Lost Sea Soul

Sailing the year out and the itchy feet feeling

2011-08-15T03:06:00.001-07:00

Donned my fabulous Musto goretex sailing shorts yesterday on og all things a walk in the woods on a warm, showery day. Very comfortable and dry, while also standing up to twigs sitting on a rock.

Got me thinking how much more useful they are on a sunny day, top of force 4 with spray coming over the decks. Then of course there popped up the Fastnet from 'seilas' magazine on the electric facebook contraption. A fleet tracker no doubt.

So within a couple of minutes my lacklustre attitude to the whole sailing thang turned to a renewed bout of youthful enthusiasm. Not just for the glorious days with sunshine and the best ever start, but the plateau of training and the often slow learning curve. Even the frustrations of losing badly, and the humble pie of the resulting post-race-analysis and debrief ( as if they really happen so often!). Yeah, even bad days are seen through rose tinted spectacles once more!

If I have issues with sailing this year, then they are the self same issues I had after my first year or so: finding the right boat to crew on or getting my own boat again. So many teams are static even stagnant, good potential helms want someone who blindly agrees and they can nurture up ( with cleavage prefered) and basically I am left waiting for a new Harold Hood to come back into the fray with a new boat and need for good crew. Even with Odyssey I was plateauing to be honest, but the long slow plains are a place to be relished as you trek along the learning curve waiting for the next eldorado of opportunity, challenge and experience to whisk you up by the ankles to a higher plain.

It is also about ambition and new opportunity: do I really have ambition to varnish all winter a boat I am not sure is actually up to scratch in the local OD fleet of gentlemans 4 knoters?

Well yeah ambition, before you snuff it, what races to do? What to acheive with sailing?

Well I have pretty limitied ambitions but at least one is rekindled here again: The fastnet in a seriously fast mono like a TP52 or perhaps totally cheating on a multihull? Hiking out on a Mumm 36 may have seemed like earning my spurs 12 years ago when I did ISORA, but now the whole prospect of sailing the waterlegnth speed plus 1 knot for such craft is unappealing.

What else then? Well probably to put together a Norwegian challenge for ...the IRC trophy in West Highland Week. ALso later on to enter my own boat: maybe starting at a Benetub 21.7 and ending up with an X332 or the like.

To own an SB3 and compete in the big fleets in the UK.

Also then the big one, the big challenge that is: to win a national championship in a one design and attend the worlds in the Platu 25 design.

The Year Out and Those Who Never Come Back....

2011-07-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking back about all the truly great amateur sailors I have had the pleasure of sailing with, and how much I'd like to put them all together as a dream crew with my Wookie pal Big Andy on main to keep me entertained.

Then I realised that most of them don't sail or otherwise just potter about. Nothing serious.

Me, well I tell myself I am just taking a year out, but...?

Now in fact a couple of these guys I think of were actually "pros" in that one worked for North Sails Seattle and the other is actually a first engineer on a tanker. These are the two guys, simon and steve you know you who are, who I learned absolutely most from in sailing. While I'm running the credits, the irish national j24 coach, Brian Mathews taught me some fine polished skills and tricks while sailing on a boat which has come to reside on Oslo Fjord: the IMX 38 "Braveheart".

However, good people give up. Really, really great sailors throw in the towel. Why?

The main obvious reason is the combination of crews and owners. You never quite seem to get the right boat , The Right Owner and The Right Team.

The fact is that most people who can afford a forty foot racer-cruiser are either a bit dull (surgeons, lawyers, actuaries) and so lack that killer instinct, or they are egotists ( entrepreneurs, divisional directors, sales managers) who frankly can't run a team without control freaking. They manage their working life teams on fear and false promises and when it comes to a true team sport like sailing, they are the weakest link.

Then there are the bitchy crews, the lazy crews, the over-boozed crews, the overly serious crews, stupid individuals who can't be fired, deck fluff-teasing females, owners wives-sons-daughters. Crews which implode on their own egos and unfullfilled expectations. Crews which are fully disfucntional in simple tasks. Crews who try and do each others jobs and shout out the action the next man has just started to do. Crews who get sacked for drinking too much and doing pranks or violent misdemeanors. Crews who are no good and are not interested in admiting their wrongs and learning. Also of course crews that disintegrate due to pure lack of interest.

Once in a while you get a really good team dynamic or at least an atnagonism which gives tension and drive in the will to win. Every tack is a formality, each gybe is coordinated with eyes fixed on the job and hardly a word uttered. Small mistakes are spotted really quickly and corrected seamlessly. Information flows from the gunwhale back over and decisions are made upon this, or after respectful further requests for advice from the rail. Everyone gives 110% and the boat wins, the sails are stowed neatly and the boat is ready for the night's festivities before even a single beer can is breached.

More often though, great teams in the forming are snuffed out by owners, usually when they start bringing "management consultants" on board : transom twitterers, back seat team drivers. Or perhaps the owner decides to bump someone out a job, or demands that everybody does all the regattas or drop out.

Quite often good individuals gravitate towards a free meal ticket- literally: a rich owner who puts crew dinners and lubrication through his companies. The main catalyst here is often that sailmakers stick to these owners like a cheap suit, and supply a stream of the best dinghy sailors and some heavy rail meat in the knowledge all repairs, tweaks and extra sails will be bought from them.

It is pretty rare that the rich bother with the risk of sailing one design: they have cash to splash, and like sailing in their own wind, tweaking the boat and blaming the handicap for the conditions when it goes down the pan on a bad call.

So many truly great sailors, and myself being a reasonable sailor, give up because of one or many of these reasons. It becomes very clear to them that these is not really a space on a boat they would want to sail on! The club-cliques are a bit afraid of lurking "better" sailors or have had their egos bruised, or have dismissed them as unruly trouble makers ( like me and some others). We end up with no one worth sailing with, until we get our own boats. My current club is just like this: there are no places apart from on the boats which are not worth sailing on in the otherwise tight OD fleet.

To remedy this situation there needs to be more of a methodological, structured coaching and training in the sport. The better clubs, independent of their size, should adopt national certification for crews and team building or rather teaching in what a good team dynamic is. More fundamental, although this may seem ipso facto a part of this process, opening sailors minds up to being on a learning curve that never ends. Owners and many crews need to learn how to learn!

Clubs tend to conspire to put all their efforts into youth sailing: this provides after all free baby sitting for endless hours for many brat spawn of the worthy club members. It provides some sailing minded teenagers to crew on larger boats, but rather the most of these "youff" drop out when they discover Alco Pops and necking and endless hours of tedium with 900 "friends" on facebook. Youth programmes are then largely counter productive for the sport and really the broad base of the pyramid suddenly becomes so sharp in getting into the squads and coaching that clubs should put a lot less effort into them, or rather focus on a smaller number of young sailors.

Clubs should spend more time and money on their long suffering adult members and especially those boat owners new to sailing, with there a focus on one design sailing. Indeed it may need to be within the OD class association to organise this, or become a virtual on-line sailing club such they can affiliate to the national bodies and get funding.

"ISO 9000 "for a boat is not actually a bad thing at all: it would mean as crew you could turn up and do your job within some tight boundaries, and the same goes for the reverse expectations for owners. At the level I used to sail at, cat 3 or whatever with some Cat 2 sailors, then this is virtaully what happens anyway: you can throw a team together even on the day and get results. If I were to go out tomorrow I would be so rusty this woudln't work at all!

I think these type of organised coaching efforts in the sport at a local level would attract back sailors like me ( year out- two years out?? Five years out?) and also leave less to chance: On the clyde in the 80s and 90s we had some fantastic OD sailing: FF; Pipers; IODs; Sonatas; 1720s; Smegma 33s and even an emergent 38 fleet. The whole bendytub, Elan / X332 IRC optimised thing blew it all to bits when everyone went cheque book racing and no one really wanted OD. The money got sucked up into property, the rich got richer, the middle class got less affluent, and then this pyramid selling sprung recession took it all away. I think the glimmer of hope for the clyde is the bloody SB3 and the established FFs and pipers. People can have their cruisers for WHW.

Ranting done !

Calories !

2011-05-04T02:46:00.001-07:00

This year is indeed going to be my year out. 'T' called on sailing. I think everyone should take time out otherwise it all does become 'another day at the office' . i am taking a year out for the reason of potential jadedness with the slow ood boats here, but also two personal reaons if you like. firstly this winter i actually lost some weight! This trending will just be a blip if i do the series, some weekend events, and of course all the time teaching at the sailing school . Now i can be out on my bike or up in the hills without using up my brownie point time system at home. This year is indeed going to be my year out. 'T' called on sailing. I think everyone should take time out otherwise it all does become 'another day at the office' . i am taking a year out for the reason of potential jadedness with the slow ood boats here, but also two personal reaons if you like. firstly this winter i actually lost some weight! This trending will just be a blip if i do the series, some weekend events, and of course all the time teaching at the sailing school . Now i can be out on my bike or up in the hills without using up my brownie point time system at home. the other reason is i am a little in my cave and feel i need my own project in terms of a boat, and being part time crew with the somewhat dull locals doesn't rub anymore. Heaven can wait.

end of season

2010-10-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Well the season has ended, and so also I have to call "T" finally for that famous year out I have been discussing since about 2001.

I just finally need a rest so I can use time getting fitter and building up reserves to come back with a refreshed attitude in 2012.

Next year though there is the EM in Melges 24 in Norway, which is tempting, but there is not point what-so-ever in doing it unless I get an invitaion to a boat which is training up to the event. Which is not going to happen.

Short of maybe getting a loan of a local OD or taking up dinghies again; I will wait and see and committ to nothing and not bother to stress myself up about who-to sail with or which team to get together.

What I am saying is that unless it is laid on a plate or some fortuity comes along I am taking time out.

Hitting The Wave

2010-09-20T06:02:00.001-07:00

Well land lubbers hit the wall, so we must hit the wave:

Dunk! I hit it this year.

Splash! Got it all over my shirt.

I started sailing classics and this has hit me fine and good: I do worse than a new beginner! Well, they are behind us, but relatively speaking I am an idiot.

I just seem to lack the concentration and nerve to make it happen. Also I lack the energy. I was banging on the door of the wave a few years ago and knew it but just changed boats to a j109 and the team thing took us all to the heights.

I also lack going back to basics: they are small 5m affairs with a tiny sail plan really, and I should think dinghy crossed with barge characteristics: an age to accelerate or come on the wind.

At least five times we have been miles back from the start: this is our fault for not seeing that the wind has died and the usual wind disturbance of the collective fleet reduces our approach times by maybe a third to a half. It took us nearly three minutes to sail up to the line from one minute out: major phucket.

I have always been a liittle poor on starts: shy, nervous often, barging-bloody minded other times: rarely cool, calm and collected as I am trimming or tactically in all the rest of any given race.

Start is something I get nervous for because I know it is my weaknesses out of many stregnths and this just exacerbates it.

In essence the wave is just a kick back from me being conceated and over confident before: you gotta remember the basics, train to make better, and go out and do the text book stuff prestart, 5 min , 1.30 min, 1m in, 45 sec-30sec and 10 sec-gun.

Strange Season

2010-09-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

This has been a bit of a strange season for me: no wins!

Sailing was on the back burner a while; in fact I should have cut off the gas this year, but it does provide my only social life so to speak.

The nationasl was strange; light winds with piggish, underpowered wooden classics banging the corners in often two tack beats on a 600m course.

We went so slow I reckoned glue: we were heavy blokes with older sails though.

In fact the event was a rude re-awakening to the one thing you need to do: practice and get a feel for what you are doing before you go in over confident, based on past experienced and flounder on nerves.

Also, don't stumble into racing you don't want to do. A week later and the chat was about the new sports boat the soling owners would like to buy: the sb3 is the lead runner by a country mile.

Next year I am saying "T" to the kid's sailing school, I can't teach trapeze anyway, barely do it myself, but I have to keep a little quiet on this for now.

I keep on saying a total year out, maybe next year will be since I was a bit disappointed in the social life anyhows. But it would be a year out of the local OD class which is bad; time on the water counts.

Given you don't live out in the sticks like me, and you have a healthy social life outside of sailing, then I fully recommend taking "T" : a whole season out, and then going back to some kind of learning at a school or with a patient owner or crew boss on a new boat.

Classics National,

2010-08-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well that was the nationals of sorts that was. Really a very sharpened local fleet fighting like heck over two or three top class visitors and some tools who knew how to cheat and most often get away with it on the starts.

We really got slapped around on day one: just rolled on the starts and buried and then I just lost the nerve and messed up. However we had strong wind settings for the forecast and this gave us only good shape for the lulls. Also we were the heaviest crew, with most people opting to sail with two or at least only 210 kg of three-ness.

I won't dwell on the very unusal westly tide which ran 2.5knts and took me onto the windward mark once, and the finish line marks 3 times! 28 boats out and we dived down to a terrible 24th due to a worsening performance the next day with the owner on the helm.

But okay, this was the worst result I have had in a long time given a goal setting of about 15th to 18th place as realistic. My best was 17th. So what did we do right?

Well on the third or fourth race on day one I did have a very good lane, rolling over some boats which tried to gain height to push my leeward acceleration zone. However, the guy on the line decided to fall off hard at 5 seconds to try and save an OCS. When it became obvious he was not going to follow any sense of rule 11 or 14, we bore off onto the boats eating my leeward zone : he followed suit as now he had earned a second from the gun, thus we hit him and the boats came up on us. So it would have been the best start, but still lacked speed as I was too high at 5 seconds. However, my go right for our own air would have worked despite being under-taken!

On the very last start of race 2 day 2, we decided to start at the pin end, the fleet were a little early, but not so early that they were crushing the pin. Roy J knew the score and had gone for a clear wind pin end, go far left start. We were low and rolled by a couple of boats.

However the point being we had a good view of the fleet. They were all sharp reaching along the line, not laying it at 12 seconds. All of them playing the game in their own lane because speed is king. This was the learning money for me: they line up, get a lane and then dare not luff others out unless they are right on the line. They sit about 1 to two boat legnths low of the line and gun it out on a tight, tight reach, only coming up 3 seconds to the gun, and even then some just carry on JUST laying the pin end.

So my previous boysterous start positionings were too early and too high. You cannot start these boats anywhere near a beat at one minute in light airs. As the wind builds on our usual start, so does the angle, but the principile is the same.

This is why it is worth chancing it in on Port because you steal a lane from a guy, erm, like me, which has happened in two of my starts.

Because the classics are long keel, it pays not to have tide on the beam too long. We did win out on one leg going right to recover from a bad start. I think it was this leg that we managed to hold off five boats back us and then I spotted both a central wind band and a wind shift within it, to swtich back over and secure a fast shot in towards the finish. We came in with maybe the boat end a little lower on the wind and with better speed than pin end aimers to take back another four places to get the best 17th of the day!

One thing I eventually seemed to learn was the course, and more so than other boats: there was a band of wind funneling between the islands from a gap about 1.5 miles from the start. The fleet split on single tacks to the ends of the diamond: left you could avoid the tide longer and maybe get a land lift 200 m from the start. Right and you could get out of the worst of the tide to the safe reef. In the middle, there was more wind and you could work the shifts. But it meant some more beam tide on stb which was the favoured angle by in large, with the back-shift being to still a bit stb bias.

What did we do wrong though?

firstly rig and sails: rig setting unkown, loosened off randomly by Berger, I spotted the wooden stick was bent to port about two inches. Seondly sail qaulity: we had a poor finish on the sails and a shape which was a bit too deep, undecided while also hooked on the leech.

Then we were heavy as crew and with a fair bit of crap on board: 20 meters of heavy rope on a coil, loads of clothes and drinks: which we did use up though.

The next thing was pinching, speaking relatively. In these boats you need to sail VERY low in wind and either come up on the puffs or work the shifts.

Coming off the start line was also there: max tight reaching speed before a slow crank up at 3 seconds to the gun or so depending on your distance from the line.

Tacks were not too bad, and our gybe lines were worth a place each round by the standard. Spinnaker work for joorls was poor to pish, with late hoists and twists. Then it was a bollox, but actually not worth losing places: on day two I did the kite and the wind was very unstable.

The wind lifted off the water about 3 boat legnths from the leeward mark, which meant the fleet (who were packed in!) were tantalsiingly close as we were still in wind.

On the learning side, I was still poor at hardening up, but managed a couple of okay ones, which feel weird because the boat does by no means accelerate in light winds;: it just turns and then sits at 1 knt boat speed on the right track to go at 47' upwind or so!

I think with just the two of us we could have sailed much faster and also juust been able to follow the leaders or at leastestablish free air.

Tommorrows Lessons for Youth Training

2010-08-16T04:58:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately the nationals lacked entrants from many clubs, probably due to bad timing near the end of the school year. One of the precious "hytte" weekends where by the small, vastly over priced cabins norwegians own needs a dust and a visit to make their 10 000 USD yearly costs worth it a little bit.

So the team have not had a whip crack by sailing against more experienced fevaeres.

Anyhows, we have silver to complete this year and I will only be there maybe three nights I hope. Gold and rules stuff can await next year, with some items ticked off this year like MOB.

So tuesday, sailing school:

1) theory on twist in the mainsail using the top tell.tale. Crew to match the twist by slipping out the jib a little. When to use more or less twist.

2) the round turn and two halv hitches, why to use it instead of a bowline! How to control a line using it.

3) practical: sail with correct twist. Come along side the rescue boat and stop precisely. Basic safe: heave to on a sharp reach/slack beat to stop, wait and accelerate away.

Nat Champs,

2010-08-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today I had undoubtedly the worst race of my life, at least on the helm. I can remember only a few others : two croabh havn to oban feeders and the one we broke a mast on the overnight, a couple on the old dog boat where we were last.

I was burried on the start: everyone else had speed, we were dead and low. A crafty port tack got us out and back in the mid lane which as clear wind, then we met a good pal on stb and instead of ducking him I tried a lee bow, doing it too early. So a 720 resuled. Followed by hitting the mark: we hit the windward finish line mark and the leeward twice due to an adverse tide and a crap angle.

L8r we picked up lunch, only the rib hung about the finish line drifting towards it: we did a nice leeward come too, while asholebjørn bore away ontop of our bow from the stern of the rib for no good reason other than total distraction.

That was not too bad though because we rescued a 17th , which should have been our worst position.

We were a heavy crew but it felt like we had a bag on the keel, unlikely as it is a long keel.

Classics have their appeal but are an unlikely bet for me without a joiner or painter being a part owner. The rig is a bit of a mystery: I have suceeded in getting it straight at least, but don'tlike the set up with straight uppers and swept back inner/lowers.

The helm is totally neutral if it ain't blowing and the triangular main is just a POS which needs some precise use of cunningham and halyard to get it going.

Hardening up is a pig: you need to stick the boat into the wind and wait. Falling off needs coaxing and hard use of rudder and main slacking.

Anyway, guees I am off the helm tmw and that is fine.

Start for the NM

2010-08-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

The start is really where I lose the top fleet placings and get stuck behind the well heeled bunch and the back markers : a hare to the hounds !

5 knts is 2 m per second in a 6 m boat that is 3 seconds per boat legnth at top speed.

The information I need:

A) how long does it take us to go from ragging to speed to close hauled?

B) how long it takes us from ragging to reaching off to harden up to close hauled

C) for A and B, how many boat legnths does this mean?

D) does the line have a bias?

E) where is the fleet at 2 mins and 1.30

So start is very important:

1) go out and TRAIN before: find a bouy, go to leeward and right of it, hold off from ten boat legnths and then count the time to sheet in, get on the wind and go.

2) shoot the wind on the line when it is set: see which way the bow points

3) reach the line, count the time: tack and reach back with the mainsail sheeted, see if it backs

4) look for transits on the start line.

5) check for tide ; with , against, side to side??

6) go for a run into the mid line from the boat end from about 15 boat legnts back: keep it high ish, and luiff : count the time to sail close hauled up to the line

7) go back for a right hand end to mid way start line up, at 1 min 30 and about 10 boat legnts back from right of the boat.

8) sail out and go left to check :

a) lift or bend?
b) lighter waves
c) less tide

9) sail all the way over to the right: does the wind scalloping make it worth being longer on stb

Friday is to be windy so I favour not being pinned out to the left by piles of windward boats on stb- I favour going right

1) VERY EARLY FLEET. the fleet is boat end and piled up and ragging early: we are come along a little later and maybe see no space until half way down the line. It is 50 seconds, and they are creeping to the line: we tack onto port and go up to start 5 seconds late ON PORT at the boat IDM at speed.

Or the fleet are a little further back: we tack back and reach at 1 min, keeping clear of all stb boats: the top end breaks loose a little and we see boats pinning others up near the boat while an obvious gap opens, tack over into it.

Fleet on time: We are with the fleet then, we are lined up at 40 secs and ragging, we then need to get near to a group of boats and stick into leeward: then we need to slow down and come up close; without pushing too hard; we then need to level the bows and let the boom way out to discourage close contactsers. We need to look over our back shoulder and lee qaurter.

fleet on time; us late! We need to start at the nearest gap to us: we need to bear away to get there, not tack twice. we want to do a reach over and dive up on the gap so we aim for the stern three boats up from it: when we arrive 1- 2 boat legnth we rag and creep up to windward with out bow behind : it will then take us 10 to 12 seconds to reach behind then and start fethcing up under the third boat.

Fleet on time: us early: we need to look at either gybing round or crossing and going back round the comittee boat to start right.

Okay so max speed, 3 boat legnths per second at max speed, likely to be 5 seconds, so it will take 10 seconds to sail two boat legnths: at 45' to the wind,

.....this means that a 2 boat legnth direct to line distance is almost three boat legnts to sail at 45' , and that will be in practice 10 seconds from sheet in and go.

3 boat lengths will be 13 seconds

One boat legnth back from the line means though 1.41 boat legnths (one, one, route 2 on a 45*,45*,90* triangle) which in practice means about 7 seconds.

Key training

2010-08-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

for the nationals, here is my key ideas on training:

1) starts: get a feel for the boat, even if it is on the day: take time to go out and time the line, find the bias and transits and time your different approaches before going up the beat and back to do it again to a 1min gun. Get any transits : a safe one to pull in from and go at 10 seconds in 9ms. Get an on the line or early to correct.

2) chill , drink, eat: remember to tell the crew to do this too.

3) tacks, speed in, heeliong- liuffing, round enough not too much, speed out, height.

4) hoist: be confident in a gybe set but trained up for a bear away hoist ON the bouy. Look at the boats ahead; are they pretty dead on STB and deep without pointing to the leeward mark?

5) leeward: better harden up : with speed, take a big luff or tack if it is good to do so: with lack of speed, get the boat moving ! Get distance for the starboard response to a high, fast port boat piling in behind you. Do a windward drop drill on the day.Gear is then on the correct side for STB next time! Infront of shrouds.

6) bends, shift pattern, tide : remember to look at all these: Kite is more sensitive, so sail a straight line on the windier side or the LHS if even and look for the pattern and any bend. Look at bouys and stalks.

7) Save a bad start : double tack up to a better band even if you loose one boat more you will gain.

Late start: cross the fleet on a close hauled port tack and go right

early: tack right onto port , take only a boat legnth heigh, see the line and then reach off to restart on the RHS , clearing the line completely: maybe you were not so early anyway. If you are early, so will everyone be because I am a bunch, lane starter, so this will open gaps on the RHS big enough to fall into.

KEY ON THE DAY

scrub the hull

check the gear

stats: start and beat

start : timing, transits, 1 min practice, bias?

beat:clear wind to port if needed; first big shift; or aim in the bend, or go to offhsore for the lift on stb, get doubel tack as early as possible either from behind or if you lead in your lane and can get over on port.

play the layline

good bear away hoist, only gybe set with indicators

Feeling like a New Beginner

2010-08-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well I feel a bit like a new beginner again, both because I have a learning curve with the 4 knt woodwork and because I have yet to get my spurs as a helm in the fleet.

Saturday I helmed not just competantly, but competitively! Boat speed was only poor off the start line and against lighter boats, and out of tacks.

The real area I am a beginner again in, and it is not so far back for me to fall really in the grand scale of things, is starts. I have four places up for grabs by getting a start:

Key things are I don't have a feel for luffing and accelerating and boat legnths yet, and as I wrote yesterday, no feel for the line position: which is ok, not fully my job.

Once off starts at 6th place say, then I can play :

1) shifts- one place on someone who doesn't spot them, three if I spot one ahead.

2) roundings: two places possibly more with a good lay line: the fleet is conservative so the windward mark is worth a place on a windward boat / ahead to lee. The lens mark is worth one place on either an overlap or a hard luff to a higher lane, or a fast tack to clean, lifted air.

Starboard into the leeward mark too is worth a bit.

3) finish line; with it being OD the final beat or run to the line means that a slight boat speed and angle advantage on any bias there will take a place.

The big, big place winner broken down for the start, ignoring prep, just :

a. get the green light for the run in right: tack up in light airs to keep right, gybe in heavier airs or with tide pushing you over. Get the prestart wide lane right with boats right above and not rolling you to be on tyour bow or lee bow.

b. Cool off more in the run in, if boats are rolling over and falling off then there will be space on the committee boat end. ease, check for it and double tack to a new higher lane over the group of "rollers"

c. know the acceleration for the day and the angle to sail and where the wind is.

d. Is it a line up or a usual early mess ?

Line up: get your bow up on a lo boat with space to fall off into: even the bow to theirs. Wait. Keep the air coming in but have a safe transit to bail out at with too much forward movement. At this transit at 8, 10, 15 seconds sheet in, start to move, then fall off a little.

Late mess; remember at 45 to even seconds you can still double tack to get a better lane high and right of the early birds. Otherwise, rag the sails and luff the bow a little to brake off hard and take a call to maintain your lane out.

Choose the lane and check you can lay it with a cracked beat, or choose a lower one if you need to tight reach to gain speed.

e) the final position, the "early gun" for you to accelerate: this is the crucial bit, you can be a bit low at 10 seconds but not 5 : at 5 you need good height but speed too, so not super high.

THis makes it hard to be rolled: keeping fast and a little high gives you the sharp luff option to take a boats bow behind you or press a low roller high

BIG MISTAKE: personal blind spot over the RH shoulder. Very common myopia in sailing circles.

On the field, this now gives me 6th place with three good starters and two optimal boat speeders to my lee and lo. I have to keep my wind clear and get over the 7 or 8 boats behind me to the first shift or opportunity to break to port to clear a little air and pressurise the boats who are holding right.

Tacking back to starboard has to be both tactical and defensive: ie I tack to maybe hold off a boat on his port run or gain a place over boats previously ahead but to the left of me.

On the lay line I will have at least three boats ahead of me so I can call the line. I can choose to double tack too, or with port boats over me, point the bow down and oversheet to make it look like I am not laying the weather mark, thus getting a couple of boat legnths over faster boats coming from behind me.

The bear away, in the nationals I can always set with a sneake guy if possible : forward of the shrouds, over the job sheets. But if it has lifted on the layline in or there is more wind "RHS" (new left) then I need to gybe set. Or if there is a pile of boats ahead or behind I want to think about it. Bear away hoist is maybe actually pretty slick in these boats given a slight header and a sneaked guy with an on-the-bouy hoist.

Being slick may win me a temporary place on the run.

I then have to settle to the angle of the day and avoid the holes. In 20 - 30 knts wind like saturday then it is clearly a deep run, by the lee even.

Defence will also mean following Roy and the best boats when there is no obvious need to expose myself to people behind or on the other gybe. THis is true on the beat too, and lost us a good third or fourth start when we went right into the cliffy shit.

defence here also means SAIL THE SHORTEST COURSE to the mark and b-ear away on the gusts, while we are still talking about the run here.

After a mediocre start, I could try zig-zagging a little to see if it pays and gets me a starboard lane into the leeward mark with a BIG number of overlaps. THis is only to gain and not to defend though. A closer to the mark luff followed by gybe to starboard outside the zone on an attacker will work too.

The drop is tactical too: Do you hold for max speed and depth or drop early to get a better rounding?

When I do get into fourth position then it is a case of holding place and covering boats behind me up to the line: get a free wind lane and stay in it behind roy, peter, eric and the usual suspects like 110 geirs crew or ashbjørnsen. On the way to the line it is a short diamond so you can't risk baning corners, just follow in free wind and cover.

Racing Classics...not bad fun

2010-08-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

First Real Day at the Helm this Year.

The only real OD racing within reach for me now is the local classic club type, which can muster up to 18 boats and a bit more for the nationals.

The boat is very classy looking; like a cross between a dragon and a Gareloch. The sail area at some point in their early history, was drastically reduced to make them a trainer which tolerate 30 knts of wind without reefing. The kite is an almost laughable handkercheif, but does make them go a little quicker.

I felt rusty but mainly inexperienced at starting in these old maids.
SO here are my observations with the last being the first: starts and prep'

1) tacks: seemed to stop the boat too often, by not going through long enough. Went better with a little ease on the main after we go through the wind. Just needs practice boat on boat

2) Height / speed. Pretty good on the back markers while we held and gained on the downwind. I found it hard to compare speed on boats ahead but really this would only become clear if we could start better. Height wise I lacked a little, but was better than the back markers : the boat maybe lacks some rake, althought the owner disagrees.

3) falling off;: one sloppy/late missed us a place to c007 and C34 I think, the latter of which we won back. ON the last and windiest race we did a good line and good fall off though and I think gybing ASAP payed on the day: a bear away hoist took us into the lift over the island and out of favourable tide.

4) tactics: generally good although we lacked boats speed for two or three ambitious lee bows, needing a bit more space to stuff boats rather than even dreaming of a "slam, dunk".

5) strategy: lacking, followed other boats: came out with boats behind us as anticipated; 7th best showed us we could be up there with the leaders.

6) START: way down and burried: we were too slow and cautious to lee and not observant enough to lo. We had four places to earn here and threw them away by being burried and/or late. I seemed to have a blind spot backwards from 25' lo of the bow, so I need to work on this and watch out to hold position and know where the line is I still complain about reaching down the line boats, but this is less likely at a well ordered approach at the nationals.

7) PREP: text book line work would have helped, a transit and timings. I reckon a sail along the line will give half the time to work up the line from a gunning positiion at the key or right of the "boat" end in open water at laying halfway down the line. Boat wise we need some measuring to go on.

fix small things
adjust all for weather
measure prebend before and after adjustments. Sight up mast
scrub bottom
check halyards and fixings
check latest weather
raise sails, adjust to wrinkles and out

test beat, from standing mid line with timings.

ON the line:

know the laylines for ends and mid line and third down.
Work up with timings
practice start several times to a one minute gun

UNDER WAY: is the fleet early? Y: port start if RIght favoured in open water? Or tack over / gybe and tack up to RHS where there may be a huge space opening.
Late? Can we jump out ? do we have a transit? who can we sit on? How long to accelerate and get height? Where are we currently standing? Can we tack twice and still get out ahead to gain RHS pluss? Or need we fall off?

Buying a 29er for youth

2010-07-26T14:26:00.001-07:00

Next purchase is likely to be a 29er for the club, but I would rather that parents buy a couple or at least committ after some trialling.

TIps from SAer

"Over and above what I wrote in the above post which was mainly about hull condition, when buying a 29er for use as a 29er, you need to look at the condition of the mast.

Problems in a heavily used 29er mast will manifest themselves as loose mast joints or occasionally, if it has been stuck really hard in the bottom, perhaps a bent mast.
The mast is in three sections which are replaceable individually. Hold the bottom section and try to wiggle the mid-section. There should be barely any play. Similarly, hold the middle section and wiggle the top section. Again, it should be tight.

