in the fleet around the whole race course but eventually she will.
After the race, I asked her how she knew the pin-end was favored? She quickly replied "because that was where you were starting, Scott". I almost fell out of my boat laughing but later reflected on the simplicity of her strategy and the fearlessness she showed in executing it.
How many of us purposefully start at the wrong end of the starting line because we are afraid of mixing it up at the favored end with the top boats? Why do we accept mediocrity and settle for the "pecking order" when it comes to how we approach our strategy for racing.
What is so wrong with coming into the start a little late with speed and sailing into the hole that Russel Coutts worked so hard to create? What is he going to do to us for taking his position on the starting line? Its just a sailboat race!
Why not pick a regatta on your schedule and decide from the outset that you will not worry about your overall finish, but that goal will be to get in to the mix on every start and perhaps even have an OCS or two to show for it?
What is wrong with deviating from the standard operating procedure that usually results in mid-fleet finishes?
Getting good at starting is kind of like getting up on a wake board for the first time or learning to snowboard. There is a lot of pain in the learning phase but once you have that "eureka" moment, suddenly it almost seems easy and effortless. And.....once you learn how...you never really ever forget.
While sailing with Glenn Darden in the NYYC 42 event in Newport, I quickly had to get up to speed on the amazing sophistication of the electronics packages available on modern, grand-prix racing yachts.
For a lake sailor who rarely uses a compass, this was quite an eye opening experience. It was truly amazing the level of data input that was available. In fact, it is very easy (and tempting) to get sucked into the instrumentation as if one were playing with a yacht racing video game.
We had a tablet computer called the "Deck Man" that linked into the on-board computer that pulled all of the data from the instrumentation system on the boat. I saw several of our competitors sailing to either end of the starting line and "pinging" the ends with their GPS systems to create a virtual starting line on the tablet computer screen. The software then had the capability of showing you in real-time how far off the starting line you were at any given time and computing how much "burn time" you had before you crossed the line given your speed and angle.
There is also the ability to plug in the distance and angle of the windward mark and have the computer calculate your lay-lines (while factoring in current, set, drift, and a myriad of other things that I really don't understand).
The reality here is that you really need a designated "navigator" to fully run and utilize these incredible tools. As tactician, I felt that if I began to try and carry the tablet computer around with me during the race, it would be very easy to get sucked into the instrumentation rather than keeping my eyes focused on the race course. At this point, I don't think any instruments can find you stronger wind pressure and future wind angles better than your own two eyes.
As the regatta progressed, the one input that I really began to enjoy using was the "true wind direction". Usually, when using a compass on small boats, you are constantly monitoring your port and starboard sailing angles relative to what you consider the norm. These angles don't take into account the wave angles, differences in wind pressure, apparent wind, bad air and other variables.
What was neat about the "true wind" was that it was constantly providing me feedback on how the wind was shifting, irrespective of all of the other variables that can change your relative sailing angles.
Glenn had to be locked in on hitting his target speeds at all time and I zeroed in on the true wind direction both upwind and downwind. I can't tell you exactly how the computer figures it all out, but somehow it takes into account the impact your forward movement (apparent wind) has on the wind indicator at the top of the mast and calculates the true direction. Sometimes there is a slight lag but I found it to be very accurate almost all of the time. In lighter air, once in a while it seemed off slightly compared to what we were experiencing at "deck level", probably due to the location of the wind instrumentation at the top of the mast.
Using the true wind, it was very easy to determine the favored jibe downwind as well as to also determine the favored tack to be on when approaching the leeward gate marks. All I had to do was keep track of what I felt the normal or average true wind angle should be and see whether we were in a right or left phase relative to the norm.
Several times I wished out loud that I had a true wind indicator on my Laser. It sure keeps things simple in a rapidly increasing over complicated world! My goal for the next NYYC 42 Nationals in July will be to learn more about the Deck Man and its potential. I must confess that it would be kind of nice to have a little "extra help" in calling a weather mark lay-line from a mile a way.
Team Hoss prevailed in the Swan 42 class at the 155th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta!
We had a 6 point lead going into Sunday's races. The morning started off cool, rainy and the forecast for wind did not look promising. Once we arrived at the racing area after about an hour motor out, the rain stopped, the skies cleared and a 11-16 knot Northeasterly breeze settled in.
