By Andrew Kerr
Recently when thinking about how racers utilize time and distance, I customized a chart to use as a reference for 1 minute of sailing from either a starting line or a mark. The purpose was to help with both starting proficiency and with estimating the length of a starting line.
It also helps coordinate boat handling for either spinnaker sets or takedowns at windward and leeward marks. When taking a closer look at the chart I included feet from the mark as well as yards to help with the estimation of distance. Granted it does not take into account bad air, current or waves versus flat water as well as wind shifts, which change the distance, but what it does do is help a team evaluate how many boat lengths they are going to travel at a certain speed.
Here is an example of usage of the chart from both a starting and boat handling standpoint:
A J 24 with 5 knots of boat speed will travel 8.4 feet per second, so the team will travel a boat length in approximately 2.9 to 3 seconds in clear air and flat water. If it is estimated they are 10 boat lengths from the starting line, then they have a minimum of 30 seconds at full speed (bad air / current/ waves notwithstanding). This knowledge will help prevent a team from sailing too far away from the line and to stay closer to help gauge their final approach.
If the you run the line while timing from the race committee (RC) end to the pin at 5 knots of boat speed and finds that it took 30 seconds, then the line is approximately 10 boat lengths or 240 feet long.
Now it can be determined by compass which end is favored and to what extent as well as the magnitude of the advantage.
Additionally you can count the number of boats in your fleet and then make an informed guess on how much space will be available on the line at the start. You can determine if it is going to be crowded or if there will be good space. If the line is quite short relative to fleet size, then you may find that a port tack approach in lighter air may be harder to execute because of limited space to tack and get up to speed. If the line suggests there will be space then all approaches are equally in play.
If you find that you are 6 boat lengths from the windward mark you are going to have about 18 seconds to set the spinnaker pole and start pre feeding the spinnaker guy ( if appropriate for the conditions). If you are 10 lengths from the leeward mark you are going to have about 30 seconds to raise the genoa, store the spinnaker pole and douse the spinnaker before the rounding. The trick is to consult the chart with your boat’s length and pick out some general boat speeds that you do around the race course. Then you can crunch the numbers to find how many boat lengths per boat speed. The results can help the team make more informed decisions on time and distance both on the starting line and at mark roundings.
Good sailing, have fun and best of luck in your next race!
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2015 S1D Coach of the Year Nominations Open!!
It’s that time of year again! Sail1Design seeks your nominations for the 2015 S1D Coach of the Year. We are asking for your nominations based on a coach that embodies the qualities (and more) listed in the article below. Please send a 300-word nomination to [email protected]
This is your award! The Sail1Design staff will choose the winner only from our readers nominations! Nominations will close on 01 JUNE, and the winner will be announced before the end of that month. This is a great opportunity to recognize a coach that you feel makes a difference!
All good coaches, regardless of their chosen sport, share some important fundamental qualities that transcend technical knowledge, or specific x’s & o’s. In other words, whether it’s a basketball, tennis, hockey, football, chess, or sailing coach, there are certain key characteristics to good coaching, and none of these really requires technical knowledge of the sport they are in.
Here are some of those characteristics: logistics, organization, energy, leadership, passion, creativity, patience, dedication, motivational skill, humility.
I would bet that you could take a good coach, put him or her in a new sport, and that coach would find some success. Think about the best coach you ever had, and visualize that person in another sport, and you might see just how that person could adapt and still be a difference-maker.
However, we all know that great coaches not only possess these core qualities, but indeed they are also masters of the subtleties, rules, and technical chess moves of the sport they are involved in. Very often, great coaches are former players themselves, and often they are good, but not necessarily great players. In any event, it seems virtually certain that actually having been in the arena at some level, having been a true game player, is a necessary ingredient for a great coach.
