Harry Anderson
YCYC
420s
9.2-3.06
Saturday – Winds ENE 15-25 knots Outgoing tide in the AM.
Big lefties at bottom and middle. Light and variable at top near shoreline.
Went heavy, suffered at top of course where big boathandling was necessary.
Boatspeed – easier near pin off start (rumble, rumble 420 with breeze… tails straight plane upwind.)
Great control off the wind with crew to weather (Stable). Problem – where can you fit in a few bails?
1. Lulls
2. Go regular til boat is dry
3. Skipper bails?
Very easy to gybe, flick it and rip it.
** Find a good way to do a wing to reach transition when stable.**
1. crew stands
2. skipper rolls off bar
3. double flatten
**** problem # 3 seems a bit dangerous/complicated
Trip MD – very good, agro, needs to settle down a bit, work on downwind boathandling.
Rough 1st set on Saturday… 1 DFL.
1. too many tacks
2. No speed (Rumble, Rumble
3. Easier to rumble from pin.
Be confident – let it rip, rumble in breeze.
Sunday 6 races in A+B
7,10,10,16,4,6
Last set saved face for us in the regatta
Races 3-6 3-5k SE breeze.
Roll the boat HARD and LATE
Super light you must romp (speed first, height later)
Breeze from same direction as Sunday at Frosh NE’s. See righties on upper right quite often. Know what the tide is doing, especially off wind.
Current was ebbing early (races 3-5) huge gains around offset when you could gybe.
Past success has come from: Win the pin, cross the fleet be the first to get into the rightie off the bluff. On the downwind big gains were seen in the ebb when you gybe immediately
1. current sweeping hard.
2. Fight it early while reacing (in clear breeze!), not winging
3. When battling for overlaps at gate, you are sweeping in while others are sweeping out. Also the left gate makes more sense since you are sailing against the current less.
4. Don’t get lost trying to boathandle your way in current and light breeze.
E, Stork says “you can’t get sucked into reaching around on the run. Point it at the mark and fly. Find a lane and go.”
Races 7-8 saved our ass. We went from 16th to 9th in A.
Breeze came up to 12-14 knots. Upper edge with Kerry. Need a medium with some height… Hannah? Won the pin 2 races straight, rumbledout to within 5 boatlengthes of port tack layline. Ducked a few (1 pack) they went too far, but couldn’t pin me because the breeze was up. I pinned a group that called for room to tack. In breeze you can almost always leebow when its close…. Especially when its you are on the outer fringe pinning a group.
3-8 Boatlengthes is desired but not necessary… tons of carnage at top, nobody knows what is going on (waves and breeze)
A guy on the inner fringe of a pack (calling for room to tack due to starboard tackers) almost always gets boned.
9th in A
16th in B
16th Overall
Friday, December 14, 2007
Commandments of College Sailing
Commandments of College Sailing
Ben Spiller
1. Sail the boat flat – “Flatness is a state of mind.”
2. You may heel to leeward only when heading up.
3. You may heel to windward only when bearing off.
4. Beat your neighbors off the staring line.
5. Have a hole to leeward.
6. Pin boats on your weather hip.
7. Have the ability to tack.
8. Cross’em when you can!
9. Don’t let them cross you! (parallel them)
10. Sail the lifted tack.
11. Pin boats to the layline.
12. Approach the Starboard tack layline 3-8 boatlengths from the weather mark.
13. Sail low on the first reach.
14. When the first reach is a run, always consider gybing.
15. Sail high of the rhumbline on the second reach.
16. Work to the inside downwind.
17. Never round on the outside.
18. Sail hot angles downwind in light air.
19. Use telltales on the shrouds.
20. Wing with the breeze 2-5 degrees off your weather hip.
21. When winging have the board all the way up.
22. When things get hairy downwind ease the board down half way.
23. Crew weight together.
24. Crew weight forward.
25. Loose cover packs when going the correct way.
26. Tight cover packs to force them the correct way.
27. Jib cars back in heavy breeze.
28. Tight jib halyard = high pointing, but smaller groove.
29. Loose jib halyard = bad pointing, but wider groove.
30. In no breeze point directly at the mark.
31. You get one freebie each leg.
32. Double tack around the leeward mark when ahead.
33. Double gybe around the weather mark when breeze is very light.
34. When the vang is on in breeze pull the mainsail’s draft forward with the Cunningham.
35. You have a 50% chance of winning going into the protest room.
36. Sail at a crew weight of 260-275 lbs.
37. Have a heavy option of 295 pounds in an FJ.
38. Have a heavy option of 300 lbs in a 420.
39. Have an extreme option of 330 lbs in a 420.
40. Have the centerboard down when gybing for speed.
41. Have the centerboard half way down when gybing in heavy breeze.
42. Sail towards the persistent shift upwind.
43. Sail away from the persistent shift downwind.
44. Velocity is of utmost importance in light air.
45. Shifts are of utmost importance in heavy air.
46. “Single digits dudes!”
47. A fifth place average wins regattas.
48. Start in the middle to minimize risk.
49. Plan for 15 extra minutes when picking people up in the morning.
50. Plan for 15 extra minutes in drive time.
Ben Spiller
1. Sail the boat flat – “Flatness is a state of mind.”
2. You may heel to leeward only when heading up.
3. You may heel to windward only when bearing off.
4. Beat your neighbors off the staring line.
5. Have a hole to leeward.
6. Pin boats on your weather hip.
7. Have the ability to tack.
8. Cross’em when you can!
9. Don’t let them cross you! (parallel them)
10. Sail the lifted tack.
11. Pin boats to the layline.
12. Approach the Starboard tack layline 3-8 boatlengths from the weather mark.
13. Sail low on the first reach.
14. When the first reach is a run, always consider gybing.
15. Sail high of the rhumbline on the second reach.
16. Work to the inside downwind.
17. Never round on the outside.
18. Sail hot angles downwind in light air.
19. Use telltales on the shrouds.
20. Wing with the breeze 2-5 degrees off your weather hip.
21. When winging have the board all the way up.
22. When things get hairy downwind ease the board down half way.
23. Crew weight together.
24. Crew weight forward.
25. Loose cover packs when going the correct way.
26. Tight cover packs to force them the correct way.
27. Jib cars back in heavy breeze.
28. Tight jib halyard = high pointing, but smaller groove.
29. Loose jib halyard = bad pointing, but wider groove.
30. In no breeze point directly at the mark.
31. You get one freebie each leg.
32. Double tack around the leeward mark when ahead.
33. Double gybe around the weather mark when breeze is very light.
34. When the vang is on in breeze pull the mainsail’s draft forward with the Cunningham.
35. You have a 50% chance of winning going into the protest room.
36. Sail at a crew weight of 260-275 lbs.
37. Have a heavy option of 295 pounds in an FJ.
38. Have a heavy option of 300 lbs in a 420.
39. Have an extreme option of 330 lbs in a 420.
40. Have the centerboard down when gybing for speed.
41. Have the centerboard half way down when gybing in heavy breeze.
42. Sail towards the persistent shift upwind.
43. Sail away from the persistent shift downwind.
44. Velocity is of utmost importance in light air.
45. Shifts are of utmost importance in heavy air.
46. “Single digits dudes!”
47. A fifth place average wins regattas.
48. Start in the middle to minimize risk.
49. Plan for 15 extra minutes when picking people up in the morning.
50. Plan for 15 extra minutes in drive time.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Regatta Recap Brass Rat 2007
MIT Brass Rat 2007 October 6-7
2nd of 48
College Sailing Rules Apply
Boat Set Up:
When sitting in the boat on thawrt, lower centerboard all the way (past 90, angled forward).
CB forward and rake forward (Max foward rake 2 fat fingers behind mast).
Shrouds are different lengths so center mast in partners and go for 2 fingers in light breeze -- progressively back as breeze increases.
Sailing the Tech: Tech Slide when sail won't back, otherwise reach with slight leeward heel, minimal board and weight very far forward. Never sail Xtra distance when sliding!
Upwind: the first move when hit with a lift, or a puff is an ease (very critical). If you are knocked, tack. If you can't see the weather mark without turning your head, tack. If you don't know what to do, double tack. The tech can maintain speed with a roll tack at winds much higher than an FJ and even more so for a 420. This makes the tactical options more important. One can tack on every shift and not worry about losing distance.
Recap:
Race 1 -- Cheat fest (Zero breeze) warned by 1 competitor and RC. I courteous "thank you, I'll try to control myself better in the next race" was greatly appreciated. In hindsight, the kinetics rules were pushed a little too hard.
After a short break, an easterly breeze, right of center (of middle of river) filled. It made the right side favored, so much so that an OCS turned into a 2 by rounding the committee boat and tacking. Got velocity lifts and rolled majority of fleet. Got into trouble later in the day with an OCS taht turned into a 21. Poor timing -- a lifting puff at go. I was a little too greedy and pulled the trigger .5 seconds to early. If end is favored, try starting 3-6 boats down from the start -- much more conservative.
INSERT PICTURE
Day 1 could have been more conservative. A 9-21 really hurt and lost the regatta ultimately. Two 7's would have won. Not difficult in a fleet of 30 boats which was only 7-10 deep.
Day 2 saw NE going E finally settled slightly right of center. Started with 8-14kts, died to 2-4 by 3pm.
Left favored most of the morning. Won the pin a few times, but couldn't cover both side -- resulted in 3s, 4s, and 5s instead of 1-2s.
Insert Diagram
Right gate was good for short second beat.
End of day there were no lefties to get over the top, to a windward mark that was near the boston shore (VERY TYPICAL).
Overall thougts:
Things done well
1. Good starts, excellent used of double tacks and timing.
2. Good boat handling and tactics all around.
Things to work on:
Could have been more conservative in the first half of the regatta when you aren't sure of strategy. Wait for others to make mistakes. As the others get deep they will do stupid things and compound their mistakes. This makes doing the correct thing easier!!!
If you focus on doing the right thing ALL the time, instead of taking the temptation and taking risks, you will surely finish higher.
Gateways to Progression
Gateways to Progression
Progression is the goal. Always improving, some times in greater increments than others, but always learning a little something and avoiding any long plateaus. It makes things fun, builds confidence and self esteem, and opens up greater possibilities for future success. So how do we progress?
First you need to simply enjoy what you're doing. It can't be a chore. It has to be something you love. Did you ever look at all those x-gamers doing all those flips and twists on all kids of toys. The stuff is pretty impressive but what really impresses me is their love of the sport. I mean these dudes and dudettes will literally die for it. They work hard yeah, but not exactly, because it isn't work at all. It's play, and if they "play" hard enough and become good enough, they might even pick up a paycheck here or there. But whatever. They're doing something near and dear to their heart and for that they rejoice. I respect them for that and I can relate.
It also helps to have the right tools. The boats are already there for you and all you need is a little gear to make the going a bit easy for you. Another tool you have is your coaches, your team mates, your partner, and yourself. Use all these coaching tools you have and the whole team benefits.
Sailors have to individually dissect their current skills and identify strengths and weaknesses. You also need to understand your likes and dislikes as it relates to your current ability. I hope I can help you out with both identification and application. But help me help you. That is, keep the lines of communication flowing.
Often a sailor practices what they like, what they're good at. More often this is a less successful approach. Of course, they don't mind because they feel like they're having fun all the time. Yeah, but are they effectively improving? Are they missing out on a totally new realm of fun, controlling others and kicking butt on the weekends? You have to work on your weaknesses. You try to to do it in a manner that is fun for you so you have the best of both worlds, efficient training and a happy environment. That's one of the reasons I like that Eric Twinname book so much. It teaches you how to teach yourself and offers various methods to do so to keep things varied, interesting, productive, and hopefully more fun.
Sometimes coaches look at general team deficiencies and work on those areas even if they're not as fun as some other things. And you can bet that not all team members think the same thing is fun. That's why we try to vary things up in practice. However, I think I personally can do that to a fault, trying to keep things interesting by moving things along. It may be more productive in the long run to work on certain skills sets for longer periods of time. But you have to be in tune with that and give it the attention span it needs. In the team's case, our biggest deficiency remains to be the ability to get off the starting line in the front row with clear air (notice the omission of favored end distinction).
We practice the skills but we're not getting them down well enough, especially when it counts in a live regatta. Specifically, we need to have a stronger, more efficient load and flatten to rock and punch off the line at least as well as our neighbors, and we need to be better at our stop and go (the go part) physically and time-wise (pulling the trigger). Besides the physical skills of creating good acceleration across the starting line, there are the mental skills and emotional aspects of being the hammer not the nail. We have to work on those skills too. So, if you've got a good idea of how to make starting skills more fun, shoot away because we're going to be plugging away at this stuff 'til we get it right and enjoy the spoils. Let's find ways to have fun while practicing our weaknesses.
"Condition Sailors"
"Condition" Sailors are those that can only do well in a certain type of wind condition, or in a certain kind of boat, or a certain kind of venue (I.E. steady, flat water). They may be "conditionally challenged" regarding the starting line too, only good at the boat, only good at the pin, only good if there's no one directly beneath. These Condition Sailors have molded their game for what they like and probably spend little time on their weaknesses. They have a great excuse though, "those aren't my conditions". In collegiate sailing, to be blunt, Condition Sailors are losers. Taint no place for that kinda crap in these here watahs.
We must learn the variations in boats and breeze and get it all up to speed. Hey, a tack is a tack and though it's different in different boats but it ain't that different, and we know what the difference is. So practice it. Yes, you sail differently in different breezes but it ain't that different, and we know the difference in the realm from being under-powered to over-powered. So we hope and welcome varied conditions for it gives us more experience and makes us stronger. The sooner we take the boat speed and boat handling issue off the board (because we're as good or better than our competitors), the sooner we more efficiently handle wind diagnostics, route planning and general tactics. So you can get back to the tactical game of taking the breeze to the buoy with minimal disturbance from other boats.
Fast sailors go fast, unless they are limited in their condition range, unless they are hemmed in by other boats disturbing them, unless they point that speed in the wrong the direction, on the wrong tack. Smart sailors are rarely that slow. Smart sailors win.
"Work on Small Pieces"
Twinname says it so well in his book. He uses the analogy of one piano player trying to learn a "piece" all together, from start to stop while another learns only sections at a time but puts it all together in precise chapters. The more difficult areas are fine tuned and when put together, the end result is perfection. Yeah, that's it, let's go do that.
-Coach
Progression is the goal. Always improving, some times in greater increments than others, but always learning a little something and avoiding any long plateaus. It makes things fun, builds confidence and self esteem, and opens up greater possibilities for future success. So how do we progress?
First you need to simply enjoy what you're doing. It can't be a chore. It has to be something you love. Did you ever look at all those x-gamers doing all those flips and twists on all kids of toys. The stuff is pretty impressive but what really impresses me is their love of the sport. I mean these dudes and dudettes will literally die for it. They work hard yeah, but not exactly, because it isn't work at all. It's play, and if they "play" hard enough and become good enough, they might even pick up a paycheck here or there. But whatever. They're doing something near and dear to their heart and for that they rejoice. I respect them for that and I can relate.
It also helps to have the right tools. The boats are already there for you and all you need is a little gear to make the going a bit easy for you. Another tool you have is your coaches, your team mates, your partner, and yourself. Use all these coaching tools you have and the whole team benefits.
Sailors have to individually dissect their current skills and identify strengths and weaknesses. You also need to understand your likes and dislikes as it relates to your current ability. I hope I can help you out with both identification and application. But help me help you. That is, keep the lines of communication flowing.