Examine the mast for straightness by looking down the track. Masts can go soft, whereby the bottom section bows around the gnav attach point. While masts can be straightened, they will bend again in short order. To stiffen the lower mast temporarily, you can put a wedge, or a penny coin, under the mast heel to restore its shape somewhat when racing.
Small broken sections in the top mast track are readily replaced with a spliced-in section if required. Glue it in with Plexus MA425. If it is really bad, replace the entire track per the instructions on the US 29er class web site. http://www.29ernorth...o/masttrack.pdf

Look over the mast and boom carefully for corrosion due to inadequate washing down after sailing in salt water. Inspect all rivets looking for evidence of corrosion lifting or loosening the fitting. If you end up re-riveting the fittings, make sure you use bigger stainless rivets and re-seat in an anti-corrosion gel (Tef-Gel, Duralac, etc) to slow corrosion. Another corrosion point is the hounds bolt that attaches the shrouds. The stainless bolt runs through an aluminum tube and the corrosion that results can enlarge the holes the mast sides.

Pay attention to the top spinnaker halyard block. If it breaks, or has broken, the spinnaker halyard will slice a line down the top mast section just like a zipper. If it has been repaired, you find extra carbon sleeve over it as a patch but the bend characteristics will never be the same. The class has just voted to adopt an internal sheave to eliminate this problem going forward. We are awaiting the exact positioning and fastening details.

With sails, beyond any obvious rips, tears and delamination, the main problems concern jib batten pockets and broken jib battens. A jib is about USD500. It is always nice to have race and practice sets of sails, so it you're a beginner buying a boat with a sound but mediocre set, then don't worry, you've got 100 capsizes before you merit a new set! Spinnakers generally wear out by stretching, but should last at least a season at the highest level of competition. Jibs can last two years and mains three if you have a practice set for general use.

Boat price depends on local conditions. The price is really the sum of hull price (USD 2000-4000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 2000-4000 end_of_the_skype_highlighting depending on condition), plus mast (500 - 1500), plus sails (0 if trashed -2500 if new), plus trailer, plus covers.
In other words, a beater boat might be USD 2500 and a nearly new one about USD 8000, and anything in between. A boat in an obscure area might be $500+ cheaper.

Hope that helps. "

Plateau in the frustrating way off the water

2010-06-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well I have to realise two things: I have not actually been plateuing I have been going rusty, and the wall I seem to have hit is actually just a frustrating plateau of trying to break in to the scene in OD here.

I am swimming around in areas I should have been able to get past in my native Scotland but you know, even there it took time to get into good OD.

One Design racing (OD) demands not only an owner with a well prepared example of the species, but also a certain fluidity with the crew. Many OD winners have sailed together for years and fill spaces by hiring rock stars.

Handicap racing was actually a high plateau for me and I never saw it: winning and being up there in the top 5 was actually plateauing for me in HC and NOT peaking! Well maybe a bit of both.

Now I have fallen back and I am just there : rusty. But the only way to sharpen the tool for me now is in OD.

Bit of classic anyone?

2010-06-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

We have a local OD derived from meter classes and the dragon, which have actually been gathered as an OD class only in the last decade.

I had crewed a couple of times, with a win in the lobster regatta, and helmed once on a heavy epoxy lined newer build with a bloody chaotic start.

This time I borrowed a near novice crew, who is good company and positive at least. We had some big convection showers blowing little squalls through the sound and making it pretty doubtful for spinnaker sets. When the sun went round and the clock came to five thirty, the wind started to follow the underlying gradient pattern.

The start shaped up to be a real clencher as the wind went down just a bit more: My watch was full of condensation so I had to rely on flags : gybe out when the one minute came down and then edge back in to the boats who were trying to get absolute best start,longest to the "pin" on our usual biased line from the shore to fixed bouy.

Had I known the seconds I would have had the best start of my helming career - well in a classic- my best ever start was in a tasar on an RS400 OD start..erm...yep, point perfect light winds start only in the wrong fleet!

Now the wind was still dying and I was the cheap ham slice falling out of the salad sandwich as I coaxed the boat into bad wind to get moving before tacking off. I could see wind on the RHS near the mark so given we had a little current agin us I went for it, with a painfully slow port tack to get over to a line with only maybe one tack again.

Up to the mark and I took two places back, but I could see a parked fleet infront of me on the actually reasonable leeward leg. Working on the white sails are better than baggy spinnakers, I went off on a wide , risky banana to a band of wind in the middle of the channel, between the two islands the majority of the fleet usedto get some wind on the beat. I saw them in bad tide, so this would be with me: whereas I could see set kites, filled with boats not moving against the land on my LHS. But the wind filled enough to take them away : now on a reach.

Now was time to cut my losses and get the bing on the stick while i did my best with the kite (POS with gaffer tape on it) This worked and I was able to get a good angle to the mark. I overtook rolf, who went low of me to hold his kite longer while I got speed to the final attack on the mark.

Then I had a long, impossible procession with the wind turning 90' gradually to my quarter making it slow. Rolf gave up behind me though as I built quarter of a mile on him in what was left of the head wind. Worse, the course wasn't shortened so I had the bloody whole way with everyone in front of me.

But on time, the winner was petter, with 9 minutes on the fleet, while I had seven minutes on the fleet in fifth or fourth position. So I actually did a good enough job to get back in and keep the boat moving.

I noted the shrouds are well slack, but the boat was pretty quick for the condition in general!

Classics like these are like sailing in slow motion for me! Even when it is blowing hard. But this gives me time to deconstruct my game a little and play a little chess.

I did enjoy it !

Rusty

2010-06-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

I find myself feeling very rusty., I find doubt creeping in where there used to be either certainty or a kind of winning angst!

I guess this is beyond the peak: when you have climbed the peak you always knew you could, while the higher ones have always needed too much planning, time, money and over all committment to go do.

IN trying to be all rational and set realistic goals, I lose everything.

I have also a concentration and "blank page" thing going on: a kind of cognitive dyslexia. I don't see what I need to see in sails, courses

However, I worry too much: Training is as necessary as breating. If you don't train then you can't expect to come back on form: Sergio Blanco never "trained" but he played with such committment that this was training to a natural born athelete.

In Shorinkii Kempo, my pre sailing winter sport, any Dan turning up at a new Dojho would be expected to do some Katas and "udje guje getame" : a simple wrist pin and thow from the waist. In fact, like a gybe, it is not simple and can be broken down into hundreds of facets and fractions of a second.

So the moral is in sailing, each new season, chop water, fetch wood.

Keep it simple...next sailing lessons

2010-05-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

I have inherited a gang of 13-15 year olds who have been through a pretty poor sailing school which has not taught them really very well, and they can sail enough to just mess around sometimes.

Last year we came a long way though, but they lack the crack of the losing whip to show them how that they really need to get back on the learning curve.

Firstly I have split them up into two teams of four boats which makes it easier to muster them round instructor boats and keeps the disruption down. It willlead to a bit of internal competition in games and average scores but also a bit of looking over the garden fence: are they doing better? Getting something we aren't?

Our fisrt day out will concentrate on getting used to balancing the boat ...real basics, in a line of ducks behind the motor boat. This may seem strange: they can all sail round a course! But it is fetch-water, chop wood. They will find it actually harder now to slow down and speed up.

I will then drop off and let one lead, with a whistle first becomes last and so on, two blasts, first tacks....Now they are all sailing at a higher level this will actually be harder!

on shore I will take them through the basic coordination: tiller - sheet grasp. harden up, communicate with crew. Use kicker , outhaul, cunningham if you need more than three fingers to grip the mainsheet. Luff (feather) if the gusts are too hard. The ( and they should have been taught this two years ago!) sailing with the tiller behind your back and swapping hands, sheet to tiller.

Then crew: hardening up, hiking out and trusting the helm to take on power and help balance the boat. Trusting the boat can really heel back without capsizing on a beat with fairly even wind. Coming in on the lulls and to adjust kicker, outhaul and cunningham. Falling off: sheet out, come in, kicker off, sheet out more, push boom out.

The next water exercise will be a start followed by a short course with a very simple rule 18. We will sit at 3 boat legnths and tell them who must take penalties.

Team Dynamics II

2010-04-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

Okay I promised I would scribble on
team work and the dynamics I have found on boats....more over, about teams on boats that actually win.

An a priori is as follows: if you are either the "perpetual loser dog" i.e. not prepared to learn, or if you are a would be glamour puss sitting on the rail with a self professed rock star calling all the shots from the rump, then only read on if you are in a mind to listen-up and buck-up your ideas.

( I hate rail bitches who wear this months Oakley's, Slam or HL/ Musto squeeky clean and actually just tweak the cunningham! fuick off and sail dinghies again, you will learn something about humility if nothing else )

Dynamic I: Democracy and the Team-Brain

Now the ideal team for me has consultative management at the rear end, including me most often but this is not a pre-requisite. Also this management will be open to many democratic debates, and decision thrown to the rogues-council.

This is my #1 boat because they are the most enjoyable to sail with, and I try to instill this structure, behaviour and positive atmosphere on boats I come, with the aim to we drag the team up to some wins, or more of silver ware. Either as up-and-comers or experienced hands, they win a lot over time if they can keep the egos in place.

In terms of personnel management, there is often the need for some hiring- often yours truly bumps into "lonely girl, GSOH"- Usually they need just a couple of key personnel: more muscle in the cockpit area, or monkey work on the foredeck ; a boat speed maker ; a tactician who does not drive- these would be the most common new hires.

Often there are two or three people who could steer the boat to a win, and enough qaulity people to actually debate about weather, boat speed, tactics and strategy that good information passes, is evaluated and decisions are made.

One weakness in this democratic structure is that the helm can sometimes be waiting for a call, and feel a little off the train of thought while they kept the boat moving. This can lead to crucial hesitation and loses admittedly some races.:

Democracy as always should not be mistaken for anarchy: in democracy we appoint leaders while letting them know what we think. In anarchy everyone wants to lead: big ego anarchy boats are not really a place I have been or wanted to go. Certainly negative people on board who are such anarchists, who just are negative bitching pricks who actually aren't hot, just over inflated egos or those with frail ego defence mechanisms.

Dynamic II: dictatorship

well sometimes this works, I hate boats with only one manager as much as glamour puss boats with good HCs who could never make the cut in OD.

The domineering owner driver will win races if they are mentally good, and if they are able to get a stable, capable team together then they can win consistentl, y in HC fleets. But not in OD because this behviour deflects the best crew away and is wrong,

Dictators don't listen to crew very often and in fact they can be so alfa-male that they WON'T do what any crew member tells them!

dynamic III the corporate

Overall if you did the study you would maybe find that this is the most successful team dynamic across all types of team based sailing. ie not lasers.

Why? It is more organised and has grown through the learning curve delivering results and also acquisitions: they get the best crew, like the oxbridge/LSE or Ivy league get recruited into the big 5 mills of hell consulting.

They are not dicatorships because you either fit or you are out, you do not need to be dicated to. Also they appoint tacticians and need information flow from the
rail, and on plus 10 crew boats they have a wrangler no doubt.

Like the dictator though, they make up strategy and as a prospective rail meat- tactician you will be overlooked for bought-in blunt end consultants. You are a delivery bitch, and your MBA is out of date!

Best to be aqcuired by another corporate to move up the ladder ( The Irish are terrible tarts for this!) OR you would maybe have much more fun in the more entrepreneurial "democracies".

Dynamic V: The tension team

These are often family-centred crews or well knitted friends. They have often sailed together from dinghy days.

The key here to their success is that there is so much fucking arguement that mistakes are polished out of the process.

Given good enough sailing CVs or family history, this type of boat are very often the most regular winners in a local area, but fail to make it against the corporates at the big Regattas. In OD though, often they really do hit the top amateur ranks!

======

Epilogue

Like a bad USA crime series from the late 60s, I present the epilogue to the team dynamic.

If you have another dynamic which is a definable species, please add to the fun by posting a reply.

Teams evolve and whither at some point. The democratic j24 becomes a corporate J12x down the line. Owners go bust, die, retire from active service....sack all the crew ....

I have resolutely chosen my type of boats: the expert democracy, and I stay clear of the other types, dabbling in corporates to keen up my own skills. But the fun is in the consultative, energetic boats with some good sailors and a lot of people wanting to learn and prepared to "go the extra mile......"

which may well be the next blog

Team Work and Your Fit

2010-04-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

I often blog about how being successful in sailing is often disconnected from the working world- for me and some other boat bums I have met.

The thing is there is a very direct parallel between working life and boats to be drawn for me. On a racing boat I absolutely HAVE to be on the management team with some authority and defined responsibility. The only exception to this rule is where the boat is particularily fun to sail on.

In jobs this is it! There was no space for me here or at the dynasty because I need to take up a bit more than I am allowed. This barging around like a bull in a china shop can lead to management doubting me, and then finding reasons to get rid of me in a couple of cases, and then hire someone more junior.

Unfortunetly unlike boats, you can't really just have an evening sail, work out you are just going to be a "delivery bitch" and then walk away saying thanks for the sail. i have whoared around but more than that I have networked my way onto the best boats for me and that has been a win-win ( Literally !!! on the race course we win as a team together!)

So this is a personal dynamic many others will recognise.

More on team dynamics later

What Winners Do?

2010-04-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

I wrote before about the key factor which takes boats and crews from "also ran" somewhere in the top 10, to regular winners: “going the extra mile”. What do winners do differently to those who pitch around between 3rd and 9th places ?

Well I think saying that they give it 110% is meaningful, but winners also give it 110% off the water. This is not a factor of just time though! It is a matter of effort, focus and most of all attitude.

I think that the single most important thing that winners do is that they learn both from their mistakes, and how to improve on weaknesses. As Uffa Fox put it, “if you make three mistakes in the course of a triangle course race, then you will at best get third place..2nd place for those who make 2 small mistakes..if you make just one mistake then you will get first”

One thing here with attitude is that they are prepared to learn, and not rest on their laurels or think that they are good enough not lucky today. This latter description applies to all the loser-boats and stressed out wannabees I have ever sailed with who can get up there in the top ten of an average sized fleet.

Second to this I think winners are better at calculating risk-payoff and actual risk of collision! They are less afraid to use the rules to maintain their position and are not intimidated by bullying rules breakers or other good boats vying for start and mark positions. This is certainly where experience pays off. Like catching a ball, you just know that the boat will squeeze in there or go faster sailing a “banana” to stay in wind. In this also, I notice that winning boats do make tactical errors and begin on strategic errors BUT they recognise the situation and remedy it. This is crucial to performance in a series regatta where you need to be consistent over absolute wins in the week. Also in offshore, knowing when something isn’t working, reacting decisively and getting back into a tactical covering position to re-think strategy are what makes the difference.

Boat preparation: well my attitude is make it easy on yourself if you have a family and little or no boat building and repair experience: buy new. One things winners have is good equipment so you can either use your free time ( if you have any for this as well as racing!) to make old good or to keep an ageing boat in top form OR you can buy newer boats or components. Sounds terribly consumerist, but I recommend using time in the off season for physical training and reading rather than dusty repairs and renovations. Nearly all winning boats have new sails, or those in VGC up to 2 seasons old by the way.

======== ==============

How do I know all this? Well I am only a rank amateur sports psychologist, but I had the luck to sail with also rans as well as some top amateur winners! If I had sailed only with those top echelon boats then the small mistakes would have been lost on me, and the big gains by corrections to rough errors and high risk taking would have been hidden.

I could have been one of those little groupies with the latest sun glasses, on the boats with the best HC and put up with all the frustrations when they keep on only coming 3rd. Instead I sailed a lot in one design, but moved on to sail with winners in HC fleets and events.

After a time of being on the scene I could get invited to various better boats throughout my career and that is vital for any owner-driver wanting to improve from “also ran” to regular winner.

Now team work of course is a pre-requsite, but not the decisive factor in moving from a "3rd place best" boat to the top: many a good team is let down by bad decision making at the top, er sorry, stern! Team dynamics, building and skills interactions will hopefully be the topic of my next blog!

Elliot 6m

2010-04-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

The elliot 6 probably fits the bill for the Olympics ladies boats and succeeds over the yngling in keeping that tally of competitors up.

It looks like it should fit the bill APART from the lack of a prodder: Match racing at a high level with assymetrics is just as tactical and more so as boats achieve separation quicker, this forcing more camera sticky manoevers. Nothing more boring than a procession, even if the spinnaker team are sweating their butts off over 2' depth or height!

In the water it looks a bit draggy at the stern: a lot of stern in the water , but the boat has quite little deadrise and reportedly an optimised WL-Drag-Power-RightingLever set up.

For a normal kite then I reckon they would have been better going for the platu: an international class, probably faster than an elliot 6, cheap and able to offer mixed sex team sailing.

Of course they really should have chosen the melges 24. Next time round we may see the sit in M20 up for this slot, or the mens I dunno. Certainly I don't have a problem with the E6 and the 49er being the respective top prestige, but the 29erXX is kind of missing the mark for many.

How many non sailors sit glued to star or soling or Europe sailing ?

The Year Out, calling "T"

2010-04-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Back to the old question: absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Do I take a year out, Call "T" on my passage in sailing

Finance crisis puts a dampner on it too: I mean progress towards financing that one campaign, that OD season with enough wins and enough challenge to flatter myself.

I have always meant to take a year out and never done it! I thought babies would kill it- I actually have done more than I thought I would. I , like you, kept on coming back for more.

Like a drug you are drawn back because it works like an antidepressant. You uncouple from the mundane, you do something of WORTH , and most of all when you do a call or get the trim right YOU are the team player, the victor, the one who is respected. The sun shines on the waters of the bay and as the diamonds dance you slip away into another epoch, the eternal sea farer, . wind rider.

Despite a whole winter of skiing and bemoaning the finance crisis, I feel the draw of the sirens song once more.

Youth programme is up the spout because of the job, I can't get back in time although maybe I can get a local job with this as a lever. Fridays is a stange time to sail, but good for the apres! I can be a bit selective.

Youth Programme and What Is Progress and How?

2010-03-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

Youth programme is just around the corner now, given there will swimming this month and one or two rules meetings in april/may.

What can I tell them about progress? How do they themselves expect to progress and what presumptions or false impressions do they have?

I hope to split them in two and take the more committed crowd myself, sitting them down in their pairs and asking about their expectations and what they feel they are weak in or want to move into now.

I would quite happily combine wednesdays with actual training but that can wait a year. It would free up tueday nights for new users which would be good, or one-on-one sessions out in the fjord.

Now they need to learn the rules and spatial visualisation combined with rational cool headed ness is not always their best point, but on paper at least they knew it.

What summary of learn-ed wisdom can I give to them as a group though?

I think I will tell them that there are no great tricks to the sport; there aren't so many clever little tweaks, tactics or methods which give them progress. Yes boat tuning and yes using the rules tactically win places, but to be good you have to master the basics and go on remastering them!

That's why I will try to press home how important it is to sail the boat flat as soon as there is enough wind. Why swapping hands is so important coming through the tack or gybe. Why trim is important.

Through all this why finesse with sheets , tiller and body movements is worth building up for each smaller operation and then in moving from one to the next.

The basics are so important: this year I will come back very firmly to actually sailing slowly! stopping when and where you precisely need to. Something a lot of yachties are pretty bad at as soon as the motor is off. The adrenalin is flowing and they don't want to lose boat speed before the start or at a mark, but they end up needing to fall off and lose position and places! Bumper cars at starts is not good at interclub regattas.

Also I will help deconstruct my own sailing: a key area of weakness for me in HPS boats, and new beginners in any dinghy, is the harden up. Bearing away - hoist is sloppy but effective for the kids, and can be polished. But hardening up is actually a subtler skill where more places can be won or secured.

I think I was pretty lucky to have gone through the very long standing RYA levels 2-4 in the 1990s and 2000, especially with instructors who themselves had been trained by old timers who had sailed things like GP14s, moths and finns no doubt.

I always remember, and like to even if it was in a patronising tone, cheif instructor Derrick saying that we should be able to use just a couple of fingers in the extension grip even in 12 knts of wind: then we were sailing light and fast and in control with the boat set up right. I think this is such a little core of the onion which the outerlayers can be built on: the whole pictrue being coordination of intention, tiller, body movement and sheeting to sail with finesse.

Now you could do this all with feel on the fingers and no knowledge whatso ever of aerodynamics : you would acheive the end of maintaining attached flow when you need to, and conversely, shaking it off at the right time in a tack or gybe, or stall for position.

The five points of sailing are pretty good and I think the older kids are worth introducing to this as a constant-check-list-cycle. I mean we often forget it in keel boats for minutes, sometimes hours on an offshore and we leave something wrong.

The five points though is a discipline to beat yourself with and may stick your head too much in the boat as a new beginner. I mean that I have seen some quite inexperienced sailors either have a degree of tactical genius , in an idiot savant way ( under the forth bridges!, go there where there is less current and the big boats cannot follow! ) and also born helmsmen who can go fast on one tack but can't do tactics at the same time or really know what goes wrong in tacks/gybes. SO getting your head out of the boat should be an earlier skill to learn in racing than being able to run continuous improvement programmes in your head!

Probably the biggest mistake the group makes at the moment is the same one that most beginners at any age make once they can actually sail a bit. Also I notice that perpetual loser-boats never shake this fault. It is spatial awareness of which tack is going to pay and where the wind may come from or clean air appear.

On Sailing Anarchy and in text books there is quite a lot of time taken to explain why boats in an oscillating wind can be fooled into sailing on the wrong side of the course/tack because they get all worked up about the lifts they are getting, when the shortest side of the diamond is on the other tack! For someone who can get their head out the boat this can be a winning tactic, even after a mediocre start.

For those days with an even wind which oscillates in speed more than meaningful direction for headers/lifts, then a spatial awareness of tacking up a 60' cone using rule-of-thumb : " we are in wind, it looks light ahead, there is wind on the other tack and we are getting to the 60' (30:30) line over our front shoulder: we tack! We go up the cone until the bouy is over our back shoulder finally in this light stuff.

I mean this stuff sounds simple and even trite, but this is what makes the sailor, not using a laptop or a tack-tic.

Within about 4 years of me starting racing I could spot race winning moves in light airs, when it it can be really hard to win. In medium airs I've never been very good at calling and sailed on too many HC boats at the time I would have gleamed most visual-spatial out of it.

I still use the finger grip , even in keel boats in light airs. I still use the front-shoulder back shoulder rule of thumb for marks and obstructions.

Why am I a light airs expert? I guess you have to sail in them in all the venues I am used to more than average. I have spent a lot more time sub 6 than plus 22. I think also the actual boredom and frustration drove me to learn more and think on the water, while dinghy sailing I just always knew how important it was to ghost out to the more open water or back home! So you have a little time and yes there are tricks on top of just finesse which mean you can take places and wins.

In medium, well to be blushingly honest, most of the boats I have sailed on have been crap at going up the course to gather "stats" and then looking for anything which would affect the wind. So with poor teachers you only learn as much as they know.

This is also my arguement against HC racing, much though I have had fun doing it: you sail too much in your own wind and are not forced enough to look at the stats. You can concentrate on boat speed and clean air rather than the "out of boat" reckonings which make for true mastery.

So then , back to basics for the yout' of the town? Abso&%#¤ing lutely

Ever Decreasing Quality Circles

2010-02-25T11:48:00.000-08:00

I often wonder how the heck I can come to any 36 foot corporation, fit into the team with a bit of shoehorning, and get results whereas in work life I flounder around with inter-competitive types and generally have not got as far on as I should have in business?

Well I know there is a fair amount attached to hard skills versus soft skills, but maybe that evens out a little? Probably not: i have the hard skills in sailing which mean that I can just be myself and people accept and respect me or I leave the boat. In business I can lack enough from both sets of skills at times, but that is not the root cause of the issue.

Another perspective though is taking work seriously enough to succeed. Ok you can turn up with the lights on until 10pm every night for two years, and still be a "delivery bitch" incessently having your thoughts walked over by ever-younger bosses. Well here you have missed the point of true involvement, determination and team work- or the team-dynamic which comes from the first two descriptors of personal committment there: true involvement and determination.

So in other words your engagement with the job or task means that you are very interactive in moving the whole thing towards a quality delivery. Sound familiar on the race course?

Now I want to get to the core, the meat of this dinner, the heart of the matter for my career in a suit versus my meteoric rise as a wednesday warrior.

When people like Louise at Mccanns or LW here or Dusty Miller at Leo or Slabbiene work so effing hard it pist me off. I mean if I ever had to interact with them on a delivery.

They seem to create enormous amounts of extra work. The hours tick by. Small problems with content, accuracy or communications are major confidence spoilers towards me. The project plods on to a deliverable with seemingly endless rounds of polishing or slicing-and-dicing or covering ALL the bases, and so on until eventually in the late of eve, a report is printed out for final red ink.

The effort in moving from a report I would be happy wth to these final results seems gargantuine in relation to the output. Why bother? I have always asked myself.

I mean if it takes twice as much work to get 10% better then why not do just 5% better?

Well now the penny drops. To finalise anything to a high quality the work load reaches diminishing returns. Progress becomes disproportionately slow in relation to the work volume and tempo.

To put it simply: when losers are happy to arrive anywhere as long as it is 5pm, winners go the extra mile.

So this monologue has two and a bit conclusions about me, the doubting thomas, the wet blanket, the damp freddie! Why have I done so well in sailing, relatively to the proportion of my life, whereas in business I flounder to be perfectly frank.

1) involvement and personal committment: in sailing I gave it all in racing and off the water. Gymn work, reading metereology, going through rules and cases, learning more about sails and tactics etc. Then putting theory into practice. Plateau-ing a while, then making progress in a quantum leap. Being able to think outside the boat.

The above are lacking in career: I mean I put the hours in but feel a lack of personal involvement and inclusion: I resent being micro managed and having my writing or ideas quashed while bosses plough on with what I see as unnecessary extra work.

2) the team dynamic: because I lose a sense for co-ownership I therefore loose opportunities to own projects. There in lies an irony and maybe the crux of the matter ( pride, stubbornness, "trass") Co-ownership of a race tactics, boat speed, crew coralling and navigation are a given for me: boats which don't allow for this dynamic get dumped by me pretty soon. Although I am frustrated at lack of outright ownership and authority in a race ( owner drivers!) I can live with it because I know the team is moving to a win.

3) going the whole nine yards: on a boat I give it all and then find some: 36 hours drift and vespers and we still wanted to come in goal in the Fædern. 13 hours the year after on mainsheet and I still had something left and a smile as broad as a cheshire cat the next day. Thinking and re-thinking the next wind condition, the tide, the sail setting, the play. Not forgetting the basics: rig tension, tidyness and safety, team morale.

So in sailing I actually have done the thang where you put in more effort to get just a little bit ahead. In HC racing it has often been the case that wins are by a matter of seconds on corrected: so my input and concentration are rewarded.

So the case is in the bigger picture, the boats in the top echelon (where bandit ratings and sailing in your own wind are excluded, or more happily in OOD) are those who put in maybe 100% more effort to get up to the top 10% of placings. The difference between 1st and second place may just be a twitch on the tiller, one bad tack or a slipped sheet while the difference between third and 6th place is maybe twice or three times the overall committment to the sport, and the effort on the day.

The key thing in fact which I am lacking in career is a bit bizarre: the goal, the win. I mean it is so meaningless i relation to life and career in sailing that we set such a price on being first man in on a tour round the fjord? Or is the whole temple of mammon thing also just as worthless?

Failure to set quality goals in work and related career targets, and furthermore a lack of placing any personal value on promotions (other than retrospective frustration!) have been the bigger issue which is then exacerbate by the poor team dynamic I instill: the lack of co-ownership, the passiveness I show in projects where I only have a portion of control. Previously I have felt that I am not an ass kisser, which is true, but in fact even the most domineering bosses just want to see involvement.

I have been down a little road-to-damascus these last two weeks by swallowing my pride, admitting my weaknesses and learning from a guy who can be a real prick. I feel I have felt the whip and now I'm in the harness I have backed down and stopped champing at the bitt. I am a ruly horse. People at the stables here would ride this horse, and then trust rides with strangers outside the coralle. The horse is happier and the owner is much happier despite the discomfort they both had to go through in breaking-in to "co-ownership" to deliver quality.

In yacht racing I was to begin with, an unruly and slow, clumsy horse. So I felt the crack of the whip, but I hated being a loser and then later on, up-the-curve or down-the-line, hated losing because of poor effort and obvious mistakes. I saw sailing, or winning races in fact, as an interesting and stimulating challenge and not an escape but a world in it's own right. This was at the expense of the real world, mundane and bizarre as it is.

Finding a new boat to sail in 2010

2010-01-13T07:05:00.001-08:00

This year I will be doing very little once again in the way of competitive sailing. I am on the top plateau for my personal type thing, just in the fog a little and getting ever rustier but I know that polishing in a cycle of plateau is not for me. I need to be my own captain now, so must await financially fair weather.

But for you, young gun for hire? What is 2010 going to be?

Well if you are looking for a new boat then read on....

Maybe you have moved, maybe your old boat has. Or maybe you are climbing up the ranks. LEAVE that old dog who never wins and wonders why they do so badly. This is the time to plan it out so you don't fall into the same-old-same-old or being the whoare left over on the quay.

In no way is finding a new competitve boat to sail on analagous to making love to a beautiful woman. Earth girls are easy, sailing teams are complex societies from another dimension.

You have to define first and foremost what you want out of those fifteen or so wednesday nights, the five or six weekends and that one big regatta. Then think about what you are prepared to put in!

Effort means things like : going on courses - i recommend competent crew ( ulterior motives, see below) and dinghy sailing if you can. An hour in a dinghy is worth 8 in a 36 footer and pays off when you get a shot in a sportsboat like a melges 24 say, or even a hunter 707 in force 6! ; '

physical training- usually you need to be able to pump a little more on the halyards or winches and it is aærobic threshold training that counts here. General body conditioning, core training and flexibility are essentials to improve your phsyique for sailing and I found immense good from having donw a winter of mountain tours or a spring of cycling- endurance helps concentration and that little extra when other yachts are flagging.

Eating humble pie: eat it, but not too much. You don't want to be a boat bitch or a B lister. You want to get a position on a better boat from which you will learn. The best place to be is maybe as assistant to the bowman or mast man if they are sociable types prepared to teach you: SAY you want to learn. But don't eat too much humble pie because you will get demotivated and like careers it can be a bit incredible for a cocpit scrub to become the primary gas pedal (main-man, first trimmer or overall sail "maker" )

I recommend eating humble pie the other way around: be a big fish in a smaller pond. In other words pick a boat which has NO reputation yet but shows the right signs. More on this as my core strategy below.

Travel: are you prepared to go to a new club each week to improve the level of competition you go off the start line with? In the UK people often travel down from London to S'hampton for wednesdays and I used to travel from manchester to Pwhelli or Hamble or Scotland or Ireland just for weekend races!

Graft- are you prepared to do something good for the club? A bit of volunteering, laying marks, helping start or timing, woodwork or whatever you are trained in....this pays dividends most places as the committee respect the hell out of you for asking what you can do for....very JFK. I did this locally, knowing that it was good to just participate and an otherwise bit cliquey group opened up for me and took me into their hearts!

Ok, so now you understand that you need to GTF out of YOUR COMFORT ZONE which was 2009. De-habitualise, de-bunk your self and deconstruct your technique!

