Regatta Debrief - 49th SE Dinghy Champs

Saturday September 15th felt like Opening Day in any sport, with 97 Optis from South Florida and beyond racing again together on Biscayne Bay. Coaches, parents and kids from different yacht clubs were all happy to see each other again after summer travels and getting back to school. The race committee ran 4 great races in 5-10 knots of perfect seabreeze and sunshine. I was proud to have 31 sailors on the line representing LYC, and when Jack Redmond and Gill Hackel led the fleet into the first windward mark, felt a little jittery.

Gill Hackel took control of the event Saturday with 4 races of good starts, great upwind speed and good decision making, and on Sunday had his first major regatta win! I met Gill at the Lake Garda Optimist Meeting where we were with Team USA, and he began sailing with LYC this fall. Here's the scores of the top 10:

1	USA 21447	Gilman Hackel	LYC	17	2	1	1	4	9	(27)
2	USA 16953	Freddie Parkin	Coral Reef/Riverside	28	10	10	3	2	3	(14)
3	USA 21325	Cort Snyder	Coral Reef Yacht Club	31	5	9	8	8	1	(13)
4	USA 22280	Jack Redmond	LYC	33	4	13	(15)	3	12	1
5	USA 21419	Laura Hamilton	LYC	43	(29)	5	2	1	25	10
6	USA 22278	Leopold Seuss	LYC	43	12	2	4	18	7	(21)
7	USA 22291                  Nico Garcia- Castrillon		LYC	44	9	4	12	(25)	13	6
8	USA 20482	Griggs Diemar	CRYC	46	1	11	(BFD-101)	12	2	20
9	USA 19458	Tyler Lamm	LYC	50	(35)	6	7	10	23	4
10	USA 20916	Owen Grainger	CRYC	55	(26)	22	17	6	8

The depth of the fleet and the challenging conditions made it so not one sailor had all top 10 finishes! Cole Fanchi made the podium with a 3rd in White Fleet (under 11 age group) and Lulu Hamilton was top Girl (obvi)!

Having a first regatta this early in the season was great to have a benchmark (and regattas are often the best practice), but it was also early in terms of establishing routines and techniques, and there were a lot of mistakes! In the aforementioned first race, 1/3 of the fleet over-stood the Starboard layline to the first mark. Not recognizing the favored end of the line, underestimating the current, and even capsizing were all mistakes made by top sailors! Here are some notes for the sailors (and parents) I hope can clarify some things that happened.

Rigging/Sail Shape. 

Tommy Sitzmann trains in early 2018.

How do we judge an Opti sail? Is it how it hangs in the parking lot when the sailor asks "coach can you please check my sail?". We can check the basics there:

-Tight top corner tie & diagonal controlling the height of the sail.
-Basic/approximate luff tension with approximate vang and sprit ON.
-Is everything rigged correctly (knot in the outhaul, etc) and all "safety regulations" good?
-A little detective work on if the sailor rigged in the correct procedure (the sail doesn't lie!) .

But the actual judgement of the sail will come when it is fully powered on the first upwind leg of the race. At this point it will have the force of the wind on it - not just the true wind, but the added wind from the speed of the boat (called "Apparent wind"). It will have the full downward force of the mainsheet. The Wind-force + Mainsheet + Sprit forces will bend the mast, stretching the corner ties. At this moment, as the sailor is presenting the smoothest, most powerful-for-the-conditions sail shape, he or she will feel the force the sail pulls back on the mainsheet. He or she will have to judge not just the appearance, but the effect of the sail driving the boat through the water.

The sail cloth cannot lie about the forces begin put on it. If there is 1 big wrinkle coming off a sail-tie, then that sail tie is tighter than all the others and should be loosened! If there are wrinkles off all the sail ties, then the luff (front edge of the sail) tension is too loose. Less twists on the preventer and re-vanging solves that problem. Wrinkles across the sprit either way means the sprit needs adjusting! Sail too/high/low/wrinkles-that-even-more sprit tension won't solve point to the top corner ties.

If the sailor didn't even rig the sail in the first place, they will be completely lost when it comes to fixing/adjusting/tuning it on the water, and this is where the parent can do their kid the greatest disservice. There will be mistakes, heinous sail shapes, and tears when the sailor realizes half way through rigging that the boom-is-on-the-wrong-way and has to start over! But there isn't a great sailor out there that doesn't understand sail shape. That understanding comes from rigging and adjusting your own sails.