Often a sailor practices what they like, what they're good at. More often this is a less successful approach. Of course, they don't mind because they feel like they're having fun all the time. Yeah, but are they effectively improving? Are they missing out on a totally new realm of fun, controlling others and kicking butt on the weekends? You have to work on your weaknesses. You try to to do it in a manner that is fun for you so you have the best of both worlds, efficient training and a happy environment. That's one of the reasons I like that Eric Twinname book so much. It teaches you how to teach yourself and offers various methods to do so to keep things varied, interesting, productive, and hopefully more fun.
Sometimes coaches look at general team deficiencies and work on those areas even if they're not as fun as some other things. And you can bet that not all team members think the same thing is fun. That's why we try to vary things up in practice. However, I think I personally can do that to a fault, trying to keep things interesting by moving things along. It may be more productive in the long run to work on certain skills sets for longer periods of time. But you have to be in tune with that and give it the attention span it needs. In the team's case, our biggest deficiency remains to be the ability to get off the starting line in the front row with clear air (notice the omission of favored end distinction).
We practice the skills but we're not getting them down well enough, especially when it counts in a live regatta. Specifically, we need to have a stronger, more efficient load and flatten to rock and punch off the line at least as well as our neighbors, and we need to be better at our stop and go (the go part) physically and time-wise (pulling the trigger). Besides the physical skills of creating good acceleration across the starting line, there are the mental skills and emotional aspects of being the hammer not the nail. We have to work on those skills too. So, if you've got a good idea of how to make starting skills more fun, shoot away because we're going to be plugging away at this stuff 'til we get it right and enjoy the spoils. Let's find ways to have fun while practicing our weaknesses.
"Condition Sailors"
"Condition" Sailors are those that can only do well in a certain type of wind condition, or in a certain kind of boat, or a certain kind of venue (I.E. steady, flat water). They may be "conditionally challenged" regarding the starting line too, only good at the boat, only good at the pin, only good if there's no one directly beneath. These Condition Sailors have molded their game for what they like and probably spend little time on their weaknesses. They have a great excuse though, "those aren't my conditions". In collegiate sailing, to be blunt, Condition Sailors are losers. Taint no place for that kinda crap in these here watahs.
We must learn the variations in boats and breeze and get it all up to speed. Hey, a tack is a tack and though it's different in different boats but it ain't that different, and we know what the difference is. So practice it. Yes, you sail differently in different breezes but it ain't that different, and we know the difference in the realm from being under-powered to over-powered. So we hope and welcome varied conditions for it gives us more experience and makes us stronger. The sooner we take the boat speed and boat handling issue off the board (because we're as good or better than our competitors), the sooner we more efficiently handle wind diagnostics, route planning and general tactics. So you can get back to the tactical game of taking the breeze to the buoy with minimal disturbance from other boats.
Fast sailors go fast, unless they are limited in their condition range, unless they are hemmed in by other boats disturbing them, unless they point that speed in the wrong the direction, on the wrong tack. Smart sailors are rarely that slow. Smart sailors win.
"Work on Small Pieces"
Twinname says it so well in his book. He uses the analogy of one piano player trying to learn a "piece" all together, from start to stop while another learns only sections at a time but puts it all together in precise chapters. The more difficult areas are fine tuned and when put together, the end result is perfection. Yeah, that's it, let's go do that.
-Coach
Planning
Buds,
Successful regattas start well before the first warning signal. Planning and preparation must go into the logistics of the event in addition to training and practice that's put in. There's a difference between training and practice too. Practice is only one form of training, there are mental, physical, and emotional aspects of training that can and must be done off the practice field. You need to be physically fit, mentally astute, and emotionally strong. Faith, Confidence and Will are the important ingredients, for with that you are best suited to work towards your goals. If you want to be at that top of your game, and want to compete with others attempting to be at the top of theirs, then here are some suggestions.
Physically, I think the team in general is okay but few are truly fit to the Core. Core fitness is your gut and all the important do-dads within it like tissues and muscles and organs. Yeah, I know I'm one to talk. When your Core is fit it benefits more than your physical health, it helps you emotionally and spiritually. Not to get all Tai Chi on you or anything but it's true. So there's something to be said for sticking to those crunches and side tilts, twists and extensions to work those abs and obliques. I'll be glad to show you a simple routine that can do the trick. It's hard to tell, but I've been given myself a dose of this for years, which has stemmed little of the tide. I just need to jack up the medication.
Mentally, I think we have to learn from our mistakes more efficiently, understand the chess game better, and put our piece in stronger positions on the board. As a coach, I try to emphasize this but I'm not doing a very good job. It's a matter of learning from experience and from "Case Studies". In practice I only point out the "Route Decisions" of very few on any given race. On weekends I get much more involved with individual sailors but am preaching to a smaller audience. We need to spend more time on the chalk board going over these "case studies". Fortunately, we don't have to make up such case studies, just merely review some weekend experiences. Outside of practice you can keep your sailing notebook and refer to it often. You can dissect your own case studies. You can talk sailing with sailing buddies, competitors, yourself, complete strangers or other people that could care less (in my case, my wife). You can email your coach and/or team also.
Emotionally, in general we don't seem to have that "take the bull by the horns" attitude on much of our starting technique and other situations for most of the regattas I've witnessed. Yeah, you need physical skills and mental knowledge (like your competitors do) but Ya Gotta have that Go Get Em' 'Tude. And you have to know when you are in a critical time and place on the race course, that "Do or Die" Clock Ticking.
That happens a lot...
1). On the starting line to gain a controlling position.
2). Right after the start to clear your air and work the first shift or set up for 2nd one.
3). When you're heading towards the corners of doom (edges of the race course on a beat). 4). When you're sailing "against the grain" (the majority of the fleet on the opposite tack).
5). Where your competitor "threat" is, and when it has shifted sides.
6). When the pack's condensing on the downwind and you can get gobbled in the middle.
7). Sealing the deal on the last beat and maintaining controlling positions.
8) When you absolutely need to do something; tack, jibe, rock, pump, ooch, heat it up, to get the boat moving so you can be a player again. The first one is a freebie, but then be careful! The next has to be justified within the "context" of the race (and time is very relevant). Know when to pull out the weapon and with good aim you can reduce your bullets and stay out of jail (and get those other bullets).
On that note, remember why we practice the things we do in practice. It's very disheartening to coach Varsity regattas and say "hey, where's the pivot drill now, where's our load and flatten, where's my stop and go, where's that sweet roll I saw during the week. Why are we second row at the start? Why are being lee-bowed from below and/or rolled over from above. Give yourself a Chance, an Opportunity. Get emotionally charged, mentally prepared, and use your physical skills.
When our confidence is high, we'll be more in tune to stepping on them before they step on us. That comes from lots of practice time and just having the balls to push the envelope on weekends. Knowing there's always another race, and you have just as much right to win this one, or the next. Stand up for yourselves and put yourselves in more controlling positions on the race course. Let's see how your competitors react to that.
So there's some things you can work on.
But there's some things I can work on.
Besides coaching, things like regatta planning and preparation.
-I should have had the van situation figured out earlier, though that had something to do with my PE Department. It's tough when you're asking for three vehicles for a weekend and
they've got other plans.
-I should have had the lodging covered in advanced for Hobart (and perhaps another van driver going).
-I should have got the Central Series personnel settled by Thursday.
-I should have confirmed coaching availability sooner. Although we still can't expect three coaches for each weekend. What teams have that?
-I should have got my teams on the road sooner for the long road trips that left us getting in at 1:30 and 2am, before 9am report times. A coaching switch, a van driver, and an early van confirmation could have corrected that.
-I should have had a coach at a NE Championship and let some of the above effect that
deficiency.
There were other planning issues that I was happy with, like the regatta line-up. I'm glad to give some freshman the opportunity to sail a bigger event. I'm fine with who started and who sat and waited for a turn. I'm okay with sending an upperclassmen squad to B level trophy regatta that presented plenty enough challenge, and an opportunity to help our performance ranking. And I certainly knew we could have arranged things differently at Navy Women's to set up a better finish result. No regrets at all, it was a developmental move that goes beyond just single-handed nationals. We held our own, and though there's lots to learn from, we still beat some excellent competitors on any given race and overall. It bodes well for the future. We'll talk more about the Navy Women's when I use it for Case Studies in another email. Lucky You.
Congratulations to Billy Martin who gave a great run at it and still finished in a good position (10th out of 25, which translates as 7th out 16 teams, the best coed performance ranking points of our season!). Billy, Harry, and Gordon took care of each other from regatta prep to conclusion. Shame on me for not having their back.
-Coach
Successful regattas start well before the first warning signal. Planning and preparation must go into the logistics of the event in addition to training and practice that's put in. There's a difference between training and practice too. Practice is only one form of training, there are mental, physical, and emotional aspects of training that can and must be done off the practice field. You need to be physically fit, mentally astute, and emotionally strong. Faith, Confidence and Will are the important ingredients, for with that you are best suited to work towards your goals. If you want to be at that top of your game, and want to compete with others attempting to be at the top of theirs, then here are some suggestions.
Physically, I think the team in general is okay but few are truly fit to the Core. Core fitness is your gut and all the important do-dads within it like tissues and muscles and organs. Yeah, I know I'm one to talk. When your Core is fit it benefits more than your physical health, it helps you emotionally and spiritually. Not to get all Tai Chi on you or anything but it's true. So there's something to be said for sticking to those crunches and side tilts, twists and extensions to work those abs and obliques. I'll be glad to show you a simple routine that can do the trick. It's hard to tell, but I've been given myself a dose of this for years, which has stemmed little of the tide. I just need to jack up the medication.
Mentally, I think we have to learn from our mistakes more efficiently, understand the chess game better, and put our piece in stronger positions on the board. As a coach, I try to emphasize this but I'm not doing a very good job. It's a matter of learning from experience and from "Case Studies". In practice I only point out the "Route Decisions" of very few on any given race. On weekends I get much more involved with individual sailors but am preaching to a smaller audience. We need to spend more time on the chalk board going over these "case studies". Fortunately, we don't have to make up such case studies, just merely review some weekend experiences. Outside of practice you can keep your sailing notebook and refer to it often. You can dissect your own case studies. You can talk sailing with sailing buddies, competitors, yourself, complete strangers or other people that could care less (in my case, my wife). You can email your coach and/or team also.
Emotionally, in general we don't seem to have that "take the bull by the horns" attitude on much of our starting technique and other situations for most of the regattas I've witnessed. Yeah, you need physical skills and mental knowledge (like your competitors do) but Ya Gotta have that Go Get Em' 'Tude. And you have to know when you are in a critical time and place on the race course, that "Do or Die" Clock Ticking.
That happens a lot...
1). On the starting line to gain a controlling position.
2). Right after the start to clear your air and work the first shift or set up for 2nd one.
3). When you're heading towards the corners of doom (edges of the race course on a beat). 4). When you're sailing "against the grain" (the majority of the fleet on the opposite tack).
5). Where your competitor "threat" is, and when it has shifted sides.
6). When the pack's condensing on the downwind and you can get gobbled in the middle.
7). Sealing the deal on the last beat and maintaining controlling positions.
8) When you absolutely need to do something; tack, jibe, rock, pump, ooch, heat it up, to get the boat moving so you can be a player again. The first one is a freebie, but then be careful! The next has to be justified within the "context" of the race (and time is very relevant). Know when to pull out the weapon and with good aim you can reduce your bullets and stay out of jail (and get those other bullets).
On that note, remember why we practice the things we do in practice. It's very disheartening to coach Varsity regattas and say "hey, where's the pivot drill now, where's our load and flatten, where's my stop and go, where's that sweet roll I saw during the week. Why are we second row at the start? Why are being lee-bowed from below and/or rolled over from above. Give yourself a Chance, an Opportunity. Get emotionally charged, mentally prepared, and use your physical skills.
When our confidence is high, we'll be more in tune to stepping on them before they step on us. That comes from lots of practice time and just having the balls to push the envelope on weekends. Knowing there's always another race, and you have just as much right to win this one, or the next. Stand up for yourselves and put yourselves in more controlling positions on the race course. Let's see how your competitors react to that.
So there's some things you can work on.
But there's some things I can work on.
Besides coaching, things like regatta planning and preparation.
-I should have had the van situation figured out earlier, though that had something to do with my PE Department. It's tough when you're asking for three vehicles for a weekend and
they've got other plans.
-I should have had the lodging covered in advanced for Hobart (and perhaps another van driver going).
-I should have got the Central Series personnel settled by Thursday.
-I should have confirmed coaching availability sooner. Although we still can't expect three coaches for each weekend. What teams have that?
-I should have got my teams on the road sooner for the long road trips that left us getting in at 1:30 and 2am, before 9am report times. A coaching switch, a van driver, and an early van confirmation could have corrected that.
-I should have had a coach at a NE Championship and let some of the above effect that
deficiency.
There were other planning issues that I was happy with, like the regatta line-up. I'm glad to give some freshman the opportunity to sail a bigger event. I'm fine with who started and who sat and waited for a turn. I'm okay with sending an upperclassmen squad to B level trophy regatta that presented plenty enough challenge, and an opportunity to help our performance ranking. And I certainly knew we could have arranged things differently at Navy Women's to set up a better finish result. No regrets at all, it was a developmental move that goes beyond just single-handed nationals. We held our own, and though there's lots to learn from, we still beat some excellent competitors on any given race and overall. It bodes well for the future. We'll talk more about the Navy Women's when I use it for Case Studies in another email. Lucky You.
Congratulations to Billy Martin who gave a great run at it and still finished in a good position (10th out of 25, which translates as 7th out 16 teams, the best coed performance ranking points of our season!). Billy, Harry, and Gordon took care of each other from regatta prep to conclusion. Shame on me for not having their back.
-Coach
Jib Halyard (Spiller)
Heyo.
I've heard a lot of people talk about jib halyard tension and they think that might be a reason for poor speed and/or pointing. Any time the boat is unbalanced you create excess drag in the boat. This not only hurts speed through the water, but pointing too.
Since we are dealing with college boats where you can't change the pin placement, I say we should flush the maxim "mast forward for point, mast back for speed." It really doesn't apply unless you are in junior sailing, or sailing V15s...
If you are going to read no further a good basic key phrase is tension the jib halyard so that when you are sailing upwind in day's medium strength and you trim the main as tight as you would during the day, you should just start to see the leeward shroud become minimally slack.
Thats a good starting point, and for the majority of sailing we do this is "good enough."
So if you remember nothing else, pull on the halyard tight enough so that the leeward halyard starts to wiggle when you are at max trim.
BUT, if you really want to maximize your upwind speed and pointing you can take it a step further.
Here's what I do in an FJ.
First remember all these steps should be done in the average breeze (not a puff or a lull).
Second make sure when you make an adjustment to the following items, make sure you are completely flat, have both sails trimmed in to the same upwind angle, and be forward in the boat (weight positioning).
1. Get the boat flat and sails trimmed appropriately. If the boat heads up into the breeze, pull on more jib halyard. If the boat bears away from the breeze, its probably time to ease off the jib halyard. Imagine what tightening the jib halyard does to the entire sail plan, moving forward or aft compared to the CLR (centerboard basically) if you need a visual image.
2. Now you have the approximate halyard tension! Next is jib cars. I believe we have been having the jib cars too far forward in general. Slide your cars back and forward and look at how the jib telltales break. When the cars are back, the upper (inside) tales break first. When the cars are forward the foot of the jib is more round and the jib leech tension is tighter. Find a region on the track where the upper and middle telltales break evenly (at the same time)... This is a neutral setting. If it is very flat water, or in wind I think it is ok to set the cars farther back. If you are sailing in chop, or if your boat is a bit heavy, I believe you need extra power. This power can come from the jib by moving the cars forward a touch.
