2013 Laser Master North American Championship

The New York Yacht Club hosted 98 competitors from as far as the West Coast, Canada and the Caribbean for the 2013 Laser Master North American Championship in Newport, RI this past weekend. 10 races were sailed over three days in winds ranging from 4-20+ knots.

DAY ONE...

..dawned relatively warm with a nice S/SW wind. The racecourse was between the Newport Bridge & Gould Island, with the weather mark set quite close to shore. This meant the wind shifts got more unpredictable and frequent the further up the course we went.
 
In Race One I had a fast start at the committee boat and tacked immediately to take advantage of a big left shift. Boats at the pin end of the line may have had a few lengths' jump on starboard but also had to wait to tack so I was able to pull forward on them before the wind shifted right, allowing me to tack back and consolidate. A few shifts more and I was in first at the top mark, a position I held for the remainder of the race.

Nice lead in Race 1 (click on pics to see larger versions)

Races 2 & 3 started in similar conditions but the left was much more dominant, especially at the top of the course. I kept trying to make the right work at the top and finished 12, 12, but was called over early in the second race (for non-sailors, this means I was scored last place +2: 100 ugly points!), so my scorecard was 1, 100, 12 for around 30th place overall. Peter Shope from California had a beautiful day, leading the fleet with 4, 2, 2 finishes.

DAY TWO...

..was cooler with not a breath of breeze on the water at 0900. After a postponement we launched boats at 1030 for another day of racing past the bridge. This time the wind was 4-12 knots out of the SE with longer shifts and the weather mark near the bridge. The race committee set the start line very close to Gould Island, which was partially blocking the outgoing tide; still, the tide was strong enough to make staying below the starting line difficult. The race committee used increasingly draconian measures to "inspire" us to behave, eventually flying the black flag: ANYONE over between 1 minute to go and the start was to be disqualified from the race! For the most part this technique worked and we got races off.
  

Poking out at the pin (194582)

For Race 4 I started near the pin end, figuring I could see the eyes of the line spotters on the pin end boat (to be able to tell where I was relative to the line), plus I would be one of the first to hit the heavier current of the main channel to the left. There was considerable line sag and because I could see the line spotter's eyes I got a huge jump on the boats hanging back around me, a great start that allowed me to claim another bullet.

Leading the pack at the weather mark

Desperately working through the fleet

In Race 5 I again started near the pin but for some reason had terrible speed and quickly found myself in the bottom 20 or so--it was UGLY. I didn't panic though, waiting for a favorable shift to clear my air then staying to the left of the fleet on the upwind leg to round in the 50s or so. Turned on the jets downwind and caught about 20 boats on that leg, another 10 on the upwind leg. By this time the current had switched, allowing me to stay to the right of a crucial pack of boats looking downwind and catch them right near the leeward mark before finishing 9th! While not a stellar finish, this race was a huge confidence booster--I'd turned a real stinker of a race into a keeper!
 

Ahead after the leeward gate

The committee favored the right end of the start line for Race 6 so I started there, tacking quickly over to port for a long, long sail upwind against the current. There were little puffs out of the left that made that side look good for a while, but then a righty came through that allowed me to cross back to the middle ahead of the fleet. I had a good run to extend the lead to 10 boatlengths, then rounded the left gate mark on port for another long sail toward the right.
 
About half-way up the leg I heard a loud BANG, just like the sound a mast makes before breaking. Then another BANG and my sail was looking fuller than it should. The mast was still up so I looked at the boom: everything looked OK at the back, but looking forward I saw the problem: the 3/8" solid stainless steel gooseneck pin had sheered off--the forward part of the boom was only being held in place by the downhaul line that was lashed to it!

With my boat crippled, Davies goes
on the offensive and narrows the gap.

A quick feeling of dread gave way to resolve--there was no WAY I was going to give up this race without a fight! I eased the vang and hiked less vigorously to see how the boom would hold up. Ray Davies from Canada quickly gained on me in my crippled condition and took the lead, but I worked a small right shift and NAILED the starboard tack layline to round a scant boatlength ahead.

Look how low front of boom was on run

On the short offset leg the boom fell down nearly to the vang tang, making the sail all sorts of ugly. Nonetheless, I managed to work the favorable current on the right side of the run and actually pulled ahead another 5 crucial lengths before the last, short reach to the finish.

Reaching to the finish

During the gybe around the final mark the boom slid off the mast completely, sticking forward about a foot in front of the mast, which made the sail very, very full and inefficient. Davies pounced at the opportunity but I held him up, up, up past the finish line before gybing quickly over to starboard to cross the line in first by 3 feet!