If you go on a course it has two objectives- one to learn and be better, deconstructing your techniques, re-learning the basicsa and at the end offering a certificate people can relate to with you as a new potential crew mate. Secondly it is to meet people and network your way onto new boats or into new situations. Now keeping in touch with such new acquaintances is much easier because of social media like facebook! OK, you may not get to know of any good positions on new boats, but now you can offer a prospective boat a fresh supply of rail-meat : lard or semi useful beginner/intermediates who are happy enough to be ballast and tweak the cunningham. For an owner or crewboss you have now tripled your value, especially if you can bring the rare quantity which is deck-fluff ( read eye candy) from your course.

At the "silver ware" end of the fleet in small OD yachts, and even those up to 7 crew, you will find a good deal of stability in the ranks and jealously protected positions. But DO approach them after your season warm up, for an off chance sail as extra man. You learn to win from WINNERS, you cannot teach a perpetuals loser to win. I avoid any fixed teams like the plague but I do keep an eye open for a little day sailer saiolign two up instead of three.

QUaysiding- doorstepping, cold calling call it what you like it is a gut turning shitty experience to turn up cold. But if you are good, and and have sailed a variety of boats, then try it after maybe you have had one pre season peek at a warm up race. Who is short crewed?

At a new club talk, not e-mail, talk to the racing secretry or some other minion prior to taking enquires further to the commodore or who ever knows the racing scene best. Make it clear to them you are expereince and are looking to sail on a competitive boat with good regularity, but will take a one time shot with the best in the fleet to learn. This will make them wake up a bit and although you won't maybe get a name to sail with straight away, you will not get landed with the loser end of the fleet as a keen little puppy dog " I wanna sail, just gotta sail, any one looking?"

If you are kind of low-intermediate then this is about as far as you need read to. You can take a whole season being a boat-tart, just swapping out as the opportunity arises, using chat rooms to find new rides, hanging out at the cool-young-bar while the owners aren't listening and generally being a slut. But know when to stick to a boat: sociable and fun, they teach you shit, they forgive you for shit, they even win once in a while, they kind of like you, they ask you back ! STICK!!

For those of you who can the following:

1) fix problems with a cool head

2) spot wind changes and explain competitor actions

3) the rules when others can't ( other wise STFUP)

4) do your job plus one other

5) help with nav, boat prep, repairs etc

Then you need the advanced section here:

Established good boats are just as hard for good sailors to get a slot on. What can happen is that a crew disintegrate after a new boat is bought ( usually the change from winner OD to hmm, coudl do better handicap boat) or crew get lured away by dinners and travel expenses to a fat-cats boat. My advice is forget it- forget the very established #1 boats.

What is more rewarding depends on you: if you are a mega social, poser type then you need to be on a flash boat with the young team. If you are the techie quiet type then a techi boat is for y ou. Anyhows, if you are more dedicated to your sailing than your socialising you should look at a boat which is on the up.

How does one spot a boat which is on the up?

usually it will be a new, refurbished or VGC boat and usually it will be in the racer-cruiser HC fleet, but you may get hold of a new entrant in an OD fleet. One design fleets have a tendancy to have a pecking order and new boats can get a bit burried in wind shadow, thus hiding their potential for a season at least.

An upside boat will have new sails, most of all this is important, one light season used is OK but new is best. Also it must have a reasonable HC rating ( most post 1996 racer-cruisers do!) or be a tight class minimum wieght OR stiff OD.

The owner, like you, knows they are on the learning curve and relishes it.

The crew are a mixed bag, some egos no doubt. You play the subtle management coach, not consultant. You will have bent tht eowners ear since the first beer you took quietly with them.

Offer to help with boat set up and tuning sessions. FInd out if they sail socially or just wann go fishing so you can get to know the owner-driver.

Then be relaxed and feel yourself lift off the 2009 plateau up to a new level.

lastly, remember this upside boat may quite likely become a #1 boat and you will be that crew jealously guarding your posi'. Think of how much the owner will be faithful to YOU as well. Also is this going to be a one season wonder? Or is the next season race list gonna be over ambitious for your holiday plan?

been there and done it, had the silver ware and worn the grin. OK I was never in with the in crowd but then again I never would have liked it up that hole!

More on starts...

2009-10-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

Beneteau 25 Platu 25 World championships 2009

Here you can see the perfect type of start which we were also doing in the sigma 33 nationals 1996.

The spanish, 006 on the bow, ESP 25068 sail number, come in late on a practice start.

They find a gap with boats too close the line to effectively accelerate, pause before dropping into it, and then come in and harden up to attack the windward boat and expand their leeward gap to bear away for speed into.

Some boats are over early, clearly, but 006 rolls the FIN filming boat and pokes out from his windward opposition, who is adminttedely a dog. (perhaps they picked dog boats to punch out from underneath)

We did much the same, holding back on a slow to medium speed STB reach and poking up in a hole just big enough to do this, actually way tighter than ESP 25068 had, and just having better timing and to get through. We relied on a transit I had (first half of week) some miles away and the fact we stripped the boat out whereas most would have had maybe a tonne of shite on board.

These last two bloggs have helped me build confidence and PMA for the start. I get too flustered and sometimes too much of a defensive position rather than closing the door on bargers, by just moving up on the line or luffing.

LACK of speed is actually the key, being a bit more relaxed and looking to respect those who have a position and attack others, or exploit weaknesses.

Countdown.....

2009-10-15T04:04:00.000-07:00

What do You do in the Pre-Start Period and Sequence?

There are clearly some boats who go out and gather 'statistics' on the course, and it is no coincidence that they win regularily. Outside of a same-old-same old wednesday night, where local knowledge has been hard wired into the brains, these teams perform consistently better than the 'up with sails at the five minute gun' brigade.

Trying to focus on what happens and NOT what should have been prepared here have we my ideas for a boat either new to a venue, say at a nationals or Tarbert week, or maybe in a new boat at a known venue.

"t" minus 2hours

The owner is on board with any crew who can help fix things broken last time, check items with some knowledge or rig tune the boat.

A discussion of weather forecast and sequence of weather is taken, and tides are discussed.

Metereologists admit that they can now very accurately predict a sequence of weather for any patch of 10km square at 24 hours notice, but not the actual timings at which that weather arrives or passes over. Therefore it is up to the team to spot which phase they are in and expect what cloud signs in particular will mark the next change in the sequence.

Weaknesses in the last performance and any with crew who need some advice or supervision are discussed with the owner/driver and their leiutenants.

Start Line strategy types are agreed in light of the last race in a series, or known competitor behaviour. "Stay out of trouble", "third of the way down" or "all out best start at the biased end" are the nominal types of strategy.

The rig is tuned for the predicted conditions. It may have changed tension with temperature, some forgotten little tweak or outright tampering !

Racing instructions are read and discussed by the "core management team"!

"t" minus 1 hour

All crew on board

sails organised for expected conditions and weather changes out over the day

Conditions, race course and positioning in the series are discussed with the crew as a team!

Owner makes sure everyone is happy with their position and fit enough for the day in that.

The boat motors out to the course area

"t" minus 45 mins

Main sail and genoa are set up for the day
The comittee boat 'behaviour' is noted- no sign of it? listen on the VHF.
The course likely is estimated, or witha windward mark that is set as first tuning goal
The presumed beat is riden, on long tacks to check for oscillations (shifts), gust-oscillation relationship, wind bends and L-R hand side wind stregnth differences

Tacking angle is established for the conditions ------------------------
from 1. a TWA can be taken on either tack at 3 or 5 minuted intervals
WInd speed is noted right, centre and left and near any land features-
An idea of shifts and any bends are discussed-------------------------

A gentle spinnaker hoist is affected
Any ideas on wind shifts are confirmed
Gust beahviour is easier to spot- reversed for use on the beat- lift becomes header and so on.
WInd bends are investigated- aim for the presumed centre, measure the lift or header, gybe and go out and then reach back in again.
Tide is monitored by SOG or just looking at bouys and stacks. Suspected variances across course are confirmed byu looking at track and even reaching hard over to the other side.
stats are collated and 'good height, stand on', and' header, tack!" and written on a table

"t" minus 30 mins

Now the committee boat pretty much well has to be on station and a weather mark in the process of being laid or chosen from navigation marks. This is the last time for quiet contemplation and objective weather calls.

The headsail, and even the main as well, are taken down and input for the strategy is discussed. TWA is monitored, weather sequence-signs are remarked upon.

The course is measured geometrically, marks plotted on the GPS as waypoints. Likely transit lines are sighted beyond the comittee boat and at the presumed pin end.

Perhaps we have a slower class start before us, we look at their start from just to windward of the boat or the pin end, being out harms way to anyone who tacks or needs to go round the end to restart.

We look at who else is out to play early in our fleet and mark sail numbers. We look for any dogs to roll over down the line, or aggressive luffers to stay clear off .

We listen to the RC's vhf patter, and take last refreshments before the race. Everyone gets in the right clothes for the start, with any jackets handy below.

"t" minus 20 mins

There is now very little time to change anything, but just enough for a final minute rethink given new -weather information or rig problems. Everything has been checked and tested, so a last once round the standing rigging and the spinnaker tackle is made. A bulbed keel boat is set in reverse to free any bags and shit off the keel.

A further practice beat is taken- for a short course, all the way. Beware! Don't sail to the weather mark even with 20 to go if you aren't 100% sure of getting back in time!
Final cars settings. twist and slot settings are finalised and halyard/backstay tensions etc are confirmed.
Boat speed is noted up the beat as is time of arrival at weather mark and leeward mark. This helps later with decisions on hopw long it will take to sail up and down the course with respect to weather sequence, tide changes and of course if you ar racing non One Design.
A racing hoist is taken- if it is clearly a gybe set then maybe that is done.
FInal check of any windbend and guist pattern on the run, RHS / LHS wind velocity variances
Racing take down and...
a harden up near the start area ( or, with enough time- leeward mark itself)
Laylines for the pin and a safe boat end approach are noted- can you stand them from where you are wanting to approach from?
Is there tide on the line?
Genoa is taken down at 10 minutes.

"t" minus 10 minutes

Hold to within shouting distance to the RC boat down to 6 minutes
Committee boat flags, signals, letters and VHF are all checked out.
Final clothes call
Final tidy below
Confirmation of TWA, shift, gust pattern as unchanged ?
Check of who is out (as above)
Line Bias is checked with the mainsail-reaching method, or sighting
Transits behind, and if possible on the line are spotted by the bowman and anyone else who can use them.
engine off at 6 minutes, genoa up again.

"t" minus 5 minutes

What is the pack doing? Churning around, lining up to the RHS of the boat end? Creeping up to look at doing some long-shots. Who is at the hot end? Who looks like being conservative?
Can we stand the boat or pin from which laylines. Will we be falling off far?
at 3 minutes we are in our own personal pole positions or a fakey we can bail out of!

"t" minus 2 minutes

Has the pack gone for a big hassle at the RHS boat end?
Are the pack behaving themselves ie low speed, lined up, ragging?
Are we in the lane we want to be?
Is the pack early?
Do we need to tack up in light winds or bad tide? or get a higher lane on the RHS?
Do we need to gybe once to spill height or reposition to another lane?
1.30 we have the lane we want, we can squeeze up and we will shut out reachers and tackers under us with a 'wiggle' down into the gap.

"t" minus 1 minute.

Are we in our lane?
Up on the bow of the next guy or hold back a little?
Duck a boat and reach off for speed- last chance before we are locked in the lane
Can we take anyone over or out at the RHS to us?
Any last minute iditos crashing in behind and under us?
Anyone looking to use the rule 19 on us?
Guy under us footing off- follow?
Guy under us pressing us up? Roll him, or hold back?
Transit? ok, time? Fresh wind for our bow?
Boat legnths per second?
Distance b ack from the safe transit and/or line in boat legnts?
pack moving? We covered for a recall anyway?
Sheet on then, go go go!

Getting the Head Together

2009-09-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

This year I had hoped to get out in the snipe but used all my energy on the school.

I feel they made such little progress after the initial buzz and that discipline was such an issue that I should have split them up and let other guys baby sit the P.i.t.Ass loser kids. Even with the national coach down they just pissed around, not understanding that they were trying to beat with the kite up.

If I had spent half as much time on finding a crew I would have been out getting some helming practice in the best craft available.

My ulterior motive did not get me anything like any introductions or what ever. I was just some bloke who did not speak the lingo well and growled a the brats.

Anyway, going off on the wrong tack but with a good strategical reason to "go left" I can get back to the middle of the course and IF they KISS MY BUTT a bit and even say thankyou I will gladly give them feedback and a written course with certificates for the brats to take in weeks 1 to 4., 2010.

roadmapping 2010 - 2020

2009-09-27T03:35:00.000-07:00

Now I know more about my actual goals in their entirtuy I can put together a rough calender or sequential roadmap to get moving and chech my progress

2010 -

Helming, helming and more helming.

The school and crewing in 2009 are just sideshows. The 109 was my last time on the main for a while. We did as good as we should have given the broach, and good on the Fjord.

Helming in a OD of what ever sort will be the one thing to focus on. I can always train up my crew skills but

(or 2011 if i take T: taking T would be - no local OD to helm in. No snipe crew regular plkus back up. No sharing helm with Rolf. The odd sail with Petter and maybe the peterhead race) Time out would also mean a minimum of a gym a week and a tour over an hour på ski eller sykkel.

2011- Perhaps melges worlds as a target.

Menorca sailing - two weeks maybe

certainly in 2011/12 my own dinghy and some OD racing in it. Perhaps helping the snipe girls build up to a NM

Shared helm of an express or some other OD.

Crewing again on maybe the M24 and some bigger boat

2014 - a nationals in the express, X99 or X35 or 31.7, on main with tactics. Perhaps this could be an OD event in Scotland or Ireland or South England. Menorca sailing again.

2015 moving towards owning an express. Or perhaps doing a nationals in the snipe. Perhaps restablishing the 59er as a natural moving up boat to the snipe?

2016 - another year as in 15

2017-20 . Perhaps a share in a 31.7. Perhaps a big shared charter to include west highland week.

Here are my collated goals-

Skill challenges / targets 2010/11

1) taking more responsibility- responsibility in joined up writing and complete scentences MR H

2) going the whole nine yards with 1- getting into detail, bending, measuring, fixing.

3) practice

4) sailing up wind, tacking better

5) sailing upwind in waves

6) sailing in strong winds

7) helming in medium winds and doing well in a fleet

I shouldn't be so troubled but here are my learning goals specific to OD

1) Boat set up- rig!
2) gear changes versus temporary fudges
3) boat speed, slowing and position on starts

My long term goals are

1) a major win in a one design keelboat as crew

2) regular club wins in dinghies

3) a big win of an event, maybe distance. Askøy rundt again

4) to compete in a worlds in either sports boats or maybe a dinghy - bene 25 platu!

5) to re-establish the 59er as a classs in norway

Goal Setting 2010 take 2

2009-09-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

So actual goals

well the main goal is to get more helming and tactician experience. Technically to know the rig of the boat I sail and also to at last begin to really get a handle on shift patterns - if they happen here!

if I don't get a helm and I don't get to do tactics or learn wind, then I am as well moutjnain b iking. Take T.

So if I share helm with Rolfus then I guess taking him to mid fleet consistently. I don't want to play bumper cars.

An offshore would be good, but not necessary.

Express or snipe if I am weekly pendling

..more swot and dampus

2009-09-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

my weaknesses are actually much the same as in outside life..

lack of concentration, tiredness, lack of being able to think three things ahead

this comes down to lack of training and lack of mental relax/focus from going up the first beat.

Preparation means scrubbing the boat, tuning the rig, getting a feel, using electronics to measure speed . Same as in work and family situations, I'm the type who getsmost from putting in some prep and being pysched up wiht a liitel cleared from the decks.

Practice is what is needed each season and this year I got little if any. Last year I did the right stuff and trained up, be it frustrating, on the 109 to a really good færdern. So it pays....another day at the office.

there are some tricks:

luffing at the leeward mark to a new lane, fake roll over and dive to lee on the gust, gybing on the lifts, following the gusts down, using the compass, finding wind bends and lifts, two boat tuning, sheeting in and understanding the weather mark so the others overstand, using the rules to win situations, fake tacking, so on so on and so on...

But the basics

1-. knowing the boat is set up or can be gear shifted and when. Back to basics, think all variables and controls

2- how to slow the boat down!

3- if you make a mistake, fix it quickly.

4. go out early, go down the night before

Also another weakness is that I lose an element of assertiveness and control and let other people take over a bit. Giving and taking is best, and keeping a cool head like i did when I helmed last night. Not being overly precious, but sometimes standing my ground!

Also, remember I have had some realy glory moments in Oban, in Cork, on the fourth and some very, very promising starts in dinghies

SO a little humilty, patience and remember I have been up there but get rusty

SWOT on the sailing status, dampus

2009-09-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so damp freddy pretends to be total expert on anything sailing as an alter ego, while the real deal is that I need to improve in several areas.

In terms of OD, I shouldn't be so troubled but here are my learning goals specific to OD

1) Boat set up- rig!
2) gear changes versus temporary fudges
3) boat speed and position on starts

Taking the last first, there is no real secret here- for a slower keel boat you want to punch through in a hole - avoid any 'perfect' start while you are learning. This technque won us our best OD results in a large fleet where all boats were in within a few minutes of the first! 76 sigma 33s at the 1996 nationals!

Punching in relies on boats being early, a CHOICE of holes and a good transit on the "safe". It also requires very good timing or confidence in your choice of hole. In terms of boat set up, light is best because it gives you the acceleration edge.

Given either a light keel boat or bad transits on a sigma start it is best to line up with the others if they are orderly.

Squeezing up on a long starboard tack seems not to work, especially with a right bias. Too many boats come crashing in from above. The move also attracts people hunting you from those late chargers or another long shotter.

What seems to work on 'club nights' is going up to the line and working round at some speed just low of the line, taking a gibe if you need to. The wiser dogs seem to pick a spot away from the action and sheet in and go, working up on the wind.

In a series you want to maintain a good average in, then safe starts are better.

A balsy stat is reaching in, gybing round , diping a stern or two on STB , ragging and avoiding others boats, maybe taking a double tack up.

RULE OF THUMB: tide or light winds, double tack to spill time and save height to fall off from. With tide or stronger wind, gibe so as to loose time and height and allow yourself choice.

In the new rules you can squeeze in on the line IF there is a gap when you overlap BOTH the leeward (attacker) and windward (defender) the latter of whom you can luff as well to maintain a gap.

In terms of set up and gears, it is good to have ribbons on the shrouds so wind is in your field of vision , and then it is important to know the final 'gear change'

Likely to be

1) kicker tighter
2) trim on main and harden up
3) trim on jib
4) outhaul

The races I have done well in were such that everything went very smoothly once the last gear change was done. So on the helm or the rail the boat was in the groove and if we got our nose out then we would consolidate our lead, while it being the other boats wondering what they were doing wrong and jumping around the decks and waggling the tiller!

Be it in the island garden here or on a top olympic course, it is good to sail up the beat , along the line, time any shifts and see if there is a wave (or tide) gear change needed.

If you don't do the prep on boat speed, set up and aren't out in time for course prep then just accept that about fourth place is as good as it can get.

IN a dinghy start or an otherwise orderly line up, it is best to just rag and take up the blade, while you also close the door aggressively on law breakers and bargers. So if you are high up on the line, but a little back and there comes a pile of port boats higher on a reach then, take a tack and come back at them from further right, or just move up and close their door- right on the transom of the next stb boat in front of you. Then take a double tack to get over them

so one scenario to replicate last weeks

a) lining up from the steamboat dock, working out on stb
b) move up and close the door and rag the sails as the port boats crash across, forcing them behind you. WATCH BEHIND
c) choose to either double tack up or fall off to further assert your authority.
d) avoid gaining too much speed WATCH BEHIND and to lee.
e) pick your final line or strategy at 30 seconds. Hold the boat BACK, but as part of a rack of STB boats, just a little higher and right of you
f) sheet in a little at 15 secds to get just the bow forward, fall off a little if you have space
g) at 10seconds, check the line and either sheet right in or - play to the bow of the next guy above you if you are unsure of the line and your speed.

The challenges in sailing ahead

2009-09-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

1) taking more responsibility- responsibility in joined up writing and complete scentences MR H

2) going the whole nine yards with 1- getting into detail, bending, measuring, fixing.

3) practice

4) sailing up wind, tacking better

5) sailing upwind in waves

6) sailing in strong winds

7) helming in medium winds and doing well in a fleet

I guess at vestfjrds I would have moved up to about regular half ways based on my skills, the general light winds and so on. I would have maybe moved up to the top third with a really good crew and even won a race with a good boat.

the j109 I could do the gear changes on, which was really rewarding. But I would not have liked being on the helm so much. It would have been a bit humbling and even humiliating. I needed to sail the tasar for another season and do some serious racing in it. moving on to a OD like the 400 or the 505...and I should have just gone and sailed lasers due to no crew! Then also I needed someone in say an Impala to give me 50% stick time and maybe let me buy 50% in.

anyhows, I need to get back in a dinghy and also remember how fast I could be in the snipe in light airs.

Goal Setting 2010

2009-09-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is serious!

But without any goals I will just wander and would be as well off taking "T" and going mountain biking for a year out.

My long term goals are

1) a major win in a one design keelboat as crew

2) regular club wins in dinghies

3) a big win of an event, maybe distance. Askøy rundt again

4) to compete in a worlds in either sports boats or maybe a dinghy

5) to re-establish the 59er as a classs in norway, a small sportsboat and a 28 footer 'farr' machine

6) sail in OD in SF, Sydney, Phuket, Solent and clyde again of course

7) do at least one more cork week

If the conditions are right then this is what I would want to do....but if I am in some bum job here locally, then the sailing school will be a necessary thing for my own sanity and some profile in the town.

Given I am either weekly commuting or working somewhere with good wednesday nights-

1) Crew and tactician on an express or other OD

2) my own snipe or laser or laser 8.1

3) some time in the snipe in a fleet doing regular races.

4) Færder'n one more time! Or maybe Skagen if it aint 17 mai

What I want to avoid are -

Being a side show on a J109 ,erm, yeah, being stuck in a HC fleet

Being asked to sail with wallies like RE on C240.

Being on any other no-hope dog OD

Ideally-

1) a place on a regular win OD - express, X99, X35, 31.7 so on.

2) a cheap, or loaned, snipe with no work other than tuning required.

b) a small , close matched fleet to sail in

3) a mentor who can fix boats and teach me!

4) a regional or national snipe event locally to aim for

Færdern next year???

If I am "stuck" locally then i guess it has to be that snipe and loans of helming 12.5 ers. But I would settle for a place on a sociable 5,5 er.

All these goals are dooable, both short term and long term.

Racing- A good influence on Career?

2009-09-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

I have blogged before on the negatives of yacht racing on a career. There are of course positives. What is the balance? Why am I so darn ok at sailing and flopped in several jobs?

Why I am good is because:

1) it's a very motivating environment and both an escape and a focus. It's very æsthetically pleasing and rewarding on many levels- even spiritually!

2) It is something that can be learned - both the technical, physical and social sides.

3) You have fixed responsibilities yet team work is everything and you can contribute outside your physical job

4) It is something I have stuck at and become expert at.

Why am I bad at jobs?

1) I do not relish poorly defined responsibilities, micromanaging bosses and lack of informaiton and training available

2) I do not take the correct route to 'ownership' an d 'co-ownership' of tasks

3) I am awkward, proud, stubborn and slow whitted.

4) I feel I can contribute at any time to overall strategy and decisions above my head.

5) I have chosen to stay in an area where the above are all important to avoid or do. I have chosen an area which is uncomfortable for me and others- in needing to convince people all the time. Always being on the back foot, or being too hard on the front!

My summation is that I have in many ways taken a wrong career route, and never quite found a team to really fit into. In sailing I get on in many teams because you get respect for what you do, not so much who you are or how you look and sound. As I always said though, marketing is a great intellectual exploit and sales a resonable entry level job to route into marketing. But there is so much competition and it is so much a function in need of self-justification that it means it is all ludicrous! I should have been poking at the big brand names and flying in FMCG but have never even got onto that runway!

Communication skills are those I just supposed I had until I had my big fall in 2001. The problem is that my mind just doesn't often work on a listening wave legnth. I'm not with the team or the customer. I have more rigid opinions on things, basically I am very male and headstrong like a stupid rushing bull often, or when passive, like the rabit trapped in the head lights...

There we go again! Assertiveness , lack of- being aggressive on the one side and passive on the other pole of behaviour swings.

This is a key problem for me. In sailing I can spend much of my time as the Bull because I have well defined tasks and am good at them, while I can take moments to be more feely touchy " i just pose the question" when I want to. In business life you have to be far more touchy feely in marketing and be far more sophisticated.

reality of the self bites

2009-09-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Try a little more objectively to see myself and my shortcomings. In recognising these, I can also find solutions. "oh what a posoined gift tae gi oss, if we could see ourselves as others see us"

The freddy files have concentrated too much on the one side situational factors, while on the other handthe paranoic, deep dwelling doubts and uncertainties. The latter is least constructive in building a future.

1) pride, bloody mindedness, preciousness, snobbiness, reluctance, stubborn, neophobia

2) lazyness, reluctance

3) avoidance of taking respobsibility

4) failure to value things, people, ...also failure to capitalise or actually exploit

5) lack of assertiveness, bullied, bullying back

6) concentration, memory, vagueness, learning detail, one-ear-out-the-other etc.

7) Disrespect for authority; resentment; immature

Ok in reverse order, let me fish out some positives and actions

7) Disrespect for authority.

This is all the usual crap I have and I have written that just like the victim attracts the serial killer, so do I attract the overbearing boss and worse, bring out bullying behaviour.

Ok, so the positive is that I like discussion, common goals, agreement in forehand and team work while having a high degree of autonomy to get on with my own function. This is at odds with working for all the jim legges, john o'keefes and hellebusts of the world.

They have their own little control freak or pepper-pot worlds and many people just can't tolerate them. On the other hand many people can be assertive with them and both stand their ground and bend when they know it works, while also charming them all the more.

SOLUTION : Avoid owner-director day-to-day management ...work with people you like....get out of jobs far quicker when it is shit...stick with a good job and team when you are in. Be more assertive and lay the ground rules earlier, even in interview, with dominant personalities.

A commonality to:

1,2,3,4,6: SOme kond of vagueness and inability to think objectively. Unavble to get a stream of assertive tho0ught going which is not dominated by some stubborn emotional reluctance to 'comply'

This one I don't quite have a handle on, but the cure is perhaps more tangible. Prepare, plan, expect and most of all be an active driver of my own working day, environment and most importantly tasks and development.

Avoiding ambushes and being proactive would have really helped me out in all my agency jobs, such that I would hav e made a really, really good account manager instead of a good one.

The key thing here is a dichotomy in fact-

A: Motivation - involvement, positive spirit, determination to see it through and deliver

B: Taking it too seriously - lacking humour and objectivity

With A I have been able to see that I am so little motivated to do sales to people who don't want to be sold to that this is not going to work ...in a cold calling type job where I am on the ground. Not to say that I should throw out the baby with the bathwater....which I was prepared to do this month! In other words, there is a lot to save from my years in sales- if I have more esteem in the situaion --as a boss or as a valued supplier!

B: hey, make some about work, write them down...talk about THE situation and not worry about my performance in that. ( that was a good one actually! MAN ON FIRE!!!)

Focusing on being motivated...by havijng goals in work and what that work does for my private life is key. Those goals must comand my motivation and pull out my "13 hour on the mainsheet"

MOTIVATION is the key - OF COURSE- but of course being so bloody esoteric as me means that it is hard to have goals doing something I don't relate to.

With 3 ) failure to value

This is the tough one which relates to all that shit which other people give me to do whcih sucks. Fireproof cabinets in Gøteborg.. the atlantic beer club.

CURES AS THEY RELATE TO THE CAREER SITUACE

i) Find something I am interested in

ii) define personal goals

iii) assert tasks, responsibilities and areas of authority

iv) know the shitty hoops , the data systems, admin etc and spend time to learn them!

v) define low hanging fruit, quick wins and longer term personal strategies in the job.

vi) make good to do lists- plan your work and work your plan!! Spend a lot of time on this because it pays dividends.

vii) take 'T'- time out to be objective, walk away. Prioritise, clear the decks and get head over water

viii) Offer to take responsibility! And when you do take it for something visible, FOLLOW THROUGH!

I think this will really help. At home already Io notice that if I just have some time for me then I am much more motivated to play with the kids and get them through the daily with some fun!

I think these cures will really help- I know I am slowly drifting to fixits for many but you know, I need to either get a career on track or get a local possibility.

ENDS!

Moving On.....

2009-06-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

There are some fakking awful people sail. Infact I will make it more broad sweeping and condeming- there are hardly any reasonable people in the middle classes.

It is a lot of the keeping up with the jones' I guess, and all that frustration not being let out. The wo'king classes just through a few punches and shag their sisters to get it out their system. Sarcasm and one-up-mannship are par for the surbiton, helensburgh, broughty ferry courses.

But sailing is a great experience. It is a great tonic. The best escape I know. Up in the mountains is also fantastic and I will be doing some more walking soon.

That 'great crack' boat escapes me- too many middle class twits taking it all too seriously (like me "!) Sailing with the hunts just wasn't good craic on the water. I seem to remember doing 1998 and 99 with them at TWHW. Half the week in 98 and it blew, while 99 was hot and light winds. After the altercations with hunt minor, I promised myself off and they made it clear they wanted three hot heads and a dummy or two who didn't answer back or contribute from the rail. A dynamic ...heck, fritz and grumpers deserved the big win in 2000 while I was winning the Tob race. I guess that is why they were so pissed off with me in 99- second year in the boat and we can the first race on my bad chat.

Like Intel, stu was a bloody albatross around my neck. Intel bad mouthed me a bit and I did the rest. But more than that, much more, is how I let myself be dragged down by them into some idea of freindship and togetherness replacing initiative and self determination.

Well I moved on. Got off their boat maybe a year early, granted. They won with fraz on board when tosser boy bailed out. But then again I won my first ever race at the helm that year on the wee fly machine!" By a country mile too. I got off the raj a year too late. Maybe ever 2 years, I mean 98 Cork was a bit of a waste of time. Then again...I got off converting machine when it bloody suited me and I realised that it was a lot of time put in offshore with fakk all round the cans action for me. Also it was HC. Th J125 I should have stayed on.

But now for a more sweeping, general point in life. WHO THE FAKKIN HELL WOULD I HAVE BEEN MATES WITH?? Everyone was a little wrong for me. But I confused arrogance and extroversion for something that is actually interesting and rewarding. Then I chose losers like stu and intel. I also had my peak of ill brain stuff in 90, 96 and 2001 which coincides with those weaker people.

So wee fat stu, I give up. I mean you didn't come to my leaving do, have sent nothing for my son, have never bothered to keep in touch and to top it all on every boat I have been on associated to you some how you have bad mouthed me in forecant. And to strangers like allan hanley. OK so I am a pushy type, but now I can relax a little more. I never pushed my way onto wings or converting. That was what was so cool!

I feel I am more and more like spock, I picture myself as being him. It is because at the end of the day I am an individualist and a little eccentric and neurotic.

I have moved on at more or less the right times for myself when it regards boats, but maybe not some mates. But in fact I had fallen out with intel by 1998 / 99 and he decided to hide away anyhows.

Now I have to make the final break from what was always a false hood with the chunt. He is a little chunt and I just should have known better. No one man has done more to limit my clyde sailing that him ...with freinds like him you don't need enemies to make a mess of things.