These are very minute changes. We are talking about 1/4 inches in jib halyard tension and 1-2 holes on the jib cars.
The jib cars can range from all the way back to 5-6 holes showing behind the jib car.
One thing to remember: Tightening the jib halyard will have one sure negative effect. It will narrow your steering groove and make the boat more sensitive, more responsive to tiny helm changes... and ultimately harder to steer. So when you are learning, its better to err on the side of too little tension. This will make the boats "groove" larger and the boat more forgiving.
Finally, anything any one person tells you about sailing should be taken with a grain of salt. You have to find your own way of sailing. What works for some people may not for others.
Lets push ourselves this week at practice!
--BTSpill
I've heard a lot of people talk about jib halyard tension and they think that might be a reason for poor speed and/or pointing. Any time the boat is unbalanced you create excess drag in the boat. This not only hurts speed through the water, but pointing too.
Since we are dealing with college boats where you can't change the pin placement, I say we should flush the maxim "mast forward for point, mast back for speed." It really doesn't apply unless you are in junior sailing, or sailing V15s...
If you are going to read no further a good basic key phrase is tension the jib halyard so that when you are sailing upwind in day's medium strength and you trim the main as tight as you would during the day, you should just start to see the leeward shroud become minimally slack.
Thats a good starting point, and for the majority of sailing we do this is "good enough."
So if you remember nothing else, pull on the halyard tight enough so that the leeward halyard starts to wiggle when you are at max trim.
BUT, if you really want to maximize your upwind speed and pointing you can take it a step further.
Here's what I do in an FJ.
First remember all these steps should be done in the average breeze (not a puff or a lull).
Second make sure when you make an adjustment to the following items, make sure you are completely flat, have both sails trimmed in to the same upwind angle, and be forward in the boat (weight positioning).
1. Get the boat flat and sails trimmed appropriately. If the boat heads up into the breeze, pull on more jib halyard. If the boat bears away from the breeze, its probably time to ease off the jib halyard. Imagine what tightening the jib halyard does to the entire sail plan, moving forward or aft compared to the CLR (centerboard basically) if you need a visual image.
2. Now you have the approximate halyard tension! Next is jib cars. I believe we have been having the jib cars too far forward in general. Slide your cars back and forward and look at how the jib telltales break. When the cars are back, the upper (inside) tales break first. When the cars are forward the foot of the jib is more round and the jib leech tension is tighter. Find a region on the track where the upper and middle telltales break evenly (at the same time)... This is a neutral setting. If it is very flat water, or in wind I think it is ok to set the cars farther back. If you are sailing in chop, or if your boat is a bit heavy, I believe you need extra power. This power can come from the jib by moving the cars forward a touch.
These are very minute changes. We are talking about 1/4 inches in jib halyard tension and 1-2 holes on the jib cars.
The jib cars can range from all the way back to 5-6 holes showing behind the jib car.
One thing to remember: Tightening the jib halyard will have one sure negative effect. It will narrow your steering groove and make the boat more sensitive, more responsive to tiny helm changes... and ultimately harder to steer. So when you are learning, its better to err on the side of too little tension. This will make the boats "groove" larger and the boat more forgiving.
Finally, anything any one person tells you about sailing should be taken with a grain of salt. You have to find your own way of sailing. What works for some people may not for others.
Lets push ourselves this week at practice!
--BTSpill
Practice Push
Practice Push
Team,
At the big events we got spanked this weekend. I know you tried hard but we had some poor decision making. We all know we can do better. I'm not disappointed because those events do not matter in the light of this weekend's events. I'll only be disappointed if I find the response to this situation is inadequate. You guys should be fighting mad and be ready to do whatever it takes to avoid the embarrassment of spending long moments in the back of the pack. If this doesn't get you down to practice long and hard, then we're in trouble. The season can basically be over in less than a week if we don't work together and take care of business. You should be down to practice every day this week even if you can only stay for 20 minutes or you have to suffer through a chalk talk with me at 10 in the morning just to say you made practice that day. Whatever, just devote all your possible time to sailing for just one week. Then you can say you've tried your best and you've been a true teammate to others who in turn have given their best effort. And believe me I'm talking to everyone on this sailing-list, even those we rarely see. If you have one ounce of feeling for this team you find a way to make an appearance.
I want to qualify for all three ACC's and I absolutely think we have a
team that can pull it off. We can't afford to make lots of tactical
blunders or have consistently poor starts and we certainly can't afford
anything less than a full practice effort for the next four days. We
need the boats on the line. We need all of you challenging each other
full tilt. We need to simulate regatta conditions. We need to get
lots of starts with sailors of quality and quantity and we need to get
lots of races in. We need to treat those starts like real ones, ones
where you spend much of the starting sequence reading the breeze and
basing decisions on conditions, not on whims or preferences. Perhaps
even accounting for such items as pre-start flow and adaptability.
Perhaps being the aggressor; the hammer not the nail, so to speak.
Then we must take that attitude onto the race course and sail our beats
using sound judgment based on real input not projected guessing. We
have to focus on the right things and sail smarter. "Always sail with
three bees in your bonnet". That's code for using your head to
concentrate on the Breeze, the Buoy, the Boats, in that order. Then
continue to repeat that order thoughout the race. Breeze, buoy, boats,
breeze, buoy, boats... That includes the crews! We're hosed if the
crews can't help the skippers or if the skippers won't let them.
We have to recognize when we can use our boat positioning as an
advantage and take advantage said when it's there. We have to avoid getting emotionally down should we get behind and allowing that to shake our concentration. We got beat this weekend by a lot of people who sailed smarter than us. Lots of them have less skill than you do, don't tell me otherwise because I'm not buying it. We didn't put our boat in the right places this weekend, that's why we got beat up.
That can change. That will change.
What do you say we hang out together a lot this week and have lots of
fun racing sailboats. Then let's surprise a lot of people this weekend, it wouldn't be the first time. You can do it.
-Coach
Team,
At the big events we got spanked this weekend. I know you tried hard but we had some poor decision making. We all know we can do better. I'm not disappointed because those events do not matter in the light of this weekend's events. I'll only be disappointed if I find the response to this situation is inadequate. You guys should be fighting mad and be ready to do whatever it takes to avoid the embarrassment of spending long moments in the back of the pack. If this doesn't get you down to practice long and hard, then we're in trouble. The season can basically be over in less than a week if we don't work together and take care of business. You should be down to practice every day this week even if you can only stay for 20 minutes or you have to suffer through a chalk talk with me at 10 in the morning just to say you made practice that day. Whatever, just devote all your possible time to sailing for just one week. Then you can say you've tried your best and you've been a true teammate to others who in turn have given their best effort. And believe me I'm talking to everyone on this sailing-list, even those we rarely see. If you have one ounce of feeling for this team you find a way to make an appearance.
I want to qualify for all three ACC's and I absolutely think we have a
team that can pull it off. We can't afford to make lots of tactical
blunders or have consistently poor starts and we certainly can't afford
anything less than a full practice effort for the next four days. We
need the boats on the line. We need all of you challenging each other
full tilt. We need to simulate regatta conditions. We need to get
lots of starts with sailors of quality and quantity and we need to get
lots of races in. We need to treat those starts like real ones, ones
where you spend much of the starting sequence reading the breeze and
basing decisions on conditions, not on whims or preferences. Perhaps
even accounting for such items as pre-start flow and adaptability.
Perhaps being the aggressor; the hammer not the nail, so to speak.
Then we must take that attitude onto the race course and sail our beats
using sound judgment based on real input not projected guessing. We
have to focus on the right things and sail smarter. "Always sail with
three bees in your bonnet". That's code for using your head to
concentrate on the Breeze, the Buoy, the Boats, in that order. Then
continue to repeat that order thoughout the race. Breeze, buoy, boats,
breeze, buoy, boats... That includes the crews! We're hosed if the
crews can't help the skippers or if the skippers won't let them.
We have to recognize when we can use our boat positioning as an
advantage and take advantage said when it's there. We have to avoid getting emotionally down should we get behind and allowing that to shake our concentration. We got beat this weekend by a lot of people who sailed smarter than us. Lots of them have less skill than you do, don't tell me otherwise because I'm not buying it. We didn't put our boat in the right places this weekend, that's why we got beat up.
That can change. That will change.
What do you say we hang out together a lot this week and have lots of
fun racing sailboats. Then let's surprise a lot of people this weekend, it wouldn't be the first time. You can do it.
-Coach
Practice Notes
Practice Notes
Again, I think we had a good practice and I hope you feel the same.
It's great to have 13 boats on the staring line. The first thing we did were "Ball Starts". I sent you an email on Ball Starts and I suggest you read it again or ask me to resend it. Next we did a simple weave but it's not so simple if you learn to release that tight grip on the tiller and start using your sails and weight to turn. Anyone can just use the tiller to steer around buoys, but that doesn't make them fast. The next pass through on the weave I asked that you use only one finger on the tiller (some might not have heard that request). Great sailors could let go of the tiller and still do the weave. I was hoping you'd figure out that you can't hold a tiller extension with one finger and steer but you could steer with a finger on the actually tiller. It took a little problem solving skills. I was also testing you to see how quickly you might give up on a "stupid drill". That stupid drill took all of 30 seconds to complete but it told me a lot about individual effort. Try as hard as you can and don't give up.
Next we played a little follow the leader as we went downwind and
worked on jibes. When you play follow the leader, the closer you get to the front boat the more difficult the drill is. Let's keep it tight, but don't give it to someone up the rear. Make sure you use your best "racing" jibe when you do this. Don't just turn the boat. For some reason people had an easier time taking their roll tacks more seriously than their roll jibes. That's crazy. Flattening after a roll jibe is much harder and takes more coordination and timing from the skipper and crew. How far does the crew have to come up to help flatten? How hard? How quickly must they get back to leeward to correct over-flattening? How far outboard do they have to get? This drill should be fun. It's a team thing. You're all carving out a pattern on the river together and it looks cool from shore. You look like a team that's got its act together and is working hard.
Next we went into trying to "hold" our position (think starting line, think "stop" of Stop and Go). We need to work on that one. It would have been better if I had a starting line set to give you more of a visual clue. Then we did something weird and crazy and I was so proud of you who really went for it. Who ever heard of backing yourself under a bridge on purpose? With a little practice you could learn to nail this drill without nailing the bridge. When folks did nail it (the bridge) it worked on some problem solving skills again.
Recovering from that drill, we went into a last beat drill. You
weren't too bad setting that up but you should do better. This is great for communication skills and working together as a team. Read the boat positions and set it up quick. Joe rounded second to last and won by a lot on a medium length beat. That should not happen. He just sailed over to right on a medium slant (not headed, not lifted, 45% to the finish line) and got into the line of breeze he saw. He got into it, tacked, and rode a righty over the top of everybody. Why didn't anybody see that? Why did all these boats sail together into a hole? Probably because they were gauging their position based on the boats around them instead of gauging their position on the mark; Watching the boats instead of the spaces between the boats; Eying the jib tell tales instead of eying the wind on the water.
So then we raced. When I set up a small course it allows us to keep boats closer together and facilitate boat handling. It allows us to get more starts in. It gives opportunity for less developed sailors to have a shot at finishing well. The longer the course, the more it favors the faster sailors as they can make a mistake and have time to come back from it. Why a gate at the top? It keeps you on your toes and thinking more. Round to port? To Starboard? "If he goes there I'm going here unless she does.... It makes you plan a bit more and be ready to adapt.
The Panic Box is good drill only if the team is committed to getting in the box right away, staying in the box, and most importantly, adhering to the right of way rules. When you don't get yourself into the box right away or don't play by the rules, you reduce the quality of the drill and hurt your team. It works on boat handling skills in tight quarters, it works on starting in tight spaces. With all the distraction of other boats, it's hard to look upwind and read the breeze so you know where to start. Panic boxes are also good in that they don't delay any time in practice. You have to have a starting sequence anyway, this just gives you more to do.
The drill of going around the outside of the box is a great, simple drill. 3 tacks upwind, reach across with maybe a pivot drill, 3 jibes down, reach across with maybe a load and flatten drill. It's important to tack/gybe well but when you can nail multiply turns smoothly you have yourself a weapon. It's easier to get the multiple gybes down first by learning not to over-steer when bearing off and to bring the tiller back very early. The boat must come out of the jibe very low if you expect to roll right into the next one. And don't dilly-dally on the main throw. Throw it with conviction, like you know you've nailed the right time of the throw. Then carry that conviction into your footwork and hand exchange. Roll, throw, and explode across;
Bang-Bang-Bang; Throw-step-step. Go get some tools and then we'll go use them on the race course.
Sailing rudderless is going to keep happening so keep plugging away at it. So are crew races. To me it looked like the crew races were the most fun of all. I liked the idea of the crew doing the first beat and then the skipper taking over. I did that today because I was afraid a big gust might roll down and some boats might death roll. The last race was nice with the long beat and boats duking it out the whole way. Long beats give everybody the opportunity to figure out the way the wind is phasing because you're sailing upwind for so long. I know it can be a long day but always try to work on something on the way in.
See you Friday!
Long email? Well just think of how long it takes to write it,
especially at 2 in the morning.
Thanks,
Coach
Again, I think we had a good practice and I hope you feel the same.
It's great to have 13 boats on the staring line. The first thing we did were "Ball Starts". I sent you an email on Ball Starts and I suggest you read it again or ask me to resend it. Next we did a simple weave but it's not so simple if you learn to release that tight grip on the tiller and start using your sails and weight to turn. Anyone can just use the tiller to steer around buoys, but that doesn't make them fast. The next pass through on the weave I asked that you use only one finger on the tiller (some might not have heard that request). Great sailors could let go of the tiller and still do the weave. I was hoping you'd figure out that you can't hold a tiller extension with one finger and steer but you could steer with a finger on the actually tiller. It took a little problem solving skills. I was also testing you to see how quickly you might give up on a "stupid drill". That stupid drill took all of 30 seconds to complete but it told me a lot about individual effort. Try as hard as you can and don't give up.
Next we played a little follow the leader as we went downwind and
worked on jibes. When you play follow the leader, the closer you get to the front boat the more difficult the drill is. Let's keep it tight, but don't give it to someone up the rear. Make sure you use your best "racing" jibe when you do this. Don't just turn the boat. For some reason people had an easier time taking their roll tacks more seriously than their roll jibes. That's crazy. Flattening after a roll jibe is much harder and takes more coordination and timing from the skipper and crew. How far does the crew have to come up to help flatten? How hard? How quickly must they get back to leeward to correct over-flattening? How far outboard do they have to get? This drill should be fun. It's a team thing. You're all carving out a pattern on the river together and it looks cool from shore. You look like a team that's got its act together and is working hard.
Next we went into trying to "hold" our position (think starting line, think "stop" of Stop and Go). We need to work on that one. It would have been better if I had a starting line set to give you more of a visual clue. Then we did something weird and crazy and I was so proud of you who really went for it. Who ever heard of backing yourself under a bridge on purpose? With a little practice you could learn to nail this drill without nailing the bridge. When folks did nail it (the bridge) it worked on some problem solving skills again.
