Friday, December 24, 2010

Cross Training



Since returning home for the Christmas holidays, Jesse has been able to stay active and keep fit by playing football for his old club team in a Christmas tournament. A local media website(Island Stats) posted a little article about it!
http://www.islandstats.com/sport.asp?sport=2&assoc=1&newsid=17357
Here it is-


"Olympic hopeful Jesse Kirkland took time out from hanging off his 49er Sailboat, to lace up his football boots for the PHC Zebras in their 1 – 0 loss to the Somerset Eagles during their Premier Development League (PDL) Group 3 Christmas Tournament match at the BAA Field.

Kirkland had the other media shown up would have been the story today, however now his story will not be printed until next week and then reported on the airwaves.

Kirkland came off the bench midway through the first half and played alongside Tre Ming in the PHC midfield.

PHC Zebras PDL coach Mark Wade said, “Kirkland played for PHC as a youngster, he played with the likes of Antwan Russell and Cecoy Robinson, actually he and Robinson stay in contact.”

Wade continued, “Kirkland keeps in touch with the club on a regular basis, he called and said he wants get involved over the Christmas period, he attended a few training session and we had a spot that we felt he could fill.”

“PHC is a family orientated club and we always try to keep in touch with all our players even when they move to other sports as we like to keep an eye on their progress,” wade went on to say.

“It was nice he came back around the guys and he was warmly excepted and fit right back into the family, we at PHC will be tracking Kirkland and we hope he and his brother Zander do realize their dream of qualifying for the Olympics as they will not just be representing PHC they will be representing Bermuda,” concluded Wade.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

new video camera!

1st day out with the go pro camera (tiny camera with fish eye lens, thank you Mum and Dad)! A pretty cool look into sailing the 49er. There will be multiple ways to tweak how we use this camera, but we are excited for the 1st attempt. For your info, the camera was on Jesse's head (perhaps aimed a little too high). Other ideas for the camera will be on the top of the mast, the end of the boom, the rudder gantry and perhaps the spinnaker pole! Stay tuned.

It was a chilly, moderate breeze day out on Biscayne Bay. We did double sessions today and are tired, but happy to make the most of the great skiff sailing conditions. We look forward to the Arctic blast moderating and Miami returning to its tropical self! 75 by the weekend! We look to make the most of the training until we pack it up for Christmas on Sunday.

-Zander

Friday, December 10, 2010

Miami Training

We have had a couple of good days on the water, working out the kinks and getting back in the swing of training with other good boats. Sore muscles and hands after the break, but hopefully we will be set for the breeze (BIG ARCTIC FRONT heading our way) for late in the weekend! Stay tuned for video from our new GO PRO camera! It is going on Jesse's head and should give a good vantage to our sailing and give you a pretty good idea of what we are seeing. If only you could feel the spinnaker sheet pull or make the dash across the wings with us!

-Zander

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Made it to Miami!

After a week of traversing the nation, the boat finally made it to Miami! For the first part of the drive, Jesse drove solo through the desert and up and over the Rockies to our Uncles House near Denver for Thanksgiving. Then, following a well fed break, our dad flew in to co-pilot the final half down the plains on through Miami. Much thanks to him for helping Jesse handle that final 32hrs! Conditions were good as they were outpacing a storm that was moving across the nation, though unfortunately they had a solid headwind the whole time.

So after a little break(Zan coaching out in CA, and Jesse competing in a St Marys Alumni regatta), we will return to practicing down in Miami for a couple weeks before Christmas. We are looking forward to getting back into a fledged routine of practicing amongst the five or so others teams.

Here are some shots of the drive across.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Long Beach Video

Back to sailing this week as we wrap up our California training (Jesse drives the boat to Miami next week). Monday and Tuesday were light and was great practice for our light air mechanics, something we did not practice much up in NorCAL. Yesterday we were greeted with a pleasant 8-12kt (just enough to get the boat powered up at times) Westerly off Long Beach and we were fortunate to have friend and top coach Payson Infelise to film the practice. The video below shows a bit of everything from the practice (tacks, gybes, straight lining, one acceleration drill, a couple of bear-aways and one extended clip of running downwind). Thanks to Payson for his time and his skill of being able to drive a coachboat and film our camera!

Our training in California this fall has been great and we are feeling more in tune with the rig and boat. It is amazing what an extended time of training will do for your 'feel'- on tuesday we did our best light air gybe on record and yesterday we did our fastest double trapping tack to date! You do a maneuver enough times that you can really start to break it down and figure out the best way to pull it off. Of course we still have lots of training to do before we will be ready for Miami OCR, but it has been a good start to our full-time training regime. We look forward to training in Miami, in December, with North America's best in the warm waters of Biscayne Bay!



-Zander

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Furlough

We are now down in Southern California, Jesse is fighting a bad flu bug and I have been staying busy coaching. This little break has been great to get out of the sail everyday routine and has allowed us to work towards improving the cash flow situation.

We are hoping to sail later in the week, if Jesse is up for it.

The boat is at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, the premiere sailing venue for SoCal.

Let you know when we get back out there,
Zander

Monday, November 1, 2010

SF Video

Below is a clip from sailing a few weeks ago in the Bay Area. It gives an example of an average training session (boat handling oriented) out here with our American training partners - USA 1071. The breeze was fun (nothing crazy, but windy enough to make things tricky at times) for that practice and brings to light the work associated with any boat handling maneuver in this boat. Thanks to Killarney for filming and running that practice for us!

Two more days of sailing in SF with a Mexican team before head down to Southern California to coach and sail.

-Zander

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Keeping it Fun!

FUN DAY!

So while Jesse was working hard coaching St Francis Yacht Club's Opti Race Team, I decided to go for a sail with one of my best buds, Davo Siegal. We went to Tabor and Tufts together and have done tons of sailing together, but never in the same boat. It was Dave's first time in a 49er and it was my first time sailing the 49er with someone other than Jess. So a day of firsts for sure and I was a little worried about how we and the boat would hold up, especially given the stormy, SF afternoon which created variable wind around the bay. I mean Davo's no slouch in a boat, being a two-time All-American and all, but I remember Jess and I's first day in a 49er and there's plenty of scar tissue around from the amount of flailing and swimming involved. I can remember that day so clearly, we were so clueless, we were lucky we didn't break anything major or hurt ourselves. What Dave and I concluded was that it really helps to have someone who has an idea in the boat.

You can evaluate two photos below, one from Jess and I's first day and then one from today with Davo. Pretty funny. I was joking that Dave was insulting the 49er by not capsizing during his first session. He was focused the entire session and was taking my comment to heart that "Its full on from the moment the boat leaves the dolly to the time it gets back on the dolly." He also got lucky that the variable breeze was light in the beginning, while he was getting a feel for it and then it built for the end. Dave's good luck I swear...

Jesse and Zander's first day...December 2008

hmmm...where's Jesse?

Davo and Zander's first day...Nov 2010

Monday, October 25, 2010

Photos from Saturday's racing

Photos from St. Francis YC Fall Dinghy - Saturday


Cruising Downwind across the finish line (altered because out of focus)


Powered Up at the Finish


Close Up across the line


Off the line and staying warm in the rain.

more photos can be found by the same photographer at:
http://ultimate-yachtshots.smugmug.com/ST-FRANCIS-YACHT-CLUB-REGATTAS/fall-dinghy-olympic-class/14331603_ceiPB#1060957013_JEA3B

Sunday, October 24, 2010

No racing today

We did not race on the final day of the Fall Dinghy as the weather did not quite cooperate with blistering rain and a howling 20-40knots. So we ended up 3rd in the event, and feeling optimistic about how things are going right now! This past month of training has certainly been beneficial, and are looking forward to finishing off our training in the Bay area with a good week of training with an additional team showing up(mexicans).

