Boomerang Regatta - Opti "Pre-brief"

This weekend we're excited to host the Boomerang Regatta at LYC. While the regatta gives Lasers, C420's and Snipes prime ocean sailing, it provides Optis something completely different from any other regatta - sailing a funky course over a sandbar on the Inter-Costal Waterway! While this isn't what our sailors will face at Team Trials, its a good experience for a couple reasons:
    1. We're preparing sailors for a life sport. Adult PHRF races all over the country run "random leg courses" - from my own experience I will never forget winning a Full Moon race at Davis Island and the annual "J24 Fun Race" in Newport this summer where we backed over the finish line in first place- and Boomerang gives our sailors a taste of just such courses. To paraphrase Bob Meagher "life is not just windward-leewards."
   2. Sailing in current is a really important skill. Sailing a skewed beat is an important skill (for College Sailing). Starting on a tiny line with 40 boats takes a lot of skill. We will hone all these skills at Boomerang.

Full disclosure, I have never actually seen a past Boomerang Opti regatta in action. But I have coached over 300 days on this little stretch of water and have some thoughts on what is going to make the difference for the winners. Here they are:

*Play the Current. Three things you need to know. First is the fact that current flows faster over deep water, slower over shallow water. Second, where is the deep/shallow water? Here's a satellite that shows it pretty well:

Note there are 2 channels, the Intercostal channel with all the boats in it, and the C shaped yacht channel that runs along the shore in front of the club. So the water flows fastest through the Intercostal, next fastest by the shore, and slowest over the sandbar in the middle.


Third, when will the current be flowing in and out? Here's the http://tides.mobilegeographics.com for this weekend:

2017-01-28 Sat  8:17 AM EST    

2.7 feet  High Tide

2017-01-28 Sat  2:23 PM EST   

-0.1 feet  Low Tide

2017-01-28 Sat  8:24 PM EST   

 2.5 feet  High Tide

2017-01-29 Sun  8:55 AM EST   

 2.7 feet  High Tide
2017-01-29 Sun  3:02 PM EST   

 -0.2 feet  Low Tide

So outflowing tide for most of the regatta. Outflowing tide runs North to South. 

When you are sailing a leg in the direction of the current, its pretty simple: sail in the channels. When your fighting it close to high tide, you can sail over the sandbar, but a mid-low tide you have to be aware of running aground (this is generally slow). 

If I were sailing an Opti, I would be testing where the sandbar was before the start of each race (how close can I go before I run aground??), and would sail with my Daggerboard Bungie behind, rather than on top of the Daggerboard for the entirety of the event, to make getting it up faster. Finally, I would strongly recommend using your practice Daggerboard for the event! No need to ding up our race foils. 

As always, think about how the current angle and strength will effect the start (pushing over or under?)  the lay lines, rhumb lines and mark rounding. If you must hit a mark, try to plough through it, so you can spin on the "down current" leg. 

*Sail the long tack first. On legs that are skewed, but still somewhat upwind, one tack will take you closer to the mark, and its a high percentage move to sail this tack first. When you get a wind shift that makes you luff suddenly, Tack! The basic question of shifty-wind strategy is: "am I sailing as close to the next mark as possible while still making my boat go fast?" 

*On the reaches, get in the high lane. This is more basic Opti Tactics, but in a fleet of 40 condensed boats, the boats to windward will roll over the boats to leeward on a reach. While there are some times where the wind or current makes going low pay, I would say that 80-90% of the time the high road pays. 

Mind your teltales on the reach! The daggerboard should generally be raised as high as the boom, but higher for a deeper angle, lower when sailing closer to the wind. 

In my opinion, one of the most damaging things a beginner's coach can do is tell them "go left" or "go right." - You need to learn to think about strategyfor yourself! I merely hope to give you the tools to analyze the current, venue and skew of the course. Its up to you to pick a winning strategy, get a good start, and make the boat go fast! If your from out of town and have any questions, feel free ask me or one of our experienced Opti sailors such as Connor Bolland, Lucy Meagher, or Bobby Rielly - they all definitely know where the sandbar is and were all here to help each other. Enjoy the food, keep an open mind, have fun, and try not to screw up in the same way more than twice!  

