Wednesday 30 June 2010

Got to post something!

It's nice to be away on holiday with Nat and the kids. Bit gutted to be missing
out on the good forecast for Thursday. I hope you all have a cracker. Thought
I should mention Sundays racing. Nice to get out and try it even if the breeze wasn't
up to much. As for my performance, it was mildly better than Englands and I
missed out a mark. So, I add it to a growing list of errors currently afflicting my sailing.
It only came to light whilst chewing the fat afterwards over a cup of tea. At which point
I'd signed off and no-one had noticed! Self policing at it's best ensured I subsequently retired.
What a disaster? 3 race day and all. Anyway, how to go fast round a track when the wind
dies......
Keep your bearings as the wind swings and sail the proper course!!!!

Friday 25 June 2010

Spawn

Last nights race was certainly a bit of a challenge. Looking upwind before the start, I was completely torn. It looked as if there was more breeze on the left (presumably as it was outside the lee of the cliff) but the forecast had the breeze tracking right through 90 at some point in the next 2 hours. As it turned out the adverse tide made it difficult to make the left pay.

There were still shifts and holes to negotiate so simply plumping for the right hand corner didn't work either. In short, a very difficult breeze to read consistently well. Ron deservedly took the PH and LH bullets. Having a big rig helps but the breeze last night levelled the playing field and rewarded better directional decisions more than speed. I don't believe anyone got it nailed on last night. Perhaps Ron got 75% of the decisions right and the rest of us were between 60 and 70%. The last decision I made was to go right of Andy on the last beat. Based purely on the angle Ron was sailing further up the course. As the attacking boat I had to split from Andy to gain some leverage and then its all down to 'pot luck' and being a bit spawny as there were never any certainties last night. In the end the difference between Any and I was he got it right early and I got it right late. Its a cruel sport!

The only other thought I had about last night was my mindset. When I'm not doing as well as I want to be, I have to really focus on keeping myself 'together' in the boat. Its really easy to start making rash decisions and taking too many big risks. It also gets me fidgety in the boat which is not fast. Being quick in the light is about being smooth so stopping myself 'pumping and rolling' more than usual is also key. Trying to maintain a certain calmness allows me to think more about the breeze and the decisions.

To this end, I wonder what peoples thoughts are on what rule 42 allows. I generally sail right on the edge of whats permissable. Having only suffered 3 yellow flags in 14 years of laser sailing, I think I rarely step over the mark. Comments welcome unless they're libelous!

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Long haul.

Sorry for my late postings lately. I'm just running a bit behind time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the water on Sunday. I picked up on the fact that people didn't particularly get on with starboard tack so here are my thoughts.

Going out on starboard took us right across the main rip of wind over tide and was providing some quite steep chop at times. Being quick was down to choosing the flatter spots in which to sail high and trying to anticipate the bigger chops. Once I saw that a bigger chop was upon me....

The Approach - I induced a little more leeward heel by steering a slightly lower course without dropping any sheet and leaning in a touch (if there's not enough breeze to induce heel). This gives the boat shape a bit more 'rocker' (curve) and reduces the slamming effect whilst also allowing the majority of water that comes over the bow to slip off the deck before filling you up. It also powers the rig up so be careful not to overcook it!

During - My steering becomes quite aggressive. A sharp stab of the tiller away from me as the bow approaches the chop prevents the bow being 'knocked down' on successive chops and therefore helps maintain height in your lane. Its a bit like trying to get the bow to 'punch' through the chop. I combine this with some body movement which involves rolling the shoulders aft at the same time as thrusting your hips forward (ie on starboard, hips right / shoulders left). This drives the boat forward and flicks the leech to give the boat some extra pace into the chop and also helps lever the bow up a bit. Complete this movement in a cycle (always returning to your standard hiking position) for every nasty chop until the 'set' passes.

After - Having gone through a bad 'set' of chops I would then sail higher again by squeezing the boat flat with extra hiking power before reducing my body movement and steering. Conserving energy in the flat bits is vital if you want to be quick in the choppier bits. Its also very hard work! The key to it all is anticipation.

Friday 11 June 2010

Breeze on.