Saturday, October 23, 2010

1st Bullet!

We won the last race today in the Fall Dinghy at St. Francis YC in a stormy south wind off the city! It could have come in more glorious circumstances, but at least we got it over with! We were winning the race off the line and extended from there. It was nice to be able to race and have good speed. Our windward mark results for today were 2, 2, 1, so nice 1st beats, we just need to hold on better. We are tied for 3rd at the moment out of the this small 7 boat fleet. Stay tuned for photos and results tomorrow. follow the racing at: http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=3347

-Zander

Friday, October 22, 2010

Santa Cruz Video

Here is a little clip from sailing in the big breeze and waves in Santa Cruz...a couple bear-aways, couple of average gybes, one wrapped kite and Erik and Trevor's epic reverse pitch pole! Looks way more tame on video than it really was. The windiest day went undocumented. At least we got something on video to bring it to life on the computer.
-Zander

Sunday, October 17, 2010

SF Training update




Well this coming week we will be moving base camp across the bay to the St. Francis Yacht Club, as we prep for the St. Francis Fall Dinghy regatta next weekend. It should be a relatively informal regatta (only 5-6 boats), but it will be nice to get back into some real racing and put up our nice sails. Also sailing at the city front increases our odds for good breeze this late in the sea breeze season. It has been great to dedicate all this time to training and being able to focus on a few things. Lately we have been working on acceleration coordination, gybing in big chop, tacking in big chop and managing the spinnaker efficiently at mark roundings. Our main trim is improving upwind and we are starting to hike harder (get lower and straighter) off the wire.

With our training partners, Alex and Val we have done a ton of small course racing and after us crews get knackered from the high intensity cardio work out, we work our way upwind, tacking and crossing intermittently and then bomb downwind trying to land all of our gybes. We have noticed a large difference between the 10yr old boat and the new boat, it is way stiffer and everything is more difficult on the older boat because it is all moving a little. We call it 'Nike Air Cushioning' out on the old wings...

Our sailing on the bay to date has been productive, but has taken a toll on our gear. The short, current (ebb) induced shop is tough to sail in and put lots of pressure on the boat. Since we have been here, we have broken a tiller, ripped the mainsail clew, ripped the bolt rope on the mainsail, broken down the centerboard lining and cracked the centerboard on the trailing edge. The lessons we are learning on boatwork (working with carbon fiber, west system, 5200, etc) are invaluable and the knowledge gained will help keep our campaign as self-sufficient as possible. We are happy to say that the boat is now watertight, after leaking gallons in Santa Cruz.

Our camera has been out of batteries for a while, but now it is reloaded and hopefully we will get some media to you ASAP. We had video of us from our friend's camera, but are still chasing it up. stay tuned.

-Zander

Friday, October 8, 2010

Back to the Training

After our FULL-ON windy and wavy training camp in Santa Cruz concluded, we drove the boat up to Richmond Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay where we will sail till the end of October. But before we began our second training camp, we took a break from 49er sailing to compete in the US Team Racing Nationals in Seattle. It was refreshing to get in another boat (Zander helming for the first time in 12months!). Though reaching 5th place on the second day, we fell back a bit on the final day seeing our team end up 7th in the highly competitive, invite only field including two World Champions.

On Monday we flew back to the Bay area, and since have commenced our training with a few American boats. We have put some serious TLC hours into this older boat over the last few days and she is finally looking and feeling good and staying dry! The sailing here can get especially gnarly as on our first day there was a 12-18knots in some severe ebb current-induced chop. As you could imagine, the sea gets very messy making for sailing this boat rather tricky. Yesterday was a little tamer, which allowed us to get out further in the Bay. We actually made it beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, out to the beginning of the Pacific- such a cool place to sail with the dramatic landscapes!

So as we forward with our training here, we will continue to work on our boat handling in waves and breeze, whilst also doing some speed work with our training mates.

Keep posted as we will hopefully have some new video clips thanks to some friends coming out and filming!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Good Day on the water

After a couple days of seemingly endless frustration, yesterday we were able to make the most of the wavy and windy conditions- and without any breakdowns! It was a another beautiful day in Santa Cruz with the standard Northwesterly filling in around midday. We were able to make some good headway in the difficult conditions of 15-20+knots, combined with a groundswell mixed with the wind swell.

The drill of sailing round a windward leeward course for the day was simple in theory, but provides much challenges in practice! The breeze isn't the biggest problem in this kind of sailing, its the massive waves. With these big waves rolling through the courses, challenges can be met both in the upwind and downwind. Upwind, keeping the boat level through the troughs and peaks of the seas, as well as keeping yourself balanced on the wing as you get some air are the main concerns. Not surprinsingly, bearaways prove to be little more difficult in this stuff as well because of the concern of plowing into the backside of wave and pitch poling in the most powered up angle to the breeze! On the downwinds, keeping the bow out of the upcoming waves is priority number one as one slipup and your over! Also, when it comes to gybing, timing is essential because you dont want to be crossing the boat as the bow stuffs into a wave.

So, all in all, a much better day. We were able to identify some points to work on, and we also tried some new things. One particularly was Zander trimming the mainsheet for the bearaways instead of me. We found this to be beneficial as he has more ability to trim in and out through the larger sea state- will work more with this today.

Anyways, off to another day of practice. Hopefully another good day!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Santa Cruz Training

Well we have been in Santa Cruz for a week now, after crossing the country in 45 hours, with the boat ontop of the car. The training so far has been frustrating because we have been dealing with breakdowns in the harsh, breezy Santa Cruz conditions. We have broken a jib halyard, 2 sets of vang arms, 1 vang lever and destroyed a jib. The jib was destroyed as I went through it on a failed bear away attempt. Part of the reason for the trouble bearing away was that the vang lever had bent and we couldn't release enough leach tension and hence the boat was too powered up to bear away. It was scary as I was launched through the air heading towards the jib, it was all I could do to avoid the rail! Jesse quickly followed me through the front of the jib and we knew the sail was done. The whole bottom panel had a hole the size of me, oh well. Live and learn. A) Go on in when you notice vang lever is starting to bend and B)Stay south of Steamer Lane, where it is more protected. We always seem to learn everything the hard way in this boat! It must be noted that all three boats that day, came into the harbor under jib alone, so it was not just us having issues with the strong wind and breeze!

Hopefully today will be more productive for us and we can log some quality hours in the wind machine outside the harbor.

Pictures when we can find a cable to upload our photos.

We have been graciously hosted by the Lezin's (parents of Ben) and couldn't more stoked on our housing. Thanks guys for being so welcoming and taking us in!

-Zander

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Front Page and Info Session Tonight!


Shot by Scott Tucker for upcoming Bermudian Magazine Article, Sept 2010

Big Day for us! Front page on the Bermuda Sun and our 1st Info Session at RBYC this evening at 6pm. We have a fun, informative power point lined up, hope people enjoy. See you there!

Check article at:
http://bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=121&ArticleID=47956

We head to the States tomorrow. We leave for our drive across California early next week, with our boat ontop. Training camp starts on the 17th in Santa Cruz. We will be sailing with the top American teams and their world class coach; we are excited to be included!