Arthur Blodgett  

Opti Team Race Midwinters

"Its like deja vu all over again." We had just lost the first race of the finals for the second straight year at midwinters. Our win streak of 50 team races dating back to the summer Nationals had come to an end, and this was the least of our worries. More pressing, our opponent LISOT Black had done a great job on us at the start line, compressing our spacing and winning both end pairs. There had been a lot of protesting (too much) in the race which you never want - it puts the outcome in the hands of the umpires. Exactly one year ago on Martin Luther King day we had lost the first race and gone on to loose a best of 5 series to Lakewood Yacht Club. Was the dark cloud at Midwinters coming again?
    It was not to be - the kids made a few adjustments, stayed composed, and won the next three races to take the series and the regatta. They did a better job of isolating their pairs, and fared slightly better off the line. The next race LYC appeared to round the second mark in a 1,2,3 - the winning combination we had been working all regatta - before Justin was assessed a penalty turn, and it was back to team racing! Justin's teammates in 1st and 2nd set a mark trap and worked their teammates back to the top half of the fleet. The third race of the series featured an unusual situation, LYC rounding the fourth and final mark in a 1,3,5,7 with the Long Islanders in 2,4,6,8. This typically would indicate bad team racing as you should always convert the 1-3 into a 1-2, but in this case it was the opposite: both teams were soo good at "doing unto others whats being done to you" and keeping the next opponent back at each mark that we headed onto the final beat unsolved. LYC's slight advantage and some good covering netted a key win. In the final race we converted a 1,2,3 by the 2nd mark, and held it all the way to the finish, even with LISOT right behind. With the bright Mississippi sun in their faces, Sara Schumann, Connor Bolland, Stephan Baker and Justin and Mitchell Callahan sailed into the beach; finally a midwinters win under their belts.

    The zone that served us soo well all regatta was ripped off from the notes of a former St. Mary's College sailor (who shall remain nameless to protect her from the wrath of Adam Werblow), so we call it the St. Mary's Zone. It sets up like this:

The basic tenets are that we keep sailing fast and don't have to tack as much at the opponents - if the boat you are covering tacks you have the option of letting them sail into your teammates zone. When two boats on are team sail at each other they usually "switch" - both tack so we don't have to duck/cross and we stay in the same zones. Finally, we always keep the most vulnerable boat (the 3 in a 1,2,3) to the right so they come into the finish with the starboard advantage. If the pair you are covering starts to get ahead of one of your teammates, you just cover them extra tight with your wind-shadow to "re-ballance" the zone.
   Of course getting the 1,2,3 relies on a good start, and on the middle day of the regatta, LYC 1 was dominant in this area, winning all 4 pairs against some really good teams like Southern and Lakewood Yacht Clubs. Even if you don't win all the pairs, you can gain an advantage by switching to the pairs you are winning, like this:

We did this incorrectly against Coral Reef the first day, and made it a point of emphasis for the leaders off the start to take the more advanced opponents, while teammates not as punched out would take whoever they could get! We like to have a zone at the start as well where each sailor has a designated spot on the line (boat middle or pin) and we can control both sides of the course.
    It should be mentioned that having the 3 fastest sailors (for those of you not avidly following Opti Fleet race results) was also key to getting the 1,2,3, but with a beat of less than 3 minutes, we usually had to do a little team raceing! It was really fun for me to have sailors who were interested in and good at absorbing concepts, and already had great spacial awareness, which I think is really important to team racing. To be a good team racer, you first and foremost need to be going fast. Then you start to notice where you are relative to the next mark, your teammates and the opposition, and make the right move. If you are ahead help your teammates by covering the opposition (covering means staying between them and the next mark, hurting them with your wind shadow upwind) if you are behind help yourself! Go fast away from opponents and don't look back! It was beautiful to see these concepts executed and all the credit goes to the sailors. On the 2nd day I knew they were locked in when the 2 boats to the left of our zone were tacking at exactly the same time - like synchronized divers.

