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Meet the Optimist Dinghy

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by Airwaves writer Emma White

The optimist, originally designed by Clark Mills in 1947, became a registered One-Design boat in 1995; after a few modifications. It is roughly 8 feet long, precisely 3 feet and eight inches wide, and weighs approximately 77 pounds. Although, many describe this boat as a floating bathtub, it does not stop youth sailors from competing and having fun. Sailed internationally in more than 100 countries with approximately 200,000 sailors registered in optimists. Optimists are safe and are easy for kids to sail who want to hit the water and have some fun. Optimists are also sailed competitively. Whether it be state, national, or even international competitions, opti sailors enjoy the thrill of racing this boat. Sailors learn invaluable skills from high-level coaches, make life-long friends, and learn skills that increase independence through various clinics and regattas offered to them.

Optimist sailors range from the age of 10 to15 years old. They are eligible to compete in national and international events. These sailors represent the ‘red’, ‘white’, and ‘blue’ fleets. The divisions further separate the sailors by age. Sailors aged10 are placed into White fleet, followed by sailors aging between 11-12 who are in Blue fleet, and finally sailors aging between 13-15 who are in Red fleet. Although, the fleets divided the age group of 10-15, they all compete with one another on the starting line and in the race course. Results of regattas are delineated by “fleet” and the top female competitor is usually recognized. The use of fleets is just one way to identify each racer.  Racing is available to sailors younger than 10 years of age and this group of sailors is referred to as “green fleet”. National and local events are organized for these eager, opti-enthusiasts as well, allowing them to get a head start on opti competition before they join the older sailors.

A wide age range of opti sailors also translates into a broad weight range of the junior sailors. A study of the 2011 Optimist Worlds (a competition among the most skilled opti sailors in the world) which was held in New Zealand, pinpoints the range and average weight of the top ten optimist sailors of the regatta. The average size of the finishers were 110 pounds, with a range of 30 pounds. This means that optis are for sailors of all sizes, and it also means, contrary to popular belief, optimists are not boats that sailors outgrow at the age 13.

Many of opti sailors have aspirations of competing at the Olympic level. In fact, nearly 50 percent of the United States Sailing Team are previous opti sailors. Optimists are provide a strong sailing foundation, fun and they are competitive.

            Rigging Information:

–  One hull

$1–  Fiberglass

–  One sail

$1–  The sail is held up with a sprit and two battens

$1–  Sail-ties connect the sail to the boom and mast

$1–  To adjust sail shape, change the sprit, vang, and outhaul tension

–  Use a rudder and centerboard

Thank you to the following sources for making this article possible:

http://www.optiworld.org

https://sites.google.com/site/optiracingusscmc/faqs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_(dinghy)

http://pix.daveheinphotography.com/Boats

            

International Sailing Academy Joins the S1D Team

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The International Sailing Academy is happy to join the Sail1Design community. We are a Laser and Optimist winter training facility for youth, masters and Olympic athletes. Our location in Mexico provides warm climates and great conditions for sailors to prepare for their events. Below you will find our first article about starting technique in the Laser. If you have any other questions, please send us an email at [email protected], and don’t hesitate to visit our website to find a clinic for you!

Downspeed manoeuvres for better starts

After having done my pre-game research and having a good idea of where I want to start, I set up on the line, then use the remaining time (usually between 1 minute to 1:30 left) to create a bigger hole to leeward, and defend from poachers. The skills to increase your hole are known as “downspeed maneuvers” and they can be classified as:

a) shooting up,
b) sailing backwards,
c) double tack.

The most common is shooting up. This requires a very strong ability in sculling. Use your tiller to pivot your boat down while sheeting out. As long as your sail is completely luffing, you should be able to pivot around your daggerboard without moving forward. From a near close hauled course, add leeward heel and sheet in slightly and sit back & out to swing your bow back into the wind while minimizing forward movement.