Recovering from that drill, we went into a last beat drill. You
weren't too bad setting that up but you should do better. This is great for communication skills and working together as a team. Read the boat positions and set it up quick. Joe rounded second to last and won by a lot on a medium length beat. That should not happen. He just sailed over to right on a medium slant (not headed, not lifted, 45% to the finish line) and got into the line of breeze he saw. He got into it, tacked, and rode a righty over the top of everybody. Why didn't anybody see that? Why did all these boats sail together into a hole? Probably because they were gauging their position based on the boats around them instead of gauging their position on the mark; Watching the boats instead of the spaces between the boats; Eying the jib tell tales instead of eying the wind on the water.
So then we raced. When I set up a small course it allows us to keep boats closer together and facilitate boat handling. It allows us to get more starts in. It gives opportunity for less developed sailors to have a shot at finishing well. The longer the course, the more it favors the faster sailors as they can make a mistake and have time to come back from it. Why a gate at the top? It keeps you on your toes and thinking more. Round to port? To Starboard? "If he goes there I'm going here unless she does.... It makes you plan a bit more and be ready to adapt.
The Panic Box is good drill only if the team is committed to getting in the box right away, staying in the box, and most importantly, adhering to the right of way rules. When you don't get yourself into the box right away or don't play by the rules, you reduce the quality of the drill and hurt your team. It works on boat handling skills in tight quarters, it works on starting in tight spaces. With all the distraction of other boats, it's hard to look upwind and read the breeze so you know where to start. Panic boxes are also good in that they don't delay any time in practice. You have to have a starting sequence anyway, this just gives you more to do.
The drill of going around the outside of the box is a great, simple drill. 3 tacks upwind, reach across with maybe a pivot drill, 3 jibes down, reach across with maybe a load and flatten drill. It's important to tack/gybe well but when you can nail multiply turns smoothly you have yourself a weapon. It's easier to get the multiple gybes down first by learning not to over-steer when bearing off and to bring the tiller back very early. The boat must come out of the jibe very low if you expect to roll right into the next one. And don't dilly-dally on the main throw. Throw it with conviction, like you know you've nailed the right time of the throw. Then carry that conviction into your footwork and hand exchange. Roll, throw, and explode across;
Bang-Bang-Bang; Throw-step-step. Go get some tools and then we'll go use them on the race course.
Sailing rudderless is going to keep happening so keep plugging away at it. So are crew races. To me it looked like the crew races were the most fun of all. I liked the idea of the crew doing the first beat and then the skipper taking over. I did that today because I was afraid a big gust might roll down and some boats might death roll. The last race was nice with the long beat and boats duking it out the whole way. Long beats give everybody the opportunity to figure out the way the wind is phasing because you're sailing upwind for so long. I know it can be a long day but always try to work on something on the way in.
See you Friday!
Long email? Well just think of how long it takes to write it,
especially at 2 in the morning.
Thanks,
Coach
Ode To the BUDS
Ode to the Buds
Attention captain and crew
Are we foot soldiers in the battle of insouciance,
or plankton in the sea of apathy?
NO! I dare say.
Are we looked upon as cabin boys on the ship of complacency,
Or mistaken for waitresses at the banquet of life?
Unfathomable!
We are not pebbles in the
sands of mediocrity,
Nor scholars in the art of pocourantism.
We do not slither like sloths on the tree of stoicism
Or vegetate like barnacles on the barge of indifference
ARE WE NOT DINGHY SAILORS ?
Is it not the very core of our existence,
The essence of our body and blood.
The heart and soul of everything that is right and just on earth.
If cut, would we not bleed Charles River green?
In this often cold and harsh world,
There are few moments of sheer elation.
There are few journeys that bring fulfillment
In the mere road to enlightenment.
A smattering of joyous occasions,
A tidbit of remarkable achievements,
A dollop of fruitful endeavors.
Shall we not strive for the clearly attainable?
Go for the gold. Grab the gusto.
Rein in the glory. Take it to the limit.
I stand before you now, not as a man, but as a rambling fool.
Yet it matters little. For I am a dinghy sailor.
I shall shout above the rowdiest crowd
And let it ring from the tallest dormitory.
I AM a dinghy sailor!
I shall take this to the grave and beyond,
Embrace it for all eternity,
Relish in its completeness.
I will feverishly defend my right to embellish
My constitution of piquant proclaiment.
I AM A DINGHY SAILOR.
Say it with me.
Sleep it, eat it, breathe it. Wallow in it.
Let it caress you like a warm blanket
In the black night of uncertainty.
Let it bring you comfort in times of self-doubt.
We are at the dawn of procurement,
The aurora of consummation,
The primordiam of
aggregation.
It starts with a fire in the belly.
It procreates with the culmination of opulent cognition.
It radiates with the obtainment of corroborated self-confidence.
Come take the journey of the ancient elders.
For it begins with the wisdom that the quest is within reach.
Shall we begin?
Attention captain and crew
Are we foot soldiers in the battle of insouciance,
or plankton in the sea of apathy?
NO! I dare say.
Are we looked upon as cabin boys on the ship of complacency,
Or mistaken for waitresses at the banquet of life?
Unfathomable!
We are not pebbles in the
sands of mediocrity,
Nor scholars in the art of pocourantism.
We do not slither like sloths on the tree of stoicism
Or vegetate like barnacles on the barge of indifference
ARE WE NOT DINGHY SAILORS ?
Is it not the very core of our existence,
The essence of our body and blood.
The heart and soul of everything that is right and just on earth.
If cut, would we not bleed Charles River green?
In this often cold and harsh world,
There are few moments of sheer elation.
There are few journeys that bring fulfillment
In the mere road to enlightenment.
A smattering of joyous occasions,
A tidbit of remarkable achievements,
A dollop of fruitful endeavors.
Shall we not strive for the clearly attainable?
Go for the gold. Grab the gusto.
Rein in the glory. Take it to the limit.
I stand before you now, not as a man, but as a rambling fool.
Yet it matters little. For I am a dinghy sailor.
I shall shout above the rowdiest crowd
And let it ring from the tallest dormitory.
I AM a dinghy sailor!
I shall take this to the grave and beyond,
Embrace it for all eternity,
Relish in its completeness.
I will feverishly defend my right to embellish
My constitution of piquant proclaiment.
I AM A DINGHY SAILOR.
Say it with me.
Sleep it, eat it, breathe it. Wallow in it.
Let it caress you like a warm blanket
In the black night of uncertainty.
Let it bring you comfort in times of self-doubt.
We are at the dawn of procurement,
The aurora of consummation,
The primordiam of
aggregation.
It starts with a fire in the belly.
It procreates with the culmination of opulent cognition.
It radiates with the obtainment of corroborated self-confidence.
Come take the journey of the ancient elders.
For it begins with the wisdom that the quest is within reach.
Shall we begin?
International Crews Union
This letter below was forwarded to me by Rich Bell. An All-American
crew for BU in '99. Rich was also voted top Neisa Crew that year. Rich
got this from Jessi Dimock who was an 3-time all-american crew for
Tufts. She sailed with Jon Baker, whom she recently married. Some of
you have not meet Jon yet but he is a three-time all-american from
Tufts, who was runner-up to College Sailor of the Year in 1999 (he won A
divison at Nationals that year) and he has been coaching for BU on
weekends for the past three years. Jon will be running the Hatch Brown
Regatta, Jessi may also be there, and Rich will be there as well. If
you asked these guys a question, they'll be happy to answer it, and it
will be a damn good answer I bet.
Actually, Jessi forward this from Josh Adams, a multiple all-american
skipper from Tufts (Who is a damn good crew too), who got it from Bob
Merrick, an olympic medalist crew. Josh makes reference to Kevin Hall,
an all-american skipper from Brown who is equally talented as a crew. I
certainly know a bit about crewing. In my younger days, when I weighed
about half a cow less, I was a fairly talented and much sought after
crew. We won a lot because the skipper knew how to treat and train a
crew and how to win as a team, because that's what it takes to win,
teamwork. You're nobody without your crew.
Teamwork, here's an example. Lynne Jewell was a great sailor for BU
('82). She led the Terriers to a second place at Women's Nationals.
She is the only women to ever qualify for coed singlehanded nationals
(back then there were no women's single's, just coed's. Now there are
no coeds, only separate men's and women's). After graduation, Lynne
went on an olympic campaign with her crew Alison Jolly. After a year
of
training they were clearly improving but things just weren't right.
Lynne kept telling Alison her job and Alison told Lynne's hers as if
each could do each other's better. Then they got to thinkin', maybe we
can do it better. So they made the switch. Lynne moved to the front of
the boat and the rest is history. They won a gold medal in the Women's
470 class in Seoul. No egos, just teammates working together to make
the boat go faster than everybody else.
-------
From: Rich Bell
Hello,
I am sorry if some of you have already received this, but I thought it
was sweet. It is tough to make the boat go with no one in the pointy
end.
Hope you all enjoy Merriks letter,
later,
Rich
>From: "Jessi Dimock"
>To: "Ramsay Key","Rich Bell"
>,
>Subject: Re: RE: More
Sailing?
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:28:06 -0400
Fabulous letter - I couldn't agree more! After 7 years of sailing with
Jon, he still talks to other people using I instead of we!
see you guys soon. so are we going to sail next week then?
jd
----- Original Message -----
From: rkey@mit.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 2:50 PM
To: brell84@hotmail.com; kiriw@prodigy.net; jessidimock@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: RE: More Sailing?
----- Forwarded message from "Adams, Josh" -----
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 09:59:00 -0400
From: "Adams, Josh"
Thought the group would enjoy this note that a few journos and I
received this morning from Bob Merrick. It reminds me of Kevin Hall's
famous comment, "Crews are people, too."
Dear Friends, Sailing Journalists, Crew Union members and Helmspersons,
On behalf of the International Crew Union I am asking you to consider
the
following assertion. Most of us who crew on sailboats are doing it
because
we enjoy the racing and not as a personal favor to our helmspersons. I
submit that we are not crewing FOR our skippers we are sailing WITH them
as an integral part of the team. (That is unless we are being paid BY
our
helmsperson in which case we won't squabble over words.)
Take this example from a recently published preview for the 2002
Tornado
worlds: "John Forbes, currently crewing for Darren Bundock." My
question
is, who was Darren Bundock before he teamed up with John Forbes?
If you agree with my proposal please forward it along to your fellow
journalists. If not don't expect any more good roll tacks. I warn you
our
underground network is vast and far-reaching.
Self Appointed International Crew Union Spokesperson: Bob Merrick
crew for BU in '99. Rich was also voted top Neisa Crew that year. Rich
got this from Jessi Dimock who was an 3-time all-american crew for
Tufts. She sailed with Jon Baker, whom she recently married. Some of
you have not meet Jon yet but he is a three-time all-american from
Tufts, who was runner-up to College Sailor of the Year in 1999 (he won A
divison at Nationals that year) and he has been coaching for BU on
weekends for the past three years. Jon will be running the Hatch Brown
Regatta, Jessi may also be there, and Rich will be there as well. If
you asked these guys a question, they'll be happy to answer it, and it
will be a damn good answer I bet.
Actually, Jessi forward this from Josh Adams, a multiple all-american
skipper from Tufts (Who is a damn good crew too), who got it from Bob
Merrick, an olympic medalist crew. Josh makes reference to Kevin Hall,
an all-american skipper from Brown who is equally talented as a crew. I
certainly know a bit about crewing. In my younger days, when I weighed
about half a cow less, I was a fairly talented and much sought after
crew. We won a lot because the skipper knew how to treat and train a
crew and how to win as a team, because that's what it takes to win,
teamwork. You're nobody without your crew.
Teamwork, here's an example. Lynne Jewell was a great sailor for BU
('82). She led the Terriers to a second place at Women's Nationals.
She is the only women to ever qualify for coed singlehanded nationals
(back then there were no women's single's, just coed's. Now there are
no coeds, only separate men's and women's). After graduation, Lynne
went on an olympic campaign with her crew Alison Jolly. After a year
of
training they were clearly improving but things just weren't right.
Lynne kept telling Alison her job and Alison told Lynne's hers as if
each could do each other's better. Then they got to thinkin', maybe we
can do it better. So they made the switch. Lynne moved to the front of
the boat and the rest is history. They won a gold medal in the Women's
470 class in Seoul. No egos, just teammates working together to make
the boat go faster than everybody else.
-------
From: Rich Bell
Hello,
I am sorry if some of you have already received this, but I thought it
was sweet. It is tough to make the boat go with no one in the pointy
end.
Hope you all enjoy Merriks letter,
later,
Rich
>From: "Jessi Dimock"
>To: "Ramsay Key"
>
>Subject: Re: RE: More
Sailing?
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:28:06 -0400
Fabulous letter - I couldn't agree more! After 7 years of sailing with
Jon, he still talks to other people using I instead of we!
see you guys soon. so are we going to sail next week then?
jd
----- Original Message -----
From: rkey@mit.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 2:50 PM
To: brell84@hotmail.com; kiriw@prodigy.net; jessidimock@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: RE: More Sailing?
----- Forwarded message from "Adams, Josh"
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 09:59:00 -0400
From: "Adams, Josh"
Thought the group would enjoy this note that a few journos and I
received this morning from Bob Merrick. It reminds me of Kevin Hall's
famous comment, "Crews are people, too."
Dear Friends, Sailing Journalists, Crew Union members and Helmspersons,
On behalf of the International Crew Union I am asking you to consider
the
following assertion. Most of us who crew on sailboats are doing it
because
we enjoy the racing and not as a personal favor to our helmspersons. I
submit that we are not crewing FOR our skippers we are sailing WITH them
as an integral part of the team. (That is unless we are being paid BY
our
helmsperson in which case we won't squabble over words.)
Take this example from a recently published preview for the 2002
Tornado
worlds: "John Forbes, currently crewing for Darren Bundock." My
question
is, who was Darren Bundock before he teamed up with John Forbes?
If you agree with my proposal please forward it along to your fellow
journalists. If not don't expect any more good roll tacks. I warn you
our
underground network is vast and far-reaching.
Self Appointed International Crew Union Spokesperson: Bob Merrick
A Dozen Coachisms
A Dozen Coachisms:
12. Good sailors anticipate.
Not-so-good sailors react.
Bad sailors react slowly.
11. When you blow off practice, you blow off the team. When you blow
off the team, you blow off yourself. When you blow off yourself...
10. Once sails are set and trimmed correctly. A major factor in
Boat speed is weight placement. Keep the boat flat and level (bow to
stern) unless conditions warrant a change. Feel when to Heel.
9. It's not that you should be afraid of losing.
You just don't wanna be around when it happens.
8. Simplicity 101: There are only two tacks, be on the one that points more towards the weather mark. When in doubt:
1. Take the tack with clearer air to maximize boat speed
2. Work back to the rhumb line to minimize risk
3. Remember rule #1 above #2 but avoid the risky "corners of doom"
7. Team Race Simplicity (if that's possible):
If you control two out of three pairs, you can control the race.
6. It's not the teammates in your life that matter.
It's the life in your teammates.
5. Fast dinghies are initially turned with sail trim and weight
placement. The rudder merely tags along. Reduce the load to increase the mother lode.
4. Fear of losing has motivated more people than the promise of winning.
3. Good sailors let their automatic skills sail "the breeze of the
moment" while there conscious skills anticipate the breeze of the
future.
2. In a dinghy...
Four eyes are better than two.
Two brains are better than one.
One ass is too many for all.
1. Fun is a job well done.
Rah BUDS
12. Good sailors anticipate.
Not-so-good sailors react.
Bad sailors react slowly.
11. When you blow off practice, you blow off the team. When you blow
off the team, you blow off yourself. When you blow off yourself...
