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