Nasty Boathandeling Shorts Volume 2: Here's a compilation from the practice videos this Fall. Some good technique and tacks and a couple bad tacks! Nice to see our sailors training hard. 

Registration closing Nov. 26 for LYC Winter Opti Clinic!

Regatta Report- The Once and Future Team Race Champs

                                                                                              Photos: Hans Glave
The winners always get to write history and its easy to look back on past events and say "of course it was headed for this." Sure, there were signs and omens along the way, and we had a solid process, but  3 weeks ago LYC's chances of being the first Americans to repeat at Berlin Opti Team Cup Champions seemed far from destined. Two of the best Opti team racers the US has ever seen, Mitchell and Justin Callahan had decided to move on to other classes, the 31-0 National Championship Win in late July being their final hurrah in the class. The Callahans were special talents who's helped build our team race culture and system at LYC and their achievements - OTC, Midwinters, 2 Nationals, a Marco Rizzotti, and 1 and 2 Team Race World Championships respectively will stand the test of time even in the amnesia prone Opti Class. But time waits for no man and the present is the only time in which you can live - it was to us to use the short weeks afforded since the end of the Spring Team Qualifier to make the new iteration of LYC1 the best possible.

You don't find a new person to replace the departed talent; instead the 3 remaining sailors would all have to step up, each in their own way to form a new "big 3." I chose Stephan Baker to replace Mitchell as Team captain because in addition to being the best individual sailor in the country, he had shown an ability to see the entire race course. Below is his near perfect answer to the most abstract question I gave the sailors on a Team Race Quiz last spring.

add edit: 3rd from pin White boat should hang in there until she can pick up /leebow Black W. 

Connor Boland had been on a tear all fall in the fleet racing, finishing 5th in the STQ (making his 4th consecutive National Team) and challenging the upperclassmen in High School practices Tuesdays and Thursdays. He was brimming with confidence and ready to step up. Sara Schuman had great speed and pretty good instincts - we needed to keep her improving on the start line and keeping poised in pressure situations. Above all, the big 3 would need to learn to trust each other on the racecourse as if they were blood.

To fill the 4th spot on the team (Opti team race teams sail 4 sailors at a time, but can have up to 5 on a roster) we had an excruciatingly close decision between 4 sailors, Jack Redmond, Lulu Hamilton, Ryan Konrad and Lucy Meagher. Knowing Berlin to be a very long course with typically light wind (ha!), and seeing with Pilo that Jack and Lulu were trending in a steep upward direction in their fleet racing and boathandeling, I chose those two. To their immense credit both Ryan and Lucy helped us prepare in practices leading up to the regatta, competing in practices as equals with the rest of LYC 1, contributing to our Skype Conference Calls and taking their own initiative to continue their education in advanced Team Racing and support their comrades. They share credit for our success and should basically be considered a part of the team. While Jack and Lulu vindicated our evaluation on their fleet racing, both making the National Team at the STQ, there were struggles the first practice weekend! Jack had intensely studied and learned the playbook on paper but needed more reps to actualize it. Lulu needed to improve her rules knowledge. Ryan sailed a really good practice and Lucy showed strong  leadership of LYC 2 at the LYC Team Race:
   Me: "Cody, who is your master?"
   Cody: "Lucy!"
   Me: "Good job Cody"

LISOT Black's Vanessa Larkamph at the LYC Team Race- she is one of the best team racers in the US right now. 

Part of our culture at LYC is that everybody learns team racing. I think it is important for kids to get exposed to a team sport as well an individual one. Team sports teach us to deal with failure, unequal opportunities and situations on which you are reliant on others and can fail because of them! When you realize that to win you have to not only raise the level of yourself but of your teammates, then you git it! Learn how to do this and you will be good at life.

The first regatta was tough. The pre-seeded tiers format of the LYC Team Race thrust our new team into the heat of battle right off the bat. We had a good start and a 1st,3rd,4th on the reach leg before CRYC's Jonathan Siegel did an excellent job slowing the race down. He twice jibed to starboard just as an unsuspecting opponent was sailing into a leeward overlap. I diagramed the move after the regatta:

If, at position 3 A (Jonathan at the LYCTR) contacts X, then it should be A's foul for "Acquiring Right of way" and not "Initially giving room to keep clear." Rule 15. However, because A jibes back to port  and allows X to keep clear she fulfills this obligation. Having slowed the race down, Jonathan's teammates passed a few of ours and they ended up in a 1,2,3. We then lost a heartbreaker to LISOT Black and had to come back up through the ranks to have a decent seed for the knockout. We won the first knockout round over LISOT Gold but then lost twice in the semis to Black again. They had a good start strategy that Connor was too dehydrated to properly defend, and they executed really well at Mark 3 - the leeward mark. We finished 3rd for the regatta.

Overall it was good for the team that Stephan had said on a conference call something to the effect that he wanted the team to get good for a long time - we chose to look at this regatta as a learning experience. The positives were that we had been close, and that Lulu sailed some good races Saturday while Jack improved demonstrably from the previous weekend by Sunday. My message was that each of our top 3 sailors had to do better with individual mach-ups vs the other team. I told them they were loosing ones I though they could win.

We then shifted the focus away from the regatta and to Germany, where there would be no Leeward mark traps on the Trapezoid course - we'll have to learn Mark 3 another day.

The OTC Course Diagram

- the bottom reach actually has more kick to it than in this diagram. 

Out of the Florida heat, on a 10 hour planeride, and into dreary Fall Germany. The Hotel Petit is a ten minute walk from the Potsdamer Yacht Club on Lake Wannassee. The yachting scene is incredible - Wannassee is kind of like the Annapolis of Berlin. Almost 30 Folkboats were out racing all day up the lake on a freezing cold Saturday! J70's pranced around between the 2 Opti courses with Spinnakers and rail meat in full winter garb. After recuperating in the Hotel for 16 hours I went down to the club and collected the charter boats - Winners shipped from Worlds with the Thai Pizza stickers still on the bows! Kim, the dude from Winner had to take them off with a heat gun and a knife as we were to be assigned bow and stern numbers for team racing. I tightened the mast collars, set the rakes (FORWARD 1/4" of the kids usual rake for flat water) and finished just as the kids showed up, rigged and went sailing.

