First practice with some of the team
(several were otherwise occupied for the holiday weekend) and we had
perfect conditions: a steady 10kts with big swells. Overall the
sailors showed proficiency in basic upwind technique, and did a great
job with the capsize races – each sailor capsized, righted and
bailed their boats 4 times. We should feel confident in safe capsizes
and be able to push the angle of heel at which we kite in practice.
Still, its apparent that even with fast righting and bailing, you
will loose about half the fleet from a capsize – staying upright is
a skill! Other than the capsize races, we did long upwind tacking on the whistle and grinds, and downwind surfing. As all were relatively close together in speed, the team showed
an ability to make drills competitive and push each other. By the end of practice the sailors were fairly exhausted - stick with it a few more weeks and you will build up the endurance to complete such a practice with better energy and focus!
In terms of the sailing, there were a lot of little yet important things that need to be
corrected. Lets focus on three, leaving roll tacks for Wednesday's
practice.
Staying anchored to the boat. Its
hugely important that your body movements connect directly to the
hull, and by extension the rig and foils. If your not connected,
small moments have no effect, while big ones shake the rig. Eddy,
Brian, and at times Joey all had issues with this, as I could see
their feet flat on the floor of the boat. When fully hiked, the strap
connects you to the boat, but in light hiking/not hiking conditions,
make sure that your feet are pressed up against the hiking strap, and
shins are pressed into the thwart. Knees should be together and
angled forward.
Sailing with feel. A couple of things
sailors need to identify through feel: is my helm balanced (is the
tiller pulling or pushing against me)? Am I going fast or slow? Am I
staying connected to the waves? If the helm is unbalanced, we need to
slide smoothly in for leeward helm, or hike to correct windward helm.
Fast or slow requires a change in modes. If we are fast, we can trim
and point higher for a short period, turning speed and flow on our
foils into height. If we are slow, we are not at max flow on the
foils, and are probably stalled and going sideways. IMMEDIATELY go
into foot mode: sail eased at least to the corner, both telltales
streaming and facilitate this turn with shoulders out and back before
smoothly moving in and forward. Staying connected to the waves is
probably the most difficult thing to do in an Opti, but the most
important for upwind speed in waves (obligatory Peter Commette Quote:
“Waves are an excuse to use kinetics!”) Hips forward and
shoulders back at the wave crest helps to drop the boat smoothly into
the trough. We'll be practicing and refining this for the next two
weekends on the ocean!
Basic Sail Trim/Pumping. Sailors were
a little bit off with not only the aforementioned mode changes, but
also with base sail trim. Repeatedly hitting the boom-over-the-corner
mainsheet trim out of tacks is really important, and doing it while
keeping your eyes forward on the telltales and waves makes those
first 3 boat-lengths you sail after a tack substantially faster! B,
being the newest to Optis, was under-trimmed upwind to start the day,
but improved. Downwind, B, Eddy and Joey were slightly over-trimmed
through the first drills, and couldn't sail as low as Bella and Brian
– just like you change gears upwind, there is a proper mainsheet
placement for each wind velocity downwind – out more in lighter air
(past 90deg in very light so that gravity keeps the sail out), in
more (with more vang on) in breeze.
Pump on every single wave in
surfing conditions! Bee an Bella had a speed advantage downwind by
sitting slightly further forward, and rolling the shoulders back
while pumping each time the bow dipped lowest. Really, the timing of
pumping should be very intuitive – pump and move aft when your boat
is the most downhill. Gradually come forward while you surf and as
the bow rises. Common mistakes included not pumping enough, sitting
too far back, and wiggling the rudder too much - causing drag and
taking the boat off a wave it could have surfed longer! Here is some downwind video of B and Bella:
Finally, sailors were missing some necessary stuff for our weekend practices. Below is a re-post of the list I distributed at the parents meeting with gear that multiple sailors were missing underlined! Please be sure to come with this stuff next Saturday.
Required
Equipment:
Personal:
Watch, lifejacket with whistle, appropriate layers/spray gear for the
conditions, polarized
sunglasses.
rigging knife (no sharp tips). Re-fillable water bottle with
Carribeaner (clips to boat,
re-fill
on coachboat)
Boat:
extra sail ties (tied to front airbag webbing; both 25 and 40cm
lengths of ~1.2mm line, 40cm lengths of 3mm
line), 2 bailors, praddle, masthead fly/wind pennant. Practice blades
and sails are acceptable –sailors
should practice with their race spars and hulls.
Rigging
Toolbox (required): metric tape measure. Lots of extra sail ties,
permanent markers, sail tape,
duct
tape, electrical tape, notebook/wetnotes, extra bungie, Sponge
Recommended:
600 and 1000-1200 sand paper and sanding block. Small acetone
bottle. McLube
or PTEF polish. Rags. Boat soap or dish detergent.
Drybag
for Coachboat: Healthy Lunch - no sweets. Banana, powerbar, and a
lean sandwich
recommended.
Extra clothing layers. Sunblock.
Post
Practice Workout Gear (in a bag): Running shoes, shorts, swimsuit
(goggles if you prefer), T-shirt. Towel.
Thanks, and feel free to email me if you have any questions!
Arthur Blodgett
arthur.blodgett@lyc.org
No comments:
Post a Comment