Its hard to conceptualize what 1,000 Optis look like. I can give you numbers, like 4 times the size of Team Trials, but until you are in the thick of a waiting area ensconced in luffing sails, different languages on each coachboat, it will not register. Add rain, low 40 degree temperatures and variable conditions, and you have the 36th Lake Garda Optimist meeting, which also set a record as the largest one design regatta of all time.
I was there with 20 sailors representing team USA, and working alongside top coaches Justine O'Connor and Juan Carlos Romero. Juan and I flew out of Miami and arrived in Milan the morning before we would meet with the Team. Our van driver Luca collected the Walshes (Jane and Samara) and we headed east for Lake Garda. The car ride itself was instructive on the Geography. Because of the mountains, you approach the Lake from the Southern end. Here the land is flat, and the lake at its widest. Drive North 10 miles and boom -- you are in the southern Alps! We wound through tunnels carved into the mountain-side, as the cliffs shoot up from the Lake at at least a 75 degree slope. The mountain peaks across the lake had snow on them, and looking up to the lake to the North was the endless Alps. It's important to always do due diligence on a venue before sailing there -- I had looked at toppo maps and read about the wind patterns. This helped to know what was North/South etc, where we would be sailing, and to place the features. However, the scale of things in Garda is still pretty breathtaking! The small town of Riva Del Garda sits at the top Northern end of the lake. We arrived, checked in, found Justine and met with 12 of the sailors to get their charters Optis.
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| Riva del Garda from the Air |
Expected Conditions:
Most RWB Opti Sailors are familiar with the phenomenon we call the "Seabreeze," the daily geothermal effect that brings wind from off-shore along coastlines all over the world. The land heats air (and creates low puffy clouds) that then expands out over the water. When the ocean then cools that same air, the Sea Breeze completes the cycle! Garda has its own geo-thermal phenomenon, but it behaves more like a cylinder than a cycle. At night the cold air from the mountains flows down and out to the south. As the southern plains heat up, that air expands, and shoots up the lake - all at once with 12-35kt Velocity, depending on the temperature differential.
So the warmer it is in the morning, particularly 20-60 miles south of the venue, the more wind there will be by 1pm. Overcast, especially cold days, and rain (as we would see in the regatta) can kill this lake breeze. With the regatta 3 weeks earlier than the previous year (and thus cooler spring time temps) we expected it to be a little lighter, but still over 15kts on sunny days.
"The right always wins" was the report of everyone who had sailed or coached Optis here. The reason: the course had always set to the right third of the lake looking to the south, which has particularly steep cliffs. The wind not only funnels along the cliffs, but the air flows faster because it has to travel more distance around the curvature of the shoreline. So everyone was expecting a drag race into the right corner to get this shoreline benefit. On the practice days we would test this with the sailors extensively.
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| Team USA ready for practice. |
Equipment:
"There's no problem we can't solve" said Justine to the team the first night. Identifying problems with your charter boat takes time, patience, and an eye for detail. The sailors were given as much time as they needed the first night and the next morning before launching, with coaches to assist in personalizing their boats and making them perfect. Nevertheless it took several more days to get everything dialed in!
Here's a list of everything you should expect to do to a charter boat (and on your boat too!):
- Check mast collar bolts for tightness/tighten a little (these boats were good, the Winner Optis I find need a couple twists with a hex wrench and vice grips)
-Check mast cup & bowline knots.
-Make sure the inflation stems on the front airbags are in the back (deflate and turn airbags around if necessary) so you can blow them up on the water without swamping.
-Hiking straps - are they the right length with a good/adjustable knot? I had a number of kids hike out on land to make sure they could get out enough (knees over the rail!) and the rail was at a good angle on their legs. Smaller sailors need looser straps to hike harder; bigger sailors need tighter straps so they stay connected to the boat.
-Boom bridle - ring in the right place? I like the ring directly over the back edge of the Daggerboard trunk, so that sailors can cross 'rail-to-rail' without having to move back. It doesn't matter if the sailor is big or small -- most small sailors have 4:1 mainsheets anyway to make trimming easier, and a little sailor should learn to tack correctly from the start!
