CORK OCR, Kingston, Ontario - day 1

Storm clouds this morning with forecasts for a lot of wind and rain in the afternoon. 12-18 knots out of the SSW.

Results today were 14, 17, 7. Not that great considering I rounded the first windward mark in the top ten every race. Most of my losses were on the down winds, some were upwind if I didn't go far enough left.

After the Nationals, where I scored too many black flags, I started conservatively today. It made holding a lane off the start harder. My goal for this event is to figure out how to be a little back and trim in early in order to hit the line at full speed - and be on the line but not over.

Generally you had to go left on the beats, but there were shifts to play on the first beat. Since we sailed an outside trapezoid (windward - reach - down - up - down - reach - short finish upwind) the second beat was closer to the left shore, and it was crucial to go hard left as all the puffs were coming off the shore.

Downwind: The waves were more from the west, and it took me two whole races to figure out that it was better to get speed reaching (on starboard) and take it down than to go by the lee on either gybe. With the wave angle, by the lee was across the waves and slow. Have to recognize that faster next time.

Lessons learned:

On the down winds: Pay attention to the other boats that rounded near you, and compare angles and speed early on. If you are losing to them, figure out why!!!!!! If by the lee is not helping you catch waves, try reaching to see what works.

In general, spend more time checking other boat to see if you are losing or gaining. If you are losing, it might be good to change something! (settings, angle, tack?)

Upwind: Land on the left - go left.

I got the last one mostly right today, but sometimes didn't go as far left as other boats and lost to them.

After we got to the dock it started pouring. It is kind of blowing the dog off the chain right now. Tomorrows forecast is for lighter winds, so I guess the storm will blow itself out tonight.

Regatta Wrap Up - San Fran Nationals

Another black flag! That pretty much ruined my chances of moving up in the standings. Other than being over early, race one went pretty well. It was the earliest we had sailed in the tide cycle, and the current was not yet strong, so I had decided that shifts and pressure changes (which were big) would be the biggest factor. That philosophy worked well, I would have finished 6th or 7th I think.

For race 2 the current had built, and it was important to seek current relief from the shore, but the shifts were huge. The biggest we had seen all week. I did a pretty good job choosing when to head for shore, and when to go out to grab some wind and a right shift, but I missed a couple obvious things here and there. I let a boat cross that I should have forced to tack, and I ducked a boat to go farther left when we were already over stood and I should have tacked ahead and to leeward. The biggest mistake was probably at the bottom of the last little beat to the finish. It has been extremely hard to predict which way to go in all of our races. Usually the water was mixed up from nearby powerboats, and the wind was mixed up from all the boats to windward still reaching. I rounded the leeward mark right between two other boats, so I was in one guys bad air and the next guy was in my bad air. We had all done good wide and tight roundings, so I was able to tack, and I did and split from the boats right behind me. In retrospect, it was a risky choice and I should have covered even though we were all going slow. It turned out that the right won and I lost 3 or 4 boats by going left. No reason to leave anything up to chance at the end if it means you could lose.

All in all, I am happy with my 5th place finish, and I have lots of stuff to work on, like starts! Thank you for reading,  next regatta is CORK in Kingston, Ontario. Stay tuned.

-Christine

Results:

http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=8479

Nationals Day 3

Movin' up slowly.  Similar conditions again today - although the breeze was even more left, so even more shifty and puffy with huge patches of light wind. It was easy to sail into a hole with no wind in the lee of the St. Francis Yacht Club while tacking up the shore. Scores today: 7, 7, 1. I am happy with those results, but have to nit pick some mistakes where I lost boats in the first two races.

Race 1 - not a good start - didn't have a big enough hole to leeward and tried to force it to work. It didn't help that the kid to leeward of me was over early and luffed up underneath me. - Got to come in to the boat with more speed to maintain flow and maintain hole to leeward. I was too close to the line too early I think.

Race 2 - Decent start, and made decent tactical decisions up and down, but lost on a few bad tacks,  and also lost on one of the reaches by going low. Then lost more by not maintaining speed well in the choppy mixed up wind and waves of the last short beat to the finish. In race 2 it was especially important to get up in to the left corner at the top of the beat for current relief - it would be important the whole way up - but there was such a hole in the lee of the yacht club that it was better to stay in a little more wind and adverse current.

Race 3 - Nailed the start. Started mid line at the right end of the new ebb current. The eddy line was at the middle of the start line - I wanted to be in the good current, but the line was favoring the boat. Stayed in the favorable current all the way up and played shifts. Downwind I made sure I stayed on the other side of the eddy line and looked for puffs. Same again upwind and down and always watching Haddon not to far behind me to make sure that I was in position to get any new wind that she got. She was working hard to catch me and would creep up at times. I had to hike really hard on the upwinds to stay ahead of her!

Now sitting in 5th. Tomorrow - the last day - we are scheduled to have 2 races for a total of 11. Currently we are all throwing out 1 score, and after 10 races we throw out a second score. The pressure is still on fore me to score two good races tomorrow and throw out a 22 so that I can move up to 4th or 3rd. 3rd would be cool - 2nd or 1st not likely since Haddon in 2nd and Erik in 1st would have to have two horrible races or black flags or something tomorrow, and they have both shown consistency. My plan is to be fully switched on, sail smart and not risky, nail the starts without being over, pay close attention to current and wind - head out of the boat.

