Team communication for the LYC Opti Racing family.
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LYC was well represented at the River romp regatta hosted by
Edison sailing center in Ft. Myers. The weekend was filled with top results as
well as a great team dynamic. Coach Sharon and I really enjoyed coaching the
green fleet team and getting to know the parents and chaperones.
This was a first regatta for many of our green fleet sailors:
Ella Taylor, Simone Moss, Skye Johnson and Michael Morley. One of the biggest
challenges is being able to handle the long days in the sun. This regatta was
an unusually long regatta with 9 races.
Miles Wolff dominated Green Fleet, winning with a
34 point lead! (Regattas’ are scored under the Low Point Scoring System – 1pt
for each place in each race, points are bad; sailors got to discard their worst
race). Anna Vasilieva was 8th,
Lucy Meagher was 9th, Bobby Rielly 23rd in an 111 boat fleet.
Conditions were very light and shifty, comparable to
conditions at LYC plus a really big fleet! With these elements it was very
important to have consistent finishes and keep your focus dialed in on making
your boat go fast.
One important thing was having good course and wind awareness; there were big wind
shifts in almost every race. In a couple races, sailors would be sailing a
reach to the windward mark instead of tacking close hauled.It was important to notice wind changes and
get on the long tack to the mark , then trim sails appropriately.
Having a clear lane is always important in a big fleet
especially in light wind. On the first beat (upwind leg), the goal is to sail
without any boats directly upwind or directly in front of you. This is easiest when
you have a good start, preferably at the favored end. If you notice someone covering
your wind, tack! Downwind you find a clear lane by looking at the boats behind
you and finding a window to sail in by working high or low. Kite (heel to
windward) as hard as you can and head down in the puffs.Miles made huge gains on the reach/run legs
by heeling further to windward than his competitors and paying attention to
sail trim. The ability to find clear air and work the boat downwind, allowed
him to catch boats every race.
A good goal was to keep it simple. If you are sailing your
best and your results show, don’t over think it. After the first, Miles was in
first place by 6 points. The entire team was so excited, but it was important
to remember that we still had a second day of the regatta. Its important to
have the right mindset. Sailing is process to get to an end result. You need to
sail in the moment, not focus on past finishes or the end result. The team had
the right mental preparedness going into the last day and that allowed them to
finish on top.
Sailors, please be ready to share something about the regatta
at practice this week, something you
learned or were surprised by, or something you need to work on.
Thank you to all of the parents for making this such a
special event. GO LYC!
We're off to our first combine fleet regatta this weekend, and we'll get the GroupMe group text feature going on Thursday or Friday.
This will send you a text you need to reply to so you can be included.
Please take a moment to review the information on how it works so you can participate. The information is found on the GroupMe tab on the blog which can be found at the top of this page.
For those reading this via e-mail, I've re-posted the info below.
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The LYC Racing Teams use GroupMe to communicate during regattas.
GroupMe is a group text application. It allows group members to send a text or a reply to the group, and ALL group members receive it, like Reply All in e-mail. This is a tool for important, time-sensitive information of concern to the entire Opti Fleet. “Team Meeting in 10 minutes under the tree” or “The bar’s open in Welker’s room” is important. However, “I’m sooooo proud of little Jimmy” isn’t -- put that on Facebook or send a personal text directly. If people over-use it, others annoyed by too many texts will drop out and then the tool is no longer useful. Please, use your new power for good, not evil.
How To Join:
· You may receive a text from the group. If you do, YOU MUST REPLY to join the group. Just say Hi, and you’re in.
· If you do not receive a text, or if you just want to join right now, go to www.groupme.com, sign up, and find the LYCOpti (for red/blue/white) or LYC Green Fleet groups and join.
This is NOT an administered service. There is no one manager, because everyone can do everything themselves. You can turn off texts or add people who need to be on all by yourself.
