By Airwaves writer Eric Tobias
Your sailing season doesn’t have to end just because it’s getting cold outside. In fact, for many racers, when December comes around the season is just getting started. We’ve all seen the AC 72s sail at over 40 knots. Now imagine the extreme exhilaration of sailing faster than that, laying on your back in a luge-style cockpit, tiller on your chest, mainsheet cranked in hard, wind screaming past your telltales, ice skimming by in a blur underneath you, and 30 other boats converging on the same leeward mark. There’s no other rush quite like it. Actually, for many iceboaters, the regular (or “soft water”) sailing season is just a temporary fix to get through the summer until that first sheet of immaculately smooth black ice freezes over, providing the perfect venue to feed the adrenaline addiction once again. Look no further than the DN to be the gateway to introduce you to the addiction of sailing on ice.
Remember from high school physics class, when they mentioned an object in motion in a frictionless environment? This is what they were talking about. With iceboating you pretty much remove the drag factor completely from the equation. In an iceboat, the faster you sail, the greater your apparent wind, and the more you accelerate with nothing holding you back. Basically, the faster you go, the faster you go. Ease out for the puff? No. Trim harder, watch the mast bend and feel the boat accelerate. Let the sail out downwind? No. Hopefully you can withstand the G-force of rounding the windward mark, steer down, keep the main trimmed in, and get all three runner blades back down on the ice, because in an iceboat, you’re sailing so fast that the apparent wind is always in front of you. What about the start? Forget your run-of-the-mill 5-minute sequence. Try lining up 50 boats on a literal line, half on port, half on starboard, with each skipper outside of the cockpit anxiously waiting to go into an all-out sprint at the drop of a checkered flag. Be sure to pick up a good pair of track spikes and a clean change of pants because DN racing is out-of-this-world awesome.
The Boat
The DN name originates from Detroit News, where the DN was first designed and built in the winter of 1936-1937. It was built in a hobby shop at Detroit News to fulfill the demand for a simple and affordable ice yacht. Since then, the boat has evolved considerably, but has not strayed away from the original parameters. The wooden hull is 12 ft in length and sits atop of an 8 ft wide beam known as the runner plank. Unlike a stern-steerer, the DN has a tricycle configuration, meaning that it has two runners (the steel skates that the boat rides on) aft on the outboard ends of the plank, and one steering runner forward at the very bow. Many newer boats feature upgrades such as lengthened insert runners and an extremely flexible carbon-fiber mast. The mast is 16 ft tall, allowing for a mainsail area of 60 sq ft, which is plenty when you’re sailing at these insane speeds.
All in all, the boat is very simple to set up and rig. It only requires one person to bolt the hull to the plank and to step the mast. Therefore, the DN can truly be considered the “Laser” of ice sailing. The portability of the boat has contributed to its worldwide popularity as well. With a hull weighing only 46 lbs, the DN can be transported easily via car-top or trailer; some people even just put them in the back of a pickup truck. Overall, the DN’s popularity, portability and simplicity make it a very practical boat to own/race if you’re looking to break the 50 kt benchmark. Actually, you can go a lot faster than that! “I’ve been clocked at 143 km/h, in Finland in 1998, which is about 89 mph,” says DN World Champion Ron Sherry. The DN includes all of this for a reasonable price of around $2500 for a competitive used setup. “It’s about the cheapest form of winter entertainment you can get. You can buy an old boat for around $300 and rip around on a lake and have a ride you’ll never forget.”
The Class
With over 5000 registered sail numbers, the DN is the world’s most popular iceboat class. The class has a strong following in North America, Europe and even Russia. The camaraderie within the class is second-to-none as well. “I always say, iceboating is 50% social and 50% racing,” says Sherry, “because there are a lot of conditions that don’t allow you to sail, so it’s important to make friends and have a good time.” Humble champions are not only willing to help others rig, but will take the time to help new sailors fine-tune their setups. Some ice sailors also take part in group boat building workshops. It’s truly a fantastic community to be a part of.
Check out the DN official class website at ice.idniyra.org. A complete tuning guide and helpful racing tips can be found at http://iceboatracing.com/. For the young aspiring ice sailors, check out the DN’s little sister, the Ice Opti http://www.iceboat.org/optis/about.html, which is a scaled-down DN rigged with an Optimist mast and sail.