Check out that boom

I was emotionally wiped out but exhilarated at the same time. It was 1600 (4pm), and we had a 2 mile upwind sail against the current to get home. One of the spectator boats could give me a tow home. I'd survived the breakdown, won the race, and gained a few points on leader Peter Shope. Relief!
 

Then Mike Rossum (who had been holding my gear on his coach boat between races) gave me the bad news: radio chatter indicated the committee was planning to run another race! How could I race with my boat in this state?? I sailed around to the spectator and coach boats, asking if anyone had a spare gooseneck on board; no-one did.
 

Fortunately, Ray and I had pulled well ahead of the fleet, giving me some time to regroup before they finished. I grabbed the electrical tape out of my life jacket, wrapping it around the boom and the gooseneck fitting on the mast in an attempt to hold the spars together. The tape was stretching and too weak to hold the boom like that for a whole race, so I went begging for duct tape from the spectator fleet.

Peter & Christine

Who came to my rescue? It is telling about the character of my competitors that it was Christine Neville (Olympic hopeful and girlfriend of regatta leader/my biggest competition Peter Shope) who provided not only duct tape but a length of nice strong spectra line to lash the spars together. I finished the repair about a minute before the committee began the sequence for Race 8. My mast wasn't rotating correctly and I couldn't ease my downhaul at all, but it had to do...

I got another good start at the boat and tacked quickly to port. This time, the breeze stayed, stayed, stayed left, so I just kept sailing on port. Got a little glimmer of a right shift and tacked back, but the wind died during the long painful starboard back to the middle. Boats coming out of the left looked golden, and Chris Raab, who went even further right than me, was now above me on starboard, pointing higher and going a bit faster. It was uncomfortable!

That said, I could see the left was collapsing: boats on port ahead were pointing way down and going slow against the current. I was on the favored tack pointing closer to the mark, so decided to just keep going. Tacked on the port tack layline about 15 boatlengths from the weather mark to round somewhere in the teens, and considered myself lucky to be there.

Because the wind was more left, the run was now skewed diagonally across the current, which was running downwind roughly 20 degrees left-to-right of the wind. Instead of sailing cross-current toward the mark like those ahead, I sailed directly with it, getting maximum benefit for a longer time. As we got closer to the leeward gate near Gould Island the boats to my left were getting less beneficial current and I started to gain. Then during the final 1/8th of the leg I had a very fast by-the-lee angle coming into the gate, while the pack to leeward slowed each other running dead downwind. I just managed to round ahead of the big clump of boats to round the right gate in 5th!

The committee had a flag flying at the gate indicating they had changed the course. The wind was very, very light at this point and my non-adjustable downhaul was too tight for the condition--I had to sheet in a very narrow range to keep the draft position in the right place. Directly ahead of me was local Paul Grimes and three lengths to leeward of him was local Andy Pimental so I figured left was a good way to go. About half-way up the leg I got concerned about the many boats that were getting to our right so tacked onto port on a small shift to consolidate on the boats to the right and also split from the two boats ahead--if there ever was a time, this was it. Unfortunately the left filled in, allowing Grimes and Pimental to pull further ahead, but I stayed in 5th to the weather mark, where the committee mercifully shortened the course.

We now had 6 races on the books, which meant each sailor was now permitted to drop his or her worst finish. Atop the leader board for a second day was the ever-consistent Peter Shope with scores of 4,3,2,10,5,3! Dropping my 100 point OCS (on course side) from Race 2 I was now in second by two points with 1,12,1,9,1,5  finishes. The next closest competitor was 30 points back--Shope and I had pulled away from the very competitive pack.

DAY THREE

Wind and waves and a cruise ship oh my!

A brisk SW breeze greeted us at the club on Sunday--no postponement today. We sailed inside the Newport Bridge between Rose and Goat Islands with an anchored cruise ship to our left--a very confined area in which to race 98 Lasers!

The wind was phasing (shifting back and forth) and quite gusty, going from 20+ to 6 knots and back in a very short time span. Over the course of the day the wind gradually faded. Sea state at the start line was very confused by the waves bouncing off the Goat Island seawall, which was maybe 20 boatlengths downwind from the start line.

With only two points separating us Shope was obviously on my mind, but I knew with three races to go anything could happen. My goal was to sail my best, and if I got ahead of Shope, to stay ahead. A simple plan, made difficult by a wiley foe...

