KSC Racing Meeting Minutes

Racing is a week away!  In prep, some of the racers held a meeting at the club with the sailing director (Jake) and the ever-awesome Mario.

The end results of the discussion:

• we want sailing instructions to be a bit more formal -- closer to what you'd see at a real regatta
• we'll divide the season into 3 sets of 5 race nights -- we'll try the new instructions out, and can adjust them for the second series
• we'll "draw" boats at the skipper meeting -- no more first come, first serve
• 1st race warning time of 5:45
• we'll sail with the cats and 29ers on the same course, albeit  with different starts
• for the 2nd and 3rd series, the plan is to have the cats and skiffs sail a longer windward/leeward course, but...
• scoring: now no difference between skipper and crew scoring

All in all, I think the changes are good.   I'm mostly looking forward to a fixed start time, and getting more races in.

Training Day

First day out on the water this season -- let's see how rusty I got over the winter.

Wind: Good wind today, but gusty.  Forecast 8-12 knt with gusts up to 15-18.  Actual estimated: 10 knt with gusts to 15.  Wind coming downriver, maybe a bit off of the Ontario shore

Waves: Surprisingly small.  Still there, but not too much wave resistance.

Focus: Work on getting out early, keeping the boat flat.  Secondary effort is to measure tacking speed.

Notes: The hiking bench definitely helped me get out there farther, for longer periods of time.  Definitely did a better job than last year of keeping the boat flat.  I got caught once looking at the sail rather than looking at the water.  I was fully hiked out, hit a lull, and couldn't get in soon enough -- into the drink.

Did 10 chained tacks (from close hauled to close reach, back to top speed, and then up to close hauled again) in 2:12.  Second attempt, did it in 1:48.

Boat: 196281.  Hull and tiller good.  Sail was in rough shape.  Daggerboard beat to crap.

Club Starts

A lot of information can be found about how to start a race.  An issue I was struggling with when I started racing was that most of this information isn't applicable to club racing -- it's more focused on competitive level racing where the start lines are packed with boats, all of which know exactly what they're doing.

At the club level (especially the "beer league") the racing tends to be more laid back.  You have folks who just learned (or are learning) to sail, folks who have been doing it for 30 years and have 30 years of bad habits, folks who are just there to have a bit of fun before sharing a pint, folks out with their kids on the water, and occasional competitive jerk screwing it up for everyone else.  The expected behaviour and etiquette in these situations is different from a "real" regatta, and the start strategies usually employed are a bit different.

The goal is the same -- you want to be across the start line (usually between some marker, like a bouy, and a flag on the committee boat) with as much speed as possible, right at the start sound.  But, in my experience, the way people achieve this is a little bit processional than most of the youtube videos you'll see.  You won't see people luffing their opponents or defending their position as much as in a competitive regatta.  Heck, lots of people don't even form a plan to pick a favoured end of the start line!

During the start sequence, most boats will broad reach (it's fun!) on port tack and see how far away from the commitee boat the get after 30 seconds.  The theory is that if you start on a starboard tack from this point 30 seconds or so before the gun, you should be at the committee end of start line with full speed right at the start of the race.  45 seconds or so before the start, a line of boats will form around this point, with each boat judging the ideal place to be.  The line of boats starts heading toward the line.

About 10-20 seconds before the start, the first of the boats pass the committee boat.  Each boat must judge if it's going too-fast, too-soon and may potentially have to luff to avoid overshooting the port-side mark.

As the gun goes, the boats head up to a close-hauled course and the race is underway!

In the diagram above, the blue boat is "too-fast, too-soon" and is approaching the port mark 10 seconds before the start.  It has to head up, and almost stop to avoid going past.  As a result, it's boat speed is very slow as it crosses the start.

The green and yellow boats do a good job.  They're probably taking the lead.

The red boat has left it too late.  They'll pass the start line with good speed, but probably 5 or 10 seconds behind green and yellow.

