Team communication for the LYC Opti Racing family.
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Our Opti Work Day and Cookout ison Sunday, May 28, from 1pm to 6pm. Come help get the club Optis in shape for the summer sailing season and enjoy working together before we have a burger. We will have stations that will focus on the most needed common repairs, and need volunteers of ALL SKILL LEVELS AND TYPES to help with the following:
Planning and organizing the day in advance
Notes and record-keeping to inventory the boats' needs
Basic repair help -- experience not required, but welcome
Cookout prep and execution
In summary, we're going to have room at the Sailing Center to pull down each club-owned Opti, catalog what it needs, route it to stations that can fix the most common things, and return it to the rack inventoried and improved.
Gold/Silver parents, please come help share what you know. Green/Lime parents, we'll give you a little more insight into these boats, and how we keep them going! Success will come from good planning and preparation, which is something any manager or party planner can help with, even if you've never turned a screwdriver. Yes, it's Memorial Day Weekend, but the calendar is so jam-packed this is our only option Please sign up on this Google Doc and come work & play together with friends.
This past weekend in Miami 30 LYC sailors participated in the Spring Fling Regatta, with Stephan Baker claiming overall victory in the Champ fleet. The regatta was the final tune up for the top sailors before USODA Team Trials - the top national event in which 15 LYC sailors have qualified to compete. Thus we took the regatta seriously as a monthly measure of progress.
When I puled up "WindAlert" on my cellphone Saturday morning, my first thought was "uh oh." The advance forcasts had been for light-medium but steady breeze from the north-west. But now the graph showed the wind switching to the East in the afternoon. When you have a morning land breeze and afternoon seabreeze forecast, the transition can sometimes take a while. Both fleets started a race in a 5kt Westerly, but only the first fleet finished as the second start had to be abandoned. Mitchell Callahan was winning and Sara Schuman and Lulu Hamilton top 5 when the reach became a beat into the current. Other sailors did not get off the start line and were happy to see the race abandoned! The breeze promptly excused itself from biscay bay for the next 4 hours. Sailors had ample time to hang out, eat, and swim before the first fleet was sent in for the day. My sailors did a good job hydrating and we killed a couple cases of water - it was still a long day to be cooking in the sun for and everyone needed to hydrate all evening as well!
waiting for wind with Jake, Rhys, Simone, Cody, KJ, Arrabella and coach Arthur
Finally, at around 3 o'clock a weak seabreeze came in and we finished the set in a light air race with a bit of powerboat chop. Justin Callahan won the start this time and managed the fleet to win. Mitchell beat out Sara in a close tacking duel before the finish.
Saturday night we got to hang out at the club for protests! Stephan and I had appealed a ruling from the last regatta, asking for clarification of how the rules were applied to the Protest Committee's facts found. For those unfamiliar with protest procedure, after taking evidence from parties, a three Judge committee writes out their "facts found" about the incident, then determines how to apply the rules. Again, in the appeal we had only challenged the application of the rules, so it was odd when the Appeals committee came to the decision that what it really needed was new facts found - that there would have to be another hearing. They held it, and found new facts that supported the DSQ.
This I think made Stephan's day on Sunday all the more remarkable. 5 races were sailed and he won 4 of them - several by huge margins. He and Justin's first race against each other was a close battle with Stephan being able to work a little lower on the run leg and hold the lead. The next race he really found a groove downwind passing the USVI's Mia Nicolosi to leeward on the reach and extending. Overall it was a really good day for our team, with 5 LYC sailors finishing in the top 10, and some nice results in White fleet from young sailors Will Macdiarmid, KJ Hill, Jake Homburger and others.
The Sunday conditions were breezier - full hiking in the morning to light hiking at the end, and from the east. We've sailed and coached a lot of regattas on Biscayne Bay and had success there, so we felt like we knew what was going on. The shifts got bigger as the day went on (the land's heating causes this) but they were pretty regular in timing. There is a slight wind bend to the left as you get further upwind and closer to Key Biscayne, but the "go left" pattern became less reliable as the oscillating shifts got bigger. Predicting and adjusting to the last shift before the start was critical - if you watched the start before and kept checking the angel of the wind vs the line, you could see what change was beginning, and get to that end of the line at around 1:30 before your start. That favored end would then be able to cross the fleet, and stay in phase with the next 2 shifts. There were about 3 shifts per beat, so if the pin was favored, that meant you were starting in a lefty, and could expect a left-right-left shift pattern. If you started with the boat favored, that meant the fleet was in a righty and could expect a right-left-right pattern.