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It is important to gain distance to windward to remain “bow even” with the other boats, but never too much to risk going over the line early, or forcing the boats around you to do the same. Having “shot up” into the wind, there will be several moments when your boat is NOT slipping sideways towards the port end of the line. This is where you make gains. Once you start going backwards again, you need to re-gain control by sculling down again. Having repeated this several times, you will open up a gap to leeward and allow for the other boats to drift away. You can also use the technique to make your hole look unappealing to poachers. Be careful not to break Rule 42. The jury is watching for your tiller to cross the centerline; so scull down to close hauled on starboard tack, then make sure you initiate your turn back up with just your sail & body weight, and let the tiller follow the boat.

Sailing backwards requires you to avoid other boats. Think of this skill as a ‘reset’ for entering a hole. If you’ve either fallen back from being bow even with the other boats around you, or gotten too close to the boat to leeward, or essentially just too crammed in – sail backwards so that you can re-approach the line with better control and space. The steering is the hardest part. Getting used to steering backwards is crucial(an easy one to practice on your own, though!). Once you have really good control of where the boat is going, you should be able to reverse out of the lineup with ease. Here are the basic steps:

1. Make sure your boat is dead stopped. Any forward movement will cause the boat to tack when you press your boom out.
2. Aim your rudder straight back at first
3. Slightly press on your boom until you get some speed, gradually increase pressure on the boom as your reverse speed increases. Too much will cause you to tack unwillingly onto port.
4. Push the tiller away from you to bring your bow down, and stern to windward. Keep pushing your sail out past 90 degrees or else it will fill with wind, and your attempt to reverse will be over.

Once you’ve reversed out, you can now decide whether you want to sail back into the same hole, or bail out and go find another one further down the line.

Only when you have enough space to windward, should you attempt the double tack. The double tack means that you will momentarily be losing your rights, and sailing back towards a group of angry starboard tackers. However, this is an absolute game changer if you can pull it off. It is important to effectively complete 2 tacks without any acceleration. You do this by simply backwinding and luffing.

Initiate a shoot up then backwind your sail immediately by pressing the boom away from you. If you have any forward movement, this should tack you onto port fairly easily.

Once on port, luff your sail and quickly switch your hands on the tiller, so that you can scull if needed. Now you need to do a port tack shootup to reverse the process. Do it quickly before the boats to windward notice!
scull down, shoot up, push the boom away from you, and you should be on starboard tack before you know it.

Voila! you have created a bigger hole to leeward of you that you can use to accelerate!

Practice:
1. Setup 2 marks about 10 boat lengths apart
. sail your boat up to the starboard end and stop once you become overlapped by heading up head to wind and slightly backwinding. Begin repeating the process of sculling down, then shooting back head to wind and try to NEVER become un-overlapped between the 2 marks. Obviously the longer you can make your drift time between starboard end and port end, the more your are eliminating drift. Once you have reached the port end of the line, stop your clock then repeat the drill and try to beat your time. If you can keep your boat under control for more than 4 minutes without losing overlap, that is mighty impressive!

2. Setup two marks about two boat lengths apart. This is your hole on the startline. Every 2 minutes you will have to protect your hole for 1 minute. Do this by eliminating drift, sailing backward, or double tacking. Accelerate at go.


Max St-Maurice
International Sailing Academy


www.internationalsailingacademy.com

Tactics with Mike: Find the Starting Line

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By Airwaves Writer Mike Ingham

I think just about the hardest role on entire boat is the bow.  I don’t mean the mechanics, yes that is not easy, but a good athlete will figure that out.  I mean calling distance to the line.  It is a science and an art –and it is tough, and can for sure make or break a regatta.  In the absence of instruments, it is impossible to know for sure where the line is, but here are some helpful things we do to know where the line is.

Line sights:

  • By far the best way to know where the line is it to use line sights. 
  •  It’s best to sight from the far side of the line (instead of inside one of the ends) so you can line up the ends.
  • A lot of times the shore is not clear, or is generic.  All you can do is the best you can.
  •  We start with the end of the line has something you can sight down and see on shore on the other side.
  • Once my bow person confirms they are happy with their sight, from that end, I like to sail down the line, right on the line so the bow person gets used to seeing the line sight.
  • Then, if there is a line sight available from the other end, we get that in the same way.
  • On our boat I like when the bow and the tactician discuss the line sight, I think that helps give the bow confidence.  And that way second person on the boat has the sight, so they can add sanity to the final approach if necessary.

