Green Fleet Practice Debrief
Week 1 &2
Now that we have completed our second week of the fall
season, there are many things we have to be proud of and look forward to
improve.
Everyone was assignment club equipment and we held our first
opti work morning on August 30th. The first practice was an
evaluation to see what level each sailor is at and we were able to split the
teams up in to three groups.
Coach Sharon has been working with her group on water safety,
body positioning, tacking, docking and building the groups confidence sailing
on their own.
Our main focus has been on form and body placement in the
boat, sailing upwind, and tacking. We also have been working on speed control
with drills such as follow the leader.
Some things we learned from tacking and sailing upwind:
-body placement: sit forward next to the thwart (cross
section in the boat). Hold the end of the tiller like a microphone (not a
frying pan!) with your back hand and front hand holds the mainsheet. Hold your
mainsheet and tiller like you are boxing.
Knees and feet are always together and head is facing forward watching the
front of the sail.
-It’s important to have speed going into the tack without
speed you are more likely to get stuck in irons (head to wind).
-When you have speed and are ready to tack, push the tiller
away and wait for the sail to cross, then you hop to the new side (feet
together). On the landing aim to the forward spot you were on the previous
tack. Tiller and mainsheet should stay in your back hand until you are seated
on the new side. Once you have crossed to the new side sail with the tiller extension
anchored behind your back for 5 seconds and trim the main with the front hand.
This will allow the tiller and rudder to be straight and centerline.
Then once accelerated, hold the tiller in front of you.
I recommend sailors to watch this video we viewed before
practice on tacking. Look carefully at the tiller movement through the tack and
where the tiller is placed when the sailor crosses to the other side.
This is another great video that breaks down the tack in
slow motion. Notice how far forward the sailor lands out of the tack. Near the
end of the video the sailor is hiking out of the tack because there is more
breeze. You only hike that hard and move back in the boat when it’s windy.
Sailing is an ambidextrous sport, meaning you use both hands
on each tack. On Starboard your right hand (back hand) steers and left hand
(front hand) trims the sail. This is reversed on Port tack. You will find this
to be challenging at first, but get used to it eventually!
We introduced tell tales at the end of practice. Tell tales
are the yarn streamers that fly on the sail. Usually they are red on the port
side and green on the starboard side. The goal for using them up wind is to
have them both streaming straight back. Once your sail is trimmed in to the
corner then you use the tell tales to fine tune how close you can sail to the
wind (to maximize your upwind sailing). When the windward tell tale flutters
all over the place, you are sailing too close to the wind, so you need to head
down a little. When the leeward tell tale is flying straight up or down, you
need to head up closer to the wind. I like the saying “tiller towards tapping
tell tale”. Last year, I once asked a sailor l “what are tell tales?” I
remember him saying ”Tell tales are like your conscience” I thought this was
funny but in a way it is true. Tell tales tell you everything about fine tuning
your sailing according to the wind. The sooner sailors get use to reading them;
the more comfortable they will be sailing up wind. Again, we barely covered
tell tales and we plan to work with them more this week.
My final comment I have from practice, is that it is
important to take seriously. Racing is fun and each sailor should want to compete
in each drill. Each drill is designed to build better boat handling skills, and
they are important for sailors’ development. Sailing takes a tremendous amount
of focus and is a great opportunity for these kids after a long day of school, to
use their minds and bodies in a different way.
This week I will be assigning spots on the rack. After
practice, try to move your boat to your assigned spot! Thanks for a great start
to the season!
Julia Melton
No comments:
Post a Comment