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
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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
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
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.
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.
"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!
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!
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