Eliminating Weaknesses

A recap note from skipper to crew after first spring regatta in 2008.

Hey Alie.

First off I want to let you know how great of a job you did this past weekend. Your skills have progressed significantly since we sailed last. I was most impressed with your aggressive flattening technique on day 2 in the bigger breeze.

That being said I want to eliminate our weaknesses together...

Things we need to iron out --

1. I would much rather tell you the boat is too flat than ask you to come up to the rail. I think this is a mental attitude that we need to build together.

2. Hiking was better than I remember it, but still not anywhere close to where it needs to be. Toes pointed down straight legging (at least for the first bit of the beat where we need to stay with the first group -- and in crossing situations).

3. Heeling going into tacks in light air. I think this is a very critical final step in our light air boathandling. If we can keep the mast vertical until we make a conscious decision to violently roll the boat, then the roll will be a lot harder. Another difficult transition for you will be to roll with your hips square to the boat.
And the last point about upwind boathandling... our tacks are not hurting us in light air even in 420s, but if we can make them a weapon (like our downwind boathandling in an FJ) then we can reach new heights. Flatten from the straps and then that quick move back to the leeward rail.

This is the hardest manuever either of us have to make in a sailboat. I don't ever have to do anything like that... I have 1 trip across the boat--- you have 3. I can't imagine the speed and strength it takes to do that --- but I know you have it in you somewhere.

4. Downwind winging and wing to wing jibes were outstanding. The flaw was in our reach to reach gibes. This is a small change that will iron itself out very quickly. The roll (on both of our parts) was way too early. Remeber, we are gybing through 90 degrees -- that is a huge, long, slow turn... it takes a long, long time to do that turn without the rudder. We want to flatten on a higher VMG angle than we were this past weekend... it will definetly give us a bigger speed gain.

5. In light air (420s) upwind, when you are between stradling the CB trunk and being on the rail we need to be further forward. When you make that transition to where your butt is on the rail, I think we want you to be infront of the jib fairlead (this way you wont sit on it creating some pain!) then I will be right on the other side of it touching shoulders...

6. I really liked the mounted watch on the mast! And I really liked the aggressive countdown you gave. It was hard to give a great countdown becaus it seemed like the RC was inconsistent with when they started their watch... but we worked it out. When I have to look down in the last 30 seconds to check a watch I get a little disoriented... so its great that you can incorporate that in your repetoire. On the starting line I'd really like you to keep an eye on the wankers coming from astern to steal our hole...

We did a great job of nailing a bunch of starts (probably 9-12). When we didn't quite nail them, we were over, or in not such a great position. The ability to focus on doing the "right thing", instead of trying to get it back all at once was crucial. Occasionally we will have bad starts -- after that happens we have to eliminate all negative attitudes, do the right things, and NEVER EVER GIVE UP!!!
Just like we did in those races where we were over this past weekend. It will be tougher as the season goes on, but if we keep that in mind we will do great!

Let me know anything you want me to work on...

Our communication was outstanding this weekend -- we were on the same page almost all the time -- I can only remember 1 bad tack (due to a huge lull at the top of the course on day 2 where we didn't realize how light the breeze was).

Great job last weekend. I am delighted to be in the boat with you -- lets work hard and iron out some of these issues.

<3 Ben