Reflections on a Season

This was actually an important season for me I felt a little on the outside of the sport. Kind of a hasbeen. But I had often wise things. Kick the motor in reverse to get the auld 8mR's prop to fold. Hold the main in the centre to keep the kite flying. We gybe on white sails! After an " in at the deep end" two handed with spinnaker, where I warned I was rusty. But he admitted it was the best of all training sessions that season for a 4 mans crew usually no matter! Then more folk came out the woodwork. They too, didnt like the older one designs in town , or were tired with them. The new express fleet is looking up! Also I managed to figure out a cruising chute with snuffer for the first time. Never used on, been on racing boats or white sails. The owner I coach up in sailing and self confidence was delighted ! All in all in stead of feeling rusty, used up, has been, i got some major sense of mastery. 10,000 hours n all. I took a day when I was laid up sick to look at old Americas cup coverage, from the late seventies, through Australia II to Prada becoming the challenger and found I could challenge the skipper's decisions without actually it being trite after seen wisdom ( as they say in Scandinavia) : I can understand the enormous performance expectation angst affected their judgement. But hey, I won the first express race I helmed this year. It is about sinking your shoulders and getting the right information in from the rail. Not going out on the edge of the diamond. They maybe got caught up in micro metereologist and on board MBA consultant's power point summaries, they fucked up on some basics in these races ! That is why they lost, they made mistakes. Boat speed was up and down with the wind speed, every dog had its' day, seen much tougher match racing in IODs. Also I am not letting myself be in the box of ' not as good as he thinks he is' instead, show what you can do, take it seriously, the job in hand. Dont bitch ( i used to, but not often) get on with your job. Focus! Team only has ME if you fuck it all up and put it mack as TAME!

Breaking it Down

I have jumped at the chance of sailing in the fledgling Express fleet we have here in town, with three active this year and possible the club doing another hand-me-down purchase of a fourth next year. Ok, it is only crewing until maybe someone invites me to helm or I get in the woodwork enough to ask politely What though, can I learn about helming and racing from being crew? Well tonight's practice will have a fortuitous wind direction, hugging the coast line and making for two good course possibilities with shortening also possible given the permanent bouys and skerries to round on W-L So then I want to look at line bias, favoured tack , favoured side and maybe wind shifts This means looking at the compass 1. shoot the breeze 2. note compass direction on both tacks 3. See if it varies, look at the land for lifts and knocks and verify. 4. Check the bearing when coming out of each tack after we are near fine in the groove. That is it. Broken down.

Weekend that Was

I have been in the lull before the great vacuum of idleness which I may implode into. I have come to a place where the job is ok, I have been moving forward only very slowly with the job in terms of learning, being hindered by a boss who is wary of me. Sailing wise, I had to jump back in and get going again. My ideal goal is helming practice, but I also have to remember to practice what I have mastered before- so foredeck and mainsail are things I was pleased to get involved with. It is good to be back out in a decent boat, the Albin Express being a nice racing platform akin to the Impala, Laser 28 and Sigma 33. One other thing I need to learn is the bias on the course and where we are at any point in time relative to the average wind direction and indeed speed. It was interesting to read in the 707 class that day 1 leaders played the averages and did nothing outside the box. I had to just look up the old case about the jib top tell tales - it is a bit of a self explained if you think through it. As the top of the jib can be twisted off and fly at a more oblique angle, it shall break first inside with correct trim and the outside shall always fly. Also, fully vindicated on jib-leech tell-tales as they are standard. They should fly 80-100%, once again, top breaking first. Really the same principle as tthe main, and Ståle's boat lacked the top tell tale! I need to look at the chart and reflect!