Line sight off the line:

Probably as important as the line sight, is a sight some distance from the line.

  • This is anywhere from say 6 to 1 boatlength off, wherever there is some obvious sight.
  •  It gives a great reference along the way to the actual line sight.
  •  I really like it because since the bow gets to choose where the sight is, it can be something conspicuous and maybe not even on shore, like a channel marker.
  •  Geometry dictates that the distance changes as we go down the line.  For example, if our “off the line” line sight is a big building 4 boatlengths off at the pin, at half way down that means we are two boatlenghts away, ¾ of the way down the line it is one boatlength.

Look back and forth:

Sometimes there is not sight because it is hazy, or whatever, then it is harder.  Here are some ideas:

  • Looking both ways.  Simply looking at the boat, then pin a few times works ok.
  • But I find that if I then turn around and do it facing backwards and looking back and forth at the boat then pin recalibrates my eye. 
  • For example, suppose I look back and forth and think we are 3 boatlengths off, but then turn and look back and forth again and it looks like we are 5 boatlengths off.  Well, the truth is probably right in between at 4.
  •  Before the start sometimes I try this while running the line where we are pretty sure we are on the line.  By looking back and forth then turning around and doing so again, then back, I train my eye.

The RC eyes:

The human eye is pretty good at looking at another human eye and knows where it is looking.

  •  If you are talking to someone and they look from your eye to your ear, you know it
  •  I do the same with the line.  For the most part, the RC is looking straight down the line and you can see which way they are looking at with surprising clarity.
  • The further we are from the line, the less you can see of the eye, but even the direction the head faces works well.

Some other object near the line:

Rarely, but sometimes, there is something anchored near the line. 

  •  Like a mid-line mark or a crab pot
  •  Most likely this marker is over or under by a good amount.  But even so, knowing that some crab pot is say 4 boat lengths below or above the line is a great reference.

Other boats

I am not always the best at this, but I am learning the importance of watching the fleet. Even though I trust my bow person, I modify what they are telling me by looking at the fleet a few boats to windward and leeward.

  • If the fleet is pushing the line, I go with them but hang back just a little.
  •  For example, if there is 15 seconds to go, my bow is saying we are on the line, yet everyone around me is accelerating, I accelerate too, but lag behind just a bit.
  •  If there is a sag in the line, I will halve the distance between the fleet and where my bow person is saying the line is.
  •  For example, if my bow is telling me there is 4 boatlengths left yet we are nose out from everyone around me, I might time it so I start with a boatlength to spare so I don’t take undue risk. 
  • One way of accomplishing this is I empower my bow person to wave me forward and hold me back with hand signals.  I might get a wave forward even
    though we are close to the line because the fleet is all ahead of us, or a hold back even though we are not near the line if they think we are exposed.
  •  The tactician is keeping track of the fleet too and if the fleet is surging ahead, calls for an aggressive start, if they think it is lagging; they will call for me to pull the trigger a little late.

Communication:

  •  I like the bow to always call distance with one finger per boatlength close hauled on starboard –not perpendicular to the line.
  • That way if the line is skewed one way or the other, the distance / time still makes sense.
  •  I like someone besides the bow person to call time loud and clear so the bow does not have to look at their watch.  We like to keep the bow focused on the line.
  •  I don’t like a lot of chatter from anyone, there is a lot going on and it can quickly become information overload, but the tactician needs to use the same techniques that the bow is to keep track of the line too.  Then jump in if and when they see something the bow person does not. 

Practice starts

More recently, if there is time, I have been doing 2 practice starts before each race.  I have found this a great warm up drill.

  • We do 2 minute starts, no time to waste!
  •   Ideally it is using the real line, around the area we want to start.
  •  But if that is not practical, we start at a crab pot or anything we can find.

I’ll say again that I believe the single hardest position on the boat is the bow calling the line.  There are so many variables; all while bouncing around –it is tough.  And to top it off, the personality of the RC and/ or fleet can affect how the line is called.  So there is no guarantee, but the above is the closest we have come to a formula for success.  But you need to stay alert, things change and you need to be ready to take advantage of that. 