Fitness

I've been told that the Laser is an "athletic boat".  Honestly, I'm not sure that it's much more "athletic" it is than most other dinghies.  I mean, when I go out on something like a 29er or Hobie, I'm aching the next day from all the pseudo-squats I'm doing from the wire, and I have yet to see someone unable to sail a Laser because they were not strong/agile enough.

What I think people mean by "the Laser is an athletic boat" is that "fit folks tend to sail Lasers a lot faster than unfit folks".  Compare that to something like the Albacore where those carrying more, um, "ballast" can still win by being very smart tactically and knowing the particular tweaks and trim settings to get every ounce of speed from the boat in any wind condition.

So, in prep for the Worlds' it couldn't hurt to get fitter.

Hiking: I built a hiking bench like Doug Peckover's and have been working on getting my time up.  From 10 seconds initially, I'm up to about 45.  A long way to go.

Upper Body Strength: I bought some rope and hung it from the rafters in the basement.  The two ends of the rope are about shoulder width apart and end in loops with plastic tubes as handholds.  I do chinups on this rope, I'm up to two or three sets of five.

Lower Body Strength: I have an old barbell with 70 pounds on it.  Doing 2 sets of 10 squats.  Perhaps I should get more weights?

Situps: I do situps on the hiking bench.  Sit-ups are actually easier than the "hiking" part.  I'm not sure how many I can

Flexability: Flexibility and cardio are by far the weakest points.  I never had great flexibility, and keep forgetting to work on it.  Any tips?

Cardio: I have no stamina.  I can jog maybe one kilometre, on a good day.

Agility: I have no idea how to train for improved agility/balance/quickness, other than to "sail more".  Any thoughts?

I'll try to remember to post in a month with improved results.

Lessons and Improving

I spoke with the instructor at the club about taking some additional lessons.  There's two routes I could go here, with the end goal being "become a better sailor".

I could go the certification route.  Right now I hold a CanSail 2 (what used to be "White Sail III") level.  That's basically "you know how to sail."  I got this 5 years ago when I first took lessons.  Now, I'm a much better (I think...) sailor now than I was then.  So maybe I should get trained up to the next level (CanSail 3/4 which basically corresponds to "know how to race").  The advantage of getting a formal certification is that I can putting myself on a common base with other (better) sailors, and I can then see what they're doing differently (better) than me.

Option two is to forgo the certifications, and just "get better".  Work on areas where I'm weak.  Refine areas I'm strong.  The advantage of this route is that I don't waste time developing skills which are of little use to the class of boat I sail on.  For example, how important is knowing "proper trapeze technique" if I'm sailing Lasers?

This got me thinking -- what are my overall goals?

• short term: place 2nd last or better in the Kingston Masters Worlds'
• long term: be a better overall sailor

The certification route would be better for my long term goal, but a more specific regimen would be better for my short term goal.

Gusts and The Fan

Time for a post about actually sailing and (even better) sailing fast.  I'll write a few sentences on the topic of gusts (which many sailors already know) and then move on to talking about the fan which is something that I kinda observed on my own, and then (when I read about it Frank Bethwaite's High Performance Sailing) was confirmed and expanded upon.  But it's not something I hear folks at the club talking about, and I don't recall reading posts about it on other blogs, so I don't know how widely known the fan is.

Gusts

My naive view of gusts

We all know how to spot gusts, right?  Look for those dark, ripply patches on the water.  These patches may be blotchy, they may be in lines or columns.  They move along the water.  The wind in the gusts is faster than the average wind.  If you're on the race course, and see multiple "dots" of fast wind, you'll notice that the boats who win will be sailing from one gust to the next, trying to "connect the dots".  Their boat speed is huge compared to those who just point for the mark.  Avoid those flat, mirror-like spots on the water -- those are lulls with less-than-average wind.

For a long time, I thought that's all there was to it -- gust = faster version of ambient wind.  Eventually, I noticed that the gusts often have a slightly different wind direction than the ambient wind, but that's it.