Ambitions Found

Ambition is now of course, to acheive some learning goals which will take me further to winning more races in future I think this is in three : Boat Handling Starts Wind Patterns , shifts, geographical wind and bends Bias lines and courses and the right side Tidal vectors These are kind of in a logical order Handling, I need a lot more finesse 1) Tacks - coming out correctly - I used to be able to but I guess it is practice 2) Getting into and staying in-the-groove 3) Reacting to fluctutions I think my gybes are good! Just pay attention to final angle. Starts? Nerves, ego, nerves then stress I have to learn how to line up and use burn time. I just find there is a sense of 'shit, I am in the wrong place and going at the wrong speed' It isnt rocket surgery. I think I should just go out and sail up to some marks from different angles on my own first. Then put the clock on it. Then try it with incidental cruising or motor boats milling around Then go and race or group train in a dinghy or something. I keep on putting a bloody threshold of fleet dinghy racing, when there is a lot to learn from any boat I step into! I guess also, first and foremost, an apprecitaion of what I am doing wrong 1) Way too far back from the line. ( knowing where you are!) 2) Often way too ' left ' of the line, getting rolled 3) In danger of being forced high of the line at the boat end 4) sitting dead in what looks like a controlling position but getting sailed circles round 5) Lack of speed 6) thrashing around too much speed 7) NOT KNOWING THE EXACT START TIME! 1) too far back - this is related to No7 !!! It is a dead non man's land of three tacks to get up where you should be but 30 secs to do it all This is cured by an understanding of a) burn time, go! b) Where is advantagous to luff about These both are influenced by variables, most of all wind stregnth. Also 'fleet behaviour' plays in here, as with the Grimstads, they tend to fetch in at speed and round up. This means you can block for both boat and pin end, but you are going to be slower off the start line as they avoid you and go up at speed. So in this case, you want to hunt with the wolves and be very, very aware of a fast burn time from the fetch in, and where to pick a good lane, or slot to charge in on. Maybe that is it, to drop down into a slot infront of other boats rather than choosing a lane In a tighter, better behaved fleet you want to choose that lane, and it will be much nearer a beat than a tight reach. It is then a case of tacking into it, or luffing at a controlling position nearer the pre-line build up, the line behind the line in fleets like the Snipes or Sigma 33s. It is a bit of a risky strategy to try and 'educate the fleet' by standing off near the committee boat in a nice blocking position, because if they charge in on you, they can just duck and dive you. In lighter winds though you can sit in a position around 7 o clock from the CB to the right of the bouy, and bow on it, making a block, and the same can be done in a parallel situaion/ position, to the right of the pin end if you feel that will pay on a bias or going left is gonna pay. In a charging fleet you can either run-with-the-bulls or apply a lhs strategy because a high blocking , or drop-in position is going to be a sitting duck for. On the LHS you can beat on burn time all the way with a bull-charge going on at the boat end. You have to rely though on damn good burn time and allowing for a boat or two to drop on you, hardening up as they reach you, so you cant have a boat under you or too little space to slide along towards the pin. A classic point up from the half way along the line, then you are a third of the way along at the time the charge is on and can either hold on, or bear away sharply to get away from roll overs having forced them to luff. If two or three boats do this, then in fact you educate the fleet ! They meet you and are forced into luffing or diving this 'block vote' as it sweeps towards the line with a good burn time In a bull fleet then you need to determine what your burn time will be: will it be tight reach in along the line and go as near to the line as poss? Or is it going to be reach in, then beat up on a lower line under some 'early looking' boats? So here is a main cause of my weakness. Not quite knowing where I am, having thought out a start tactic, but not being where I want to be because I have paniced and lost sight of where I am. Stay in the Groove There are two things at play here- steering and gear changes For a given sail setting or 'gear' you have a lattitude of steering to follow the wind as it fluctuates, or to press on the jib to hold speed in a lull or after getting knocked by a wave. At some point though you have to forget steering ad get the crew to change gear. For me the big issue is when the wind lulls - I think I need to be able to spot this and get the sails out a little while steering down a tad. The other thing is knocking into waves, and this too needs more sail depth and falling off. Both are a to a large extend unavoidable unless they are spotted 10 secs ahead. A press on the jib alone in a major lull will only stall the boat more, and not bearing off enough in waves, or until you smother the jib with too much press, will also stall you. Gear changes break down like this in order of 1) "global" : Head sail Change or Reef; Shroud and forestay tension 2) Travller : down and up as the wind goes, a rough adjustment 3) Sheeting : in for more wind, out for less - more subtle 4) Backstay: to reduce heeling ( or in light winds to stabilise the rig) 6) Kicker 7) outhaul main / Barber haul jib 7) Cunningham / inhaul main ( jib) I am not talking about involving these in the major course manoevres , but rather while on a beat, a run, a reach IN a dinghy kicker / Gnav takes the role of the back stay, but both are a nice adjustment in the first place because releasing them brings on the power of the leech on the main sail higher up in the sail, where as pulling them on opens and twists the upper half of the sail thus depowering and reducing heel. On a good number of rigs, the back stay will in the first place, when off, take up slack in the rig and thus make for more rake and a tighter forestay. Some boats like a slack set up for light airs when deep sails work. But rake is a major determinating factor for pointing so it must go on once the need for a little speed is over, and it is blowing enough for a true beat. The traveller is often abused in bigger racing boats, it is a very rough control when dumped as it literally 'closes the door' on the slot - you may want to try a seemingly brutal hike on the back stay and kicker, with a small slide of the traveller next time! Steer first, ask questions later - but do ask them rather immediately - Do I also need a gear change ? Do I have enough depth in the front of the jib to allow for this variation in angle? Shall I slip something out liek the kicker? Can I get more wind up in the rig to work by slipping the back stay, or maybe inducing more twist for drive on the traveller? Or is this transient and I can steer through it and up again on the wind. The reverse is easier, as the gust strikes. This is because the boat's own speed is in a negative situation, slower realtive wind speed rather than faster, so it is more obvious if both steering and a gear change are needed. -