So then, what an important advantage sailing coaches have, since the sport allows lifelong top-level competitive opportunities. While it would be impossible for a middle-aged football coach to live, first-hand, what his players go through on the gridiron, middle-aged sailors and coaches can stay current, and can compete right alongside the world’s best sailors, and even win world championships in sailing. Opportunities exist in team racing, match racing, and all types of one-design classes offer regattas, year-round. In this manner, sailing coaches have the ability to get inside the sport, at the highest levels, learn more, and feel the same things that their players go through out on the race course. The empathy gained here is a very powerful tool that great coaches employ when coaching.
Getting into the rhythm of a sailboat race, realizing first-hand the excitement and frustrations of the sport, preparing mentally for each race, “knowing when to tack”, these are all things that coaches must be able to talk to their players about, and talking to them about these things is so much more clear and present when done by someone who is actually good at them, and has done them recently at a high level.
For example, it was always easy for me to say to a team, “make sure when you are in FJ’s at the starting line to allow yourself more leeward room to accelerate since the foils are small and the boats need to go bow down first before they start lifting.” It was really easy to say. It was quite another thing to actually do it, and to go out on the starting line, in FJ’s, and practice what I preached. That was a LOT harder, and I drew a great deal of empathy with my players from that situation and recognized better ways to talk about it and to talk them through it, having been there myself. This is especially true in team racing, where coaches can see plays easily on the coach boat or on the drawing board, but it’s one thing to talk about a mark trap at Mark 1; it’s another thing altogether to go out and be able to execute it. Without being, or having been, in the arena, sailing advice and technical coaching can be somewhat hollow compared to other sailing coaches who know it first-hand and live what they coach.
So, when you look to your coaches for advice or to get to that next level, or if you are a interested in sailing in a college program, take a moment and check out the coaches resumes, just as they will most assuredly be checking yours. The list that makes coaches good coaches should be there for sure, but see if the coaches list how, or if, they stay current in their profession and have the passion to go out on the racecourse themselves. Great coaches usually always have a story, and very recent one, of a lesson learned at a regatta they sailed in themselves. They love to sail and get better, if only to become a better sailor and coach.
While there is a short list of coaches who choose to (and can) do it all, many top collegiate programs now share these coaching qualities by hiring an assistant or co-head coach, who is very often a recent college sailing alumnus and is active in dinghy racing and brings that empathy, right away, to the team. The head coach then ties everything together with experience, maturity, management, and knowledge of the game.
If you’ve ever noticed, baseball coaches actually suit up for games even though they certainly won’t be playing. This historically comes from the old “player-coach” model, and perhaps, this connects them with the game and the player more intimately. Sailing offers the unique ability for all ages to compete at the highest levels of the sport, and great sailing coaches take advantage of this, “suiting up” themselves and making themselves better at coaching by sailing competitively.
We invite you to share your thoughts about coaching using our forum below, and to nominate your coach for our second SAIL1DESIGN COACH OF THE YEAR. Please submit a nomination to:
[email protected] and explain in 300 words or less why your nomination deserves to be the S1D Coach of the Year.
Last years winner was Chris Dold. To read his nomination letter and learn more about him, go here:
https://www.sail1design.com/2014-coach-of-the-year/
The 2013 winner was Steven Hunt. To read his nomination letter and learn more about him, go here: https://www.sail1design.com/sh/
2015 Sail1Design Team Racing Grand Prix
Sail1Design is once again very excited to promote a few great team race events as part of our annual grand prix series. This is a big year as it’s the first without any V15 events but features the return of one of, if not the best, team races in the world.
Event # 1: Charles River Open Team Race(CRO) June 13-14, Boston, MA
This is the event that set a world record with over 50 teams back in the late 2000s. The CRO is an early summer classic. The first event on many team racer’s summer schedules. Some very dedicated volunteers at the MIT Sailing Pavilion have put in a lot of work to revive this historic event. Racing takes place right off the dock in MIT’s new fleet of Turbo FJs and Collegiate Fireflies. Highlights are different every year but usually include a great BBQ dinner at the boathouse on Saturday, leftovers Sunday morning, refreshments and heckling on the dock during the finals, and some great commentary(live from inside a catboat!). As always, MIT will provide world-class hyper efficient race management. You’re guaranteed great bang for your buck.