Seil Kveldskurs no1 may

2009-05-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

Velkommen til seilforeningens kurs i Feva 2009!

Skal det være gøy allesammen??

Då har vi avtale !

Men for at det er gøy for meg kan vi også avtale å seile på trygg måte og gjøre det som jeg sier? Det er ikke gøy for meg å levere en som har druknet til foreldrene...er, sorry, de seilte rundt bak siden av Finnøya og ingen sa dem kullseile.....

Så....vi skal snakke om sikkerhet og trygg seiling men først introduksjon er i orden!

England har sin droningen Elisabeth mens jeg er faktisk Kongen i Skottland...alts¨å kan dere stå ved siden av den du skal seile sammen med og stå på rad og du skal få treffe på kongen....

Okay- nå trygg seiling- unngå kollisjon med andre båter, holder deg innenfor en avstand dersom vi kan høre deg rope og seile innenfor de områdene vi har beskrevet. Hvis du har problem , la seilene blafre mens du beholder rorkult og rope til meg- veive armene over hodet hvis det er viktig eller noe farlig har sjedde. Dersom nokon kullseile skal vi prøve å ordne det hvis du ikke klare det. Bare hold noe på båten hvis du ikke rekke rette det over igjen!

Er det noen som er beslektet med Erik Mykland? Når erik kom tilbake gikk han rett ut i kamp? nei had øvde seg!

I kveld skal vi øve oss og dere skal viser fram til meg hvor flink dere er i mens dere kommer i gang.

Ok, så først og fremst vi skal begrense der som vi seile for at dere er lett tilgjengilig for beskjed og berging!

vi skal seile lite gran frem og tilbake her ved sagjordet for å få øve oss, og gjennomføre noen øvelse jeg vi at vi skal. Deretter tar vi en sjapt pause og så seile i flåte over til klubben ved finnøya- det skal være viktig å holde oss ganske tett

I kveld står båtene ferdig rigget men det kan oppstå små feil eller knute kan kom seg løs- det er vledig viktig at dere kan stoppe og holde båten i ro for at vi kan komme bort til deg og fikse problem. Altså vi skal øve oss med å legge bi- dvs a la seilene ut på en slør og la dem blafre mens dere sitte i ro i båten.

det blåser litt altså det skal være veldig viktig med kommunikasjon mellom rormannen og mannskap for å holde båten balanserte mens du tar kraft inni storseil ellers slippe den ut.

One mistake ? ...maybe you will come first....

2008-12-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

Now Uffa Fox in his book "according to..." made a pipe puffin comment that they
whom maketh only one small mistake from perfection, winneth race there with.

They who doth make a platry two mistakes desserve second place and so on......

Top sailors still pertain to this philosophy. In the book "mastery" by George Leonard, we can gain insight from a world far apart from sailing: nemlig Aikido. Mastery is the art of practice makes perfect. You spend alot of time repeating what you love. If you can't do this seeming monotomy to progress and win, then you don't love your sport!

I've written about the perfect race, and hating losing being important. But like many jobs out there you can actually take a rather mechanical or maybe arithmetic approach to improving your sail sport....by identifying, qualifying and quantifying your mistakes.

Okay, so before the race course what mistakes can you make?

Mistakes in Preparation to Erradicate

before you set out...even set foot on the water.,.....blah blah
'
The best way of learning racing is to go out and do it with at least a bare idea of the rules viz:

Don't go over the start line early
Avoid collision

That would be enough prepartion for someone who has sailing competence and now wants to race- all entry, insurance, membership etc being paid up and subscribed to, that is . If you can't sail, then the race course on even a small club wednesday is no place to learn....

The usual preparation faults which are meaningful are in my opinion:

a) Boat Prep

b) expectation management with your crew...and yourself.

BOAT PREP

Go and learn how your boat should be set up to make it at least safe to sail.

Thereafter the mistakes people make are:

Not adjusting settings to wind conditions-

I recently went out on a j109 with a leading 2.4m designer. I twanged the shrouds and declared my gut feeling that these were too slack. He disagreed. It then blowed 30knts and I had to fight the mainsail like a Malin on the line. Norths later said they had left the boat to sell in a light airs set up...... nice and soft on the caps and a turn off on the D1s.

Another story...just after I got my first tasar there was an annual pursuit race on the "pond". I arrived after my crew and god only knows how we made it out within 2 mins of our start time alongside the merlins and Flying Fifteens. The boat behaved differently to my prior experience- it was like a bucking bronco. It planed up wind like a motor boat, was more than a handful. IN a lull we fell in back over ourselves and turtled, the mast going into the black slag of the lake bottom. Talk about the slow horse feeling the crack of the whip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In both cases the boats just needed some simple tweaks, 2 minutes really, but more than that they needed some maturity or, learning curve, as you may call it. Both boats needed hard shrouds to give good prebend for the mast. My tasar went out with too deep sails but I had to sail it on mainsheet alone, which was atleast correct.

An OOD boat I sailed on for five seasons seemed only to excel in heavy airs. The rig was a bit hard, but it was more that the helm never learnt how much of a break pad the rudder is! He did zero prep for light airs and was both heavy in gear and heavy on the stick in medium. Only when in really was over 22 knts did he come alive.

Managing Expectations

This is absolutely key in progressing in the sport. Some who have read up on sports pyschology end up actually over managing expectations, or those nervous types who bail out of something exciting, end up not getting "that vital quality you acquire the precise moment after you most needed it.....experience"!

Your own expectations are paramount as owner driver or crew boss. Once you can be objective about these before the race, series or whole season so can you manage the team's progress so much better.

Yachting is both a very passionate yet extrememly calculating business. Like chess on water, while on steroids and whizz.

The real key to this sport is to take that unbridled passion and combine it with objetivity. Your brain must act like a computer while your heart must act -thereafter- like a killer.

Being able to say to your crew, and yourself , that todays race will be such and such a trial to for instance get off the start line and compare boat speed..is a step which will pay enormous dividends and move you out of the leagues of frustrated wannebees who have all the ambition but no humility.

In terms of mistakes, and reducing them or learning from them, a very good start point is to say what we want to correct on that day ahead. Start, tacks, hoist, wind-awareness, rule-application etc.

ON THE RACE COURSE

Okay, so now you have prepared to the above notes. You have an idea of the weather ahead in the very least, if not actually a full picture (think visualisation) of how the weather will change, and how competitors will position themselves.

Mistake 1.

Underestimating your enemy.

What ever your plans for the day, you should know that someone out there wants to beat you and they may even cheat or cause dammage in the attempt. Someone with ambition and no humility, or a lion not ready to give up his crown yet!

You too should be looking to whom you can roll over on the start, take out in the mark or hoist. But don't underestimate the loser or those around you. Winners go for clear air, boat speed and with a reasonable start, a "tight bombing pattern" up the beat to go all Yossarian on you. They stay clear of trouble, and only take the gloves off when they know they can steer the boat into clear air and boat speed....

Rolling a perpetual loser who is always early and head to wind at the start is fair enough but does that put you in the best start? Or maybe they went on a course and now can rag just behind the start line and take you over early.

Mistake 2.

Being Late for the Start

Being early is not such a problem. You feel the crack of the whip and you also know what it is to mix it at the favoured end of the start line. So you learn.

Whereas, Being late feels not so bad to the loser...you can catch up, find free air, read the fleet ahead, go on a flyer. NO NO and THRICE NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sprint to win, to push the chest through the tape, is at the start of short course yacht racing and can even have real meaning in transatlantic legs.

This is a topic in itself, but learn to deonstruct your earlier experience, lose some nerves by training alone and mid line then get the feel for "early", "slow", "too High", "fast" , "gybe" "tack twice" or just Power ON!! Once again computer first then gut !

Mistake 3

Not spotting the first shift

It can happen before the start, but let's take that the start was mid oscillation or on a 90' to the wind to 1st mark.

This is only computer mode. Look at the compass and know whih bearings upwind take you fastest to the mark. Play with lifts and take headers within the "cone" while keeping an eye on the fleet and weather ahead

Mistake 4

Going up the Wrong side

This is where the winners earn their spurs. How?

Well they go out and sail the course on a wide cone. They measure the wind and consider the tides etc and any metereological effects over the 20 mins of the beat. They then react to it.

Often they have had such a good start and enjoy 100% clean air that they can both fool the fleet into going the slow way or cover back on them if it begins to pay (usually right with the fleets' centre of gravity on port roundings)

On a yacht the tactician on the rail will maybe be experienced enough to call side changes post prep'-beat and start. In a dinghy the course is smaller and without other information, covering the fleet is more important if you are ahead.

BEING IN A POSITION OF KNOWLEDGE about sides, convergent over divergent winds, funneling, cloud -gust patterns etc is your armoury.

Losers either go right too early or just go up the middle losing out on any side bias.

Mistake 5

Going on Flyers on Beat or Later

This is the flip side of mistake 4. You "know" that left pays, and go all out left. The fleet hedge their bets and , whoops, the conditions change and dis favour left. Your perfet start is squandered. Alternatively, a la Scott Chalmers, a flyer is used to make up for bad starts or missing the first shift, or a clumsy rounding and hoist.

KNOW THE CONE! only go out of the 60' tacking cone if you are very confident in your "intelligence" or the wind signs spell it out. A winning boat always covers the fleet without "perfect 'gen" even if that means they would sail a lot slower round the course ..potentially if the flyer pays off. Unlike bike races, sailing is not a time trial against the clock in a round the cans situace.

Mistake 6,7,8,9,.-,-,-,-

Handling errors

Tacks, bear aways, hoists, trim, sheeting,

The point is that you should learn where you are weak and overcome these by training.

Mistake 10

Lack of Humility or objectivity, or possessivness at marks

Mark roundings are the most exiting part of sailing. Coming off the start is rarely as all-demanding as the personal or crew effort in rounding marks. At windward, leeward or the odd remaining anarchronistic gybe mark, there are no brakes like on the start line apparently. But break pads, patience and objectivity needeth you in large quantities.

You need absolutely to

a) know your team's capabilities

b) give in to those who are ahead and have rights

c) be possessive about your space to round

Putting the breaks on earns you rights over following boats, forced wide, and respect from those ahead with rights over you.

Mistake 11

Murphy's War

Avoid private boat on boat wars which lose places. Period.

Mistake 12

Lacking Nerve and Killer Instinct

Usually this is either at marks or nearing the finish line. Have the courage of your convictions and hold boat speed and VMG!"

the semi foiling "Xer"

2008-11-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

Semi foilers

A combination of two arts: the whole bethwaite and aussie hard chine , ultra low weight philosophy to the sandal wearing bearded joy riders who have expoused, for many years now, the virtues of sailing on hydrofoils ...for short distances at restricted wind angles and in narrow wind stregnths...go go gadget moth foils....

Improving speed and efficiency are recognized as the primary goals and activities in the !"naval arts "...there with decreasing frictional resistance is seen as the key to these goals.

An additional goal has been to improve the ability to operate in disturbed water, including heavy seas, where pitching and slamming, spray, yaw and roll severely limit navigability.

The 9er boats go faster than the maths would predict and the small motor boats with wings achieve a stability and lift by trapping air and spray under curved side wings. The "fluids" probably act in a chaotic manner as detached flow , not defined by current maths, but they generate both lift, reduced friction and to some extent dynamic stability by virtue of their "cushion" effect.

In my challenge to bethwaite design and allan andrews I cite the following principle in relation to much work done by naval arc's

-the descendents of both the International 14 and the NS14 have come to dominate the fast end of unballasted monohull racing craft ie no keels, viz dinghies. Unlike a planing naval vessel a sailing boats crew weight is both sizeable and mobile..for instance in the recently evolved 59er design the payload is approximately 150 kg for a boat weight of well under 100. The key issue for planing vessels is to 1. achieve plane quickly 2. not dig the stern in excessilively. In the 59er drag has been reduced so significantly as to negate the previous convention of the "drag bump " to climb before planing.

That crew weight can perform lateral balance is central to sailing ....but that it also provides for-aft trim is of course essential to planing craft with the crew movng ever more aft with speed. However in the case of my proposed foil assisted planing-spray cushion craft, the semi foilers, this is useful in moving the wieght forward to premote

1. stern trim after initial planing
2. freedom of the greatest area of planing "wetted area" over to cushion .- spray detached flow surface

I 14s already use trim tabbable rudders to achieve something like this, but in addition to forward hydrofoil forces, the rudders could act to further free the hull from conventional, dense fluid, attached flow.

Further to my principle I believe that due to the relative ballast weight and mobility of crew in a high performance dinghy, the need for adjustable trim on hydrofoiling surfaces would be negated.

Current and previous patenting in this area of trim is applied to motor vessels while refering to sailing planing as now applied on I Moths and I14s and various experimental dinghies like the Foiling 18s. In a motor vessel of any size over say 20 feet, the crew weight begins to become negligble in relation to trim due to the forces acting to sink the aft and usual position of motor weight. Trim tanks, as in the atlantic rib, are practical in combination with trim tabs in smaller craft but become both too slow and weight disadvantagous in larger planing vessels. In essence they cannot move trim fast enough to promote either planing or increase stability once planing is achieved. Most unlike this, crew in a performance sailing dinghy are habituated to moving their weight frequetnly to acheive optimum balance and trim. It is in effect totally and intelligently dynamic!

In my proposed development of the arts, Stability is achieved by replacing the "dense fluid" attached or wetted surface, with the air -spray cushioed surface held in suspension by the balance of-

a. forward or midships hydrfoils -primary lift

b. aft or rudder-integrated foils - secondary lift

c. trim aft to promote planing then re trimmed for'd to assist stern lift achieved by crew movement.

The 59er is in essence a boat designed to perform outstandingly in light air venues whilst carrying a heavy pay load. In my trial experience in the boat, while either in a wave train sailing big apparent wind, or crossing the deep wake of a tug boat, the hull also delivers outstanding stability in aggressive wave forms while planing. I contest that this is a virtue of a compressed cushion of spray and air which generates dynamic stability over that of just the wetted area. The boats foils contribute to this.

.... but I propose that the cushion be utilised in a "2nd planing" or totally detached dense fluid plane where hydrofoils lift no more than required to keep this cushion, or detached semi fluid lift.

Planing vessels normally are designed to (and must) operate at a positive trim angle, usually two to ten degrees, so that the stern remains in the water enough to maintain the stability of the vessel, not only against roll and yaw but also against pitching forces that could take the bow under, and to keep the propelling mechanisms submerged. (Loss of trim is usually measured as an angular deviation of the vessel's horizontal center for gravity line from true horizontal, zero degrees being perfect trim.) Such deviation from trim imposes a substantial penalty of increased friction and drag due to sinking of the stern, increased pitching, slamming and yaw, wind action against and air entrainment under the upraised bow and a substantial spray root at the bow entrance, as well as a decrease in the efficiency of the propelling system in most cases. Thus, maintaining trim is an additional objective in the art to further the primary goal of improving speed and efficiency.

BACKGROUND ART for the US Patents in this area

Numerous vessel designs have been proposed for reducing resistance. Planing hulls are widely used in moderate size and smaller vessels. The planing surfaces on the hull cause the vessel to rise in the water as speed increases, thus decreasing the wetted surface area and thereby decreasing the frictional resistance and drag. This decrease can be substantial. Nevertheless, a substantial amount of the wetted surface remains, together with its associated frictional resistance and drag, and the trim limitations impose the substantial penalties on efficiency mentioned above. Aside from the efficiency problems associated with trim, as speed increases water flow past even the most streamlined planing surfaces becomes turbulent. This turbulence has been yet another barrier to increased speed and efficiency for which a solution has long been sought.

Hydrofoils, like airfoils (e.g. wings) in the aeronautical arts, are streamlined bodies which create a useful reaction ("lifting force") from a fluid stream moving relative to them. In practice hydrofoils are given a different curvature (camber) at the opposed surfaces. The resulting unbalanced profile is designed to create an efficient lifting force in the water at the selected angle of attack of the hydrofoil, i.e. the angle between the chord (straight line connecting the leading and trailing edge) of the hydrofoil and the direction of movement of the vessel. The hydrofoils are secured to the hull of the vessel and usually extend transversely amidships, at and/or below the bottom of the hull.

Hydrofoils are capable of lifting the vessel almost completely from the water, thus reducing friction and drag to that imparted by the remaining relatively minor amount of wetted surface (principal portions of the propulsion system, and the relatively hydrodynamically efficient rudder and hydrofoils). However, the formidable structural and other design problems involved in lifting an entire vessel onto hydrofoils and continuing to propel it limits their use to smaller vessels. These vessels have additional serious shortcomings. They have poor stability and are difficult to handle. They have limited service speed. Hydrofoils are highly vulnerable to floating debris. Moreover, hydrofoils, as designed and positioned, can only impart a lifting action and they serve no appreciable function of heave or trim control, of countering yaw or pitch or of decreasing the friction or turbulence of the water on the vessel hull when a portion of the hull is under water at slower speeds. Indeed, the foils likely add to turbulence and drag when the hull is in the water.

further to this new art, I would propose that there may be other features advantagously involved to promote dynamic under hull spray and air flow while adding to stability ...most noteably the addition of under stern and trans-transom waterline skegs so as to train the flow whilst not contributing noticeably to non planing drag.

Most preferably the new art would utilise two laterally mounted fore hydrofoils, with a simple one continuous form design. Includable would be either a single hyrdofoiling dagger board or centre board midships or actualy a wieght ballast on a central keel in combination wiht a two laterally, hull mounted foils. This is for now a weight assisted dinghy variant but paves the wave for "reserve righting lever, foil -lift neutralised in forward velocity" keel boats of all sizes.

To be a Winner , go and lose.

2008-11-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

“ Would you like me to give you a formula for success?....

........It's quite simple, really........ Double your rate of failure ..."

Thomas J. Watson – Founder of IBM

cont.... " You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all... you can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success. On the far side.” –

Fast Horse, Slow horse and The Crack of the Whip

The fast horse on the race course.--- they have had a lot of training-courses, read the books, they have the budget for boat and sails and they get crew and "management consultants" to get them results. Then they go to the nationals and bang, they hit a wall ...they fail....they do mediocre. Mid fleet with some low, low discards.

There is a lot of blame storming.. the crew feel marginalised, and scape goated. What was irritation and disappointment on day one, becomes frustration and depression at the end of the week. The owner and his no.1 spend a lot of time talking abruptly to each other. They distance themselves from the crew. They change crew positions mid week. They bring onboard more "management consultants". There is no debreif, no rogues council....just a washing down.

The crew feel like factory workers at a strategy reveiw presentaiton,....uninvolved and under threat.

When the boat gets back out either on the latter days of the regatta or back home on wednsday nights, they start barging in at marks and misbehaving at the starts, rolling small er boats with little margin for error if the wee man luffs as he should.

Now comes the slow horse

The slow horse has felt the crack of the whip. However they are determined not to feel that again and learn to try harder, run faster. They enlist help from all sources- the quiet guy oin the bow, the best race officers, the old salts in the club,....why they even call the national champion in the class once they have some meaningful quesitons.

What was earlier a boat met with derision and sarc'y comments is now earning some respect as an up and comer. It attracts their own management consultants, but these are held at arms legnth.

The slow horse will make it's own mistakes, do turns gracefully, start again or start late....but they will learn what "felt" wrong, what "looked wrong"

One day the slow horse goes to their second nationals and pisses on the other boats from their own clubs, and get visited by helms from the top 10. THe crew mingle wiht the better boats and the fast horses look on jealously from their mid fleet, OCS, and DSQ results.

Weather and the Hydrogen Bond.........

2008-11-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

Meterologists amongst others like to think of ascending air by considering theoretical little parcels- nice little 100g 100ml or 100 mmHg etc which are nice for calculations and actual lab experiments. For a given weight of air it will have a parcel size (volume) at the surface and as it rises through the atmosphere it will expand with the ambient pressure gradient. So like a little helium weather balloon, 100g of slighly warm air will rise and expand to a height where it is no longer bouyant - cannot go on floating on surrounding air- then it just in our wee theory dissipates or the baloon pops, given all things are equal.

However this is complicated by moistness in air. Air will absorb different amounts of water depending on it’s pressure and temperature- the higher the two the wetter air can be. When air fills up with water molecules it is said that it becomes absolutely saturated.It is at 100% - it’s relative humidity RH is equal 100%. In other words for a given amount of water molecules around it has absorbed as much as it will hold in “solution” if you like..... analogous to being like salt in water. ( very warm and dense air can actually contain more than it's theoretical relative humidity without condensation, but that is not important for us)

Air in our atmosphere will hold it's maximum humid content at 30' C apparently..... at a decided air pressure- surprisingly for such a stifling day in the tropics, the actual weight content is only 3% or 3 g per 100g air.

Thereafter excess water vapour in the atmosphere will condense. Also that parcel of air will have a ‘dew point’ a temperature and pressure where it cannot hold it’s water molecules in solution- the property of water to loosely bind to itself exceeds the ability of the air to hold the individual molecules below a microscopic drop size. Usually the small droplets form a cloud or fog but to actually "precipitate" into drops big enough to fall as rain or to crystalise into snow flakes, the droplets need to have a seed crystal so to speak, which is usually a dust particle. Near flight paths into air ports you can sometimes tune your radio in to a repeated information “autonomic” message which includes “due point xx Metres “ this is the height at which the days air characteristics and the temperature gradient in the atmosphere will allow condensation of water droplets- that is to say this defines the cloud base!! Phew….at least I didn’t throw any equations at you!

There is now the diabolical diabatic conundrum. When the theoretical air packet absorbs or gives up heat energy without changing pressure notably, then it will not convect significantly – if warm, moist air over a cold surface or cold, dry air over a warm sea or lake interacts with those surfaces in a way to create dew point then the result is fog! This process need not necessarily happen with particularily low temperatures- there just has to be a very large gradient. A couple of times when sailing on warm days and once when cycling down the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, the super humid air was in a sheet just around about dew point- spots of water would form on your clothes and hit you sporadically. Suddenly the diabatic process went adiabatic- the air blanket tried to convect, reached dew point as a mass and a huge thunder like shower resulted – to last just a ten minutes and to leave only small whispy clouds ascending in it’s wake! Luckily temperatures were in the high twenties and my bike shorts dried out within a fairly comfortbale time.

But if an already moist air parcel does not give up energy or absorb energy from it’s surroundings, but rather converts the energy from heat to kinetic (movement energy) then it will convect. It will rise and expand and go upwards in the sky like a hydrogen filled balloon. This is an Adiabatic process because there is no net effect on the surrounding environment (think like asymmetric NOT symmetrical) – surfaces and air surrounding a moving parcel are not altered in temperature- just those parcels or columns, or bodies of moving air. At some altitude sufficiently moist air will condense and this releases further energy because of the heat of vapourisation – a fairly unique feature of water whereby all the new hydrogen bonds between water release a net heat energy in normal atmospheric conditions. What we now see is the leading edge of a cloud which is either mechanically convected (blown air up a mountain ) or thermally convected ( by the action of the sun or a particularily warm surface, or convergence-convected where two air masses collide and force air upwards.

I guess the whole issue of thinking packets versus actual streams of air is a bit heisenberg uncertainty...you can't know all of the factors in a rising column of air at the same time and you can't measure them without disturbing the prcess.

Weather forecasters send up balloons and use infra red information from earth stations and satellites to establish the temperature gradient in a mass of air, below the isopause. Also they can measure the pressure gradient. But temperature is usually predominant in determining the limit to convection –in therory from these practical observations a knowledge of RH% at the surface, they calculate the height to which a given air parcel can convect by nature of it’s buoyancy, before it is so cold that it will no longer act adiabatically.

Sometimes the limit to convection can be very low or alternatively a temperature inversion can create a notable ceiling above which any warm air, or smoke will not rise at it rises to the point or height at the same temperature and pressure as it’s surroundings. The parcel of air is therefore not any longer buoyant. If water behaved like some other substances condensing then there would maybe be large, flat clouds covering any air mass with convecting parcels. In fact when some chemical spills or concentrated pollution occurs then just this happens.- a flat cloud developes at that chemicals “dew point” and this can be either dangerous or unsighltly.

What happens near the limit to convection for an air parcel is that the pressure of the “expanding balloon” of the parcel reduces as does the temperature – think of a bike pump getting hot and a spray can being cold at the nozzle. BUT what happens thereafter is peculiar to water- the dew point is reached internally to the parcel and water begins to form droplets- it’s innate attraction to itself by van der vaals force called hydrogen bonding overcomes the ability of the gasses in the air to break between these and hold water largely as mono-molecular in “solution”. Now when the regular structures of microscopic droplets form many billions of hydrogen bonds are formed in each tiny drop. It takes energy to break these bonds- like when water boils- but when they are made again there is a release of energy. So the air parcel absorbs this energy and becomes buoyant again.

This explains firstly why clouds most often have a leading edge with an upwards wind component and why some clouds are higher and more volumous than others. Metereologists will know that for example on a sunny day or with underlying warm air, a relatively cold, steep temperature gradient may allow for the probable formation of cumulounimbus- thunder clouds. So this is one area of interest to the yachtsman because thunder can mark a 180’ wind shift!

In the day, thunder clouds are easy to spot but at night yachtsmen should be wary of forecasts for lighting and the associated wind shifts. Also a significant drop in water temperature or sudden very cold wind, could mean a diabatic process is about to happen and the yacht will be fog bound! So all this theory so far already has it’s practical aspects. Sometimes the weather forecasters get it wrong for a given sailing area, like the Firth of Clyde or Sydney harbour for example and you can see that there is warm air at the surface, and very high clouds are forming with dense water droplets. Eventually these may form the characteristic anvil top and you will know lightening is on the way. If you are right underneath them then

Other clouds form mechanically- like the long white cloud which gives New Zealand it’s Maori name and these can be near permanent when moist air “parcels” are being forced upwards by a horizontal wind ie. A surface wind created by isobaric or gradient wind at altitude.

Clouds are formed in two general ways – the adiabatic thermal and the lifted fog bank which is perhaps both a mechanical and thermal process reliant on wind blowing the sheet over warmer land or into colder air or altitude. Either process can result in a typically dreary morning under frontal weather zones with a low cloud base (dew point) and high amount of the sky , given in 8ths, covered.

In low pressure with a significant gradient breeze then these water droplets and their associated air parcels or vertical columns of air will be driven along. Clouds can reveal how strong the gradient wind is by skuing the tops of clouds, or some clouds may even reach the jet stream – an important coincidence in development of lows and storms (polar and temperate region cyclones).

As a completely overcast sky in a low pressure, the clouds are driven along by the gradient wind by friction at their upper reaches. At the surface we may feel only a light wind, which may blow in a completely different direction of more than 45’ to the gradient breeze above. Through the course of a summer sailing day, the sun warms through the clouds from above and to the ground below. So there are gaps developing between them. The opposite effect happening at the leading edge of a cloud aids and abets the wind above coming downwards.

As a cloud is either formed by convection or a cloud sheet is broken up and rebuilt by convection into cloud masses, there develop trailing edges – here the condensation effect is happening – water is able to absorb enough energy to break it’s droplet prison and in doing so it cools our imaginary flock of wall-øess ballons- there developes a descending column or eddy or air. This can then attract the attentions of the higher, laminar flow – ie the gradient wind. In effect a gust, or a wind direction shift, in open water is the result of the trailing edge of a cloud guiding down the gradient wind to the surface. On the way down it encounters friction and backs somewhat, but is always veered because it retains more of the gradient breeze than the wind which at surface tries to make a short cut to the centre of the low- ie it is backed towards the centre .

Now some nice neat diagrams show that this ‘bringing down’ of the breeze happens somewhere quite far back from the trailing edge “down draughts” and these are nice and regular circular features. Well, in normal white-puffy-cloud days with say force 2 to 4 winds this is probably true, But I have experienced squalls right at the trailing edge of jagged, dense, rolling/morphing and fast moving clouds.

On the Race Course:How much the wind is veered and strengthen in the gaps and how far behind clouds is pretty much up to the actual beat to windward and often changes between each of the three beats on a classic W-L race!

However, you may go out looking for a pattern from the sky at an unfamiliar venue or from an unusual wind direction at your usual club nights only to find that there is an unrelated gust pattern and those gusts are even backed rather than veered. What you then have is another effect such as a valley, a major thermal over land-often say a hot city - or a mountain creating a surface laminar flow which races in from another direction and to a higher strength or even to a cancelling stegnth-direction so as to really confuse the pattern!

However puffy white cloud days happen a lot in northern coastal Europe, and lead to visual clues and timings between gusts and the backed lulls ….So too do days when a dense cloud layer is broken up by evapouration, friction and convection.

Sometimes larger cloud masses come in from the sea where they have previously been broken up by convection into large cells – huge clouds by area they cover - and assume a fairly regular distribution ie distance between them and size. These cells are moving roughly say at 70’ degrees to the isobaric winds and they drive over in a remarkably constant timing. Giving you the ability to spot when the clearer, windier and veered weather “gust” will come- it may just come down as a shift if this part of the low is not very “active”. Sometimes at night you can just feel a little colder suddenly and righly enough in holding a beat or controlling a spinnaker, the wind veers thereafter. A shiver down the spine is a call for observance before it is for a nice warm cuppa!

IN both cases, as now informed by the discussed above about when the down daruaght meets the surface, it may be some good distance behind a cloud under a clear area and because it’s hard to look backwards and upwards you can use a stop watch to determine how far behind a cloud they are as you sail under the trailing edge. On many days in exposed areas you can go out and take timings before the start ..but be wary because convective forces build to a peak around mid to late afternoon in our temperate low pressure systems over the summer sailing months…so a nicely timed out plan can go to pieces when convection alters the spacing of gusts or shifts.

For the Course: While of racing round an Olympic course in low pressure conditions then recongising what is happening with the cloud height, separation and the temperature out over the day can give more applied applications to the adiabatic theory.

High Pressure and Rising Pressure

High pressure manifests itself as either an anticyclone- viz a vi a large area of clockwise (nordlige halvkule) rotating air or as a ridge between low pressure areas. Calling it a ridge or thinking of the nice, high, unoppressive sky in an 'anticyclone' as being an upwards phenomenon is largely a misconception- air in high pressure is being compressd and descending. In fact the highest recorded natural pressures at the surface are in the desserts of the former USSR in winter. High pressure in winter produces cold and stable weather in our northern european areas.

Because the air is dense and descending it can adsorb water. Even in winter this is mannifest in the wake of low pressure by flat, thin clouds or the change from medium height cumulus to strato-cumulous clouds.

For the Race Course and Regatta: Flattening of clouds is a sign most of the time of less wind as far as the race course goes. In addition given both a rising barometer or fair weather forecast this means for the racer that the following day will either be light winds if any before the onset of any possible sea breeze, which will begin on any local exposed surfaces, move to a larger geographical centre of thermal convection and then veer right as it builds to a peak about 4 or maybe 5pm.

Visibility is usually reduced in summer conditions as the dense, damp air falls and also traps pollutants and micro paricles. My mum always used to say that when the other side of the loch looked too close then it was about to rain. This was true and caused by the exact ooppostie effect- air convecting all moisture and pollutants upwards into colder air and lower pressures making the air very clear and objects very destinct and discernable. The brain tricks you thereafter!

>The Perfect Race ....Part II

2008-11-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

This is part two and completes the little lecture (notes) on "the perfect visualised race.." and has so far had a few scenarios and I omitted one crucial winning tactic or performance boost: so I take these first respectively:

Scenarios

Mixed fleet, medium airs
Early or late or on time in fleet 1
OD
Light airs-early or heavier airs on time in OD

The one element I forgot to write about is really where I am at as far as wind knowldege - reading the gusts.