Here are some other great links to introduce you to the world of iceboating:
Since iceboat racing can be a dangerous sport, it’s important to take safety precautions. Here is an informative write-up on safety from the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club: http://iceboat.org/iceboatsafety.html
There are some important discrepancies between the iceboat racing rules and the ordinary racing rules of sailing, so be sure to brush up on the rules:
http://www.iceboat.org/bylaws.html
Find your local iceboat club; many of the clubs also have active groups on Facebook:
Wisconsin: http://www.iceboat.org/ and http://www.gliceboats.blogspot.com/
Minnesota: http://www.iceboating.net/
Michigan: http://www.gulllakeiyc.org/ and http://www.gtiyc.org/homesitemap.htm and http://www.wmiyc.org/
Ohio: http://www.tiyc.net/
New England: http://theneiya.org/
New York: http://www.iceboatlongisland.com/
New Jersey: http://www.lbibyc.org/boatclub/Home.html
Maine: http://iceboat.me/
Connecticut: https://sites.google.com/site/ciycice/
Blog
Building to the Future: How GCYSA and KO Sailing will help US Olympic Sailing
By Airwaves Writer Tyler Colvin
Technology adapts to the requirements of the people. Sailing needed some excitement and so foils were born. Occasionally however, there are advancements that outpace what the community is ready to utilize. Such is the case with the I420. The original double-handed youth trainer, the I420 is a fast, exciting and technical boat that until recently had been cast aside in North America. Enter Gulf Coast Youth Sailing Association (GCYSA) and KO Sailing who aim to reverse that trend and hope to get more of today’s upper level youth sailors into what is the premier youth trainer around the world, the I420.
With every new Olympic class come trainer classes that are created to help junior sailors bridge the gap from their learn-to-sail boat with a rig suited to their smaller size. When the International 470 was adopted as the Olympic double-handed boat in 1976, the International 420 saw an increase in popularity as it became the stepping stone into the 470 and thus, the pathway to the Olympics.
The same transition occurred in the US, but after a while, the market sought a more durable boat than the finicky I420, and the builders met that demand with the design and popularization of the Club 420. Heavier and more inexpensive to produce and sell, the Club 420 was quickly adapted by yacht club junior programs sick of doing boatwork and the nuances of caring for a high performance boat. The Club 420 was more accessible and less expensive than the I420, giving youth programs a cost effective option that was better suited for learn to sail programs, but this came at the price of performance.
“Despite having the same name and overall length, all three 420’s [Club, Collegiate, and International] are very different. The I420 has a slightly different hull shape from the Club/Collegiate, much more similar to the 470 and much lighter, thus quicker to plane. The I420 is [also] much more technical with a fully tapered mast, and you can control everything in the sail plan, basically everything you’d do in a 470. For someone who is looking to gain more experience in a more technical boat, the I420 is where you want to be” Says Sarah Lihan of GCYSA.
Lihan and GCYSA are part of the movement within US youth sailing to get the I420 back into the limelight. “On the international stage, the I420 is the double-handed boat that everybody sails. [The] I420 fosters the development of the technical and tactical skills that are required in the Olympic classes. Kids who didn’t sail the baby brother of the Olympic boats are lacking knowledge that their French, British, and Australian counterparts already have before they enter the World Cup stage. The popularization of the Club 420 did some damage in development of high level technical skills for older generations of teenagers.”
Making it all happen with Lihan at GCYSA is Mike Guerrero, helping to push the I420 agenda. “The Gulf Coast Youth Sailing Association was founded with the idea of taking [junior] sailors to the next level. [Initially] it concentrated in Lasers, but we decided to open it to a double-handed boat when we realized that many of our kids wouldn’t be big enough to sail Lasers long term. We decided on the I420, because we believe it provides the best platform to learn high performance double-handed racing.” The GCYSA fleet is parent owned and part of the challenge was to get everyone on board with the same class. Currently there are six boats in Texas with ten hopefully by the spring and as many as 15 by this time next year.
This where the GCYSA plan comes into effect, along with Mark McNamara of KO Sailing, to create a racing and training circuit around North America to make the transition into I420’s easier. “The I420 is a growing fleet [in the US] so in order to foster that growth and build regional fleets, we’d like to get as many boats in one place as possible,” said McNamara. The plan is to build the circuit around climate and trailer logistics. “The long term vision is to develop a recognized, repeating annual circuit of events:. Miami in December and January, Texas in February and March. April out in California at CISA, and then up to the Northeast for the summer,” detailed Lihan. McNamara added, “Moving the boats around as a class allows there to be more boats on the line racing against each other and ratcheting up as a country. As the class expands we would like to see a more concerted movement on the west coast [to develop their existing fleet] as well as in the Midwest.”