Thursday night practice is really important when you're sailing a weekend regatta in a foreign country. You get some exercise and being in nature you body senses that the sun is about to set. We sailed just over an hour doing mostly boathandeling. Then we practice raced some guys with NED on their sail, lost, but gave them a good race. With 3 sailors from Worlds and a girl who had been to Germany last year we recognized the Dutch would be one of our toughest opponents. I wanted the kids to get used to the international speed and intensity, but it somehow transpired that both teams were laughing for most of the race! As a get-a-feel for this place practice it was perfect.


Friday began with a team run around the lake. It started raining but we pushed through, acclimating to the cold!


Just before Friday practice I got the rotation and saw we were going to be on Course Bravo, the  farther out, more exposed and thus windier and choppier of the two racecourses. The year before we had sailed mostly on Alpha, but won the finals on Bravo. So to get experience we plained out on a reach for 20 minutes, team racing 3v2 the whole way to a distant mark in the Bravo cove. Except that we didn't team race because the team of 2, Sara and Lulu passed everyone and it turned into a game of Chase. This was a valuable lesson. We spent most of the day running 3v2 around a starboard triangle - a beat and the two reach angles that would be new to us. The kids were competitive on the reaches and we got experience trying to balance upwind in the wind shifts. Balance is a key concept in team racing and can be defined two ways:

We are balanced when we are on the same ladder rung. 

We are balanced when my teammate across the course is ahead of my opponent I am covering 

(and vise versa).

If a team in a 1,2,3 gets unbalanced, then they are really only in 1,2,4, or 1,3,4. If the other team brings the unbalanced pairs together, then we have a team race! In Germany the shifts and puffs were insane and it was really hard to balance. We made the conscious decision to not worry about it soo much on the first beat and really try to sail the shifts and fleet race. As a coach you are always trying to prioritize what will win the regatta based on the conditions, and this strategy played into our team's strength in addition to the long courses with muti-shift beats.

Finally, the "Banana Triangle" as this drill shill be called (1,2,5 vs 3,4 invokes the "Split the Banana" concept) got pretty good and we raced the Dutch one more time, as well as handling the Norwegians once. Connor was soo cold from being inappropriately dressed that I sent him in for the Netherlands race and we lost another close one with Jack and Lulu sailing. There was a lot of tape to break down on the iPad and my dad's wooden cutout boats to push around the table as we addressed our mistakes after dinner.

The reaches were going to be where we would have to win during this regatta. We have a saying in team racing:

"Be predictable to your teammates and enigmatic to your opponents" 

Crushing the opposition on the reaches would not just be about boatspeed, we had to know who/when/how to  to separate to push the race forward, to make execution easier for the teammate  "playing back" as well as the "Pusher." After our full team strategic meeting I met individually with each team member to talk with them about what the team would need from them. 

 Sara and Conner Going high on the reach leg while Stephan sets "move of death"

Going high on the bottom reach! Over the top again! 

Maybe it was the cold fall bringing me back to my New England childhood, but I began thinking about a book I had read as a kid, "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White. The first book of the volume, "The Sword in the Stone" chronicles King Arthur's imagined childhood, and education by the Wizard Merlin. Arthur goes out in the woods by himself and meets Merlin, who transforms Arthur into all types of animals, from Geese to Hawks to Ants, so that he can learn the lessons he will need to be a good King. Of course at this point everybody is still calling him Wart, a bastard who is to be squire to the Castle's heir, Kay. It is only when he commits a truly helpful act - pulling the Sword from the Stone to give to Kay who has lost his, that he becomes King of England. One of Merlin's lines stuck with me and I gave it to Stephan:

"A good king is first in every charge and last in every defeat" 

I think he lived by it in always supporting his teammates after a race, taking ownership of his mistakes and saying "I think..." before giving constructive guidance to a teammate or to me. I saw a little bit of Arthur's experiential education in all of the kids; we would go into the German Woods as Warts and hope to come out as Arthurs.

Jack doing some winter sledding. 

Fast forward through the morning rigging, the opening-picture-taking ceremony, the sail out, to the start of the first race. Sweden doesn't know the start sequence and has the time wrong. We pretend to start a minute early with them, then sail downwind and clear before them after the real gun. But there is a little too much confusion and the race committee decides the re-start the race. They do it again and we are shocked! I had carefully gone over the 13 minute rolling start sequence with the team the night before. It and the 2 course, 3 stage round-robin format are two beautiful bits of German engineering, and we were surprised the PRO had thrown a wrench in the machine! It really hurt when we the Sweeds started fine the 3rd time, and beat us in a heated battle with team racing on every leg.

The conditions were extreme for Florida sailors: Gusts to 27kts and Temps below 50F. We were 0-1. Time to do some sailing! In the SWE loss the race had been slowed soo much the fleet behind caught up to us -this was not the type of game we wanted to play. We made a conscious effort to fleet race better on the beats and to send a boat that was in trouble to one of the corners where the sailors said there were shore-line lifts. On the reaches we would make our moves and plane over the top! We never again had a slow race and we never again lost. We threw large sections of the playbook out the window  - almost no team racing on the first beat allowed - and just kept hammering the split-push concepts. We revived the play I call "12 Gap" - the 1,2 keeping the 1,2 while teammates in the back of the fleet work together to beat someone. 

It was basically a dare to the other team. You can't possibly balance us all the way to the finish with these shifts and our boatspeed. We understood the balance concept to be sure, we just turned it against the other team. It wasn't pretty team racing, but we won a lot of races 1,2,6,7; 1,2,5,8 etc.

Lulu and Jack were getting lit up in a couple puffs, and Connor twice got stuck in irons by a crazy wind-swirl by Mark 1. The sailors had to hike all beat, then hike all reaches to keep boatspeed around the course. To actually improve throughout a day like this, with all the physical and mental strain, says something good about these sailors. We continued to get better at our spacing and anticipation of each other's moves relative to the opponent.