The Fan

The fan is a term I read in High Performance Sailing.  It describes an area of high pressure, and high wind speeds, around the perimeter of a gust, spreading out in a "fan" shape, especially in front of the gust.  The wind in this fan is faster than the wind in the gust itself.  In hindsight, I have often noticed that the wind feels very fast as I sail into a gust, but I always assumed that this was a trick of my perception -- it "felt" fast because I was coming in from slower air, but quickly got use to the new speed.  It turns out I was wrong -- the wind actually is fastest at the transition.

You'll notice two things about the fan -- fast wind, and changing wind directions.  All the wind in the fan is faster than the ambient wind, and much of it is faster than the "core" of the gust.  But it's the change in direction that we want to exploit.

Consider two boats approaching a gust on a port tack.  The red boat, on the left, heads for the centre of the gust.  They are hit with the strong wind of the fan as they enter the gust, experience a header, and actually slow down, until they get to the normalized wind direction (where they sail faster than someone who didn't hit the gust at all).

The green boat, on the other hand, aims to skirt the gust, and ride the fan.  The boat experiences a lift and can blast by the fleet (including the red boat).

The next time you're on the water, and see an approaching gust, try to feel out how big the fan is, and how much the wind changes direction in it.  Feel the difference in the speed.  Compare it with the wind in the centre of the gust (which is still better than the ambient wind).

One final note about the fan.  The diagram shows using the fan when going upwind.  Now imagine what happens when you go downwind.  A boat like the Laser goes about half wind speed on a run, and much closer to wind speed on a broad reach, right?  So, someone who hits a 10 knot gust on a run will be going about 5 knots (faster than the 4 knots the rest of the fleet is going).  But, the boat who is right beside the gust, and trims his sail for a reach can ride the 12 knot wind of the fan at a speed closer to 9 knots -- passing the guy in the centre of the gust and waving as he does so!

Log book

I plan on speaking with the club's instructor about getting certified to a higher level, either CanSail 3 or CanSail 4.  Five years ago, I took the learn-to-sail classes, and was certified to what was the equivalent to CanSail 2.  Basically, this meant "okay, you're competent enough that no one needs to keep an eye on you."  Since then, I've gotten a lot better at the sport, but I am aware that there are certainly massive gaps in my knowledge and abilities.

I was looking at the CanSail progress report to see if what I'm doing on the water matches what you'd expect to see someone trained to a higher level.

• Sail by the lee -- yeah, when the conditions are right it's rocket-fast.
• Balance fore-and-aft -- you don't win races with your bow out of the water on upwind legs!
• Use all the sail controls, know how to depower, understand shifts -- hey, no brainer!
• Maintain a written logbook -- wait, what?

I never observed anyone at the club with a personal logbook.  But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.  By writing down what happened, what you tried, what worked, what did not, it would reenforce the lessons learned during your hours on the water.  Similarly, a pre-race entry in the book would probably help in strategy.

So here's my plan for my shiny new log book.

• Pre-race research: record weather forecast, observed wind, waves, boat number, anything other "inputs" to my race strategy.  Is it steady, or gusty?  Is the wind shifty?  If so, what are the oscillations like?
• Pre-race plan: write down what I plan to do this race.  Is the wind light? Write down that I plan on focusing on speed rather than pointing.  That kind of thing
• Pre-race sub-plan: if there's something that I want to drill on during the race (rolls, getting clean wind lanes) then I'll write it down too.  Club racing is a race, but it's still one of the only times you can "try something new" when the stakes are low, so if I read about a technique that I want to try out or seomthing, I'll note it down.
• Post-race results: Where did I place?  What happened?
• Post-race lessons: What worked, what didn't?  To whom do I owe beer for crashing their boat?

I took a look at Doug Peckover's World's Journals which he graciously posted, to see what kind of thing he recorded.  I don't know if my memory is good enough to record his level of detail about what happened, but we'll see.

2015 Laser Masters' Worlds, Kingston

The reason I started this blog was because I want to be a better sailor (and I tend to retain information better when I write it down).