10. Once sails are set and trimmed correctly. A major factor in
Boat speed is weight placement. Keep the boat flat and level (bow to
stern) unless conditions warrant a change. Feel when to Heel.
9. It's not that you should be afraid of losing.
You just don't wanna be around when it happens.
8. Simplicity 101: There are only two tacks, be on the one that points more towards the weather mark. When in doubt:
1. Take the tack with clearer air to maximize boat speed
2. Work back to the rhumb line to minimize risk
3. Remember rule #1 above #2 but avoid the risky "corners of doom"
7. Team Race Simplicity (if that's possible):
If you control two out of three pairs, you can control the race.
6. It's not the teammates in your life that matter.
It's the life in your teammates.
5. Fast dinghies are initially turned with sail trim and weight
placement. The rudder merely tags along. Reduce the load to increase the mother lode.
4. Fear of losing has motivated more people than the promise of winning.
3. Good sailors let their automatic skills sail "the breeze of the
moment" while there conscious skills anticipate the breeze of the
future.
2. In a dinghy...
Four eyes are better than two.
Two brains are better than one.
One ass is too many for all.
1. Fun is a job well done.
Rah BUDS
More Starting
More Starting Drills
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
More Starting
More Starting Drills
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 00:31:24 -0500
We really need to work on our starting skills. Much of this work can
be done without a coach. It can be done with one or two buoys. It can
be done before practice or on off-practice days. It can be done if you
rig up early at weekend regattas. It can be done between races. It
takes WILL. If you don't have the Will, you won't have your Way (on the
starting line). The easiest way to win a race is to win the start and
don't look back. We will settle for being in the group that gets their
nose poked out and manages to get to the first shift. Rounding the
first mark in the top five is Money.
What starting drills?
#1 Ball Starts -nail them 99% of the time. Then put your crew in the
back and nail them 99% of the time. Then close your eyes and nail them
99% of the time. Then take your rudder out and nail them 98% of the
time. Then stand on your head and well, well then get your head
examined. I am not asking of you anything I have not done myself
(except the head examination). That always the case.
#2 Stop and Goes and other acceleration drills. Load and flatten.
Jump or pump. Sail fat and then squeeze. What ever you want to call,
you must avoid the leebow from below and the total wanker of getting
rolled from above. You will learn to get more agressive, including
moving boats out of your way (physically and verbally), or you will not
be mentioned in the same breath as top collegiate sailors. Holes are
fought for, they are not gifts from god that only the "lucky sailors"
get.
#3 Turning skills- pivots, circles, tacking into holes, this means
HELM, HELM, HELM. You never really know about helm until you take the
rudder out.
#4 There's more, but above is a good start (ha,ha).
----------------
Here are some ideas to improve your mental skills.
Games: Chess is the game choice. There are many similarities between
the game of chess and the tactics of sailing, particularly in team
racing. Good sailors are usually good chess players. Maybe you should
take time to challenge each other to a game now and then. By the way,
puzzle games like the ones I have at the boathouse are great for
developing the analytical mind.
That's why they are down there.
Concentration: Try this drill. Sit down between two stereo speakers on
two different systems (could be stereo and a walkman as long as volumes
are the same). Each speaker has something different playing. The
exercise is to affectively shut out one sound and concentrate on the
other and alternating between the two. Every 30 seconds try to switch
from one to the other. Can you pay attention to one without being
disracted by the other? One note on this: Don't use tapes that you
know the words to, the more foreign to you, the better the exercise.
Relaxation: Deep, full breaths with long exhales. Melt the tension
away. It's amazing how clensing this simple exercise can be. Try it
before starts.
Visualization: Starting well and getting to the first shift are what
will keep you in the top pack. Visualize this and make it happen.
Imagine yourself with a clear air, front row start and then with
complete faith and confidence go out and get it.
Attitude: The next race is the first race of the rest of my life.
Don't dwell on the past, bad or good. Take what you need from previous
experiences and leave the rest "on the cutting room floor".
Mental Education: You must have a complete understanding of how the
mind works. You must recognize your "mental symptoms". You must
diagnose and then you must treat. This requires reading up on the
subject. Fortunately, all of you were wise enough to purchase Brad's
bible, so you have that key information at hand. What's that you say?
You care so little about your regatta performance that you have failed
to be verse in the most important book for a collegiate Sailor?
Say it ain't so.
Sail, Race, and Win
How to Develop a Winning Attitude
By Eric Twiname, revised by Cathy Foster
Sheridan House Inc.
Reading assignment: 28 pages of bliss
Chapter 14- Mental Fitness
Chapter 15- Psychological Barriers To Winning
Chapter 16- Making The Least Out Of A Crisis
Chapter 17- Mental Preparation
Sneak Preview...
The Power of the Mind
The wonderful thing about your mind is that provided you go
about
things in the right way it will do a vast amount for you without you
even having to think about it. It does this all the time with mundane
activities like walking and driving the car. This is taken for
granted. If your subconscious mind went on strike you would be in dire
trouble. Every movement of every muscle would have to be consciously
thought out and supervised. You would take a long time to get anywhere.
Your subconscious mind is 90 percent of the whole, with only 10
percent representing the conscious part. Just as walking is done almost
entirely by the subconscious, so is sailing, much more so than you
think. Your conscious mind is simply incapable of attending to every
little movement of your body or tuning into each of the senses that is
providing you with information that is being drawn on. Even tactical
decisions are based largely on the subconscious. A situation develops
ahead and you need to make a response, and that response whether to tack
or luff or whatever, results from dipping into your store of experience
which lies in the subconscious and getting a quick answer. To think
through the alternative moves at the time would usually be disastrous.
There is so much to attend to during a race that quite often you
have to put your sailing of the boat on to automatic pilot while you
look
for the weather mark, see what the other boats are doing, or scan the
water upwind for gusts. When you do this you shift your conscious
attention entirely off sailing the boat, which is done subconsciously by
your automatic pilot skills. Only if something goes wrong, like a wave
taken badly or a sudden heel, does a mental alarm bell call your full
attention back to the job of sailing the boat.
Even when you are sailing with your attention and thoughts all
centered on getting the boat to go through the water as fast as it will,
much of your bodily movements and responses are bypassing the conscious
mind completely. We are automatons of our own making, and part of
making
your mind work more effectively on the water is raising those automatic
pilot skills- that part which the subconscious mind does for you- to as
near perfection as possible.
When your automatic skills are highly developed you
automatically sail your boat near-perfectly the whole time. The
conscious mind is then
free to attend to the tactical side of the race, looking out for
windshifts and generally being the master of the preceedings and not
merely a slavish servant to the jib luff. Much of the time will
certainly be spent with full attention on the jib or the waves ahead of
the bow- or wherever a particular sailor looks in the prevailing
conditions to enable them to get the most speed out of their boat. But
little will be lost when they must look away and, all else being equal,
it is their studying of the wind and the race as it develops that will
enable them to make the winning tactical decisions.
Beginners have no automatic pilot sailing skills; they have to
do
everythng consciously, and even heading up and bearing away have to be
thought out. Improvement is a process in which the subconscious learns
set responses that allow skills such as helming to become a natural,
easy and very automatic process. Once your responses do become
automatic in this way you face a problem: if these responses are only 70
percent perfect and you want to improve your racing, you must make the
effort to take these automatic skills out, examine them, and then raise
them to a higher level of perfection. That is how you improve.
-Eric Twiname
It's time to take it to another level.
-Coach
Helm (Churchill)
Helm
Determine your destination
Get your bearings set
and steer a true course.
In life, you need a rudder.
In sailboats you don't.
Helm:
There are three types of helm. Windward helm, when the boat wants to
head up if you release hold of the tiller. Leeward helm, when it wants
to bear off. Neutral helm is acheived when the boats steers a straight
course. Small boats inherently are set up with a bit of windward helm.
Too much in fact. While sailing upwind we want the very faintest bit of
weather helm so we have "a touch, of a feel" on the tiller. It's so
slight that only the most sensitive can feel it, that's the point. All
other times you want to sail with neutral helm unless you are trying to
turn the boat. When you do want to turn the boat, the last thing you
want to do is use your rudder. The act of using your rudder is the act
of braking. That's how the damn thing works. You been taught wrong
from the very first day you got in a sailboat because you learned to
sail by using the rudder. If everybody had started without it, you'd be
better off now. So now we have to melt away bad habits and get you to
stop using the brake. When you use your weight and sail trim properly
the boat turns on it's own and the rudder balances pressures on both
sides of the blade and no braking occurs (well, there's still turbulence
and therefore drag). The rudder becomes an emergency backup used
secondary to created helm. It's rarely the first option. So next time
you want to turn the boat, don't just jam the rudder over, feel what the
boat wants to do on it's own. Feel what type of helm currently exists
and do the things you need to induce the type of helm you want.
Creating Windward Helm:
Jib eased
Main trimmed
Heel to leeward
Creating Leeward Helm:
Jib trimmed
Main eased
Heel to windward
Creating Neutral Helm:
Feel what helm you have.
Create enough of the opposite helm to bring the helm to neutral.
Pointers:
Centerboard- One third of the way up (to help reduce the boat's inherent
windward helm).
Weight- The weight wants to be far forward in the boat because the bow
is a lot sharper than the stern and it helps you track much better. If
you're in the back seat, the rounded bottom of the boat likes to turn.
Once it starts turning, it's hard to stop it from spinning out.
Sailing Position- Start at a beam reach and try to steer a straight beam
reach course. When this is mastered, then try sailing closehauled.
Then move on to sailing dead downwind. Next comes tacks, and then
jibes. Now you're ready to sail a whole course.
Crew- The crew should initially sit on the centerboard and do nothing.
The skipper should take the main and jib and use only their weight to
learn to sail straight, then to learn to turn. Only after the skipper
has done this, to we put the crew to work. Then you learn to dance
together.
Once you get the sensitivity down, the balanceing act becomes quite
easy. You'll be embarrassed you didn't take care of this skill much
sooner. Afterall, the rudder has been killing your boatspeed for years.
Time to start sailing in the real world.
-Coach
Determine your destination
Get your bearings set
and steer a true course.
In life, you need a rudder.
In sailboats you don't.
Helm:
There are three types of helm. Windward helm, when the boat wants to
head up if you release hold of the tiller. Leeward helm, when it wants
to bear off. Neutral helm is acheived when the boats steers a straight
course. Small boats inherently are set up with a bit of windward helm.
Too much in fact. While sailing upwind we want the very faintest bit of
weather helm so we have "a touch, of a feel" on the tiller. It's so
slight that only the most sensitive can feel it, that's the point. All
other times you want to sail with neutral helm unless you are trying to
turn the boat. When you do want to turn the boat, the last thing you
want to do is use your rudder. The act of using your rudder is the act
of braking. That's how the damn thing works. You been taught wrong
from the very first day you got in a sailboat because you learned to
sail by using the rudder. If everybody had started without it, you'd be
better off now. So now we have to melt away bad habits and get you to
stop using the brake. When you use your weight and sail trim properly
the boat turns on it's own and the rudder balances pressures on both
sides of the blade and no braking occurs (well, there's still turbulence
and therefore drag). The rudder becomes an emergency backup used
secondary to created helm. It's rarely the first option. So next time
you want to turn the boat, don't just jam the rudder over, feel what the
boat wants to do on it's own. Feel what type of helm currently exists
and do the things you need to induce the type of helm you want.
Creating Windward Helm:
Jib eased
Main trimmed
Heel to leeward
Creating Leeward Helm:
Jib trimmed
Main eased
Heel to windward
Creating Neutral Helm:
Feel what helm you have.
Create enough of the opposite helm to bring the helm to neutral.
Pointers:
Centerboard- One third of the way up (to help reduce the boat's inherent
windward helm).
Weight- The weight wants to be far forward in the boat because the bow
is a lot sharper than the stern and it helps you track much better. If
you're in the back seat, the rounded bottom of the boat likes to turn.
Once it starts turning, it's hard to stop it from spinning out.
Sailing Position- Start at a beam reach and try to steer a straight beam
reach course. When this is mastered, then try sailing closehauled.
Then move on to sailing dead downwind. Next comes tacks, and then
jibes. Now you're ready to sail a whole course.
Crew- The crew should initially sit on the centerboard and do nothing.
The skipper should take the main and jib and use only their weight to
learn to sail straight, then to learn to turn. Only after the skipper
has done this, to we put the crew to work. Then you learn to dance
together.
Once you get the sensitivity down, the balanceing act becomes quite
easy. You'll be embarrassed you didn't take care of this skill much
sooner. Afterall, the rudder has been killing your boatspeed for years.
Time to start sailing in the real world.
-Coach
Starting Drills (Churchill)
Starting Drills 1
I sent this to another coach and thought you might benefit from it.
Ball Starts-
Ball starts are the essence of starting and if a sailor can not
Nail these they have no business being on the starting line with the big boys.
All you need is one boat, a buoy and a watch.
Set the watch for a one minute start.
The goal is to be full speed, closehauled, at go.
The other key ingredient is repetition. You need throw this at them
often. Doing at least 5-10 starts and doing it more than once every few weeks.
Pick either the bow of the boat or the windward shroud as where the boat has to be at "go". Can you be there at GO? Can you be there at full speed and fully pointing? How hard can this drill be when there are not other boats to challenge you? This is a harder drill than it should be because sailors don't know how to set up for it (the wind changes in strength and direction and sailors aren't consistent with their boatspeed through the water). That's why I love it! Sailors think, oh that's easy, why bother with that. Then they do it and get their ass kicked. Doing this drill is a sure way to give notice to a sailor's inefficiency and put them out there practicing it on their own. Afterall, another great thing about Ball Starts is that you don't need a coach. You know when you nailed one or not.
So how do you set up for a Ball Start? By being consistent in
pre-routing. Specifically, being able to hold a close-reach position 3
boat lengths away from the ball for basically an indefinate period of
time (of course that's actually less than one minute, the length of the
sequence). From this "hold" position you can deal with a directional
shift since if you get headed you can still make the ball and if you get lifted you can adjust with a quick luff so you don't get sent down the line and "overshoot". At three boatlengths, you're close enough to the ball that if the wind dies you can still make it. By sitting in this hold position instead of sailing around in circles like a headless
chicken, you can focus on the wind speed and direction, items that are
very important to developing a sense of timing for the drill. AND
that's what the drill is really all about, getting your TIMING down.
Getting a good feel for you speed through the water depending on the
boat and the wind (and current) conditions. Which reminds me, this
drill is set up differently when current is involved (it's even harder
as you can't "hold" a set-up position three boat lengths away.
Of course once a skipper and crew's timing is down, we throw in
different drills to work on "adaptability" since in reality, you do
start on a line with other boats and are greatly effected by them.
Another version of the ball start is to make a small gate (there are
many forms of gate start drills that can be discussed later but this is
it's basic form). The benefits of the gate is it is much easier for the sailor to visualize the starting line because it is an actual line
(although that line should only be a boatlength long). The benefit of
just a single ball is that I can line them up perpendicular to the wind
(a starting "line" of single balls) so many of the team can do this at
the same time. Then I run them on a continuous sequence of either 1 or
2 minutes depending on the wind conditions and the skill level of the
sailors. In medium breeze I can get my team to do 15 ball starts in
only 15 minutes. After that they all need a moment to recover and then
it's off to other drills.