-Zander

Monday, September 6, 2010

BODA Clinic with de 'youts'

We just finished a clinic for the new crop of Bermuda’s sailors this past weekend. Unfortunately Tropical Storm Fiona’s close pass to the island Saturday saw us cancel the first of the two-day clinic, but we were able to make up for it with a couple good sessions on Sunday. There were definitely lots of potential in these youngsters, and not one over 12 years old! On top of that, the group was evenly mixed between boys and girls providing a well balanced pod. We hope this group sticks together and continues to progress together in the coming years. Always to nice to give back to the next generation of Bermudian sailors!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Cross Training and Recharging



Back home for some R&R after a full summer of 49er sailing, in between coaching gigs, I was able to go surfing and get some fun waves at home - a rarity indeed. I feel surfing is great cross training for 49er sailing because it is an amazing upper body workout and it is great for your balance. Both balance and upper body strength are essential to crewing in a 49er. The other great thing about surfing is its ability to clear your head and revitalize you, something I needed after 3 windy, cold weeks in Weymouth. Now I am all fired up on training in California in a few weeks (we start the 17th hopefully). Thought I would share this with you because this cross training is more interesting than my normal routine in the gym.
-Zander

Monday, August 30, 2010

49er #2 heading to Port Elizabeth, NJ


THANK YOU Bermuda Container Line!

For the second time in our young campaign's history, BCL has shipped our boat across the Atlantic for free! We thank them for coming onboard so early in the campaign and for being so generous with their valuable, regular service to the US East Coast. We look forward to vindicating their good faith given to us. They are the first Bermudian company to stand behind us and we will never forget their assistance in our time of need (these early, unproven days are not easy!). We hope as we continue to improve on the international scene that more Bermudian companies will stand behind us. For now, all we can do is train away, be thankful for the loyal sponsors we have now and trust as this campaign becomes more visible that more companies will want to get behind us.

Plan Forward:
Our older boat (still thinking of a good name for her) is heading to the States for training in California and Florida in the Fall and coming Winter. We will drive her across in mid-September and then immerse ourselves in big wave and breeze practice in Santa Cruz, California. We will be sailing with the top Americans and a world class coach from Holland. We hope to leave off where we ended in Weymouth and continue our windy boat handling practice. After Santa Cruz, we head just north to the sailing mecca of San Francisco Bay for more big breeze practice for October. We will also be coaching Optimists, Lasers and high school sailing to help pay the bills. We will head south to Southern California for November for more training and coaching. Plenty of logistics to work on...

-Zander

Monday, August 23, 2010

Biggest Breeze and Top speed to Date!

Between sessions at the Portland Bill


Action in Weymouth Harbour


Today was WINDY...the low passed (which had rained on us for the last 3 days) and a clearing Westerly ensued on the Dorset coast. The breeze built quickly in our first morning session and by the end of the practice, we were feeling a gear in the boat that we had not yet felt (we reckon we were solidly in the low 20's in terms of boat speed). It was scary, it was addicting and it was humbling.

The weather station on the breakwater had the wind averaged at 23kts with gusts to 30kts. It was blowing so hard, that if we were launching at that strength, we would have probably not gone out for fear of breaking our boat and bodies and the lack of a coach boat. BUT we were happy we stayed out because it proved to ourselves that we can handle it (as much as one can when this boat takes flight) and the speeds were addictingly fun. It was an amazing feeling with the kite up, to be hit by these big puffs, you just felt the boat lurch forward (from doing 18kts to 22kts) and then just steamroll over the waves. All we could do was hold on and stay focused to avoid any potential consequential wipeout - complete 'in the moment' focus.

We had one really close call, where we were almost bowled over by one of these mega-puffs and we barely held on to keep our feet planted in the straps on the wing...yikes, still gives me shivers. We had one pitchpole that would have been great on camera, we duffed a gybe in some waves and then planted the bow. I realized the boat was going down, so I bailed out with water surging all the way back to the mast and left Jesse in the straps, trying to postpone the inevitable. Well it ended pretty, with Jesse getting ejected from the back of the near vertical wing as the boat cartwheeled downwind...so much power it is not funny! The bear-aways are another heart stopper, each one today you got that weightlessness feeling as the bow made its way down to our downwind course - a very line from throwing us well forward of the forestay!

Still have lots to learn in these extreme conditions, largely gybes, tacks and mainsheet trim (learning to balance the flogging main and with the steering). It all seems elementary now, but it is another to do it in this boat at those speeds and wave states. Time on the water in stuff like is the key! The cool thing about being out when it was that windy, was that it pushes your comfort zones and it made our 2nd session in 15-22 seem much more civilized than it had been before.

One more day of practice in Weymouth and then back to Bermuda to recharge and get ready for our big breeze practice in Northern California.

-Zander

Friday, August 20, 2010

Still in Weymouth and its still Windy!



We have gotten back to business here in Weymouth after a furlough for a few days in Cornwall(far southwestern England), where we laid low and hung out with some old family friends in the shire. Thank you Bulgin's for your hospitality! Our muscles were appreciative of the reprieve and left us ready to attack this final 6 days of training.

Training by yourself in any normal boat is usually hard to motivate to create a productive practice, but in this boat at our level, it is fine. We have had breeze over 15 kts the entire time, with the bulk of it being in the 18-20 kts+ range, so "the beast" is quite handful in itself. Our first two days we sailed double sessions, logging a solid 4 hours both days, enough to be sore and falling asleep on the couch before 10 (so lame, but that's the reality of what these boats do to you). Don't get me started on how much I am eating, lots of protein and carbs!

Today was windier than the past few days and as we sailed into the harbor, right as we lowered our wires and powered her up, bammm...both of us fly into the water to windward. We look up and see the main down three feet from the hoist...we ripped the head out of our main! The eye fitting in the head pulled out of the kevlar/mylar head, leaving the main sagging and us in the water. We got her back to the sailing club, got the sail to the sail maker and got the sail back and made it out for a quality, early evening session in a solid 15-25kts. It was a good session with some good breeze gybes and tacks. Also I am focusing on my trimming from staying straight out, fully lowered, which is easier said than done, but essential at the international level.

Although this extra practice time is not glorious (we are alone, the weather is miserable and the wind is relentless), it has been great for our sailing and just what we needed...

sore, chilly and desperately longing to return to summer weather,
Zander

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Final Day of Sail for Gold

The final day of Sail For Gold was the longest day of the event, and in fact, the longest day of 49er sailing we have ever had. Having left the dock sometime around 12, we did not reach the ramp till 7pm! What an exhausting day of sailing- especially for the Zan working hard up in the front of the boat. We completed 3 races, and had one race abandoned in an incredibly shifty North Westerly of 5-18knots.

Racing wise, it was probably our best day at this event as we were able to string together some good things in each of the 3 races (and the race abandoned). In the first race of the day we were in 6th at the windward, and they were able to improve on it by gybe-setting and putting our nose into the current seeing us move up to 3rd! However, the breeze died as we approached the leeward mark and they abandoned the race. AH! In the resail, we managed to match the quality of the abandoned race, and rounded the first windward in 7th or 8th, and finished in the low teens. Race 2 saw us round the first windward pretty deep, but we were able to grind it out and pass a few boats by the finish. In the final race of the day, we put together a really good first upwind beat where we were winning for a little bit! But ended up rounding 4th. Soon after the breeze got really funky, and our downwind speed in light wind and chop was not great seeing us fall back. Not how you want to end the day and the event, but nonetheless there certainly were a few highlights on the day.

We were quite pleased with our starting as we managed to get off the line in good shape in all of the starts. The best start of the day for us came in the second race when we won the boat in a committee-favored starting line- what a great feeling to look under the boom and see the entire fleet! Unfortunately we got caught on the wrong side of a lefty half way up the beat as we got caught too far right (what we thought was the favored side… ) But nonetheless, we were quite happy with the start, and starting by and large on the day. Another positive on the day was our heavy wind gybes and tacks where we were becoming competitive with the fleet AND we did not flip on the day!

So, as we move forward, again we will aim to tackle the boat handling while also start focusing on getting consistently up to speed with the fleet. When we reflect on the event, a few notable things stick out. 1. Our starting was good! We managed to have around 7 good/front row starts. 2. Our speed and pointing is not quite there on a consistent basis, BUT, not surprising as have focused primarily on boat handling, not speed. 3. As I just mentioned, we focused on boat handling for a majority of the time before the event, and we certainly saw a significant improvement.