However I can just flow this into this section anyway, further to this, now we can presume we are at least sailing in a steady force 3 at design wind for the boat.' Presume it's an OD race (identical One Design boats that is) unless I refer to mixed handicap racing.

POST START- The First Shift

Okay, now we have galloped off the start line things seem to settle down. This is the perfect race for my level so we have at least clean air but we have probably not positioned for THE perfect start at what seemed to be a slight com'boat end bias.

Now I come back to what I had missed out on in part I: The gusts. In force 3 we can expect peak gusts of around about 12 knts and it will be clear if the breeze is building because we will start to experience force 4 gusts more of the time. These gusts are very visible and in this case are coming with wavelets NEARER the bow angle. So in fact these are likely to be significantly HEADED. But the unwary or un-whiley, enjoys the buzz of waiting for the gust, feathering into it and getting the big apparent lift. Wrong, they have lifted but not as much as any boat in the vacinity on in this case port tack. They have enjoyed BOTH a relative wind lift and pinching ability and the actual directional lift. In OD this can mean several boat legnths.

Why are the gusts backed instead of headed on starboard, given this is the Northern Hemisphere?? Theory states that the stronger, true wind is brought down from above where the coreolis effect means it is more spun clockwise. However there are so many mitigating factors- it can indeed be the true-er wind direction but the local bend effects are potent enough to funnel a breeze into more clockwise (dextral) direction of flow rather than the usual friction effect allowing for a backed-low level btreeze. For examplee....that is.

So the gusts on the day need to be assessed and this is also a job for the practice beat and the navigator. In OD it is a big pluss point or scoring card to tack and be properly set just in front of the first major gust if it is a header on starboard.

However we are in a fleet controlling position- we can cover all the late and pin end starters

In a little less wind, of around force 2 which may be an early sea breeze for example, then the gusts may be less evident, either long and slow or not of any real benefit. Here and in an overall weahter situation of frontal weather there may be in addition to gusts an underlying pattern, to which gusts are mere underdogs. That as in the case above the gusts are backed (sinestral, anti clockwise angle from the prevailing wind) can be a sign that

1: if the wind increases under a cloud pattern, then it will back and port will be favoured in that block of wind
2. conversely, if it slackens down a bit, the wind will go clockwise and the RHS and starboard will get you to the weather mark first.

3. There may be a new weather front or prevailing wind fighting it's way in at higher altitude which also suggests the backing and tactics in 1 but this will last maybe the whole race if the committee don't see fit to reset the windward mark.

True Shifts

Now what most often happens in frontal, anticylone hemisphere weather is that there is a pattern of shifts over any given 20 mins , about a first beats worth on most courses. So if you get fast off the line it becomes clear if the wind goes right that you need to get over there and the aruthmentic of boats ducked versus gain on the lift pays IF you are at the head of the fleet.

BUT it also pays if you are at the back of the fleet. In fact it pays anywhere as long as you can shake off any really bad offenders "farting" on you as they say in Norwegian. Tacking on shifts and before a known gust header pays if you can keep free air.

no shifts??

All else being equal though, and given no apparent gusts at the time, we know the bearing from the line to the mark. We can presume we sail at worst 45' and with any tide effects we maybe only do say 48' with leeway taken into account. We do however POINT at say 38' best and tack through about 82' on average. So we can choose to play it safe given our superior boat speed, courtesay Miss Free Wind!

All else equal? Go for the Cone!
What I preach here takes some deiscipline and on water arithmetic to do, but is worth it. Given no real tactical advantage in tacking I will in this race use a 60' cone to tack up.

To simplify this- you know about laylines and these can be set arbitarily as a 90' cone or sector from the weather mark. If you go way out, Scott Chalmers Style, to a layline quite early in the first third of the sector then you risk all by being hit by even a small wind change putting you on a header all the way. So to give a 'no brainer' or automaton type tacking theory in even wind direction, you tack up a 60' cone instead.

even wind would be wind shifts of less than 5' which last less than say 45 seconds- a random, repeatdely osciallting wind. At really anyones level. less than these levels makes it meaningless to tack on shifts derived from the compass. For my level , More than this to say, 6' with a one minute duration would be worth tacking on in a boat which holds speed out of tacks and in a one design fleet - or of course when BOTH tacking on a header AND doing some nasty tactic or avoiding another boat or shadow is desrirable.

Tacking up the 60'cone means that you are meeting a bearing about 27-33 degreesm off the bearing to the weather mark(90' fromt he start line most likely) , at your midships to the mark. At your first line out from the start a 60' cone gives you quite a wide sector to sail in before you hit this 'time to tack ' bell ringer! So you capitalise on your boat speed by sailing as long as you dare in this even wind direction.

As you come back across the fleet on port now you still have superior boat speed until you meet the first, short shadow from opposite tack boats crossing in front of you, or cheeky chappies trying to lee bow you if you are just ahead of everyone!

Now you can feed tactical information into those brains down the rail and up to you on the stick.

In OD, it is usually undesirable to duck another boat unless this avoids conflicts ahead of you ( given this lovely even breeze and no real benefit in going right for you at the head of the fleet). Especially in dinghies, the boat which crosses you has the option to blanket you or at least cover your direction. What you want to do is tack to avoid their wind shadow.

Now given you have just tacked and they tack away to cover the rest of the fleet you can sail on to your 60' line to the left or once you have separation for any conflicts to the right, go back over that side. By now most of the fleet will have gone right on the starbord rounding course, just because it is safe and they are sheep. No one wants to be on the left side, looking like a spare dick at the dance. So it can pay, now you have tacked away from your first threat to go the hell over right and cover much of the fleet and play with any top guns who came off the blocks RHS and kept there.

Your second tack up a 60' cone is by virtue of a shorer than full cone start line (most hell often) meaning that the first tack is shorter. So to keep free air you can afford to tack. Otherwise you can once again capitalise on your free wind boat speed advantage by sitting on this long leg all the way an above most of the fleet. Many of the starboard tackers who are top guns will now see you as taking a long, long stitch to go right and worry if 1. you will get ahead of them 2. you are going desperately right because you know it pays. This second tack then can send a whole pile off them off towards the layline and into firstly the danger zone for unwanted shifts and also force them into too many tacks.

The 60' cone is by the way, the shortest and quickest way to the mark in a constant mean wind direction, given that you start at least a third of the way down the line on a starbord dictated start.

So say the bearing 90' from the mid line to the mark is ooo' that is 360, due north, then you sailed into that exact wind direction. So starboard has been 310-320 say while your first port tack has been 40-50' E. If you sat on the lay line then this would be the angle from the bow to the mark. Sitting on your midships, the angle for a 60' cone is therefore calculated as about 330 degrees. You would need to sail a close 15 degrees to be ablt ot tack and make the mark ie. stand on the layline.

After this long second, port tack comes to the inevitable 30 sighting on that side of the cone, you will now have most boats behind you, or ahead but below you, with maybe some guys ahead and above you. Work out what the likely wind shadow would be if everyone tacked over and work out how far it is until the cone alarm goes off again. You can then make a call on average how many boats are threats on starboard versus how many may cover you if they tack ahead. Simple arithmetic means that if you can get over right to the cone you will tack less often. Pychology states people will have seen your long second tack and want some of what you are heading for. And tactics dictate that the top end of the fleet wil try and cover you and blanket you if they can. Starboard boats are more threatening because they have rights and can tack on top of you. As port boats draw nearer to your clean air, fast line then they can well tack to get you on rights or double tack to cover you, but that looses them time and in most boats some windward VMG.

Now you have reached the next 60' line you are in the thick of the top end of the fleet. Two boats are a good two tacks ahead of me...damn, maybe they were early anyway. I have one starboard boat who was ahead and has tacked and now bears down on me trying to get close by footing off. I then have a stramash of port boats tacking over to follow the leaders. I foot off a little and get max speed before using a little gust to come really high up on the boat on my windward quarter and establish clear ahead and force him to my line and then below me in my dirty wind. Inow am on the 30' and tack immediately, forcing him out towards the layline and those other starboard boats above us now.

Keep to your Strategy until Tactics Take Over

Now I once again choose. It looks like four or maybe just three tacks until i can sail onto the layline. Most often an average sailor will want to avoid the 'death slot' that is coming in on port to the layline in an OD fleet rounding the windward mark to starboard. But hey, we are at the head of the fleet. ALl the sheep are heading right and we have virtually clean air left. So we stay on starboard and go the whole way over the cone. NOW boats behind see our gain and REALLY start to have an inferiority complex and come over again to starboard. We hit our cone a lot quicker on the LHS now. Also we are coming out of tacks even better now and I am feeling the boat much better so have optimum VMG in this tideless, skew-less race!

The Windward Mark
In fact now we can see the windward mark and since we are talking big OD fleet in this fantasy now, the trip or off set mark. We hit our 30' signal and come way back over on port, past a few boats who were threats. Suddenly we can see that there are only three tacks again and we could go out now and sit on the layline. The wind has died about 2 knots so we carry on to the layline and suddenly there is only clear water ahead of our bow. A few more boats are on starboard but have sailed too far. Others have not changed gear for the lighter wind and have more sea on starboard so we can sail over them. Now we can make for a safe lay line call by tacking with the bouy over my back shoulder when I turn quite hard around to see it, rahter than my front shoulder.

We tack, we are fourth boat. The one starboard boat we ducked earlier did a lone tack to the other side of the cone and kept ahead of us. The two lead boats are slowing each other down, by taking an extra tack to try and guess the layline and then by trying to get an overlap call on the go. The inside boat fails here but gets a better grip to go low and then high and establish overlap on the off set mark, forcing the other guy to abandon hoist, which the challenger also must do. Boat three just sails on making a big gain as do we, with a string og boats high, low and just about right for the lay line behind us. Nice feeling, beign at the top eh`?

GybeSet Stratetegy- Modified by Tactical Considerations

Now the wind has built again and it is a lift on the layline. This gives us confident speed around and down to the trip but means it is likely a gybeset. We see much more wind coming right, and feel a 12 knt gust rustle through so to keep some clean air, get a good acceleration under kite with a clean hoist and fool much of the fleet into going left ( stage left now!) we bear away hoist. Everyone sets for this. The clump of ten boats behind us nearly all do this bar a couple who get stick in the bad air on their nice tight gybes and have trouble hoisting then go off in pursuit of each other. We see the chance while the kites settle and go back to the RHS of the course in a better angle and in air only disturbed by far off OD boats beating in.

The Leeward Mark

This pays all the way to near the gate when it swings back. So we now gybe and reckon with Left being favoured. We can make a nice straight line in on starboard to round on the LHS bouy on the leeward two bouy set up. In doing so we force our two clever rivals to come high and go right or follow us up the beat in our dirt. At three boat lenghts we drop kite and close the hole then bearing off to make a final, smooth rounding. The guy behind us has dropped later and comes in at speed on our stern, so I tuck the boat up into a luff once... twice and he is in our dirt. I bear away for speed and to further frustrate him and he tacks off, back into a fleet of starboard spinnakers!

The Second and Last Beat and down on our own!

We go right and play both the gusts and the shifts to end up about three boat legnths ahead of the other boat back us and five from our leeward mark challenger. The wind heads like a sod, and we have to tack to make the mark. This means clearly a bear away hoist and this takes us out into a really fast track in completely free wind. A pile of reasonable boats are on top of #2 and # 3 making their wind a bit dirty, with the national champion on their heels!

The wind dies a lot and we gybe in the last little gust we have to make best VMG. Then we ghost in gybing on the lifts to avoid the gate and come in to a nice finish, gybing to take a midline away from the canon fire!

BANG we WIN!!

The Perfect Race.....

2008-11-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

Okay so what is my idea of "the perfect race"?

Or rather since this is a hypothetical or visualising process in this lecture, what is the perfect mind set and exercise for the perfect race?

Firstly this is going to be all about being on the water with a predictable weather pattern. I'm not a trite git who would rather give a lecture on "the first thing is actually the years of preparation for this event...." It will be a given that you have a well prepared boat, with any rig tweaks done before leaving the quay. Second only to that is that you have built team together

So it starts with walking done the gangway or rowing out to the boat. You will have a regional weather forecast and be lookign for

1) Has the predicted pattern set in locally? or is it late ? Has a front actually gone over early? The same with tide or current.

2) What will be the local breeze modifiers? convection and friction?

3) which long standing wind bends, shadows and other geog' effects will be in play with the current and predicted wind pattern? What will the wave pattern be?

Experience tells me the weather to within a knot or so of wind stregnth under 22 knts and also I can smell rain or just cloud-gusts and even sea breezes setting in. For more wind than that or just to confirm my nose I'll look at the anonometer, windex and take a glance at the weather forecast again.

On board we start getting sails out probably just on the motor out to the course. Not worrying about the crew's ability to choose the right sails, instead I'll be looking at flags and smoke ont he land to catch any information or just confirmation! In fjord and estuaries the convection may not have set in on the shaded sides and may be strongest on the flat land, islands and peninsulas around. In these areas there is often a top-current/swell effect modulating or even annulating the lunar-tide. Keeping an eye out on nav bouys and moorings as we trott out and even the beach to see if it is wet or dried.

With the main laid on deck I swing her into the wind, or lee area if it is blowing, and at head to wind take a note of the true wind direction before and after the hoist before we bear away. Nine times out of ten mainsails are set completely wrong on the first hoist so we will fall off, reach and then near the start area we harden up again to tune it a bit more for the expected conditions. This is another shot at the true wind and also given no real land effects at the hoist area compare the new estimated TWD (true wind direction).

Now if we are very lucky, or just a little late out, then the committee boat will be at anchor with some flags or other giving a line, alhtough maybe not a pin-end set yet. Also given someone even more enthusiastic than us is out, they may be up at the windward mark area already or arriving from there, so we can see what angle the (hot) boat is beating to and any windshifts as they come down under kite (spinnaker).

So maybe now we motor down a little low of the comm'boat and take her back on the wind to hoist genoa and see if the TWD is the same and how the presumed (or laid) start line will be for the starbord tack out.

A little bit of car trimming and some final adjustments to the main, and I call "weight up" as we aim for the (presumed) start- line. Over the line we note the kind of angles likely or that laid and we maintain optimal beating angle.

Once over I'll be lookign at the instruments for boat speed and maybe a GPS derived VMG as we sit on starboard. If there is something obviously worth a look, like a land bend on the right then we will tack over immediately- this can later save us from a bad start or from a good one give us an overwhelming controlling position of cover on the fleet (for a port hand rounding that is)

given no real land effects I will try my best to tack up a presumed (or if course is set, actual) 60' cone to the weather mark (area). I'll think in the usual boat tacking angles and best VMG polar chart for the wind and see how we are doing. Then also try to see, on a long enough beat, if there is any pattern or associated cloud-gust set up we can utilise. Most often this is difficult and in fjord areas it is better to rely on known, set land bends than try and premept much. Instead we are now prepared for compass swings of say over 5 ' warranting a tack.

Once at the top mark I intend in my perfect race to shoot the breeze, come head to wind that is once again. My crew will have no nerves about the bear away and hoist or gybe. So we shoot the breeze and maybe take a look at the GPS track for tide effects, noting any current on the bouy if it's there or nearby nav marks, or just our own drift. I may, in my hypothetical prowess, choose to sail a little longer to windward to look at the weather and wind angles ahead, and even then bear away down to come into the mark on the layline again to see if it is changing.

Then comes our kite-drying manoevre - a nice gybe set otherwise to wake up the crew. Once agin if they stuff it up.

Now we track down on the fastest side of the course under kite to arrive at the start area around about 10 mins before the start (on new ISAF 6 minute typical calls). We either do a drop harden up at the now laid lee mark or at the pin end.

Then maybe one more shoot the breeze and given little traffic a parade up and down the start line so to speak to see if there is a boas already. In a dinghy this is advised with the ol' main sheet technique.

Given we are very early and have little traffic or better still, a willing One Design sparring partner for a practice start, we line up RHS and go for a imaginary gun.

Wednesday nights seldom afford such luxus. More often they are a hurried affair once the stonger afternoon breeze dies and a new pattern of airs establishes - often sinking out over the course of the race!! So for wednesdays or just late arrivals we go to the next phase- waiting and observing:

So we have a good picture of the patterns as they were for maybe now 20 mins. Genoa down, engine on, we sit away at the leeward area to the pin end to relax and take a drink and saite any appetite. We discuss now how it was and what will effect the day or evening, in a rogues council. Everyone has a say and we look at the weather forecast for into the race. Now we do our final personal admin, and checks on the boat equipment.

Before the kite gear is properly set up we take a tour now to windward of the committee boat. We sit here and look at the line and other would-be-winners shooting the breeze and coming out on practice tacks. If there is a big shift we shoot the breeze too and even take a practice beat/tack angle if conditions are notably changed in wind or tide for that matter. We check the bearing 90' mid line to the weather mark if we have space. We also time the time to reach along the line and maybe to come up on a beat to the line or an extenion thereof given lots of traffic or an earlier start in front of us.

Our Flags Pop Up. Our navigator / course responsible comes back to stern and shows the course and we agree on it being what we all think it is. We double check the flags, as comittees often don't, and then wait for a prep signal. We discuss which way to go, who will be big on the starting line, if people look like they are arriving late, the quality of general starters, their wind shadow and earlier tactics or failures!

In heavier wind with a tight fleet, we will reach off and come arond the back of committee boat road-hogs, way to leeward and work our way up for the 5 min gun.

5 mins bang.

In the fairly good breeze we bear away and look for those line-lingerers and lurkers up at the boat end. On a port bias we move over at least away from the RHS. But we are in control of the boat and will choose to either just creep forward for a mid line punch out (full speed away from the bunch) or to come in fast and play at the favoured end, finding a gap. This is prudent when everyone is really early. A punch out may not be practical and you can get a good windward end place

3.30secs.

we gybe around in heavier breeze to our prefered stalking area. In light airs we probably tack to make sure we are in shooting distance and not late or blanketed by higher boats reaching in. We are int he stalking area and take a look at our optimum beating angle or if it is a cramped OD start, shoot the breeze again in free water, falling off to starboard. We maybe do a practice tack and then gybe away to get some run in "depth" from the line if it is blowing.

2.30 secs

Now time can go very quickly and the boat can easily be trapped in a negative situation rather than any positive. So the focus is on positioning as the early birds start to line up and the near-line-chargers start barging down from the boat end. What is crucial is also to keep the boat safe- less experienced, careless boats, or just crews fixing a problem may not see us so we keep the boat moving slowly with a usuable amount of helm.

1min 45 Now it is time to committ to the line in either heavier winds or lighter. It will be clear if the boat end is goign to be chaos in which case from our position we can choose to bear away suddenly and pick a place or go up hard and defend at some point down the line. Given a lot of early boats we can take a final tack up and then line up for an optimal start a the boat end.

(light airs; we hold ourselves to the RHS of committee boat and then at 2.30 manoevre down to assess a start by squeezing in at the boat or reaching down the line for a clear airs start or LHS flyer. Alternatively in a breeze with a big f-off cruiser racer sititng in a pro-start position on the pin, shadowing all challengers, we can choose to sneak out on his stern- he'll soon sail away and we can tack right if that is paying or avoiding the handicap fleet shadow, us being say a platu or L28)

1min ; now we defend and shut out at all costs. We do our best to stop any boat coming in over our top on a reach and sitting on us, hitting us, or coming up to leeward to close our acceleration. Now we should control a couple of boat legnths to leeward, which will narrow up, but give us the vital edge of acceleration. If in a big OD fleet, the first rack of boats are now lined up, maybe with a mid line sag but that is immaterial to us given a constant wind. Now we make the final choices on the boats around us and are committed

We will defend in a bigger fleet by either having the boat ragging at a reach angle to sail over low challengers who want to come up on us, closing the loing time gap to the boat "below us". We may even have enough time for a tack up into our hole again given we see off only the one challenger who is below us. For those above us it is a clear threat position, we can harden up quickly to defend while either not taking all our space and height if we are longer back or by coming higher of our space and sailing up. The genoa is more off than on, but we keep sailing and an eye paranoically on the wind direction and the shadow development.

30 seconds. Now it is vital to:

1) Know Where the wind is coming from, tape on the shroud and look at the windex

2) Know when we will get out of shadow- point our bow long enough forward to do so in an OD and have enough to leeward to accelerate away from the big lead miners inevtiablly above us near the com'boat.

3) know where the line is by sight or transit-sighting. In an HC fleet we will move at a different pace than the lead miners so we cannot afford to shoot out early without confidence. Even then a lazy coms boat with a few people over may just call us by virtue of being able to see us.

4) have steerage and that means enough way relative to keep the bow out or to shoot down into the leeward hole for a final defence and closure, or to avoid being OCS or just to get speed if there is much windshadow or the wind has reduced or gone left big time.

we do our final sail sets as far as cunningham and kicker, backstay and any cars or in haulers go.

15 secs

We know where we are or ar atleast hidden from the spotters ont he comm boat, we have some free wind and we can match the other bows for a line of air at the bow. If everuyone is back then it is just power on and given any space to lee nowl, bear away as we move forward to our final sight line

10 secs last chance for a correcting raggin of sails or a luff or to roll over a leeward boat who is too high. If we are all very near the line it is going to go slowly and predictably we just point the bow out to the top of the line. Now if we are all far back or if we are punching out, all sails are powered on at a low beat angle - we check this once again and ease her up.

5 secs, full charge- let us risk an OCS , yep, risk one!!

In the big OD scenario we have either all started powering out in a neat line or we are all too close and it is goign to be a "forward of line start" - that is we only have power on long after the gun. We go conservative.

For the punch out we must be at full speed now for pointing to establish. We can keep low to get a real head and some play area on a bigger boat, but more likely that should have been at the 30 secs or even earlier times point.

In the latish, big OD fleet we are charging out set for speed and with most wieght out. The final jib trimis done with now only say the outhaul or last bitty bit of kick and cunn to be done. Helm drives the boat with the main man and the rail start looking ahead at the conditions.

yee hah, " we're racing" I call once over the line

good bit on headers and lifts

2008-10-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

from Sailing Anarchy: courtesay baltic bandit

This is my point on the learning curve: tacking in sequence to the shifts, learning to see or time them and learning when a gust should be tacked on to get a 'double lift'. hmmm
meg

Quick primer for someone on the rail.

As mentioned before the race committee sets the upwind mark for the average wind direction. The wind shifts back and forth (more on why later) as you sail up the course. Lets say that on average you can sail 35deg from the true wind direction.

If the wind is blowing directly from the mark, you can sail 35deg down from the mark (ie 35deg angle from a line straight to the mark from the start line) on each tack

When the wind shifts so that the tack you are on lets you sail a course closer than 35deg to the mark you are getting LIFTED upwind towards the mark. This a good because it means you sail a shorter distance to get to the mark.

When the wind shifts so that the tack you are on forces you to sail a course more than 35 deg from the mark you are getting HEADED away from the mark.

And a wind shift that Lifts you towards the mark is a lift or a lifter and vice versa.

So why are there such windshifts? Well tons and tons and tons of words have been written about this. But fundamentally there are 4 causes:

1. Puffs and lulls - puffs are windspeed increases and lulls are windspeed decreases. Both are caused by turbulent "knuckles" of wind (like in a tumbling stream). and when they touch down onto the surface of the water, they spread out like the fingers of your hand because the wind in the middle is spinning faster than the wind at the edges that is being slowed down by friction with the ambient air. So the wind at the edges points outwards from the center of the puff. And its a header on one side of the puff and lift on the other
2. Geography. - wind gets funnelled by buildings, trees, shoreline etc. So it "bends" around geographies. That's why sometimes a wiley skipper will sail a "headed" course to get to a strong lift on the opposite tack ( a header on one tack is a lift on the other and vice versa).
3. Weather systems - all weather systems spin as well as move horizontally. So as a weather front crosses over the course, the wind direction shifts in accordance to the front
4. Coriolis Effect - As the wind blows in a straight line over the course of the day it gains momentum. But the earth is spinning underneath it. So over the course of a day, it slowly shifts. In the northern hemisphere this means it slowly clocks (follows the direction of the clock) and in the southern hemisphere it backs (backwards from the direction of the clock).

Once your boat handling and boat speed are good, doing well in racing is about identifying which combination of wind shifts apply and exploiting them to minimize your course distance and maximize your speed.

and from President Eisenhour

Remember this: getting a lift feels like fun, but your objective is to be on the lifted tack not to be getting lifted.

Consider the textbook scenario that never happens during real life -- true wind is steadily, predictably oscillating between 350 and 010.

Typical mistake many of us make is to tack on the shifts, when you really want to be tacking on the midline: You're on S as the wind starts at 350 and you get lifted as the wind swings all the way to 010 ... feels great ... then it starts backing, so, sensing the header, you tack onto P at around 008, and you get lifted continuously as the wind swings back to 350, then it starts veering again and you tack at 352, so you're on S all the way from 352 up to 010... lather, rinse, repeat. It feels great coz you're always getting lifted, but you're doing the wrong thing.

What you want is to be on S whenever the wind is between 000 and 010, irrespective of whether it's swinging right (lifting you) or swinging left (heading you). You want to be on P whenever the wind is between 350 and 000, irrespective of whether it's swinging right or swinging left. So, when the wind is steadily oscillating between 350 and 010, you want to tack as it crosses through 000. Very hard to learn, even harder to do in the real world.

- Damp freddie writes : what this means is that when you started sailing off the start line say on STB with a wind at estimated 350 , course 305, you were HEADED. The wind shift lifts you immediately BUT UNTIL IT CROSSES 000 due N, you are loosing ground to your shadow who spotted it was headed and tacked onto port atestablishing a heading of 035 being headed progressively to 045 and tacking only then . While on STB it all feels great and it's a big scallop.

Now you do exactly the wrong thikng on the other side. If it swings all the way to 010 then you are correclyt on starboard, but feeling the oscillation going to favour port you tack on the shift when you still have 8' of gain to windward average . You are in effect sailing !backwards ! in a curve which takes some time to swing into average forward movement to the mark ie over 000.

So you learn the shifts before you go out or in a longer race out there. You watch your heading and it will be best 045 to worst PRT 055 say on PRT and then 315 and 305 on STB, You tack at a heading of 050 Header, off PORT over 00o WInd going right or 300, header wind going left.

Further: SAILING UPWIND -FASTER

Having a good beat to windward is one of my favorite things on the water There is nothing quite like steering a keel boat that is ‘in the groove’ and making great VMG to windward. Here are some thoughts about techniques, goals and priorities when you are driving a boat upwind.

General rules of thumbTo steer a boat fast upwind, you must be able to guide that boat efficiently through a series of changes in the wind and water.

Therefore, it’s key to anticipate changes that are coming. If you don’t know about a puff until it hits your sails, you will be constantly in reaction mode.

Keep your head out of the boat so you can make proactive adjustments before or as the puff hits. * To improve your ability to anticipate changes in conditions, assign one of your crewmembers to watch out for puffs, lulls, waves and flat spots.

On small boats, this lookout often must be the skipper because the crew may not have a very good view of the race course. On larger boats, it’s usually a crewmember sitting on the rail. * If your boat is big enough to have a tactician, find a good one you trust so you can focus entirely on steering without having to look around very much. If your boat is small enough that you must steer and do tactics at the same time, practice steering by feel so you can look around a lot and still keep going fast.

* It’s very important to keep talking with your mainsail trimmer for two reasons: 1) only you can feel what the boat needs through the rudder; and 2) he or she controls the sail that has the biggest impact on the balance and speed of your boat, which is critical for steering. *

If you (the helmsperson) are also trimming the mainsail, never cleat the mainsheet unless you must. Holding the mainsheet helps you take the pulse of the boat and allows you to make quick adjustments needed for steering fast.*

If you are steering a bigger boat, don’t get mesmerized by the instruments. They can be helpful for keeping the boat sailing near its potential, but there is no substitute for good feel and judgment.* Most helmspeople like to point high when they are steering. There is nothing so reassuring as the knowledge that you are sailing higher than the boats around you. But remember this critical rule about steering upwind: “Go fast first and worry about pointing later.” If you try to aim your bow too high before your foils are working efficiently, you’ll be slow.

* Once the boat is going well, keep trying to trim the sails (especially the main) harder and point higher. As soon as you feel the boat start to slow, ease the sheet a little and bear off slightly to build speed- PRESS on the JIB or SEND a MAN DOWN TO TRIM THE GENOA.

Now. start the cycle again. When the boat feels fast, trim harder and point higher. If it feels like you are slowing down, ease and get going. * Practice steering upwind. The best way to learn is speed-testing with one other boat. This gives you a great chance to try different steering techniques and get immediate feedback by watching how you do relative to the other boat.

Beating in light air

When you are sailing upwind in light breeze, fous on speed and distane to the next wind or towards the goal....Try sailing a little too low and fast rather than too high and slow. If you try to point and sail on the high side of the groove, all it takes is a lull or a wave or a header to kill your speed and force you to accelerate all over. *

Try to manufacture at least a little bit of windward helm so you will have some “feel” to help you steer. Adjustments to increase helm include adding more rake, heeling the boat more, moving crew weight forward, pulling the traveler farther to windward, and so on.* It’s important to stay focused on steering the boat fast. This is not easy since most light-air races are long and frustrating. As a famous Olympic and America’s Cup sailor once said, “If you don’t finish the race with a splitting headache, you probably didn’t concentrate hard enough on steering.”* Move the rudder as little as possible. On a tiller boat, consider using a ‘frying pan’ grip on the hiking stick to keep the rudder straight and quiet

* Set up your sails and rig so they are more forgiving. You want full, powerful, draft-forward sails with twist that are good for footing rather than pointing. This makes your sailplan less critical and helps you steer the boat in the groove much more easily.

Heavy air and waves

When it’s windy, one of the biggest problems for the helmsperson is having too much windward helm. This can be a steering nightmare because it is physically demanding and hurts your boatspeed. So work on reducing helm by using less mast rake, keeping the boat flatter, moving crew weight farther aft, dropping the traveler to leeward, flattening the sails and so on.

* You should usually bear off and power through chop,

but as the waves get bigger you need to start steering around each one.

In general, head up on the face of each wave and bear off down the back side. In dinghies, move your weight in sync with this – out and forward as you bear off over the wave and then in and aft when you hit the trough and head up again.

* Waves (and flat spots) seem to come in sets, so make sure that someone on your boat watches for these and gives you a warning. Point higher in the flat spots and then bear off to power through the unavoidable waves.* When you’re overpowered is a good time to steer by heel angle. Point the bow high enough to keep the boat on its feet. And when you want to turn the boat, you must absolutely help a lot with sail trim since weight placement and even the rudder often have little effect. •

A brief history of everything ..on the Water: THE BOATS

2008-10-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Boats, Båt, Båd, Jakt, Yachts..........

Here is my breif review by size of those I have sailed and mostly won on, with some omissions for dogs.

Dinghies:
Laser
The laser is like chablis, it is like the nigerian runner, it is like a sea gull...it is unique in it's ubiquity and also it's simpliity and elegance to sail. Despite being Finn sized myself I still like to get out in a borrowed or hired laser and may buy one you never know.

I like practising roll tacks and gybes, steering in waves, steering behind my back and just making progress up wind....being this close to the water and this aware of the wind and it's effect is still an experience. Like sipping into a glass of Chablis..simple, pure, clean and rewarding.

* I also have done about 20 hours on laser IIs without traps. V. similar.