But by the NED race (as we had taken to calling the Dutch), the last of the day, Lulu was tired. She started over the line by 4 inches and went back super late - Sara called to Connor who called to Stephan who called to Lulu, but it took to long! She was deep 8 and hiking her butt off all the way up the first beat. We were close to a 2,3,4 and ended up slowing down the race a lot, so Lulu got back in it.
   
There was a wicked puff maybe 30kts as the fleet barreled into the leeward mark. A NED stuck Lulu up with a "bump and run" move and in the puff she had to tack around to make the mark. Again she is deep 8 and now we're in a 1,2,6,8 with a couple NEDs team racing hard on Sara in 6th. After they moved her to 7th, Sara played it beautifully, consolidating an imbalance twice to temporarily take a boat out on starboard. While the NED's were re-doing this passback for the 3rd time, Lulu sprang back into the picture and was streaming for the finish line on Starboard! A NED boat lee bowed her and stuck her up head to wind, but in this moment all 3 boats, Lulu and 2 NEDs all shot the finish line and Lulu beat them both by just four inches! If the NEDs win that shootout, they probably win the regatta. It was a gritty performance by Laura Hamilton and some great team racing and awareness by Sara Schumann.

We got off the water to find we were tied for first place with a 10-1 record; we hadn't known anything that was happening on the other course. We prioritized rest and warmth over socialization. I debriefed only with boats - no video and went over what we had been learning intuitively so it could be better standardized for everyone tomorrow. Sunday brought dangerous conditions for most of the day - mid 40's and gusting as much. The beautifully engineered bracket could be easily terminated at that stage, we just needed a Finals! We were loosing the tiebreaker to Poland, under Appendix D, by 0.2 points!

The front pushed through, the wind blew itself out, and we went out for the finals set for 2:30pm. Sweden and the NEDs would sail the consolation, while we would face Poland for the Regatta, in a best of 3 series. The sun came out briefly as Connor sprayed his wardrobe all over my coachboat in changing to lighter gear - both good omens as they had preceded the finals last year. Jack had given exemplary answers in the team meeting the night before, the gleam of understanding in his eye. I saw him lay down one confident roll-tack, and decided he would start the finals.

Stephan, left and Jack crossing the fleet in the Finals. 

The first race we had a chance to loose on the first leg - the Polish started well and we bid a bad job getting sucked into a blender drill in the middle of the first beat instead of getting out and fleet racing. For a moment Jack was the only thing keeping them from having a 1,2,3. Then Connor luffed a windward boat, drew a foul that he presented well to the umpire, and got a call that put us on more stable footing. The entire team chipped in on the reaches and last beat, when we finished 2,3,4,6 - a solid Play 2 with a Play 78 emergency built in. The next race we started better and stuck to our guns on the long, favored tack. Jack, Sara and Stephan should have had a 1,2,3; they settled for a 1,2,4 with Stephan in 4th. Sara began to team race to "clean it up" but Stephan called her off around mark 3 when he saw a pressure line he could roll the opponent on. He got briefly clear ahead, and when the Poll tried to drive him the wrong side of Mark 4, he kept clear, protested, and got the call. Poland  spun for the Rule 17 Proper Course violation, and Jack, Sara and Stephan finished 1,2,3. Connor had done the dirty work on the start line and the first part of the beat, occupying 2 Polish boats and dragging them out of phase. All the kids brought the best version of themselves to the finals and we took them 2-0 to win the 30th Opti Team Cup. It was Connor's 2nd win, putting him in the company of Poland's, Kacper Zieminski and Germany's Felix Tone as the only 2 time Cup winners, while  Germany's Nikolaus Mattig stands alone with 3 wins. 

The rest of the night is kind of a blur - we packed charters, rushed to shower and took Lulu to get groomed at "Das Futter House," received awards with the "Star Spangled Banner" playing, took a train to Berlin, walked around, took a train back, packed, slept and traveled all the next day. Nothing gets in the way of an education like your schooling and I wished the kids had another day to shlep around Berlin, see some museums and actually process some of the History (I did this last year with a couple local umpires). Just once when you sit down with your school to explain "why are you taking off soo much time from school for sailing/world travel" I wish the administrator would say "why don't you take off more time?!"

Still, despite the hardships and ensuing sleep deprivation, there was a glow around the kids of knowing we had accomplished something unprecedented. They were still crazy maniacs - pushing each other onto train tracks, spitting on the Berlin wall, and starring in Dutch music videos (ok only one of those things actually happened, but all 3 were considered) . But now they are a Team of crazy maniacs, and one that knows they can do once again what LYC teams have done before: become the Once and Future team race champions.




Regatta Video.

Photos available - Copyright Hans Glave 

OTC Website. 

Regatta Report - Spring Team Qualifiers

 

The second toughest domestic Opti regatta of the year is the Spring Team Qualifier regatta. Bi-annually the Opti Midwinters (a New Orleans Thanksgiving tradition) bears this designation, but this year it was bestowed on the St. Petersburg Yacht Club to host in early October. The regatta - officially the “USODA Southeast Championship” - determines which sailors are invited to the US National and Development Teams, and the order in which they are asked to represent Team USA in International regattas scheduled for Urugway, Italy, Spain, Belgum and the Netherlands this spring. With all the top sailors turning out the competition was great and with only 1 month to prepare since the start of the fall season we were prepared for a range of outcomes! 

Training 

Pilo and I arrived Wednesday morning and began on-site training daily as more and more sailors took off school to practice! With yet another Hurricane making its way up the Gulf of Mexico there was big breeze - up to 35kts Wednesday and 25kts Thursday. After numerous swamps the sailors had an epic ride in - Wednesday it was too rough for me to get the camera out, Thursday I took this picture of Kevin Gosselin ripping on a reach leg. While we give some breeze specific tips to the sailors for big wind (flattening the sail with less cunningham and more vang, pulling up the daggerboard BEFORE you try to head down) Pilo stresses to the sailors that the routine is really the same for all conditions. You tune for the conditions, balance the boat, and analyze the course and start line in the same way. You are racing, not just surviving! I think it is really important to train on the 35 kt days - then you have the confidence to race on the 20 kt day like it is no big deal. 

