Team communication for the LYC Opti Racing family.
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LYC families, get ready for some fun this weekend, with a good, quick dinner and raffle after sailing Saturday. We'll all find a place to camp and hang out while the kids run wild. The organizer of the Buccaneer Blast regatta runs a Cuban restaurant in Miami and is catering the regatta dinner Saturday night. She wrote LYC specifically, recognizing that we're about a quarter of her fleet -- great customer service! Her e-mail follows:
Was very pleased to see a nice big group coming from LYC. Please
help us spread the word that we will have great food and a full bar available
throughout the weekend.
We always host a Sunset Dinner with music on Saturday right after
the races. We will be serving Cuban food from my restaurant along with
pasta, bbq chicken and probably meatballs too for the kids. I've attached
our menu for the weekend for your perusal. Please encourage parents to
stay for the sunset, which happens at about 6:15p in the evening. Our sunset
views from the pier and beach are truly gorgeous. With kids fed early,
there's still plenty of time to for everyone to enjoy a night out on the town.
For those families with young siblings who like to hang around the
club during the races, there'll also be food and drinks for the whole family as
well.
One last really important reminder is to tell parents to park
their cars for free at the empty lot behind the Walgreens at 99501 Overseas
Hwy. It's not even a 10 minute walk to the club and we will have a free
shuttle taking attendees to and from the club. Off duty police won't
allow anyone to park along the streets and will direct parents to that
lot anyway.
Please don't hesitate to call me should you have any questions. See
you Saturday!
With Justin and Mitchell Callahan taking 1st and 2nd respectively, and Joey Meagher and Jonathan Siegul rounding out the top 10 with 7th and 9th place finishes, LYC had a great showing at the Valentines Regatta, held this past weekend in St. Petersburg. Giulio Zunino also chipped in a 10th in Blue Fleet. Full regatta results can be seen here. 15 Sailors represented LYC and were coached by Bobby Noonan and myself. Bobby enjoyed his first regatta back coaching at LYC. Bobby was an excellent Opti and College Sailor, and coached at Chicago and LYC before taking several years away from the sport - former coaches and sailing contemporaries were really happy to see him! I thought he did a great job reaching out to all our kids on the water, and his enthusiasm was infectious.
From Left: Coach Arthur Blodgett, Jonathan Siegull, Mitchell Callahan, Justin Callahan, Joey Meagher, Coach Bobby Noonan after the awards ceremony. Justin is sporting a nice cutting board.
Recap/It could have been even better... Saturday:
In a regatta that has a reputation for being large, competitive, and...different, we arrived at the usual 3 races in an unusual way. Saturday began with a TON of flooding current (running south to North) and 10-12 kts of breeze out of the North. The current was obvious by the anchored Race Comittee sloop being swung completely around on her anchorline to have her stern pointing upwind! The Race committee naively tried to start a race under "P" flag (you are only penalized if over at GO, and there is no penalty for anything you do on a general recall) with a EUUGE start line. Over 50% of the fleet was pushed over the line on this and the subsequent "U" flag start (Can't be over from 1 min. to go, but with an Amnesty program on general recalls) before busting out the Black flag. I honestly pushed the restriction on coaches staying in the marked waiting area to motor up to just below the line near the pin to tell as many sailors as possible to stay well below the line, and that they would have to fight the current to do so. Despite my exhortations, 50% of the fleet was again over on the next start, including Bobby, Yanni, Katrina, and Miles. Miles actually wasn't spotted by the Race committee and had the gumption to get Black Flagged again on the following black flag start, as well as the eventual 2nd race! Here's a sketch of my recollection of the 3rd start attempt (was general recalled, and 30 boats scored BFD/not allowed to sail in the re-start!):
Here's some truths about racing in heavy current against wind that I think will highlight the lack of any upside for boats that pushed the line:
*The beats (first leg) will be shorter.
*The laylines come up faster.
*The fleet COMPRESSES at the 1st and 2nd marks as the leaders began sludging against the current.
*The DOWNWIND LEG will be LONGER, with more opportunities for the boats behind to gain.
*The WAVES are steeper and more frequent than in neutral current, so TECHNIQUE and in particular downwind surfing ability will be key factors.
All these factors point to "the race will be won on the Run, don't loose it at the Start!" Many LYC sailors took the tactic of approaching the line from below the pin, on port tack, sailing below the pin end at about 45 seconds and looking for a hole to tack into. Even if they didn't get it, they could recover in the race pretty quickly by virtue of being at the favored end. I think this was a prudent approach! When starting in Current-Against-Wind, I find it conservative to:
*Set up well below the line - the current will carry you up at GO
*Skew towards the pin (easy to get cought barging at the boat end) even setting up below the pin layline.
*Use a good conservative Line sight - easy to see when most of the fleet is not on the line!
*Know that I will be sailing downind lower than a beam reach for the majority of the sequence.
The less wind there is, the more current affects you. We endured a 4th general recall, before the wind died below 3 kts and racing became untenable. After a team luncheon on the parent's boat, the breeze finally began to build to the north-west, and Race 1, Take 5 finally got off around 2pm.
The LYC sailors did an excellent job tuning up as soon as there was breeze, and excelled in a race of 10-12kts and slack current. Justin and Mitchell won each fleet, with Jonathan 2nd behind Justin, and Giulio 5th, Garret 7th, and Lucy 11th! LYC sailors recognized the lack of current, and actually took advantage of a hesitant fleet, with almost every sailor (except those prevented from racing by their morning Black Flags) starting well in the front row.
Justin (far right) leading with Jonathan (3rd) Giulio (6th) Lucy (10th) and Garret (12th) on the reach leg of Race 1 Saturday afternoon.