Correct rigging procedure for the sailor in the parking lot:

Above: throwback - Kevin Gosselin shows off his rigging process for OptiNews '17! Note: the sail has tension with no luff ties. 

1. Find cleanest, least traffic, shadiest spot, lay out sail, already tied to the boom.
2. Put mast through the preventer (aka Cunningham) loop. Make sure the sail us fully unrolled and boom right side up!
3. Rig the top corner ties. We show the sailors tricks on these in person in practice. These are the most important sail ties to get right!
4. Preventer on
5. Vang hand tight.
6. Sprit on until there are no wrinkles.

At this point the sail has shape and can be easily carried around. Many sailors prefer to put the sail up in the boat before the next step.

7. Rig luff ties. If the luff is not taught during this step, adjust the vang, preventer or sprit until it is tight. This is the secret to getting the luff ties even.


Current - Overview
We sail a lot on Biscayne Bay and feel like we understand the venue as well as any of the local clubs. See "Spring Fling Debrief" for explanations of the Tide & wind bends when the wind is coming form Key Biscayne. With Winds out of the South East for this regatta, we sailed mostly in "cross-current" - current pushing from at least 45 deg. off the wind angle.

"Fight it then ride it" is the adage for sailing in cross current, and this applies to the start line, beats and the run!

   - On the Start Line, the "up-current" end of the line will be lower risk - current is pushing boats away from that end, not piling them up. In races 1 and 2 that made it very easy to make the pin and the best start was to be had near there.
    It is very important to analyze if the current is pushing you over or under the line - tougher to asses in cross current but critical! We check the current with a gatorade bottle or orange tossed next to a starting mark. Then the sailor should practice both sailing down the line (are you being pushed up or down as you try to sail straight along it??)  and I also really like to do practice runs at the pin, so I know the layline and angles, and have a feel for the timing and acceleration.

  - On the first Beat (first upwind leg) sailing into the current generally puts you on the "long - tack" the tack you will spend a longer time on. So for races 1-2 with the current pushing from left to right, maintaining a lane on starboard tack was the key. Gill showed really good patience working the left edge of the leaders, always maintaining his up-current advantage until he could cross the fleet in a good position at the mark. By the same token, sailors that sailed down current (port tack) first got pinned to the right corner of the course and often overshot the layline. Extra distance and you are fighting the current to the mark as you watch the fleet cross in front of you!
     When the current switched (High Tide was 2:15 pm), all of a sudden the Left side became much more risky because it was down current! There was still a wind bend/current-bend  advantage I observed there, but you had to be in the top of the group and consolidate the fleet at the perfect time. With the starboard end of the line favored in race 4 (putting the starboard side of the fleet already ahead!) only Jack and Gill were able to escape and everyone else who started at the Pin end had a bad race. This shows the importance of recognizing the favored end of the line, and tying together you start and first beat strategy.

-On the run sailing the jibe that puts your bow towards the current makes you sail significantly less distance. I was happy that most of our sailors did not jybe in the races with current from boat to pin. You can plan/think ahead to your downwind strategy on the start line before the race, then re-check the angle of the current (look at the wake!) on Mark 2.

Wind 
Saturday the wind was a pretty normal Biscayne Bay seabreeze. Even with the direction South of the Key, the left was still the most consistent pressure, and even in the right-phase race there was a lefty before the windward mark.

Sunday there was more to unpack. We stress being the first team in the racing area (Gold fleet was both days) because everything you see means something. On the last day of J24 Nationals we were the first ones to the racecourse and saw a major positive stream in the current that was still there later, although it became less visible to the competitors that followed us out. We were able to sail in that stream to a huge first leg lead that helped us win the regatta by 1 point! The clue for SE Champs was a big shift almost to the NE (left shift) 20 minutes before the start. While the wind went back to a more regular Sea-Breeze direction for the race, this was an indicator that the wind would be fighting itself, and both the shifts and the differences in velocity were much bigger than on Saturday.

With big "Holes" - areas of low velocity (we Coaches will often call velocity "pressure" fyi - sorry physics majors!) on the race course it was important to:

 - Look for areas of "pressure" marked by darker, more rippled water.
- Be patient and sail into those areas of pressure.