Tasar

The tasar was billed as the two man laser and probably had olympic ambitions. However like learning Bass guitar its' two sail format is deceptively simple. The crew has nine controls, the helm only three!

It is in fact very far from a laser indeed. Planes up wind and is more like being on the water than in the water. Comfier, and actually easier to sail at first it presents enough challenges to master and then compete at say the worlds. A sailing career in one boat designed to be manageable by husband and wife.

It sails very nicely in displacement mode and light airs too. Just flatten that main, easy to do, open the slot and keep the quarter wave streaming off the chine and it purrs along at all points of sail apart from it's achilles heel, the run in v.light air.

Once I was helping out a guy (as local class rep) and we were 30 stone up in what seemed maybe 22knts wind. We went up hill like scaletrix, blasting past the RS200s after a late start.

In my tasar I pulled away from ISOs and had faster starts than RS400s.

The RS400

"a lot like sailing a little sports boat" . It is maybe a suprise that a heavy as heck hiking boat took off as it did, pulling stars from the likes of the 505 class into it's ranks.

A very physical boat to sail and not that rewarding apart from it being good fleet racing. Seems to take a range of wieghts but far inferior to the mislykte 59er.

The Snipe
This boat is atually sailed by some of the worlds best sailors in their 'time off' due to it's simplicity and internationality.

It is one heavy bitch ashore, but actually quite fun to sail and v. close in fleet. Lots of tactics but boat speed is king.

Not actually a true OD- liek the fifteen it has two hull forms and two masts.

I will continue in the class no doubt for want of anything better OD wise and also the lack of any carbon to break and pay for !!!!!!!!!!

59er, B14, 29er

All more or less test sails for me, these are the type of boats which people on the coast and larger lakes SHOULD be sailing in. I mean Merlin Rockets?? All are far superior to the RS400, so much so that the twin trap RS800 is a bethwaite copy cat.

The 59er remains a perfect boat for me at this stage as far as dinghy sailing goes

Keel Boats

The Gareloch and The Piper

probably the smallest keel boats I have raced in apart from a couple of useless tours in an FF.

Pedestrian but with a classic feel. Wonderful to pack kite jammed in against the ribs of a 1936 pedigree racer!

Hunter 707

The wee 707 is a much under-rated boat outside it's OD homes because it has a poor rating allegeldy. But it has won on SBR and no doubt PY if not CYCA.

A bit slow and ploddy up wind but off wind it is a rocket on stabilisers!

Easy, perhaps preferable to short hand, the wide cockpit and transom make it easy for crew to leap around and get their weight back when it starts to fly!

Racing at 14 knts under the forth bridges in a blow, with old quarter tonners and sigma 33s looking literally as if they were sailing BACKWARDS remains a high point in my memories.

I had the idea of buying a couple to tout round the dinghy sailing schools as group trainers....super wee boats, kevlar hulls. Sobstad genesis suspect though!

The larger "hunter 808" appeared as a line drawing above the water in a 1990s Y&Y never to be realised- today a chined, no back stay flyer would fit right in! The 27X would seem to have it's place.

Beneteau 25 Platu 25

Ever wondered what sailing on a whitbread 60 was like? or a Corel 45, a farr 40? lack the bucks for a mumm? Well here is the mini-mum!

Without a doubt the best round the cans boat and inshore distance racer I have sailed on. Admittedly the example I sailed on was well looked after and various parts were upgraded ( kicker set up etc.)

Sweeps upwind like a well behaved keel boat and down hill like a super light dinghy!

Crew friendly, nice to move around on with lovely touches like the jib cunningham and barber haulers. The rig can be tweaked on the bottle screws and forestay, but a medium setting allows the backstay and powerful kicker to give flexiblibily in powerin or taking it off.

Left: SUPER IMPOSED : A MUMM 30 over the 25.

We mixed it with Dehler 33s on the water and beat IMX 40s round the cans on corrected while having the glory of beatin Knut Frostad by default! but at least sailing ahead of academy when it went into a hole at Ask.

sleeps two, boom tentable and outboard in a well.

Give me a 28 foot version with an inboard!

Beneteau First Class 8 (8m)

Much, much faster than I expected. Started on a windy round cumbraes with better up hill speeds than a sigma 33, high 6s and sevens in the steep clyde swell. Survived a black squall under kite at 47knts recorded!

Bit too broachy for it's pretentions. Looking very dated as per DS37 and various other 1980s OOD match racers. Dunno why it was superceded with the Platu but the 7.5 does make sense.

Winter Series win and various race wins. Case of a reasonably good helm, very promising actually who didn't get a competitive crew together...cautionary note.

Hunter Impala and Laser 28

Atually similar vintage, overlap in production anyway, these were the middle class mans E-types of the early to mid eighties.

The impala is a great racer, just a bit rolly polly DDW. Lovely feel on the helm and a bendy mast which responds to kicker well. Won my first ever race the first ever time on the helm from A to B! (TWHW tobermory race 2001)

The laser 28 is a bit too good to be true. It's weakness is up wind in a blow. All round it beats the impala apart from "soul" up wind. Too littel a keel for my liking. But I'd have one or the Redfox which boasts a good IRC.

Beneteau Figaro/First Class Challenge 9.14m Mast Head "T'jig II"

Before the bene 25 this was my ideal boat. Big cockpit, powerful kite, nice controls, sleeps it's crew, inboard.

actually the other boat i'd buy the 31.7 is derived from the hull.

race win class 1 cumbraes 1998.

The Sigma 33

The smeg is everywhere from the channel islands to shetland, whitby to dublin bay. I think 300 odd were built, making it the most successful cruiser in the UK probably ever, contessa 32 being it's nearest rival in numbers. Only the snotty sold more from the David Thomas pen and it is probably the biggest phenomenon of it's time.

But, the smeg is based on DTs elisabethan and 3/4 tonner or half tonners and all this dates it back to the late 1960s. A seventies top sides and bow followed by an eighties renewal on the coach roof and deck quality couldn't really hide that it was an old british design from the old school. Problem being the rolly-polly DThomas issues- the tucked up stern with no real "bite" to stop rolling DDW.

So in force 4 or 5 DDW in a sea they become quite unwieldy and start to broach and chinese gybe.

As crew, expect to come off black and blue from that deep cockpit and huge toe rail. It doesn't get any better for helm and main man as I found out. Cramped space at the back end where it all starts to get narrow!

Also it only really sleeps 5 in any comfort- one seventies variant has a double bed on the dining table though. The pilot berth makes for seven and two very close pals can sleep in the single quarter berth (could easily have had both sides berthed up instead of the huge locker on Stb side)

Despite my efforts and those of Neil MacGregor and many other keen, young and talented crews it remained the usual suspects in the top 4, with however clyde boats dominating. The usual suspects were St.Joan, Vendeval and Phoenix - rupert occaisionally at the heels with both Carmen and Kevin Aithken's Shite Stuff doing well after 1998. I had some good sails on Oddessey of Harold Hood and they did get a good few wednesday night wins anyways.

Numbers peaked in 1999 with quite a few cruisers putting on their gloves again to fight before the fleet dwindling to lose most of their OD starts by 2007. Many boats headed to Ireland where they are no doubt gettign thrashed and tatty in the salty wetness of Dublin Bay.

The 33 was for the better word - my apprenticeship and in 4 to 10 knts breeze they were manageable enough inshore. Good value / bargain cruiser now!

The X332 and 362-Sport

The 332 appeared in the nineties and was a modern, IRC freidly performance cruiser raer. It established reasonable fleets and won on CHS later IRC, being about as good over the water as a smeg 38.

Now it looks just about as dated as the smeg 33, compared to the newer J's, benetubs and the X35. ABout half a knot faster up hill than a smeg, and more manageable it must be said. Offwind a stable DDW VMGer unlike david thomas's designs. Competant for 10 knts under white sails alone! Impressive enough. But tight cockpit and big toe rail once again marring it.

Now it is off into cruiser world with even X99s holding fleet where 332s venture out in paltry numbers ( UK, norway, sweden, germany at least) The newer 36 foot cruiser racers are comfier below and the racer-cruiser have better cockpits.

The 362S is a bigger, faster affair with tunability to put it up against bigger cruiser boats. Big cockpit, aft shower, more room below and a solid rig and ballasting make it a better combination boat than the 332 which is better off cruised IMHO.

tbc

the SIgma 38

This was my biggest disappointment apart from the space downs below in the boat.

I got bummed off a boat once for misdemeanors and maybe the owners (chocolate kettle) daughter not liking some of my comments. In truth he was a cruiser sailor who never should have taken up something he wasn't preparted to learn in. I liked the size but on the rail it was fairly uncomfy.

Later we got kindly picked up to complete the scottish series after a mast break on the overnight. I got to sleep on the boat and got a lot of really bad attitide from some skinny dick of a contender sailor who got so drunk one night he vomited in the gangway, a little out of character..... anyway we went like shit off a shovel and pulled out some reasonable on the water results in IRC 2 against X332s etc.

I did winches and they are KUNTs on the big smeg. THe boom can bump them with too much backstay or late runner. Not sutiable for a wookey. THe 400 rectified the sitation but died in IRC inshore. Offshore boats the both of them, with the 38 not stripping it's no.1 until 25knts true!

Real Thoroughbreds

The corby 35 was an out and out CHS thoroughbread. It was well put together and pretty much well slept it's core crew. Big, heavy bulb a defo displacement racer. Tacked through little more than 70'. Still not exactly exciting to sail like a sports boat.

( the later skippers RH-man, simon martin - obviously a lot better than that wanker Jonty who put us on the wrong side of the tide up the Irish sea with hours to pay for it! )

Good to put some ISORA race wins under out belt, but much of the competition didn't stand a chance.

Learnt that winners are not that far above loosers:

Boat prep and boat choice in the first place
New sails
good crew
off the start fast!
listen to info, take action early
mistake? get out of it ASAP
go the whole mile- focus and lash your crew to the rail and winches

The J125

This is the perfect boat...a stallion in carbon fibre and epoxy.....9.1knts up wind at around 41' in , wait for it, 11 knts wind. off wind performance - many spinnaker reaches/runs at 25knts. Maxi, volvo/whitbread 60 performance in 41 feet with only 6 on board...

Ramp on a little check stay..like a gear change on a bike, woohhoo an extra half knot immediately as the main deepens just that couple of inches.

Why it was dumped? Production costs? no real development of an OD class? Poor on IRC and PHRF most likely.

Toray they go in for swing keels and square top mains to get this performance...sod it, after the recession bring back the J125

The J109

This is the one boat which has suprised me most above 33ft. It points pretty good, chonks on if you crack it off a little in waves and surfs readily despite it's weight ( 2o% more than an X35), dead rise and keel design. Competitive on various schemes- designed as an IRC optimised boat in FRANCE, yeah not a true Johnson boat, and cruisy / difficult enough that some dicks keep the perf' related Lys in check. It goes off 1.28 / 9 on lys but could be jumped up with gorillas and do ok at even 1.34 !

I can see why the bigger Js are better on space but hell this does it all fine- feeling a little more like a 32 footer than say the 362 for some reason.

The only poor thing is the winch positions which are located far back for the helm to utilise in shorthanding. Mistake for me, but enough people do this! Doubling up with a deck winch would have been good. Main needs a gorilla like yours truly- although it is quite friction free until under very heavy load. Kicker on Jambo was maybe not enough purchase as it didn't eleviate the main friction at say 17 knts wind true.

More than competent- a true thoroughbread in the displacement cruiser racers.

Where have I come since last year?

2008-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

In early 2007 I wrote about being with the exotic boys and girls and thinking it was a bit shitty, and my 'gear changes' were bad and my heavy weather sailing was poor.

After a couple of races with them though I could see that I was confident in over 30 knts wind and best on the main. Thereafter I resigned and my v. first day I walked up to the 1J109:

I tweaked the rig and thought it was soft and then had to fight even with a reef in! We had a good tactician, a 2.4m builder/designer, and I bowed mostly to him. Race win day 2.

Eating a bit of humble pie and bowing to better regattamenn: lesson learnt, move on to my own 'right boat, right time' on their curve or alternatively get on a way good boat.

Also this year I learnt more about gear changes- listen to the sail makers, twist the sails, use the traveller and back stay and set the rig up a few turns. Steer around the bigger lumps and correct by pressing on the jib/genoa and easing the main. Steer up in the lulls with smaller lumps. Genoa a pancake along the foot with good twist and top tell tales flying inner most of the time to depower, while then powering up for the big lump steers.

More than anyone but TG I managed to push them up the results ladder- even when off tactics my boat speed and team work got us up into some seriously good spots and lead to wins all over the place after my move. 16th under Fæder'n puts us amongst the top 20 in the country, and probably in atual fact now it is a top 5 LYS boat in eastland at least.

I learnt more about my place in the world being decided by initial chemistry and then some back room dealing and 'forlik's before I even step on board with anger!

A brief history of ... the future : Where Next?

2008-10-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Where next after all this commitment to sailing?

Well now the only over riding motivation is to have more control over the boat and more confidence in utilising that control!

Put less bluntly:

1) helming competantly, assertively and responsibly

2) boat speed and fast helming

3) positioning at marks

4) tactics

5) starts

6) last not least- Going up the Beat: sides, gusts, lifts, fleet-positioning

Given the right day, oban-tob inluded I can pull out something special in all the above.

But I feel I have never really been mixing it on an OD start line and a decent set of beats to windward. I feel all that "going left" and using the bend or tide lines eluded me.

Getting off the start line and going right is often as good as you need to be in H or a large OD fleet. But really going the right way.....that is my next step.

good crew makes you a helming genius.

So all this means:

getting a snipe. Being selective and up front with new boats. Sailing just for fun and occaisionally. I can't kid myself on any longer that I am happy to go out with some tosser who is a controlling tit who won't respect me. I have to stalk my prey and corner them in the bar long before I get on board.

snipe haas a whole host of problems, financing the first, but also crew. But it is the way forward and perhaps if it is not on for next year then I call "T" and just sail when it suits me.

In helping determine what motivates, stimulates and gratifies you on the race course you have to also use what you don't like to define it. Kind of matter-anti matter, yin and yang. No good without an idea of what Evil is all about.

what don't I like:

1) being condescended- Mr. H's wee 'quips' to every boat I have sailed on in his wake! Pricks who presume you have not sailed before. Controlling owners who don't listen

2) not being listened to, not having influence on board.

3) arrogant crew who piss me off, creating conflict.

4) being kept out the 'golden boys' boats.

5) irregular owners ie. invited when it suits them and no reognition for efforts- glamour rew come bak on board for events.

6( lack of deck or fleet fluff.

7( lack of social, wee beers

What I don't mind now are:

beginners, helms who may learn something, HC cruiser/racing under LYS or IRC etc. not going on Tarbert scale piss ups....sailing less often!

A brief history of everything ...on the water. Part III

2008-10-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

In 1998 or late 97 I bought my first boat, a Tasar, which was in usuable condition. A nearly new mainsail in 98 got it going pretty well. I had one good pursuit race out paing an ISO until the last running leg. Steve from up the road answered an ad' to come sailing in 98 and that was also my introduction to Roger Raven and "Wings" the J125. So my biggest breaks in offshore racing both came from as far inland as you can get in england!

( I Must look at my sailing CV because I am losing track of 93-95 and 97/98/99 events!)
In my first weeks in the manchester area I was living up Saddleworth, a place far more jolly than it's grim association. I was nightly drinking and noshing up at the Church Inn, uppermill. Haileys comet was high above the moors on those February and march nights I would stride up the steep hill and down into the gulley where t'pub was. The land lord took me under his wing and introduced me to the crowd. He then mentioned that Dave Cummaford was a big sailor. So at an after hours one friday I think I got to know Dave and playing softly softly I was asked at the end of the night to come for some offshore racing that season. "We'll need you!" was his response to my grateful acceptance.

Converting Machine 96 was probably without doubt the most serious CHS racer outside the Solent at that point. The scots/irish BH36s and J35s were better boats but not custom racers with big logos and crew jackets....Dave would have done much better with either of those boats atually under CHS. The boat was really only spectacular in appearance - fine lines, big logo, the now 'patent' Corby cross bars on the transom and the masthead rig. But it was a heavy ballasted boat and really although it would do 7.9 up hill it struggled to get double figures down wind without major waves.

ISORA 97 and 98 was a fairly light airs affair with only force 6 to contend with on one beat all the way from Conway to Dub'. I think this was actually my first or 2nd with them and I got main but it was bloody hard work. There after it was Celtic Week 97 which marked my losing interest. The glamour pusses from the Merlins came on board, having not done any offshore and took over winches to no really good effect. After being sent down to reduce windage my game was up. Dave had a reputation and a temperament and a greed which made him a little cold. Anyhows with his 99 attempt at silver in CYCA at scottish series and accompanying crew walk-off that year I was on the right track out. CVMach was a pretentious boat and he never did anything big with his Cork 1720 later in OD fleets.

It was all offset with the fact I had an Irish girl in 1998 which made for a couple of cosey overnights.

I think I did one more ISORA with dave that July 97 and maybe august. In total it was probably 6 offshore races plus half of celtic week before giving exuses for the late season offshore, and actually getting some silver ware at Cumbraes- MR DF in full colour side 79 Y&Y from T'jig II. ( i remember it was either 97 or 98 now becuase I had my golf and the brakes went glassy near the foot of the hill from Glasgow!)

I was keeping a foot in Scottish waters with Rover Series 98 and 99, with a view to the smeg 38 'fleet' which never got off the ground again. I split my efforts between the Raj and Moon dance and got bommed off moon dance for my fuk up with the dinghy. I guess by 98 I had still not committed to Angel terra. I was aiming for a 98/99 scottish series and Smeg nationals thereafter. I held my shore bed in Tarbert and told Dave I could do some days. 98 was cork week so it was I think scottish series on the braveheart followed by training weekends up to Cork and me being a bad smell for Vmachine that year in pubs/shops.

Also I squeezed in my first ever West Highland Week, with the Crinan-Oban, Lorne and Round Lismore days. I came back to do more of the event in 99 on the same L28, the badly 'capped B31.7 cheating us. But we got that bloody stupid life boat thingy. Luckily on the impala we got a cup we could drink outta in 2000/2001.

Jesus 99 was a big year! It was also 99 that I did the big myth of malham race on "wings" the J125, getting asked back! 9 knts up wind!!! A new asthmus but you know it is always good to avoid travelling and terra scotia was on the cards that July anyway. In 99 we as mentioned above did TWHW on the L28 with some success and BS from Mr. H junior in Tob'. A couple of race wins at least but the 31.7 beat us. I grabbed the win on the shortened Tob-south race by calling a bannana with Defiance parked in mid sound of mull. My first big call?

What I learnt from all this was that winners don't do that much different than perennial losers like Rajah ( still back of fleet in only 7 boats now!) They make fewer mistakes and get off the start line at speed. When they do make a mistake they get out of it and then work their way back into the race. When robbed of information or reliant on bad navigators they tend to mess up just as much as the next man. Also sails are immaculate and numerous. Boats well prepped.

99 marked my come back to Scotia which is really part 4. I built upon my apprenticeship and big-boys experience and kept the learning curve going.

Platu 25 / beneteau 25 platu worlds Crete 2008

2008-10-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

pretty good example of a great yacht race from the Platu beneteau 25 worlds in Crete

The weather mark has an out of sight offset mark which explains the lack of launching and gybing!

Note the variety of prebends at the weather mark on this semi breezy day, and also that the boats seem to be set to just track fast through the uneven seas, rather than a lot of rudder being applied to see-saw through the lumps.

Also note as they round and fetch over to the trip mark, they keep the jib pinned in - this stablises the boat as that main is a big lever.

Lovely synchronised kite launch after the trip mark by two leading boats.

Quite a few violations at the weather mark and one collision aptured on film, quickly followed by a DSQ whistle.

Lovely boats, pity they are using 6 crew which kind of defies the point and in this heavy sea to light wind event was little advantage I'd say.

A brief history of everything ...on the water. Part II

2008-09-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

After all my child hood efforts were burned out on the painful memory of my fathers death and all that, I kept a wide berth from the sailing scene. It keeps it's own distance if you don't really try to get into the cliques.

I had little interest apart from scouts and that was more being sociable. Eric Dicskon ( now Laurant) had an interest in a moth ( like a ply Europe) and some wee at but I just didn't see the point. I did think about Tighnabruaich sailing school, which was cheap as chips back then, but even that was beyond our family budget.

Once in a while I would wonder about racing on tuesdays in the garelochs, pipers and dragons around the loch. In my day the royal northern and clyde was off limits. My dad it seemed had either been snubbed or had in turned snubbed them and his cousin Hamish Lawrence. John did work as boat man for a while but at an arms legnth from trojan maid or Kieta.

My only sailing as a young adult was with David Eglington on a delivery to Crinan, or the basin actually just before there. I was a student maybe in first or second year and I think he was a littel unimpressed on the whole as I never got asked back. Maybe it was my coming completely empty handed on board. I did get a glass of wine and I think john brought it, meeting us a ardrishaig or something. We sailed overnight from rhu and I got to set the big genoa and steer alone, with a following sea on the dead run. The boat did well. I luffed too much. Thinking back I remember the grey firth before us and the high swell. I must have sailed more than just wayfarers in the intermediate times but I really don't remember. I think I just had a sense for it all, absorbed feeling from all those tours in the sea scouts.

My deciding to give dave leslie a lift one night changed my life, maybe long term for the worse, but certainly towards a successful sailing career. Dave is a fanatic and a scatter brain but generally a good fun guy to have on a boat, even if his fukups are funnier than his patter. He was working at the northern as boat man, having just dropped out of silvers within a few months or even weeks of passing out from his apprenticeship as a boat builder. He has never explained to me why exactly, but he did spend years being depressed and wanting to escape whatever normality he could.

I went over for a Cove race, probably had done the social before, but went out on a Contessa 33, think it might have been that john white guy. Had the tee shirt and did some old fashioned wicnching in 1991 with my wee flash car on the dock.

Anyhows he got me on board "deviance II" the predecessor being a Toledo with a mouse giving the vees painted on the keel. Now this was actually not a cosey little tour under the wing of my good old scout mate. This was a baptism of fire. In at the very deep end on a sports yacht being run by drunken cowboys.

To begin with I got winches but my lack of prowess soon lead me to being ballast. However I did get a very good overnight experience on a tight reach from gourock all the way to Hamilton Rock light. It was actually the most spectacular overnight and remains probably so becuase the wind held until 2am. We were up over ten knots and I could see the whole snotty fleets lights coming in on starboard to round the same mark! We had other class ones in sight. Later there was a moon rise and it looked like Saturn without the rings up there in the southern skies above the Heads of Ayr. Dave navigated a 15 minute decreasing tack up the new beat to the next mark off Irvine. I crashed out and awoke just at the bloody mark we should have been at 6 hours before. GPS was bought later that season! Dave was never allowed to navigate again.

In these days the FC Europe was a CHS class 1 boat with the red and white pennant proudly flickering on the back stay. Now it would be two or three. Dave was there and around for the rest of the week I think, and it was thursday night to wednesday back then with most people cruising home thursday thereafter. Big steve became a good mate and I took up with foredeck with him for the rest of the season. This was way back, 14 years ago now, phew!, in 1994 ( or 93??) towards the end of my living in Glasgow.

In 1994 (5?) I was probably on board a bit but got bummed off by them and Charlie Chips so as soon as I was not 'selected' for the then Rover series I booked myself in to Tighnabruaich sailing school. There was a jolly band of manchester high school girls, their teachers and some pouty fading beauty called romana or the like- a bearsdaen offspring doing the nicey nicey 2nd generation in child psychology. Her date came too- a prize asshole. I missed on that trick and also a prime bit of schooly. My crew was a teacher at the school who later remined me very of John Keefe. We started in wayfarers and progressed to the laser fun, which er was fun for two people. I remember it blew up one afternoon and we beat up the west Kyle from a picnic lunch in about 18knts wind. I kept the wee boat going and pointing, pinching to spill the gusts. If only I had kept up in dinghies after that day!

It was a windy first two days, the marking of the turn of late may weather patterns to wet-stormy away from my boyhood wonder days of sun for weeks in mid and late may ( always in time for exams!) there was a cocky instructor who had been on the last whitebread on Merit Cup I think. He didn't like me. We had wee drinking sessions in the byre of the lovely youth hostel, a former grand farm house or gentry villa which is no longer alas a youth hostel. Tighnabruach and kames is much as it always has been- at the end of a loop in a little used road and always on the edge of economic decrepitation.

I learnt how to rig boats, steer boats and generally have some fun with a sense for the wind. As with much of my early sailing ( pre books) I just absorbed a lot without it being fully consciously learnt or kind of half learnt it to let it fall in place later.

I had also just moved home in 94, one of those 'mistakes' of mine after being at RFM a short while. I can' remember doing any sailing later that year, but I reckon I must have got back on defiance.

In 95, I guess I had been doing various bits and pieces, thought I was on the train that year actually , maybe I am a year out on the above with sailing school in mind?? I was working in a 'take the pay cheque' job which was more trouble to commute than it was worth paying off a couple of grand of MSc debt/ 1994 debts. I advertised my services at the RNCYC with a preference for one design and got rewarded by Tom from Rajah calling me. I was set for a first delivery evening with Andrew, Patricia and some other guy and maybe some more people to get to Port Banatyne for my actually only ever Tobermory Race- once huge on the calendar in the clyde as the departure of gentlemen for cruising or West Highland Week post clyde week.

We must have had a totally unmemorable race, maybe I can think of going round the burnt islands with the kite needing dropped. We dined at a new posh resteranter on the edge of the basin at Ardrishaig. I met my enemy in the very freindly Rupert crew. Thereafter through the canal on a fairly mucky day If I remember right. The beauty of being piped through with Ivanhoe just a boat ahead of us though will stay with me as a prize memory as will the following day.

Because of the Doris Mor's big tide we had something like an 0530 start. It was a mucky night and I think we stayed on board due to the early doors day ahead. However it blew up a nice force 3 to 4 and we squeezed through the Doris under kite, me dumping it when we went shy. There was apparently a good few knots bad tide too.

Later on we all just parked up somewhere north of Croabh Haven or maybe off kerrara. I remember seeing "highlander" I think Scotts FC 10m was called at the time doping piroetts and defiance finnally chugging through us as the wind got up.

We all grouped up again off the castle and then the wind decided to blow and produced a rather spectacular run of the bunched up fleet right up the sound of mull to a rather hairy drop and 90' turn to the finish line almost on calf island.

I was mentioned in despatches to Lord and Master Roy the owner, and was going to be a firm fixture onboard. Given my disgraces on just magic and deviance, I was locked out of any quality sailing for a while anyway. I missed out on good IOD and the sigma 8ms sailing. Sod it. Also on a good deal of social at that point as Andrew had decided to be early middle aged.

If deviants were my baptism, then Raj' was my apprenticeship and we sailed in all conditions up to force 7, and I learnt navigation and watch leadership onboard her on the ambitious runs to Cork week in 96 and 98. I started with winches and pretty much stayed there until my inpasse with them in 99.

Cork week 96 was the smegma 33 nationals with I think 74 boats booked on. It was a dream like event- the delivery was fun, the partying was huge and most of all the weahter was brilliant. Light winds and sun. Neil McGregor was our erstwhile coach and while I trimmed jib and kite for the first hald of the week I moved forward to bow on the wednesday or thursday. Quite a line up! the line being over a mile long. If I have to say any one event was "the best" then of course it would be cork week 96. Even the delivery home was fun, given I should have been on a train and not a Jane Ross in the forepeak to Howth! I went on to see Johnny McAlpine in Belfast and have a taste of the city in state of renewal, including a tour up the shankhill to the museum.

The racing in 96 had everyhting and scottish boats dominated. on the third race or so went round the top mark third boat with St Joan and vendeval in front of us! We scored a fith and I think an 8th or tenth to end up 21st overall. We even had an outer four course - really fun and tough work. Also visitation to the Beamish brewery and a fine wee pish up there and good food over at Kinsale for one night.

1996 was the isthmus of my apprenticeships, with sailing often being a 5 times a week affair. I was working at the swimming pool so had plenty of time off. I did pipers tuesdays with big Tam, and even got on mr. dulls 505 for a tour. I think I sailed every weekend bar one or two from May to October and usually two evenings. I began also sailing with Harold Hood, who was a born winner with a killer instinct. Raj' didn't do wednesdays so I was on board with the hoods and this was good in many ways but I did fall back into being on the outside of the young crew a bit. Pipers were a bit more fun to be frank.

98 was a wander lust for me after the fantastic 96 week in cork. I was in madchester and the only shit I gave was booking a tour to Cork. this was aided by Andrew being in fatherhood time mid july but there came my down fall. There was a critical lack of confidence roy had and I reacted badly to this too. I did manage to fly in to dublin, do a swifty with the bint in Booterstown claiming I was the other side of dub when they arrived early in DunLaoghrie. I took the train as planned with big fat steve down to Arklow. Which was still a shitter of a town but had had the tour de france or someit through there so was in it's pageant bunting.

the week was a big let down, proving my "never go back" attitude which in this circumstance was justified. It was quite wet, misty, light winds on most days and us doing ultra conservative starts and death slot approaches on port. Coupled to Roys stubbornness on a frigging no 2 to no 1 shift on the short run.

Anyway my apprenticehip was served on board as both trimmer and foredeck man. I should have bowed out gracefully but then again they did treat me like shit. Some ex navy wanker who sailed previously on Phoenix ( 98 winner at cork) I can't remember his name., but he put me on the side of the boat and that was it.

The one thing I regret about the cafuffle in 99 was that I never did go back to OOD racing in earnest. However I had a very enriching 99-2002 where we won many races with my help from the laser 28, the hunter 707, Johnny Dryborougs T'jig II, converting machine, the IMX38 Braveheart and the FC 8m of Euan Morrison. ALso then the whole Menorca sailing week and my own tasar etc etc.

The resignation did leave me "boat less " for the leaving do at the RNCYC with ac ouple of Irish terts in my sights too. I was pretty stressed out at the time I have to say anyways with Anita and my other job.

Speaking of ood the years 1995-2000 were huge in the clyde. OOD dominated in fact. It would be interesting to see what money was involved then and now and who was funding such boats then and now. We had all the day boats with good turn outs of pipers and IODs in particular, then the sonatas, the very last races of the impala fleet in 95 or 6, the emegence of the Cork 1720 fleet, the small fleet of Euro 8ms, then of course the sigma 33s and even maybe a couple of starts for 38s on the clyde at that time. The forth as well had some od with also the 707 starting to make a fledgling fleet.

After 2000 I guess the bubble burst for many people in scotland. Everyone who was an employee had to work harder as did many small businesses. The rich got richer, house prices rocketed and the wee gap periods of high discrecionary earnings of the 70s, 80s and mid 90s evapourated in scotland into a spiral of money in bricks and mortar.

My early fukups with deviance, the cafuffle of my anger with Slapper Ross and my 'dog boat' label with the Raj kept me roundly out of 1720s or BH36s or the glamour pusses on the clyde. But I just went off and did my bit darn sarf didn't I!

So part IV will be a look at my down south exploits.

A brief history of everything ...on the water. P1.

2008-09-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

I always loved being on the water. There is an atmosphere, a quality to the light and feeling, a set of smells all of which is very reaussuring. But what I love most is the different perspective you get on the land.