In the first race, we got hung up with a boat on the starting line that was making radical turns to keep us from going above him and then below him. When it was all said and done, we ended up with a pretty dismal start near the weather end. We had to take a clearing tack to the right and hope that the breeze shifted right.
About half way up the beat, it was pretty clear that the left was winning the beat and we rounded about 10th or so. We sailed the rest of the race in pretty good form and worked our way back to a 6th. We managed to beat our nearest competitor in the series but the 3rd place overall boat managed a 3rd in the race and closed to within 4 points of our lead.
In the second race of the day, we had an okay start but I think we ended up on the right side of the course as we were trying to stay in touch with the our nearest competitor. I believe the left side came in and we were pretty deep at the weather mark. On the run, we got ping ponged from side to side and ended up kind of stuck in the middle and ended up having to round the port gate outside a boat that was making a very slow rounding. Suddenly, we were last or very close to it.
We decided to go right and got out on the edge and made up a lot of ground to round the next windward mark about 10th. Since we had gained on the right on the beat, we decided to do a jibe set at the weather mark and we managed to roll another 3 or 4 boats. At the finish, we were on the verge of picking up two more boats at the finish but they didn't allow us proper room to finish. We managed to get across the finish line in 6th and we would have had a very good case to throw out one or both boats but we elected to try and stay out of the room.
Through it all, we actually gained on our closes competitors again! Going into the last race, we had about a 7 point lead.
Glenn got us a beautiful start in the last race, one boat up from the pin. The breeze seemed fresher on the left but we elected to be conservative and tack back across to the right to consolidate our position with the fleet. A few boats went left of us and managed to round the windward mark ahead of us. We gained on the 2nd and 3rd place boats on the run and had a really good leeward mark rounding that eventually propelled us into 2nd at the next windward mark and we held that spot to the finish.
In a regatta where it was very difficult to be consistent, we managed a 1-3-4-6-6-2 to win the regatta by 9 points. It was a very satisfying victory and our team did a really great job in tough conditions.
The New York (Swan) 42 Nationals will be held in Newport in mid-July and we are going to reassemble the same team and make a run at that one. I know I learned a lot at this regatta and look forward to seeing if we can improve our performance.
I am doing something a little out of the box for me this weekend. I am serving as tactician to Glenn Darden on his New York 42 in the New York Yacht Club Annual regatta being held in Newport, Rhode Island.
Summertime in Newport seems to be the center of the sailing universe on the east coast. The New York Yacht Club resides in a historic mansion overlooking Narragansett Bay and is one of the most historic and prestigious yacht clubs in the world.
A few years ago, the Club decided to pick a boat that would become the "one-design" keel boat of choice for members who desired to race one-design. The club settled in on a design that was specially designed for their needs and the Swan 42 was born. The boat is sailed by 10 crew and has a very large main sail, relatively small jibs and a huge asymmetric spinnaker. The mast butt sits on a hydraulic jack and the rig tension is adjustable by jacking the mast up and down.
The boats are very evenly matched and the racing is very, very tight and competitive. The rules only allow one "professional" to be on the boat while racing and it is typical that the "pro" is the speed guy who is in charge of keeping the boat moving fast at all times. The helmsman must focus on sailing to the predetermined speed numbers for each wind condition. If the helmsman tries to point a bit too high, the speed quickly falls below the numbers and the lift generated by the keel begins to suffer. It seems very important to keep the boat always moving fast.
Starting these boats can be very challenging because you can't afford to stop the boat on the line to create a hole or to slow down. Once the boat stops, it takes almost a minute to get it back up to speed. The trick seems to be to make a long starboard tack to the line and just keep the boat moving and not worry quite as much as where you start on the line. If the boat is moving well at the start, everything will be okay. Coming in from below the line, trimmed in and rolling seems to be the best approach.
We sailed in a one day regatta on Friday for just the NY 42's. We only ended up getting one race in due to dying breeze. We had a not so great start, got forced to tack right, sailed for about a minute, lee-bowed a starboard tack boat, got a 40 degree shift to the right and laid the windward mark. We led the race down the run which was now a reach and on the next beat, thought we were doing the right thing by playing a shift or two but the wind shifted another 30 degrees to the right and we were passed by the 2nd and 3rd place boats who got lifted out above us and finished 3rd in the race. I learned a few valuable lessons in this race. Number one...save your tacks. Don't tack unless you have a very good reason. The boats just lose to much when you tack in relatively air. Number two...in coastal conditions, and in unsettled wind.....when the wind starts to swing a certain direction, it can sometimes just keep going. It is important to cover pretty aggressively in these conditions.