If you want to stop receiving texts:
Reply to any group text with #mute
If you want to add someone else to the group:
Text #add [name] [phone]
Follow the "#add" command with a person’s name and phone number to add them to the group. For example, #add Pat 5551234567 will add the number (555) 123-4567 to the group with the name "Pat".
Welcome to this weeks Debrief - quotes
edition! After an intense regatta and journey back, were ready to
hash out the main issues and takeaways from the event, with help from
sage sailors and winners alike. On the truck-ride back, the kids were
exposed to one of the Sage-est of them all, in the form of Michael Blackburn's Sailing Mind Skills – its a great mix of lead
meditation and information from an Olympic Medalist that I encourage
all sailors to utilize. Here we go!
Saturday
“There are good days in racing and bad days in racing, Rickey
Bobby just had himself a bad day.”
-Taledega Nights
“All else being equal, it may just come down to who want's it
more.”
-Terry Hutchinson
“Pain is temporary but memmories will last a lifetime.”
-Michael Blackburn
“Waves are an excuse to use kinnetics”
- Peter Commette
After a late afternoon light air practice on Friday, Saturday morning
greeted us with rain, low temps, and winds gusting to 25kts. The Race
committee Postponed until Noon, when the breeze was down to 15kts,
and we got in 3 quality races.
The waves were short and steep – quite different from the
Ocean, but what we should expect for at least several days of Orange
Bowl and Team Trials – the depth and fetch (distance to the
windward shore) are almost identical for Brant Beach and Biscayne
Bay.
When the breeze is up, wind shadows matter a lot less (the air
takes less distance to resume normal flow after going around an
opponents sail), and it is generally less shifty than light airs.
Therefore, speed is king. A combination of conditioning, effort, and
attitude prevented our sailors from having it. I see these three
factors as related. Possibly because of the cold and rain, our
sailors weren’t sufficiently psyched up to give maximum effort in
hiking and trimming. And while Joey's level of 'wanting it' improved
throughout the day, he was so gassed from hiking in the third race
that he made some bad decisions, lost good technique through waves
(bow kept digging into waves), took several breaks to tweak his sprit
in the middle of the beat, and could barely speak sentences when the
race ended. When you are exhausted, your technique and mental
presence are always the first things to go - Conditioning matters!
You need to be able to sail the entire race (~35 minutes) at maximum
effort, while being calm and cool enough to think clearly. This was
honestly expected – our entire team has trouble getting through a
30 minute workout after sailing all day in moderate wind – if you
want to be able to compete in breeze, you need to take it upon
yourself to get in better shape. We will also be stepping up required
team conditioning in the coming weeks.
Garret solved his issues with hiking by simply trimming less and
going slower. All boats can point higher in more breeze, so trimming
in past the corner is really important. Pinching is slow in waves, so
hiking is critical to not only keep the boat flat but to 'hike the
bow down' – keep the telltales flowing straight back. In our
debrief Saturday, Garret and to a lesser extent Joey and Andrew cited
being lighter than their competitors as an excuse for not being flat
and trimmed in. This is a total fallacy, the top third of the fleet
was not noticeably beefier than our sailors (perhaps they have a self
image of being small from years past in Opti's) and I know plenty of
slightly built like Mitch Hall (at 145 could sail an FJ or even laser
full in anything, now a coach a College of Charleston) who are fast
in Breeze through having great technique and a will to hike harder
than everyone else.
A final comment on speed: there were on the water Judges at this
event, and they tolerated sailors who used substantially more upwind
kinetics than ours. As a sailor, I always want to have the skills to
use 'kinetics' – what Frank Bethwait calls “the practice of
generating extra speed from muscle power...an art form” at a level
consistent with the most aggressive 20% of the fleet, and I
encouraged our sailors to try more body movement on waves upwind. The
critical move is a 'pop' of the shoulders out and back on the wave
crest to put the bow down into the trough (scroll to 1:35 in this clip for illustration). This is permitted by a
liberal interpretation of Rule 42 because “a boat may be rolled to
facilitate steering” and the downslope of a wave requires us to
head off; and because rolling the shoulders back is “adjusting the
trim of the hull.” The added illegal benefit of this movement is
that it does fan the leech of the sail slightly on each wave, but
because the body movement is necessary to steer trough and keep the
boat in contact with waves, its allowed!!