Now, we are going to take a 3 day break and explore the Cornwall region. After sailing 9 out of the last 10 days your muscles and mind get pretty tired! Then somewhat rejuvenated, we go back to Weymouth to do some more intensive boat handling practice before heading home on the 25h.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Silver Day 1

Battled today in a shifty, blustery 10-22kt NW'ster out in Weymouth Bay. We hit some good shifts at times and stayed upright, but continue to be plagued by little things that we need to work on to put together at good race at this level.

We found our bridle was off to one-side and was part of the reason we were having height on starboard. We also watched the gold fleet racing on the big screen and have figured that we are too far forward in the boat going upwind, so that is something else we will try tomorrow when going upwind in the breeze. Also another thing hampering us today was our spinnaker pole was not getting far out enough and hence were not able to get a sufficiently tight spinnaker luff, which made it harder to carry in the breeze and also less efficient VMG downwind. We believe the reason for this was because I tied the spinnaker tack too tight and prohibited the pole from reaching its full extension. Live and learn. The other thing we are still working on is our communication amongst ourselves in the boat in the heat of the moment. It is one thing when everything is relaxed and the boat is going slow, but it is a whole different deal when the breeze is up and we are trucking along and dealing with converging boats and current on the race course! This will come with time as we adjust to sailing with each other and to being in such a machine at such speeds.

We are looking forward to our boat handling training which we will be doing after the event at the venue - in these boats boat handling is the name of the game! After this event, we hope to be more prepared for our next event which will be Miami OCR in late January.

Also a big thanks to Paul Hiles for watching us today and observing the racing and offering an interesting perspective on the racing. He trooped it out in a cold coachboat all day for us! Thanks Paul. We continue to remain indebted to you for all your work for us! We look forward to him watching us tomorrow as well. It also allowed him to see us in action and gain some understanding of the "beast" we are trying to tame! He was awed by the boat's performance and called it "a F-1 Ferrari". He said it is like no other type of racing and people really need to watch this level of racing to grasp how tough it is. He watched the gold fleet race too and said everyone was having issues and it was just a matter to get through it ASAP and get back up to speed. That's what we have to keep in mind, as we continue to battle with the boat.

Keeping on the good fight,
Zander

Racing concludes for us tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Day 3

Day 3
Today brought similar conditions to day 1 with a shifty 12-16knots from the southwest. And though the current was pretty slack for race 1, it picked up to a significant level for the remaining races (almost directly against the wind). So, as there was no racing yesterday, the Race Committee set and completed their goal of 4 races in our fleet for the day…to sum it up, it was a long day!

We had a couple good starts today where we were able to get a lane soon after the start, which has been one of our goals we set before the event. In one of the good starts, we were able to play a few shifts on the beat, and round the windward mark in 10th. After a well played gybe-set to the favored side of the course, we over-compensated into the adverse current on our starboard gybe to the leeward mark and overstood. We loss a handful of boats, but still managed a decent finish (this adverse current on the downwinds definitely throws a curveball when sighting your laylines). Unfortunately we soon found out we were over early, BUT its not so bad as it’s a sign we are pushing the line with competitive acceleration.

Now onto our boat handling. It is definitely improving-we are becoming more comfortable with both the tacking and gybing(our tacks are now getting competitive with the top boats in the fleet). Further, our mark rounding’s are also getting cleaner. Now the frustrating part. Despite all these gains we have made refining our boat handling we have not seen major changes in our placement in the fleet. But, this is not a total surprise as Zach Maxam once told us that when you make gains inside the boat cleaning up boat handling you will not seen big changes in your position in the fleet. SO, we can not get too upset, but nonetheless it is a little disheartening.

So, onto Silver Fleet tomorrow. The forecast calls for more of the same, maybe a little bit windier. We are hoping we can continue our progression in the boat handling department, and combined with some good tactics perhaps squeeze out some good finishes!

J

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

BLOWN OUT

No racing today for us as an Atlantic low pressure system approached the British Isles and made for misty, windy conditions that were not suitable 49er racing. The associated cold front kicked up 25-30kts of SW breeze for blue fleet's (yellow fleet was able to get two races off) scheduled afternoon races, so we will race early tomorrow and then re-seed and race again in a new group in the afternoon...going to be a long day. The breeze is forecast to go NW as the cold front pushes through tonight, so it should be puffy, offshore conditions with sunny periods!

We were very close to launching late this afternoon, but the wind built too high and today's races were abandoned. We were relived because it was windy enough for the good guys to look a little skittish...

-Zander

Monday, August 9, 2010

Sail for Gold - Day 1

We were greeted by a hazy southwester on the race course off Portland Bill today; the breeze ranged from 9-15kts with over a knot of current pushing diagonally (setting probably 15 degrees to the left of true wind) upwind. The race course is in a great location for 49ers when there is any sort of west in the breeze because the course is tucked under the giant offshore breakwater. However, the course is not protected by the current and this was clearly an important factor in the races out there - the current effect was very noticeable at the starts and at the windward and leeward mark laylines. With the windward current the starts were treacherous, as many people got OCS's and BFD's throughout the day. This is something we need to get used to and remember to always have a good idea of where the line is.

Race 1
We had the boat set up for more breeze than we had (we got too focused on the windy forecast) and we were SLOW - we now will be very careful of depowering in marginal conditions because it is very apparent when the boat is not set up properly. We had a good start under the black flag down near the pin next to the Aussies, where we were bow out on them, but then were soon bowled over by their blistering pace. The highlight of this race was that it had clean boathandling throughout!

Race 2
We raised the jib tack and took turns off the rig to power it up after the previous race. This made a huge impact on our speed as we warmed up before the 2nd race! We had a great start at the middle boat, a clear lane and good boat speed at go! It could have been a top 3 start if I had trimmed in the main a second or two earlier, but I was gun shy with the black flag and misread my watch, all to Jesse's ire as he wanted to accelerate earlier. In the end Jesse was clearly right and I will trust Jesse with his call on the line next time! Anyways, we were still in good position and picked some shifts with the top guys. It was awesome to feel fast with them and hang with them for the entire beat. We were stoked! We had a couple clean tacks when it counted too.

We rounded the windward mark in 12th or so and then ran into issues with the hoist. Somehow the starboard kite tack got stuck on the end of the bow (we need to tighten our kite bag) and the kite would not go up. We had to lower it and raise it numerous times before we got it clear, by that time the fleet had ditched us and we were in 3rd last...ahhhhh! We never regained composure after this incident and flipped in a puff on the gybe. Lesson learned, avoid blame game in the heat of the moment and move on. Still in hindsight, we were excited that we had pace with the top guys and it was nice to round in front of the reigning European Champions (Team GBR - Draper/Greenhaulgh). It was amazing what a little tickering with the rig does! It was kinda of a freak murphyism to have the tack get stuck like that, but we will recheck the bow pole fitting and tighten up the spinnaker bag.

Race 3
We had another good start at the middle boat, but suffered for pointing because we didn't have enough vang. This caused us to lose our lane and have to tack out to the unfavored side. We missed a shift because we were a little frazzled on why we weren't pointing and by the time we realized our vang setting was the problem we had been sent back to the aft end of the fleet. This fleet is extremely unforgiving (as it should be at an Olympic level) and we need to work harder to get everything right. Slowly, but surely...

- Zander

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Prep before Sail for Gold

The last few days have been very productive here in Weymouth with some quality training in breeze varying between 8-25knots over the four days. Over the course of the training we seen many different combinations of wind conditions and sea states as we have split our time between inside and outside the enormous breakwater.