Of Sea Dogs and Lost Ambitions

Been a long time ship mates. I really pulled myself back from sailing 6 years ago. But there were returns! A couple of classic regattas and suddenly a Melges regatta on my home waters coaxed me out, the former being enjoyable and sociable, the latter being painful sailing but a good social. I did get coaxed into using the boat I share, and actually overnighting on it. It is a wreck in the cabin, but wow, did we enjoy ourselves We had the weather with us and each other's good company. With little over a meter under the waterline, she allowed us to sneak around the local skerries and sharp inlets, and find our way into a lost harbour. Then there was sailing home with an easterly building, and being able to hold the boat goose winged by steering and no need for the sprit boom we dont have! It was a very small morcel of learning, but it was a satisfying nip ontop of the experience I have amassed and the attitude that one is always learning the boat. I had also taken a family I know out, and their blomstering young, tall, elegant daughter took very well to sailing. I had reefed the boat down as it was blowing yeah, around 6, and it behaved itself. She was a natural, and could just understand the angles for gybing. Post relationship, I took up an offer to crew on a nice Halberg Rassay- ended up coaching her. And having some good little tours in waters new. Then there was the classic 8m cruise. Completing my pilotage ticket west towards the next town in what turned out to be, pretty much the best weekend of weather the whole year! Learning, about cruising and putting text book and a lot of what other people did when I was a kid or without responsibility. The mellow feeling of those cruises with Linda, and those with Mick n Danny. The feeling of things falling into place from my father's time, and the lost time when he could have been teaching me.

Lost Land Lubber

Suddenly it appears to me that I have fallen out of love with sailing.

The whole thing suddenly seems like a wife I adored and worshipped for many years, through my stumbling young adult years and into my middle age, there she was with a smile most often as the diamonds danced on the bay, raising a lightness of mind and spirit in me.

But now she seems a joy from the past and a little complicated and awkward for the future. Like a wife who gives you less attention now because here career has taken over. Like you have come back from the magical island surrounded by playful waters, back to fast land with those memories behind you.

The season is also behind me. I mean I did very little sailing, but I kind of also felt very very accomplished and mature and able to take everything in my stride and enjoy it. Like a last romantic holiday with a worn out relationship perhaps, we played breifly on some warm summer days.

I have the share of a boat, but I just dont have the enthusiasm to go sail her in waters which are now quiet and lack company or promise in particular as autumnal weather rushes in with mists and torrential rain.