Two things to practice: adjust the timing/frequency/magnitude of
your movements to the size and shape of the waves (bigger waves,
bigger movements; short steep waves=more frequent movements), and try
to copy the fastest and most aggressive sailors in a fleet – you
often need to exaggerate a skill while learning it!
Sunday
“When your preparation and speed is adequate and your strategy
correct, your tactics will be logical and obvious”
-Michael Blackburn
“If your looking back in the fleet, that's where your headed!”
- Ken Legler
“This is why, when very light air returns after a near-calm
period, it will always pay to accelerate by sailing free at first,
and to 'wind-up' to a higher pointing angle only after speed has been
acquired. A boat which is pointing high from the outset can stabilize
at some lower speed and will accelerate no further.”
- Frank Bethwait
Sunday brought medium air, which died throughout the day, then went
hard right for the last race. In addition to the topics from saturday
covered above, our evening debrief had focused on the necessity to
tuning and checking the line more in the time before each race, and
how to get a better start – the sailors did a great job putting
this into practice. More windshots gave the sailors a better idea of
how much the favored end was advantaged by; it it was 5 degrees, then
starting on the other half in clear air was a great play, if it was
10-15deg, then starting in the favored third was important. Joey and
Garret each had a great pin-third start, where they were able to have
a hole to leeward to accelerate, and were on time (but not over with
the I flag in effect) thanks to getting line sights and practicing
accounting for the current (flowing against the wind). Andrew's
starts were not as good, he generally found large packs of boats to
set up in, and was either too late setting up (couldn't get through
to the front row) or too early (had to sail down too much and lost
his hole to leeward). Sat. night we went over how to do a port tack
approach – it can be a great way to have 'fleet vision' and tack
into a more sparse area of the line. In the lighter air, starts
mattered more, as wind shadows project further, and both Joey and
Garret improved their average scores significantly from Saturday to
Sunday.
A couple mistakes: in a race Joey started in the top 3, he began
tacking too much, looking back and trying to cover everybody, then
got out of phase with the moderate wind-shifts and lost 20 boats.
Leading a race should not cause a major physiological change – keep
doing what got you there in the first place – executing a correct
strategy and sailing fast! In the final race, with the wind down to
3-5 kts, all three sailors stalled their sails on several occasions.
Before the race we adjusted the luff ties on the water – tapering
away from the mast at the top to create twist, and added turns to the
Cunningham. But even the perfect sail tie adjustments will be
meaningless if your major controls – the sprit, outhaul, vang, and
mainsheet are wrong! Too much mainsheet trim and trying to point too
much led sailors to be slow for too much of the race (see above Frank
Bethwait quote). In light air, commit to foot-mode until you have
superior speed to your competitors – then you can point!
Overall, this should be a very valuable regatta because it allowed
our sailors to identify some weaknesses in their game. While they may
have top ten potential in 7-12 kts, all of our major upcoming
championships are 3-4 days and you will see a range of conditions!
Work on your weaknesses until you are a complete sailors who can
compete (or at least hang for a day and not tank your regatta) in all
conditions. We'll be practicing on Biscayne Bay the two weekends
prior to Orange Bowl to get used to the wave shapes – but need to
work on physical conditioning and heavy air speed every opportunity
we get!
Some housekeeping:
Its an exciting time of year with ACC's, River Romp and the LYC Team
Race Invite back-to-back-to-back. Ill be sending out
Gold/Silver/Bronze Team Race rosters for the invite by weeks end.
Mack Agnesse is coaching the Romp (im with the Aquinas Team racing in
an invite at Coast Guard Accademy) and ill be back for the Team Race
Invite. Study up on your team race playbook and please email if you
have any questions!