The goal of "becoming a better sailor" is also the reason I entered the Laser Masters' Worlds in Kingston (http://kingstonlaserworlds2015.com/)

Some background: As of this writing, I've only ever raced at the club level.  I'm not bad, and am usually in the top few boats of any given race, often the first of the Lasers (we race in a mixed fleet with no handicap).  All this to say though, I've never competed in the nationals, provincials or even an inter-club regatta.

And I think the experience with sailing with the best at something bigger than the club will make me a better sailor overall.  And besides, I'd love to have a photo on the wall that I can point to when I'm old and decrepit, saying "yep, here's me sailing at the Worlds, right beside the Olympians".  I'll leave out the "old-timers' regatta" when I point to the picture...

I've also been reading some sailing blogs by other sailors.  Improper Course (http://www.impropercourse.com/) and Proper Course (http://propercourse.blogspot.ca/) are my go-to pages.  Applying their tips and observations moved me from the middle of the fleet to the top, and these guys sail in the Worlds.

Now as a relatively new sailor (I've only been sailing 5 years) the concept of "The World Championship" is pretty intimidating.  But when I heard a few months ago that they were being held 2 hours from my house, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to apply for a berth.  From what I understand, they allocate berths on a priory list.  First shot goes to past champions, then come past competitors, then come those who do well on the grand prix circuit, and so on.  The last priority is "anyone else who applies", which is where I fall in.

I'm not sure how many applications they received, but somehow I made the list, and was offered an entry.

So I have a lot to prepare for.  Lots to learn.  I know how to sail (slowly, in comparison to these guys) but I don't know the whole regatta thing.  Opening ceremonies?  Measurement?  Multiple fleets on one course?  Multiple courses?  UH-OH!

On a positive note, at opening day of the club, I bumped into Mario, and was telling him about the race -- it turns out, he's on the race committee!  So there will be at least once face I recognize there, to go with all the names.

[update - Proper Course had an article about preparing for the Worlds' which is setting my mind at ease]

Don't take dumb risks

In 2014, I was racing at the club with the wind blowing from an odd direction.  The right hand side of the course (going up wind) was exposed to stronger winds on average, but was very gusty, and had the lulls to match.  The left-hand side was sheltered, and the wind was slower, but steady.
The first upwind beat, I went to the unstable wind and caught a couple of gusts.  I rounded the windward mark in first place, in front of Ken Eaves who had gone to the left from the start line.  I managed to hold my position around the gybe mark and back to the start line for the final beat.
Now I had a decision: do I go to the right again into the gusty stuff, and try to extend my lead?  Or do I go left where the wind was constant and try to defend my position from there?
I went right, and got caught in a lull.  By the time the fast air hit me again, I was well behind.  I rounded the mark third, and finished fourth.

Lessons learned: don't take unnecessary risks

Ken had gone left at the start of the race -- this should have been a tip off that he would (likely) go left again on the second beat.  I should have gone left and kept in front of him.  I could have kept an eye on him as he rounded the downwind mark, and (just in case he changed tactics and went right) I could always tack and move towards the gusty stuff to ensure he didn't pass.
Doug at Improper Course wrote a post about a similar tactical decision (http://www.impropercourse.com/2015/04/when-to-slow-down.html) where he opined:

Sailing more conservatively is much better than hoping that things would somehow work out. I got greedy, which rarely works with mark roundings, and it cost me the event.

He knows what he's talking about.

What is a Chicken Gybe?

As the obligatory first post, I should explain the name of this blog... so what is a chicken gybe?

For new sailors, a gybe is a much more intimidating maneuver than a tack.  You don't have the luxury of a few seconds in irons to get things sorted.  The forces on the sail change quickly.  The boom swings from one extreme to the other (watch your head!) and you might get an unexpected amount of fight in the tiller.

These problems can (unintuitively) be often mitigated by "going faster" but to a new sailor uncomfortable with the situation, maybe a 290° turn (incorporating a tack, with a much low boom-swing) is a safer bet.

So the question is:  when the wind is up, how brave are you?