As we enter into the Spring and Summer months, many of you will be competing in regattas that will draw big fleets. As the number of boats on the race course increases, the ability to create and maintain a lane of clear air and water while sailing upwind is hugely important. In fact, I think this topic is probably one of the least discussed but most important concepts related to big fleet racing.
In large fleets, obtaining and then maintaining a clear lane is such a difficult thing to do. So many variables can affect whether you "live or die". Seemingly, so much appears to be in the hands of fate as to whether that crosser elects to tack directly in your face or lets you live to fight another day.
In reality, so much is really in your hands and there are many subtle tactics and maneuvers that you can employee to maximize the clear lane that you have worked so hard to create. Here are a few concepts to consider.
The first thing I always do is constantly try to assess if I am on the favored tack and sailing in the direction that strategically makes sense. Once I have established that I am on the favored tack, in phase with the winds shifts and am headed the direction that I want to go, then the focus shifts to what I have to do to maintain this position and clear air as long as possible.
If I am on the favored tack, I always want to discourage my competition from tacking on my lee bow. If I am sailing on the lifted tack, eventually, I will begin to get headed as I sail towards the next wind shift and the leeward boat will get the advantage and I could be forced to tack off before arriving at the shift.
The only time I ever want to force a boat to tack below me is if I am anticipating that I will be tacking soon. If I am on starboard and I like the tack that I am on and want to stay on the tack for a while, I will try to encourage port tack boats to go ahead and cross me, even if it requires me to slightly duck the port tack boat.
When communicating this to your competitor, be sure to wave them across and clearly and loudly let them know that they can cross you. If you sense a boat is likely to tack on you lee bow even after your kind invitation to cross, bear off slightly and try to pick up as much speed as you can and close the distance on them quickly which could force them to initiate their tack sooner than they planned. This maneuver could result in a bad tack with the chance of you rolling over the top.
If they complete the tack properly, pinch your boat up into the wind and try and use the momentum from your increased boat speed to allow you to coast up-wind and create a gap to maintain your clear air. The goal here is to try and buy as much time as possible and to hold your lane in relatively clear air until you arrive at the next shift.
In a big fleet, while sailing upwind on starboard tack, it is often a good idea to have a starboard tack blocker set up ahead and below you. As long as your air is clear enough to stay to windward of the blocker, port tack boats will be inclined to either tack below the blocker or be forced to duck you both.
If on port tack, presuming you like the direction that you are going, every time a starboard boat approaches, loudly let them know that you are ducking or making a maneuver to avoid them. Often, this will distract the starboard boat enough that they won't feel comfortable tacking right in front of you and risking a foul.
If you are sailing on port tack with a blocker below you, every time your blocker has to start bearing off to duck a starboard tack boat, instead of bearing off with them, try to start pinching up sharply and slowing your boat down as much as possible. In this scenario, the leeward boat will likely pick up speed and will separate to leeward from you when they begin to duck the starboard tack boat and by the time they get their sails trimmed back in following the duck, they will have slid 2 or 3 boat widths to leeward of you.
Meanwhile, you have slowed down relative to you blocker but will have gained precious boat lengths to weather of the leeward boat. By the time the starboard tack boat gets to you, you will be moving pretty slowly but the duck that you make will not be as severe and once the starboard boat has crossed, you can focus on rebuilding boat speed again. If everything goes well, with this maneuver, the leeward boat will have made forward distance on you but you should have pretty clear air to allow you to keep sailing in the desired direction. My former teammate on the University of Texas sailing team and Olympic gold and silver medalist, Paul Foerster has always been great at this maneuver.
If you like the direction you are going and a boat elects to tack squarely on your wind, rather than taking a clearing tack which will result in two quick tacks to stay in phase, start bearing off and gaining speed as soon as the boat tacks on your wind. Work really hard to try and get your bow down and forward on the boat that tacked on you. Reach off if necessary to accomplish this. Eventually, as the wind begins to head, you will start to have the advantage on the boat that tacked on your air.
The ultimate goal in "maintaining your lane" is to maintain flexibility and to avoid being "ping ponged" up the weather leg. The goal is to use every tool in your box to keep going the right way up the beat.
Many thanks to Bill Records for the use of his photos for this post.
The 27th Annual Easter Laser Regatta was held last weekend here in Austin on beautiful Lake Travis with nearly perfect sailing conditions. The winter and spring rains have re-filled Lake Travis and life is good here in Austin!
The event attracted nearly 50 Standard Laser, Radial and 4.7 sailors from all over Texas and with some from neighboring states. The most noticeable evolution of this event is the influx of incredibly talented youth sailors from all over Texas.