To get you psyched up for team race Boathandeling, here's each sailors tacks on Fridays Practice:
This past week the LYC green fleet team dived into racing!
We focused on starts and developed beginner racing skills by sailing around a course.
Our main focus in practice has been accelerations off the starting line,
maintaining our maximum upwind speed potential and our windward mark roundings.
A big trick for accelerating from a stopped position is
aggressively turning the boat down with the rudder by skulling the tiller hard
to windward, once you are on a close reach you head up lightly with the tiller
but mainly by trimming in as you head up. Also, another great technique is heel
the boat to leeward to allow the boat to head up as you accelerate off the line.
Remember you can steer the boat 3 ways: Rudder, Sail and Weight.
Below is a video from practice. Miles (wearing yellow) does a
great job getting the boat to accelerate and is launched off the line at go. He
does a nice job setting up-he realizes he is over under a minute and
backwinds his sail to sail back to the line. Then he double tacks to find
a nice hole next to the committee boat side of the line. When he accelerates,
notice how he stands up to heel the boat to leeward and as he heads up he flattens the boat aggressively. Miles is first off the line because he is steering the boat with his sail and body movement.
We had our first series race of the season on Sunday Oct 5th.
Thank you again to our Principle Race Officer (PRO), Mr. Meagher for running the
races and to all the other parents who helped out!
Before hitting the water on Sunday we introduced the 5
minute starting sequence that we will have at regattas and also the flag
signals.
The flags are a visual for the time in the sequence. Sailors
should also have a watch set for 5 min to keep track of time.
Starting Flag Signals:
Race Committee Boat Flag:
The first thing sailors should when sailing to the race course is find the Race Committee boat anchored with this flag. Sailors should get in the habit of sailing to the stern of the committee boat on starboard tack and hail "checking-in", followed by reading your sail number. This is required at most regattas and points can be applied to your results if you don't check-in.
Orange Flag: Race committee starting line
The starting line is between this flag on the race committee boat and the pin.
5mins Class Flag goes down at the start
Usually before the start you will hear a series of short whistles or horns to let you know the sequence is about to start. 4mins P Flag (Preparatory Flag) goes up
(If you didn't catch the 5 min with your watch you can always catch the the 4min!)
3mins No Flag
2mins No Flag
1 min P Flag goes down
At this point you should be setting up or finding your spot on the line.
5,4,3,2,1 second count down at GO Class flag goes up
At GO you should be accelerating off the line!
If you are over early then there is a individual recall flag
goes up
If several boats are over then the general recall flag goes
up
If you are over early you must clear yourself by round one
of the ends of the line. Our starting practice taught us the importance of
pre-race research. You must study the line, know where it is, where you want to
start, and set up ready to have speed off the line at go. Having a line sight can help in achieving a clean start. We find our line sight by sailing on the line or by the committee boat and matching the line up to a point on land that will indicate whether your bow is above or below the line. Also, having a watch is important for timing the distance it takes you to sail from the boat end of the line to the pin. Timing the line allows you to manage where you want to be on the line at 1min-30seconds.
I want to encourage the team to be aggressive in getting
a spot on the line. We’d rather see that you are pushing the line and over
early rather than have a back row start several boat lengths below the line.
Sailing Around the Course
During a race it’s
important to not get too caught up on how you will finish, instead focus on where
you are on the course and what you can do to improve your boat speed. It’s good
to be competitive, but more important to stay focused. Many of you forgot the
things we have been working on when we began the race. All of our drills in
practice serve a purpose for improving your skills in a race, so take our
drills seriously and apply them to racing around a course.
Lastly, NEVER GIVE
UP! If you have a bad start, you can still improve your position in the race by sailing a fast upwind or downwind leg.
Our team as a whole improved during the race day. The fleet
was more condensed by the last race which means everyone was becoming more
comfortable sailing around the course!
Great job by everyone! I look forward to our next couple of
practices before River Romp! We will be loading boats after Wednesday and
Thursday practices next week.