Kevin Gosselin rippin' Photo: Arthur Blodgett

Friday brought medium - light wind and with 20 sailors from LYC practicing together we had decent Start-line-in current practice and worked on the sailors technique and patience sailing a longer course. You are not going to radically change or fix your technique (or boathandeling) at a regatta (that is what practice is for) but I stressed a couple things for St. Pete chop. 

      *Sailing with the outhaul a little extra loose for the chop - hint of vertical wrinkles through the first seam in light - medium conditions. 

     *Making sure to be far enough back in the boat that the bow was not dragging - in addition to chop vs swell the water was a little fresher in St. Pete than Lauderdale, so the boat sinks a little lower and the bow drag is a big consideration.

     *Always sail with your front foot locked into the boat (when not hiking you can kick your ankle into the hiking strap), exerting upward pressure on that foot, and downward pressure on your back thigh as you work the boat. This, along with good body position, vision and timing is how you should work the boat through the waves. 

Robby Brown joined us to meet the sailors as they were measuring in Friday afternoon. When I told Eric Bardez Robby was coaching with us he said “no one has won more races on this bay than Robby Brown, except maybe Ed Baird.” Robby was my college coach at Eckerd and I would not have been an All American without him and I think the kids benefited from his on the water coaching and insights in the briefings. For me it was great to have a former mentor as a colleague and be able to bounce ideas off him on the radio as the conditions were changing. 

Racing - Current

“This regatta is going to be all about the current” said Mauricio Galarce Friday night, and for the most part he was dead on. The current changed to begin coming in at 10am Saturday, 11am Sunday in the racing area, so we sailed most of the races in a fooding current, which was with the wind direction. The wind gods found rare favor with St. Petersburg and blessed us with 2 great days of racing in 7-15 Kts of wind from the SE to SSW direction. 2 miles out in the Bay the water sparkled and the waves and fair conditions made it a fair test of who the best sailors were. People were inconsistent only because there are soo many good sailors. You have to do something extra to not just be one more of the fleet. 

Sara Schumann and Lulu Hamilton (far left) racing around the gate. Photo: Tom Barnard

     The easiest way to get a great race when the current was ripping with the wind was simply to beat the line sag. Even with a U flag, one could safely stay above the middle of the fleet but still under the line for the last minute, and start on top of the fleet. Optis are slow boats upwind and very susceptible to current, and kids don't always fully grasp how much they are being swept. With the fleet being swept into a big banana shape under the line, it was not enough to be even with the front row, you had to maintain a position with the front of the fleet, then accelerate early and start punched out. Stephan Baker had a race where he started in the middle of the line 3 boat lengths ahead of the next boat, covered the fleet and won by a horizon. The incredible thing was he risked nothing to get such a good start! Middle of the line when starting in adverse current is the safest place to be! It was soo bad that 2nd Place finisher Peter Foley won a race here he started on Port in the middle of the line - you should not be able to do that but such was the line sag. While the pin was favored, the current also caused a pile up on the pin boat for those starting line 1b and below - again - take the easy money and start middle to mid-pin above the fleet! 

photo: Tom Barnard

On the first day I was a little disappointed with my Silver Fleeters for not taking better advantage of this - I think they were a little intimidated by the regatta at first. O the second day we were first to recognize the change and in lighter airs most of them sailed their best race. Here’s Jake, Connor K and Kevin at a the windward mark:

 Jake extended on the downwind and held on on the last beat to win the race! Cody and KJ also had solid finishes. We have a lot of current in Ft. Lauderdale and I expect these sailors and others to start well more consistently when the current affords these opportunities. 

A couple morning races were started in current pushing over the line, and this requires a different approach to get a decent start without being Black -Flagged (this means disqualified from the race if you are over the line anytime under 1 minute before the start. You are OUT even if the race is re-started!) I really like to approach late on Port Tack from below the pin end, tack on someones lee-bow anytime from 45-15 seconds and snake my way up to the line. This approach (“The Port Tack approach”) allowed you to look for “low density” areas of the fleet, and also to see if most of the fleet is over - in this case make sure you stay below! 

We talked a lot with the sailors about the exact angle of the current. The up current end of the line is always low risk, the down current end where boats naturally drift too is high risk. On the run you should sail the jibe that takes you into the current! 

The bay was actually deeper to the right of the course area - counterintuitive as the right was closer to the land from which we came! Thus, all else being equal, the current was marginally  worse on the right side when sailing upwind. However, this disadvantage was sometimes negated by the windshjifts. 

Racing - Wind

There were a couple notable things about the wind shifts:

        *You could usually see the big picture pressure that was going to fill on the water by looking further up the course. Sailing to the pressure (darker, choppier water) was doubly important because it usually brought a shift from that direction. Always trust what you see more than what you predict! This applies to tuning your boat (changing the vang, cunningham, sprit and outhaul) for the wind that is present at the start as well (the pressure would drop and increase cyclically through the day) 

        *The wind clocked right throughout the day, but not radically. When it was shifting right, you did not need to bang the right corner to benefit. Instead it was better to get middle-right on the fleet, consolidate when you had a right shift, and tack a bit more than you normally would in a persistent shift. The way I explained this to the sailors on the water was to be rightish on the fleet, but not far right over the ground (because of the current). Earlier in the day (both Sat and Sunday) the left worked great on a number of races as well when there was superior pressure. (again, all together now… trust what you see more than what you predict!). 

‘Consolidating’ is a key concept in fleet racing - it means: when you are ahead, cross the fleet to get between the majority of boats and the next mark. Differences in clouds, current or wind patters determine how much you should cross - either a little bit before playing your side, or all the way - you have options. But the basic principle is to get an initial advantage  and then cash it in. If you are not ahead of most of the fleet, dig back to your side to not let them consolidate you! Wait for the wind to shift back to your direction, and then consolidate! 