Though we haven’t sailed as much as we would have liked with other teams, we definitely set and achieved our goal of hammering away at the boat handling. We were able to really focus on our tacks and gybes, and with the variant wind conditions were able to set different priorities in the respected condition. After some seriously long up and downwinds we finally felt a sort of understanding into the mechanics of the maneuvers.

And, on a side note, we were able to keep pushing our comfort zone to new levels, as one of the days was a steady 20-25knots with higher gusts! Not just trying to “survive”, we continued our boat handling mission in the breeze with some success. However, on more than one occasion, we were pleasantly reminded of the power of the 49er…. BUT, the biggest positive of the breezy day came following our experience over the next couple days in 8-15knots where we felt somewhat more comfortable and less frantic throughout the motions.

So, with the regatta starting tomorrow in a decently forecasted breeze (12-18knots), we hope to put our boat handling work to the test! The fleet is quite deep here with a lot of talented teams and few new teams, but we hope if we can just do the fundamental things right we have the potential to put ourselves in some promising positions.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Getting settled in Weymouth





Well we arrived in Weymouth on Tuesday evening after taking the BA red eye from Bermuda on Monday night. We had to pick up our boat at Paul Hiles's house in Torqay (southwest of England) and then put it on our rental car without roof racks and take it to the 2012 Olympic venue. Good thing Paul had some old pillows that we could lay down on the roof because they allowed us to put our '2 by 4's down to support the boat! We had tie-downs running through the inside of the car to support the wood/pillow roof rack! Anyways, we hope to never do it again because it endangered our boat and the car's roof (we can't afford to mess with either)! Photos above.

Special thanks to Paul and Lyn Hiles for accommodating our boat and reviving us after our red eye flight! Paul has also been extremely helpful getting us oriented in Weymouth, helping us with everything from current/wind local modeling to hooking us with great housing and boat storage in Weymouth. We look forward to continue to working with Paul as he is a great local contact with a wealth of sailing knowledge at an international standard. We are stoked! Thanks Paul (I doubt he will ever read this blog, not his thing!)!


Practice - Day 1

We had a great day of practice here in Weymouth today. It was WNW breeze (any element of westerly breeze is offshore in Weymouth), anywhere from 10-18kts. In the morning we did some boat handling and starting exercises in the harbor. This was a great way to warm up to the boat after our 3 week break since Poland.

In the afternoon, we ventured out into Weymouth Bay, just beyond the large breakwater (think Dockyard times 4!) where our 49er course is located. The breeze built and we had a great practice sailing in 12-18kts. The sailing area is still pretty flat water because it is in the lee of the breakwater, making for good skiff conditions. We did a practice race with the fleet and then sailed by ourselves working our tacks and gybes. It was great practice and we both feel like the we are figuring out our footwork better. It hardly felt like we skipped a beat from our sailing in Poland and we feel fresh and ready to move forward - we must always remember to plan time away from the boat to let the learning soak in and to stay fresh. We will be practicing until the event starts on Monday.

-Zander

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Euro trip wrap up

I wrote this for an NHYC write up, but it brings to light a few interesting things we have picked up on. read below:

"We first sailed Kiel Week in mid June, an ISAF Grade 1 event in Northern Germany, where we battled with a tough 59 boat fleet. The event was mired with light airs and was a little disappointing that there was not as much sailing as hoped. Still, the first day was windy and we completed three windy races which was invaluable practice as our time in breeze is still limited and every race day in breeze moves us along on the learning curve. It was apparent that we were out of practice after our spring hiatus - to allow Jesse to graduate - but we are not worried about results at this early juncture, only learning and underlying performance. In this boat, racing is the best practice you can get! We ended up in Kiel, a very humbling 50th place, a reminder of how much work we have to do to get to the World Standard.

We then packed it all up (49er on top of the rental car) and headed 10 hrs east to Gdynia, the sailing capital of Poland for the 49er European Championship. The European Championship is arguably more competitive than the World Championship because the heart of the class lies in Europe and this championship is always very well attended. The Bro's had the same goals for the European Championships as for Kiel Week, to log focused hours in the boat and continue to keep on learning as much as possible. With our amount of time in the boat to date, results were not a priority. Yes, we wanted to do well and have our moments up in the fleet, but we were realistic about our chances with a fleet of professional sailors. We wanted to do well at everything we could control (ie. tactics, starts, etc), but were cognizant of the fact that their boat handling would let them down at times.

The 82 boat fleet was stacked: full of World Champions, Olympic Medalists, professional big boat sailors and top skiff sailors. We pretty much had every condition over the 6 days of racing: everything from puffy, offshore conditions, to big waves associated with a sea breeze, to light air - great practice for us, but also extremely tiring after 3 days straight of solid breeze. We had some good starts, some good first beats, some solid second beats, some fast mark roundings, some good upwind and downwind speed, but we never really had the consistentcy to put it together for a complete race. This we believe is a symptom of our lack of time in the boat relative to our competition. After the dust settled, we ended up in 68th place (14th in Bronze), once again a rather lowly position to find ourselves in, but you have to earn your place in this fleet and up until now we could not put the time in. However, it was great immersion training and has stoked our fires to train hard to move forward from here.

So yet again, we would argue the results do not our sailing performance justice, but that is the nature of this class and now that we are sailing full-time we hope to remedy it. It seemed like we were one or two "catastrophic" (in terms of the race) mistakes away from being way higher on the results. For example, in strong breeze, our tacks and gybes are pretty solid, but put us in a situation where it is pressurized (at marks, crossing with other boats, etc), we can't do them consistently and that quickly jeopardizes the race. It is frustrating because you will have battled all the way around the race course and then one mistake takes you out of the race. The other thing we are finding frustrating at this juncture is that our poor boat handling is at times inhibiting our level-headed tactics, something traditionally we have been very good at because we are not comfortable enough in the boat. On numerous occasions we will have found ourselves in tough situations where if we did not have our boat handling nagging us, we simply would not have been there. For example, it could be not having faith in making a tack in a breezy race to go back to the side that was favoured or not starting near favored end because we didn't want to tangled up on the line. This is something we can work on now, even with limited boat handling, for we can be aware of this problem and avoid the boat sailing us into places we do not want to be! The philosophy that we constantly preach in the boat: Don't let something bad/mistake (ie. our boat handling) snowball into a worse situation (ie. miss a windshift because of fear of tacking). Minimize the loss and move forward. Don't obsess over it, the boat affords no time to leave the "here and now".


Up next for us is the Olympic Test Event in Weymouth ("Sail for Gold") in August (9th-14th). We will have 5 days of practice before the event and then a training camp after the event to get us acquainted to the venue and to log more hours in the boat. The goal is to put together a "complete race" there and to keep on improving with the underlying performance. We will then be sailing in San Francisco this September/October to practice heavy air sailing with top Americana and Canadian teams.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

European wraps up

Day 6

A high pressure is parked over the Polish Baltic coast again, giving us more hot weather and an afternoon sea breeze. Today actually was a decent sea breeze and our one race was held in a nice 7-10. We were full double trapping sometimes and never easing the sheet. After a rough 1st beat, where our settings were not dialed in for the building thermal, we had a great race. We passed boats on the 2nd upwind and then a bunch of boats on the final run to finish 13th.

Once we got enough vang on and the job halyard on tight enough, our upwind pace was great. We had some good lee-bows (pulled a good tack off in a pressurized situation) and were doing a good job keeping the boat steady in the water. This was something we wanted to work on over the summer and with all the light/medium air we have had, we are starting to feel more comfortable in these conditions. On the runs, we were doing a good job working low when we could, but all the while holding our speed when we needed to. This is done by both of us moving in and out on our wires to make sure the boat never heals to windward as we soak low when we can. It is a feel thing and comes with time in the boat.