-Boom Bridle tight? I do a double trucker hitch as you get more purchase and the knots come out easier if you have to re-adjust. 1/8" vectran is the line to use and replace every season! This is the one piece of rigging a coach or parent can do for the kid - everything else they should do! A tight bridle is essential for safety and fast tacks!
-Mast rake - where you like it based on your weight and the wind and wave conditions. I like a range of 110-112 inches. Best to measure with no sail on the mast for starters! Sailors should use a tape measure to get it about right, but then be willing to change on the water based on feel on the helm and if the boat is fast or not. Then measure again and record in your notes if you found a particularly fast mast rake. Juan Carlos stresses that sailors should rake slightly forward in more wind. This is because he mast bends more, so you are basically sailing at the same rake! If you rake back in breeze (as parents used to sailing sloops will be accustomed to) you overload on weather helm and the boat gets stuck in irons. If you are cracking (easing) the sprit to de-power, definitely rake forward of usual.
-Daggerboard Bungee tight? You will have to check this on the water. We chartered NewBlue Optis - good boats, but all the DB bungees were too loose. If the board doesn't stay down upwind, or up downwind, its too loose. Here's a sailors who needs to tighten her DB bungie - the top of the board has floated up so the board is at an angle and upwind performance suffers.
-Bailers tied in to the best place? Best place: where the thwart and the rail intersect. That way, you can reach the bungie while hiking and pull the bailer to you! Make sure to tie bowlines in the bungie cord, and yank on them (e-tape if you want!). Somehow one sailor managed to lose a bailer by the last day -- hard to do if its tied in properly!
On the Winner optis there is often too much glue between the thwart and the hull; the next best place to tie you bailer bungie is the aft most strap on the forward airbag. DO NOT tie the bungie to the Daggerboard trunk or DB/Hiking strap bungies - this creates tangles.
-Lines Replaced with the ones you bought from home!!!! Charter lines and lines that come with new spars are polyester cored and stretch a lot. Im talking about the white lines with the red flecking. Swap in the spectra (dynamo or vectran) cored lines you brought from home for you Outhaul, Vang and sprit. A low stretch Vang and sprit make a big difference in being able to properly tune and de-power the sail.
- Your own mainsheet can be nice, and you should always use USED sail ties at a regatta - new lines in general have a wax coating that makes them slippery and takes a few weeks of use to wear off.
-Always check ahead of time with the charter company on what spars they will be providing. For this regatta the MK IV's and 45mm Boom NewBlue provided were perfect, but for the Venice team race I had to email in advance to opt out of MK III's. MK IV's and Black Gold spars are the same bendiness - stiffer than the MK3. Obviously, the thicker the boom the less bendy - different coaches and sailors have different preferences. Here's mine:
Sailor under 77 lbs = 40mm boom
Sailor over 78 lbs = 45mm boom
-Swap in own tiller extension - the JCD and new Winner extensions are longer than the standard charter. E-tape the tiller extension on and check the universals -- rubber cracks more easily in cold weather!
-Tighten any shackles with pliers.
-Check your hull and blades for any chips and report to the charterer!
Seems like a lot? Too bad, sailing is an equipment sport! I can say from firsthand experience that the best Opti sailors I have worked with are among the most meticulous. Stephan Baker will not sail until his sail-ties are perfect and everthing is organized in the boat. Justin and Mitchell Callahan would have to pay themselves for anything that broke that could have been avoided, and Bella Cassaretto would pre-stretch every single luff tie each day with an extra sail-tie. Early in his career, Stephan broke a mainsheet block at the Newport Spring Team Qualifier. Trimming directly from the boom he finished 14th that race, and learned the lesson to triple check everything in the sailboat. He hasn't had a breakdown in 2 years since joining LYC! We all have different levels of inherent cleanliness and attention to detail, but to maximize our potential we need to cultivate a meticulous attitude. This is one of the many ways sailing benefits us as people!