Overall it was a tough first race for LYC as many sailors either started at the unfavored boat end, or tacked shy of the pressure.

In the next (and final) race, the wind shifted further right to the seabreeze, and many LYC sailors did recognize this and start at the now-favored boat end. With this sustained right shift, Nico Garcia-Castrillon, who sailed a consistently good regatta, got a little greedy and dug further right of the course, although he may have been winning already! Sure enough, even with the persistent right shift, it still came back to the left a little bit, allowing CRYC sailors Cort Snyder and Freddie Parkin to cruise back into the top 12, after starting at the wrong end but being patient with the left. Feeling pressure, Hackel was not as patient and posted more points than the rest of his regatta combined (his consistency up to that point gave him a throwout race to burn)! Jack Redmond sailed his best race of the event, starting right, consolidating, sailing conservatively and letting his boatspeed take over to end with a W, just like at last springs South Americans.


So my Biscayne Bay Takeaways (apply almost anywhere) :
  - Start at the pin if it is favored
 - Start at least boat half if the boat is favored
 - Consolidate the right almost immediately in a righty - it will not last.
 - Sail for pressure on the left, and be more patient on when to consolidate.
 - Always factor current into how you play the racecourse, and how you view risk on each side.
 -Always go for what you see over what you predict.

A note to the Bronze Fleet:
  If you don't understand these last few sections, don't worry about it! Technique is the most important thing by far to get down and thats where the focus should be. Only once you have speed and good start can you really apply everything else! There is a danger in overanalyzing or critiquing too much of a new RWB sailors tactic's. "Why'd my kid tack there?" leads them to stress decisions when they need to relax and develop tactics by instinct and by making mistakes they can learn from. The biggest gains will come from Technique, not tactics. 


Habits
Habits need to improve from this event going forward:
Issues:
 -Not all sailors rigged and ready on time
 -Borrowing my tape measure - bring your own! And always check the mast rake. Sailors can and do change the rake on the water based on feel or significant wind changes, but you should then measure and see what you changed it to! If it was fast, remember that setting. I measure the rake in inches with a range of 110" to 112" , depending on a lot of factors.
 -Slow launching. After a wind delay there is no excuse to be last off the dock! We are a team and reliant on our last sailor to launch before we can tow to the racecourse. Make sure you are all ready to go with plenty of time, and within the rules, endeavor to get your boat close to the launch point!
-Not testing the sail or start line between races. To have great boatspeed you have to work at it, testing the sail and the feel and balance of the boat; and checking the line and conditions is crucial.

LYC Coming to the Coach-boat Checklist: 

1. After finishing the race (and filing any protests or requests for redress with the RC finish boat or Measurement boat, as necessary) sail to coachboat.
2. Dock on leeward side, being careful of other teammates and control speed with sail luffing and using the rudder as a brake.
3. ASK for water, food from your bag, gatorade, chewy bars...or anything else you want. If you can reach it with feet in the Opti, get it yourself!
4. DEBRIEF the past race with your coach.
5. Discuss ADJUSTMENTS you want to make to your sailing, and any wind or current changes that may occur during the next race.
6. Put all trash back in your own bag (you are responsible for your bag+ trash)
7. Sail away for the coacboat, and begin to test your sail and analyze the racecourse for the next race!!

Once the coaches have had this interaction with each sailor, then we can begin to move about and help you look at your sails. As Pilo says "we are here to help you and to give you advices!" For multi-fleet regattas the later starts can watch the starts before them from the anchored coachboat, but should sail up until that warning signal, and regularly hop off to re-check their sails.


Mentality
   While fleet racing is an individual sport, we want to be a team that supports each other on and off the water. We want to be courteous with our competitors, and always thank the Race Committee and regatta volunteers. I was overjoyed to hear from another YC parent "I can always tell the Lauderdale kids by the way they act before I see what they are wearing - they are so polite." That was a really nice compliment and we have to work hard to maintain that standard!

We want to have the confidence in ourselves to embrace the challenge of winning, but also be ok with loosing too! Only when there is no fear of failure can you relax enough to sail your best. The lesson of how to think for one's self and make good decisions takes time and cultivating. I know each sailor on our team has strides to make this year and I am looking forward to the rest of the season!

LYC Opti sailors and coaches after awards at KBYC.

LYC representing in Red Fleet! From left: Leo, Lulu, Nico, and Jack.