The I420 class, traveling together on a yearlong circuit around the US: this is the short-term goal of GCYSA and KO Sailing. As the only US distributor for I420, McNamara has already imported over 50 boats. He prefers the BlueBlue I420, which have essentially swept all the international events— like the I420 Worlds and Junior Europeans—in the past few years. He has a lot of confidence in the boat and has a full line of BlueBlue equipment as well as spars, sails, and blades from other manufacturers to optimize performance in accordance with the international standards.
Behind this push for the I420 is a dedicated group of parents, coaches, and interested parties around the country with GCYSA the latest to put forth the effort. “The addition of the I420 as the double-handed boat at US Youth Champs has been a huge move forward toward the goal. There will always be a place for the Club 420 in the US, the biggest question is how do we best work together (Club and I420) to improve American results at the Olympics and beyond.”
“I sailed 470s at the Games in London [and] before a couple months ago I had never sailed an I420.,” Lihan admitted. “I missed out on so many lessons as a teenager that I had to learn while also learning how to run an Olympic campaign, and it put me at a disadvantage. We are trying to get kids into the boat that best prepares them for their competitive future.”
“Basically we are targeting the older Optimist sailors—they have had success, they went to Nationals, they went to Team Trials, . They know what it takes to achieve success in the Opti. Our high level American coaches are trying to get the right-sized kids into the I420. The answer is talking to kids at the high-level events, kids who have the passion and ambition but are unsure of the next direction. Perhaps the most critical part is talking to the parents, convincing them why they have to buy this $10,000 boat, why they have to travel across the ocean to compete, etc. We are looking to build the domestic fleet at home to give our teenagers a competitive fleet without having to fly to France, giving them the opportunity to have high level racing in the United States.”
The boat that was before its time, the I420 has finally rediscovered its pied pipers in North American youth sailing. As an advanced trainer for the Olympics, the skills developed in the I420 also carry over nicely into the Club 420, Collegiate 420 and skiffs. Involving the parents of the advanced sailors and increasing the interest of the sailors themselves is key to this process. With KO Sailing on board now as the official BlueBlue importer in the US, GCYSA has laid the foundation for what looks to be a very successful resurgence of the I420. In doing so, the re-introduction of US sailors into the top international events shouldn’t be far behind.
Your thoughts? Post below!!!
Club-Owned Fleets: A Diversified Sailing Program
Written by: Cole Allsopp, Evan Aras, & Dillon Paiva
This article is written in response to the Airwaves piece done by John Storck: Are Provided Boats Really the Answer?
Changes are occurring rapidly throughout the sailing community: the Volvo Ocean Race is now One Design, the Americas Cup is in foiling catamarans, and sailing clubs across the country are expanding their offerings to include club-owned fleets. Many sailors are voicing their opinion on what exactly a club should offer their membership. To offer a well-rounded program, clubs should consider providing access to a fleet of evenly matched and accessible boats. If we accept that sailing is primarily a leisure-time activity, steps towards encompassing a broader range of participants while allowing sailors to spend more time and less money participating should be the hallmark of any good sailing program. Incorporating club-owned boats into a sailing program serves all these ends.
Sailing is inherently a leisure time activity. Regardless of how serious the competition gets, most of us engage in sailing because its enjoyable, and we choose to use our off hours to sail. Although our sport plays host to a growing number of professionals, these sailors are predominately sponsored by funds earmarked in personal budgets for leisure-time; as opposed to those for investment activity or other personal uses.
Competition in club-owned boats is a natural step towards cutting out travel time and increasing time spent on the water. It follows naturally that clubs and sailors alike should gravitate towards ways to improve the sailing experience. Obvious improvements most will agree with: increase the amount of time spent sailing, decrease the cost of doing so. Why take a Friday off to drive the boat somewhere, when you can just as easily jump on a plane to arrive at the same time with the boat rigged and waiting? For those sailors who can’t afford a professional to handle those types of things, a plane ticket to a venue with club owned boats is the greatest thing since sliced bread. For those who have already burned up all their leave days, the plane ride offers a way to go sailing without further sacrifice. Provided boats are one of the best ways to keep our leisure-time leisurely, and reduce wasted hours spent on the road or behind a sanding block.
