Most of the team racers from LYC teams 1-4, Coaches Pilo and Arthur.
The kids! LYC 1 went undefeated and won the regatta. This was particularly gratifying given our finals loss from last year and makes us 2-0 going into the Opti Team Cup in Germany this coming weekend (I am making final edits to this post from my Hotel in Germany!). LYC 2 finished a respectable 6th - just out of our goal of the top 5 finals. LYC 3 also exceeded its pre-regatta coaches ranking, but felt like it left some wins on the water with some mistakes and missed opportunities - part of learning! Full results to come. The highlight of the regatta was provided by LYC 4, which beat the USODA 1 team, comprised of USVI aces and National team sailors. The LYC 4 team's strategy was simple, 3 sailors (Simone Moss, Kevin Gosslin, Yanni Brooks, Steven Tate on Sunday) go fast! Use your best instincts, focus, and fleet race skills to get around the Digital N course as fast as possible. The team captain, LYC newcomer Sara Shurman was responsible for all the team racing. On the last leg against USODA 1 she helped spring her teammates to sail beautifully to the 1,2,4th.
Simone Moss and team on the 1st beat against USODA
The regatta Saturday was light and shifty from the Northwest. Sunday brought a slight persistent righty, but the breeze didn't really kick until the playoffs when the puffs on the last leg reached 15kts. In some ways the regatta provided a case against too much "team racing." I would estimate that 50% of the passback attempts made resulted in the slowing boat getting passed by the opponent. Slowing/hooking/covering someone requires matching their speed, and so many times a boat would attempt to make a "team race" move with insufficient speed and end up "swinging and missing" on a boat that had greater speed. I always coach the kids to Team Race as little as possible, and in lights air use "passive balancing" - use ones wind shadow to slow opponents from further ahead without risking an overlap and the windward-leward situation it entails.
LYC 1 claiming their 1st place trophies. From left: Regatta Chair Bob Meagher, Joey Meagher, Connor Bolland, Mitchell Callahan, Justin Callahan, Bella Cassaretto and Commodore Peter Commette.
Beyond overcoming the psychological defeat of last year, there are some things that I think our LYC 1 team race team has improved at, things at that can be instructional to aspiring team racers:
1. Play/Phase recognition. We have only 3 base play calls: 1, 2, 78 (not to be explained here, there is an opti news article upcoming, with play 78 called "Four"). We have 3 phases of a team race: Winning, Converting, Chasing. We recognize the phase quite quickly - it answers the fundamental team race question: should I be slowing down my opponent or going fast myself?? If we are "Winning" we have a play and are going fast; if not a play 1, using the "pushing" strategy from the lead teammates. If we are converting, its business time! Time to team race - take the opponent out you need to get your mates up, then "release" sail ahead of your pair to get to the next mark/finish. We converted successfully in both races of the finals. If we are chasing - this happened only once when LYC 1 had all 4 boats over the start line - go as fast as possible and unbalance to catch 2 pairs. Then 78 them! Our team was the quickest to realize there was a problem, call "78" and bring the fight to them as a team. It was how we won the ultimate race of the finals. Justin pinned his pair to the left of the finish line, while Joey and Bella helped move Mitchell out of last. Justin then released; tacking away and breaking for the finish line just in time to beat 2 boats.
2. Starting. Practice = perfect. We run a hybrid scheme: attack the teams you expect to match up with you anyway at 2minutes, then break for your designated zones and start on time. This regatta was our best team starts - in the finals we won both starts and it was only mistakes/umpire initiated penalties on the first leg that made it a contest. On a side note, I think starts are where we have benefited most from other coaches: Pilo/Happy/Lior's coaching on winning 1 v 1 matchups and Joakim for my favorite start drill. For my part, I just to trust the sailors to do what they say they will do and scout the other team a little bit!
3. How we interact with umpires. 2 concepts: Win without umpires, and help umpires see your 'last point of certainty.' If you can control your pair or win the race without a call you should keep clear/give the time and opportunity to avoid contact. We only want a protest when we are Chasing. if we are Controlling, putting a call in the hands of the umpires is lower percentage than our ability to convert/balance/win. We do our best to keep clear, be clear with umpires and avoid the needless shouting so many Opti sailors sadly succumb to! In the end clarity builds trust and you get a fairly umpired finals.
4. Communication! As I said at the USNT practice, communication should be 1-3 words. We call "Ride" when a teammate should tack and duck. We call "Switch" when a teammate should tack and take my pair. We call the play number and repeat it. We work to pump up the volume while keeping it concise: trust of teammates over micromanagement.
5. Boathandeling. In addition to being advised to loose cover their paris using mainly wind shadows, LYC 1 was able to stay and get ahead with tacks up the course. The tacks were never illegal, the advantage came in two areas: carry up the course at ones pre-tack speed - these kids are great at riding the 'chine' with a long smooth roll ; and mainsheet play on the flatten that adjusts for the apparent wind changes caused by a good flatten .
6. Understand and Execute. Critics of our team who think we just win because we have three of the best team racers in the country (and they are partially right) saw an evolution of LYC 1. The best compliment an opposing coach paid us what that we "looked like a good college team race team." Much of our terminology is the same as college and should serve our sailors well down the road, and we did shift instantly into he "Converting" phase whenever the combination was less than ideal. Germany will be a test for us in the starts against better comp, boat speed/handing on longer courses, and a radically different experience; I still trust that our sailors ability to run our american system will help in races that start without a clear winner. We know that we can be successful by bringing the fight to the other team and trusting each other.
Thanks to all for a beautiful weekend.