The New York Yacht Club annual regatta started Saturday and we had very light wind all of the way out to the starting area. Wallowing around with a big swell and no wind put me on the verge of hanging off the back of the boat and losing my breakfast but I was able to avoid the humiliation. Eventually, the wind filled and once we were sailing, I was fine.
We had a very good day in challenging conditions. We started conservatively but with good speed and we were able to pick the side we felt was better and ended the day with a 1-3-4 which puts us 6 points into the lead.
This is incredibly tight racing against some really good sailors. It is kind of cool matching wits with Gary Jobson, Steve Benjamin, Terry McLaughlin, Wally Cross....just to name a few....some of the more famous sailors in the game. Glenn did a great job of keeping the boat moving and the crew he has assembled is really talented, incredibly close-nit and friendly.
It looks like we have some bad weather rolling in this morning with some rain and not a lot of wind. Hopefully we will get a race or two off today and preserve or extend our lead. I will post some pictures of Newport when I get back.
As I think back to regattas that I have won or did well, there was almost always one or two races in those series where I had a bad start and had to do some serious scrambling to get back in the race in order to stay in contention.
This was certainly the case at the Laser Master's NA's. I had a couple of starts that were 2nd or 3rd row. This was probably due to my desire to be ultra conservative with the "Black Flag" rule in effect and a current that was trying to push the fleet over the line early.
In both of these races, I was able to find an escape route that was so tight and narrow that if one bad wave or one unexpected maneuver by one of the other boats would have completely slammed shut my window of opportunity to get off on to port tack.
In the Laser, the single sail and the size of the boat does not create a lot of water and wind turbulence when it goes through the water so it is possible for the boats to stay closely bunched in bad air for a fairly long time.
In boats like J-22's, J-24's or J-80's, there is enough turbulence created by the heavier displacement hulls and the sloop rigged nature of the boats with their overlapping sails that the speed differences between a boat sailing in bad air and lots of chop is huge when compared to a boat on the opposite tack sailing in relatively clean air and smoother water.
In the Laser Master's NA's, there were a couple of times when my situation looked pretty hopeless and I really could not see any reasonable means for an escape that didn't require ducking 50 starboard tack boats.
What I have learned over the years is how to anticipate openings occurring before I actually make the decision to tack. This involves trying to get into the heads of the boats on my starboard tack hip and trying to determine what their situation is and what their motivations are for continuing on starboard or tacking on to port.
I try to assess what level of bad air they are encountering, how long before they can tack and cross the boats on their hips, etc. If it looks like the crew on the boat to weather of me is getting anxious and starting to talk to the boat on their weather quarter, I am guessing that they are motivated to get out of there and perhaps if I am patient, an opening will be created for me. If the boat to weather of me has relatively clear air but can't cross the boats on their hip by tacking, I will deduce that they are going to be there for a while and I am going to have to make something happen in order to get clean air.
In that case, I will try and create some separation by bearing off slightly to get a little more to leeward of the weather boat to give myself room to tack and duck the boat on my hip.
In doing so, I will probably come out of the tack very fast and have to be in a position to make a big ease on the sails in order to duck the starboard tack boat but I will also need to be able to trim back in and get the boat flat in order to have a chance to cross the next starboard tack boats that will be quickly approaching.
I am always amazed how things tend to open up at the last possible second. As long as I can duck the first boat and be able to sail for a boat length or two before possibly having to tack back, I think that is risk worth taking. A couple of things can happen. Either I will get a boat to tack to port in front and below me and act as a blocker for me, or I will find a narrow gap to squeeze through on port tack.
It doesn't take much because once I am on port tack, I will be sailing almost twice as fast as the starboard tack line up. It only takes a boat length or two of separation to squirt through the gap. Quite often you will find a slight lift on port tack as you are ducking the starboard tack boats. I think the back-wind off the starboard tack boats bend the winds slightly to create this lift.
The keys to making it through these very tight openings is anticipation, great boat handling and guts. If you make it through and can cut the grain early in the first beat, chances are you will be right back in contention. I think almost all major regatta winners have found themselves in this situation and the teams that can scramble even after a bad start are the ones that will find themselves on the winners podium.
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