Turkey Team Race: The Rebirth of Youth Team Racing?

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By Airwaves writer Grace Lucas

This past weekend the Annapolis Yacht Club hosted a team race regatta, much like the CJ Buckley Team Race Regatta, but on a much smaller scale. Anyone could enter, provided that they had a full team of 6; 3 skippers and 3 crews, however the registration was capped at 12 teams. My CJ Team, The Powerpuff Girls, entered together, excited to have an excuse to sail together again.

Saturday morning, everyone was at the AYC junior sailing building by 8 o’clock, except for a few late stragglers, one of whom was one of the Powerpuff Girls who was flying in from Maine that morning. Once we got the lay of the land, we all waited for the skippers meeting, which came promptly at 9 am outside on the deck to accommodate the large number of people there. It was brisk outside, around 40 degrees, but definitely sailable. We were lucky to have very talented and knowledgeable coaches at the event, all of whom coincidentally sailed at the College of Charleston!

Since high school sailing had ended three weeks prior to this event, I was eager to get out onto the water, despite the chilly air. The Powerpuff Girls were one of the two teams that rigged SSA (Severn Sailing Association) boats, which is where we would be switching boats for the weekend. 24 boats were sailed; 6 SSA boats and 18 AYC boats. The regatta ran much like a high school team race regatta, with teams switching boats after almost every race. However, once we got out on the water, we didn’t start races immediately. Due to a delay for one of the teams, we did a couple of practice starts before the team racing actually began.

It was extremely fun to be back on the water. Just three weeks felt like eternity, and once I was back in a boat I realized how much I really missed sailing. Emma, my skipper, and I even got chastised for smiling too much during a race by one of the coaches (which we thought was even funnier). The conditions were very appropriate in portraying what high school and college regattas can be like. The wind was oscillating rapidly, and the pressure was very up and down. To succeed, it was extremely important to remember to sail your boat well. Just getting off the line well and consistently tacking with headers could make or break a team. Our coaches, Cole Allsopp, Russ (Rustle) O’Reilly, Brendan Healy, and Zeke Horowitz, watched the races closely throughout the day, and gave us feedback and advice, all of which was very beneficial, especially for those of us wanting to take it back to our school teams.

The racing had to end early for a couple of the teams, as AYC had its annual awards at 3:30, which the AYC kids had to attend. Right before the last start of the day there was a giant collision between two boats, which left one boat with a hole in its hull. Despite these unfortunate circumstances, the coaches stayed out on the water with the remaining teams and ran drills for an extra half-hour to maximize time on the water for the teams from out of town.

After the AYC annual awards, all of the contestants met in the Skipjack (the bottom level of AYC) and ate dinner together and then consolidated for a debrief with the coaches, in which we discussed various scenarios throughout the day.

Sunday was quite different from the day before. The conditions were more severe. The wind started in the upper teens and built throughout the day with gusts up to 35-40 knots. The temperature started in the mid-20s and rose slightly throughout the day, even though it felt like it got colder due to the wind chill. All of the sailors were at AYC by 8:30, and many did not want to sail. Even our visitors from Maine and up-state New York thought that it was too cold to sail, which I thought was ridiculous. To Emma and I this looked like a great opportunity to practice in big breeze, and in all honesty, it just looked like fun! Joel Labuzetta and Alana O’Reilly, our AYC directors, made the decision to go out and sail, an announcement that was met with groans from most, but cheers from one third of the Powerpuff girls (for which we were berated). Luckily for us, we started a day with a bye, so we immediately headed over to SSA to wait for the first round of races. Sadly, we waited and waited and no boats ever came from AYC. Sailing had been called off due to the weather, so instead we had chalk talks upon chalk talks (which were really white board talks) with our coaches, with only one burrito break (which was really plenty). We talked in depth about the play two weave, and got opinions from various coaches on how they prefer certain maneuvers to others. We also learned that this same weave should be performed when in a 1-2-3 because it covers the entire course while not giving opportunities to pass. Another thing the coaches went over, were various team racing (and just sailing) rules, which seemed unnecessary at first, but then turned out to be extremely helpful in clarifying why calls consistently go certain ways, and how to phrase the situation when describing it in the protest room so that the call will more than likely go in your favor.