Overall we ended up 14th in Bronze (28 boats) and 68th/82 overall. Not an amazing result and not up to our goal of top 2/3, but it was great exposure to the highest level in the world. We simply need to sail more with a focused program to get to the higher echelons of the class and that is exactly what we are planning. We are excited to get some training in because we feel we are a few key mistakes away from moving up in the class. These mistakes takes hours of practice to work out, there is no way to fudge your training in this boat. The lack of hours in the boat since Miami were apparent, but we made the most of this month of sailing and have made training contacts all over the world. We are going to be training with top North American sailors in San Francisco Bay in September/October. Should be great heavy air practice!

Jesse is driving the boat to England right now and I stay here to coach Laser Jr. Europeans. We both get to recharge in Bermuda before heading to England to sail the Olympic Test Event (Sail For Gold, Weymouth) in early August. We look forward to continue our treacherous dance up the learning curve!

This all happening and we are stoked!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Day 5 of Euros

After a refreshing break from the Baltic Sea norm with the passing cold front, today brought back the heat and light winds. We sailed two races in a light and rather steady, onshore 3-6 knots in some solid chop.

In both races, we were unable to have as much fortune on the starting line as the previous day leaving us to try and work our way back through the fleet. We were quite unfortunate in the start of the first one as we had good positioning right near the favored pin and left side of the course; however, the three boats that were OCS happened to be the 3 boats just to leeward of us. AHH! With no lane, and minimal wind shifts, our windward leg was mediocre. But after a good downwind and a very nice second beat we were able to pass 8-10 boats by the finish.

The second one saw us have a similar poor start and windward mark rounding, but a really good second upwind saw us again move our way through the fleet to 10th from 20th at the first mark.

Consensus on day:
- Speed was good most of time, just occasionally we were having problems, possibly due to big chop
- When breeze was a steady as it was, an emphasis is definitely put on starting!
- Our light wind tacks have improved significantly as we now have a mini roll to quickly get the boat back up to speed.
- Twice we were able to recover from a poor windward mark rounding, and turn a poor result into a respectable one.

One more day than the boat and Jesse head to England – 20hrs of driving to be broken up by a world cup match! Zander stays in Poland to coach Chris Barnard (Newport Beach, CA) at the Laser Jr. European Championships in Gdynia (July 18-25).

-Jesse

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Day 4 and more breeze!


day 4 racing in Bronze Fleet
12-17kt with BIG chop
Another great day of breeze practice.
Almost was not to be because the port main shroud popped out of the turnbuckle heading out, but we saved it before it went bad. Good thing it happened as we were leaving the beach!

We had great starts, good upwind speed in the breeze, but suffered with some boat handling issues in the waves. It was especially hard off the wind, where the boat would jump off waves and then land in the next set of waves, leaving you at risk to pitch poles...As the afternoon wore on, we seemed to slowly figure out how to stay upright. It is a case of getting real low and back on the wings and being smart with your spinnaker and main trim. More practice for sure is needed! It is quite a sight though, to see your boat cartwheel away from you on the run! Yep, these boats are light and don't like it when their bow is stuffed in the water! In fact, on one of the pitchpoles in the 1st race, the kite loaded up so much that the halyard cover ripped at the cleat, exposing the spectra core - not fun for handling! That made for fun hoists and doses for the rest of the day!

At the end of the day, we also realized why we were not pointing and going fast when the breeze dropped out a bit. It was our jib leads, too far outboard and depowered for that choppy 12-15kts. We needed them in, with an eased sheet to give us some twist. we had the opposite, it is amazing we still got an 8th in that last race with that setting! It was so frustrating in the race, but at least we diagnosed it and can move forward. We were winning that last race after a great start at the pin!

Learning a ton. still 2 more days of racing.
yes we are tired and exhausted, but this is what it is all about!

-Zander

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Day 3 and Kiel tent confessional after long day of racing


Photo of our start, too bad the angle is not great, but it is clear we are punched on that windward boat and we were good on the boat to leeward as well. We were 2/3 of the way from the pin, front row heading to the 1st lefty! You can see carnage in the background...don't worry we had our fair sure at later junctures.

Euros here in Gdynia was full on breeze today! We had 15-25kts, blowing hard offshore, some of the most breeze we have ever sailed in. Not going to go into it too much because it is very similar to yesterday in terms of what we learned and what we need to work on. In the end it is about time in the boat in this much breeze and we know that and we are going to work on it.

Needless to see, we are physically spent and mentally trying to keep our chin up. It was hard for everyone today, let alone us, who have 2-3 days of sailing in breeze since Miami in January! We did have a great start in the first one, up with all the top guys, but lost our lane after a 30 degree header sent us into the water for a dip! oh well! The race wasn't lost yet, for we were still up there until some obnoxious Italians took room on us at a hairy leeward mark rounding and forced us to flip. Thanks guys, I hope it was worth it.

For your entertainment, I am going to post my audio recording after a windy day of racing at Kiel to let you know how I feel after one of these days. It is really takes alot out of both of us, especially when we start swimming! And you can only imagine hoisting a giant, wet spinnaker!



We live to fight another day...3 more days of racing in bronze fleet.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Europeans Day 2




Gdynia showed her more Baltic face today, with a stormy, rain driven, 12-20kt breeze blowing right off the town. The direction made for big shifts, big blasts and relatively flat water: pretty much prime 49er sailing! For us, given our lack of breeze training, we always knew conditions like these would be challenging, but we were eager to head out and get practice with such world class competition.

To make the day even more difficult, the race committee decided to go for 4 races today because of the dubious long-term weather forecast, which made today our longest day of racing to date! We did 4 three lap races which each took roughly 40 mins each. Lets break that down from a boat handling perspective, that is: 12 spinnaker sets, 12 bear-aways, 8 douses (one of the hardest things to do in a 49er), roughly 48 gybes, and over 55 tacks. Great practice, but it takes a lot out of you, especially when you have not been doing these maneuvers much recently! We only flipped once during racing and that was in the last race in one of our final gybes in heavy traffic at the leeward gate.

Highlights from today:
- Had a couple of decent starts, our acceleration off the line is improving and we are moving closer to consistently getting off the line, full powered up.
- Hit a few shifts around boats. Its not rocket science out there, the top boats miss shifts and you can hang with them sometimes even if they are a little faster and more polished
- More comfortable getting low(powered up) and locked in the downwinds when breeze on
- All around great practice for us between going through the motions of tacks,gybes, roundings to tactics both up and downwind

Need to improve on:
-Tacks/Gybes in pressurized situations
-Laylines off the wind(this becomes very difficult when a 20kt puff hits after a initial 12kts and you have to fall off an extra 20 degrees and no longer lay the leeward mark. Add in some boats coming upwind and it gets a little hairy)
-Cutting losses (if we make a mistake, being able to recover and minimize the compounding of the loss).

Definitely an early night tonight, and with the forecast more of the same, we will need our rest. Hopefully we will be able to make some gains from our experiences today for tomorrows racing.

Monday, July 5, 2010

European Champs Day 1



The Battle in Gdynia begins...

Day one of the European Championships was held in a steady, hot 4-9 knot "sea breeze” (I guess the Baltic is a Sea?). With all the organizers steadfast in providing an up-close visual of 49er racing to the city of Gydnia, our course(Alpha) was tucked right up next to the breakwater, this made the racing that much more tricky as a pretty serious chop was prevalent throughout the day. The other course, “Bravo” was a little further along the coast.

Now, onto the racing., the race committee split the 90 boat fleet in two, making for two large 45 boat fleets(the biggest fleet we have raced in to-date). In the first race, with the starting line bias towards the committee boat, we were battling near the boat, and with great positioning on the line with 25 seconds got swallowed by the pre-start muddle and had a poor start. After a predictably mediocre first beat, we were able to put together two good legs, playing laylines and some shifts leaving us in with a respectable race in the 30s.

