Green Fleet Practice Debrief Week 6- Julia Melton

Green Fleet Practice Debrief Week 6-Julia Melton

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 5^th. 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.

Smooth Sailing! Julia Melton