Maybe this is a trial separation after a final fling. A roll under the sheets which satisfied neither partner completely but kind of put a nice enough full stop on the whole affaire? 

I have been here before and it has been about 'another day at the office' which is the time to give up for that season. But maybe this will be that famous year out ahead which I have never quite taken since 1993.

Jaded and a little kind of done for what I can afford right now, with other priorities and a new careeer to set course into. That is probably all, because unlike any lover over time, sailing does not get angry with you, it does not get so grey and faded, it does not loose it's excitement. The wind blows, the boats heel and the the wake rushes aft.

I will be back. This is not adieu my lover, this is au revoir!

Hard Decisions on People in Boats

I am often right, but often in my past career on and off the water, I have done the wrong thing out of some sense or duty, guilt or needing to have experience.

At the end of the day, experience is no good if it is shit, it just teaches you a little about the spectrum of crappiness on boats sailing as crew or having crew, and in jobs, well what you might avoid but not what you need to get into in order to live your life " in the groove" as we sailors say.

When to bail out from a mediocre boat? Or when to know that the challenges of being competitive in a give fleet at national level or above, is just too much for your input in time, effort, grey matter and of course money?

A nationals is running this weekend and I am not on board my usual boat, not that I should complain per se about that situation, I have been extra man on that boat for half a decade or more, but I have been the glue which held the thread of competition together in being there, and helping getting the boat to go fast. I decided not to race with them and that was in part an offer due to us being a bit tight for training time, and me being tight on money when it regarded traveller events.

This may seem like a little sad story of Cinderella and the Three Bears where I sleep alone with cold porridge after not going to the ball. However I am damn glad I did not go-to-the-ball because they are second last boat out of a respectable fleet of 40.

It is a sad feeling I have had before and a similar conclusion around a nationals, only this time I could get out earlier. My apprenticeship was served so - to - speak on a venerable cruiser racer which attracted some very, very good amateur sailors. The boat in question was a bit of a dog boat, despite immaculate looks. The helm just would not learn, and I was there in a crap job in a crap corporation looking at the competition and the smiling faces around me. We did have our moments in the Sun, especially Cork Week one year, with 70 boats of 74 behind us twice at the first windward mark. But in general with the owner on board helming we plodded and were in frustrated ignorance,

There is much familiarity here with the recent boat. However I did see signs of the helm being open minded to learning, it was just that , well I am not the teacher he would choose, nor the tactician he would allow to run his show. Starts are actually the common denominator between these two expereinces, on the old boat in the 90s, it was just being afraid of hitting other boats and thinking the race is a long haul with many opportunities that rendered our team a dog. In the new boat in the last five years, he had a start technique which worked in the fleet a decade or so ago when he did the nationals regularily, but now the focus is on boat speed over the line in the lane you commit to I believe, so his tactical Laser style posturing are just rolled over and ignored. Maybe he messes up the start for one or two boats, but he is pretty clearly ending up burried with such a bad first day at the tail end of the fleet where the new beginners and boozers should be.

 He had the cheek to say I shouldnt commit myself if I considered a below half way placing and a socialble time, using my tactic of right hand starts and just keeping in clear air up towards the layline. No that wasnt what he wanted, but shit, second last place! That is a result of being burried and just pissed on by the whole fleeet and never having a tactical advantage on the beat or the run.

I suspect deeply there is a mid life crisis, where a realisation has come that He needs to learn but the ambition to learn a little and then drop that new learning curve and be mister angry and emotional again was taken up. I wasnt there, I cant be sure ,. but that is the earlier stuff,.

Another issue for them though is the type of sailing they do normally, They do round th enav bouy wednesdays and one or two travellers which are a little off the pace, with the best boat there actually being below 10th place in the nationals now despite the 'lifestyle' seriousness they take their sailing with. They just dont get the windward leeward, fleet start experience they need with the level of competition they need to comprehend around them.