The Teams had one weekend to practice at LYC, and I drove to Mississippi with the massive trailer that carries our coachboats and Optis arriving Wednesday night so we could get out Thursday and Friday for some more practice at the venue.  Not everyone could make it the first day (I am told you have this thing called S.C.H.O.O.L. which stands for Stupid Classes Hinder Our Occupational Learning - just kidding) but we were in full force with 2 teams on Friday and got a good sense of the venue - steady but light air, with a lot of current. We were sailing on a wide open bay, with cold brown water flowing in and out over a bottom less than 10 ft deep. Two bridges crossed the mouth of the bay, one for automobiles and one for trains. We were just inside the bridges on the west bank. There's a lot of space in Mississippi; rather than micromanage us (as at most Opti regattas) the hosts directed us to park our trailer "anywhere over there", gesturing towards a large grassy field next to a beach. I plopped the Opti trailer 15 feet from the water and left it there all week. It was nice to acclimate to a simpler, slower lifestyle, with ample parking. Pilo Rocha arrived Friday afternoon from his hiatus in the Argentine, and the regatta started in earnest.

Lucy working on her tacks - pretty good roll and mainsheet play. 

LYC 2, Lucy Megher, Kaitlyn and Lulu Hamilton, Ryan Kronrad and Jack Redmond also sailed a remarkable regatta, finishing 2nd in the Gold Consolation Final. The 2nd day, they missed making the  Gold Championship round by sailoff, and lost a few more thereafter! On MLK day they pulled it together and didn't loose to make the consolation playoffs. In the semifinals, they sailed their best, winning two races against SYC Silver - a team that had beaten them twice previously. Good starts and a play 1 (1,2,3) were witnessed, as a team that had barely sailed together showed great improvement. Ultimately they lost in the consolation Finals to LISOT Gold, and came away with the 2nd consolation trophy.

Umpiring is part of the game of team racing, and was an eventful part of this regatta. The chief umpire sent out a letter to competitors before the regatta that was very helpful, and had a slidshow on the Rules changes for 2017 on the first day, saving us coaches countless hours of study. The biggest concern on the first day was how the umpires would enforce roll tacks - it was light air and they were pretty aggressive with penalties for tacks deemed too good (illegal to exit with more speed) or too abrupt. The umpires worked hard (also thanks to the questioning of Joakim Karlson) as a team to both communicate with coaches what was expected for tacks, and to have uniformity in how they were enforcing it, and by the third day of the regatta we had trust with what we expected to be a Rule 42 penalty. While I disagree with the assertion that too hard a flatten makes a roll tack illegal, we at least knew what they were looking for: only one trim-ease-trim on the mainsheet, no pumping, and a smooth tack. Here's a pretty good one from Stephan on the practice day.

Note the telltales streaming perfectly as he flattens the tack - this proves that the mainsheet ease is necessary for the apparent wind change caused by flattening. 
  Give the umpires radar guns and we'd be all set. One thing they were great at was enforcement on sculling. The Opti rudder is large and effective, so sculling is a problem at regattas! The umps were on it on the start line, in windward-leeward situations, and on beats where a sailor would try to gain a speed advantage with some rudder wiggle. Thank you to the umpire crew for contributing to a fun and fair competition.

The final thing i'd like to say about our team is that we really strived to be a team of equals. Its true that some can contribute more in some settings proportional to their abilities. For instance we had the Callahans, with their deeper voices and extensive team race knowledge as the primary communicators. But all 5 team members were trusted and expected to execute their role from any position in the race. In fact, I think we finished in every possible combination of different sailors on the team in the 1,2,3. Team Captain Mitchell had a lot of say in setting our start strategy and who we wanted to target, but all team members had input at some point. Everyone sat out a race for messing up, contributed the most to winning in another race, and LYC 1 and 2 genuinely seemed to like hanging out with each other.

Bad parenting on my part: LYC 1 returns in overloaded dinghy from wishing LYC 2 good luck before their sail-off. Justin already returned wet and cold in my coach boat. But its the thought that counts...