Lots of catching up to do on the 2nd upwind leg

The committee didn't mess around, hoisting the black flag right away. The pin end of the line was very favored for Race 8 and I was in the second row with 30 seconds to go, anticipating a general recall and concerned about being seen. I looked to weather and saw a gap between my group of boats near the pin and the next group further up the line. I dove way down, tacked and shot away from the line on port, just crossing the group to the right! The boats at the pin soon tacked over but I led almost all of them to the right including Shope, who I forced to tack off my hip about 2 minutes after the start. Unfortunately, he found a big shift after tacking over and was LAUNCHED, rounding the top mark in first for a big win. I stumbled out of the right side to round the top mark in the 20s or 30s but managed to grind back to 6th. Shope now 8 points ahead, with 2 races to go.

Surfing into 3rd in Race 9

Race 9, again under black flag. Honestly, I don't remember much about this one, just that it was very shifty and one had to tack right away on the shifts upwind. On the second run I was more concerned about where Shope was than strategy and made a mistake. We were in a left phase going around the offset mark, but instead of riding the lefty to the left (looking downwind) I let Scott Ferguson inside of me, who got the new right shift first and leapt into the lead. I nabbed 3rd and Shope was back there, but I wasn't sure how far.

FINAL RACE
I knew the scores were incredibly close between Shope and me, but wasn't 100% sure where things stood. I figured I had to place in the Top 10 and finish ahead of him to win the event. We had a long wait for the final race, during which I thought about tactical options: should I seek Shope out or just sail my own race? I decided to just race normally and if he came hunting, I'd do my best to shake him.

Surprisingly, I never saw Shope before the start. Had a solid start and first weather leg, rounding in the top 5 with Shope back around 15th or so. I rounded the downwind mark in 3rd and sailed about half of the upwind leg when I noticed Shope banging the left corner, HARD. This presented a dilemma: continue sailing my own race (which was going very, very well) or stay in touch with Shope? I decided to shadow Shope to the left, reasoning that I was in great position anyway, but if he got any sort of shift out there he might be able to leapfrog ahead. Prophetic thought, that...

To get left from my position I had to sail out of phase with the wind, enduring a bad angle and very light wind pressure in the middle of the course. Meanwhile, Shope indeed found a left shift to come back on and was hiking hard, sailing fast back to the middle--this was going to be close! I managed to *just* cross ahead of him when we finally met--he'd gained at least 30 lengths! We had a small tacking duel and I was stupid to let him get to the right of me near the top of the leg, from where he got the next shift (a righty, remember it was phasing?) and rounded ahead of me, with a boat in between!

Shope and the other guy dove down by-the-lee after the offset mark, pointing their bows at the downwind mark. I knew we were still in the right (looking upwind) shift, so instead of following them by-the-lee away from the next shift (which would be a left) I sailed directly downwind, surfing waves but sailing about 20 degrees to the right of the downwind mark. Then the lefty filled in, allowing me to bear off to a heading directly toward the mark in solid pressure, while Shope and the other boats ahead were in light air on a bad angle waiting for the shift to reach to them. It was nerve-wracking working the boat downwind, slowly, slowly catching up to, then moving ahead of, Shope's position down the track. About 4/5ths of the way down the run the left shift started to die, so I sailed by-the-lee on a good angle ahead of Shope and a fellow in front of him's dirty air to claim the inside position at the mark. I rounded about 2 lengths ahead and held on to finish 5th, with Shope in 7th--I'd won the Master North Americans!!

THANK YOUS
Martha Parker of Team One Newport has been a supporter for literally decades. This trip she kindly let me stay at her home and even massaged out the knots in my back after racing. Thank you SO SO MUCH Martha!!

My clients, for understanding that Marc sometimes has to go away on weekends to be cold and wet on his little boat.

Mike and Dennis Rossum, for letting me store stuff on their motorboat between races and for being so supportive.

New York YC. The committee had challenging conditions in which to run a lot of races for a lot of boats. Not every decision was perfect, but when are they? Shoreside, the staff were gracious and tolerant of sandy Laser sailors messing up their beautiful facilities. Yummy food too!

New York Yacht Club @ Harbour Court--not bad eh?

My mom, for being my first and biggest supporter.

Finally, thanks to my fellow frostbite sailors at Cedar Point Yacht Club in Westport, CT. The crazy races and tight competition we have at home makes for better results abroad. See y'all next Sunday!