I have never needed to make a ball start anymore difficult than
It already is. But that's easy to do. You can try it blindfolded which is often futile because the communication skills of the crew are often not good enough to direct the skipper. Nonetheless, I do throw that at them ocassionally (but not when there are lots of balls close together). If the wind is steady, rudderless ball starts are really not that hard in my mind but that's because I have lots of control even without my rudder (through years of practice and my need to "show off" those skills).
Yet I have had difficulty getting even my best sailors to
perfect this skill because it takes a full commitment. The ones that
do, have done so because they believed it was a worthwhile endeavor and
have spent much time practicing it. I tell my kids that if you can sail rudderless around the race course, if you can do a ball start
rudderless, you can never by an All-American. Surely a lie, but they
understand my meaning, if you want to be really good, you need develop
really good skills. Whether All-American status is achieved or not,
those sailors will remaind very skillful, and there's joy, pride and
confidence in that. It is often the confidence in such high tech
sailing skills that bring the confidence in other matters on the race
course.
Other variations (though I won't go into all the reasons):
-Two boats fighting for same ball
-Crews skippering
-Skippers holding main and jib
-Crew calls "trim-in" time
-Sailing backwards approach from upwind
-Crews blindfolded
-Coach calls "trim in" time
-Full speed at 10 seconds -no matter what
-Keep Away (two boats preventing another from getting a good ball start)
-Around the Horn
(detailed explaination needed but it involves making a full circle
around the bouy before the "start" but the bow is always facing upwind.
Huh)
-Freeze Frame (holding position with bow no less than 6 feet from
bouy. In less than 6 knots, I've got sailors that can hold this
forever)
-Pivot drill
-Parking skills (four directions- more elaborate than any "stop and
go". Involves use of centerboard; extreme weight placement; main for
backwind or "power over-trimmed" and likewise for jib. Excellent for
skills leading into another great starting drill "Drop and Duck
Hopscotch".
I sent this to another coach and thought you might benefit from it.
Ball Starts-
Ball starts are the essence of starting and if a sailor can not
Nail these they have no business being on the starting line with the big boys.
All you need is one boat, a buoy and a watch.
Set the watch for a one minute start.
The goal is to be full speed, closehauled, at go.
The other key ingredient is repetition. You need throw this at them
often. Doing at least 5-10 starts and doing it more than once every few weeks.
Pick either the bow of the boat or the windward shroud as where the boat has to be at "go". Can you be there at GO? Can you be there at full speed and fully pointing? How hard can this drill be when there are not other boats to challenge you? This is a harder drill than it should be because sailors don't know how to set up for it (the wind changes in strength and direction and sailors aren't consistent with their boatspeed through the water). That's why I love it! Sailors think, oh that's easy, why bother with that. Then they do it and get their ass kicked. Doing this drill is a sure way to give notice to a sailor's inefficiency and put them out there practicing it on their own. Afterall, another great thing about Ball Starts is that you don't need a coach. You know when you nailed one or not.
So how do you set up for a Ball Start? By being consistent in
pre-routing. Specifically, being able to hold a close-reach position 3
boat lengths away from the ball for basically an indefinate period of
time (of course that's actually less than one minute, the length of the
sequence). From this "hold" position you can deal with a directional
shift since if you get headed you can still make the ball and if you get lifted you can adjust with a quick luff so you don't get sent down the line and "overshoot". At three boatlengths, you're close enough to the ball that if the wind dies you can still make it. By sitting in this hold position instead of sailing around in circles like a headless
chicken, you can focus on the wind speed and direction, items that are
very important to developing a sense of timing for the drill. AND
that's what the drill is really all about, getting your TIMING down.
Getting a good feel for you speed through the water depending on the
boat and the wind (and current) conditions. Which reminds me, this
drill is set up differently when current is involved (it's even harder
as you can't "hold" a set-up position three boat lengths away.
Of course once a skipper and crew's timing is down, we throw in
different drills to work on "adaptability" since in reality, you do
start on a line with other boats and are greatly effected by them.
Another version of the ball start is to make a small gate (there are
many forms of gate start drills that can be discussed later but this is
it's basic form). The benefits of the gate is it is much easier for the sailor to visualize the starting line because it is an actual line
(although that line should only be a boatlength long). The benefit of
just a single ball is that I can line them up perpendicular to the wind
(a starting "line" of single balls) so many of the team can do this at
the same time. Then I run them on a continuous sequence of either 1 or
2 minutes depending on the wind conditions and the skill level of the
sailors. In medium breeze I can get my team to do 15 ball starts in
only 15 minutes. After that they all need a moment to recover and then
it's off to other drills.
I have never needed to make a ball start anymore difficult than
It already is. But that's easy to do. You can try it blindfolded which is often futile because the communication skills of the crew are often not good enough to direct the skipper. Nonetheless, I do throw that at them ocassionally (but not when there are lots of balls close together). If the wind is steady, rudderless ball starts are really not that hard in my mind but that's because I have lots of control even without my rudder (through years of practice and my need to "show off" those skills).
Yet I have had difficulty getting even my best sailors to
perfect this skill because it takes a full commitment. The ones that
do, have done so because they believed it was a worthwhile endeavor and
have spent much time practicing it. I tell my kids that if you can sail rudderless around the race course, if you can do a ball start
rudderless, you can never by an All-American. Surely a lie, but they
understand my meaning, if you want to be really good, you need develop
really good skills. Whether All-American status is achieved or not,
those sailors will remaind very skillful, and there's joy, pride and
confidence in that. It is often the confidence in such high tech
sailing skills that bring the confidence in other matters on the race
course.
Other variations (though I won't go into all the reasons):
-Two boats fighting for same ball
-Crews skippering
-Skippers holding main and jib
-Crew calls "trim-in" time
-Sailing backwards approach from upwind
-Crews blindfolded
-Coach calls "trim in" time
-Full speed at 10 seconds -no matter what
-Keep Away (two boats preventing another from getting a good ball start)
-Around the Horn
(detailed explaination needed but it involves making a full circle
around the bouy before the "start" but the bow is always facing upwind.
Huh)
-Freeze Frame (holding position with bow no less than 6 feet from
bouy. In less than 6 knots, I've got sailors that can hold this
forever)
-Pivot drill
-Parking skills (four directions- more elaborate than any "stop and
go". Involves use of centerboard; extreme weight placement; main for
backwind or "power over-trimmed" and likewise for jib. Excellent for
skills leading into another great starting drill "Drop and Duck
Hopscotch".
Penalties of Heeling
The penalties for heeling in moderate to heavy breeze are:
Weather Helm Develops This happens mainly because the forward driving force of the rig is no longer over the centerline but acting from over the water several feet to leeward. To counteract the tendency that this creates for the boat to screw up into the wind, the helmsman hauls his tiller up to windward and the angled rudder acts as a brake, producing several times as much drag as a straight tiller.
The Rig Loses Power It is often forgotten that the rig becomes appreciably less efficient as it heels, turning more of the forces available for forward motion into the downward acting force already mentioned. Even with a 15 degree of heel there is a fraction less power available to convert into forward motion than when the rig is upright. As the boat heels to over 25 degrees, more power falls off dramatically.
Leeway Increases Even at 10 degrees of heel, leeway increases slightly. At 20 degrees or 25, leeway increases considerably in dinghies, and leeway becomes excessive when this heeling combined with loss of speed, causes the centerboard to stall. This happens particularly easily on boats with fairly small, narrow boards.
Crew Weight Becomes Less Effective When the boat heels, the centers of gravity of the hiking helmsman and crew move closer to the center of buoyancy of the hull, and thus transmit less righting moment to the rig than when upright. Also, as the crew and helmsman are lifted higher above the water, their bodies come into a faster wind stream so drag is marginally increased.
Exposing Freeboard When the boat heels in heavy air, the side of the hull is exposed to more wind-age and considerable drag. The wind catches beneath the hull, inducing greater heel and more leeway.
Shallow Centerboard Depth As the hull heels the centerboards swings upward and is not longer as deep in the water as it can be, resulting in additional leeway.
Reduced Mast Height As the hull heels the mast tilts downward, preventing the sail in general, and specifically its “center of effort”, from being as high off the water as possible and gaining the benefits of higher wind speeds aloft.
-Eric Twiname
Sail, Race, Win
and
-B. Churchill
Weather Helm Develops This happens mainly because the forward driving force of the rig is no longer over the centerline but acting from over the water several feet to leeward. To counteract the tendency that this creates for the boat to screw up into the wind, the helmsman hauls his tiller up to windward and the angled rudder acts as a brake, producing several times as much drag as a straight tiller.
The Rig Loses Power It is often forgotten that the rig becomes appreciably less efficient as it heels, turning more of the forces available for forward motion into the downward acting force already mentioned. Even with a 15 degree of heel there is a fraction less power available to convert into forward motion than when the rig is upright. As the boat heels to over 25 degrees, more power falls off dramatically.
Leeway Increases Even at 10 degrees of heel, leeway increases slightly. At 20 degrees or 25, leeway increases considerably in dinghies, and leeway becomes excessive when this heeling combined with loss of speed, causes the centerboard to stall. This happens particularly easily on boats with fairly small, narrow boards.
Crew Weight Becomes Less Effective When the boat heels, the centers of gravity of the hiking helmsman and crew move closer to the center of buoyancy of the hull, and thus transmit less righting moment to the rig than when upright. Also, as the crew and helmsman are lifted higher above the water, their bodies come into a faster wind stream so drag is marginally increased.
Exposing Freeboard When the boat heels in heavy air, the side of the hull is exposed to more wind-age and considerable drag. The wind catches beneath the hull, inducing greater heel and more leeway.
Shallow Centerboard Depth As the hull heels the centerboards swings upward and is not longer as deep in the water as it can be, resulting in additional leeway.
Reduced Mast Height As the hull heels the mast tilts downward, preventing the sail in general, and specifically its “center of effort”, from being as high off the water as possible and gaining the benefits of higher wind speeds aloft.
-Eric Twiname
Sail, Race, Win
and
-B. Churchill
Crewing (Rabin)
North American Champion Dan Rabin on Crewing --
Fundamentals of Collegiate Crewing
A brief outline by Dan Rabin
I. Tacking
a. Light Air
i. FJ
1. Roll late and as hard as possible
2. Maximum roll is easier with a forwards tack for most people
a. Forwards Tack - crew initiates roll
b. Backwards Tack - skipper initiates roll
3. Lock front foot under centerboard trunk or strap, cross with back
foot (forwards tack)
4. As skipper settles to the new windward tank, dive hard to leeward to
prevent over-flatten
ii. 420
1. Roll late and as hard as possible
2. Lock front foot in strap, catapulting outwards to a hiking position -
ideally, back should hit the water
3. Above 2 knots of wind, skipper will usually need momentary help
flattening - flatten off the trunk with your weight on the inner part of
the tank and shoulders square to the boat, then immediately dive hard to
leeward
a. If skipper does not need help flattening, you didn't roll hard and/or
late enough!!
b. Crews who cross the boat slowly usually do an insufficient "hip
flatten" - they do not get their weight up to the tank with their
shoulders square which results in the boat staying loaded too long as
the skipper has to bear too much of the flattening burden
iii. Lark
1. Roll late but not too hard
2. Roll off the seat, not the rail
3. Front shoulder should almost hit the shroud - weight needs to be
forward to keep the stern from dunking
4. Less roll means less flatten, communicate with skipper about how much
help is needed on the flatten
b. Medium Air
i. FJ
1. Once you are on the rail it becomes easier to backwards tack - figure
out what works best for your boat but always be prepared to cross the
boat in either direction (you never know where you'll find the jib
sheets during 4 consecutive tacks in team racing)
2. Roll hard enough for an aggressive flatten off the trunk, this
flatten is done by locking the front of your foot under the ridge along
the top of the centerboard trunk and "pulling" the boat down right over
the board
3. Over-flattening is the result of rolling too early and/or not hard
enough
ii. 420
1. Still roll as hard as possible with your back hitting the water
2. Initially flatten off the strap and slide in as skipper settles
iii. Lark
1. Same as light air except initiate roll sooner
2. Give more help on flatten, remember the lark doesn't benefit from
being loaded up for long - you want a quick and smooth tack
c. Heavy Air
i. FJ
1. You're going strap to strap and backwards tacking is the fastest way
to do this for most people
a. Backwards Tack - as you come off the rail, turn your front shoulder
in to the boat so you face the skipper, and kick your back shoulder out
for a mini-roll so that you have some momentum for crossing the boat
b. Forwards Tack - exact opposite to backwards tack; unlike lighter air
you only roll with one shoulder out, instead of square to the boat
2. Flatten straight into a full hike, make sure you trim the jib 90%
just by dropping your shoulders down to a full hike instead of pulling
it in with your arms
ii. 420
1. Do not roll off the strap; As the boat turns into the wind, slide in
and do a mini-roll with your shoulders to provide momentum for crossing
the boat
2. Same flatten as an FJ
iii. Lark
1. Out of one strap and into the other, no time to waste
II. Jibing
a. Light Air
i. FJ
1. Roll as hard as possible, try to go off the strap
2. Flattening should not be necessary
3. If you creep back into the boat during the maneuver, dive hard to
leeward as the skipper settles
ii. 420
1. Same as FJ except at the upper range of light air a momentary flatten
might be required
2. If you flatten, dive back down hard to leeward immediately
iii. Lark
1. Similar roll to the light air tack
2. No flatten required
b. Medium Air
i. FJ
1. Roll hard but not off the strap
2. Should have to help a bit with the flatten
ii. 420
1. Roll hard, might still need the strap at the bottom range of breeze
2. Definite help with flattening required, if not, you rolled too early
and/or not hard enough
iii. Lark
1. Same roll as light air but not as late
2. Very slight flatten required usually
c. Heavy Air
i. FJ
1. Roll but not hard; do not leave the seat, simply put your weight into
the windward tank
2. Begin flatten move as the boom crosses centerline
ii. 420
1. Light roll, at lower range of breeze you still need to roll on the
tank
2. Very aggressive flatten; begin flatten as boom crosses centerline,
may even have to flatten on the tank in "sitting" position (like a tack)
iii. Lark
1. Just enough roll to initiate turn
2. Immediate flatten
3. Watch the bow, get the weight back if it digs!!
d. Flattening Technique
i. Hip-flatten - most flattening done for a jibe is done with the upper
body, as opposed to coming up all the way onto the tank and squaring
your shoulders to the boat. Usually the only part of your body, if any,
to hit the windward tank is your hip. Plant one foot against the
centerboard trunk and lean as much of your upper body to weather as you
need to flatten. The more breeze, the quicker you want to flatten.
III. Transitioning
a. Reach to Wing
i. Communication
1. Call the pressure - give constant feedback on the pressure in the jib
so the skipper can evaluate whether to work low, work high, or wing
2. No pressure - just because the jib collapses does not mean it wants
to wing, do not call for a wing if the pressure cannot support it
ii. Skipper Calls for the Wing
1. As you stand up, reach in front of the mast with your inside hand and
snap the jib into a wing in one motion - bring your shoulder over hard
to induce a weather heal and help set the wing. You need to hold the
boom with your other hand at the same time.
