Worlds Wrap Up

'Sled' at her first event!

Bahamas 2010 49er World Championships

Looks can be deceiving: Action off the beach in Freeport, Grand Bahamas

Infamous Front Page Photo: Paying Dues in the Bahamas at the 2010 World Championship.
Our buddies (in the background), were out of control and unable to give us room at the leeward mark in Race 6 and the top of their mast went through the Bermuda Flag on our main. Lesson learned: Save the boat and don't force a collision, even if you are right.

Our beautiful flag and sail up close after the collision.

We are back in the States regrouping after our immersion training in the Bahamas. What an experience it was for us; not only was the sailing time great with Zack's oversight, but we were able to watch up close all the top guys sailing the boat. This is great because we were able to see their little boat handling intricacies and general skiff sailing approach. The other benefit of having these guys in the boat yard, is to see how they set up their boat. We found ourselves daily improving the rigging (and we are not done yet!) as we looked and talked around the boat yard.

Challenging, Shifty Breeze
The breeze over the event was pretty tough for a first event because the course was tucked in under the shore line, inside the reef, which made for shifty, variable legs. This type of breeze puts an emphasis on quick boat handling and general comfort in the boat, allowing the crews to react to the wind changes to maximize boat speed. This said, it was great practice and should be nice to get to a venue with a steadier breeze. We made new friends with guys from Argentina, Mexico, the Czech Republic, the US, and England. We hope to work with these guys in the future to take all our levels higher.

Cruising off the wind in Freeport's puffy, flatwater

The results were as expected, very rough (2nd Last), we had more DNF's (did not finish) than actual scores (8 DNF's vs 6 finishes)! The learning and the moments of performance was what we were after. The majority of the DNF's were due to breakdowns from collisions with other boats (most of them were arguably not our fault), for only 2 of the DNF's were caused by us getting too far behind because of capsizing. These 6 breakdown DNF's taught us the importance of avoiding collisions at all costs and the need to have extra sails and parts ready to go when things break. These boats are lightly built and rigged and so tend to break easily when there are collisions or wipe outs.

Things we were happy about the event:

1) STARTING: Slowly working on the time/distance of the 49er in the pre-start and we were close to getting some really good starts. Jesse is quickly picking up the feel of maneuvering the boat on the line and we are working on our handwork with the mainsheet and jib sheet as we accelerate off the line.

Kirkland Brothers jousting at the pin

2) Overall rigging set up of the boat. The boat is running better than ever and making our lives easier after seeing how our competitor's run things.

3) Our straight line speed. When we are not distracted by boat handling issues and are able to concentrate on our speed, we have found that our speed is very solid. Upwind, Jesse does a good job focusing on boat speed, while I work on the mainsheet trim, doing my best to keep the boat balanced and at maximum speed.

4) Lots of boat handling practice. Most of our races were 4 laps, an extremely high number of spinnaker sets and douses, which translates to 12 sets and 9 douses over the course of a 3 race day. The shifty breeze also made sure were taking a bunch on the beats and by the end of the event, we were coming across the boat quicker. Also we are learning how to sail the boat downspeed during the pre-start in good breeze, which is a skill we just learned at the event (because we had never done a start before we got to the Bahamas!). This is important because it not only conserves our energy for the racing, but it allows us to set up properly for the start. It is a tricky art with those giant sails, dragging wings and the small rudder!

5) Zack's Coaching. Zack was great for our first event; he not only got our boat set up properly and made significant improvements to our boat handling, but he introduced us to class stalwarts and oriented us to the class. His knowledge of the boat and how to manage the championship was a huge resource.

6) Meeting New Friends in the class. We met some very experienced sailors in the class and other "49er Freshman", who like us have much work to do before entering the upper stratus of the class could be a reality. There is a certain amount of bonding you do with these fellow "freshman"; as you laugh/comiserate about your wipe outs and your position on the scoreboard! The synergy between us should power us through this tough stretch on the learning curve and take us all higher!

Just to show you how gear intensive these boats are...

Things we broke while in the Bahamas:

• tiller extension
• outhaul
• ripped upper main
• holed bottom panel of the main
• ripped foot of the spinnaker
• Jesse's trapeze wire (3 mins to go before start of racing on final day)
• spinnaker pole launcher

-Zander