Expanding the club-owned boats model makes economic sense, and will provide more value to the average sailing enthusiast. Yacht clubs and sailing clubs are picking up on that fact, and starting to diversify their programs towards providing club-owned boats. Many fleets, including those in Annapolis, play host to an interesting combination of weekend warriors and weeknight racers. Both groups have their own boats, but why? Wouldn’t it be more reasonable for the two parties to coordinate and split the boat? Even the weeknight racer can’t race every night. What about those who want to use a boat for the occasional sail and would happily do so when the boat is not being raced? An owner may be willing to charter-out or loan their boat, but the opportunity cost for loaning a personal boat is high. Consequently, the charter fee is high, and the interested participant is less likely to engage. A fleet of club-owned boats resolves all of those issues. We can easily spread the cost of a fleet over a significant number of people. Not only can we then spend more time sailing and less time maintaining, but participation costs for the average Joe drop significantly. It’s a well-known fact that when you are ordering 18 suits of sails, you get a much better price than a single suit. Ordering a fleet of boats rather than singular boats is less expensive for the manufacturer, and by extension less expensive for the consumer. When a club can host more members with fewer boats, it’s not even a stretch to conclude that a club fleet can operate on less real estate, with a lower boat-footprint per member. Real-estate is a major expenditure for any growing club, so why not use space as efficiently as possible? A potential burden associated with a club-owned fleet is additional administration requirements. Those are most likely already in place, or would be necessary to manage storage for privately owned boats. If additional staff is needed, the net savings and additional membership revenue could easily be redirected towards funding additional personnel requirements. When factoring in the economies of scale gained from buying fleets in bulk and the usage-efficiency gained per member, the financial benefits to a club-fleet are clear.
For those readers having attended business school, the technology cycle will be all too familiar. For the rest of us, here’s a refresher: a small niche market first adopts a disruptive technology or practice. Improvements are made as its adopted into the mainstream market. After some time, the product becomes a commodity and is sustained by the late adapter market until it becomes obsolete. Every CEO is familiar with this cycle and how it applies to their business. In order to prevent their entire business from going away with their initial product, a company must diversify into other markets with the revenue they gained early on. Obviously there are differences between sailing clubs and Silicon Valley, but it’s not a stretch to apply the process to any entity looking for sustainability. In sailing’s case, it seems that the Hobie fleet, ICSA (Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association), ISSA (Inter-Scholastic Sailing Association) and a few other forward thinking organizations managed to work themselves into the early adopter category of the new club-owned boat format. They have paved the way for mainstream sailing to explore the idea of the club-owned fleet. It’s important to keep in mind that cycles of this nature often occur over decades, and can be hard to imagine without broadening one’s time horizon.
The presence of a club-owned fleet in a yacht club or sailing club is far from the end of the traditional model of privately owned boats. It merely represents an organization’s wise move to diversify their operations into the new emerging category. Those who have had exposure to the labor of love that is boat ownership can appreciate the finer points of quarter turns onto an Etchells rig and the look of a freshly polished hull. It’s extremely unlikely that a 505 sailor would give up the tweaking and tuning that so defines them. High performance fleets may be best left to the care of private owners who are in no danger of converting completely away from the performance sailing that they love. In order to be well-rounded, a sailing club can and should accommodate both types of sailors. The joys of tinkering and finding small advantages in handiwork will never go away, and should not factor into the decision to include club-owned boats into our programs.
No matter what you enjoy most about sailing, it would be a shame to let the benefits of club-owned fleets slip away from a program. With a well-executed diversification strategy, a local sailing club can do a great service to the community by providing access to sailing, all for a reasonable price. Lets do ourselves a favor and take that next step towards keeping our leisure-time leisurely, and expand our boundaries to include club-owned boats.
What do you think? Add your comment below!
One-Design Class Profile: A-Cat
By Airwaves Writer Tyler Colvin
In 1956, the International Yacht Racing Union (now the International Sailing Federation, ISAF) created a four-tiered developmental catamaran system with the categories as A-D. It was an attempt to split up the high performance catamaran world into classes and limited very little about each class. In the beginning, only length, width and maximum sail area were limited. The A-Class Catamaran (A-Cat) is the largest remaining of the classes. (See the A-Cat Class Association webpage HERE)
(First photo credit to Bob Orr)
The Boat: Taking to Flight
The International A-Class Catamaran (A-Cat) is an ISAF international development class. It has a length of 18’, a 7.5’ beam, a minimum weight of 165lbs, and 20 square meters of sail (Peter Johnstone). Power-wise, the A-Cat is among the leaders for its size. Upwind comfortably at well over 10 knots and downwind over 20 (knots), the A-Cat is one of the quickest boats around. All major components are carbon fiber allowing it to weigh in less than almost any other boat of its size or smaller, multi or mono-hulled. Larger than a Laser at nearly the same weight, the A-Cat is easily rigged and launched in less time than it will take to read this article.