Help out the race organizers by registering ASAP at: http://sailing.mit.edu/calendar/events/event.php?id=c59b469d724f7919b7d35514184fdc0f
Follow the event on their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/600617603377443/
Event #2 Free State Team Race(FSTR) July 18-19, Annapolis, MD
The Free State Team Race is a grassroots event put on by the dedicated sailors at Severn Sailing Association. Like the CRO, it’s based on the motto of great competitive team racing and great fun off the water. During its first year in 2014 the event filled to capacity and promises to do the same this year. Details for the FSTR are still in the works. Last year it was sailed in provided club 420s but I’m told this year Zim Sailing is working to bring down their fleet of Zim 15s, the official boat of the US Team Racing Championships(The Hinman). This event will be a great tune-up for the Hinman, hosted in the same location in Zim 15s later this fall.
You can check out last years event on Regatta Network and stay tuned for more details: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/8607#_home
2014 Winners, Big Whoop!, Celebrate
2015 US High School (Mallory) National Championship Results
Saturday, May 9:
The first day of the 2015 Mallory Trophy started out with cloudy conditions in Annapolis. The fleet headed out at 1000 but was delayed on the water for a while due to lack of wind. Eventually, a course was set in the Severn River off the Robert Crown Center and 4 Windward Leeward Races were held per division. A division started in Z420s while B was in FJS. After a lunch break and a failed attempt to get more racing in in the early afternoon, a course was eventually set late in the day under sunny skies for three more races per division. The wind was light all day and all races were sailed in 3-5 knots of wind. PRO Kyle Assad and his RC team did a great job of making the most out of the conditions while our incredible judge team of Sandy Grosvenor, Jeff Borland, Rob Rowlands, Andrew Cole, David Clinnin and Josh Greenslade kept everything fair by enforcing rule 42 on the water and hearing two protests, resulting in one DSQ, at the end of the day. Top 10 Final scores:
Sunday, May 10:
When the competitors arrived Sunday morning, the racing area was covered in fog. The fog began to lift as the fleet left the dock however, and racing began on time off Triton Point. For Sunday’s racing, B division switched into the Z420s and A sailed FJs. The wind started out light, but as the fog faded away and the air got clear and warm, the wind steadily increased, hitting the mid to upper teens by the afternoon. In all, 11 additional races per division were completed with a lunch break before the 4PM cutoff. The RC team did a terrific job getting off fair races quickly while our outstanding judges served many duties, including calling rule 42 violations, observing the racing, shuttling substitutes onto the water and hearing protests at the end of the day, which resulted in 2 DSQs. After a long weekend sailing in a wide range of conditions, Newport Harbor High School came out on top to claim the 2015 Mallory Trophy. Congratulations to the Sailors!
For full results go here: http://scores.hssailing.org/s15/mallory/
For full results go here: http://scores.hssailing.org/s15/mallory/
Club Profile: Breakwater Yacht Club
Based in beautiful Sag Harbor, Breakwater Yacht Club has been introducing people to sailing since 1987. Overlooking the bay and just down the street from Sag Harbor Yacht Club, the BYC is a not-for-profit Community Sailing Center with the mission of providing affordable, accessible sailing to all ages and abilities. An alternative to some of the other, private clubs in Sag Harbor, BYC hopes to expose as many people to sailing as possible.
Sag Harbor, a village located out of the tip of Long Island, is squarely in the middle of the Hamptons. So much, in fact, that part of the town is in East Hampton and the other part in Southampton. Sag Harbor Bay played host to a huge number of shipping vessels in the 1700s and 1800s as an international port. The Bay itself is large and sheltered from the ocean.
The BYC clubhouse is located in the heart of the Sag Harbor waterfront with facilities right on the water and stones throw from Sag Harbor Yacht Club. The club fleet consists of 15 JY15’s, 15 Optis, eight Lasers, six 420s, four chase boats and two J/70s. These are all used lessons and club racing. Membership numbers around 400 with another 450 or so Junior Sailors on an annual basis.