Following our first race start, we were eager to put ourselves in a better position for the next race. And we did not disappoint! With the boat still favored, we managed to have our best start to-date. What an amazing feeling.! After 4 min off the line, we were still on starboard, holding our lane with a Danish, a German and the Italians (Siabello brothers). We fell from the top 5 to 10th near the windward mark as FRA4 slammed us perfectly leaving us to tack two more times to clear out lane. After a relatively uneventful downwind(maybe lost one boat), our second beat saw us round in a decent position and with a good breeze (comparatively), however, we missed a good chance on a lane and were forced too far left. Definitely frustrating, but we were able to minimize loss following our mistake and finished in the low 20s we believe.



In the final race of the day, with decent positioning about midway down the line, we were unable to hold our lane on starboard(Siabello Brothers are a little fast…), but we managed to find a good lane on port and get locked in. After coming back from the right on a good righty with a Canadian, we failed to recognize the priorities of “large fleet, Sea breeze style 49er sailing”, and crossed the middle too early. And to make matters a lot more worst, near the windward mark, on the port layline, a few boats who committed to gybe setting fouled us(maybe 3?), and completely stopped us in the water. We then just hit the windward market, and before we knew it, we were last. We managed to pick off a few boats, but were very disappointed to end on that note.

Consensus on the day: Having such a large fleet definitely changes the game from your average 20-25 boat fleet as there is much more chaos and clutter around the course. Oh, and what a battle starting is! With 45 boats each vying for a front row position, it becomes a serious fight to gain that nice spot on the line. And not surprising, we had three general recalls on the day. Our speed was pretty good, not great, but definitely in the ballpark. Tactically with such a large fleet, unless you’re in the top 5, finding a lane and maximizing your full speed look is essential to decent performances both upwind and downwind. The middle of the course is death (as we found out the hard way in the final race).

So after another long day in the heat and a sun that hardly ever sets we recuperate. Hoping tomorrow we get out of the gate in more than a race, and put together some tactically smart races(boat handling aside…)

Regardless we are excited to be able to be “racing” in a world class fleet and will look to continue putting all these lessons to work as the regatta unfolds.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Poland Training with video clip

Update from Gdynia, Poland

We have been in Poland for the past 8 days training in advance of next week's European Championship. It has been generally hot with a light to moderate sea breeze developing each afternoon. We had a few days where we were in the foot-straps ripping downwind, but most of the training has been focused on keeping the boat steady in nasty chop. We have been sailing near a big sea wall, which has made for a tricky, confused wave state. The breeze has also been in the marginal double trapping territory, so it has put a huge premium on Jess and I working together to keep her balanced. Anyways after 6 sessions in these conditions, we are starting to feel more comfortable in it. Jesse and I feel our comfort level in the boat has just recently surpassed where we were in Miami in January.

We are also happy with our rig set up for these conditions, yesterday in practice races, we were holding our lane and having great winward mark roundings. This has been pretty rare for us to date, so this was a big deal. A small victory, but a good morale booster. We know this European fleet (90 boats) will be DEEP and we have tons to improve on, but we like where the trend is going...We just try and keep it one session at a time and try not to get too frustrated when our boat handling lets us down. Consistency in the boat haunts us from putting together a complete great race, but we are working towards one and we look forward to making it happen!

We had a good mini clinic with a top British Coach over the past few days and he was very encouraging and knowledgeable. His insights were helpful and his camera footage of us was cool (it is amazing how different it looks on camera).

Below is some video (we are just figuring out the camera and the editing process, it also shows how far we have to go...I swear we did some better tacks and gybes that were not on camera!) he took of us:

Racing begins on Monday and runs until Saturday. Our goal is to make silver fleet (top 2/3) and to have moments up at the front of the fleet. So in the qualifying races (33 boats per start), we are looking for consistent finishes in the teens. We want to keep on working on our starting acceleration and then escape in the front of the fleet with a nice lane! Forecast looks like more medium breeze, but it seems no one really knows what the breeze is going to do. We will keep our head of the boat as best we can and try to put together some great races.

-Zander

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Final Day of Kiel

The final day of Kiel again brought light and fickle winds and after a few hours of postponement we were able to get off two races. When racing was all said and done we scored a 31 and a 24. It was definitely one of the more frustrating days racing as our boat handling coupled with a few critical tactical mistakes cost us big.

In the first race, with the pin clearly favored, we chose to start just to windward of the clutter and had a great start with good speed. Unfortunately, we misjudged a cross as we attempted to port tack the half of the fleet nearest to the boat and had to tack back to starboard where we still had an ok lane and were able to round the windward in the top 12- if only we had made the cross! With more time in the boat, we will be better at judging crosses and have quicker tacks, but nonetheless frustrating.Well, here comes the most trying part of the day. As we rounded the windward, the fleet was very, very condensed with many boats locking rails etc. To avoid all the commotion with other boats we decided for a quick gybe over onto port. What a mistake that was. The breeze shifted left in a PERSISTENT SHIFT and we got owned. To exacerbate the mistake, we chose to round the less crowded gate, but having it be so unflavored left us in poor shape. Verdict- though we had a great start, and good positioning on the fleet, a few critical mistakes can cost you ALOT.

Having tried to clear our heads after the first race, we decided on a very similar tactic of starting to the first race, though slightly closer to the pin. We again had a good positioning, but our acceleration wasn’t quite solid enough, and were unable to hold our lane. As we approached the windward in a largely left favored course, again the fleet was ridiculously condensed and we were unable to have a good tack onto the starboard layline. This set into motion an awfully painful rounding, and though we had a good final downwind, we were unable to feel satisfied on the day.

Knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming right to an event following our time off this spring, and Kiel didn’t disappoint! So, onto Poland for a couple weeks of training before the Europeans. Hopefully we can continue to shake off the rust of the last few months and start to feel more comfortable sailing the boat and with other boats around us.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Light Air on Day 2

We all slept well last night after our 4 race battle in yesterday's cold, blustery breeze and awoke to hope that we would have more moderate conditions for today. However, the Baltic Sea would have none of it, as it fizzled out today and could only offer up the opposite end of the breeze spectrum - a dying northerly for us to race in off the Kiel Lighthouse. Both yellow and blue fleets were able to get 1 race off each before it became too light to race. Other fleets got no racing in. We were the second group, so we got the lighter, more painful conditions thanks to fading gradient as the low passed to our distant north east. It may have been the lightest conditions we have ever raced in for a complete race.

We started down at the pin hoping for some pressure to come down around the point, which is off to the left of the course. It looked like 2-4kts pretty uniform across the course, so we thought the key to the race would be a lane off the lane going fast. After a slow acceleration at the start, we were forced to crack off and reach down below the boats that won the pin to find some clear air. Soon after though, we found some speed and were looking good on the fleet. WE SHOULD HAVE TACKED, but we kept going and over-leveraged ourselves to the left side (thinking that the breeze would remain steady). It was a tough call at the time, but a no-brainer in hindsight (CROSS WHEN YOU CAN!). Instead we kept going into an unforeseen hole and lost the majority of the fleet. We rounded the windward mark in last!

Knowing the type of racing in the boat, we kept fighting and hit some hit some shifts on the run and got right back into the middle of the fleet. We had a great upwind, where we stayed in a vein of breeze and sailed around numerous boats. We could have been higher if we had not lost our lane on the starboard layline to a Swedish boat who seemed to pinch for no other reason than to sail extra distance and screw us up - to each their own and we will avoid that barney from now on. Our run was solid (net even), losing boats and then catching others thanks to some solid speed and tactics around the finish line. It is amazing how much is always up for grabs in these races, you can never give up!