Marc

2013 Laser Master North American Results

Photos above courtesy of Kelly Snavely

2012 Laser US Master Nationals

58 Boats contested the 2012 Laser US Master National Championship (standard rig) Sept 14-16 in Brant Beach, NJ. Brant Beach Yacht Club did a stellar job, running 10 races in a wide variety of conditions and providing generous hospitality ashore.

I came into the event a bit disorganized, but arriving a day early helped me get focused and sort out the new sail I was planning to use. Was fortunate to line up with Dominican sailors Ari Barshi, Jorge Abreau and Canadian Great Grandmaster (65+ years old) Joe Van Rossem for an hour of speed tuning in the flat water of Little Egg Harbor Bay, and found I had competitive speed and point against these quick sailors. Boat OK, speed OK, registration completed--I was ready for racing the next day!

Friday was rather light, and we sailed 3 races. I started off strong with a 1, 2, and just when getting cocky got a 13th to bring me down to earth. VanRossem was also fast out of the gate, posting finishes of 3, 4 that, with handicap points, placed him tied with me after two races!

Dodged a bullet between Races 2 and 3 by noticing the front of my hiking strap ripping away from the screws. Had just enough time between races to cobble together a preventative retaining line--a good thing as the strap failed during Race 3!
 
At the end of the Day 1 it was Grandmaster (55-64 yr age group) and New Jersey local Had Brick who led the fleet with sold Top 10 finishes. Canadian Andy Roy was in 2nd and I held down 3rd.

Saturday dawned cooler and windy, with a gusty, oscillating Nor'Wester pumping down the bay. After consulting with Clay Johnson from event sponsor Colie Sails, I chose a new hiking strap and its accompanying boots, together forming a hiking system designed to really lock one into the boat. Normally I don't like to change more than one major item before/during a regatta but this was a necessary fix that turned out to be a big improvement. After fitting the new strap and doing a thorough survey of my rig, it was time to go sailing!
 
Grandmaster James Jacob would have won Day 2 if the races were just to the weather mark. Getting a clean start and hitting the first shift were crucial to success on the first legs, and James was nailing it! I was getting great starts at the favored pin, but because I was so far down the line I couldn't tack until the fleet above had cleared out. Often this meant having to sail through the first shift, then waiting, waiting WAITING for the next lefty to flop over, often above the layline. This wasn't as bad as it seems because I was in fresh breeze, planing into the top mark above those who were on the layline. The difference in speed usually made up for the extra distance sailed.
 
At first my downwind speed was way off. In the shallow/choppy water of the bay, wakes of boats ahead were a greater factor than in deeper/wavier locales. Sailing a bit further to the sides had the intended result: my downwind speed was back to normal.
 
After three races I got tired of having Jacob and others beating me to the top mark and tried starting near the boat. I was perfectly set-up at the boat for Race 7 but somehow got stuck in irons as the fleet took off. Managed to get up to 6th by the end of the second reach of the outer trapezoid course, but on the second beat I made a big error.
 
Port tack and the left gate (looking downwind) were initially favored, so I rounded that one behind three of the 5 boats ahead. The lead boat soon peeled back to the left in a small righty, but the guy directly in front of me would NOT listen to my pleas that we also flop over. Why not just tack myself, you might ask? I was concerned he would then tack on me, giving me dirty air all the way back to the middle of the course. Instead of recognizing this guy's stubborn love of the right corner and just tacking, I tried to out-stubborn him by trying to foot out from below him. We ended up way right when the next shift (a lefty, natch) came barreling in. Mr. Stubborn and I lost 5 boats on that leg. If I had just tacked over sooner I could have easily been Top 5, but instead had to settle for 10th.
 
The last race of the day was very interesting. Again I was about 5th at the leeward gate, and again I rounded the left gate and headed right in a left lift. Again, the boat ahead of me tacked back to the middle, and again I didn't tack back. Had I not learned my lesson? What was wrong with me??
 
THIS time, I had reasons. First, I was nearly pointing to the weather mark in the solid part of the left phase, which meant the next phase would be...RIGHT. I saw the Radials up ahead on their first beat also very high on port, so I knew there was little-to-no-more left shift to come. The boat ahead that tacked onto starboard was eating a bad header to get left and falling down into the boats to leeward. There was no reason to head left. Yet.
 
About 1/3 up my beat, I saw the lead Radials ahead on port starting to sail lower, meaning the righty was on its way. I concentrated on just sailing fast forward on port, waiting as the breeze first dropped in strength, then started nibbling right, then building right before I flopped onto starboard.
 