Practice day 1:
Finally, we went sailing! The southerly breeze had already kicked by the time we launched, around noon, but due to overcast it would not build more than 13kts. We did several lineups to test speed, to familiarize the coaches with the sailors' individual styles, and to get used to the waves and fresh water. We then got together with the Norwegian team of about 30 sailors to do some practice starts and windward-leeward races. This allowed us to begin testing the go-right theory and it seemed to be paying. Starting in big packs of boats and finding lanes of clear air among the other boats would be key skills for this regatta so getting tighter with other groups is important. A little coach-to-coach diplomacy is required so having Joakim Karlson, a former colleague of both Juan and myself coaching his native team Norway was great. After a bit some Italians, who I recognized as National team from last year's Marco Rizzotti Team Race, joined us as well. They were super fast and we got to see some cool techniques for the Opti.
Two big areas emerged to the coaches as ones that we wanted to help the sailors improve over the practice and regatta days:
1. Tuning. Most of the sails were ridden with wrinkles. Both from Top corner ties being too loose, and from uneven luff ties. Multiple clew ties fell off - bad knots for new sail tie line.
2. Upwind body technique. Good movement but not always anchored to the boat! Every sailor has their own sailing style, but there are commonalities among most of the fastest techniques:
* Front foot always connected to the boat, downward pressure on your back leg or thigh as you work the boat through the waves. If you are hiking, front foot in the strap. If on the rail, front foot kicked towards the mainsheet block on the floor, wit the strap against your ankle. If in the boat, front knee points forward so your shin connects to the thwart.
* Hips inboard of shoulders. Use the entire rail in transitioning conditions (5-10 kts), moving your butt in while keeping your shoulders out makes you smoother and more connected to the boat because your abs are always tight.
* Feet in front of or at least level with your hips. Wyatt had a super funky sailing style we saw on video where his feet were back in the middle of the hiking strap, hips well forward. He 'slithered' back hard enough with his shoulders to make it work, and was actually one of the fastest kids in our group on Day 1 - but I think you can go faster having the feet further forward so you can torque the bow up and over the waves.
At this point ill drop the long awaited, underground sensation "NBS Vol 1: Mitchell Callahan's light air roll tacks." I really like the in-the boat body technique, mainsheet action, and consistent practice approach Mitchell showed in this video. And these tacks are completely legal. This was him tuning up before we won the tightly umpired Marco Rizzotti team race '17 with a perfect record.
Isolating body, rudder and mainsheet movement is also important to fast sailing. I think most of our sailors had this down (they qualified for this regatta) and they were good at reading telltales and upwind angles, and correct base sail trim. Playing the mainsheet all the time and at the correct speed/amount is something we can all strive for in improving our advanced upwind speed.
In fresh water, the boat sinks lower. In the Opti Pram upwind, bow drag is the greater of two evils, so in fresh water you have to move a half inch back of where you would be in the more buoyant salt water.
I was happy with the kids overall downwind technique. I like the following:
- Knees all the way forward/pointed forward.
-Only go back with your shoulders to prevent a bow plow. You can even hit the rail with your PFD as you flex back while pumping for a wave. Try to keep your but in the same place as it helps with balance. There will only be occasional waves where you have to slide back to prevent a bow plow. With your knees locked forward and your feet under you, you are in a good position to slide smoothly back if necessary.
More important is moving forwards once you are on the wave!
Once you are surfing you really can't go too far forward! :
- Keep the Boom out at 90 degrees. Less if you have insufficient vang. More if no wind. But 90 deg. is the ideal.
-Daggerboard up all the way so it fills the DB slot but barely protrudes (sticks out).