Sailing is a strange sport in that your competitors are you witnesses and fans. Opti sailing can feel like a bigger stage because you have all the parent watching, and all of the best sailors of that age group competing (as opposed to C420/29er/Laser where the talent gets fractured) Still, the greatest memory of regattas lives on in the sailors who competed. While I fear this writing seems braggadocios about my sailors and the team I was fortunate enough to coach, I hope it can at least contribute to the memory of a great regatta.

The win qualifies LYC to represent the USA at the 31st Marco Rizzotti Team Race.

LYC Opti's Win Orange Bowl!

For the second consecutive year, an LYC sailor has won the Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta, with Stephan Baker dominating competition on the last day. The prestigious event hosted by rival Coral Reef Yacht Club attracts 240 Optis from all over the world. This year was a particularly stacked field - 5 of the top 10 boats were from other countries such as Greece, Mexico, Chile and Peru. LYC's Mitchell Callahan finished 2nd overall, and Justin Callahan was 5th and the 3rd American finisher. LYC's Kaitlyn Hamilton sailed her most consistent event to date to take 5th place in Blue Fleet - the 11-12 age group. 

Stephan began the last day of racing sitting in 4th place, but 3 races scheduled in Gold Fleet, and a shifty 15kt breeze coming off the city of Miami, there were lots of opportunities to move! In the first race he came back from outside the top 10 on the last leg to place 2nd, then got a bullet in the next race. Stephan saved his masterpiece for last: after a safe pin - third start, he tacked to consolidate the right 2/3 of the fleet, and lead the boats that had won the start across the course on port tack. Being perfectly in phase, when a huge right wind shift came down the course, he tacked on it and opened up a huge lead of 20+ boat lengths on the entire fleet - a lead he would never relinquish and built on with fantastic boatspeed. 

       Pilo Rocha and Arthur Blodgett coached the LYC team. We would also like to thank LYC Member and Olympic medalist Lucas Calabrese for working with our LYC Opti Clinic the week prior. 2015 Opti Champ Bella Cassaretto didn't have a bad week herself; she won the 29er class at the Open Orange Bowl Regatta hosed by Coconut Grove! 

photo credit: www.capizzano.com/2016-obiyr/

Results 

Regatta Debrief - Naples Cup - Pilo and Arthur

A recent record 27 Optis from LYC competed in the Naples Cup! This was remarkable given that 4 of our top RWB sailors were competing in Bermuda Nationals (Congrats to Justin Callahan on winning that event, with Mitchell Callahan 3rd, Stephan Baker 5th and Bella Casaretto 13th). We want to thank our Naples Towers  - David Kronrad, Kelly Pullar, Joel Meshel and Sharon Johnson, and the 4 families who car-topped their Optis so all could attend - the Meaghers, Dixons, Burgesses and Bollands. It was a difficult logistical event and we are indebted to your help in making it successful!  
      LYC was led by Sara Schuman in 6th (3rd in Red Fleet) Connor Bolland 8th (5th in Red) Giulio Zunino 9th (4th in Blue) and Jonathan Siegel 11th (5th in Blue) Full results are here; the fleet of 105 boats was won by Noah Zittrer from Lakewood, TX. LYC's Green Fleet had a good showing with KJ Hill 4th and Will McDermot 11th out of 73!
    The regatta featured two types of conditions, Land breeze to start each day, followed by Seabreeze. Overall, the LYC sailors did much better on Sunday in both conditions. At the beginning it was hard for them to make a plan because of the shifty conditions, and they were not able to predict and adjust to the shift during the last four minutes before GO. Sailors needed to look further up the course than the short upwind mark, and keep re-checking their angle on starboard tack, and the angle of their wind pennant. All of these things should help the sailors find the end of the line that is favored - and they should keep a flexible game plan between 4 and 2 minutes.  Two races on sunday where this was the case: the second race on sunday there was a big left shift at about 3 minutes. There was a huge cluster at the boat, so sliding down to the pin was a big opportunity to outsmart the fleet. Sara, Giulio and Kaitlyn were the only ones who took advantage of this, but Giulio got an OCS! In the final race of the regatta, there was a big right hand shift at 2 minutes. In this case, the race committee helped tip what was coming next - just before the 5 minute gun, the windward mark boats got on a full plane with the marks moving them to the left. Because it was a sea-breeze with oscillations always back and forth, and the race committee had demonstrated all regatta that they were "reactive," not "proactive" to wind shifts, this indicated to me that the next shift coming was from the right.
     In the land breeze, it is important to prioritize what you see, where the next puff is, and once you are on the edge of it, get on the tack that takes you closest to the mark. While playing the percentages by sailing the long, lifted tack is important, the shifts will not be regular in timing or size. Pressure is king and you need to stay in the pressure!
     In the Seabreeze, the shifts are not as big, but you do need to notice what tack has a better angle, because the wind will go back and forth in a regular pattern. Starting well, having good boaspeed and doing all the little things well is whats important!