By this point I had huge leverage on the guys to the left. They were coming back on port with decent angle, but as we converged the right filled in and I started lifting up and up while the left collapsed. Soon I was in full foot mode in pressure and gaining tons. Mike Matan, the lead left boat, ducked me about 20 lengths downwind of the weather mark, eventually rounding in front because he only had to do 1 tack to my 2. Managed to scoot ahead of him on the run and extend on the last reach to take the gun.

This final bullet gave me a real confidence boost and seemed to have a psychological effect on the fleet. My day's finishes (4, 1,  1, 10, 1: 17 points) were dominant--the next best finishers for the day were counting 27 and 28 points, and they'd started the day with more anyway. Only two more races were scheduled, and the forecast for Sunday wasn't promising.

After some pizza and chatting with sailors at the club I went home and had a nice dinner with my hosts and some of their friends. These non-sailor friends were very encouraging when they heard I was standing in first, saying stuff like "you're going to WIN," etc... Usually such talk makes me anxious, but this time I just observed the energy being focused at me, noticing how similar it was to what was coming my way at the club. Momentum was on my side, people seemed convinced, and my job was to not get in the way of things playing out the way they expected.
 
As predicted, Sunday's breeze started out pleasant but quickly petered out, causing the RC to postpone ashore. We waited around for a few hours, the RC saying they would abandon racing for the day at Noon. The smooth-as-glass water on the bay made it seem increasingly likely we weren't going to sail, and I started allowing myself to get excited about being the national champ. Then, at 11:50, definite lines of breeze on the water encouraged the RC to drop the postponement flag--we were going racing after all!

Despite having a 10 point advantage over the next-closest boat, I allowed myself to get a little nervous about what was to come. It was light, anything could happen in two races! Old doubts and fears, old negative voices started clawing their way into my mind as we sailed out to the race course. I had a nice talk with (1988 Olympic Gold Medalist) Lynne Jewell-Shore and decided I was going to do a few things: 1) my pre-race preparation rituals; 2) get a front-row start; 3) be steady, not brilliant; and 4) give those negative thoughts and people the attention they deserved--none!

Ryan Minth punched out from the pin, bee-lined it for the left corner and came out way in front at the first mark. I started more conservatively about 1/4 up from the pin and was relieved to see my major competition behind. After that I resisted the urge to move higher, just staying between my main competition and the marks to finish 4th. Andy Roy made a remarkable comeback after being called OCS, eventually clawing his way all the way back to 6th!
 
The drama wasn't over yet. After finishing I sailed toward the start boat, tacked over, and immediately heard a loud metallic "TWANG." The lower fitting on my mast had sheared off, rendering the boom vang and downhaul useless! It took a long time to fashion a jury rig, but at 2:30 to the start I finally joined the hunt for a spot on the line. The breeze was building and I had tepid confidence in the repair--it was going to be a tense race.

Roy, still fired up after his amazing charge through the fleet in the prior heat, started almost at the pin and led at the first mark. Minth had another great start and rocketed off the line, pinching me off after a few minutes. I did a few clearing tacks then called the port tack layline perfectly to round a few lengths behind Roy. The two of us quickly separated from the fleet, me nursing my compromised rig and Andy pulling out to a healthy 10 length advantage. He extended further on the run and had me by a solid 15, then rounded the right gate (looking downwind) to once again go left upwind.

While sailing downwind I took a look upwind to see what conditions would be like for the next leg. Screaming down the course from the right was a pack of Lasers in a big black puff! Instead of following Andy left, I jibed around the other gate, sailed on port for 3 lengths, hit the shift, tacked and was beam/close reaching on starboard to the weather mark! Poor Andy on the left was caught outside of the righty and dropped way back. Ari Barshi moved up from 3rd to 2nd on this leg and easily held to the finish, capping off a remarkably consistent event to place 2nd overall. Grandmaster Mark Bear from Massachusetts snagged the final podium position by finishing 7th in the last race, just topping the unlucky Andy Roy in the race and overall series standing.
 
For me, it was a satisfying ending to an exhilarating event. I'd only made a few big errors and ground my way back after those. Starts were basically good, speed was fine, tactics and strategy were basically sound. It was also a great event in that I got to see my sailing friends again. We had some pretty intense discussions off the water, arguing everything from civil rights to global warming!
 