Juan shot a lot of video of the kids upwinds and starts, which we reviewed that night at the Hotel Europa conference room. The hotel was nice enough to provide cappuccinos for the coaches through all our debriefs there. All 3 coaches spoke on technique as we gave the sailors incremental improvements to work on for the next day. I gave the sailors a step-by-step on how to rig their sail more evenly:
1. With sail already tied to boom, and boom preventer (aka 'The Cunningham!') slid on to mast, rig top corner ties (horizontal and diagonal) with the wind indicator
2. Make sure boom preventer (aka 'The Cunningham!') is on its knob, with a twist.
3. Tighten vang. Pull the boom down in the middle and get the vang as tight as possible.
4. Rig and tighten the sprit. When lifted, the sail should have no wrinkles.
5. The luff of the sail will now be tight and you can tie the luff ties much more evenly.
The final preventer, vang sprit tensioning will occur on the water, but rigging in this manner makes for much more even luff ties than the "Betsy Ross" approach (like sewing a sheet on you lap). Juan Carlos countered in the meeting that he like to put the sprit on before the Vang - we like to have an open dialouge with different viewpoints, and I think the sailors really learned a lot from our discussion about luff tension: that it is the result of top preventer (diagonal tie) tension, and preventer/cunningham tension. The sprit wants to pull the sail up, the vang and mainsheet want to pull the sail down, and the 2 preventers restrict them and control the luff tension. With a lot of sailors getting new sails at the regatta this was critical - you don't want to overstretch the luff of a new sail and blow it out and the sail shape can only be optimal with the right luff tension. Here's Jordan with a nicely tuned J sail on the final day of the regatta:
It was awesome to see how the team improved in rigging throughout the week. We didn't allow them to use the sail shed because we wanted them to improve on rigging for future regattas. For our sailors doing their last Opti regatta an understanding of rigging and sail shape, as well as a last test of their knots was paramount!
Day 2 of practice the breeze picked up a bit to 20 kts and our sailors struggled to get consistently dialed in upwind. The conditions were cold, and it was still a mental adjustment to get used to the wind increasing from 0 to 15+ in 15 just minutes after a calm morning. Gil, Samara, Lucas and others got to play around with some 'cracked sprit' tuning, and everyone went through the progressions of putting on vang and sprit, then lifting the daggerboard a little to keep the boat balanced. We raced again with the Norwegians, this time even closer to the Wall and found it paying well.
Day 3 before practice we met in the Hotel Europa and went over the Sailing Instructions point by point. Sailors should always read the SI's and be responsible for all this information themselves!
On the water practice began with a big fleet race with all the USA Teams + a couple foreigners. Scott Norman and Marek Valosek had a team from the midwest (which nicely worked with LYC's Truman Rodgers and Nico Garcia-Castrillon) and Omari Scott was there with a team of CRYC sailors. It was nice to see our friends in this strange and mystical place, but we also needed the international intensity and style and moved to the Sweden course after 1 race. After a race with Sweden I surfed in with Lucas, who was getting ready for the Nations Cup the next day.
Country Cup
At Garda the Country Cup is a Stadium Style fleet race with one competitor from each country. A 33 boat NASCAR event in front of the sea wall at Riva del Garda. Lucas Tenrierro had the honor of representing the US as the top Team USA qualifier. He really sailed a good event against some Worlds level competition, starting confidently with a line sight and managing packs of boats well at the leeward mark as we had talked about. Only 2 of 3 races were completed in totally different conditions and a couple tough wind-shifts and fractured wind pressure put him in 18th overall out of 33. It was a good learning experience and a cool thing to be a part of.
As were the opening ceremonies!
Day 1
The first day of the regatta brought a number of challenges! There were storm cells that periodically moved up the lake, bringing more wind just before them, and less right as the rain was passing. The race committee showed up late (the Italians view rushing as unhealthy) and set a huge line and short first beat - different from previous years. The line was set as expected between 3 boats - a Signal boat (the one with all the flags) in the middle, and 2 inflatable RC boats at the two ends. On the first day the "signal was minus" that is- the mid line boat was sagged between the two ends. Because the right end was favored, and everyone expected the right to pay, the fleet really jammed this end of the line.But there was a common pitfall! If you started right and sailed too far to the right after that, you were over the layline! Many competitors said they couldn't see the windward mark in the fog - but I was at the windward mark and could see the start line, so I think maybe they were not looking hard enough! The right may have paid, but being over the layline never works out! Almost 80 percent of the fleet made this mistake.