In choppy conditions - which we faced in all 4 seabreeze races,  minimizing tacks is key. Kaitlyn, Sara and Libby all and races where they couldn't stop tacking, with disastrous results! On the right side of the course, Sara kept thinking she was on or close to the layline, only to have another boat tack on her air, forcing her further right. For Kaitlyn it was more an issue of not holding a narrow lane - having a boat close to leeward and loosing just a little hight until they became an issue to her having clear air. In light/medium air and choppy conditions, you should try to pick lanes that are more "sustainable" - bow out on opponents when you can, and when you do tack on their hip, give yourself an extra couple boat lengths.
    Another move to minimize tacks is to get in the habbit of "laying up" to the mark - approaching from 5-10 boat lengths below the starboard layline so that you:
*Avoid the layline parade and all its bad air.
* Can benefit from a header or a lift.
Here's a picture:

When you do get to layline, put a little extra distance in the bank so you get around safely. Sara used Laying up to go from 5th to 2nd in the race she eventually won - the other 4 boats were all tacking on each other around the layline! On a side note, it was neat to see MY coach who taught me this -Robby Brown - out dropping his knowledge on the Sarasota opti team.
    Speaking of tacks, they can get better! The two widespread issues for this regatta were sailors not flattening into the boat in light air (its easier to land on the rail, but you over flatten/slap the boat on the water like a breaching whale) and not moving the mainsheet through the tack. Here's a Bella tack from Germany where she does all these things well - trimming into the tack, easing a lot on the flatten (when your apparent wind shifts back) and smoothly landing in the boat.

Downwind, our sailors did a pretty good job finding clear air - I was pretty happy with their tactics. Speed was not as good as it could have been due to sail trim. In light/medium air, you have to have the boom out exactly at 90degrees. Lets check in on how some of our sailors were doing Saturday:

Simone (left) and Lulu (right) have their sails trimmed in too much - stalling the airflow on the sail. Nice kiting and keeping the weight forward by Simone - the daggerboard should be as high as Lulu's.

Libby's sail too far out - spilling too much air!

 

Sara (left) and Kevin (right) with their booms about right - parallel to the mast thwart. Kevin can pick his board up more and scoot forwards. As a side note, we only allow the smallest sailors to hang off the daggerboard, larger sailors should kite with both hands free! 

We are going to keep enforcing that the kids follow a routine, on land and on the water. We detailed this in our last debrief (which is getting published in the next issue of Opti News) and encourage you to re-visit it! We will be making some adjustments to how sailors do the split tack course test, and sailors need to be more diligent/take more time and attention on their sail-ties and mast rake on the beach! The next regatta is the midwinters/spring team qualifier in New Orleans, so there is no time to lose!

LYC Takes Opti Team Race Invite

Call me biased (its been said), but I found "Team Race Week" to be one of the most fun times at LYC. The 4 coaches at the USNT practice, lisot head Pepe, lima head Pete Strong, world team race and college ace Adrienne Patterson Kamilar and yours truly led 26 sailors who competed with true corinthian thirst amongst each other in drills and races for 2 days. The umpires showed up Friday and gave the sailors the most lifelike practice possible - they were also kind enough to share some important insights before after the USNT Practice. For the regatta, 24 teams of 4-5 sailors each competed in the LYC Team Race Invitational, with sailors from the Virgin Islands to San Francisco to Newport and 21 sailors from LYC racing! New sails and some great competition (I estimated before the regatta that 9 teams probably expected to make the top 5 playoff) and some important people to thank: the teams who attended and the parents who made it possible, event coordinator Bobby Meagher, PRO Patrico Sly, Start/Finish Mike Redmond, David Gosling, the Cassarettos, Marks: Kevin Bolland, Francesco Zunino, Scoring: Jorge Agnesse, Boatswain Brett Moss and assistants Anna and Mackenzie, Dock jefe David Smith, Housing coordinators Wanda Cassaretto and Robin Meagher, Commodore Commette, Fleet Captain Morley, and GM Nadine Rockwell for giving us the run of the facility to provide great visibility, access and hospitality.  Apologies to the scores of contributors I have doubtlessly omitted!