Monday was a return to normalcy on Tampa Bay - after a couple general recalls for the gold fleet (even they could not stay below the line with the current in max ebb), the wind died completely! Credit to PRO Tod Fedezyn for understanding that the light easterly was canceling the sea breeze and calling it at noon! 7 Races in 3 days was still a great regatta and the RC, markboats, judges and measurers all did a fantastic job.

Awards/Results

Stephan Baker and Jake Homberger aka "baby Stephan" at awards. Photo: USODA 

Stephan Baker continued his dominance of US Opti sailing winning all 7 races in which he competed. The way 3 flight racing works, the top 3 boats never got to race each other, so for Stephan it was really about sustaining excellence and letting Peter and 3rd place finisher Vanessa Larkamp eventually make a mistake or two. Vanessa was Black Flagged in the 3rd race, Peter finished 2nd in the 6th, and probably could have been 2nd in the last one as well, but the pressure put on by Stephans ongoing picket fence forced him to go all-or-nothing and he finished 5th. LYC’s Connor Bolland had his best fleet racing finish to date and placed 5th out of 273 boats. No secrets for either sailor, just good starts, great boatspeed and playing the windshift/consolidation game at a high level. Connor has now qualified 3 times over for the National team. He is sailing in High School for St. Thomas Aquinas, practicing twice a week in FJ’s against 18 year olds and overall sailing 5 days a week when school allows! Oh and also won 2 Team Race National Championships, the Opti Team Cup and the Rizzotti as a less heralded member of LYC 1. Its great to see this hard work and talent taking him to the top level of fleet racing. For Stephan this makes 15 fleet races in a row won in US competition and the key is to stay motivated and continue to strive for perfection. 

       Lulu Hamilton (19th) Jack Redmond (21) and Tommy Sitzman (28) all made the National Team; Jack moving up from the Development team and Lulu making a team for the first time! Sara Schumann was 36th, on the edge of NT/DT after a check in penalty (!) and new LYC sailor Ludmilla Lira was 37th! LYC guests Connor and Michael Kirkman re-quallified for the Development Team (Michael will be on the edge of NT), and Jake Hamburger will be the first LYC Silver fleeter to make the Development Team! He finished 66 and was 3rd overall in White fleet! We wont know for a few days the full extent of International Team Invites, but Kevin Gosselin, Angus Renton and KJ Hill all had good regattas in the low hundreds. I think most of the silver fleet showed improvement by finishing about the same as Nationals - at a much tougher regatta 3 months later. With the STQ this early in the year, some sailors who are fast in practice were maybe a regatta or 2 away from having the experience to compete at a high level - I expect Truman Rodgers  and Ty Lamb in particular to launch in the next few events. 3 Bronze fleeters competed and sailed solid regattas! Graceanna Dixon, Ava Meshel and Drew Lamb all got their first taste of a high level event, and I know this is the program their coach Pili wants for them - you always benefit the most from sailing against the best. 

Next up: River Romp, the LYC Team Race and the Opti Team Cup Berlin. The next big fleet race test will be SE Dinghy Champs at Key Biscayne, but for now at LYC, its officially Opti Team Race Month ! Whoohoo! 

-Arthur Blodgett 

Hurricane Irma - Important

All, please see Arthur's e-mail about Hurricane Irma preparation below.  Loose sailboats and gear can damage others so it's important that you remove your items from LYC property until the storm passes.  If you can't, find a friend, but please don't rely on staff who must delay their own preparations to handle your responsibilities.  Hopefully this will all be wasted effort and we can go back to normal next week.  Plan ahead, stay smart and safe!


-----------------------------

Team,
    Hurricane Irma's current track and projections are such that we are initiating our Hurricane preparedness plans at the LYC Sailing Center. Here's the plan for Optis:

*Practice canceled for Thursday (Green), Friday, Saturday, Sunday (all fleets) September 7-10. 

*All Private Optis need to be removed from LYC by the evening of Wednesday 9/6. 
     - If possible, come and get your Opti (I will be around and we can help you put it in or on your vehicle. Take it home and inside your house (optis make great coffee tables).

     - If you live remotely, you can:
          (a) email me to have LYC staff put your opti on our trailer and take it off site.There will be a $100 charge to your account.
         (b) arrange to have a local parent take your opti or put it on one of our Opti trailers at following time:

We will be loading Opti trailers with LYC owned boats, and remotely owned  private boats at 5:00pm on Wednesday - feel free to stop by and help!

*Opti Rigs - private rigs are getting de-rigged (slid off mast, rolled on boom) TODAY as the Garage is being occupied with FJ's. If you can get them before 4:00pm great, otherwise, they will be upstairs in the classroom. All green fleet rigs are being folded, rolled and stored in the classroom as well. 

*High School: putting FJ's inside today.

*Lasers: same as Optis - please remove your boat from LYC. 

The safety of you and your family is the most important thing with this potential storm approaching. Our goal is to have the LYC sailing center shut down by Wednesday night to afford everyone plenty of flexibility for themselves. JC, Courtney, Ted and I will be working hard the next 2 days to secure all our assets so we can continue our program when the storm passes. 
     Again, we cherish the safety of all families in our sailing community and trust that you are making good plans and preparing for this potential hurricane. Now is not a time for worry, but for action - and to set a good example to our kids of being prepared -  as we do every day in sailing.

