Today was a three race day in about 15-18 knots of wind. Tom Slingsby locked up the championship today, and just needs to finish the medal race to win the regatta. The results tell the story, and I think the big difference between Tom and everyone else at this event, has been his ability to get off the start line cleanly.
Personally, todays racing worked in my favor, and I moved up the standings to 3rd overall. Tomorrow is the medal race(final race of the regatta), and it looks like it will be a bit of a fight for the last two spots on the podium between Gustavo Lima, Rasmus Myrgren and myself. Not to sure what the forecast is, but I dont think it will make much difference as we are all strong sailors throughout the wind range.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Kiel Week-Day two
The second day of Kiel is finished. It was a typical Kiel day-one hours sail out and another hour sail in, three hour long races, and 18 knots of wind.
I ran into a bit of difficulty today in the first race. The lasers have split fleet for qualifying, and I was in blue, which normally starts second. However, yellow fleet had a general recall, and the RC decided to shift blue into the starting slot. I didnt notice the change until about 30 seconds before the start. I tossed my jacket into the water(hoping someone would pick it up so I could claim it later), and made a dash for the start. I eventually crossed the line on port 15 second after the start. Unfortunately, the first(and major) shift was a lefty, while I was stuck out on the right. I managed to catch up to tenth in the race.
After the frustration of race 3, I was determined to have a good result. I started just up from the pin, and punched out shortly after the start, rounding the first weather mark in 3rd. I made a small split on the first run, and Andy Geritzer snuck around. Up the next beat, I made small gains back on the boats ahead to round the top mark right behind Andy, with a bit of a gap behind. Andy and I both had good runs to close on Tom Slingsby, with Andy rounding first, Tom second, and me in third right with them. The bottom reach was really broad, with Tom and I going high, and Andy slightly lower. Tom slipped by Andy, and towards the mark, I was making my move, but unfortunately needed one more foot to catch Andy at the mark. I had an average mark rounding, and got pinned by Diego Romero, who had a stellar bottom reach, and snuck by me on the last dash upwind.
In race 5, I started mid-line, and quickly punched out. The fleet held out to the left, and I tacked slightly earlier to lead them back right. I had Denis Karpak to weather, and the two of us charged back to the right to round 1-2. Denis sailed the next three legs slightly ahead. On the last run, I closed the distance, and to round just behind him for the bottom reach. Again, it was very broad, and I seemed to have a touch more pace. At the last mark, I was slightly ahead, but owed room to Denis. I had almost a boat length on him so I elected to round wide, and to leeward for the last beat to the finish. I pinched him off, and then protected my lead for the last little beat to win the race.
Overall, it is a bit of a weird day. I moved up 5 spots to 6th overall, which is really good, but on the otherhand, missing the start in the first race, and not attacking hard enough on the bottom reaach in race 4 cost me dearly in the points tally. I know that I will need to tidy up my sailing in the coming weeks, as I cant afford to be giving up bankable points. These points decide who wins and loses the event.
I ran into a bit of difficulty today in the first race. The lasers have split fleet for qualifying, and I was in blue, which normally starts second. However, yellow fleet had a general recall, and the RC decided to shift blue into the starting slot. I didnt notice the change until about 30 seconds before the start. I tossed my jacket into the water(hoping someone would pick it up so I could claim it later), and made a dash for the start. I eventually crossed the line on port 15 second after the start. Unfortunately, the first(and major) shift was a lefty, while I was stuck out on the right. I managed to catch up to tenth in the race.
After the frustration of race 3, I was determined to have a good result. I started just up from the pin, and punched out shortly after the start, rounding the first weather mark in 3rd. I made a small split on the first run, and Andy Geritzer snuck around. Up the next beat, I made small gains back on the boats ahead to round the top mark right behind Andy, with a bit of a gap behind. Andy and I both had good runs to close on Tom Slingsby, with Andy rounding first, Tom second, and me in third right with them. The bottom reach was really broad, with Tom and I going high, and Andy slightly lower. Tom slipped by Andy, and towards the mark, I was making my move, but unfortunately needed one more foot to catch Andy at the mark. I had an average mark rounding, and got pinned by Diego Romero, who had a stellar bottom reach, and snuck by me on the last dash upwind.
