The 2015 USODA Team Trials Regatta brought together ~220 of the best Opti Sailors in America for 4 days of competition on Biscayne Bay. The Trials qualify sailors to receive invites to National and Developmental Team Practices, as well as the chance to represent the US at various international regattas in the coming year, making for an intensely competitive event. All 6 Members of LYC's Gold Fleet Qualified to attend the trails (top 25% finish at a major qualifying regatta), plus Lucy Meaghar from Silver Fleet! The conditions were as challenging as the fleet, with chop and big wind shifts the first two days, then smaller shifts but bigger chop and breeze the final two. Garret Dixon excelled on the 2nd day of the regatta, managed to stay consistent throughout, and qualified for the US National Team. Joey Meagher also sailed one of his best events and likely will receive an invite to the Developmental Team! The LYC program for the regatta included 3 coaches (Myself, Pili Callabresse, and Christopher Williford) which allowed us each to follow a specific start and observe the kids entire race, and we were joined by 4 sailors from Detroit, MI, making for a great team!
Upwind Strategy and Tactics:
The Tactics of covering the fleet played a huge part in this regatta, BUT you had to be dialed into the correct strategy to be in a position to gain.
The first two days the wind oscillated back and forth fairly regularly, with two features: the left shifts seemed to last longer than the righties, and there was a big hole in the breeze on the right corner of the course. The winning course was to start Pin-third, and get across the fleet as soon as possible. If the start was in a left phase, left boats were able (and needed) to tack and cross almost immediately. If the gun went off during a righty, you could keep a lane until the next left shift, then tack and consolidate a good position. On average, the line was pin favored through the first two days of the regatta. Consolidation was the key concept of tactics: when you could sail a lift to cross the fleet in a top 5-10-20- whatever-is-above-your-level-in-the-fleet position, it was imperative that you did so immediately! A couple times Joey, Denver, and Brian had pretty good to great starts at the pin, but did not consolidate early enough and paid a heavy price. I don't think the corner boat (farthest boat to a side) won a beat the entire regatta. In the 3rd race of Day2, it was nice to see Garret put it all together and start punched out exactly 2/3 towards the pin, then cover the fleet, staying in phase and limiting his competitors leverage ("leverage" is separation across the course) while extending his lead. Alas, 2/3 of the way up the beat, the breeze shut off almost completely, then filled in from the right (ahhh)! Garret was in such a good position on most of the fleet that he salvaged a 5th in that race.
The last beat was less about covering and consolidation (since you round in an order more spaced out than off the start line) and more about getting in phase and picking off groups of boats. In his best finish, a 15th, Connor executed this strategy to perfection, rounding the course right gate in a lift, staying patiently in phase while others from his side tacked (consolidating a loss in the righty), then handled a couple big but short lived wind shifts with tacks before sailing in from the left at a decent angle, 8 lengths shy of the port lay-line.
A difficulty in executing last beat strategy is the fleet behind you still coming downwind. The gate you select is the side you are stuck on for the beginning of the beat. You should usually try to round the more upwind gate, but need to observe where you see more wind for the last beat (look BACK 20 lengths before you round the leeward mark!) and also factor in which gate you can get room at. The latter may be decided for you as early as the offset mark - if you reached so high on the 2nd leg that you are outside of a pack at the 2nd mark, you are pretty much committed to the course (looking upwind) left side of the run and course left gate.
In oscillating wind: if you round the more upwind gate, you are now headed and should tack and consolidate the lead gained from that gate as soon as any gap in the downwind fleet will allow. If you round the unfavored gate, don't tack, and be patient. You are sailing a lift and need to wait for the next header. Observe your upwind angle relative to the windward mark, and get in phase no matter what gate you round.
By staying in phase, and having good speed and concentration, some boats were able to gain over a dozen places on the last leg. Never take your place in a race - weather you think you doing well or not - for granted!
Technique/Boatspeed:
The trim of the Opti - both for-and-aft, and side-to-side is always a primary concern when sailing in chop. In overpowering conditions (most the last 2 days of the regatta), balancing your heeling forces with you flattening force is also key.While our top sailors pretty much had their technique dialed in before the Team Trials, others had some adjustments to make. In the big breeze, Zach and Michael had to straighten their lower bodies to parallel the thwart, in order to hike out further and make their movements more connected to the boat - don't point your knees forward while sailing upwind! Lucy and Conner had to both learn to hike with their toes rather than their lower ankles in the hiking straps to get more extension to windward, and de-power their sails with a lot of outhaul, vang and sprit, as well as minimal turns on the Cunningham (but at least we didn't reach let-the-sprit-off levels of breeze!)
Back to Day 2 - heavier sailors had to be very careful about digging the windward half of the bow-transom into the waves - any heeling to windward was glacially slow. Changing gears when it got light mid-race was an important skill. You should move your butt into the Opti preemptively for a lull, and if needed, release the vang and "burp" the sprit halyard to give you the ability to twist open the sail. Sprit and Vang adjustments are difficult while sailing upwind, but if the breeze drops significantly below what you tuned to pre-start, smoothly creeping forwards to do this is essential.
Other Specific Areas for Improvement:
* Reading the Current - those of you who didn't do this well enough have a note on your score. It says BFD! Cross-current on the first two days was a factor on the start, and on the downwinds (the in-to-the current jibe was the long jibe). On the last two days it was running against the wind, and it was important to note the time of day and realize that the tide is steadily increasing through the first 2/3rds of its period.
* Reading the race in front of you. Eddy, Garret and others being in the 3rd start for the first flight of Day 4, missed a great opportunity. After seeing boats in the previous two starts port-tack the fleet (literally starting on port!) there was the expectation that they would start at the pin, either on Starboard if it shifted right a little, or on Port if the opportunity presented its self. The strategy carried some risk, with the windward mark way to the right -over by Key-Biscayne- but we trusted that they could start well enough to get across the fleet on the long (Port) tack. Two boats started on port and again crossed the fleet, but they were not the LYC sailors. Garret started behind another boat, 1/3 away from the pin, continued on starboard to the left corner, and lost boats from there. If you see someone executing a strategy that exploits the course, copy it!
*Reaching/Downwind Speed. While the coaches were furthest from the fleet on the run, it was apparent that our sailors need to get faster. The trim of the boat fore-and-aft is again critical (digging in any corners of the box is slow) but requires greater movement, pumping and exertion to maintain. Moving the shoulders back when the bow dips low, pumping, and GETTING THE BOAT ON THE WAVE must be followed by a smooth ease and slide forward. If the stern digs in, you will go slow and miss the next wave! Keep your vision directly off the windward bow to help guide the boat into the deepest trough of the wave. Work as hard as possible - I like to tell myself "the race really starts at the windward mark!" and the judges only threw 1 or 2 Yellow flags on the downwind all regatta.
*Starting - for some sailors. Get a good start by having a good hole to leeward, not in front of you. Having a good start requires that you make the boat to windward of you have a crappy start - squeeze up on them in the last 25 seconds to open up your hole to leeward.
Thank you to the sailors of the LYC Gold team for a great season. I appreciate your listening to my coaching, and took great pleasure in seeing you try something that we found improved your sailing. I feel that the maturity and commitment of sailors has really improved as well. Thank you as well to the parents who made it a great and easy trials for the sailors and coaches. Finally thank you to Pili and Chris for making a great team and taking LYC Opti sailing up a level!
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