2. Transfer the jib sheet with one hand to the outside of the shroud and
into the skipper's waiting hand
3. Block technique - some crews wing by pulling the weather jib sheet
through the block. This usually takes longer though and transferring
the sheet outside the shroud to the skipper is not as smooth.
iii. Standing vs. Sitting
1. Try standing when on the wing - in light and medium air you can drop
straight down onto the tank for an aggressive roll jibe (not necessary
in a lark)
2. Weight adjustments for weather heal can be done a bit quicker and
smoother in a standing position (more upper body, less butt)
3. Effective kinetics can be done in either position
b. Un-wing
i. Board down at least half-way
ii. Dive hard to leeward into trimming position
IV. Feeding Information
a. Starting Line
i. Time
ii. Breeze
1. Significant shift within 1 minute to start
2. Closest pressure off the line
iii. Distance to Line
iv. Leeward Hole
1. The skipper needs to know about boats that could potentially take
your hole so he/she can drive down to close the hole
a. Call any boats approaching your stern before they are overlapped to
leeward
b. Call the boats on port approach
v. Immediately after Start
1. Guard your lane
a. Give a play-by-play of your progress vs. the immediate leeward and
windward boats
b. Call the need to foot or to pinch (speed vs. angle)
c. Call the first lane to tack for or the consequences of bailing out
(how many boats to duck)
b. Upwind
i. Breeze
1. Change in pressure or direction (don't call breeze that you cannot
get to)
2. Count down the time to the approaching puffs (more critical in heavy
air)
ii. Waves
1. Call them early enough that you can tack if skipper wants to
iii. Lanes
1. Call a lane whenever there is one - it doesn't mean you should tack,
but it gives the skipper an option
a. Look past the next tack - an apparent lane can close very quickly
when an impending tack is obvious (big shift, layline, etc.) and you
have boats in front of you
iv. Boats
1. Call the starboard tack boat(s) early - call the number of "problem"
boats behind the 1st one so the skipper can make the best decision
(leading back vs. ducking)
2. Call the port tack back boat(s) early - just because your starboard
doesn't mean you do not want to tack and lead back the port boats; also,
you might want to wave the port boat across so you do not get nailed by
a lee-bow
v. Layline
1. Don't wait until you're on layline to call it - make a call 3-5 boat
lengths out (call "approaching layline"), the skipper might want to
short tack the layline if you're far out in anticipation of a shift
and/or not wanting to sit in dirty air on a long approach
c. Off-wind
i. Lanes
1. Big Picture vs. Small Picture
a. Immediate concern is the closest boat behind - give regular feedback
on their angle: high, low, even
b. Watch out for the fleet - don't get pushed super high or low by your
neighbor, give regular feedback on your angle compared to the "fleet"
2. Separation
a. Give feedback on your speed - are you getting closer to those ahead
or those behind?
3. Jibes
a. Call a jibe that any nearby boat, ahead or behind, does - especially
if they're overlapped
i. If possible, make the call as soon as the jibe maneuver is initiated
V. Wrap Up
The finer points of crewing are not addressed here intentionally. These
are the points that define a crew's particular style and include
distinctive moves tailored to their particular skipper. No two people
drive a boat the exact same way and therefore, no two people can crew a
boat the exact same way. The weight make-up of a boat is a big factor
as well. The boat-handling for a 170/110 combo differs from that of a
150/130 even though the overall weight is the same. There are often at
least 3 different ways to accomplish the same goal, and you need to
decide what is best for your boat. The most important thing for all
boats is to have as high a level of skipper/crew communication as
possible. Talk about things like what made one tack great and the next
one horrible, and at what moments the boat feels the best in terms of
weight positioning. Good luck!
Fundamentals of Collegiate Crewing
A brief outline by Dan Rabin
I. Tacking
a. Light Air
i. FJ
1. Roll late and as hard as possible
2. Maximum roll is easier with a forwards tack for most people
a. Forwards Tack - crew initiates roll
b. Backwards Tack - skipper initiates roll
3. Lock front foot under centerboard trunk or strap, cross with back
foot (forwards tack)
4. As skipper settles to the new windward tank, dive hard to leeward to
prevent over-flatten
ii. 420
1. Roll late and as hard as possible
2. Lock front foot in strap, catapulting outwards to a hiking position -
ideally, back should hit the water
3. Above 2 knots of wind, skipper will usually need momentary help
flattening - flatten off the trunk with your weight on the inner part of
the tank and shoulders square to the boat, then immediately dive hard to
leeward
a. If skipper does not need help flattening, you didn't roll hard and/or
late enough!!
b. Crews who cross the boat slowly usually do an insufficient "hip
flatten" - they do not get their weight up to the tank with their
shoulders square which results in the boat staying loaded too long as
the skipper has to bear too much of the flattening burden
iii. Lark
1. Roll late but not too hard
2. Roll off the seat, not the rail
3. Front shoulder should almost hit the shroud - weight needs to be
forward to keep the stern from dunking
4. Less roll means less flatten, communicate with skipper about how much
help is needed on the flatten
b. Medium Air
i. FJ
1. Once you are on the rail it becomes easier to backwards tack - figure
out what works best for your boat but always be prepared to cross the
boat in either direction (you never know where you'll find the jib
sheets during 4 consecutive tacks in team racing)
2. Roll hard enough for an aggressive flatten off the trunk, this
flatten is done by locking the front of your foot under the ridge along
the top of the centerboard trunk and "pulling" the boat down right over
the board
3. Over-flattening is the result of rolling too early and/or not hard
enough
ii. 420
1. Still roll as hard as possible with your back hitting the water
2. Initially flatten off the strap and slide in as skipper settles
iii. Lark
1. Same as light air except initiate roll sooner
2. Give more help on flatten, remember the lark doesn't benefit from
being loaded up for long - you want a quick and smooth tack
c. Heavy Air
i. FJ
1. You're going strap to strap and backwards tacking is the fastest way
to do this for most people
a. Backwards Tack - as you come off the rail, turn your front shoulder
in to the boat so you face the skipper, and kick your back shoulder out
for a mini-roll so that you have some momentum for crossing the boat
b. Forwards Tack - exact opposite to backwards tack; unlike lighter air
you only roll with one shoulder out, instead of square to the boat
2. Flatten straight into a full hike, make sure you trim the jib 90%
just by dropping your shoulders down to a full hike instead of pulling
it in with your arms
ii. 420
1. Do not roll off the strap; As the boat turns into the wind, slide in
and do a mini-roll with your shoulders to provide momentum for crossing
the boat
2. Same flatten as an FJ
iii. Lark
1. Out of one strap and into the other, no time to waste
II. Jibing
a. Light Air
i. FJ
1. Roll as hard as possible, try to go off the strap
2. Flattening should not be necessary
3. If you creep back into the boat during the maneuver, dive hard to
leeward as the skipper settles
ii. 420
1. Same as FJ except at the upper range of light air a momentary flatten
might be required
2. If you flatten, dive back down hard to leeward immediately
iii. Lark
1. Similar roll to the light air tack
2. No flatten required
b. Medium Air
i. FJ
1. Roll hard but not off the strap
2. Should have to help a bit with the flatten
ii. 420
1. Roll hard, might still need the strap at the bottom range of breeze
2. Definite help with flattening required, if not, you rolled too early
and/or not hard enough
iii. Lark
1. Same roll as light air but not as late
2. Very slight flatten required usually
c. Heavy Air
i. FJ
1. Roll but not hard; do not leave the seat, simply put your weight into
the windward tank
2. Begin flatten move as the boom crosses centerline
ii. 420
1. Light roll, at lower range of breeze you still need to roll on the
tank
2. Very aggressive flatten; begin flatten as boom crosses centerline,
may even have to flatten on the tank in "sitting" position (like a tack)
iii. Lark
1. Just enough roll to initiate turn
2. Immediate flatten
3. Watch the bow, get the weight back if it digs!!
d. Flattening Technique
i. Hip-flatten - most flattening done for a jibe is done with the upper
body, as opposed to coming up all the way onto the tank and squaring
your shoulders to the boat. Usually the only part of your body, if any,
to hit the windward tank is your hip. Plant one foot against the
centerboard trunk and lean as much of your upper body to weather as you
need to flatten. The more breeze, the quicker you want to flatten.
III. Transitioning
a. Reach to Wing
i. Communication
1. Call the pressure - give constant feedback on the pressure in the jib
so the skipper can evaluate whether to work low, work high, or wing
2. No pressure - just because the jib collapses does not mean it wants
to wing, do not call for a wing if the pressure cannot support it
ii. Skipper Calls for the Wing
1. As you stand up, reach in front of the mast with your inside hand and
snap the jib into a wing in one motion - bring your shoulder over hard
to induce a weather heal and help set the wing. You need to hold the
boom with your other hand at the same time.
2. Transfer the jib sheet with one hand to the outside of the shroud and
into the skipper's waiting hand
3. Block technique - some crews wing by pulling the weather jib sheet
through the block. This usually takes longer though and transferring
the sheet outside the shroud to the skipper is not as smooth.
iii. Standing vs. Sitting
1. Try standing when on the wing - in light and medium air you can drop
straight down onto the tank for an aggressive roll jibe (not necessary
in a lark)
2. Weight adjustments for weather heal can be done a bit quicker and
smoother in a standing position (more upper body, less butt)
3. Effective kinetics can be done in either position
b. Un-wing
i. Board down at least half-way
ii. Dive hard to leeward into trimming position
IV. Feeding Information
a. Starting Line
i. Time
ii. Breeze
1. Significant shift within 1 minute to start
2. Closest pressure off the line
iii. Distance to Line
iv. Leeward Hole
1. The skipper needs to know about boats that could potentially take
your hole so he/she can drive down to close the hole
a. Call any boats approaching your stern before they are overlapped to
leeward
b. Call the boats on port approach
v. Immediately after Start
1. Guard your lane
a. Give a play-by-play of your progress vs. the immediate leeward and
windward boats
b. Call the need to foot or to pinch (speed vs. angle)
c. Call the first lane to tack for or the consequences of bailing out
(how many boats to duck)
b. Upwind
i. Breeze
1. Change in pressure or direction (don't call breeze that you cannot
get to)
2. Count down the time to the approaching puffs (more critical in heavy
air)
ii. Waves
1. Call them early enough that you can tack if skipper wants to
iii. Lanes
1. Call a lane whenever there is one - it doesn't mean you should tack,
but it gives the skipper an option
a. Look past the next tack - an apparent lane can close very quickly
when an impending tack is obvious (big shift, layline, etc.) and you
have boats in front of you
iv. Boats
1. Call the starboard tack boat(s) early - call the number of "problem"
boats behind the 1st one so the skipper can make the best decision
(leading back vs. ducking)
2. Call the port tack back boat(s) early - just because your starboard
doesn't mean you do not want to tack and lead back the port boats; also,
you might want to wave the port boat across so you do not get nailed by
a lee-bow
v. Layline
1. Don't wait until you're on layline to call it - make a call 3-5 boat
lengths out (call "approaching layline"), the skipper might want to
short tack the layline if you're far out in anticipation of a shift
and/or not wanting to sit in dirty air on a long approach
c. Off-wind
i. Lanes
1. Big Picture vs. Small Picture
a. Immediate concern is the closest boat behind - give regular feedback
on their angle: high, low, even
b. Watch out for the fleet - don't get pushed super high or low by your
neighbor, give regular feedback on your angle compared to the "fleet"
2. Separation
a. Give feedback on your speed - are you getting closer to those ahead
or those behind?
3. Jibes
a. Call a jibe that any nearby boat, ahead or behind, does - especially
if they're overlapped
i. If possible, make the call as soon as the jibe maneuver is initiated
V. Wrap Up
The finer points of crewing are not addressed here intentionally. These
are the points that define a crew's particular style and include
distinctive moves tailored to their particular skipper. No two people
drive a boat the exact same way and therefore, no two people can crew a
boat the exact same way. The weight make-up of a boat is a big factor
as well. The boat-handling for a 170/110 combo differs from that of a
150/130 even though the overall weight is the same. There are often at
least 3 different ways to accomplish the same goal, and you need to
decide what is best for your boat. The most important thing for all
boats is to have as high a level of skipper/crew communication as
possible. Talk about things like what made one tack great and the next
one horrible, and at what moments the boat feels the best in terms of
weight positioning. Good luck!
First Place Thinking
First Place Thinking
Buds,
I gave you a handout called "First-Place Thinking" by Eric Twiname last week. Here's the little footnote blurb that goes beneath it.
"A race won is a series of decisions correctly made. When concentrating on the tactical side of fast sailing (the route decisions) the helmsman has to rely heavily on his automatic skills: he cannot for example concentrate on approaching gusts and watch the jib luff at the same time. On "sea courses" a top helmsman will spend three-quarters of his time on the conscious fast sailing skills and only a quarter on making route decisions. On "inland waters" he will spend more than half his time working out the tactics that ensure he takes the fastest route around the course. In general the left hand side of the diagram is more important on the sea, and the right (plus automatic skills) more important on inland waters.
Since I've got the page turned to Twiname...here's what he writes in conjunction with his diagram.
"The only secret to winning is that there isn't one---not a single mystical explanation anyway. The pinnacle of sailing success is supported by a vast pyramid of often quite small pieces of sailing knowledge, each one perfectly applied. A good helmsman's boat is well tuned but, much more important, he himself is tuned to win. And just as boat tune depends on getting even small details right, successful helmsmanship relies more than anything on perfecting even the most trivial-seeming techniques of sailing and combining these into a near-flawless racing ability.
Obviously there are certain things a successful helmsman does that contribute more to his success than others. Working windshifts well on the windward legs, for example, is at least twenty times as important as adjusting the centerboard correctly downwind; holding the boat within five degrees of the upright position all the time in heavy weather is a hundred times more important than adjusting the mainsail's outhaul tension correctly in the same conditions. Olympic medalist get all these things right nearly all the time. The average club helmsman gets many of them wrong all the time---wrong enough usually to keep him out of the prizes.
If you can spot windshifts and you sail on inland waters, the minutiae of boat tune will be as near irrelevant as makes no difference. In winning races there are therefore some things which are vitally important and some which should be given a much lower priority. Some knowledge of these priorities is essential for anyone who wants to improve his sailing quickly. My own experience is that if you do nothing more than re-arrange in a tail-enders mind the importance he should attribute to individual items (like jib sheet trim, mainssail luff lifting, heeling, prediction of wind shifts and so on) he immediately stops being a tail-ender.
If that seems a rash statement, test it next time you are ashore when a race is being sailed in anything over force 3. Wait 'til the boats are on the second beat and ask someone who knows nothing about sailing what differences he can see in the way the boats at the front are sailing compared with those at the back. After a few facetious replies like "faster", he will point out that the boats at the front are sailing more upright than those at the back. Nothing unusual or remarkable about that---the phenomenon is universal; dinghies at the front of fleets tend to sail upright in heavy weather, those at the back heel. So now we can ask ourselves why do helmsmen at the back persist in heeling when the advantages of sailing upright are obvious, even to a non-sailor on the shore?
I have from time to time asked some of the tail-enders and the usual answer is; "We're not heavy enough to hold her up, although we were trying to." A fair enough answer until you find that a lighter crew who finished up front were holding their boat upright. Further questioning of the tail-ender will reveal that he was trying to get as much speed upwind as possible by keeping the sails full all the time. And this is where he has his priorities wrong. Common sense or a book has told him that to get the most speed of the boat the sails should be kept full and driving. Quite right for most conditions, but keep the sails driving in heavy weather and the boat lays over on her ear. He knows that she shouldn't do this, but if the sails are full and driving, he argues, surely that's what matters. The non-sailor on shore could have told him that is not true. The first priority in heavy weather dinghy sailing is to keep the boat upright, whatever it takes. Once the back marker develops his heavy weather technique with that priority impressed in his mind, he will no longer flounder along, counting his finishing positions from the back.