In race 5, I started mid-line, and quickly punched out. The fleet held out to the left, and I tacked slightly earlier to lead them back right. I had Denis Karpak to weather, and the two of us charged back to the right to round 1-2. Denis sailed the next three legs slightly ahead. On the last run, I closed the distance, and to round just behind him for the bottom reach. Again, it was very broad, and I seemed to have a touch more pace. At the last mark, I was slightly ahead, but owed room to Denis. I had almost a boat length on him so I elected to round wide, and to leeward for the last beat to the finish. I pinched him off, and then protected my lead for the last little beat to win the race.
Overall, it is a bit of a weird day. I moved up 5 spots to 6th overall, which is really good, but on the otherhand, missing the start in the first race, and not attacking hard enough on the bottom reaach in race 4 cost me dearly in the points tally. I know that I will need to tidy up my sailing in the coming weeks, as I cant afford to be giving up bankable points. These points decide who wins and loses the event.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Kiel Week-Day One
The first day of Kiel has finished up for the day. It was a relatively unusual start to the grade one with a 1pm start and only 2 races. The breeze was a moderate 10 knots and only took an hour to reach out to the course this morning. Pretty good for kiel standards, and in comparison to previous years. The first time I did this event, we didnt have a day under 18 knots(small tornados had touched down nearby to the regatta site), and took at least 1.5 hours to make it out to the course.
I had a pretty average day, but ended up with two good scores(4,5) to sit in about 9th overall. In the first race, I had a pretty good start just up from the pin. Unfortunately, I was pinned in, and had to sail through the first shift, waiting until it came back left again. At the top of the beat, I was looking at a low teens rounding, but after having to avoid a foul by a port tacker, and underlaying once, I rounded in the mid twenties. I picked off a couple boats on the top reach, then maybe 10-12 on the first run to round just in the top ten. Passed one or two up the next work, and then a couple more on the next run, reach, and last beat.
The second race for red fleet had a tricky first beat. There was a couple different breezes, and at the start, the boats at the pin were in a left breeze, and the guys at the boat were in a righty. I had a good start at the boat, but the lefty held a bit longer, and the pin end group came out a bit ahead. I tacked to leeward of the group and headed right for quite a ways. The breeze came back right a bit, and I reconnected with the group on the left. I rounded in 7th, and had good first run to close the lead on the pack in front. Around the bottom mark, the breeze was in the left. I tacked onto port, which was the long led, but unfortunately, the guys on the left had a bit more pressure, and legged out a bit. I closed the gap down on the next run and on the bottom reach, but couldnt sneak by the two boats just in front.
Racing continues tomorrow with a bit more breeze forecasted. There are 3 races scheduled with an 11AM start(930AM off the beach) so it should be an exhausting day.
I had a pretty average day, but ended up with two good scores(4,5) to sit in about 9th overall. In the first race, I had a pretty good start just up from the pin. Unfortunately, I was pinned in, and had to sail through the first shift, waiting until it came back left again. At the top of the beat, I was looking at a low teens rounding, but after having to avoid a foul by a port tacker, and underlaying once, I rounded in the mid twenties. I picked off a couple boats on the top reach, then maybe 10-12 on the first run to round just in the top ten. Passed one or two up the next work, and then a couple more on the next run, reach, and last beat.
The second race for red fleet had a tricky first beat. There was a couple different breezes, and at the start, the boats at the pin were in a left breeze, and the guys at the boat were in a righty. I had a good start at the boat, but the lefty held a bit longer, and the pin end group came out a bit ahead. I tacked to leeward of the group and headed right for quite a ways. The breeze came back right a bit, and I reconnected with the group on the left. I rounded in 7th, and had good first run to close the lead on the pack in front. Around the bottom mark, the breeze was in the left. I tacked onto port, which was the long led, but unfortunately, the guys on the left had a bit more pressure, and legged out a bit. I closed the gap down on the next run and on the bottom reach, but couldnt sneak by the two boats just in front.
Racing continues tomorrow with a bit more breeze forecasted. There are 3 races scheduled with an 11AM start(930AM off the beach) so it should be an exhausting day.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Holland Regatta-equipment preparation
It has been a long time since my last post. The only news I have to report on is the Holland regatta which finished up two weeks ago.