Thanks,

Arthur Blodgett 

LYC Head Opti and High School Sailing Coach
arthur.blodgett@lyc.org

Cell: 812 325-1137 

The Never Ending Opti tour Debrief

"what a long strange trip its been" wrote Robert Hunter after one of the Dead's nationwide tours. They really had nothing on the Opti Team LYC sailors these past two months. We sailed 8 days in New Jersey at the Team Trials, then flew to Italy for the Rizzotti Team Race. I went from there to Lauderdale, to Annapolis for a Snipe regatta, Connecticut for a National team practice, LYC then Toronto for Opti North Americans. Some LYC Opti sailors sailed a clinic/Regatta in St. Thomas, USVI along the way, and the Opti Worlds Team is currently en rout to Thialand. They won everything and we had a fantastic time. The USA is sailing really well right now relative to the world Opti level.
      Brant beach is a long barrier island that creates a big, shallow estuary with the NE running mainland of Jersey. Shifty winds, short bay chop, and a little bit of current-it was basically Biscayne Bay Light + really cold for us Floridians. A good measure of a regatta's quality is the average points of the winner - the more points the more competitive the regatta. Competition and shifty conditions netted the following averages for the 5 worlds qualifiers:
Stephan Baker: 3.82
Justin Callahan: 4.18
Liam O'keefe 6.63
Charlie Leigh 7.09
Mitchell Callahan 7.46
   Think about that: you could average 7th place with the top competition split into 3 fleets and still make the Opti Worlds! Thats really competitive and I think also indicates the tricky conditions.
    The thing to understand about Opti first beats is that the favored side will always be able to get across. If you start pin in a lefty the whole pin third of the fleet will try to tack on to Port and cross the rest of the fleet. Part of this is the kids yelling "tack" and part of it is the great size of the line compared to an Opti boat length. If the boat end is favored you better get a lane on starboard quickly and be able to cross the fleet. The RC's are good - in oscillating conditions, the favored end is extra favored because it is the "in Phase" end.
     In the final race, Justin, Stephan and Liam were all within a point of each other for the regatta.  5th place was also no sure thing. Justin won the pin, about four boats up from the line boats and able to tack immediately in a ferocious lefty. Stephan was ten boats to weather of him and tacked too. Liam was 3 boats right of Stephan and started just a hair better by virtue of being OCS - I was watching and videoing and it appeared he stuck the nose up a little too far trying to create a hole to leeward wit the black flag. The shifts were fluky, coming of the warming westerly shore. Justin felt a momentary header on port and dug back left, rather than continue to consolidate on the fleet. The right wind eventually came and Liam was sitting pretty. Stephan and Justin both flew on the downwind gaining about 8 boats each with Stephan 6 boats in front of Justin. At the finish line Liam crossed first, but Stephan in 2nd got the gun - signaling Liam was OCS (he would have tied for 1st losing the tie breaker). Justin was 5th and Mitchell sailed an all around conservative, fast, quality race to finish 9th and clinch a worlds berth - credit too to Lior Lavie who coached the Callahans.
     Hanging with the other coaches was also a fun element of the regatta. On the penultimate day rainstorms led to the cancelation of racing and flooding of Long Beach Island. I drove the LYC truck through puddles to hang out with the Argentinians and Manny made the best Avocado toast for everybody. I watched Sophia and Libby Redmond horizon job a race at High School Nationals at MIT on the live broadcast with Ken Legler commentating. The next day they would win A division at HS Nationals and it was pretty surreal checking the scores on the coach boat while watching the aforementioned last gold race.

Left: Sophia and Libby off to the races. Right: final head-screwed-on-straight check from Pilo to Stephan before he Won Team Trials. 

    The night after trials Lior came over and Pilo he and I shared a nightcap. While there are always sailors that underachieve when you coach a large team (Kaitlyn Hamilton lost a he-said-she-said protest to knock her out of Gold Fleet), we were happy to see the year of work for this regatta pay off for Justin, Mitchel, Stephan and others (12 of our sailors qualified for international regattas or the National/Development teams.) The next day I helped the Callahans evacuate their regatta housing and we drove through 1 mile per hour traffic to JFK with their black 2 Opti "horse trailer."  We got ripped off paying for blue wrap-a-round the Rizzotti trophy case we had been charged with bringing to Italy on behalf of 2016 Champ Lakewood Yacht Club. We had drilled and added spectra hadles to the plywood box as we hoped to be carying it a lot.

Lior and Arthur with 'The Cup' at LYC, Dec. '16. Its long been said that the coach who's kid doesn't make Opti Worlds will have their head take the place of the lost Cup... but we never felt any pressure! 

The Rizzotti Trophy passes TSA

Biking through the Camping de Venizia 

We landed in Italy and suddenly became tourists at one of Europes largest summer attraction camping grounds. Alissa Callahan insisted we get bikes and we possied around on them to the ferry to Venice and the regatta camp on ensuing days. We schlepped around venice and took a minute to relax in one of the churches and ponder the fire and brimstone images we saw on the ceiling. The parents asked for so many pictures we became increasingly docile to get it over with. The second day I met Massimo by chance (I was biking and saw a van with an Opti on top) and got our 4 team Optis and Charter RIB squared away. The kids came back from a second trip to Venice for an evening practice and we laid down most of the footage for the underground sensation "Mitchell Callahan's Light air Roll Tacks." Musical credit due to Neil Young & Crazy Horse. 

[Video experiencing technical difficulties]

Mitchell is one of the most intentional sailors I have seen in his practice habits and he was by far the most consistent in smooth, legal tacks. Everything done with the mainsheet and body weight relates to the apparent wind. For the 'apparent water' angle of the rudder angle re-entering the water you should 'knife' it to leeward as you flatten the tack and Mitchell makes this change wile the rudder is in the air so he is not propelling the boat. Mitchell was almost penalty free (just one in the pre-start)  for the Rizzotti with these tacks under some pretty intense and qualified international judging. We had two great days of practice-the aforementioned sunset boathandeling shesh and the next day with technique/speedwork and some new team race stuff. We innovated two drills - one was to try to go as far by-the-lee as possible on starboard jibe running downwind. You let your sail out really far, let put the board down to reaching angle and press into the boat. Then you go as low as you can until you are on the edge of Gybing:  the flow telltales point to towards the mast (reverse telltale flow) and the leech  shows you she wants to jybe. You go surprisingly fast doing this and I think getting on to Starboard and using your arsenal of angles is the best way to play it in boat to boat situations on the run in team racing. The second new drill was a repeated reach leg drill and we tested a few things. For example, in light winds we found it best to push high on both the weather and reward reaches. If your opponent moves to luff you aggressively, you can do the "whip and dip." Connor Bolland shows off the move and thoroughly mind tricks Jack Redmond:

    When it came time for  the regatta we were ready. With 4 active sailors on a 5 sailor team it was hard to know who to sit as everybody was sailing soo well. We beat the Italian National team and LISOT Black, achieving a 1,2,3 combination by Mark 4 in both races. Our team race approach has been detailed in past blogs but basically we try to win pairs, then use passbacks, pair switching, and balancing to reach a solid play. If our initial position doesn't allow a play 1, OK. If we are solid with our play they will give us a better one. Everyone is trusted in any position within the system and free to heed Future and "call da play." 