Most of the team racers from LYC teams 1-4, Coaches Pilo and Arthur.

The kids! LYC 1 went undefeated and won the regatta. This was particularly gratifying given our finals loss from last year and makes us 2-0 going into the Opti Team Cup in Germany this coming weekend (I am making final edits to this post from my Hotel in Germany!). LYC 2 finished a respectable 6th - just out of our goal of the top 5 finals. LYC 3 also exceeded its pre-regatta coaches ranking, but felt like it left some wins on the water with some mistakes and missed opportunities - part of learning! Full results to come. The highlight of the regatta was provided by LYC 4, which beat the USODA 1 team, comprised of USVI aces and National team sailors. The LYC 4 team's strategy was simple, 3 sailors (Simone Moss, Kevin Gosslin, Yanni Brooks, Steven Tate on Sunday) go fast! Use your best instincts, focus, and fleet race skills to get around the Digital N course as fast as possible. The team captain, LYC newcomer Sara Shurman was responsible for all the team racing. On the last leg against USODA 1 she helped spring her teammates to sail beautifully to the 1,2,4th.
 

Simone Moss and team on the 1st beat against USODA 

The regatta Saturday was light and shifty from the Northwest. Sunday brought a slight persistent righty, but the breeze didn't really kick until the playoffs when the puffs on the last leg reached 15kts. In some ways the regatta provided a case against too much "team racing." I would estimate that 50% of the passback attempts made resulted in the slowing boat getting passed by the opponent. Slowing/hooking/covering someone requires matching their speed, and so many times a boat would attempt to make a "team race" move with insufficient speed and end up "swinging and missing" on a boat that had greater speed. I always coach the kids to Team Race as little as possible, and in lights air use "passive balancing" - use ones wind shadow to slow opponents from further ahead without risking an overlap and the windward-leward situation it entails.
 

LYC 1 claiming their 1st place trophies. From left: Regatta Chair Bob Meagher, Joey Meagher, Connor Bolland, Mitchell Callahan, Justin Callahan, Bella Cassaretto and Commodore Peter Commette. 