As a Community Sailing Center, the BYC has become increasingly popular over the past few years as a learn-to-sail destination. The mission has always been to expose and introduce as many young people as possible to the sport of sailing, and try to foster a love that will keep them coming back. Many current instructors were once junior sailors themselves, as is common in many programs. Offering weekly camps as well as racing programs and summer racing series, the BYC provides affordable sailing instruction and accessibility to racing in a unique location. The club offers 75 scholarships to young sailors who may not usually have the opportunity to experience a sailing program.
Through the years the club has grown and changed from a membership standpoint as well as a physical facility. Junior sailors have grown up and are now sending their children to learn how to sail. High school sailors practice at the facility in the spring in the cold waters of Sag Harbor Bay and intrepid racers make their way onto the bay in the late spring. Membership dues are very reasonable, providing a platform for young people to get on the water without having to own a boat. The BYC is a uniquely situated program on the east end of Long Island with a mission of involving as many people in sailing as possible.
S1D Announces Team Racing Umpire School
UPDATE: Severn Sailing Association to hold “Team Race Winter League“, and in so doing, to launch the Umpire School! Umpires will get a chance to referee team race games and hone their skills!!!
News Flash: Team racing has evolved far beyond our administrative resources to properly manage and officiate it.
For Immediate Release: Annapolis, MD– Thirty years ago, team racing was competitive, fun, somewhat new, but also vastly different from the game we watch today. I distinctly remember, as a high school sailor, and even in college, sailing port-triangles, four on four, with first place counting a 3/4 of a point. Imagine the combos! In some cases, taking cues from British team racing, great American team racing innovators, Gary Bodie, Fran Charles, Ken Legler, Scott Ikle, Adam Werblow, to name just a very few, have created a wonderful new monster: the digital-N, among other courses, and 3 on 3. What has also developed exponentially is player preparation, skill level, and experience in the game.
Today, team racing is on a level that few would have imagined back in the day. Sail1Design ranks the top collegiate team race teams, and our panel of college coaches is continually impressed with the maturation of the sport. In fact, high school team race teams, Point Loma, Newport Harbor, Tabor, St. Georges, etc., today are easily as competitive as college teams were ten years ago.
It’s (almost) all good! However, if there’s one thing that might be lagging behind, it is application of the rules while the game is being played. Team racing long ago outgrew Corinthian self-monitoring. Fleet race judging, and team race umpiring emerged in sailing, developing alongside a more competitive sport, where athletes continue to push themselves, and the boundaries of the sport, further. Professionalization leads to higher performance, which is great, but also has other consequences, some of which need to be addressed.
Unlike fleet racing, where one still may compete at very high levels with the self-policing philosophy of, say, golf, team racing is more a game than a race, and therefore, like most other games, needs referees. We call them umpires.
Imagine going to a football or hockey game without referees. Unimaginable. As a dad of a 10 year old, I know that even youth lacrosse would be like Lord of the Flies out there without the men or women in stripes to keep things in line. Team racing has evolved to the point where our sport needs to join, or create, an organization like the National Association of Sports Officials. While collegiate umpiring is somewhat well-appointed, high school team race umpiring needs more support. We need better referees in a sport that demands it. All too often, competing high school coaches serve as umpires in high school team race regattas. This is awkward at best, and potentially inappropriate.
Sail1Design is developing a Team Race Umpire School, here in Annapolis, MD. We are especially interested in developing umpires, and a stipend for them, for refereeing high school sailing regattas. This will include classroom discussion, and feature on-the-water live practice umpiring. We want to create more umpires, and a fund that will help pay them for their efforts. S1D also seeks corporate sponsors to help in the effort. Join us, and let’s make a great game better, at the most important levels…. the grass roots. Youth and high school, and even college, teams need better referees so our game can continue to evolve.
Now with the Team Race Winter League, we have a series and venue for our laboratory!
For more information, contact us!