Who should cover X on the white team? A is the correct answer. "Switch to the advantaged Pair." 

    One night in Venice we didn't get to meet the Mayor but we did meet the Deputy! She gave us all gifts next to the prison. Venice was the Mediterranean port to central Europe and helped ignite the renaissance. With the discovery of America, as her centricity and thus power declined but the wealthy families devoted fortunes to the arts. We took the elevator up the tower where Gallelo proved Copernicus' theory that the earth orbited the sun and looked out on the red brick roofs. 

"Call-purnicus was Right!"

Why is Justin bandaged? He wiped out on his bike with the assist going to Connor Bolland. He was lucky to be in sailing shape. The last day of the regatta we didn't always execute perfectly but we generally outsailed and out team-raced some really good Italian teams to go undefeated. The closing ceremony was one to remember standing on the stage of LYC's comeback in 2013 - Alie and Liza Toppa, Sophia Rieneke, Mack Fox and Calli Lewis coming back from 2 races down to stun Coral Reef. Taking back the Rizzoti trophy to Lauderdale Yacht Club was special and our upgrades on the trophy box cam in handy as our driver took a 45 minute detour refusing to ask for directions, and we almost missed the flight back to America, running through the airport. 

The once and future Champions: LYC in '13 and '17 at the Marco Rizzotti Awards Ceremony .

The next week I drove to Annapolis with 3 Snipes for myself, Peter and Ernesto and raced in the Colonial Cup. Though we split expenses I got the short straw: Erenesto 1st, Peter 3rd, me 5th. I'd go back 2 weekends later and finish 2nd by 1 point in the Under 30 Invite/ACC's to Grahm Landy-It was good to get some sailing in and I felt like we really improved in the boat getting 3 bullets on the last day of the U30 invite (my last year of eligibility). Also realy cool to see the youth movement in the Snipe fleet led by LYC Legend Jensen McTizzle qualifying for the U21 Snipe Westerns berth in 3rd place. Ernesto and Kathleen have established themselves as the boat to beat in the Snipe class but I look foreward to Nationals on Mystic Lake and great competition going into the Pan Am Trials. 

The National/Development team practice was a great excursion to seaside Connecticut and was well organized by Opti coaching legend Sott Norman.  He and Peter Strong laying it down for the kids was pretty cool. I've worked with a lot of sailors in the past two months; I think its important to thoroughly check everyones equipment and make sure everything is rigged right and any chance you can teach how something works in the boat you take it. Seeing a lot of poorly rigged sails the first day I taught the group the way we rig at LYC: top corner-ties, then cunningham (the preventer), then vang then sprit until the sail is taught but free of wrinkles. Then you can tie the luff ties evenly. Here LYC's Kevin Goselin demonstrates his sail pre luff-ties:

 This was my first practice with Connor Corgard and we began to develop the synergy we would need for North Americans - overall a great call by the USNT putting this practice together. 

Opti NA's sailors get special team race practice with Arthur and Connor at the USNT Clinic, Stamford, CT. 

Lauderdale for a couple clinics - rising Green Fleeters while the LYC G/S Sailors were at the St. Thomas Clinic then Team Racing for 3 days with 6 sailors before North Americans. I wiped out on my bike and got pretty much the exact same temporary facial disfigurement as Justin (for all the mothers out there I was wearing a helmet). Pilo was at the St. Thomas clinic - a growing staple of the  Opti calendar, and the LYC sailors had great regattas in big wavy conditions like we practice in every day. Mitchell Callahan was 1st, Justin 2nd, Stephan 3rd Sara Schumann 9th and Kaitlyn Hamilton 12th. In the Team Racing element, the Worlds team got some practice all together for the first time and beat the USVI worlds home team in the finals, although the USVI food its ground, winning the first race of the best of 3 series. 

Connor B and I caught a flight to Toronto for North Americans. The USODA practices and efforts at IODA regatta have a common theme- cohabitation by the sailors. We stayed in dormitories built for the Pan-Am games and occupied by George Brown college that Coach Connor and I both agreed were much nicer than our college dorm rooms. Everyday we had to catch a bus to catch a ferry to the Royal Canadian Yacht Club which was underwater. A 'hundred year flood' had hit lake Ontario and the precipitous rise was a challenge for sailors and organizers. Over 4 days of practice and 4 days of a regatta under these conditions I think our sailors grew as friends and as a team in a way they didn't expect coming in -adversity and boredom are powerful glues.

Team USAers on the be of the 1895 built ferry to RCYC. Tony Slowik teaching everyone his Gang Signs from the suburbs of Texas. 

I find the practices for the top regattas are almost the most fun part. For team trials, Berlin, the Rizzotti and NA's we had a 1:1 or at least a 1.5:2 practice-to-regatta days ratio. Getting there early enough to get the lay of the land (coffee place for the coach), adjust your sleep schedule, be meticulous about your equipment, and practice is really important. Stephan Baker usually shows up a day later than everyone else, but he is probably the most meticulous with rigging and tuning - he was the only one to de-rig his new "111" worlds sail completely when we had sail sheds available to us and has multiple times stopped practice to go over his luff ties and tension. 

The kids took advantage of 4 days training to hone their techniques - sailing with the hips inboard of the shoulders so you can work the boat. We watched a lot of video of them as well as some drone video of a practice race that Connor shot from the coachboat. Pretty sweet: 

The conditions were mostly light with small but brickish chop. Starting well, being patient, and smootly driving the Opti through the water were all prerequisite to success. 