The rig is a single square top main on a carbon mast with a single trapeze wire. Sails are usually made out of carbon or Kevlar fiber laminates to maximize stiffness while maintaining its ultra light status. Hulls are typically (on modern boats) with a carbon skin over a nomex honeycomb core. All of the current advancements, carbon fiber parts, square top mains and hull design, stems from the developmental nature of the class. Owners are encouraged to experiment with designs on the boat in an attempt to achieve even more speed. For these reasons, amongst others, the A-Cat is widely regarded as the fastest single-handed dinghy currently in production.
Recently A-Cats have followed the high performance catamaran track and started foiling. The trickle down effect of technology from the America’s Cup has resulted in the ability to consistently produce high quality, reliable foils that make foiling significantly easier than many other foiling boats (such as the moth).
A Class Worlds Video:
Set Up and Sailing: Too Easy
From a trailer to the water, the A-Cat can be launched in 20 minutes. From a dolly it can be done in less than five (minutes). Peter Johnstone on the boat, “The A-Class is really easy to sail. If you can sail a laser, you will find the A-Class to be easier to sail, and much more pleasurable. The trapeze works your abs so you feel great afterwards.” Peter is a huge proponent of the boat, having owned three hulls over the past 19 years and sailing them as much as possible.
“Last summer I learned how to foil, and it turned out to be much easier than I feared. To fly while sailing is simply incredible. It gets quiet, and really fast!” And fast it is, with speeds unlike any other boat of its size. One of the other benefits of the boat is the inherent stability of a multihull. “When I got tired, I could simply take a break, which is something that cannot be done while sailing a [foiling] Moth.”
As has been extolled, the weight of the boat is unparalleled. This means that it is quick to get going in light air and an absolute riot in bigger winds. The boat will lift (on its foils) in 10-14 knots of breeze and, “the sensation is like flying.” The A-Cat excels upwind and when foiling out on the trapeze it is hard to find a boat that can keep up.
Class Association: Growing Together
Although the A-Cat has been around for several decades, the class associations are constantly growing and changing to adapt to the new design innovations and the demographics that they attract. Recently the class has started expansion to South America to join large fleets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. The boat is an ideal size for a shipping container, so there is a core group who ship their boats around the world for European and World Championships (Peter Johnstone). In addition to expanding location-wise, the class has started to become more female friendly, but could use some work to expand the appeal of the boat to more women. Flatter sails and shorter rigs could make the boat friendlier for a smaller frame and are currently being looked into.
Why Sail? Speed, Speed, Speed
If you get a chance to go sail with someone in 12-15 knots of breeze, take it. “The A-Class is truly one of sailing’s best-kept secrets,” said Peter, “I know many renowned sailors who say it is simply the best all around sailing experience they have enjoyed,” lofty praise by an expert in the field. A combination of the ease of rigging, the user friendly set up and the pure joy of foiling in 12 knots of breeze make the A-Cat a tough competitor in the sport dinghy category. The A-Cat puts high tech, cutting edge technology at the hands of the every day sailor.
Thanks to Peter Johnstone for his extensive commentary on the A-Class Catamaran and all around praise for the boat.
Event Recap: Butler Cup 2014
By Airwaves Writer Tyler Colvin. Any chance I get to escape the weather in New England I typically take, so when I got the call to crew on a boat for the Long Beach Yacht Club’s Butler Cup (Grade 3) I didn’t hesitate. The event, running November 15-16 out of Long Beach Yacht Club, is named in honor of Frank Butler, designer of the Catalina 37 and president of Catalina Yachts. Frank donated a fleet of 11 boats to the Long Beach Sailing Foundation who continues to maintain and repair these boats two decades later. Also used for the Congressional Cup, the longest running match race in North America, the Catalina 37s have been sailed by world-class sailors since their inception.
Final Results here
My first time sailing the boat would also be with a crew I largely had never met. Skipper Shane Young, Long Beach Match Race Team member and former Cal State Long Beach Sailing Team standout had the helm with the assist from tactician Steve Flam. Main trim was another LBMR Team member Max Moosmann, with John Hill (former CSULB Sailing Team skipper) at primary trim and myself at offside trim. In the pit was Chase Young (brother of Shane) and on the bow was LBMR Team member Ben Wheatley.
