2016 Boomerang Regatta

Registration is now open for the 2016 Boomerang Regatta!

Click the link below to get registered for this fantastic regatta at our home club!


2016 Boomerang Regatta

Two New AB Coach Boats!

LYC Sailing is pleased to announce the recent approval to update our fleet of coach boats! The Lauderdale Yacht Club Board of Governors voted unanimously to support an initiative to purchase new coach boats for the sailing program. The vote came at the end of a 6 month process led by Fleet Captain Chip Sabadash and Powerboat Committee Chair Ted Morley, along with the Yachting Committee, to review the needs of the program and identify key manufacturers that can provide a highly customized fleet of coach boats to address the unique needs of LYC.

The result was the approval to purchase AB Profile series coach boats, with their F15 model for our inshore Opti fleet and their F17 for our offshore fleets. These boats are custom designed to specifications provided by LYC and are truly robust platforms.  The boats are powered by 4-stroke Yamaha commercial outboards and equipped with tow posts, jockey consoles, and state of the art communication and GPS devices that will allow the LYC coaches to safely and efficiently provide on-site support and guidance to sailors. 

LYC Sailing currently has 8 coach boats in service supporting sailors in Optimist Dinghies, Lasers, 420s, Snipes, and Mercury sailboats. The first 2 new boats will join the newly acquired 17’ Seaflight coach boat as part of our acclaimed opti sailing program and are due in service within a couple of months!! 

The Sailing Program would like to express their thanks for the tireless support of LYC Commodore Jim Lang, Vice Commodore Peter Commette, Rear Commodore Greg Bellows, the Board of Governors, the membership, and all those that worked to make this a reality.

The LYC Sailing coaches look forward to putting the new coach boats in service during practice and during regattas. These boats, paired with the incredible skills that our sailors and coaches possess, will take the Sailing Program at Lauderdale Yacht Club to new levels!  

Upcoming Practice Schedule & Regatta Signup Sheets

Team,

 

Please see previous post for practice schedule next week.

On Sunday, November 29^th we will be having our 3^rd and final series race day for the fall season. Races will be scored for Green, Silver and Gold.

December 5-6^th  is the Junior Olympics regatta at US Sailing Center Martin County. Registration can be found here.  After you register on Regatta Network, you need to signup on the LYC Opti Blog in order to reserve a spot for your boat on the trailer. The JOs regatta signup sheet can be found here.

Also, the Orange Bowl signup sheet can be found on the blog here. Again you must sign up on the blog if you want to reserve a spot on the trailer. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

JM

Upcoming Calendar Reminders!!!

LYC Opti Team,

Please make sure your calendars are marked for the following dates:

Saturday is Fall Series Racing #2 for Gold, Silver and Green Fleet!

Naples Cup regatta is on November 7-8. Register Now! Click here to register and view the NOR. There will be no LYC practice this weekend for Green, Silver and Gold fleet.

There will be NO Lime Fleet practice on November 14th (LYC hosts Opti Team Race Regatta) and the week of Thanksgiving on November 24th, and 28th.

There will be NO Green Fleet practice on November 14th-15th, 26th and 28th. There will be Green fleet practice on the 29th.

There will be NO Silver and Gold Fleet practice on November 25th, but there will be Silver and Gold Fleet practice on the  28th and 29th.

Happy Sailing :-)

Recent Guest Speakers at LYC Practice!

Top: Erika Reineke talks to the  Green and Lime Fleet teams about her 2016 Olympic campaign. Reineke began sailing in Green fleet at LYC! Above: Erica poses for a picture with the teams.

Above: US Olympic Coach, former British Olympic Coach, and 470 Silver Medalist Morgan Reeser sharing his knowledge with the LYC Opti Gold and Silver Teams.

A huge thank you to these two phenomenal sailors for giving their time to our program! Thank you as well to US Sailing Judge Martin Ottenheimer who worked on and off the water with our Opti Race Team this past Sunday!

South-East Champs Regatta Debrief - Arthur Blodgett

This past weekend the LYC Silver Opti Team traveled to beautiful coastal North Carolina and competed in the Opti Southeast Championships. The regatta was mentally challenging for all - some sailors were dealing with the pressure they put on themselves to qualify for Team Trials, while others were experiencing their first RWB regatta. The conditions were steady and breezy on Saturday with a lot of chop, then flatter (still somewhat choppy) with big slow shifts on Sunday. Everyone deals with pressure in different ways - my approach has always been to put a ton of pressure on myself in practice, so that I am used to it! This leads to a more consistent approach at regattas where I don't get too high after a great race (stay focused on the details) and expect myself to bounce back after a bad race or even bad leg. As Olympian Michael Blackburn says: "The race is always from here, on out. Ignore past mistakes and focus on going fast and looking around."