I had the pleasure of staying with Stephen Marshall and his family during this regatta. Stephen was my training partner for the 1996 quadrennium (Atlanta Olympics), and is now married with two adorable young daughters. Stephen's wife Nicole was the consummate hostess, their home lovely, and the kids entertaining, which helped keep my head somewhat screwed on during the many hours between race days!

Event results: http://www.bbyc.net/lm-results/

Frostbiting, April 30, 2012

Sailing the past Sunday was a wild and wooly affair, with winds oscillating through a wide range of direction and strength. One minute it was 20+ knots, the next 3! Overall, the trend was heavy offshore breeze, with six races being run by PRO Ched Proctor and his team in very challenging conditions.

In the offshore wind fanning puffs were the norm, making it important to immediately get into phase with the shifts upwind. Unlike last week, tacking right as a puff hit was the order of the day. Given this situation, my aim was to start near (but not always at) the favored side of the line, with a lane to windward should a quick tack be called for. One time I even started on port, ducking starboard tackers. I lost a few boatlengths ducking them, but blasting off in-phase in the huge lefty more than made up for it.

The wind oscillations were about 20-25 degrees off the median. "Oscillating" means swinging back and forth, right? So if you're in a huge left shift, well away from the weather mark, does it make sense to sail higher than rhumb line when you know the next puff is coming from the right? Take a look at the diagram below (click on it to see bigger):

As can be seen, footing in the lifts and pointing in headers is the way to go upwind in oscillating wind. If these two boats were more in the middle of the course, the grey boat could easily tack to stay in-phase and cross the white one. Try it sometime!

Variable conditions like we had often force one to prioritize. Going upwind and transitioning from light to heavy, my first go-to is the vang. The vang has the greatest effect on overall sail shape, flattening the sail and moving draft back. If I have time and the puff is long enough, will also dial-in some downhaul (which moves draft forward and twists off the leech up top). If the puff is shorter in duration I leave the downhaul loose and really ease the sheet in puffs so the boat doesn't just heel over and stop. The outhaul is generally last to be adjusted.

Prioritizing is a big deal at mark roundings. At the weather mark in breeze, the first priority is getting the boat planing from the mark on a good wave in clear air. Vang is MINOR, downhaul is MINOR, board up is MINOR in this scenario. Watch this video posted by AJ Sorensen:

http://vimeo.com/41307337

At 30 seconds, note the boat above me at the first mark, how it's spending time adjusting stuff (luffing high and going slow), and how many BOATLENGTHS I gain as a result. Even dealing with the mainsheet completely wrapped around my foot (42-48 seconds) doesn't deter me from keeping that boat planing toward the next mark!

Note also how I wait until 1:28 to ease the downhaul and raise the board--using a lighter spot to lean in and adjust.

Huge gains can be made by doing the most important things first, especially in extreme conditions.

Spring 2012 Frostbiting Start!

Hi All, hope you had a great winter!

Last Sunday was my first time back in a Laser since early last December. I've not been sailing during that time but have been getting to the gym (mostly riding the stationary bike and doing ab work). Nonetheless, I was concerned about how much hiking the ol'e bod would be able to do, and how it would feel after.

Fortunately, Sunday was a perfect re-introduction to Lasering: light-ish, patchy breeze and fog to start, then clearing and building pressure to 10-12 knots. The wind direction was a bit right of seabreeze for our area, but the conditions were classic for seabreeze development: cold water, fog, sunshine inland causing a thermal.

In our racing area with that wind direction, I tend to go left to get current relief near Cockenoe Island. But the breeze was trending right, and with the weather mark more away from the island than typical, there was less current relief out left. This, and the steady clocking of the breeze right, made the right progressively more favored, upwind and down, as the day progressed.

It took a few races for me to get sorted out. The fleet is getting better and better at starting, making it a real challenge to get off the line well. In addition, my soft top section and Intensity sail seem to be especially vulnerable in under 8 knots of wind. Ched Proctor and Jack McGuire had solid races and were clear favorites early. Ched sailed especially consistent throughout the day to nab Second overall--nice job Ched! As for the pesky McGuire, I'm glad the breeze built so we old heavy guys could leg out a bit on this annoyingly smart and consistent sailor...

A few thoughts:

- In a seabreeze, the wind runs parallel to the surface of the water, the cool air hugging the water as it is dragged ashore. It is especially important in such conditions to focus on being in clear air downwind. While in the latter half of a downwind leg, think about the last 10-20 boatlengths' approach to the leeward mark: how can you keep clear air for as long as possible?