As a lad of maybe four or five I was rowed out in my oversized hyper orange lifejacket to my dads wooden boat right off the shore infront of our house. As soon as I looked over my shoulder onboard the Trojan Maid, there was a parallex shift in thinking and perspective. The boat was fast and close and hard now, where as the dry land was far away and a different set of happenings and angles. Sounds were both dampened and amplified depending on their source. Overall it was quieter on the water and the peace struck my soul as even a small nipper.

My dad would give me a fishing reel and let me get on with it. Usually it was dabs caught with those orange muscles, but once it was a rainbow trout who struck as a silver bullet when the bait was being hoisted in. Much to my fathers delight. I think the cat eat it, all one pound of flesh after it had been on display to visitors over the following week.

Sailing was usually a short tour and the most ambitious of those was outside the narrows and wind permitting "round the sugar boat". This was always a good goal but dad being a little over cautious kept a good distance in all but high springs. Many years later we would lie in lee of it's hulk with a line from a sigma 33s bow to one of the derrick masts while eating lunch.

Sailing was as much about coffee and pack lunches as it was getting anyware and despite Trojan Maid's fine lines and generous sail area, I never raced on her and doubt dad ever hoisted a spinnaker in anger. However there was plenty of 'ready about' lee-ho, and " gybe oh" calls. The boat never seemed to heel very much.

Once though I was getting quite big and my dad just gave me the helm while motoring out quickly thorugh the moorings. I took a very bad path with the hard torque steer from the high revs. Dad lost his much loved denim cap in rushing to grab the helm. He hadn't realised that he had never actually taken the time to teach me to helm. We tried to rescue his cap and he was in a bad mood thereafter. We must have been goign out to look at something or other.

Over night tours were few - Swines hole near carrick castle with the sulubrious bikini clad bearsden girl ( mandy? a different claire?) singing " leaving on a jet plane' and another seventies classic about not being the man for you..My dad if truth be told was a dirty old man! I maybe got a longer tour on Trojan Maid but the longest tour was on a 'plastic' and turned out to be the last.

My dad had been admiring the jaguar 27 of Hodges along the way off Blairvaddich. He took a tour over to it and I guess this maybe got him looking at other boats. Years later I sailed with old hodges and his eloquent narration of west coast sailing, while racing with his stammering son. So that year or couple of years 79-80 we started trailing up and down to the Ayrshire coast to look at boats around 10K. Contessas and diverse things. The engines got a good looking at. Diesel hydraulic on some contessa like craft ruled it out as "complex". Uncle bill and aunty ruth were often in toe and knew a bit about bored kids, keeping me entertained by just getting my attention and being, well, cosey types.

So eventually a nearly new Jag (catalina original US make) 27 was secured. I think it was a late seventies repo' boat. Euroyachts in glasgow had it for 12K I beleive and Bill and john went in on the deal.

Boats and marketing DIY and save!!!

2008-07-21T04:31:00.001-07:00

QUOTE(KnockedDown @ Jul 20 2008, 10:49 AM)
Rough numbers and I may be way off but here goes. $30k for a Viper (which includes sails, trailer and shipping) + a guessed at $3k royalty payment + 15% on 30k ($4.5k) for dealer mark-up nets you 37.5k which is most of the way towards $40k. Of course if the dealer mark up is any higher (say 20%) you're pretty much there. Still unaccounted for is the carbon vs. aluminum rig and better build of the Viper vs. the SB3.

Brian's royalty is not a significant number.
The raw build cost of the Viper is actualy higher than the other smaller sportsboats. Its a longer hull. It has some high end components (carbon mast, orbit blocks etc). Its a technical lightweight hull requiring more hours than a simple layup. Its built by craftsmen in the UK rather than a production line in Asia. Out of the factory door, a Viper is more expensive than the other 20' boats.

The big difference in the economic model of the Viper is that you are buying it straight out of the factory door.

The cost of the traditional business model of promoting, marketing and distributing a 20' sportsboat is a great deal more than 50% of the build cost.

Guestimate of traditional (eg Melges) Model:-
1.The builder of the Melges 20 is McConaghy Boats . McConaghy Boats sells the M20 to Melges for a profit. (I doubt less than 15%)
2. Melges who has invested in the design, the molds and the promotion expense also wants a substantial margin (I would doubt the margin is less than 30% on their cost)
3. Melges has appointed some dealers and will not undercut their dealers. The Dealer will typicaly expect a 20% margin on a boat this size (no less than 15).
4. R/P either collects a small royalty per boat or got paid up front, or a combination. Lets combine royalty and dealer at 20.
1.15 * 1.3* 1.20 = an approx 80% mark up on build cost.

The Viper class association looked at all these options when we wanted boats built. Trust me, we were shown plenty of well thought out plans that had the Viper selling for well over $40,000. We opted for something different.
1.We opted for a slightly more expensive build option where we knew we would have an involved, highly qualified builder who has the engineering expertise to keep the boat leading edge.
2. Grass roots, word of mouth promotion.
Rondar is a builder pure and simple. They are not a marketing organization. The US sailor is buying a Viper straight from the builder , the equivalent of buying a Melges straight from McConaghy.

Someone coined the phrase, the "wikinomics of the Viper". They are not far off the truth.

Traditional Distribution model = X (builder) + Y (Brand owner and promoter eg Melges) + Z ( Dealer or distributor or sales force). Price = $X+Y+Z.
Wikinomics Viper Model = $X.

Full disclosure. This will change. As the Viper class grows. As the volume of boats being produced by Rondar grows, and the volume of boats sailing that want spare parts and service grows, it is inevitable that there will have to be a US based service and distribution capability. As always, everything about the Viper will be transparent and you will read about it here first. In the meantime, despite the decline of the dollar and the increase in the coast of epoxy and carbon, you can still buy a heck of a sportsboat , ready to race for $30k.

bad for the health...and career?

2008-05-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

I actually think it has had quite a negative effect outside in life.

This is quite simply because you get to be a grumpu cnut on a boat and do a lot of shouting or disagreeing while someone else takes the end decision with or without you.

I keep on asking myself why my success and potential on the race course is not tranlated in working life and the answer is simple- they are two very different situations. In an entrepreneurial or aggressive environment you can behave like you are on the NM day 1 but it doesn't pay in corporate life.

To elaborate, corporate life rewards cunning assertiveness and political back-play. This works on boats off the course but out there you get heard.

All the nerves of running my own boat were all about stage fright. The fact that in having crew in a dingy you actually control your aggressioon and frustration is centered on yourself is good. You learn patience and communication skills.You sublimate and learn from your mistakes, rather than blame storming. You learn to see yourself and you r limitations objectively while doing just what I was writing about earlier- the sigh and grin after that moment you actually gain "experience".

another another day at the office

2008-05-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

So it has just happened.

I'm suddenly on a boat which I had established a good place and ideas, with three bosses on board and no place to move.

I'm stuck now! not again ..tapped on the corporate MBA restructuring... And once again it's all about channels to the helm. If they don't buy you and keep them open, forget it!

I could moan and get frustrated but there is no real craic on the boat, no beers and only Horten to look forward to.

I could go all self analytical but at the end of the day fuk it, it ain't my fault ..not my lack of language just a bad time.

It is the same old thing that I don't inspire confidence in people because of my skeptik nature and maybe my intonation.

Actually post horten I have more to look forward to. Taking my own direction.

Another Day at the Office

2008-05-26T07:19:00.001-07:00

Another Day At The Office

Well it was just one of those days when it makes racing seem pretty much like a job and not a pleasure. A combination of getting up an hour early, organising your gear and lunch, commuting on the motorway sets it up to be like this as it was with Activ8r.

It’s like a sodding day job on a Saturday with no quick beer with the lads after.

On board it’s a combination of hard work and sheer concentration. Worse, we have colleagues who we don’t like. Two dicks in this case who are come either apart or at the same time and try and slag me and get in my face/way. We had a good core with one of the tossers on the bow out of earshot, but we lacked a good trimmer and cabin topp. So in the quest for G1 we turn up someone who just completely takes over from the position I want to be in by being an arrogant shit. My own suggestion on tactics from the rail / main back fire on me immediately of course.

The no-beers , no social factor is what gets me. The pussy whipped suckers here are back home enjoying middag with their wee rugrats whilst over the puddle like nordsjø I know there will be barbeques and beers with plenty and if the kids are to be taken care off it will be running around the club house with the other brats!

However despite this unease or maybe partly because of the tension on the boat, we won. This cam as a nice perk up given that out tactician, let loose on boats direction, would have had us going wrong from the start, he didn’t have the 5min right on his own watch, we held kite too long, he doesn’t know the rules well enough and he took us into a hole and god only knows how we got out of it and managed to climb away from the three sixty two behind us. All the mistakes I’d have liked to been making!

The key things are
1) a reasonably competitive boat age , HC wise, but pref OOD.
2) new sails
3) a good bowman ( or your’s truly)
4) a helm who is easy to communicate with
5) most people with a laid back style and a sense of humour
6) no passengers /cruiser loosers
7) eye candy on cabin top / bow.
8) beers / social
9) ability to have responsibility as #2, man Friday
10) steering
11) Teaching some people trimming, bow, main etc

These are in no real order.

Once again I am in a position where I have to climb back up to actually getting where I want to be on a boat. The main issue is choice of helms. Perhaps I’d be better off with someone more sociable down at the local royal YC.

That is what experience is- learning from mistakes, building confidence by daring. “that quality you acquire the exact second after you most needed it “

Wednesday No. 2

2008-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

So wednesday no.2 and I just feel stripped out of potential or rather actualisation. I seem to have spent half my life at least, being short of where I know I want to be. The other 49% has been being somewhere which is really pretty good for my abilities but not placing any value on it what so ever. 1% of the time I am grinning and happy to be where I am.

hell is not that you are where you find yourself, but in the lust to be somewhere else.

Round the cans, I felt I had no real communications channel and also that I couldn't get my head out of the boat. IN fact I couldn't get my head any further out than the pit!!

Apart from Tore, who was a bit overbearing, no one else seemed to get their head-out-of-the boat. Tore got the car settings wrong and didn't trim the jib in enough. He mismanaged the team work with G2 and had his weight off the rail too often. But I felt his breath down the back of my neck all night and hated the kind of authority he has in his voice and atmosphere.

But TG had a bad night too- he was distant and concentrating on a tight fleet with a narrow of narrow stupid lines. He was a bit barky with commands. Geir had forgotten his windward drop while we actually didn't need it, and they jerked away at the assym sheets killing the sail in the gybe.

Two take outs- one - where do I actually want to be? Can I get there now? Where is the most likely position to adopt and be successful in now and will i be happy comprimising there?

secondly - it is not just my own feeling- TG went and wrote up a whole SOP list by position that night. He is simialr to me in that he is a sales person with little man-management at work and doubts his own authority or is a little insecure so becomes a little defensive and instructive. I need to back out of his face and then get in under the cranium to be able to connect with him.

But at the end of the day, I was tired and suffering from clear signs of post- peri stress. I handled the main at about 75- 80% of my abilities and that means 110% given my tiredness! I was responsive to most calls and adjustments. It ain't my language and the helm was tired and stressed and inner focused himself.

=========================

This year, what is achievable, is realistically down to the commitment I have made and balancing this with family and fitness training. So missing next wednesday is a good chance to get on the bike and also meet TG another time for a crew work discussion.

To make a mission statement this year I will consolidate on my experience on the 362 and 109 from last year and learn to take more cautious steps with language. I will most likely be in a position to influence boat speed and correct trim more than anything else. I will be content once established this foothold to work at this level and contribute to wins. I will however take any invitation to contribute to tactics and strategy. I will define responsiblity for crew management if it is still a requirment at least at the pit and controls end.

My ideal position is as a mentor-coach with crew management authority. To get there I need to be sailing dinghies more often and getting my head out of the boat more often. So this year I will get my head out the boat, while I need to make the step to sailing snipes or actually helming another keel boat.

My frustration factor comes with where I should "rightly be" and the area of making my own mess ups so as to learn from my own experience instead of playing second fiddle. Once again I seem to be creating an unnecessary gap in tbe confidence of others in me by my own worst efforts. These are mostly over-communicating and not learning to use channel open, channel shut type contact or actually sort of people whispering.

What I should be taking out of this is a usual big lesson in life which I still haven't learnt yet. Positivity and making a good effort reep unpredicted rewards in terms of what you get offered. It is actually my negativity, frustration and lack of patience which shows and holds me back in jobs as well. Putting a good foot forward and trying pays dividends.

I seem to be often held back by negativity and some sense of frustration which is all too visible in my aggression. Also my need for authoriatarian style is a weakness in lack of self confidence and ability to actually, put it blunt, win over or even dominate subordinates. In life outside university, my egalitarian nature works more against me than for me in a double bind- I don't respect authority or the system so don't get in, while also locking myself out by playing at the losers level.
'
==============

Upon some broader reflection I think it is positivity which should be my focus. I've enough grey hair now for positivity not to be taken as pure naievite and also I know to seek friends in a circle and not enemies. Scotland and tall poppies- they knock a lot of the natural enthusiasm out of you, wind right out the sails, because they are happiest grumbling along in a good deal of self pity and lazyness.

So I feel I have a reasonable playing field to get all this moving and a reasonable time frame. Location is another matter.

First Day Out.......

2008-05-11T03:46:00.000-07:00

I had slept badly but the sharp sun light woke me up and I was able to hang together a fairly rusty first sail on main again,.

Wind was light SSW between 3 and 9 knts, broken up over the western coast line and also going a little flatter out in the mid fjord.

We had a sailmaker on board, and he helped us with a good pretune up and especially gybing tecnique. Bow man is a cruiser who thinks he is quite experienced. He was unemployed a long time and I see why- a best-knowing norwegian without the actual skills to back it up. Anyway he now has santas little helper, who is erm, good and experiecned on bow from a J133. Nose out of joint and put back in place in one fil swoop.

Said norths' guy helped out to a very good start, and we managed to get some of our own air by stuffing in front of an IMX and a C&C 38. As soon as they tacked away we could make progress unhindered as the IMXs crept ahead.

The main learning points were gybing and keeping the boat moving on feel. I need to keep the main balancing the boat with power so that TG doesn't feel like wandering low to keep the sails full. So that is to say, hardening the leech in the lulls. I had problems getting the top tell-tale to break- the mast set up doesn't help this as I reckon it bends out sideways!

Gybing as mentioned went really slick willy, but this now entails running the main sheet and so big, wet gardening gloves for the gybes and bear aways. We were able to gybe through angles not much more than the trad' kites- so this year our gybes will be better and our angles deeper. The tack line gets let off when the boat digs deep enough for the luff to rotate around the forestay and this is actually in more wind than I had imagined and only out about 50cm to maybe a meter.

Mast needs a rethink- the v.light setting was overpowered and low in more than 7knts with about 12 apparent. The top tell tale needed mucho to get breaking, so there is an issue probably with side bend. The prebend is strange - the mast is almost 'kinked' in the middle.

Apart from this I just need my usual lack of attention to routine and detail to shake off and get folkens into doing the wee jobs on the main without me needing to ask.

These are: halyard, outhaul kicker for hardening up. Kicker out haul, backstay for more wind; backs stay batten for manøvres;

Make ready for battle.

2008-05-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

I've had a coupld of bad brain wave weeks of late coupled to a dodgey bout of IBS, so the pre season nerves are pumped up more than usual.

The big goal is to have a good Færder'n 2008, and to go the right side of nesodden/snarøya and the right way round Håøya. We have good boat speed on JJ but I doubt we can get near Blur on pure round the cans. However, it is not just about this.

How will we do against them? Will we have a bad start or go the wrong way early ? Will the crew be up to it? is the old man going to plan, discuss and listen to me / with me??

If I wasn't full of anticipation and nerves then I wouldn't be half as good a sailor as I am...instead I'd be like a lot of the wannabes and hasbeens like fat stu', who get so far on the learning curve and then stop up, resting on their own laurels, arrogance and letting their hang overs get the better of them.

færderseilasen 2008 is the biggie. After that it is just a summer with Hollanderen at the end of the holiday! So getting it right is key:

1) tidal charts, vinyl encaps with all the key tide gates and charted tide /ETAs at te different nøkkel points- the start, the fjord, Håøya- south and north and the sides, drammen fjord mouth, the small isles and the light and back in to Horten.

2) weather and wind shifts. Likely to be a hottie like last year with an established scando high. A Possibility for compressed isobars or a weak passing front with light airs in the warm sector followed by a big shift north west in the cold sector. Night winds are typically light and either the last of isobarics following the overall pattern and funneling down the dalene or just a night breeze falling of the hihger hills and following the dales down- this was bigger on the west side last year, as the east is low land comparitely. Sea breezes take at least til mid or late mornign so going east for an early thermal did not pay in the lights last year- shortest way to the funnel of a general sea breeze late morning up the great funnel of this "firth" was what paid- we just went out in the tide instead of creeping the shore and that was with guys with maybe 20 Fæder'ns back them.

3) sailing our own race- going the shortest way- following the tide and wind- keeping the boat moving- keeping it in free air.

4) being light for light airs or carrying extra water bottles for more wind.

5) being fed and rehydrated and in good craic.

6) gybe angles - knowing when to dig deep on the tack line and when to go higher.

preparation : 1) starting clean and mid line.

2) hoists and gybes

3) sail changes

4) laminated tideal charts and the big tidal times

5) sailing round Håøya.

I reckon this is my last blast at keel boats- after this it will be snipe helming if I can. I reckon with moving only if I get a decent contract and i will need to buy a car while I am here. Sniping requires a budget and a crew and both of these I lack so far. I am phucked if I am crewing one of these with an old twit on the helm or someone not as good as me.

Asker or VF??

Færder'n 2008

2008-04-27T06:36:00.000-07:00

The crucial thing about the Fæder'n, as with sailing in the english channel, is tide. Knowing this is what wins..

tide plan is no. 1)

For our preparation I will be focusing on these further decisive factors :

2) Keeping the boat moving- boat speed is drawn out on this distance race. The key component of this is freeing your air.

3) sailing the shortest route to the next way point. May sound obvious but it's easy to follow a group of boats

4) morale and focus

5) The jigsaw points - as from 1) for example -the drøbaksund / vest for håøya choice. Where to put the boat for the next big lift or change in tide.

Boat handling is a given and actually not all that critical compared to a cans race, but there can be some decisive tacks to free air and some gybes which can pull out the boat legnths.

Weather- june 13 is not late enough for the summer monsoon - the westerlies dragged in by a persistant thermal lift from the scand'vn high. However it is far enough into the year, unlike Skagen, to be warm breezes and usually not monster lows.

Cove regatta is about the same timepoint every year, but scotland is far to the SW of the often dominant scan'high. It gets a mixed bag, usually not a drifter though.

It would seem to me that the most likely breezes are going to be High Pressure- light isobarics or perhaps big compressed norterly is possible.

A fast passing low would be good, as far as strategy goes for positioning

A Boat Specially Made for Lill' Ol' Me.........

2008-03-11T05:33:00.001-07:00

So what type of boat would I have built for me?

Being a Scot and a pragmatist, I wouldn’t say “Wild Oats V” at 100ft LWL. First of all I couldn’t have it over winter in my garden or even in a local boat yard. Running costs would require ownership of some evil empire or other, and frankly the whole Darth “MBA” Vader thing just isn’t me. Also you have the elite, presidential guard of this corporate death star- your crew of 20 and pool of maybe all and sundry unknown would-be-rock-stars. Sod that for a game of soldiers. I wanna know my bowman when I swear abuse at him and hear what he says under his breath back to me….

Given a life time and a product life cycle for size that fits, there would more than one in the next 30 years or so. Firstly an over-winter-in garden boat, a bigger IRC boat for later and a dream boat within reach.

The latter is ‘case closed’. The J125. Maybe some IRC oppies can be done, but the sheer joy of a fastnet in whatever the weather throws at us or denies us.

Small Fry, Six is a crowd, Think cheeky.

Regarding the smaller boat, 27 – 31 feet with possibility for trailer width reduction somehow- tilt or retractable deck. It would be a racer sleeper, with an inboard for utility and ballast.

Otherwise performance, well it has to do over 7knts up wind at 44’¨or less, or have some killer VMG at 5.9 knts BSp or whatever. Offwind, should go near wind speed like the bene 25 in light, go deep, but also tight reach on what kite it carries as H1. Like the bene it should surf readily and plane, but unlike it it should go higher and sit a bit happier in the wave form. Both of which are ballast related I would take a stab at. In the end I reckon with a 20knt performance with the larger OD sails in 28knts true or 16 knts with IRC sail wardrobe.

So it’s going to be a farr type machine with more freeboard but maybe not as much as the 27.7 or even the Laser 28. Like I say, better to know you have to bend.

Critter comforts wise it could come with a water boiler / spout and maybe an oven/grill. My brother swears by a petit pressure cooker onboard, so maybe a single ring would suffice, but hey, cut out the middle man with a safe integrated water boiler with variable temperature control and auto-shut off after boil. Maybe venting out to the cabin top sides. I digress on to one of my favourite subjects.

She’d have to be fast and IRC/IMS optimisable.
Maybe someone has built this boat already?? The grand surprise 30? The bruvaria 28 with normal kite?

Sailing in a Style of My Own

I don’t know if all these slippy farr type hulls lend themselves to a neutral helm but I would rather a big more feel up wind and some angle lift from the rudder. I’d happily conced light airs and heavy airs to not having any weather helm though.

Offwind some feedback and fightback before broach and an easy positioning in bigger offshore waves is my desire. So a deep rudder with maybe a compromised cord length may be the best.

IRC optimisation

When I say IRC optimisable, it would already be on the way with a good ballast ratio and an inboard diesel. I don’t think IRC penalises draft over the odds, so a lever optimised for 200kg on the rail and a design wind of say 12 knts. A deep keel also generates a lot of lift. In the end IRC optimisation may mean just a smaller wardrobe, but I’d keep the boat with a frac’ and a 105% max genoa/joboa. For OD hey, the sky is the limit, but a bigger kite, an assym option and a code zero or even spinnoa. At this size of boat a 9 sail wardrobe is not an insurmountable cost mountain given it adds a lot to the racing.

To Sprit or Not to Sprit

Well the last paragraph is a good point to diverge into this whole debate. For me the true test of skill and the added VMG DDW mean that normal pole-ing and good old bell shaped kites are to be used. The Assymetric market is a little cluttered with many one off’s and some attempts at OD in my market. The j92 and its development “S” are in there as are older bruvaria 28s the bene 27.7, even the J80 and bull boats. As we showed with both the Laser 28 and the Bene 25 Platu, you can catch that little more wind and dig that little deeper or surf that wave better with a symmetrical.

For cruising or cruiser racing / distance races an assym would however be desirable. Perhaps a la simon Jackson a strap on and flip out A frame could be utilisable with a smaller cruising kite and kode 0. This could also swing the anchor chain clear of the nice hull and moulded gunwhale!

With a vote from enough potential owners towards an international OD class, then I’d go along with assym. But the space a retracting sprit uses and the length a fixed A adds I’d be very persuasive to the contrary. I’ve seen some of the pole telescope tube conversions and also just a big pole on a 707 protruding out from a mast foot strop. Maybe a deck fitting on the hatch area could provide for use with an assym and no extra crap.

Ballast-

The aim would be to reduce way down the moveable, fleshy variety to sail with four really big adults or five average. Mainman is going to have to sit in above 6 knts breeze, so that leaves 120kg on the rail. I guess tricked out regatta sailing would actually need 6 crew. It may all take the size and LWL down to the lower range, but at about 28.5 ft you certainly sleep five is some degree of comfort or six with a pipe bunk berth.

Cruising Capacities

The cruising with the family thang is always likely to raise it’s head. Most racer sailors manage a weekend, a couple of evenings and a booze cruise with either extended family or work, club or committee colleagues. Otherwise the pink elements in the family avoid the waters deeper than the knee and daddy never has the time at weekends to organise it outside sailing. Ikea owns that. Perhaps with the protracted 5 weeks summer holidays, which would drive Americans and Londoners to suicidal boredom and workaholic withdrawal cold turkey, would in fact necessitate a week on board, weather picked out and destinations of entertainment to all.

I happen to think that race boats make very good cruisers, and just require some simple temporary arrangements and equipment to take leisurely tours in. The nice open cockpit keeps you outdoors all day and for ‘smokes and pees’ in the night. The gangway is easy to get in and out of and not very deep as per lower freeboard. This compensates for the ducking and diving down below. Once in the cabin main, you know you are going to be either sitting, kneeling, braced in some contortion by the cooker or heads or otherwise half bent. You learn to live with that instead of the usual, god that was lower than I expected cranial skuffs!

Race boats often draw a little more but lower freeboard and open transom means easy swimming or rescue possibilities. Air draught wise they can be more, but hey the average cruiser here seems to be a brute of 38ft- three or four more roman strides longer than from two decades ago.

Modification wise, well delivery sails can be included in the purchase price as a closer. A code zeroish. Astro-turf for the anchor hadling on deck, a boom tent and a solar dehumid/heater if not actually a full on diesel heater. Given my Herdla 2005 experience, near frost and a shivering half-sleep, maybe the latter would be on the list- if removable for racing or of light.

Delivery sails lend themselves to reefing and stripping, flattening to hell or letting out as baggy wind catchers and on a smallish boat swapping out roler furler need not be a sod (and any way there will be a good solution to light luff foil with roller reefing no doubt on the market soon.) Race boats have the decided advantage of speed under sail. VMG upwind and DDW are more satisfactory, and even faster than on race days given time to build up momentum with the extra weight on board and a free shot at the undisturbed coastal swell. Also you have the asymmetric options or with skilled family, usual kite, for which a broad reach or tighter can actually determine your course and probably destination for the days forecast wind. A further bit of kit, which may lie in the OOD racing wardrobe but unlikely in IRC, would be a code zero fixing to an A-sprit.

Personal Brand Budskap og Seilas

2007-10-12T05:05:00.001-07:00

It's been puzzling me for a long time now why on earth I am so darn good at sailing and so crap at getting on with my career. It's not that I am not good in jobs either...is it a political puzzle`?

Okay so on four likely dynamic områder where am I in seilas?

Internalised Mental- INSIGHT: Very good technical understanding in practical application: dvs can understand theory and apply it dynamically and pragmatically in racing situations.
PLANNING: can visualise (creative) and think out possible scenarios. Sometimes to fast to committ to one idea to the exclusion of other possibilities. Also can think ahead on paper, and present documents for training. REALISATION- can understand own SWOT and team situations- growing understanding of team interaction

Dynamic Gjennomføring- LØSNINGSORIENTERT- showing good maturity in how he approaches problems- also active enough to seek any immediate fix or delay/response to postpone action until after due diligence. Will apply blame in a fair way and take it down to learning- will offer advice to those who make fail- seeing things more objectively than previously. ACTION - a little too fast to act sometimes, but clean in movements and as above visulaistion and awareness of the team work and 'cog in the machine' - working together, communicating, looking, checking, thinking out of own box. LEARNING- is not only highly skilled but is open to learning new technique and knowledge or indeed dismantling and rebuilding of existing methods. Yearns to learn the next step but knows practice on the plateau is what builds towards perfection.

Personal - emotional- motivationery: Internal Values Shared: winning is the goal, getting better the path, contributing the here-and-now. VALUES the experience and is motivated by the escape, the beauty and the camaraderie. Feels usually SECURE in a seilas/båt environment. Likes like minded people and an obvious fit...struggles with bad fit...poor learners, poor listeners, not being given a good deal of respect ...not expecting 'admiration' but respect. Looks for freindly social interaction on the boat to build new potential freindships and to gel as a team. Insecure about very hectisk, very domineering, shy or very passive-aggressive types. Motivated to CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT; LIKES NEW CHALLENGES within a skill-zone pushing the envelope: LIFE LONG LEARNING. Very Motivated to APPLY theoretical, philospophical and verktøy from books, lectures etc.

Social Interactive : Extrovert, seeks and more over expects and demands social interaction: more aware of poor body language- uses good body language. Aware of being unclear- so therefore focuses on message - getting much better at listening. Still can be too fast to sit in his own attitude. Aware his frustration/anger is misdirected and assertive behaviour is rewarded even at the expense of mistakes being allowed to pass that he could have prevented ( in others actions). Not very sociably comfortable outside his team. Nervous with crowds. Knows he can be too over-friendly for norwegian tastes.

What is the Gap analysis to job situations then?

Basically it is a bit more maturity and assertiveness. Also avoiding grabbing the word infront of a leader in a team meeting- leaders in norway often dislike challenge or creativity. THey look for felleskap and sharing of known quantities- resolution of holes in common knowledrge, sounding out of change-management- sound ing boards for unrest and malcontentions.

Poor at keeping it in the bag due to his dynamicity. Poor at dropping one idea to focus on new creativity.

Politically- boat politics are simple. It is a freetime activity, spirits are high and we are all consenting adults. Ego is obvious and poor teams are lead by domineering bad helmsmen who attract only idiots and social inadequate skilled sailors. Pecking order can be challenged, good input is most always welcomed and rewarded. Open discussion is usually encouraged. Feeling of together in the team usually prevails.

Work Politics are Complex: in the work place there are many competing motivations and hidden agendas. Sometimes content and action is not as important as support or being with the team. Egos like and demand to be pandered to and have first pick of responsibilities. Delegation is often by ambush using a third party power to either get a shitty task done or sideline someone from a team task. Things are unfair!!!

As I wrote recently, my failing lies in not being able to go back-stage and talk to the key actors before and after the Theatre of meetings. On the one side I accept some tasks too willingly and on the other I cannot hide my disatisfaction or other feelings when sidelined or ambushed. This relates to my personality issue /difficulty with assertiveness. My two innate reactions or adapted styles are to either be passive or aggressive and this is displayed in either lack of objective thought.

In boats I have learnt to overcome some of these issues by

CHANGINR BOATS. Like jobs, you can change until you find the right one- take the hint Mr M?? In hindsight I probably did about right, with changes or fall outs as far between as four years with Raj.
OBJECTIVITY: focusing on the situation and pointing out information in a calm way. Discussing alternatives and also giving some weight to the risks/ implications of what the helm has decided. Being big enough to walk away from an arguement and then not say "told you so" when the 'inevitable happens'
BEING POSITIVE eliminating negativities, downsizing failures, biting my lip if we lose- there is always a learning experience and we usually make a good effort and have fun.

Okay so what can I learn in a job situation? Sales job, bad! I revert to my adapted DISC workstyle of submissiveness which leads to frustration and pissed off brat behaviours!! Sticking things too long and not looking for work whilke in work or exploiting my network.

What have I learnt in the syslab course?

Body language and reading the interview / interaction: mirror, WAIT, let them have their space and take the lead but show initiative

Focus your message in the three list : think of their requirements for the person and the abilities and be "SPISS" on these issues. Back this x,y and z message with STARS

Network takes kindness and inquisitiveness: you need to give a little interest and then you get a lot. Like permissions marketing you don't jump down peoples throats or offer solutions. You WAIT and draw out a few facts relating to jobs that their neighbours, sons, brothers or colleagues have.

WINITFM- for rekrutment and LinkedIN. Be selling a little more, and thinking in forkant what THEIR potential needs are. Try not to be sleptical to rekruttering people. Be kind.

last notes on sailing the J109

2007-09-22T11:03:00.001-07:00

As spotted the rig was in a light airs mode with about 1cm give on the thumb with the V1s and the D2s while the D1s were bang hard.....Norths comfirmed this....bit worrying given the weakness in the mast step / shim design and the 32 knt gusts. But we went fast and medium high and I got a good ab's and shoulder work out I find sore a week later.

Boat seemed to like a lot of trimming rather than steering to feather or press on the jib.