Miles Wolf sailed well enough to make the Team Trials (21st out of 90 boats), but an umpire's late decision (not reported until after the "final" on-site results were posted - we left the regatta thinking he had qualified) unfortunately bumped him out of the top 23. I spoke at length with the umpire and am still not satisfied with his various explanations for the flag and subsequent DSQ. Rule 42 specifically bans "vertical or athwart-ships (in and out) body movement," but says nothing about natural for-and-aft movement designed to keep the boat in contact with the water, provided it does not constitute an "Ooch" - "sudden forward movement, stopped abruptly." Ill take this a step further - over-enforcement of fast techniques is holding American sailors back in international competitions against more enlightened countries (US = 0 Olympic Medals in 2012), and if you stand against America, then I stand against you! I love sailing judged events (fairness is a key concept in sport) and thank Judges for enormous time and effort they put in, but wish there was more open discussion at the US Sailing Level on how 42 is specifically being enforced and what the ramifications are! Despite the disappointment, I am confident that Miles has the skills to make Team Trials at his next USODA event (especially if he stops capsizing!).

I am always impressed at Opti regattas with the importance of Tacktics. To execute any tactical plan you obviously need to have good starts and boatspeed, but at this and other regattas, the decision making versus the fleet still seemed make a 40% difference in the sailors' results from race-to-race. Below I have illustrated a couple key concepts.

Cross When You Can after the start

By getting a good start at the favored end, you should be able to cross much of the fleet and position yourself between them and the next mark/next shift. 

Mid Beat, Always Lead Back

The corollary to the first concept - if you are not able to cross, you should tack at a safe lee-bow position to stay in phase. 

At the End of the Beat, Controol Your Side

The end of the beat is a key point in the race to make or consolidate gains. Take a look at the breeze to determine your short term strategy, then hard cover the boats behind you on that favored side. If your strategy was correct, you will gain on the boats on the opposite side as well! 

Don't Follow Someone Good!
I'v learned a lot over my sailing career by studying good sailors at regattas, but its their Technique you should be copying, not their strategy! Here's why following someone in oscillating shifts will put you further and further behind them:

Other Factors:

Its been said that "preparation wins sailboat races," and while this is part of winning, its absolutely true that lack of preparation looses them! Sailors need to check and re-check all of their equipment for functionality before a regatta. Issues like "my watch doesn't start" or "my vang slips" or "my original 2004 mainsheet ratchet stopped working" shouldn't be coming up on the water and can absolutely torpedo a sailors race and possibly their regatta! Also take the time on shore to make your sail-ties perfect, and pull on your square knots firmly! Re-check your boat between each race, making sure all sail ties are legal (less than 1cm between sail and spar, sail band between mast bands), vang, sprit, outhaul and cunningham are right for the conditions, bailors are un-tangled, and your hull is dry and free of trash.

In choppy conditions, after-the-start bailing is really important. At the summer LYC Opti Clinic, Duncan Williford told the kids that he would always have his boat bailed completely dry by the windward mark so he could focus on passing people on the Reach and Run. He usually passed 10-15 boats!

Check out this great video by former Eckerd Coach Scott Norman on how to Sail-While-You-Bail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHXp3xyTGNw

Note the grip on the bailor, the tiller and mainsheet held in the same hand, and the fact that the sailors is still working the waves with his eyes on the sail, waves, and racecourse.

Cheers,

Arthur Blodgett

Register for Orange Bowl, Tuesday 9am!

Don't forget -- Orange Bowl Registration opens at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday.  If you've done it before, you'll likely want to do it again and the window will close quickly -- likely by 11:00 or noon (no guarantees, and don't count on this).  If your sailor hasn't done it before, you'll find it the most cost-effective large-fleet regatta in the country:  no travel, no hotel, no restaurants, and stay in your own bed.  The Green Fleet is the easiest way to step into "the big leagues" and experience a large, high-profile international regatta.  The link is here:
http://www.coralreefyachtclub.org/Waterfront/orange-Bowl-Regatta-2015.aspx

If this link pushed down Arthur's stellar debrief, MAKE SURE to keep reading below.