The next race brought slightly increasing breeze. In both races, the boat end was favored, but the wind shifts were oscillating - you had to be able to hold a lane on starboard to consolidate towards the next left shift. The best strategy was to start about a third down from the boat and stay in phase with the 3 or so shifts on the first beat. End of racing saw LYC sailors all over the leaderboard, with Mitchell in 1st, Justin 2nd, Jonathan 4th, Giulio 9th, Joey 10th, and Garret 13th. Garrett could have been even higher - he was leading the 2nd race, but a couple small errors in covering and staying with the wind shifts, as well as a sketchy tack led to him plowing the windward mark. Lucy swamped on the reach of the 2nd race - unfortunate given that she had the speed to stay in ~11th for 3 legs of the first race.
Sunday:
Sailing out to the course on Sunday morning. The breeze built to 25kts by the first start.
A 7:45am Harbor start meant sailors arrived and rigged in the dark. Given the temps in the low 50's and breezy forecast. We did some "kinetic stretching" as a team to get warmed up and talked about the challenges of the day along with the projected wind and current. The sailors sailed out over 1.5 miles to the course in 15-18kts, which quickly built to 25kts! To de-power to cope with these near-survival conditions, the lightest sailors would, at most:
*Tighten outhaul to creat a horizontal crease.
*Pull boom to ~3" above the transom to put on boom vang - then when the sheet is released the vang
is so taught the mast bends.
*Ease sprit so the top of the sail sags to leeward.
*Lift Daggerboard 5"
*Sheet no closer than boom 3" off the corner.
I stress that these are the "at most" absolutely-need-to de-power settings. Keep as much power as you can handle! Some larger sailors were able to sail with sprit tight, the daggerboard only up 2" and sail 2" off the corner (still cranked vang) and do quite well! Focus on hiking extended out from the boat as far as possible, and keeping as much foot-mode as possible - it is more important to drive the boat fast forward than to point in these survival conditions. This may seem counterintuitive to those of you used to "feathering up" when hit by a gust, but the aerodynamic drag of real heavy air is soo much that it becomes inhibiting if you try to point. Light sailors can still be competitive with good technique and proper tuning. Jacob Zils was way above his other finishes in the top 9-12 when his race was called due to too much wind, and the similarly sized Stephan Baker was in 2nd.
Oh yes, the race was called off because there was too much wind. Sailors began sailing upwind towards shore, while coach and support boats cast a wide net behind them and eventually brought all in upon the towline.
I fully believe our team was ready to excel going into the morning's racing. However, not getting to race the first try was disappointing, and having to sit on shore for 4 hours while the 27kt wind persisted and the race committee deliberated proved challenging to many of our sailors. At 12:30pm, the race committee gathered competitors and told them they would be going back out, albeit much closer to shore, to sail a final race. Against their coaches wishes and unbeknownst to us at the time, a couple sailors had de-rigged their sails! There was a mad dash to get out on the water, and I honestly felt the kids didn't have enough time to tune up on the racecourse. Jonathan was a little overpowered, and we didn't have a chance to get a feel for the magnitude or the timing of the shifts (we were sailing just off the St. Pete Pier, with a long, low, sweeping cove to windward - The breeze was coming from North of the City) which hurt Mitchell among others.
One also has to consider the mental challenges that come with Leading. Holding a lead in a race or a regatta, is one of the hardest things to do and too often one succumbs to one of the following trifecta of mental pitfalls:
*Thinking maintaining your position will be easy
*Thinking your position is too high for you and you must do something extra to maintain it.
*Focusing on the result rather than the process that got you there.
This final point works cyclically as follows:
Good Focus on Process ---->Good initial Result ---->Pre-ocupation with Result ----->Lack of focus on Process----->Worsening of results!
I dont purport to ever fully understand the contents of a student's brain, but have a suspicion that some of these factors may have led to inconsistencies in results. The best way to maintain a lead in a race or series is to continue to do the little things that got you there. After this regatta, sailors like Giulio who got a 5, 7, and Bobby who had a 17,18 should see that they can race at a really high level (!) while executing a conservative strategy. When you believe you can do the little things better than your competitors then you will have the confidence to avoid unnecessary risks.
Practice
I took 10 Gold Sailors out to the ocean in 30kts 3 Sundays ago, and it paid off at this regatta! Championships will be raced in extreme conditions on both the heavy air and light air ends of the spectrum, and you need to make the most out of your opportunities to practice in these fringe conditions!
The sailors really deserve a lot of credit for their practice effort on the Friday practice before the regatta. Here's a couple of the videos I shot in awesome conditions! The waves were more head on on port tack and we had a chance to do a fair amount of speedwork. I'v voiced many and typed a few comments - sailors should look to make their own additional observations!
Lucy doing it with weight! Minimal rudder movement. Compare sail setup (lack of wrinkles) to later videos.
Really good example of how to keep the bow in contact with the waves using body movement. Note the relaxed hand position, eyes focused on the waves.
Sailing cross chop is kind of like sailing swell! You have a long trough to build speed in, but you have to meet the wave crest at your highest pointing angle to punch through without being swept down!
Both sailors underpowered for different reasons - Jonathan has so little sprit his sail is twisting off and spilling air, Mitchell is just under-trimmed. Both result in not quite enough hiking (not enough drive or balancing force being applied). Mitchell gets it together when he tacks on to Starboard, and shows some nice sailing. To their extreme credit, Mitchell and Jonathan both corrected the issues in the video (we watched on my laptop at the end of practice) and were unquestionably 2 of the fastest upwind sailors in the regatta Saturday.
I hope to resolve some technical difficulties to get the Connor video up. See you at Practice.