The No.3 was a nice sail, really a number 2 as it has roach and is about 110% ...sheets BETWEEN the D1s and D2/V1 for upwind and 'just cracked' work. In is too hard on the D1- the clew abraids on it too, whilst outside all is bad for sheeting angle.

Gybing was a piece of nonsense- very hard gybe on white sailes which was avoidable if we had gone high and fallen off. Under kite on the next day collapsing and walking the kite round wiht two people is just useless cruising crap. Marine Blast's video shows the way.

Hoisting...sneek the guy always...sweat hoist at mast seems a bit harsh under the Genoa, but with a helper piling flakes under it would work faster than cockpit hoist and free the upper winch and man there.

Monkey balls...need a feeder system for remote hoists for genoa .

Shifts..didn't really seem to be using them but it was a stupid course and light wind. Took our luck ont he great divide and it ran out.

Rules: I checked up to be sure, to be sure and I was right, all bit the bavaria needed to give us water, starboard tack or not...there was no tack needed at the mark, straight gybe mark. The mark was an obstruction.---

trimming...I need to learn more...but otherwise it'd be no fun. JJ Flash seemed to be faster with a nicer main and utilising hte L1 genoa. The upper third of the genoa is crucial in all winds to match the main and power/depower the slot accordingly and should have leech tell tales at 20%, 33% and 40% on the L1. The main tell tales / tufts worked very well.

Manoerves...Torgeir is an excellent totally quality helm, must be dinghy experience and a precise, laid back nature. The manoerves round the marks were a bit tight but paid...we mayeb need to look at windward drops and hoists on the gybe sets.

Tactics...very good from Ole. Good starts , out of trouble in clean air, although we were slow, late and a bit burried day 2. JJFlash ..They carry a lot of crew who kill speed in the manoerves/hoists. Didn't seem very high in the heavy stuff...couldn' climb wihtout losing too much course and speed on us. Seem threatening on the starts but like to go in early and dominate...this can be worked around. X45 learnt the error of her ways in going for a roll over at the CB end....DSQ / RET.

I think we did not cover the fleet or JJ often enough. Not even loose, just ahead or to lee but then again it was a 'sail the outer diamond day' .

Strategy...don't start int he same Lys band as Luringen! thank god the 11mod beat them. We need to sort out who doesn't matter, who to stay clear off and who to sit on top of for each race....i.e. who is big, who is slow, who is cheeky at the start adn who will sit on us if we aren't off the start in our own air. Take clean air and have fun with any other J109s out to play or the 34.7s ..shoudl be interesting in ASY LYS class next year. COnsider an OD certificate and then IMS rating for events where we are in . In a medium breeze I see us beating Luringen but at an even t we would need to take them out on the line a couple of times and sit on them on the beat to let other boats get in their wind and eat, eat , eat into their minutes.

Fæderseilasen 2007

2007-06-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

We went out to enjoy the sail, but with these guys I soon realised that despite the relaxed atmosphere, it was take no prisoners when opportunity presented itself.

Good omen- we won the warm up race round the bay on the wednesday - enough wind to sail in at 7pm, so looked good as far as reaching Drøbak by 9pm on the Friday under these stable weather patterns.

1103 boats signed up, sea breeze system forecast with the main draw coming from the Oslo 'volcano' basin. Anticipated finishing mid sat evening. 83 Nautical miles ahead of us.

Came up onto the line in a gaping hole 3/4 of the way to Akerbrygge. Engine off, we kept some air but were almost over by SWE 3- the match 38- however they didn't give us room for those above and we had a meter to go, otherwise a 2.5% scoring penalty was the order of the day! Bd form to have an OCS or a protest with this in front of us. But it was pretty clear from the start that this was a very serious class! (Lys *Racing* 36- smallest boat the jS9000 and mostly X362, 36.7s, Bavaria Matches and the new 34.7s looking semi pro!)

SWE 3 continued to like what we were doing along the west shore, cutting over Lysaker bay. But meanwhile it was actually paying for the X332's who I think started behind us to go South towards Nesodden- obviously the local sea breeze effect of the peninsual there was totally over-rulled by the bigger draw above Olso.

However just into my usual Snarøya sailing area it went very light. We stayed in the middel and took a big draw of wind to come back up into the top 15 of our class and leave the X332 behind.

Met office had the tide wrong though and the wind went earlier down the fjord, with a night breeze dropping down at about 9pm. We managed to get ourselves over into this breeze on the West side north of Håøya, but missed the trick that there was enough to creep east and catch vespers from the nesodden side and into the sound.

We managed to ghost out and towards the tip of Håøya. We could see a boat in breeze and heeled down the west "don't go there" side and took after it. Turned out to be a boozed up Maxi 1050, tacking side to side. But he showed us at least it was lifting like hell up the island side. This took us 3/4 of the way along and we drifted on a little tide towards the main sound again.

We came out in a WNW - NE puff system and a big tide running the gap at the west side. Behind us we could now see that we had done big damage to our class and all the boats in front- several hundred boats. We were infact ahead, and remained ahead of the VO70 'Ericsson 1". Once again with a hobie cat for company and now Hans Ulrik in his X99, a long haired guy taking helming duty.

SMS told us we were no 1 in class, although upon reflection I reckon "Dylan" was in front with maybe a couple of others given their finish times.

We elected to stay mid fjord in what looked like 'medstrømm' expecting to place ourselves for the main seabreeze-funnel system from the "firth of Oslo" sucking from the town area as mentioned- and this came in. Local effects east paid for only an hour or two with a big wind still area between the main draw and these shore line flickerings!

Now we sailed clean away from the fleet who were perhaps becalmed ? We maybe hit the edge of where it first "falls" because it was so hot that the system may have been very large. Later that night there was a lot of low pressure cloud formations being whipped around by a high wind- mayeb the jetstream...

Staying out did not pay- I was helming for about 3 hours and we were often a full knot down on one tack. SOG looked good but there was something fishy. The blue X332 had snuck out and they followed the west islands to stay out the tide and slipped up right into the Færder light rock infront of us. An x35 had come through us between the islands and was on it's way north to the beer tents already. I reckoned with a few other escapees with our mistaken 'go out' and that is seen in the 7 which finished.

The rock was at the very, very edge of the breeze and it lifted northover just at the worst time for us. A bad bit of tide forced us to piroet around the bloody stick and let a X412 through. Half an hour later and it was about 9.30, with 20 naut's ahead of us. We had a debate in a lull, but started to drive at 5 knts so damn the motor. This happened two more times, once with full packing under way, but we did one of my famous "bananas" keeping moving until a relatively strong night breeze fell south of Horten. Boat speed climbed suddenly to 7knts! the goal was in sight, abotu 3 miles north as we hit the shore line. We came a mile from it at 12:50 and it was windstill.

Poor sods us, we agreed it had been a bloody enjoyable sail and a huge effort for a scratch crew.
But not so poor as a smaller boat which was nearly on the line at 1am!!!!!

35 hours and over 80 miles for a race I said I'd only do once.

I'm coming back for more....!

owners...

2007-05-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

The trouble with boats is the owners and the problem for owners is getting crew who keep the thing ticking and moving in a general way they like.

...be that win after win after win, or just helping them learn their new boat.

The problemo with being crew is that you have to get the job you want on a boat that suits you. Compromise is very unsatisfactory on either count!! Early in your learning curve any boat will do, followed then by a good OD fleet to sail in- at least mid results- and then progression to better and better boats.

now the plumm job, lets face it is main trimmer. You bend the ear of the owner on tactics and you are the gas pedal on the whole boat. But it often is a job that is 'dead mens' shoes. Bow is the next plumm job followed by mast- as jobs go and not "rail consultancy" . These both do the exact oppostie- they keep you away from the owner and give you a nice view under the kite. Spurts of skillful activity are not rewarded by self satisfaction at seeing chaos behind you or in other boats.

Spinnaker trimmer is the next plum job, but this is getting into 'the trades'. It's hard work, cranking your neck up and concentrating for maybe hours to avoid broach or just keep the boat moving. But it's usually a bit thankless as a task because the helm doesn't often pay attention to you- they can well see the luff curve anyway.

Now, down at the tradesmans entrance is the jib trimmer. This is the angry guys job. He is by this position in life, under valued and he knows it! he has a vital job to upwind progress but is more often recognised for not getting his arse up on the rail fast enough. Always out his comfort zone because as the speed builds the jib looks a bit shit and he gets the (unwarrented) blame.

finally there are the shittier jobs of lower life forms. Some are such bottom feeders as to nbever really progress...ambitionless boozers glad to work off a hangover with a view around the boat

It's difficult for crew to take the risk and dump the boat, because they may be just 'on trial' and every bloody club in the world seems to go out wednesdays! However for the owner they want the best they can and hate descension. So be ready to get binned down to some shitty job or worse, off thew boat looking for a space well into the season.

This is the issue- owners want to make the calls and learn up their own skills, and flatter their own ego. Not all, but most want to make the calls.

sod 'em.

The addiction to the water........

2007-05-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

More on why we do it!
It begins with a sunny evening. The sun makes a million fleeting diamonds on the sea and the boats come out to play. They seem to move around the lochs or estuaries, or the little lakes in a colourful procession, like white veiled druids on the beat and a riotous hindi festival on the spinnaker legs.
Perhaps we sailed a bit as a kid in dinghies, or with our family on a cruiser boat. But we look upon these wednesday ceremonies with growing interest and a pang of jealousy whenever the sun shines and the water is dappled by the wind!

Maybe we take a course or maybe we just have an acquaintance...yet still may we visit a club and peer over the notice boards. "new memebers welcome" as the banner. When the club is open we wander in, heart in mouth. There will be an odd smell- neoprene rubber, silted salt water, soap and adrenaline. People will dart about and either look at you a bit oddly in your non yachtie gear or just look straight through you. The atmosphere is busy if not hectic and There is an immediate feeling of the good deal of cliqueness if not out right snobbery at the club.

Your first boat will be the first offer usually. Quite possible being thrown into the cauldron of a race, arriving to the line with 10 secs to go, nothing set up and the seeming chaos at the end of the world all around you. Mystified some caring crew member takes you under their wing a bit, but most people just avoid you and even shove you around from rail to rail.

You vaguely get the idea of what is up wind and what is down, that the boat heels upwind and sometimes with the spinnaker it heels too much !You realise also that the owner/driver don't always have the boat or situations under anywhere near control. Maybe you end up standing alone in the bar, with a cacophany of apres sail chat defening you. The owner will maybe even cold shoulder you while they bend the ear of the worthies. All in the peccing order, the worthies don't really want to speak to them either.

...and you don't get asked back. The boat is full. Maybe you should do a course, certainly join the club for "insurance reasons". ( at the high end 'royal patronised' club you may be in for a couple of grand very badly spent in your first year, or rahter year minus one!)

Now perchance you make a totolly honset sign and place it on the notice board board "numpty, but I'mm keen, please please let me sail with you!" Or your membership spalshing of cash raises some action on a comittee member who gives a damn about new memebers ( most don't - new memeber, new admin, new threat to them in later years, new guy they recommended who was no good as crew!)

Anyway you pick yourself up and take up a new notice or get a call, and get someone who is prepared to teach you a little. They do this. you actually go training outside race times. They will be an enthusiast most likely.. an older slightly eccentric type who never actually attracts permanent crew to their two man bosun, snipe, wayfarer or flying 15.

...and you soon learn why ...in the race situation small horns erupt from the receded hariline and the scalp takes on a ruddy tone. The once daintily held tiller extension becomes like a scabre in a blind fencing contest..the boat pitches about...commands are shouted at you, at competitors..at himself...You last about three races and a couple of practice sails before wondering why the hell you ever wanted to go on a boat int he first place.

By this time your face is known and if you have bought some sailing gear, you get a grudgind nod now and again or someone asks you one of those trying-to-be-nice-well-we-shoudl-welcome-newbees questions. What you should do is find someone who is in development and aska bout adult new beginners courses in dinghies, but that extra week of holiday or 120 quid eludes your motivation. You read a book in the clubs library and decide to buy one...the first step int he right direction!
===================
maybe it is september by now...you have been on a competant crew course or a cruise as crew or maybe a very relaxed racer-cruise distance race and you "know the ropes" enough to be no longer a hindrance. You're a bit rough and ready, but can mix in. Now at this point the whole thing of ego starts.
Having had your ego seriously bruised by the usual unfriendly reception from 99% of folk at the club, your back is up a bit. Now you realise that those you saw going back and forth talking loudly were mostly bloody loosers and spotted your enthusiasm and also realised here comes another young gun to one day bruise their little ego! The serious crowd have packed up and gone home already or were out practicing early when you arrived.
Now comes your big break. Maybe a hop and a skip, first one small boat with a new found pal ( a kiniving boat pimp in reality, currying favour of owners like birk and hare with bodies for the rail) and then he asks you along to a 37 ft plus IRC racer. it doesn't matter if it's a Farr 40 or a moody 38, all you are going to provide is movable ballast. mMaybe your precise wieght, enthusiasm and outright "shows up on time", wins you a place and maybe you do the whole autumn series. Mayeb you even get a crew jacket name emblazoned on the back or subtly sewn on the breast.
Now you do your first big mistake. You've had soft drugs and played with the pills, but you are about to sign up for a shot of the hard stuff in your veins. Yes of course, a spring or summer regatta for Year+1 and trainign towards this. The mix of reggatta adrenaline, camradery, colour and of course alchol makes you feel, emotionally, you are on some fantastic learning curve. If it's a good boat your fledgling regatta ego gets catapulted into the big time. the team nurture you because well, they set a price on reliability and loyalty, sopmeone not threatenign their job, and after all you have the jacket to pad out the uniforms in loud corner of the marquee a little more!
But your ego has about one half seasons ahead before it takes a nose-dive. You are just mobile ballast. Some life forms thrive in this and work off a hang over on the rail while otherwise just enjoying the scenery and the yachting atmosphere. they do it for years until one fine day they turn up still pissed and get caught in the life lines. But your ego is of course at a little odds once it dawns on you that no one really gives a shit about developing your learning curve. You feel excluded from more and more conversations and distant from any decision on the boat. Your comments on the Sb3 overtaking are taken with some derision. SOon you are back where you were on your first sail, wonder what the hell is going on and what you need to learn to get up there!
Now comes the difficult bit. You have the jacket, you have the wins but you are like tart at the garden party...most people condescend to talk to you and backs are often turned. You feel 'obliged' to stay with the boat but frustrated with your lack of any mentoring. You notice you get invited once or twice to help at mast or tailing in the pit, but soon you are back to the odd cunningham tweak from the rail. Now you knwo y0ou have to get the hell out of your comfort zone ...you never really realise the truth...they need you more than you need them at this point. You are a known, reliable, dull quantity. A sand bag which materialises on the pontoon and then on the right rail at the right time each tack. It's time to sacrifice that jacket!
Around mid way through that first regatta I mentioned, you realise that there is a whole other paper chase which happens. Cheque book racing - you are in handicap! How you seemed to move around with the other boats on the water seems to bare little resemblemce to the result and a well fought line honour can mean a sixth place. Teh you hear about one design.
OOD instantly appeals to you. For a start on these (smaller) boats everyone seems to have a JOB! And you knwo where you stand without refering to a software engineer to calculat running results. It looks pretty with identical boats placed out on the course and the racing is obviously close at starts, mark roundings and the anti climaxical finish.
But attracted by the wood you don't see the trees....Stupidly you committ to a dog for the whole season, when you should have tarted about. They make it clear that they want dpenedability and a season committment ( more on this later).
This OD dog is either an old timer, never wins unless no one else turns up, or a young gun with a bit of money (or credit !) But they offer you a job and promise to teach you. You learn the rougher points of grinding and spinnaker luff curl which is all well and good. You learn to go to leeward in the light and to shout 'more wind coming'. At the sosial you rold boat ask you what the hell you are doing, and the owner blank faces you. Also the OD fleet largely exclude you because you had the audacity to sail with a dog boat.
We all know these guys, at least two of the crew are in hill walking gear and trainers and everyone has life jackets snagging on the lines in force 3. usually their money- read credit limit- mysterioulsy grows after a year or two and, frustrate in OOD they go into a 36.7. What follows them though are sail makers with their teachings ( god is on board, more on them later) and also the reserve list from other 36,7s or good crew from boats with bad handicaps. It ain't long before dear john letters start landing in their old faithful's in tray. The point is they were damn keen, shite in OD and bought their way out of it. If they went back they would still be shite, but would pick somethign like a non-national year at Cork Week and go bag a trophy from even worse "cruiser-sosial racers"
The better boats elude you. They don't want to know you, they have all sailed together for years and would rather put a spanner in the works to stop the boat sailing that let someone new take their job. If you do get a ride, the boats are quiet- everyone knows what they are doing (except you).
But now you know how the outhaul has to be cleated at the boom, the funny spinnaker track works, or any other percieved foible of the boat and you get a season 3 invite to the 'career making' boat. At last!!!
======================to recap then and do the math': you have bought over 2 grands worth of kit, thrown 20% of it away as it was cheap crap in the firts place and now look like a yuppie skier in brand new descente year model. You have sacrificed friends, family and Cardio vasulcalr fitness to join a fairly unhealty occupation as a part time sailor / heavy drinker. In fact you have actually spent an astronomical amount on beer and harder stuff and dinners and membership, travel to events and if you have really "been had" by an owner- a share of regatta entry fees and god help me, the upkeep for the boat.
You spent three years, maybe thirty weekends, forty wednesday nights and all the ego-stress in a learning curve which in fact, you could have done in six weeks!!! Now you have arrived at the boat and job which will propell you into a proper learnign curve and give you that relaxed self confidence to discuss the race with ever more new pals who give you not just the time of day, but want to hear what you have to say on the racing!
=====================
what shoudl you have done then?
You should have booked a series of weekends or two weeks in your first summer doing a couple of courses- namely dinghy level II and competant crew. When you look bakc this may seem a bit anal... but then you start to meet a the odd adult who has sailed less than you but is actually more competent --- well what I mean to say if they are new, is that they are in a more competent position to grow their competitive sailing that you are because they have not learnt bad habits and most of all they have no big sailing ego!!!! ( which, like a wart, has grown on you seemingly benignly but makes you choke at having to eat any humble pie)

The really wise money may have bought their own little dinghy or a littel cruiser. Or atleast crew in something easy like a snipe in a decent quality OD fleet.
Not only do you have the ever present 'youth squad' groupies trampling over you at any chance to get your job or even place on the boat, but you have these clever little planned out sods biting at your heels.
Joining a club is most often the worst adivce you can get. Clubs are shower rooms and dinghy parks for the whizz kids and baby sitting saturdays for the parents. They are a building with no soul, no interest in you. Many boast new adult beginners courses, but these are usually late july and early august and basically you miss the season racing.
spending money on courses is the best advice you can get. Firstly you learn safety which is always going to come into hand and win you respect ona boat in a tight situation at some point down the line. Also you will not only learn the basics, but in fact learn a fair bit more about how to prepare and handle a boat in different wind conditions.
Doing both a dinghy course to learn the essence of sailign and competant crew to learn the workings of heavier lumps, is brilliant. You should try to do this at the beiginning of a season or at least tart like hell to get a place on a race boat if you complete in july-august. " RYA competant crew" is a label which will get you onto much better boats- also in the first place you will notice you get choice of boat, and when you are on board you can spot torrom whom you can learn and TO WHOM you can contribute.
===================
the pimps' perspective.
The boat manager (or lacking that, the owner themselves) has to be constantly on gaurd to retain their core crew and fill any gaps. For a wednseday night or a non series distance race they will risk taking on someone who has say competant crew or a year on a race boat. They want reliability and committment in a new "employee" without offering any such substance in return!
the main objectives are
1) get the core cockpit, foredeck/mast and cabin top people in place and their tailer/helpers trained up on the boat. (main man will either be the crew boss or be hand pciked by the owner)
2) get the right weight and total body-count on the rail at all times!
3) keep the ego's of the core three ( bow, trimmer, cabin) happy
4) improve performance by training and coaching
5) failing 4- getting better crew. Or instead of 4.
6) relating to 5, getting a hot-shot to either do boat speed or tactics from the rail.
erm, as new L plated crew you may notice you are at odds with the whole scheme of things above. When I say 'improve performance' this means ironing out small issues and getting boat familiarity from the core team, not teaching you dear L plate to sail or even do anything better than move rail to rail asap or hold the boom out with your hung over life form.
usually there is that hard eye-ball, expectant stare accompanying the request for regularity and committment for the season. Watch for the bead of sweat or the thereafter lack of any interest in you. What they demand of you they will not offer in return. They will try you and bin you in the blink of an ete, but they will try to get you signed up to 15 weekends with the hard sell.
With the advent of e-mail you will soon find that it is one way traffic once you have been nice and signed up to all you can do for the season. the wise money never signs up before a decent test sail round the cans, However, you "need" to committ to regattas. If it is all still an unknown quantity, pick the shorter regattas ( the wekeends and former 'weeks' which are now three or four days) earlier in the season to assess the boat for your own learnign/ ambitiojn / sosial needs. This will win favour and get you a place as a good fill in anyway.
It's pretty likely that if you land a job as main trimmer or kite/jib trimmer that you will get bagged for the big regattas. Pricks will start to materialise on the boat a couple of races before the event and bang, you are on the rail with only a terse explanantion. Owners/bosses knwo they are pushing your loyalty and pimping in better up-state whoares but they don't care.
Like army officers, owners and crew bosses make decisions and don't go back on them. Challenges are just ignored. As occiasional (2nd rate, needs supervision) trimmer and otherwise a body on the side you are completely dispensable.
best practice for you? as said, sign up for 90% of early season and firts regatta and leave the rest to " have to see how it works out with holidays from the boss".
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Hope you understand now that there is an inherent insoluble dilemma. If you want a good job which expands your learning curve, you will have to sail on a shite boat which limits your ambitions. If you want to sail on a good boat which wins, you will get a shite job which limits your learning curve.
"experience is that quality you require the precise moment AFTER you most needed it" .
================
even if you have say even up to 5 seasons of experience, but you still know you want to learn more, get your arse on a dinghy and comp' crew course. Avoid that sinking feeling in Y2, sitting on the rail doing nothing, by bringing sharp skills to the boat.
There is another ulterior motive ....meeting people.
you will meet a mixed bag, but a good proportion will be very keen on sailing and humble enough to set a pragmatic learning curve. You'll have a good social and maybe get a direct invite to a race boat or help up grade a participant from cruising to racing.
but most importantly, these competent contacts are the very ones who may be forming your core crew or required ballast wet the job as crew boss or invest in a boat!!!!!!!!!!

=========
Personally I have had my overly huge share of lady luck. But I stuck out my apprenticehip - a year too long as it happened - and I did dinghy courses to boost my experience, confidence and enthusiasm
I didn't follow the above route, which is probably a far more common and unforntuate route for the "adult beginner" poor sod!
I did my apprenticeship, after some "work experience" on a FC Europe, in the good ol' sigma 33 fleet on one boat. Everything from passage racing and watch skipper on long deliveries to racing in very tight fleets with the best ie scottish, in the UK at the time. I learnt light airs ghosting and sailing in 35 knts. I did every job in races bar steering. And I did it all with flying colours. As crew I did more than actually I could have been expected in the three key seasons 95-98, but I couldn't give them that little extra bump into the top league which Neil macgregor had. I just didn't have the sail setting know how or the start line expereinec. I felt a frustration with this at the time, btu the only cure would have been dinghy sailing. I did just great with cork week 96 being one of the big highlights of my career still to this day!!!!!
then I got my luck with the big boys, well the nearly big boys. Convert' Machine and WIngs of the wind and I "lived long" of them.
I could then pick my owners but I couldn't break into the right scene in edinburgh. Still I managed a 707 there, but had to choose oban to get a willing fool to let me show my true colours. My learning curve just got steeper rather than flattenign out post 1999....also I learnt to get off the boat...rajah and fly, and dick head skinny euan morrison.
Now armed with all this what have I ? Owner/ boat choice dilemas. Spoilt for choice of boats but with nothing that quite fits.
My gap is the start line and steering in waves. Everything else can be put in practice but Snipe Dinghy here I come

middle class twits

2007-05-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

Lets face it, the majority of sailors are twits.

The vast majority are of course not owners but crew. Given the idea that a 7 man OD I raced on had a pool of 30 you can see it's the tip of the iceberg,

I live in a thin vaneer of adult developed race crew... we never were int he trendy dinghy squad "back then" ..we were always a new face ..we sailed with the 'wrong boats' in our apprenticeship and most often got rides on big fast machines as ballast ( although personally I was very lucky and got real jobs!!)

We're too skint or mortgaged to own our own little fifedom and get our name in lights yet, but too good to just sail with any old cruiser-racer tosser who rants about handicap and 33% jib depth while coming 2nd last.

so there we sit and we put up with the loud "gamma" types who seem to either be part of the scenery at regattas or mix right in. We maybe go to our berths a little earlier than we used to and we drinka littel less and we see the hangovers and smell the still-drunk of the 5 am revellers on board who pretend/know they can "do it" .

Sailing clubs are dreadful little collectioons of fifedoms and beuarocratic ego. All those people who failed in business life but have a wee hitler ( Frank The Wank!) are there, while all those 'natural born leaders' who are chiefs arlready just find another little place to road roller. They know how to wield power , persuade and divide and conquer.

I've made some of my best mates through sailing, had one or two duff rides and generally let out my natural competivie instinct and communication skills but I feel that if I had a teltn in another sport that I would be much better recieved. Rugby for instance?

when I say recievedvd I mean peopel actually see who I am and maybe even show some respect or camradery.

This is why IRC has become the glory box. It's the reserve of middle class twits with money and twits for crews. It is the emperors new clothes...it sucks as a racing form...you sail in your own wind and when you actually meet a boat you just duck it...mark roundings are like an italien roundabout with the different perfomrnace of boats spurting them out at all angles"!

One design is reaching an en , yet to be reborn when it gets osme new credence from somewhere- where? the raft of glamour kids from the squads? they are soon bought off with flights, hotesl, dinners and free sialing gear from the big IRC boats if they never really made it as pro-sailors in the first place,

and then I wonder why I get along better with plumbers and joiners and fireman!

addiction

2007-05-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Why is it addiction?

You stay away in the winter and early spring and even take up healthy pursuits .... you promise yourself and your family to down size and long-term your ambitions .... then you just happen to reply to a crew ad' looking for occaisional crew....

the rest is addiction. The thing being that really any frin-factor is short lived and the whole ritual is like monotomous worship. You unroll the sails and rig the boat, you get the gear setting for the current wind, you look at the start line and if you have any seriousness and nouse, you go up the beat to look at how it is and dry the kite out.

Then you argue with the owner and you know you are not being properly listened to and they just CAN call the shots because they are paying....

--.-and you breath in after the race and get sleepy on the way home if you've had a beer and then you hope they call off the training or the overnight or even just next wedenesday....this lasts about 14 hours.

Then you want more. Eventually through skill, certificates, contacts and mere fortuity you get a sail with something more serious that actually "wins" . This far from saites the appetite! Petrol on the flames. Now you can go back to your 6 knot shit box and tell them what the hell to do! ..and the realise they can get better and that they do stuff wrong...and get a sail maker or someone more experienced wiht the boat to come and read som text book garbage and swing their weight around.

so yoy carry on trimming and suggest tacking or gybing as the lifts or headers come through and generally help the whole team gel by ironing out the littel shitty things they do like sweat hoisting the entire legnth of the spinnie halyard.....

Frustration builds until you can finally afford the ego trip yourself and you buy a boat or a share...then the crew become the source of never ending limitations

Or maybe just maybe y9ou get an owner who listens and wants a limited back of boat democracy and you find out that your ideas are often better than you thought or actually really not ood calls and that you need to learn some hu,ilty.

But the hunger comes from this...asking yourself the quetion,how can I get better. When you stop asking you are either a set loser or dead.

2007-05-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

I've sat down and forced myself to set goals for ME and not to pretend I have cpmmon boat team goals and can sit with the (arrogant prick) owner and move the whole team forward...i end up leading by example and frustrated outburts.

So it's time to stop blaming family life and use my limited amount of on or off water time for boats in a more focused manner.

Now one thing I have not written are my weaknesses...and lets not wrap it up as challenges. I am shit at steering in waves and I need to work on my heavier weather trim and use of stick and storseilkjøte. Coordination in this area and getting the right gear changes is vital.

Next is starting which is weak but a life long challenge. Start with some late RHS if it is paying, some mid line and some port-flop overs then move on to reaching down low and finding the highest hole, dipping the line, playing in more company and finally realy mixing it.

For time lines I am going to ask this coahc guy.

The rest is justr learning the boat and practice....apart form the human factor

this means making someone else's sailiong enjoyable and being comfortable enought to build a relationship with a crew or two.

that my friends , is a challenge

2007-05-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

No news is bad news....always the way of it in...erm anything!

This has hit the fan with me this week- and my own fault really for not making some courtesay calls..I presumed I would just keep a place on a hot boat after I showed up on another at a tune up I was specifically asked to go to. The othersiwe nice bloke went all terse on mebut hey it's his loss and they ain't offshore boats anyway

But the cloud has a bigger silver lining as all this BS in cruiser-racers had made me decide to go race OOD dinghies at the helm and actually develop my own skills, judgement and most of all confidence.

I really need to confront the 'easy route of least resistance' which is getting a place on a cruiser racer under development and then of course falling out with the owner....it's a confidence thing in myself as much as any frustration I feel at the owners ineptitude and bad judgemetn. I try I really do try to take their money and own learnign curve lust into account but....

I don't inspire confidence in people...it's a mixtyure of nervous nature / moods, bad body language and poor comms coupled to a slight lack of confidence ... i just need to tune my relaxed, self confidence and actually be a little arrogant ...

I'm too quick to call self confidence 'arrogance' ...it's a fine line but guys who are generally nice but just refuse to take your view or listne to you can do it in a non aggressive way buit are actuallly arrogant phkcers.

Norwegians are arrogant many of them. Oslo is rife with phuik heids.

Advice to the X332 sailing team 2007

2007-04-18T03:49:00.001-07:00

Jeg har to kommentar eller litt råd og filosofi om det som vi driver med.

Første og fremst er det slik at vi skal ha gøy og koser oss mye! For meg er det mye mer interessant å bli med på et lag / båt i raskt utvikling enn å komme meg inn til et etablert ’vinnere’ lag. Jeg mener at å utvikle vårt lag og oppnå nokon resultat eller sikkert forbedring er en felles føleselse som vi kommer til å tjene.

Jeg har seilte med flere båt som var vant til å vinne og andre som jeg hadde stor innflytelse på- og hevde opp resultat. Jeg merker enn innsats som vinnere gjøre overalt- det er de fokusere på basiks! Å få båt i bevegelse, å falle av, ta spinnakeren opp og ned og å har riktige settninger på seil til forholdene.

De var en veldig berømte Engelskman, Uffa Fox, og han bl.a. oppdragget ’kick’ og utviklet skrog som ville planer i jolle båt. Mest kjente for Flying Fifteen. Han sa om kappseilas at dersom gjøre mann kun enn feil så tjener man første plass. Altså med to tabber, kommer det andre plass, og så videre, og så videre.

Så det er ingen stor triks, det er bare å pusse og pusse under praksis og de først få kappseilas og dermed kan vi skape et lag som fungere bra.

Det som jeg tilby er å hjelpe denne prestasjon til å vinne kanskje kanskje, eller i det minst ha god prestasjon i forhold til like/make båt.