Beyond overcoming the psychological defeat of last year, there are some things that I think our LYC 1 team race team has improved at, things at that can be instructional to aspiring team racers:
    1. Play/Phase recognition. We have only 3 base play calls: 1, 2, 78 (not to be explained here, there is an opti news article upcoming, with play 78 called "Four"). We have 3 phases of a team race: Winning, Converting, Chasing. We recognize the phase quite quickly - it answers the fundamental team race question: should I be slowing down my opponent or going fast myself?? If we are "Winning" we have a play and are going fast; if not a play 1, using the "pushing" strategy from the lead teammates. If we are converting, its business time! Time to team race - take the opponent out you need to get your mates up, then "release" sail ahead of your pair to get to the next mark/finish. We converted successfully in both races of the finals. If we are chasing -  this happened only once when LYC 1 had all 4 boats over the start line -  go as fast as possible and unbalance to catch 2 pairs. Then 78 them! Our team was the quickest to realize there was a problem, call "78" and bring the fight to them as a team. It was how we won the ultimate race of the finals. Justin pinned his pair  to the left of the finish line, while Joey and Bella helped move Mitchell out of last. Justin then released; tacking away and breaking for the finish line just in time to beat 2 boats.
    2. Starting. Practice = perfect. We run a hybrid scheme: attack the teams you expect to match up with you anyway at 2minutes, then break for your designated zones and start on time. This regatta was our best team starts - in the finals we won both starts and it was only mistakes/umpire initiated penalties on the first leg that made it a contest. On a side note, I think starts are where we have benefited most from other coaches: Pilo/Happy/Lior's coaching on winning 1 v 1 matchups and Joakim for my favorite start drill. For my part, I just to trust the sailors to do what they say they will do and scout the other team a little bit!
     3.  How we interact with umpires. 2 concepts: Win without umpires, and help umpires see your 'last point of certainty.' If you can control your pair or win the race without a call you should keep clear/give the time and opportunity to avoid contact. We only want a protest when we are Chasing. if we are Controlling, putting a call in the hands of the umpires is lower percentage than our ability to convert/balance/win. We do our best to keep clear, be clear with umpires and avoid the needless shouting so many Opti sailors sadly succumb to! In the end clarity builds trust and you get a fairly umpired finals.
  4. Communication! As I said at the USNT practice, communication should be 1-3 words. We call "Ride" when  a teammate should tack and duck. We call "Switch" when a teammate should tack and take my pair. We call the play number and repeat it. We work to pump up the volume while keeping it concise: trust of teammates over micromanagement.
 5. Boathandeling. In addition to being advised to loose cover their paris using mainly wind shadows, LYC 1 was able to stay and get ahead with tacks up the course. The tacks were never illegal, the advantage came in two areas: carry up the course at ones pre-tack speed - these kids are great at riding the 'chine' with a long smooth roll ; and mainsheet play on the flatten that adjusts for the apparent wind changes caused by a good flatten .
  6. Understand and Execute. Critics of our team who think we just win because we have three of the best team racers in the country (and they are partially right) saw an evolution of LYC 1. The best compliment an opposing coach paid us what that we "looked like a good college team race team." Much of our terminology is the same as college and should serve our sailors well down the road, and we did shift instantly into he "Converting" phase whenever the combination was less than ideal. Germany will be a test for us in the starts against better comp, boat speed/handing on longer courses, and a radically different experience; I still trust that our sailors ability to run our american system will help in races that start without a clear winner. We know that we can be successful by bringing the fight to the other team and trusting each other.
   Thanks to all for a beautiful weekend.

US National/Development Team Practice at LYC
 

Regatta Debrief - SE Champs - Arthur Blodgett & Pilo Rocha

This past weekend 15 sailors from LYC traveled to Jacksonville, FL to compete in the Southeast Champs hosted by Florida Yacht Club. The event was a USODA Qualifier with over 160 boats competing. Mitchell Callahan won the regatta by 4 points over Justin Callahan in 2nd! Stephan Baker was 6th and first in Blue fleet, and was winning the race on Sunday by a 1/4 leg before the breeze shut off! Giulio Zunino was 11th overall and 3rd in Blue - his best showing in blue fleet to date. Congratulations as well to Jack Redmond who emphatically qualified for the 2017 Team Trials with a finish of 24th. The top 40 qualified - Ryan Konrad had already qualified at this summer's nationals but made the cut in his 2nd straight regatta finishing 29th (click here for full results) LYC now has 4 TTQ'd sailors in Silver Fleet and 14 overall- great improvement for the program!
    The conditions were among the trickiest we have seen at an major Opti regatta. The regatta was held on an oxbow of the St. John's river with a lot of current - over 2kts at times. On Saturday, the current was flowing from the Top Left to the Bottom Right of the course for the first 3 races, before switching for the last race. Overall, the fleet didn't do a great job adapting to the current: in 2nd race the entire `1st Fleet got swept to the left half of the course - not a single boat on the right half! In the 4th race on Saturday with the current switching, over 60 boats were penalized for being OCS with the "U"Flag in effect! Furthermore, a bunch of boats overstood the Port layline and had to reach down (against the current) to the windward mark! We practiced the past 2 Wednesdays and last weekend in current, and would have liked to see more sailors apply this in the regatta!
  When analyzing the current, sailors need to:
       - Know the exact angle at which it is flowing (you can luff next to a mark or committee boat, observe the wake, or do the bottle check).
      - Feel the speed relative to the wind.
      - Account for it on the start line: should I set up high or low? Is the boat or pin "up current."
     - Consider how it will effect every leg of the race - lay lines? -Long Tack to the mark? -pushing up or down on the reach? - effect on the run?