Another good race last night in a strong North Easterly. Congratulations to Jamie for edging me out despite the extra 4 kilos of rust he was carrying. Perhaps he should turn out for windy stuff more often eh?! It was a thoroughly engaging race. The general principles for getting round in good shape included massive amounts of kicker in the windy bits and sailing free to keep the boat moving on the beat. Offwind, Just trying to line yourself up with the breeze. The other factor was a very high work rate. I think its the most tired I've been after a single race in a long while!

Looking back at the race highlighted a few things to me. Firstly, the importance of staying in touch (engaging the boat ahead). Wherever you are in the fleet, being close to a boat in front inevitably applies pressure. Seen as I'm used to showing a clean set of heels to the fleet, having to constantly defend a narrow lead prevented me from dedicating my efforts to my own race. It had a surprising effect on my ability to be a smooth operator in the boat too. Rushed tacks, dropped sheets, hasty decisions and poor anticipation were just some of the areas under attack, all becasuse the pressure was on. All of which shows that staying close enough for long enough as an attacker can really unravel your opponent. Boo

Secondly, always try to sail the longest tack first on a one sided beat..... Unless sailing at Beer in a North Easterly! In which case do the shortest bit first and then utilise random 20 degree lifts like Jamie. Ha Ha ;-)

Finally, always let out the frustration immediately after the race in order to pacify yourself! Must do better next time.

Monday 7 June 2010

The Westerley that tried to go in.

We sailed a little further out than usual today. Being able to see sidmouth put us in a slightly different breeze than we're used to. Previously the windward mark may have been further in to Seaton giving us an array of shifts coming off the caravan site and out of Beer. Going that bit further exposed us to a more consistent breeze coming down the coast in well defined bands. Combined with the strong tide under our transoms, things usually felt better on the left (seaward side) of the course.

However, there were plenty of holes (some of which were unavoidable) and some patches of breeze on the right coming out of Beer. Because they were coming out of Beer I felt that they probably wouldn't last as long despite the favourable headings because of the shelter of the cliffs. As ever, it was pressure that was king. If you could pick the darkest side of the course early on and called it right, generally things were ok. Generally, if I couldn't decide what was looking good when I came round the leeward mark I went left looking for pressure.

On the speed side of things, the increased chop in the exposed course area meant that a bit of leeward heel was quite quick in the worse bits, especially when the wind dropped! Making use of the waves to get low on the reaches was only really possible when the breeze filled in. So when it did, I wasn't afraid of steering big angles to get going down the front and then heading up as soon as the ride ran out. The only other ingredient was a bit of luck when it got tricky!

Saturday 5 June 2010

My calender

With the worlds in Hayling and sail for gold in weymouth looming in August I thought I could offer up some of my thoughts on how I approach these kind of regattas. Sail for gold is up first, a top level grade 1 event on the world tour. I plan to use this as a major training regatta for the worlds which is always the hardest regatta (reputedly of any class) in the year. Tiny mistakes are punished instantly and harshly at these regattas so a good deal of planning is required.

In my opinion you can peak your physical performance 2-3 times a year. I started the year by blitzing 2 months of training both on and off the water in time for the qualifiers and I reaped the rewards. Having backed off a fair bit since then, I'm now starting to wind it up again through June and July so I arrive in August in the best possible shape. After the worlds, Southampton boat show will give me a short break before I need to perform at the Autumn qualifiers. This plan has been loosely in place since the Laser nationals last year (which was the last time I trained hard for a result at a regatta). Its now time to firm up the plans... More to follow.

Sunday funday

Ok, so I've been a quiet over the last few days. Unfortunately the breeze just didn't materialise in the bay on Thursday and the 6 of us who made the effort to get out were left to float about for a bit. Ah well. The forecast for this sunday looks remarkably similar to last sunday so I think we can expect similar conditions. Some fairly wild shifts.

Looking back at Dad's comments from last week, I'll now be looking to see if we do have any sea breeze influence on the westerly. It seems like quite a reasonable hypothesis. It also makes due to the influence getting stronger through the morning. i.e. the biggest left shift at around half past 12. This week it looks like there will be a fiar bit of low and medium cloud cover in the morning so it'll be interesting to sea how much sea breeze influence there is, especially as the breeze is due to freshen from mid day onwards.

I'm likely to stick to my reduced leverage plan so as not to sail myself out of contention on the first leg. After that, I'm just looking to start another run of results. Getting another chance in the conditions which saw me undone is a good place to start. However, I'll certainly be more wary of complacency.