Aussies prepare for the Opening Ceremonies.

International Optimist Regattas (IODA) have some key differences vs major US Opti (USODA) regattas:

      *The measurement was pretty comprehensive: hulls weighed and sails/sail numbers meticulously measured by an international team of experts. While I generally love everything Sturgis does in the Opti the carbon wind indicators a couple of our kids had were ruled illegal - the "exotic materiels" ban intended to keep costs down prohibits anything carbon. 

      *On the water, there were over 50 yellow flags thrown at competitors for Rule 42 infringement. The international jusdes don't care if you have already had a yellow flag and you might cry or your parents might be angry - if they see an infringement (pumping, sculling, rocking, ooching) they flag it regardless if it is a second infringement (that foreces you to retire). It was educational for some of our sailors, and I was proud that our top sailors have refined their technique within the rules and stayed flag free. On the start line, good boathandleing can usually take the place of sculling - for example: if you pump the rudder once or twice to turn down then pop your weight outboard, you can get out of irons just as well as pumping the rudder 3-4 times with your weight doing nothing. 

     *The regatta will do whatever it takes to try and meet its races target - having us tow out in fog and wait for breeze on the last day, leaving us on the water for 7 hours to sail 1 race each on the team race day, or putting the optis in harms way of a gigantic rubber ducky while waiting for breeze. I mean this actually as a compliment to the RC and PRO - they took no crap from the coaches and were determined to decide the Championships with as many fair races of possible - Americans should adapt with some longer practice days and never giving up on light air practice. The 4kt threshhold for racing in the US does not exist in the IODA. 

     *Coachboat quotas!!! While in the US you can have as many coaches per sailor as money can buy, we were only allowed 1.5 coachboats for 24 sailors at NAMs. Pepe and Connor coached tighter while I shared a boat with Aikira, the Coach for 6 Japanese Sailors. While each kid can get a word and a snack with one coach between each race, it puts a premium on sailors being able to break down the course on their own - something my colleague Pilo has been teaching all year. Fellow Argentinian Pepe showed his genius at this regatta as the senior member of our coaching staff - keeping the kids focus through a long, taxing event, and empowering Connor and I to do our best. There was no LISOT,LYC or AYC this regatta just Team USA and we all did our best to get everybody coaching. 

Despite not speaking the same language Aikira and I were able to take a selfie. 

  

Duck Toronto!

Mobbin' the coach boat at Team Race NAM's. 

*Parents have less access. You are not sleeping in a room with your kids then driving them to the regatta- they have to pack their own bag and account for all their own stuff as well as their sleep schedule and timeliness for meetings. Team leader Jane Walsh along with Ms. MacNamarra did a phenomenal job feeding and clothing (doing laundry), supervising, checking in and out and generally looking after the entire team.  Everyone returned to the States in one piece and some traditionally involved parents marveled at their kids newfound self sufficiency (who knew kids could figure it out when you trust them?!) 

     *Measurement after the race is the same as US Team Trials - any rigging or safety violations for the top 10 come with a penalty. Like the USNT practice, Connor and I spent a lot of time going over sailors rigging and they were super receptive. For example, we had every kid with an ease-outhaul knot in the perfect place for the run. A couple kids took my obsession with rigging to play a practice joke - after Peter Foley won a race he sailed over to me and deadpanned: "all my boom ties were over 1 cm and I failed my measurement!" I had begun to flip out on him for his costly carelessness when he stopped me: "just kidding coach." Peter is a super talented sailor who, when he improves his consistency to have only 1 throwout per regatta will be winning sailing regattas for years to come! Thomas Kerrigan later got me in the same ruse. Really funny guys. 

      

   

Of the North Americans, Peter finish 3rd, while Thomas sailed incredibly consistently to cruise into 2nd overall. Stephan Baker had a disappointing 2,7 the first day, before going off and winning 4 of the next 5 races to win the regatta. So 1,2,3 for Team USA vs the North Americans, and 1,2,5 overall with a Greek and a Brazilian edging Peter. The Americans took 3 more places in the top 15 with Tony Slowik 10th, Samara Walsh 11th and Katherine Doble 12th. Overall we had 16 of our 24 sailors make Gold Fleet and were incredibly proud of the group. Consistent, light air conditions over a cold lake magnified any first beat mistakes in a competitive fleet, and the sailors who sailed relaxed, had good boasted and started consistently well excelled. In the team racing, the USA went 1,3 with USA1 (theres aforementioned 3 top sailors plus Owen Hennessy and team race ace Vanessa Lahrkamp) again coming back from down a race to best the USVI. USA 2 limped into 3rd place after escaping  a tie with Mexico - limited time to prepare together stopped a team of great team racers from fully gelling. Pepe and I on the coach boat were excited but also suffering vertigo from a missed opportunity: USA 3 had beat the USVI 1,2,3,6 but lost on an OCS - it could have put USA 1,2,3 in team racing. Credit to Jonathan Siegul for perfectly executing the "get Mia Nicolosi in trouble" start strategy we gave him as a leader on team 3. 

Team USA 2 with great Album cover synergy they would be unable to match on the racecourse.  They still had enough raw talent to take 3rd. 

A Triumphant Team! 

Watching fireworks for Canada's 150th birthday (sort of.. sorry!) from the Royal Canadian Yacht Club after racing was a fitting end to a memorable week. The Next day Connor and I flew back to Ft. Lauderdale and Stephan, Justing, Mitchell, Charlotte and Liam began their journey to Thailand for the Opti Worlds - the top rock starts completing their World Tour. This is not some extravagant vacation - the sailors work 13 hour days putting their bodies and minds on the line in the purest form of One-design sailing. The fact that they are earning their place at the top of this internationally competitive meritocracy is a testament to something special going on right now across the US and especially in South Florida. Their coaches, teammates, parents and organizers have all contributed to this level of local competition and training that is incubating the World's best Opti sailors. I am privileged to work with this youth movement and ecstatic to see the US dominate International Optimist competition at perhaps a higher level than any other area of the sailboat racing sport. 

Arthur Blodgett