All in all, I am very excited this event took place. CJ Buckley was easily my favorite regatta of the summer, and I think that more non-high school team racing events need to happen. For so many youth sailors, the only people we hear about team racing from are our high school coaches, and as brilliant as they are, it is nice to hear about different opinions from different coaches. This event, hopefully, is the start of a new trend in the youth sailing world. Team racing is fun! It requires flawless boat handling, while also understanding and managing course awareness more than in fleet racing. As cliché as it sounds, it pushes good sailors to become great sailors because they have to manage a plethora of aspects that are not pertinent in fleet racing. Plus, it is a bit more interesting to watch, which is a plus side for all the parents who we drag around the country all year!

Observations from College Match Racing Nationals

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By Airwaves Writer Clinton Hayes

November 22-24 2013 ~ St. Petersburg, FL

This year I had the pleasure of coaching the Stanford Match Race Team. I got to watch lots of prestarts, tacks, gybes, sets, and penalty kills. What became apparent was that boathandling and boatspeed were very important and got teams a long way on the College Match Racing Circuit. I was impressed but not surprised to see that the top teams at Nationals all had near perfect boathandling and good boatspeed. At a high level, the difference comes down to actual match racing.

Below are patterns I saw time and time again. I probably watched about 80 prestarts and the best teams were better, or got better during the event at doing the little things right. I’m not the best match racer in the world (ISAF says I’m the 433rd best) and I didn’t invent these tactics but after watching so many races I’m willing to go on record with what I think.

Prestart

-With the exception of extremely light wind always force a dial-up when entering from port(blue).  Crossing ahead of the starboard boat feels great until they tack into a controlling leeward position and prevent you from gybing. As the event went on, more and more teams realized this and were more successful because of it.

-When dialed up to port of your opponent and not on final approach(usually the initial dial up) work hard to keep your bow right at head to wind so you can quickly tack to port when the opportunity presents itself. To often the port boat would lose flow and fall to starboard tack. A clever starboard boat will then tack and come back to dial up the port boat again. Many times this repeats itself with the port boat never able to recover.

extra tip: If you’re the port boat in this situation, build speed on starboard before tacking back for the second dial up. This way your second dial up is just like the first and you’ll have at least as much flow as the starboard boat.

-If you’re in trouble, stop and sit head to wind. If you’re controlled by the other boat, sailing on starboard early in the starting sequence is almost always a bad thing. Just sit head to wind and wait for an escape route to present itself.

In the final approach to the line…

-When leading: Think low and slow. Who cares if you start late as long as you’re still leading when you cross the line. When the other boat is not pushing you don’t ever sail horizontally toward the pin.

-When pushing: Think high and fast. Tack into the push to create separation. You’re trying to push the leader into the starting box to a point where you can, at the very least, tack and start on port.

-Remember global strategy! If you want the left then don’t get hooked. I saw lots of people accidentally get hooked when the left was super favored. Leave yourself some room for error. Be quick to match your opponents down moves and delay a bit to match their up moves. If you want the right either choose to push or purposely get hooked.

Upwind

-I was surprised to see the lead boat choose to split and not cover their opponent. You obviously can’t always tight cover your opponent but you can choose to stay near them so they only gain distance on you instead of fully passing.

-When in doubt, lead to the right and lose cover to the left. Especially in the fairly consistent winds in St. Petersburg. Sounds simple but too often teams did it the other way and got passed.

Downwind

–Know what gybe is the long one and set up to have clean air while sailing on it. This means gybing before your opponent when its starboard gybe or not getting rolled if its port.

Other

–Keep the protest flag(Y Flag) out of the skippers hand! Bring extra line and tie it inside a crew members lifejacket. Its so funny to watch skippers fumble around trying to grab the flag and lose control of the other boat. Only it’s not funny when it happens to you.

