Practice Notes Spring '07

Nice practice yesterday. Wind is fun.
Yeah we had lots of flips but they were very manageable because you mostly took turns on the dunkings. Nice timing! That, along with proper gear, kept us on the safe side. Of course, not to say everyone was perfectly warm out there. You know, not every sailing team can go out there and handle that with minimal carnage. I was so psyched about the deal that I figured I could push the envelope. That's why I pulled out the "crew on the center board" drill. I wanted to see how much you could handle (and just to make matters more interesting, a great big blast came down during the starting sequence). You guys did awesome, which planted a big fat grin on my face. I was sure we were headed for flip central but you guys came up big after the initial adjustment. By half-way up the beat you all were clearly working the tiller well and were able to keep the nose up and the sails mostly in. It was really sweet to see because, not 30 minutes earlier, with crews full hiking, you quite honestly sucked it up on the whole feathering deal. Mains and jibs way too far out, hulls heeled with major leeway, skippers initiating luff to de-power by easing main out more instead of steering up. Ugly shit man. Wish I had the video camera out though 'cause there ere major changes in just about every one is skills over the course of the day. I was a happy camper, and though it certainly wasn't all because of your performance on one drill, you can expect that drill again.
As you recall, crew-on-centerboard was only half the deal. On the way back down I called for the 20 gybes. First of all, 20 jibes in big breeze takes mental courage. The
mind-set has to be "all in", "I'm game". I was indeed testing for that and seeing how everyone responding. Who's getting right to it, who's tentative, who looks a bit scared. Besides the mental aspects, there's the situational reality that 20 jibes in big breeze is going to take up some major distance if you're pausing much between throws. On the pause you're eating up major mileage if the helm is balanced because the brakes are off (if the boat is unbalanced, you're either carving out a turn on the windward rail on the way to meet the fishes, or more likely heeled to leeward, spinning out to windward, boom kissing the Chuck, skipper and crew humping the rail with inverted heads diving towards a date with the board.
Ah, the spin-out.
No, no , no, none of this hiatus bull. Gotta have the balls to throw, throw, throw. It's funny what the pause does for you (or doesn't) when you're trying to do 20 heavy air jibes with less than the width of the river to work with. During the pause you're either sailing dead downwind (less likely) and probably rockin' towards the death roll or you've heated it up (more likely), tearing up distance and not in position to throw your next jibe. Once you get the tiller work down during the jibe, it's easy because the bow doesn't deviate up and off the "run position" and as long as you go for the next jibe, the death roll doesn't come into play. You keep the bow dead downwind and you jibe with guts, with a determined throw, and you're ready with a quick trim on the main after the jibe if the boat rolls to windward. So it's wing to wing jibe mentality even if you don't go for the wing (because it's a rapid fire drill). Hey, if I only asked for 10 jibes, you had the room to nail some nice reach to reach jibes. But that wasn't the deal this time.

The other thing I really enjoyed was watching you run the three buoy weave. Tight buoys in breeeze. By the looks on your faces, it looked like you enjoyed it too. You can expect that again.

I've really enjoyed our first two practices though a lot of that stems from the conditions at hand and how well you handled the challenges faced. It helped disguise the low participation factor (only 9 boats) and our need to resolve some pairing issues and get everyone settled into a program. But clearly, after two practices it is on my mind and perhaps yours. Not just "in-house" recruiting on campus, but "in-team" participation and attitude. Every single member of this team has to understand that practice is essential, not just for you. Your participation in practice is of grave importance to your teammates and their development. That's the deal when you sign the dotted line as a true member of this team. It's not about how good you are, it's about how often you show and how hard you try. Please don't let your teammates or coach down. Don't make me ask "How come you weren't at practice". So there's work to do there and how we handle that can better define our team, our opportunities to grow as a full unit, and the ultimate success we will have.


-Coach