Saturday morning dawned with a mild 4-6 knot southerly that built slowly throughout the day. We motored out of the harbor and towards the Long Beach Pier (same venue as Congressional Cup) to get some practice in before our first match. Format was a double round robin, meaning 58 races in two days, which, in the current wind conditions, was a formidable task for the race committee.
After a first race mishap in the pre-start against Justin Law (2014 Hinman Trophy winner), it was apparent we were out of sync. A late entry to the box and sloppy boat handling handed Law leverage that they maintained for the rest of the race. As the breeze built and our communication increased, so did our pre-start maneuvers, speed and decision making. Our first loss would also prove to be our last as we finished up the day at 6-1 with key wins over Bill Durant and Dave Hood.
Day 2 brought screaming Santa Ana winds that blew all hopes of an early start out the window with gusts upwards of 25 knots (above the Catalina 37 wind range, as specified by the Long Beach Sailing Foundation). After a brief meeting we sat on land until noon, hoping that by then the land breeze would have switched to a sea breeze with more manageable wind speeds. Due to the loss of time on the course, the race committee amended the sailing instructions to reflect a Day 2 format of semis and finals for the top four teams (first to 2 points) and a single round robin for the bottom four teams.
Out in the harbor the course was set further out than Saturday to take advantage of as much breeze as could possibly fill. As luck would have it, our semi-final match up was with Law, a revenge match of our only loss of the weekend. Taking advantage of our starboard entry, we forced an early penalty and started clear ahead, leading by several boat lengths at the first mark. A spinnaker mishap and some ill-timed jibes saw that lead squandered and by the final run Law had a good-sized lead. Luckily for us a combination of a poorly timed penalty turn and failing to completely exonerate gave us a late victory in match one.
Match two was light and shifty with Law yet again winning the start. We stayed close and made our move on the last run pulling off a clean hoist and jibe to new breeze. Letting us split to course left, Law and company parked themselves in a massive hole on the (course) right while we marched on into the finish. Just like that we were on to the finals. “No worse than second overall!” joked Ben.
Unfortunately, this was about the time that the wind decided it had had enough and quit entirely for the day; nothing but random puffs scattered across an otherwise glassy bay. Without a full set for the top four boats, the medal rankings came down to the previous day scores. Both our boat (Young) and Durant had 6 points, but with the tiebreaker we scored first overall and winners of the 2014 Butler Cup.
The Butler Cup Race Committee deserves ample recognition for the job they did pulling off the first round robin on Saturday in less than ideal conditions. They were quick to adapt to the situation and their quick thinking allowed all 28 of the first days races to be completed. Additionally a thank you to the other skippers and their respective crews, Bill Durant, Dave Hood, Justin Law, Wendy Corzine, Sandy Hayes, Lisa Meier and Stephen Ashley, for making the event competitive and fun.
Full results can be seen here or on the Long Beach Yacht Club website. Thanks to the LBYC for facilitating this event and the Long Beach Sailing Foundation for providing the boats.
Team Training Practice Sessions: Making the Most of Your Time!
By Andrew Kerr
As we know, practice is a critical element in any sport and yet time is seemingly becoming more and more limited as people juggle with the demands of modern life!
Here are some ideas on practice elements & content that can make the most of this limited time. In this article we look at practice sessions both fully crewed, short handed and how evening/ beer can races can be utilized for training as well. For the vast majority of teams there is the need to incorporate a new crew member as very few of us are lucky to have the same team at every event. These practice sessions can help integrate that new crew member into the teams system and subsequently help get the team up to speed in a shorter period of time.
A big thing to key in on is practicing a lot of time and distance work; pick a marker and see how long it takes to accelerate to get there and do this over and over again. This will really help with consistency on the starting line and help avoid the issues of being very early to the line being forced to either run the line, luff, or late and in bad air. The great thing about this acceleration practice is you can do it shorthanded. Even if your team can only practice a couple of these drills or has time to incorporate one element ( a beer can race as a practice for instance) you will see the value both in more consistent sailing and general team comfort level with boat handling. The following are thoughts that might help you maximize your time and effort:
- Practice weekends & after work/ evening sessions (with daylight savings time), or well before the race starts – fully crewed.
- Either set a starting line or find two marks and line them up with an available upwind mark that is less than a quarter mile away.
- Do a 10 minute rolling clock with a practice start at 5 minutes and then a race at zero – race up to the windward mark and then finish downwind by rounding either the RC end to port or the pin end to starboard with a spinnaker take-down and a tactical rounding up to close-hauled.
- Try all sorts of starting approaches increasing your repertoire: port tack approach, starboard tack approach, full speed approach, hang back approach etc. And really work on time and distance and acceleration and holding position.