- Beware of going TOO far off rhumbline downwind. OK, one side or the other may be favored, but why go 20-30 boatlengths to the side? It's the equivalent of corner-banging upwind--you'd better be DARN sure of what's over there (or darn desperate) to take such a risk! Always ask yourself: will the potential benefit justify the investment?

It was so nice to be out racing the Laser against old friends after the long break! I was nervous about how I'd feel, but the body quickly adjusted to hiking and boathandling. We are having unprecedented weather, so dust off the Laser and join us!

Great resource for regatta management

This site provides links to a treasure trove of information on how to run a big regatta:

http://organizations.ussailing.org/Resources/BBR.htm

Thought it might be helpful to those who are hosting important events this year, or who aspire to sometime in the future!

Marc

(click on the image at left to see a bigger version)

With the fleet becalmed trying to reach the starting area, this Sunday didn't start out very auspiciously. Those who bailed early missed an awesome day of sailing, however! At around 12:30, the wind came in with a BANG, allowing PRO Mike Matan and his team to click off five long races in 12-6 knot SW breeze.

With the weather mark up near Cockenoe Island, and the leeward gate to the east of Saugatuck Harbor channel, the ebbing tide played a big role. As always, I checked the tide before each race, and was surprised to find it was heading only 20 or so degrees east of the wind near the starting area. Given the proximity to the channel and the general ebbing direction further out in the Sound, I would have expected a more easterly, or even southerly, flow. I surmised that the tide would be much more southerly to the right of the course, where the tide coming out of the channel would have more effect.

Geography was also a key factor. Cockenoe Island tends to block the ebb, and also the wind in a SW breeze, so my plan was to approach the weather mark on port to minimize the wind effect and maximize the tidal one. Leaving the top mark, I sailed quite high to: 1) get away from the wind shadow made by the fleet approaching on starboard; 2) get away from the lee of Cockenoe; 3) position myself away from the more southerly flow coming out of the channel (which would have a progressively larger effect the further one got down the run); and 4) get myself over to the NE tidal flow that was evident near the start line.

Before the racing began I stood up to find the weather mark (which was waaay up there by the island!), and then aligned myself between the top mark and the leeward gate to get a land sight for the rhumb line to the leeward gate. I find this so helpful on the approach to the weather mark when planning the leeward leg, and when on the leg to find the gate quickly.

Most of my first beats were serviceable, if not fabulous. A couple of times I was pinched off soon after the start, forcing a clearing tack. Knowing it was important to not bang the right corner because of Cockenoe's effect on the wind, I would tack back as soon as a clear lane was available, then try to sail fast forward to try to gain some fore-and-aft position on the boats to leeward. Given the variable wind strength, there was a lot of back-and-forth, and it took discipline to keep sailing on lumpy starboard when the boats to leeward would be sailing higher and faster in a puff (and something else, which I'll mention later!).

The runs are where I made my moves. I really appreciated the boats ahead and around me bearing 20-30 degrees to the left of rhumb line at the top mark, slowing themselves down in the lee of the fleet and Cockenoe. By heading high then bearing off to ride the first big waves, I was able to gain 3-5 boatlengths straight away. Toward the middle of the leg the boats to my left moved forward some, but not enough (in my mind) to justify the extra distance they sailed. The latter 1/3 of the runs were very satisfying, as the boats to the left, now sailing into the strengthening adverse tide coming out of the channel, had to head up to a dead run (going slowly) to get to the gate. Sometimes I'd gain 20 boatlengths on one run!

The leeward gate had a right pin (looking downwind) favor all day. Early on it made sense to round that pin, because going around the left would have meant sailing into the wind shadow and disturbed waves made by fleet coming downwind. As the day progressed however, more people were sailing closer to rhumb line on the run, making the starboard tack off the right pin more lumpy and slow. In addition, the strengthening tide coming out of the channel helped those on the right make massive gains: in the third race, Steve Fisk went from 4th or 5th to a solid 1st by going right. Failing to learn my lesson from Race 3, I tried the left side of the final beat again in Race 4, and went from 2nd to 7th or 8th!

The final race started at around 2:40, after a little delay caused by the RC moving the top mark further right and a bit closer. I knew it was going to be the last race, and was determined to take all I'd learned to finish decisively. The RC also made the pin irresistibly favored, so I started in that quarter, tacking soon after to free myself from a boat close to leeward. I was JUST able to cross two boats while sailing on the favored port tack, then tacked back in a slight header onto starboard. I was determined to be more middle-left than right on this beat, because I had seen so many guys come out on top from that side. Sure enough, I encountered something different here--a COUNTER CURRENT going perfectly behind me on starboard! THIS must have been what was allowing the boats to leeward of me to scoot forward and higher in those earlier races!