In our debrief we diagrammed the long line/short beat conundrum. If you wanted to start at an end, you would have to spend most of your time consolidating towards the middle thereafter. Getting pushed further to your side is a big concern! We also worked out the common "signal plus/signal minus" verbiage so sailors and coaches could communicate better, and so sailors knew to look for the line being skewed.
Downwind we stressed locating the gates and seeking clear air away from packs of boats. Not jibing right away around mark 2 usually leads to better options!
Day 2 brought even lighter wind and the RC was only able to completed 2 races for Yellow fleet and 1 for everyone else. This time the pin end was favored - but again, it was all about starting well enough at the favored end and then consolidating across. If you got pinned out too far to your side it was not good. A number of our sailors started to do a better job of this, and Gill was in 2nd at the windward mark in a race that got canceled! Everyone recognized that the pin was favored, it was just questions of executing a good start and finding a good lane to cross.
The wind was surprisingly steady considering the direction was not lined up to the lake (it was blowing from the SE) and it had to come down some big mountains.
Going high on the reach is key in light air and when the reach is a tight angle (close reach).
Day 3 was similar sailing conditions to day 2, but with more 'externalities.' The Race committee moved the start time up 2 hours, before signaling a delay of 2 hours on land! It had rained and thundered all the night before and the lake was filled with debris.
When we finally got on the water it continued raining. The competitors have to remember that it's always the same for everybody, and that conditions, delays, etc. are things they should expect to overcome. However, there were a number of mental mistakes that day - a sailor starting in the wrong fleet, a shackle coming loose for another, and someone sailing half a beat with something big (a plastic bag?) on her daggerboard. All sailors need to get in the habit of checking their blades (daggerboard and rudder) regularly for weeds before each start in side of 3 min. You have already towed out 2.5 miles and sailed several more - how do you know that all the water you sailed through was clear?!?? As my dad says: "sailing is often about who can be the most observant."
Another issue for some of our sailors was the amount of sculling by some of their competitors, especially on the last beat when the wind had dropped to marginally sailable conditions. It's a tough predicament, and sometimes you wish the Judges would be a little more rigorous in their duties, especially with boats sculling in the middle of a beat. This was a problem at US Nationals too on a race that was ultimately abandoned, where the judges wouldn't go near a throng that was sculling through a gate. My feeling is: give the infringing sailors their first Yellow flag so they have to be conservative the rest of the regatta; even (especially?) if the race is about to be abandoned!!
As a coach representing my country, I can't coach my kids to scull, and I was proud of their concern for sportsmanship. We suggested they hail "protest", and I taught them a legal technique to head down then up once to accelerate the boat - moving your weight, mainsheet and rudder is just fast sailing as long as it is consistent with "heeling to facilitate steering." Once you have more speed, you have more pressure in the sail! This is why I always say: "Speed is a process, not a setting."
Day 4 For the last day of the regatta the RC set a 3 hours early start time - and finally it worked! We got a set of races off in a Northerly wind - unusual for this venue! It was picturesque racing with the mountains in the background. With the left being closer to shore, we felt that this side would have more pressure. There were bigger shifts both ways and the favored end of the line changed as well. A majority of our sailors worked their way left and we had a pretty good morning as a team! As the breeze died it lingered longer close to shore (this is a common lake characteristic). Almost all of our Yellow fleet sailors ended with a top 30 and towed in after a long regatta.
On the way back out to the race course I saw the first low puffy cloud had made its way up the lake from the south and was perched on a mountain top: The southerly lake breeze we had been promised was coming!
Boom, the breeze was back on at about 12kts and minus the rain, very similar to the first day! The last 4 fleets were treated to one last sparkling race on lake Garda.
We had a pretty good race, but a few too many U flags. In the White Fleet Cole and Ryan did a good job laying up to the mark (not coming in on the starboard layline) and had top 25s at the windward mark. The breeze then dropped so we towed in, returned the charters (no damage, 1 boom gone missing for 21 boats) and said our last good byes. It was a great experience to be a part of and one I know we will all take with us for years to come!
-Arthur Blodgett
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| Justine, Arthur and Juan dish at one of t Team Meetings! |
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| Team USA Sails in to the beach. |
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