At other venues the shifts won't be as regular, but the principle is still helpful. Race committees arn't stupid, they know how to set a fair line for what the breeze was before 5-10 min before the start. If one end suddenly becomes favored, it means you are in a shift that way. If you get a good start at the favored end, you will be able to get in phase with that shift, either by tacking and crossing from the pin, or continuing from the boat end.
Coach Pilo has been channeling Malcolm Gladwell's theory in preparing our kids for starts: if you do something 100,000 times you can become good at it! In addition to working on positioning on the line, timing and acceleration, we try to stress sailors thinking and testing for themselves, looking upwind for pressure, and paying close attention to the wind shifts during the pre-start.
Some sailors are halfway there - Cody Roe had a couple nice holes to start in in the 4th and 6th races, both at the favored third of the line! Unfortunately the first time he didn't have the mainsheet or sprit tension to hold a lane, and the second time jibed out of a good spot! Will and KJ were not quite accelerating with the front row, but their patience on the first beat was great - finding the clearest air they could with minimal tacking and staying on the long lifted tack to the mark.
The current was ebbing out of the "Bear Cut" bridge, going against the wind after the first race and increasing through most of the day. Wind against current = chop, and Biscayne bay delivered its signature wave formation! This chop disadvantaged one particular group of sailors, of who we had a few: those who don't point high enough.
I realize this seems somewhat contrarian - all we sailors have been told at some point to put the bow down for speed though a set of waves. But when the chop is constant, sailing a lower angle makes the sweeping effect of each wave more great. With each wave that you take at a more obtuse angle, you present more of your side surface to the wave and are pushed to leeward more.
There's an important distinction between Pointing and Pinching, just as there is between footing and stalling. Pinching is when the sail is luffing or the inner tell-tale is stalling and you are giving up power and loosing some speed. Pointing means you have kept perfect flow on your sail, and are only going as high as keeping your speed will allow. Footing is when you put the bow down and ease your sail to build extra speed, stalling is when you head down without easing and the leeward telltale goes flat! Those who could foot for a couple seconds, but then keep their speed in point mode: boom trimmed maybe an inch inside the stern corner (depending on weight and mast rake) for extended periods of time went fast!
Americas Cup legend Dennis Connor writes something to the effect of "if you can keep your telltales flowing perfectly in all conditions shifts and waves, you are amoung the top 1% of helmsmen in the world." Waves are really the biggest challenge, and those who sail fast in them are really great sailors. The Opti is a pretty unforgiving hull-form and thus a great trainer. A lot of keeping the telltales flowing has to be done with weight. First you have to have your legs locked in good hiking technique so you are connected to the boat, then move your upper body to smoothly help the boat through every wave. Keep a soft hand on the tiller and practice concentrating on the telltales and waves, and you will do fine!
Sitting slightly further back as you would normally is something always have to remind my sailors when we race in Miami, as the bow transom digging in is really slow. Sail-while-you bail is a skill you need to use a lot and be comfortable doing. Last week at practice Rhys Pullar learned to sail-while-he-ate-a-sandwich and applied it to bailing skills that made it his first regatta without a swamping! Water in the boat makes you float lower and ship exponentially more water. I will put out the unresearched fact that 1 inch of water across the bottom of an Opti weights 70lbs - that like sailing with another Rhys! Start bailing as soon as you have 1/2 and inch of water. Also start the race with your boat bone-dry (don't role tack too hard and bail if you need to in the pre-start) and don't come to my coach-boat with water in your boat after the race!
Its important to not over-depower or over-vang when its windy, but you also want to set up your sails to point - loose luff tension (more twists on the preventer) when its light and never too loose on the outhaul. For most Opti sails the shape of the bottom seam is the designed foot-curve and we try to set the outhaul to respect that as a base setting. Will had wrinkles above this seam, took them out and pointed higher.
For the new Silver fleeters it was cool to see the progress from a month ago in Jensen Beach when soo many didn't know the flags, thought there was a lunch break in Champ fleet, and couldn't finish the day of racing. For everyone below the highest level, there are always sailors to look up to and try to copy, so the friends and influences you gain from regattas are really special. To work on our boats, on the segments of our game as sailors, and to execute certain things better than the last time gave me a good sense of fulfillment out of this event.
From left, Justin, Stephan, Mitchell and Cody just hanging out.
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!
"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.
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!
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!