A few boats that were further to leeward tacked over and were crossing. Normally I would have tacked to leeward and ahead of them to avoid their wind shadows and to lead back to the middle, but I wanted to ride the counter current for as long as it lasted so I waved them across. The counter current held to within a minute or so of the port tack layline. I tacked over to port and, even with the left collapsing a bit toward the end, rounded the top mark first!

I think a lot of people didn't take the course shift into consideration, and sailed their old angle (now even FURTHER off rhumb line) down the run. This allowed me and James Harvey to really break away from the fleet. Determined to not repeat my previous error, I rounded the LEFT gate on port and found lovely breeze and nice smooth water--no wonder this side paid off before! Did a few tacks to stay in touch with the fleet and finished the final decisively, just as planned.

BOAT SET-UP:
The wind was rather up and down, and sailing on starboard in the lumpy waves with chop on top was challenging. As the day wore on I sailed with looser and looser outhaul and downhaul to keep power up, using my vang as a quick depowering device when needed in the puffs. If the puffs were longer in nature, I'd pull on some downhaul.

During the debriefing and pizza session after racing, PRO Mike mentioned that I seemed to be sailing with a consistent and noticeable amount of heel--not dead flat, not way over. When conditions are variable I like to do that, because it gives a little safety net of heel should one encounter a light spot--if the boat was dead flat, it would heel to windward. Also, the boat seems to go through that chop better with a bit of heel, and water that comes over the deck tends to slide harmlessly off to leeward instead of filling the cockpit. This technique worked on starboard, but on port I tried to sail the boat dead flat, as the waves were more on the beam.

Downwind, I saved by-the-lee sailing for light spots or to catch waves. In puffs, I headed UP, to dead downwind, allowing me to get back to rhumb line and also sail longer in the puffs. There is a tendency by many to bear off even further in puffs, but that just means one is further off rhumb line, usually on a bad reaching angle, when it's time to get to the mark. Try it sometime!

Frostbiting at Cedar Point YC

Eight hardy sailors ventured out Sunday, 30 October 2011 for a good hard day of frostbiting. A gusty, phasing Northerly swept the fleet to the racecourse and allowed 5 races to be sailed in velocities ranging from 10-25 knots.

Because the wind was phasing, I found it very important to get onto the lifted tack as soon as possible, to stay in synch with the shifts. The phases usually didn't last an entire leg, so banging a corner definitely didn't work. At the beginning of the day the breeze was forecasted to go a bit right, and I had success working that side of the fleet. In addition, the tide was still rising early in the day, so being right meant one got a little bit of current help on starboard toward the top of the beat (the weather mark was set near the channel).

We did a number of Harry Andersons, and in the beginning the first reaches were very broad. This, and the puffy conditions, made it very challenging to keep speed up the whole leg. The second reaches were full on blasts--I found having the right amount of vang (tighter than one might think) was very helpful, and when the breeze was full on I tightened the downhaul a bit to keep the draft forward.

The sea state were very choppy/lumpy upwind. For the really big swells I scooted back to the center of my hiking strap, hiked, sheeted out and sailed fast. For lesser sets of bumps, I found keeping my feet forward but hiking diagonally back was enough to keep the bow up, and in the flatter sections made sure to scoot forward to the usual place.

With the breeze so up and down, it was important to keep changing gears, easing vang and even downhaul to stay powered up. I think a lot of us, myself included, tend to keep everything really tight in lulls, kinda dreading pulling everything back on when breeze goes back on. That may be easy, but it's not fast.

Finally, a word about clothing choice. In the locker room most guys were going with wetsuits and spray/dry tops. That day I couldn't find my fleece gear and used three rash guards under a shelled jacket. It wasn't enough, especially after capsizing, and it took EVERYTHING I had to recover from a double capsize because of a super-tight vang going upwind. My basic suggestion is to dress WARMER than you think you'll need, since it's better to be too hot than hypothermic. You can darn well bet I'll be putting on the drysuit (or at least a few layers of fleece under a spray/dry top) next time I'm looking at 20+ knots on the water!

Hope to see you all at the Frostbiting Invitational regatta this coming Saturday! Contact Joe the Fleet Captain at 203-912-6855. or email him at jnice1@optonline.net