Overall it was an okay event for me. I had a horrible first day, and was sitting quite deep in the standings, and unfortunately, I started out the next day with an OCS, which really killed my chances of a podium finish. However I was really pleased with my recovery after those first four races, and to make it back to 7th overall. My starts were horrible all week, but tactically and strategically I was really with it, and clawed back through the fleet in more then my fair share of the races.
I think one of the big takeaways from this event was equipment preparation. At top level laser racing, sails really only last one major grade 1 event, and then get demoted to training or use at smaller regattas. Therefore, I normally go through between 5-7 sails a year. Typically, I buy all my sails for the season at one time, so that I can put them all up and compare shapes, note imperfections, and then rank them-saving the best ones for the most important regattas. However, for the Holland Regatta, I didnt have time to look at the latest batch of sails. Unfortunately, I had grabbed a sail with a really tight leech, and my speed suffered. It took me most of the first day to figure out the problem, and after that, I figured out how much I needed to free the sheet to bring back my normal groove.
Now I am not blaming my gear for my lack of speed. Instead, I am blaming my lack of preparation, as this was well within my control, and presents an interesting scenario for the games where the lasers are receiving supplied equipment. In China, it will be of the utmost importance to identify the differences between our normal gear, and the supplied gear. In particular, the stiffness of the mast, mast rake, and the shape of the sail. Then we will need to take this information, and be able to adapt our normal setup so that we are still getting the correct shapes and feel to maximize our boatspeed. I know this problem has plagued almost every top laser sailor I can think of at one stage or another, and whilst adapting may not win the Olympics, not adapting could certainly lose it.
Overall it was an okay event for me. I had a horrible first day, and was sitting quite deep in the standings, and unfortunately, I started out the next day with an OCS, which really killed my chances of a podium finish. However I was really pleased with my recovery after those first four races, and to make it back to 7th overall. My starts were horrible all week, but tactically and strategically I was really with it, and clawed back through the fleet in more then my fair share of the races.
I think one of the big takeaways from this event was equipment preparation. At top level laser racing, sails really only last one major grade 1 event, and then get demoted to training or use at smaller regattas. Therefore, I normally go through between 5-7 sails a year. Typically, I buy all my sails for the season at one time, so that I can put them all up and compare shapes, note imperfections, and then rank them-saving the best ones for the most important regattas. However, for the Holland Regatta, I didnt have time to look at the latest batch of sails. Unfortunately, I had grabbed a sail with a really tight leech, and my speed suffered. It took me most of the first day to figure out the problem, and after that, I figured out how much I needed to free the sheet to bring back my normal groove.
Now I am not blaming my gear for my lack of speed. Instead, I am blaming my lack of preparation, as this was well within my control, and presents an interesting scenario for the games where the lasers are receiving supplied equipment. In China, it will be of the utmost importance to identify the differences between our normal gear, and the supplied gear. In particular, the stiffness of the mast, mast rake, and the shape of the sail. Then we will need to take this information, and be able to adapt our normal setup so that we are still getting the correct shapes and feel to maximize our boatspeed. I know this problem has plagued almost every top laser sailor I can think of at one stage or another, and whilst adapting may not win the Olympics, not adapting could certainly lose it.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
French Olympic Week
I have just arrived home after racing in the French Olympic Week. We had a complete mix of conditions throughout the event, and for the most part, it was very chilly! After a couple of days of training, everyone was running off to the shops to stock up on warmer sailing gear.
I arrived about a week before the event, and planned to train relatively hard with a fair bit of intensity and duration. Unfortunately, I got sick while I was travelling and had to cut the volume of my training, resulting in just a couple of days of training prior to the event with Abe Torchinsky, my training partner. We were both feeling very rusty, as neither of us had done any full rig training since the end of the Worlds back in February. We went straight back into our 'generic' training session, which involves a bit of speed testing, followed by starting work, a bit of match racing, and then a difficult tacking drill.
The first two days of racing were windy-the first day being a steady onshore breeze, and the second, a shifty/gusty offshore breeze. I managed to put up four good scores on these days. The third day of the regatta was blown off quite early in the morning as the breeze was up over 30 knots. The next two days were gold fleet racing. I managed a solid 10th in the first race, but in the second, I sailed my drop(46)-a big mistake-more on that later.