Wind: 
The wind conditions for Saturday were 10 to 12 knots out the E/NE. It was really shifty with big oscillations that were random - you couldn't time when a righty or lefty was going to come. The breeze went right about 20 degrees over the course of the day, but there were plenty of races where the left paid! There was land closer by on the right, so when it went right it got especially shifty! Some of the right puffs were only 3 Opti lengths in diameter and didn't last very long. The final race of the day saw some boats becalmed while others were almost planning on the reach leg!
    How could kids make sense of this? Well the most important thing was to start in phase with the last shift before the start - to start in the favored 1/3 of the line and then get across the fleet. Sailors needed to stay flexible and tuned in to the wind shifts while they were in sequence. For the 2nd start, Stephan was on my coach boat when we observed that they were moving the pin up, but we didn't think it was enough to be favored. Then at about 3:30 to the start, the wind shifted further left, he recognized it, and won the pin! He was able to cross most of the fleet, only for an even bigger left shift to drop him out of the top 5 - good process but tough result! In the first race Jonathan staked out the favored boat end, and led the race wire to wire. Unfortunately he was over by a foot and scored OCS, but the lesson remains - the boats that start well at the favored end will be able to cross the fleet, control the race, and sail the wind shifts to the best of their abilities.

Routine:
A big thing we stressed this regatta is the routine that sailors need to follow on land and on the water.

Before the Regatta:
-Make sure your boat is fixed.
-Research the venue - google maps with the Geo overlay, forecast, tide forecast, and talk to your friends who sail there regularly! Our online tide info proved to be wrong, but the locals (Snipe sailor Hal Gilreath) set us straight on the water.
-Read the Sailing Instructions online before you get to the venue.
- Be fit, hydrated and rested!

The morning of the regatta:
-Plan a good/healthy/early breakfast.
-Re-check the forecast.
-Give yourself ample time to rig and check over equipment. Always check your mast rake, as things can move while trailering. Before Saturday AM, Michaels rake was 109" while Bobby's was 114" both should be sailing at ~112." No trash/water in the boats!
-Check in with your coaches (we are happy to  check sails once you think it is perfect).
-Hydrate!
-Team Meeting
-Skippers meeting
-Check out (different policy at each regatta - your responsibility to have read SI's and know it!)
-Launch ASAP.
-Find coach for tow - our sailors did this Sunday and Gold/Silver were 1,2 getting to the racecourse - we were the most prepared team!

On the Water:
1. Get with a partner and start doing split tacks from the middle of the course. Check your sail settings (Sailties, sprit, vang, outhaul, luff tension - make sure your cunningham is on correctly especially with new sails!!!) as you go and start to develop feel for the conditions.
2. Make necessary adjustments and keep checking the course! Always make sure you are checking from the middle - between the start line and 1st mark.
Note: this is different that group rabbit starts we did last year - we think it is better for giving the kids more information and getting them to analyze for themselves. 
3. Sail fast downwind getting a feel for the waves and wind. Make sure your vang is good!
4. Start checking the start line - linesight, current, length, favored end. If you have time sail from either end with a partner to determine the favored end. You should also have a really good feel for your angle off the line, (repeatedly sheet in and go up wind for 10 seconds)  so you know when it changes and can recognize a late wind shift. When I plan to start at an end, I do at least 2 30second practice starts for myself.
5. Check in with your coaches - discuss your strategy and get feedback and give them any trash! See if your research on the line, wind and current coincides with theirs. Make a plan for each leg of the course!
6. Have a great race! After finishing self evaluate your Start, Strategy, Tactics, and Speed. If you were deficient in any of these areas you will need to fix it quickly and have the mentality that you will improve the next race.

Thank you to the parents who towed: the Morleys, Meaghers and Goslings, and to all who suppled food for the kids and coaches and supported the event! We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming practices as we get ready for our next regatta: Key Biscayne on October 1st and 2nd.