Palma Wrap up

Well it has been a few days now and we can reflect back on last week's racing here in Palma.

54th/69 boats (21st country) - a disappointing finish at first glance, especially after all the work we have put in recently, but we remain confident in our sailing and our fundamental view that we can become a competitive team on the world stage by next year. We are eager to continue our training in France and then test ourselves again at the end of the month at the Hyeres French Olympic Week (ISAF World Cup Event #2 in Europe)

There are a number of observations to take note of from the event and the preceding week of training:

- The fleet is deep and close to everyone (save the Greeks, Japanese, AUS and NZL) were in attendance here in the 69 boat fleet (24 nations).

- While boat handling is an ever present priority in the boat, we are now able to play the game and it is not holding us back like it did last year. Yes we did flip on day 1 in the breeze and yes we have many maneuvers to smooth out, but the obstacles are manageable and the priority for our next chapter in the boat is boat speed. We found in this event, when the breeze was steady and there was an evident strategy that needed to be executed to get out front, we were unable to do this because we couldn't hold our lane with other top boats for any substantial length of time. It was extremely frustrating to watch this happen time and time again in our races.

Our speed is good at times and improving, but it is not consistent enough at this level. We need a coach to watch what we are doing in detail and help us develop a clear protocol of boat set up, trim (especially vang tension and mainsheet) and tune (especially low bend and forestay tension) for different conditions and give us confidence in our speed, so we can focus on the tactics and racing. All to often we feel, our lack of speed is distracting our energy away from the racing and all the tactical complexities associated with a 49er race - essentially a sail boat race in fast forward.

- Many competitors and coaches mentioned the level of the fleet has continued to improve (everyone, just like us was busy in the off-season). For us to make strides against this constantly moving bar, we need to accelerate our learning. As mentioned above, we need some coaching and not just random regatta coaches, but someone who can consistently stay with us and help us develop some consistent world class speed. It makes a difference, we have watched peers (similar vintage to us in the boat and similar training regime) make gains relative to us with coaching support. In perfect world, we would have a private coach (or atleast share a coach with a few other training partners), like many of our competitors, but it is just not a financial reality at present. We have not had any spare money for a coach since last July. We have been busy paying for sails, boat transport, air tickets, entry fee’s, insurance, line, spare parts, tools, and the list goes on! We now need to add coaching and the associated costs (coach boat, coach transport) to the same priority level as those. Until we can afford a coach, we will be working with our training partners on rig set up and continue to keep detailed notes on how everything was set and the corresponding results. The other thing we can do now is soak as much information from our friends who are going faster than us.

The level where we are and where we want to be is getting smaller, but these subtle gains can be the hardest to get and that is why we need help now. Both Jesse and I have opinions on certain techniques (trimming, steering) and boat set up (mast low bend, amount of twist, etc) but only with a knowledgeable third party behind us with a video camera can a real consensus be achieved and a truth found,

- Our starting and acceleration technique is coming together. Jesse has watched the top guys on the line and copied their pre-start ‘down speed’ technique and is now able to hold a spot on the line for up to 4 minutes. It is this funny dance of the boats creeping upwind and then backwinding back into the hole. All the while you are looking to windward to see if you can fit in a double tack to enlarge your hole and looking to leeward to protect your hole (usually by barking loud). The acceleration out of the hole is just as important and we usually start it with 6 -8 seconds to go. It requires deft main trim by Zander to power the boat up, without stalling Jesse’s rudder as the boat falls down onto close hauled....All the while we have to delicately run out onto the wing and clip in as well and make sure the boat stays perfectly flat the entire time! What we want to work on now is being able to develop a high mode when you have a marginal lane and be able to hold on until the fleet has shook out the 2nd row. Most of the time we are still starting at an end because it gives you more options if you lose your hole in the final approach. As we get more and more faith in our starting technique we will venture to the middle when our strategy dictates such.

- Tactically, for Hyeres, we are going to try and sail more disciplined on the track. Control the things we can manage (starting, windward mark approaches) and avoid taking as many flyers when we get frustrated with our speed. Yes there is a time and place for gaining extra leverage on the fleet, but the rationale must be able to be defended. It is not the way we usually sail, but if left unchecked this boat can get you into desperate situations that no normal sailboat racer would deem rational.

All in all, it is great that we have another event in two weeks and we can hopefully apply all that we have learned here in such a short time. In the training, we will continue to refine our maneuvers, boat set up and look out for a coach.

If you are interested in helping us with funding for coaching solely, we would be very grateful because coaches at this level do not come cheap and remain close to 50% of our budget through next year.