Going into the final day of Gold fleet racing, I was sitting in 2nd place overall and was very nervous as the wind was light and patchy(one of my stronger conditions, but still very difficult). I had a cracking start in the first race of the day, which set me up for a great score(3) in that race. Most of the contenders had dropped back a bit after that race, and I knew Andrew Murdoch and I had a bit of a lead. However, at that stage, Murdoch's drop was a low teens score, while mine was a 46th. I knew going into the race, that he would go after me and try to push me back as far as possible to secure himself a lone solid lead.
Not much happened in the prestart between the two of us, but I made sure I kept a close eye on him. At about a minute to go, he tried to get a leeward overlap, but I managed to minimize the gap to leeward, leaving insufficient space for him. He found a hole a couple of boats down. At about 15 seconds to go, I could see that my start was going to fall apart as there was just too much congestion forming around me. I backed out of my spot and tried to tack out onto starboard; however, there was a starboard tacker that was there and refused to tack, leaving me with the only other option of gybing out, and being a few second late for the start on port. Fortunately, I was able to foot out and have a clear lane going right-where I had wanted to go. After about 1 minute, the breeze had shifted right, and there was only about 5 guys ahead of me. Three of them took this shift back across the course. I saw more pressure coming down out of the right and kept going. I dug in a bit more, and found a bit more pressure and even more shift, resulting in a healthy lead at the first weather mark.
Around the bottom mark, the course was changed, and the put a new compass bearing of 210 up on the board. This seemed strange as it was practically the same bearing of the old mark, but there was a red mark there, so I headed there. Long story short, the board had the wrong compass bearing and the change of course mark was the altered radial weather mark who were sailing on the outer loop. Our mark had been been up by the yngling course hidden in the glare of the low sun. This was very disappointing for me as Murdoch had been back in the race, and I would have had a nice lead heading into the medal race.
The race was then re-sailed and started at 7pm. After my performance in the abandoned race, I knew Murdoch wouldnt give me that sort of space again, and attacked in the pre-start. I tried to keep the match race a slow speed affair, as I knew that as soon as we started circling, and doing aggressive maneuvers, penalties were going to arise, which would work in Murdoch favor. Amusingly, at about 3 minutes to go, one of our more social mates thought we were just having a chat, so he came over to join us. It wasnt until he got quite close that he realized that we were engaged in a match race.
I was aware that I need a cracking start as if Andrew ever got close to me on the course, he would be able to slow me down considerably. At about 1:30 to go, we approached the line-Andrew was directly to leeward, and we were about 1/3 down from boat. Again, there was just too much congestion around(and having Andrew to leeward didnt help), so I backed out of the spot, and preceeded up the line to the boat. The gap between Andrew and I was quite tight, and I wouldnt be able to complete my tack, unless I found a spot to call for room to tack. Luckily for me, there was a gap that was just wide enough at the boat, which I was able to tack into, but forced Andrew to sail around about 5 other guys who were barging at the boat. I ended up tacking immediately as it looked like there was more pressure out right. I made nice gains out right, and then tacked back taking a couple of transoms. The breeze kept shifting right, and by the time I was about 5 boatlengths away from the mark I had a couple of boatlength lead over the fleet. However, there was a quite a bit of coach boat swell that had kicked up as they all blasted up around the course to get to the weather mark. I went through a bad set, and worked the boat to get through it. I'm not sure if the jury saw the chop or not, but they didnt like the body motions, and I took a yellow flag. I quickly did my spins, and managed to hole on for a low teens score.
Going into the medal race, I had a 2 point lead ahead of Andrew. Medal race scores are double points and non-droppable(medal race score breaks tie breakers), so it was who beat who would win the event. Andrew is a skilled teams racer having won a couple of world titles in that discipline, and I knew he would want to use the attacking skills he learnt while teams racing against me.
The breeze was very light and patchy. My only priority was to get off the line clean. I didnt want to put the decision of the race(and regatta) in the hands of the judges, and wanted to minimize Andrews ability to attack in the prestart. Because of that, I didnt tune up before the start, as I didnt want to get caught above the line in a inferior position. Instead, I waited to the right hand side of Andrew and the starting box until he approached me at about 3 minutes to go. We went into the typical circling that happens often in match racing. At this stage, all I was concerned about was when I should bail out and approach the line-too soon, and I would get caught in death corner, and too late, Andrew would have better positioning(pin end favored) and be able to push me back. At about 1 minute to go, I bailed out of the circling and led us back to the starting line. We both got off the line cleanly. I was on top of the pack at the pin, and Andrew was about 2 boat lengths to weather. I had a slightly better start, and when the pin end starters tacked out, they were unable to leebow me, but tacked under Andrew-forcing him into less pressure out right.