Houston Yacht Club, Lakewood Yacht Club, Texas Corinthian Yacht Club, the Gulf Coast Youth Sailing Association and our own Austin Yacht Club are starting to harvest the fruits of several years of excellent coaching and commitment to a very competitive Texas Youth Racing Circuit.
We are starting to see 16 year old's Trey Hartman and Greg Martinez make the transition from Radials to Standard Rigs and they are really, really good! Trey finished 4th and Greg 5th in the Easter Regatta and they showed great boat handling and speed around the course. Greg recently finished 10th in the Laser Midwinter's West held in San Francisco Bay and last year was the #1 ranked Radial Grand Prix sailor in the country.
In the Radial Division, Chase Shaw, Carson Crain and Reed Baldridge finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Easter Regatta and Chase, Carson and Reed were ranked 3rd, 4th and 12th nationally in the Grand Prix points for 2009. Chase's younger brother Bradley (weighing in at 125 lbs) won two races in the Standard division in impressive fashion leading all the way around race course on the first two races on Sunday morning.
Austin Yacht Club's Alan Rochard finished 4th in Radial Division and has placed in the top 3 in several events already this year as he continues the transition from competing internationally in Opti's to Laser Radials.
Not only are these kids great sailors but they are even better people. They are respectful, friendly, humble and eager to learn....a tribute to their parents and to the great coaching they are receiving from Mattia De'Enriquo, Scott Lindley, Alan Coutts and Ryan Minth. The future of Laser sailing in Texas has never looked so bright!
As for the regatta, on Saturday we had very puffy and shifty conditions with the winds from South. The wind ranged from 3-4 knots all the way up to 20 with one freak puff that hit the fleet on a downwind leg in the last race of the day. There were several "auto tackers" so you really had to be quick on your feet and sail the shift you had and be patient.
Doug Peckover had a great day finishing with a 1-2-2-3. Doug is 60 years old and doesn't look a day over 40 when he is on the water. He is a former two-time World Laser Master Champion and always has consistently good boat speed.
I ended the day with a 3-5-4-1 followed closely by Brad Winslett, Trey Hartman, Greg Martinez and Eric Faust.
Sunday dawned overcast with a light southerly. 16 year-old Bradley Shaw stole the show in the first two races with two, start to finish bullets. He obviously took advantage of the light conditions with his 125 lb. weight but the fact was he sailed two flawless races.
I manged two seconds in the first two races of the day to pull ahead of Peckover who was 8th and OCS in the first two races of the day. The 3rd and 4th races of the day were held in much stronger breeze and I had two really close and fun races with heavy air specialist Mark Eldred with Mark edging me out in both to give me two more seconds for the day. By getting in the 8th race of the series, the Laser Standard division was able to get one throw-out race which put Doug Peckover back into a well deserved 2nd overall.
Many thanks to Fred and Sally Schroth, Claude Welles and Barry Bowden on race committee and all of the other volunteers that worked so hard to make this a great event. And, thank you to Bill Records for the use of these photos.
Here are the final results:
Laser Standard:
1st Scott Young 3-(5)-4-1-2-2-2-2----------16
2nd Doug Peckover 1-2-2-3-8-(OCS)-7-6-------29
3rd Brad Winslett 6-3-5-4-5-4-(6)-4----------31
4th Trey Hartman 4-7-1-5-3-(9)-4-5----------32
5th Greg Martinez 8-1-13-2-(14)-8-5-3-------40
6th Mark Eldred 12-(13)-12-7-4-5-1-1------42
7th Eric Faust 2-6-7-9-10-(11)-3-8-------45
8th Frank Beling 7-10-3-6-7-14-13-(DNS)---60
9th Bradley Shaw 5-8-16-20-1-1-24-(DNS)---75
10th Jon Larson 15-4-25-14-13-6-15-13----80
Laser Radial:
1st Chase Shaw (9)-2-6-5-1-1-2-2----------19
2nd Carson Crain 5-3-1-3-6-(7)-1-3----------22
3rd Reed Baldridge 3-1-2-2-8-(8)-4-1----------22
4th Alan Rochard 1-5-2-4-3-4-5-(6)----------24
5th Leoni Schuurmans 2-6-4-6-(9)-3-3-6----------32
Laser 4.7:
1st Howdy Hughes 2-2-3-3-1-1-2-2-----------16
2nd Hannah Goethe 3-1-1-2-2-2-1-5-----------17
3rd Erin Hawk 5-3-2-4-4-3-3-1------------25
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