Moving on is good, and for once I feel vindicated in not bumming around as reserve crew for them,  Sometimes you just cant build the trust on board in order for you to contribute or have others contribute to you, in terms of performance and the learning curve. I had a great two hour bike run, did some swimming with my son, and bought a good bottle of Malt Whisky with the petrol money I would have used to get to the nationals and back.

The question on moving on for crew, or as skipper or "wrangler" ie crew mananger, is that you need to assess where you are and what is actually available. Can you sail with better boats or displace people who are also rans, or not pulling their wieght, or just not knowledgeable in tactics and strategy, when you need that support as a helm in a demanding fleet. All boats have a focus on boat speed, it is a fallacy to say one boat is tactical or another is more tweeky dependent.

Being a slut is not such a bad thing, in terms of other boats or crew. There is a little subtefuge here. Owners want committment and want to fill holes so they can sail. Ambitious crews want to get experience and win races. The two are by no means mutually exclusive, but most often they are far from mutually inclusive. Slutting requires a little smolke and mirrors and plain white lieing. Being a little bit teflon in terms of committment and having enough latitude in terms of time and events, to try out other things which may work better. For an owner, this SHOULD include sailing as crew on a much better boat in your fleet, or home port at least. It also should include having a good tactician or strategy man on board with you in the type of racing you need to do, in or der to get up the learning curve and win. As crew it means not being able to maybe do every event, and when new to a boat, being open to committing and penciling in on both the bread and butter training and the beefy events, while all the time having the get out clause and not feeling guilty about that.

Hang up your guilt. Great army generals, captains of industry and politicians have hung up their guilt in order to achieve things, they have sacrificed most often the weak so that they can achieve their strategic goals. It can be very cosey to have a nice relationship with a boat, with frills like dinners and sociable tours and so on, but what do you want out of racing then? Would you be better off being an expert cruiser and spending your otherwise beer money on a yacht master progression ? 

Very often I know, boat relations are a bit of a psychological Mexican Stand Off.  Both sides would like to say that the other is actually not up to their standard, or not in theor plan for improving, but both need each other. You want to sail, they need crew. In the past months I have had a pussy footing string of e-mails around this, mainly I want to be tactician and get a new, lighter , younger bow person on board, while the helm just seems not to trust me: I am an kind of uncertain quantity. It has gone too far for me to repair that, especially when he brings a consultant on board who is only a bit more knoweldgable than me, and has a patronising , primary school teacher tone about him.

When to move on ? Well the answer is actually ALWAYS be moving on in terms of either the team you sail with, or the boat you sail with. It is a mind set that you are always on the learning curve, and that means moving on and when it comes to people, dropping one for a newer, better one, or in terms of boats, doing the same. Crew will come and go, boats will be sold. When a place on a great boat or a person from a good boat become available, and it is going to work socially, then grab that chance and bump someone off the boat or jump boats. Life is too short to be mid fleet with the occiasional flier or the more frequent down the can compeletly result when you want to get on.

I have long said I would rather come to a mid fleet boat and put it up into the top ten, with the odd fortuitous podium place, that race with podium-presumer-posers. I have raced with the latter and they get very pernickity about a lot of things, and bitch about each other if they dont get sivler watre, or bitch about the committee, and most of all , bitch about 'new boy, the bad smell' . However life is actually short, and it is time for me to either get a boat into that constant top placing from being oh-so-near in the top ten, or find something else to do on my own, single handed learning curve. Like sailiung a snipe or even a laser, bog simple, shitty, slow, but you learn and small mistakes punish you hard,

I hate losing, and most of all I hate a bad performance from a helm. So I am delighted not to be on the dock this evening at the Nationals, with no one to have those jovial chats with, and just the odd 'hard luck old bean' comments and other more snide remarks often made to loser teams at the tail end.

I like winning in sailing. Winning is composed of many small wins along the road and within ea.ch race. But winning's first step is to eat your ego, and accept you are on a learning curve. Winning also means then choosing the right trajectory from a given point in your career, and that can entail dropping plans for a season and turning your back on emotionally strung loyalties in order to move up.