A couple of boats down at the pin tacked and crossed everyone. I sailed a bit past there line, and then followed them back making a small gain as the wind shifted further left. They then came back left, and dug in for more. I kept sailing, as I thought there was more pressure out right. Also, I wanted to consolidate the gains I had made on Andrew who was out right. I sailed until lay, when the right hand pressure filled in nicely and slammed Andrew, thus slowing him down. I managed to round in first, with Paul Goodison on my tail, and the others several boat lengths back. Paul Goodison slipped by me on the run as I was trying to extend my lead on Murdoch, and if I had tried to defend, we would have lost our healthy lead on the pack. Goodi won the race, and I followed a couple of boatlengths behind in second to win the event.
Overall, it was a gerat event for me. It is the first time I have raced the full rig down at the 79-80kg range, and I regret not racing at that weight sooner. In the past, all the Canadians have been up at the 84-85kg range, and I didnt want to give them an advantage going into our trials. I'm not far off my China weight, and I am still very pleased with my performance in the breeze even at this weight. I head back to Europe in just over a week, and will get back into the training in a big way. My coach, Kev Black, and other training partner(Luke Ramsey) will join up with Abe and I for the remainder of training leading up to the Games.
I arrived about a week before the event, and planned to train relatively hard with a fair bit of intensity and duration. Unfortunately, I got sick while I was travelling and had to cut the volume of my training, resulting in just a couple of days of training prior to the event with Abe Torchinsky, my training partner. We were both feeling very rusty, as neither of us had done any full rig training since the end of the Worlds back in February. We went straight back into our 'generic' training session, which involves a bit of speed testing, followed by starting work, a bit of match racing, and then a difficult tacking drill.
The first two days of racing were windy-the first day being a steady onshore breeze, and the second, a shifty/gusty offshore breeze. I managed to put up four good scores on these days. The third day of the regatta was blown off quite early in the morning as the breeze was up over 30 knots. The next two days were gold fleet racing. I managed a solid 10th in the first race, but in the second, I sailed my drop(46)-a big mistake-more on that later.
Going into the final day of Gold fleet racing, I was sitting in 2nd place overall and was very nervous as the wind was light and patchy(one of my stronger conditions, but still very difficult). I had a cracking start in the first race of the day, which set me up for a great score(3) in that race. Most of the contenders had dropped back a bit after that race, and I knew Andrew Murdoch and I had a bit of a lead. However, at that stage, Murdoch's drop was a low teens score, while mine was a 46th. I knew going into the race, that he would go after me and try to push me back as far as possible to secure himself a lone solid lead.
Not much happened in the prestart between the two of us, but I made sure I kept a close eye on him. At about a minute to go, he tried to get a leeward overlap, but I managed to minimize the gap to leeward, leaving insufficient space for him. He found a hole a couple of boats down. At about 15 seconds to go, I could see that my start was going to fall apart as there was just too much congestion forming around me. I backed out of my spot and tried to tack out onto starboard; however, there was a starboard tacker that was there and refused to tack, leaving me with the only other option of gybing out, and being a few second late for the start on port. Fortunately, I was able to foot out and have a clear lane going right-where I had wanted to go. After about 1 minute, the breeze had shifted right, and there was only about 5 guys ahead of me. Three of them took this shift back across the course. I saw more pressure coming down out of the right and kept going. I dug in a bit more, and found a bit more pressure and even more shift, resulting in a healthy lead at the first weather mark.
Around the bottom mark, the course was changed, and the put a new compass bearing of 210 up on the board. This seemed strange as it was practically the same bearing of the old mark, but there was a red mark there, so I headed there. Long story short, the board had the wrong compass bearing and the change of course mark was the altered radial weather mark who were sailing on the outer loop. Our mark had been been up by the yngling course hidden in the glare of the low sun. This was very disappointing for me as Murdoch had been back in the race, and I would have had a nice lead heading into the medal race.