We ended up 17th in the race, were probably around 14th for a bit, but we were also last in the beginning, so a solid race for us in theses early days of the Euro-campaign. We are now in 44th and hope to continue to move up the standings as we reacquaint ourselves into the boat.

Hopefully the breeze is raceable over the next few days! Forecast is calling for a light northerly for the next few days, hopefully stronger than today!

Boat handling wise in these conditions need to focus on:
-starting acceleration
-smooth gybes
-avoiding taking coachboat chop over the bow (Zander needs to move fore-aft faster)

tactically:
-Cross when you can

-Zander

Saturday, June 19, 2010

KIel Day 1

Day 1 of Kiel is in the bag! In classic Kiel fashion, the regatta kicked off with a shifty and puffy 12-20knots with higher gusts with temperatures in the 50s. With the fleet split into two divisions with 27 boats in each, the Race Committee decided to break the day in two with each fleet racing two, then coming ashore while the other group raced, then racing two more. This made the day that much longer as we had to manage to stay warm in the down time between our set of races.

After a long day in difficult and blustery conditions we are sitting in 45th place out of 58 with a few boats unable to finish or sustained a breakdown(23-20-22-19). We are happy with our performance on the day considering our lack of practice recently(4 month break plus the 4 days before the event were 3-7knots), specifically our ability to keep our mast dry for all but one time in the first race! Our downwinds were pretty hairy but we managed to control the chaos and pulled off some good gybes while also keeping the boat upright when we fumbled from wing to wing. Our speed upwind was quite good relative to other boats in the fleet but there is still room to improve in the consistency and changing modes with varying conditions.

Our little hiatus due to Jesse finishing school was most visibly seen in the starting- with conditions as they were, and a super pin favored line, good boat handling=good start. Though we did see improvement through the day and managed to have a lane in the final race, our starting was something to be desired. This, however, did not faze us as we are not well rehearsed in our windy,shifty starting routine and our larger sailing around the course gave us much optimism on the day.

Off to bed, and with a lighter forecast in store for us tomorrow, we hope we can put together some moments and hopefully get a couple good scores!

Video clip of the racing: http://www.world-of-sailing.info/index.php?id=184


Jesse

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Getting back into the Swing of things in Kiel





We have spent the past few days rigging our boat and getting back into 49er mode. It has been light to medium air and reasonably forgiving, but we know the real test will be when the breeze comes up. We are camping on a field near the beach with the boats, which is very convenient and fun to stay so close to the regatta.

We got our new main out today! Looks great!

Regatta starts on Saturday! Keep you posted.

I hope the campsite stays dry!

-Zander

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Vamos to Deutschland!

After a few hours of organizing and fastening we got 'Sled' onto our Renault and are ready to get on the road late this evening bound for Kiel, Germany. 'Sled' has been graciously taken care of by Alex Bishop and his family in Bormes La Mimosa (near Toulon, France) this past spring. We are deeply indebted to them for this huge help...Thanks guys! The views from his house are amazing and remind me of the St. Barbara area (except no Rincon here!).

Aurevoir!
Zander

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Royal Gazette - June 9, 2010


Kirkland brothers step up Olympic campaign


By Kyle Hunter

Olympic sailing hopefuls, Zander and Jesse Kirkland, leave Bermuda this week bound for Europe where they take their campaign up another notch to qualify for the 2012 London Games in the 49er class.

First stop is one of the biggest events on the world's sailing calendar, Kiel Week in Germany, where they will take on the best.

After that they will travel to the European 49er Championships in Poland.

The Kirkland brothers launched their Olympic campaign earlier this year when they competed at the World Championships and then sailed at the Miami Olympic Class Regatta.

But then they had to put their campaign on hold as younger brother Jesse had to finish his education at St. Mary's University in Maryland where he was one of the stars on the college's sailing team. In fact, he ended up being a four-time All American.

Zander was based in Newport Beach, California where he sailed and also coached younger sailors.

But now that Jesse's education is finished, the brothers will be going all out to qualify for the 2012 Olympics and have sought advice far and wide about bettering their chances.

And not only have they spoken to former Olympic sailors like Peter Bromby (Star class) and Alan Burland (Tornado class) but have also asked the advice of former Olympic triple jumper and former World Indoor Champion Brian Wellman.

"We want to get every edge we can and it was great talking to Brian," said Zander this week.

"We are always picking the brains of people like Peter Bromby and Alan Burland. And since I have been back in Bermuda I have been working out at the Olympic Club. (Owner) Scott Stallard has given us free membership whenever we are back in Bermuda and I bumped into Brian Wellman. He has been great talking to us especially about his philosophy of getting to that world class level. As he said 'you may be talented but so is everyone else in that fleet'. He has pointed out that there are things that make you stand out – the correct programme and coaching and work ethic. He has told us that we will have to work like a dog – we will really have to want it and those are the things than can make the difference.

"He was also talking about our work-out programme. He said that we have to think about every manoeuvre we do in the boat and we have to try and replicate that manoeuvre in the gym – isolate the different muscles we will be using."

The Kirklands have already sent over their 49er boat to Europe.

"We shipped it out after the Miami OCR and it is waiting for us at a friend's house in France which is a great help. He is a fellow 49er sailor and went to school with Jesse. He will be competing at the same events as us (Kiel Week and the European Championships) so we will all travel together."

The brothers will be leasing a car to get their boat around Europe and will be camping at the events.

"It is Important to save money. We are doing it on as tight a budget as we can but without compromising the mission. We have to have the equipment and we have to put the time in but wherever we can we are being frugal as possible. We have raised enough money to make this summer happen. Then we will do a new round of fund raising in the fall."

Now that their campaign is in full swing both brothers are excited.

"After competing in the Worlds and the Miami OCR earlier this year we had to put everything on hold for Jesse to finish college. It was something that had to be done and I am really proud of him – he was an All American for four years and not many people can say that. We have both bulked up in the gym and we are happy with our weight. We are stronger.

"Kiel Week will be tough. The fleet will probably be about 80 boats and it will be the deepest fleet we have ever sailed in. It is going to be tricky initially because we have not been in the 49er since the Miami OCR. Now we are going to see if we can start putting this together."

Kiel Week will be from June 19-23 and the Kirklands plan to get there a few days beforehand for training.

"After Kiel we travel for about 10 hours into Poland to Gdynia for the European Championships."

Those championships start on July 5 but the Kirklands hope to get there on June 25.

"The International 49er Association are graciously helping the developing and smaller nations by putting on a clinic so we will be doing that before the championships start."

After those championships Zander will stick around at Gdynia to help coach a young Laser sailor.

"I will stay in Poland because I have a private coaching gig with a California kid who I used to coach – he is doing the Laser Junior Championships which are at the same venue. I am going to help him get prepared and that will generate a little positive cash flow for the trip. Every little bit helps."

And while he is coaching the young Laser sailor, brother Jesse will drive the boat to Weymouth, England where the sailing events will be staged at the 2012 Olympics.

"He flies back to Bermuda on July 15 and I return on July 25. We will have a short break and then return to England and spend three weeks sailing out of the Olympic venue. We will be competing at the Olympic test event which is called Sail for Gold. That is from August 9-14."

After returning to Bermuda they will start another fund raising campaign for the fall.

"The biggest expense for the fall will be for coaching. The top coaches in the world cost $500 a day – they are not cheap but if you want the best you have to pay world class fees," said Zander.

"And obviously we will need money for new sails and equipment," he said.

One event they will be sad to miss will be the Comet Long Distance Race – a race they have won.

"Unfortunately we will be at Kiel when that is sailed. If we were not there in Germany we would definitely be trying to hook with Stevie (Dickinson) and Gladwin (Lambert) and all the guys. That race still goes down as one of the epic races I have ever been in."

And for those who want to follow the Kirklands on the European adventure they will be updating their blog.