–Do your homework: The team that checked starting laylines and practiced sailing around the starting line the most won this regatta. Congrats Georgetown!

Weta Trimaran Regatta at Tauranga NZL

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Glamour weather just added to the fizz at the NZ Wetafest held at Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club over the weekend.

We arrived late Friday afternoon to a light sea breeze and quickly rigged and got out on the water for the rum race. Everyone was a little unsure of our course, except perhaps the local Phil Scherer who sails with his son Lawrence. But basically we made our way around the sand bank in the middle of Tauranga harbour with the sound of thuds to keep us company as everyone managed to smack into the sandbank at least once each, no sneaky cutting corners in Tauranga!

Saturday dawned sunny with another light sea breeze that filled in just in time for the start of the Rogaine orienteering race. Sailors were given a map and instructions and had to search the harbour for hidden codes and they could get the codes in any order that they wanted. With high tide at 11.30 there was a lot of discussion about what way to go first and the tactical advice was coming thick and fast.

Jon Bilger explains the race “We were given a chart showing a dozen locations that ranged from navigational marks, to wharfs & beaches that were marked with the important secret codes. Tauranga harbour has numerous navigation marks, and so this is more challenging that you would think!  The rules stipulated that you could find the locations in any order but you needed to be back at the beach in 1.5hrs otherwise get penalised points. Stella, my 8 year old daughter, who like her father is quite competitive, was fired up to win.  Stella was in charge of the map in a plastic bag, and we cleverly tied the pencil to the bag, as losing the pencil into the water was not an option.  All seemed to be going well until the lead in the pencil broke! Writing with just the lead was proving difficult for Stella, and even more so for Dad.  Undaunted, Stella managed to wrangle another pencil from the organising committee (in a chase boat) with ever the dramatic comment of “thank you so much, you saved my life!!” We maintained relative calm on-board until towards the end. We could not find a navigation mark with our last clue, to find out later this clue went missing!  Stella warned me that we better get back to the beach on time, and it turned out that her time on distance was very good…  we had 30 seconds to spare, and managed 2nd place. Phew!!”

Phil Schearer used his local knowledge to advantage to take out the race, getting 9 out of 11 codes and getting back to the beach in the time limit to avoid a penalty.

After lunch everyone headed out for some informal sprint racing with coaching from Chris, a warm up for the main event on Sunday. That night TYPBC put on a delicious barbecue dinner. Discussing the day’s events with a few beers as the sun set over the club was a great end to a really fun day.

Sunday Warren from TYPBC ran six hotly contested 20 minute races for us. The racing was awesome, overtaking just before the finish, a lot of competitive match racing tactics and some full on starts. The wind started light and built to 12 knots, perfect Weta weather. We raced just to the right of the sandbank and the tide made for some interesting local effects. I used my downwind speed to gain much needed ground on many of the races.

Twice I was in 4th or 5th on the final run and managed to just grab a second. In the third race I rounded the top mark for the final time just behind Will Cobb I gybed at the same time as him and went for the roll. But we sailed drastically different angles and I sailed myself into a hole while Will soaked low to take the win. The next two races the wind went up a notch and I took two quick wins while Will got a 3 and 4 allowing me to get back in the game. For the last race it was all on, Will had a great start and jumped out to a good lead, but I mowed him down on the last run and rolled him about 15 meters from the start line. Will soaked low and this time I matched him so that I could stay in the same wind, but the boat end was drastically favoured, the wrong side for me. I did a quick gybe to swing behind Will but he reacted quickly to get his boat around and put himself in between me and the line. Meanwhile we were so focused on each other that we didn’t notice Brent and Liam Charlesworth coming storming in on a better angle, luckily we were just enough advanced that Will took 1st and I took 2nd by a millimetre to secure the regatta.

All said and done it was a fantastic weekend, really enjoyable racing, tropical weather and the orienteering race worked out really well. I would like to thank T
auranga Yacht and Power Boat Club for all their help and the Weta Class Association for putting on such a great regatta.

http://www.wetamarine.com/about/news/587-tauranga-puts-it-on-for-nz-wetafest

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