- Constantly evaluate lay lines to the starting line and to your upwind and downwind mark so that you start to internalize the angles in different conditions.
The more approaches you develop the less predictable you are to your competitors. If another team would like to come out and join in, it would be very beneficial for boat to boat tactics and mark rounding’s and advantageous to both teams. It is more fun too!!
This system gets two starts in a race and also simulated practice with gate marks and leeward mark rounding’s. Some additional team skills to build on are:
- Roll tacking and roll jibing – particularly before the start in light air for max power & speed. Lots of tacks in general, with critique of speed loss & speed build after each one. Take time to really work on the perfect time to release the Jib sheet and steering smoothly through out the turn.
- Simulated late (opportunistic) gate mark selection with the pole down & stored and the chute free flying with the jib up.
- Coming in to the leeward mark on starboard tack and executing a pole down, jibe, chute down and tactical rounding. All types of takedowns and roundings.
- “Thin Building” on the starting line – i.e.: holding position about three lengths off the line, maintaining a good gap to leeward and then accelerating accordingly to top speed.
- If you need to slow down and hold position – try easing the vang to dump the wind off the leech and then re trimming it as the boat gets going. This is particularly effective when it is windy as there is a lot of vang on and even with the mainsail eased out the tight vang will drive the boat side way’s and forward.
- Practice weather mark roundings so that in a breeze you dive down hard and pin out competitors ahead from jibing and in light air you assume the correct angle immediately with the spin trimmer talking pressure on the sheet immediately. Conversely, in light air that you round and stay high enough to maintain pressure on the spinnaker sheet and keep the boat going fast exiting the mark. A good trick is to have the mast person ease the vang an inch or two before the weather mark – this will help the boat bear off more easily and also help the mainsail leech assume the correct shape (top baton parallel to the boom) immediately.
- Practice staying within the lay lines to the starting line and building a team awareness of where the safe starboard tack lay line to the RC and Pin end is.
- A rudderless drill with the team – hold the tiller in the center or tie off and have the team sail the boat with sail trim and weight placement. Try doing a rudderless downwind leg – either hold the tiller in the center or tie it off and do a series of jibes with the spinnaker up. Typically after this drill the skipper will use less rudder on the jibes and the crew will be more in tune with steering the boat with there weight. A great challenge for the team is to see if you can do a start without using the rudder! This exercise is great for team understanding of roll tacking and jibing and helps the trimmers a lot with understanding the dynamics of starts and leeward and windward mark roundings as well as overall boat balance.
- In light to medium air – with a symmetric spinnaker – jibing without the pole numerous times to get the spinnaker rotation perfected, with an A sail – jibing the mainsail before the A sail to keep the spinnaker filled longer.
- On the light air sessions a good one to really go at is reach to reach jibe practice – making sure there is sufficient pressure on the spinnaker to be able to get the spinnaker around the head stay for an A sail – with the crew rolling the boat – or properly rotated on a symmetric sail. A team can never get too good at this! It’s a challenge to keep the spinnaker flying on a light air reach to reach jibe so lots of practice needed. If not enough pressure on the spinnaker – head up and get the pressure before jibing. This is really important, if the team tries to jibe the spinnaker in light air with insufficient pressure on the sheet then it is sure to collapse. A good thing to practice is the dialogue before the jibe – the skipper asking the trimmer how the pressure is and getting a confirmation back on if it is sufficient or not.
- Heeling to weather downwind to rock the shoulder of the spinnaker away from the mainsail and to induce a little lee helm to encourage the boat to bear away in the puffs. Try moving crew members from side to side to balance the helm perfectly and try to encourage the crew to sit as low as possible and to the sides of the boat to dampen the rolling of the boat and to maximize the helms visibility.
- Man over board drill both going upwind and also down wind with the spinnaker up – excellent for seamanship, team awareness and practicing maneuvers.
- A great one to try later on in lighter air is a silent practice – a start, upwind & downwind leg and a leeward mark rounding – this is great for team anticipation skills. The only communication allowed is for safety related reasons. My wife Stephanie tells me this silent practice was an instrumental element of their team (America 3) training for the 1995 America’s Cup.
- Continue the starts and races until the team is tiring out and then head in and debrief by having each team member talk about their position and what they need to improve on for next time. While this debrief session is going on it is good to have a person jotting down notes on a Wet Notes book for future reference.