That was a simple example and I could give many others, but it illustrates the point that a mistaken order of priorities is a handicap that most helmsmen carry when they start to race. The sooner they can sort out what matters most at any moment in the race, the sooner they will start to win."
---------
Okay,. there are a couple of things Twiname states that you may vary in opinion, "20 times this and 100 times that". There are items that are of less importance but easy to get right, so we take care of them. Of course, you're not tail-enders either, but then again, you're not winners. Not yet. But Twiname's point of the importance of getting priorities straight should be well taken and something you should think about when you're setting goals for this season. I can guarantee you that, in not reading and grasping Twiname's "Sail, Race, Win", you put your sailing knowledge on a lower rung than it needs to be and jeopardize the growth of your capabilities.
At this time of year, get your priorities straight and get your reading in.
There won't be time for it later.
As to priorities on the water; you tell me.
-Breeze, Buoys, Boats...
-Rig, Set, Trim ...
-Foot, PInch, Drive...
-Weight (gross), weight (centered), weight (flat), weight (level)...
-Physical, mental, emotional...
-Starting: position, speed, options...
-First shift, long shift, last shift...
-Speed vs. distance vs. fleet management...
-Boathandling, boatspeed, tactics, strategy
-Coach
Buds,
I gave you a handout called "First-Place Thinking" by Eric Twiname last week. Here's the little footnote blurb that goes beneath it.
"A race won is a series of decisions correctly made. When concentrating on the tactical side of fast sailing (the route decisions) the helmsman has to rely heavily on his automatic skills: he cannot for example concentrate on approaching gusts and watch the jib luff at the same time. On "sea courses" a top helmsman will spend three-quarters of his time on the conscious fast sailing skills and only a quarter on making route decisions. On "inland waters" he will spend more than half his time working out the tactics that ensure he takes the fastest route around the course. In general the left hand side of the diagram is more important on the sea, and the right (plus automatic skills) more important on inland waters.
Since I've got the page turned to Twiname...here's what he writes in conjunction with his diagram.
"The only secret to winning is that there isn't one---not a single mystical explanation anyway. The pinnacle of sailing success is supported by a vast pyramid of often quite small pieces of sailing knowledge, each one perfectly applied. A good helmsman's boat is well tuned but, much more important, he himself is tuned to win. And just as boat tune depends on getting even small details right, successful helmsmanship relies more than anything on perfecting even the most trivial-seeming techniques of sailing and combining these into a near-flawless racing ability.
Obviously there are certain things a successful helmsman does that contribute more to his success than others. Working windshifts well on the windward legs, for example, is at least twenty times as important as adjusting the centerboard correctly downwind; holding the boat within five degrees of the upright position all the time in heavy weather is a hundred times more important than adjusting the mainsail's outhaul tension correctly in the same conditions. Olympic medalist get all these things right nearly all the time. The average club helmsman gets many of them wrong all the time---wrong enough usually to keep him out of the prizes.
If you can spot windshifts and you sail on inland waters, the minutiae of boat tune will be as near irrelevant as makes no difference. In winning races there are therefore some things which are vitally important and some which should be given a much lower priority. Some knowledge of these priorities is essential for anyone who wants to improve his sailing quickly. My own experience is that if you do nothing more than re-arrange in a tail-enders mind the importance he should attribute to individual items (like jib sheet trim, mainssail luff lifting, heeling, prediction of wind shifts and so on) he immediately stops being a tail-ender.
If that seems a rash statement, test it next time you are ashore when a race is being sailed in anything over force 3. Wait 'til the boats are on the second beat and ask someone who knows nothing about sailing what differences he can see in the way the boats at the front are sailing compared with those at the back. After a few facetious replies like "faster", he will point out that the boats at the front are sailing more upright than those at the back. Nothing unusual or remarkable about that---the phenomenon is universal; dinghies at the front of fleets tend to sail upright in heavy weather, those at the back heel. So now we can ask ourselves why do helmsmen at the back persist in heeling when the advantages of sailing upright are obvious, even to a non-sailor on the shore?
I have from time to time asked some of the tail-enders and the usual answer is; "We're not heavy enough to hold her up, although we were trying to." A fair enough answer until you find that a lighter crew who finished up front were holding their boat upright. Further questioning of the tail-ender will reveal that he was trying to get as much speed upwind as possible by keeping the sails full all the time. And this is where he has his priorities wrong. Common sense or a book has told him that to get the most speed of the boat the sails should be kept full and driving. Quite right for most conditions, but keep the sails driving in heavy weather and the boat lays over on her ear. He knows that she shouldn't do this, but if the sails are full and driving, he argues, surely that's what matters. The non-sailor on shore could have told him that is not true. The first priority in heavy weather dinghy sailing is to keep the boat upright, whatever it takes. Once the back marker develops his heavy weather technique with that priority impressed in his mind, he will no longer flounder along, counting his finishing positions from the back.
That was a simple example and I could give many others, but it illustrates the point that a mistaken order of priorities is a handicap that most helmsmen carry when they start to race. The sooner they can sort out what matters most at any moment in the race, the sooner they will start to win."
---------
Okay,. there are a couple of things Twiname states that you may vary in opinion, "20 times this and 100 times that". There are items that are of less importance but easy to get right, so we take care of them. Of course, you're not tail-enders either, but then again, you're not winners. Not yet. But Twiname's point of the importance of getting priorities straight should be well taken and something you should think about when you're setting goals for this season. I can guarantee you that, in not reading and grasping Twiname's "Sail, Race, Win", you put your sailing knowledge on a lower rung than it needs to be and jeopardize the growth of your capabilities.
At this time of year, get your priorities straight and get your reading in.
There won't be time for it later.
As to priorities on the water; you tell me.
-Breeze, Buoys, Boats...
-Rig, Set, Trim ...
-Foot, PInch, Drive...
-Weight (gross), weight (centered), weight (flat), weight (level)...
-Physical, mental, emotional...
-Starting: position, speed, options...
-First shift, long shift, last shift...
-Speed vs. distance vs. fleet management...
-Boathandling, boatspeed, tactics, strategy
-Coach
First Place Thinking
First Place Thinking
Buds,
I gave you a handout called "First-Place Thinking" by Eric Twiname last week. Here's the little footnote blurb that goes beneath it.
"A race won is a series of decisions correctly made. When concentrating on the tactical side of fast sailing (the route decisions) the helmsman has to rely heavily on his automatic skills: he cannot for example concentrate on approaching gusts and watch the jib luff at the same time. On "sea courses" a top helmsman will spend three-quarters of his time on the conscious fast sailing skills and only a quarter on making route decisions. On "inland waters" he will spend more than half his time working out the tactics that ensure he takes the fastest route around the course. In general the left hand side of the diagram is more important on the sea, and the right (plus automatic skills) more important on inland waters.
Since I've got the page turned to Twiname...here's what he writes in conjunction with his diagram.
"The only secret to winning is that there isn't one---not a single mystical explanation anyway. The pinnacle of sailing success is supported by a vast pyramid of often quite small pieces of sailing knowledge, each one perfectly applied. A good helmsman's boat is well tuned but, much more important, he himself is tuned to win. And just as boat tune depends on getting even small details right, successful helmsmanship relies more than anything on perfecting even the most trivial-seeming techniques of sailing and combining these into a near-flawless racing ability.
Obviously there are certain things a successful helmsman does that contribute more to his success than others. Working windshifts well on the windward legs, for example, is at least twenty times as important as adjusting the centerboard correctly downwind; holding the boat within five degrees of the upright position all the time in heavy weather is a hundred times more important than adjusting the mainsail's outhaul tension correctly in the same conditions. Olympic medalist get all these things right nearly all the time. The average club helmsman gets many of them wrong all the time---wrong enough usually to keep him out of the prizes.
If you can spot windshifts and you sail on inland waters, the minutiae of boat tune will be as near irrelevant as makes no difference. In winning races there are therefore some things which are vitally important and some which should be given a much lower priority. Some knowledge of these priorities is essential for anyone who wants to improve his sailing quickly. My own experience is that if you do nothing more than re-arrange in a tail-enders mind the importance he should attribute to individual items (like jib sheet trim, mainssail luff lifting, heeling, prediction of wind shifts and so on) he immediately stops being a tail-ender.
If that seems a rash statement, test it next time you are ashore when a race is being sailed in anything over force 3. Wait 'til the boats are on the second beat and ask someone who knows nothing about sailing what differences he can see in the way the boats at the front are sailing compared with those at the back. After a few facetious replies like "faster", he will point out that the boats at the front are sailing more upright than those at the back. Nothing unusual or remarkable about that---the phenomenon is universal; dinghies at the front of fleets tend to sail upright in heavy weather, those at the back heel. So now we can ask ourselves why do helmsmen at the back persist in heeling when the advantages of sailing upright are obvious, even to a non-sailor on the shore?
I have from time to time asked some of the tail-enders and the usual answer is; "We're not heavy enough to hold her up, although we were trying to." A fair enough answer until you find that a lighter crew who finished up front were holding their boat upright. Further questioning of the tail-ender will reveal that he was trying to get as much speed upwind as possible by keeping the sails full all the time. And this is where he has his priorities wrong. Common sense or a book has told him that to get the most speed of the boat the sails should be kept full and driving. Quite right for most conditions, but keep the sails driving in heavy weather and the boat lays over on her ear. He knows that she shouldn't do this, but if the sails are full and driving, he argues, surely that's what matters. The non-sailor on shore could have told him that is not true. The first priority in heavy weather dinghy sailing is to keep the boat upright, whatever it takes. Once the back marker develops his heavy weather technique with that priority impressed in his mind, he will no longer flounder along, counting his finishing positions from the back.
That was a simple example and I could give many others, but it illustrates the point that a mistaken order of priorities is a handicap that most helmsmen carry when they start to race. The sooner they can sort out what matters most at any moment in the race, the sooner they will start to win."
---------
Okay,. there are a couple of things Twiname states that you may vary in opinion, "20 times this and 100 times that". There are items that are of less importance but easy to get right, so we take care of them. Of course, you're not tail-enders either, but then again, you're not winners. Not yet. But Twiname's point of the importance of getting priorities straight should be well taken and something you should think about when you're setting goals for this season. I can guarantee you that, in not reading and grasping Twiname's "Sail, Race, Win", you put your sailing knowledge on a lower rung than it needs to be and jeopardize the growth of your capabilities.
At this time of year, get your priorities straight and get your reading in.
There won't be time for it later.
As to priorities on the water; you tell me.
-Breeze, Buoys, Boats...
-Rig, Set, Trim ...
-Foot, PInch, Drive...
-Weight (gross), weight (centered), weight (flat), weight (level)...
-Physical, mental, emotional...
-Starting: position, speed, options...
-First shift, long shift, last shift...
-Speed vs. distance vs. fleet management...
-Boathandling, boatspeed, tactics, strategy
-Coach
Buds,
I gave you a handout called "First-Place Thinking" by Eric Twiname last week. Here's the little footnote blurb that goes beneath it.
"A race won is a series of decisions correctly made. When concentrating on the tactical side of fast sailing (the route decisions) the helmsman has to rely heavily on his automatic skills: he cannot for example concentrate on approaching gusts and watch the jib luff at the same time. On "sea courses" a top helmsman will spend three-quarters of his time on the conscious fast sailing skills and only a quarter on making route decisions. On "inland waters" he will spend more than half his time working out the tactics that ensure he takes the fastest route around the course. In general the left hand side of the diagram is more important on the sea, and the right (plus automatic skills) more important on inland waters.
Since I've got the page turned to Twiname...here's what he writes in conjunction with his diagram.
"The only secret to winning is that there isn't one---not a single mystical explanation anyway. The pinnacle of sailing success is supported by a vast pyramid of often quite small pieces of sailing knowledge, each one perfectly applied. A good helmsman's boat is well tuned but, much more important, he himself is tuned to win. And just as boat tune depends on getting even small details right, successful helmsmanship relies more than anything on perfecting even the most trivial-seeming techniques of sailing and combining these into a near-flawless racing ability.
Obviously there are certain things a successful helmsman does that contribute more to his success than others. Working windshifts well on the windward legs, for example, is at least twenty times as important as adjusting the centerboard correctly downwind; holding the boat within five degrees of the upright position all the time in heavy weather is a hundred times more important than adjusting the mainsail's outhaul tension correctly in the same conditions. Olympic medalist get all these things right nearly all the time. The average club helmsman gets many of them wrong all the time---wrong enough usually to keep him out of the prizes.
If you can spot windshifts and you sail on inland waters, the minutiae of boat tune will be as near irrelevant as makes no difference. In winning races there are therefore some things which are vitally important and some which should be given a much lower priority. Some knowledge of these priorities is essential for anyone who wants to improve his sailing quickly. My own experience is that if you do nothing more than re-arrange in a tail-enders mind the importance he should attribute to individual items (like jib sheet trim, mainssail luff lifting, heeling, prediction of wind shifts and so on) he immediately stops being a tail-ender.
If that seems a rash statement, test it next time you are ashore when a race is being sailed in anything over force 3. Wait 'til the boats are on the second beat and ask someone who knows nothing about sailing what differences he can see in the way the boats at the front are sailing compared with those at the back. After a few facetious replies like "faster", he will point out that the boats at the front are sailing more upright than those at the back. Nothing unusual or remarkable about that---the phenomenon is universal; dinghies at the front of fleets tend to sail upright in heavy weather, those at the back heel. So now we can ask ourselves why do helmsmen at the back persist in heeling when the advantages of sailing upright are obvious, even to a non-sailor on the shore?
I have from time to time asked some of the tail-enders and the usual answer is; "We're not heavy enough to hold her up, although we were trying to." A fair enough answer until you find that a lighter crew who finished up front were holding their boat upright. Further questioning of the tail-ender will reveal that he was trying to get as much speed upwind as possible by keeping the sails full all the time. And this is where he has his priorities wrong. Common sense or a book has told him that to get the most speed of the boat the sails should be kept full and driving. Quite right for most conditions, but keep the sails driving in heavy weather and the boat lays over on her ear. He knows that she shouldn't do this, but if the sails are full and driving, he argues, surely that's what matters. The non-sailor on shore could have told him that is not true. The first priority in heavy weather dinghy sailing is to keep the boat upright, whatever it takes. Once the back marker develops his heavy weather technique with that priority impressed in his mind, he will no longer flounder along, counting his finishing positions from the back.
That was a simple example and I could give many others, but it illustrates the point that a mistaken order of priorities is a handicap that most helmsmen carry when they start to race. The sooner they can sort out what matters most at any moment in the race, the sooner they will start to win."
---------
Okay,. there are a couple of things Twiname states that you may vary in opinion, "20 times this and 100 times that". There are items that are of less importance but easy to get right, so we take care of them. Of course, you're not tail-enders either, but then again, you're not winners. Not yet. But Twiname's point of the importance of getting priorities straight should be well taken and something you should think about when you're setting goals for this season. I can guarantee you that, in not reading and grasping Twiname's "Sail, Race, Win", you put your sailing knowledge on a lower rung than it needs to be and jeopardize the growth of your capabilities.
At this time of year, get your priorities straight and get your reading in.
There won't be time for it later.
As to priorities on the water; you tell me.
-Breeze, Buoys, Boats...
-Rig, Set, Trim ...
-Foot, PInch, Drive...
-Weight (gross), weight (centered), weight (flat), weight (level)...
-Physical, mental, emotional...
-Starting: position, speed, options...
-First shift, long shift, last shift...
-Speed vs. distance vs. fleet management...
-Boathandling, boatspeed, tactics, strategy
-Coach
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)