The race was then re-sailed and started at 7pm. After my performance in the abandoned race, I knew Murdoch wouldnt give me that sort of space again, and attacked in the pre-start. I tried to keep the match race a slow speed affair, as I knew that as soon as we started circling, and doing aggressive maneuvers, penalties were going to arise, which would work in Murdoch favor. Amusingly, at about 3 minutes to go, one of our more social mates thought we were just having a chat, so he came over to join us. It wasnt until he got quite close that he realized that we were engaged in a match race.
I was aware that I need a cracking start as if Andrew ever got close to me on the course, he would be able to slow me down considerably. At about 1:30 to go, we approached the line-Andrew was directly to leeward, and we were about 1/3 down from boat. Again, there was just too much congestion around(and having Andrew to leeward didnt help), so I backed out of the spot, and preceeded up the line to the boat. The gap between Andrew and I was quite tight, and I wouldnt be able to complete my tack, unless I found a spot to call for room to tack. Luckily for me, there was a gap that was just wide enough at the boat, which I was able to tack into, but forced Andrew to sail around about 5 other guys who were barging at the boat. I ended up tacking immediately as it looked like there was more pressure out right. I made nice gains out right, and then tacked back taking a couple of transoms. The breeze kept shifting right, and by the time I was about 5 boatlengths away from the mark I had a couple of boatlength lead over the fleet. However, there was a quite a bit of coach boat swell that had kicked up as they all blasted up around the course to get to the weather mark. I went through a bad set, and worked the boat to get through it. I'm not sure if the jury saw the chop or not, but they didnt like the body motions, and I took a yellow flag. I quickly did my spins, and managed to hole on for a low teens score.
Going into the medal race, I had a 2 point lead ahead of Andrew. Medal race scores are double points and non-droppable(medal race score breaks tie breakers), so it was who beat who would win the event. Andrew is a skilled teams racer having won a couple of world titles in that discipline, and I knew he would want to use the attacking skills he learnt while teams racing against me.
The breeze was very light and patchy. My only priority was to get off the line clean. I didnt want to put the decision of the race(and regatta) in the hands of the judges, and wanted to minimize Andrews ability to attack in the prestart. Because of that, I didnt tune up before the start, as I didnt want to get caught above the line in a inferior position. Instead, I waited to the right hand side of Andrew and the starting box until he approached me at about 3 minutes to go. We went into the typical circling that happens often in match racing. At this stage, all I was concerned about was when I should bail out and approach the line-too soon, and I would get caught in death corner, and too late, Andrew would have better positioning(pin end favored) and be able to push me back. At about 1 minute to go, I bailed out of the circling and led us back to the starting line. We both got off the line cleanly. I was on top of the pack at the pin, and Andrew was about 2 boat lengths to weather. I had a slightly better start, and when the pin end starters tacked out, they were unable to leebow me, but tacked under Andrew-forcing him into less pressure out right.
A couple of boats down at the pin tacked and crossed everyone. I sailed a bit past there line, and then followed them back making a small gain as the wind shifted further left. They then came back left, and dug in for more. I kept sailing, as I thought there was more pressure out right. Also, I wanted to consolidate the gains I had made on Andrew who was out right. I sailed until lay, when the right hand pressure filled in nicely and slammed Andrew, thus slowing him down. I managed to round in first, with Paul Goodison on my tail, and the others several boat lengths back. Paul Goodison slipped by me on the run as I was trying to extend my lead on Murdoch, and if I had tried to defend, we would have lost our healthy lead on the pack. Goodi won the race, and I followed a couple of boatlengths behind in second to win the event.
Overall, it was a gerat event for me. It is the first time I have raced the full rig down at the 79-80kg range, and I regret not racing at that weight sooner. In the past, all the Canadians have been up at the 84-85kg range, and I didnt want to give them an advantage going into our trials. I'm not far off my China weight, and I am still very pleased with my performance in the breeze even at this weight. I head back to Europe in just over a week, and will get back into the training in a big way. My coach, Kev Black, and other training partner(Luke Ramsey) will join up with Abe and I for the remainder of training leading up to the Games.
Monday, March 31, 2008
A Few Lessons From the Last Few Months
After taking almost 2 months off after the Laser Worlds, I am getting back into full rig sailiing. Over that time, I have been working on my fitness, and have taken the opportunity to sail on Farr40, Sydney 38, and Laser Radial with some succes(2nd at Australian Farr40 Nationals, 1st at Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta-Sydney 38, and 1st at the Mens Radial World Championships). It has been a wonderful opportunity, and I have learnt heaps sailing these other boats.