Ideas for after work during evening session with a skeleton crew (shorthanded):
For this session it’s good to focus on starts, & windward & leeward mark rounding’s with no spinnaker. You could have a shorthanded crew (bare minimum) and this proves to be a great opportunity to do numerous starts with a rolling clock and focusing on time and distance, acceleration speed building and slowing down and holding position. Get in as many in as you can.
For Leeward Mark Roundings:
Try to do as many leeward mark roundings as possible and critique each one practicing all approaches; on port, on starboard, having to jibe & round simultaneously and starboard approach with a jibe drop (Jib up, pole down, jibe, chute down), then the tactical mark rounding. Really work on the jib being perfectly trimmed to every point of sail and the crew moving to leeward in light air and pressing on the leeward rail to help the rounding. On the jibe rounding the tricky element is to perfectly trim the mainsail in a jibe and do a great rounding. Do this repeatedly with no spinnaker. There are big gains to be made by executing this well. This is also a really good opportunity to practice pinching up (or “check luffing”) to use the VMG gained by the leeward mark rounding to translate in to pointing and a resultant clearer lane from the boat who just rounded ahead. Any helm will tell you that it is critical to have everyone hiking super hard out of the rounding so that the team can maintain a high, clear air lane out of the mark. Really work on this and the orchestration of the timing of the spinnaker take down.
Time & Distance:
Now lets try some time & distance work; find a marker and see how long it takes from a slow position to sheet in, accelerate, and reach the marker. Try this over and over again and it will help a lot with time and distance. In my experience coaching, this proves to be invaluable to nailing their starts, particularly early in the season.
Spare weekends (if any!): find a tuning partner for races & regatta’s
Any combo of the above would be valuable practice (sequenced from prior practices) on non race days. For regattas it is very beneficial to get another team ( if available) to be a tuning partner. Go upwind with them for 5 to 10 minutes before the start and fine tune the set up.
If the other team is faster ask yourself why? Check the critical settings: Jib halyard tension, forestay sag, mainsheet tension, jib lead position, jib sheet tension and what “mode” of sailing they are in? (“Point mode”, ‘Fast forward mode”). Once you have made your adjustments go upwind with them again and see how you go with them with the new settings. Now how are you doing?
A great part of practice with your tuning partner will be going upwind on opposite tacks before the start (or in practice) for 5 minutes or more, then tack back and converge to see who crosses first. This will give you an idea of the initial shift and the initial favored side of the course. I have found the above very helpful when traveling to new venues and attempting to counter the advantage of local knowledge going into the event.
Make sure to write it all down and to review and share any onboard camera footage as well as pictures taken of the team sailing.
After each regatta, and race and practice session, record in your Wet Notes book what went well and what needs to be practiced for the next team session. These notes are best recorded right away when everything is fresh during the sail in, at the dock, or at the yacht club after the race. It is quite revealing to review these notes particularly; wind patterns, geographic effects, and the effect a frontal system may have had on the course. This also highlights intuitive tactical moves that worked at the venue!
The tactical mind and the chess game:
On the drive to the event I have found it really good to review these notes and also go over hypothetical tactical and strategic situations with other team members. An example of this would be: “Ok, starboard end of the line is favored by 7 degrees on a long starting line with 50 plus boats. The I flag is in effect and the race course looks even velocity wise. What do you think we should do?” This gets the discussion going, gets people visualizing situations, and gets the team together on almost “scripting” the plays.
Beer can race and have fun!
This is a great opportunity to try some things; starting approaches, jibe drops, etc., that you may employ in the regatta format or for bigger events on your schedule. This is also an excellent time to train a new crew member and integrate them in to your team’s system as well as introduce them to the local fleet. Take the time to teach and coach, and make it fun. Very often new crew members are also potential new owners and fleet members. Over the years I have seen teams take on a new person who really enjoys sailing in the class and then later proceed to buy a boat and participate in the fleet.
A big thing to be aware of is the tendency to want to practice moves the team has already mastered. I have experienced this in the past and it doesn’t help the team grow their skill. To counter this trap, make a note of weaknesses at a prior event, and put them front and center in the session. Focus on the “chinks”, for example: If there is a tendency to get up to the line early and be slow at the start, focus on time and distance and acceleration.
A nice aspect of a post practice session debrief is to have a nice social time as a crew. This makes the whole event more enjoyable for everyone. Making it fun keeps people coming back for more. A good sense of humor keeps it light and everyone looking forward to more sailing! Being part of a team that practices, tunes, and is consistently improving, whether at the local, regional, or national level, is a really enjoyable experience for all involved.
Best of luck in your next regatta!