I have had some really big takeaways during that time. First, I realized how important fitness is to sailing success-no matter what boat you sail. From my laser experience, fitness has a direct and dramatic impact on your boatspeed, however I thought that you just needed to be reasonably fit to sail on a yacht. Not so... Being fit will improve your grinding, trimming, hoisting, and most of all, will make you less likely to fatigue from race to race and day to day. On boats like Farr40s where there is a set weight limit, you need to make sure that every pound counts, and is more then just moveable ballast. Races are won and lost by feet, and if you are able to consistantly hoist 1 second faster then your competition, those gains will add up over the course of an event.
Second, I learnt the importance of pacing yourself in your preparation for a major event. While you don't want to slack off until the month or week before, you need to have an understanding of what needs to be done and when. More isn't always better, which brings me to my next point. All to often, people(myself included) have gone out and put in hours and hours of junk miles. While they will help your fitness they often detract from the ultimate goal. Training should always be done with purpose, and by going out and putting in hundreds of hours of junk miles, you often diminish your motivation, and typically end up practicing bad habits. If the intensity isnt there, then go in, and come back when you are ready. It is as simple as train like you would race. If you train at 50% intensity, you shouldnt expect to race at much more then 50% intensity. Obviously, you need to make sure that you break the skills down into managable chunks, but always train them with intensity.
Third, all to often, people follow the the basic general rules of thumb way to much(eg tack when you can cross, sail the long tack first, etc). Rules are meant to be broken. To call tactics successfully, you need to constantly be analyzing what is happening on the course in terms of pressure, wind direction and current. Then you need to assess what other boats are doing, your confidence in your judgement, and determine the amount of risk you are willing take. Often, you will end up following the general rules, but there will be plenty of times when you successfully dont.
Fourth-be prepared to back yourself. I have seen many different tactical styles of racing. Some people are very conservative and not willing to take much risk while others as much more likely to take risk. This has been one of the biggest things I have learnt over the last couple of months. Watching Slingo call tactics on the farr has really opened my eyes to why he wins so many events, as when he is confident in his decisions, he backs them.
I have had some really big takeaways during that time. First, I realized how important fitness is to sailing success-no matter what boat you sail. From my laser experience, fitness has a direct and dramatic impact on your boatspeed, however I thought that you just needed to be reasonably fit to sail on a yacht. Not so... Being fit will improve your grinding, trimming, hoisting, and most of all, will make you less likely to fatigue from race to race and day to day. On boats like Farr40s where there is a set weight limit, you need to make sure that every pound counts, and is more then just moveable ballast. Races are won and lost by feet, and if you are able to consistantly hoist 1 second faster then your competition, those gains will add up over the course of an event.
Second, I learnt the importance of pacing yourself in your preparation for a major event. While you don't want to slack off until the month or week before, you need to have an understanding of what needs to be done and when. More isn't always better, which brings me to my next point. All to often, people(myself included) have gone out and put in hours and hours of junk miles. While they will help your fitness they often detract from the ultimate goal. Training should always be done with purpose, and by going out and putting in hundreds of hours of junk miles, you often diminish your motivation, and typically end up practicing bad habits. If the intensity isnt there, then go in, and come back when you are ready. It is as simple as train like you would race. If you train at 50% intensity, you shouldnt expect to race at much more then 50% intensity. Obviously, you need to make sure that you break the skills down into managable chunks, but always train them with intensity.
Third, all to often, people follow the the basic general rules of thumb way to much(eg tack when you can cross, sail the long tack first, etc). Rules are meant to be broken. To call tactics successfully, you need to constantly be analyzing what is happening on the course in terms of pressure, wind direction and current. Then you need to assess what other boats are doing, your confidence in your judgement, and determine the amount of risk you are willing take. Often, you will end up following the general rules, but there will be plenty of times when you successfully dont.
Fourth-be prepared to back yourself. I have seen many different tactical styles of racing. Some people are very conservative and not willing to take much risk while others as much more likely to take risk. This has been one of the biggest things I have learnt over the last couple of months. Watching Slingo call tactics on the farr has really opened my eyes to why he wins so many events, as when he is confident in his decisions, he backs them.
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