Here is the link to results:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=8479

Pics from Friday:

Pics from today:

Nationals Day 2

The conditions today were similar to day 1 except windier, and coming more from the south which means coming off the city. The gusts were bigger and the lulls were bigger too. As usual, short tacking up the seawall was important but going away from the wall worked if you had more wind and a lift. My scores were 2, BFD, 7. In the 1st and 3rd races I did exactly what was working for day 1 - start near the boat - tack up the shore - look for puffs on the downwind - blah blah blah. BFD stands for Black Flag which means that I was over the line at the start in a race where you can't restart.

Here is how a black flag start works: The race committee wants to add a penalty for being over the line because they have done too many general recalls and they just want to have a clean start, so they hoist a black flag during the starting sequence. Everyone knows that if they are over early, they are disqualified from that race. (usually you can go back and restart).  If one or two people are over early, they just find out at the end of the day. If lots of boats are over early, they do a general recall - which means that they do the start over. But they don't let you get away with being over even though lots of people were. They write down everyone's number who was over early and post it on a board. If your number is on the board, then you are scored BFD (last place) and don't get to sail that race.

So I had to sit around and watch race 2 with a few other boats. I realize that I need to break down my starting technique for black flag starts. It is extra important to make sure that the race committee doesn't get a chance to read your sail number or recognize that you are close to the line in the last minute before the start. I need to make sure that I am farther back from the line, and trim in earlier than the boats next to me. I was trying to take advantage of having a good line sight and lots of line sag during our black flag starts, so I was hovering closer to the line than the boats next to me and that made me exposed. I was pretty confident that I was right on the line, but not over, but obviously they got me.

Currently my scores for the regatta are: 22, 3, 1, 2, BFD, 7, and that puts me in 10th. We get to throw out 1 score after we have sailed 4 races so I am throwing out the BFD (which is 54 points) for a total of 35 points. After 10 races we get to throw out another score. My goal for the rest of the regatta is to have great starts, no black flags, and consistent top 7 scores. If I do that I could break the top 5. We will see!

Laser Nationals - San Francisco City Front - Day 1

Conditions today were kind of typical San Francisco, but the wind was a little late to develop.  Racing started at noon when we had around 12-15 knots of wind from the WSW. I'm guessing it was 15-17 for race two, and 17-19 for race three. We are sailing near the shore in a full flood tide, which means that the upwinds are long and the downwinds short. Starting near Fort Mason, with a windward mark near St. Francis, it is important to go hard left and get into the current relief below the marina. The race committee heavily favored the boat (right) end of the starting line to balance out that bias. I watched the full rigs and the yellow fleet start their first race, and it seemed to me that it was worth it to start by the boat, even though you had to sail farther to get to the current relief. It might have been a good plan, but I was not able to hold my lane off the start and tacked away. That was a bad decision I think. In retrospect I think it might have been better to sail in bad air all the way to the left side. This course is hard since current plays a very important role, but the wind shifts are big and the puffs and lulls are dramatic enough to outweigh the current sometimes. The hard part is knowing when. Race 1 finish - 21st

But the most important lesson from race 1 - Getting a really really good start is essential! Not just a goal. Might as well not even be here if I'm not going to get stellar starts.

The other things I learned about this course today were to really look for pressure downwind. Sometimes the pressure was on the left and that was good since there was more current out there taking you down, but sometimes there were blasty puffs coming down from Crissy Field - especially late in the afternoon - and getting to them first was good. Also, make a good call on which gate was favored - most people went to the right gate since it was closer to shore - but I think that the left was better since it was farther upwind.

So race two I had a good start at the boat, sailed fast to the left, played the shifts and current next to the break wall and found myself chasing Haddon Huges who had started farther to the left of me and managed to cross me on port once she got to the current relief under the marina. Stayed in second for the whole race, sometimes gaining on Haddon, but then I would lose it again. Ander from Mexico in 3rd place was pretty far behind so I wasn't worried about him, but on the last two reaches to the finish he made big gains and rounded the last leeward mark right behind me. I let him split from me on the last little upwind, and as we came back to the finish line he crossed right behind me. In retrospect, I should have covered him up the whole beat since he caught me by inches finishing at the favored end of the line.

So lessons from race 2 - Do not let your guard down when somebody fast is behind you. Don't leave things up to chance that you can control. At the end of the race, make sure that someone close behind you stays behind you.

Race 3 - I had another good start near the boat and sailed fast to the left. I dueled it out with the top boats as we tacked up the shore and I think I rounded the 1st windward mark 3rd. I went left downwind and caught a big puff and managed to pass the boats on the inside. Rounded the left gate mark in 1st - sailed to the wall - looked for puffs downwind and they were coming from Crissy this time. It felt great to win the last race of the day, and once I got away from the pack it was easy. So I'm keeping this one in my brain for tomorrow!

Goal is to keep guaranteeing myself top 5 finishes for the rest of the regatta. No leaving things up to chance.

If you would like to find out more about my Olympic Laser Campaign and help me get to the World Championships this September, Click here

Stuff to remember - lessons learned and re-learned lately

Pre-race homework: Do a drift-off test before the starting sequence to measure current and how much it pushes you while you are holding your place on the line. 1 min holding your place either at the boat or the pin is good. Repeat the tests if the current is strong.

When you want to go right after the start, but you can't quite tack and cross, force the issue by tacking and lee bowing.  Don't forget that the tack and duck can be a totally valid option - maybe better in windy conditions.

Upwind tactics: You may choose to cross a pack of boats instead of leading them back. If you cross them, you must go at least 5 boat lengths past them. This eliminates the possibility that you lose your lane due to a shift or the other boats pointing higher than you. this is especially important when racing against people who are lighter than you, and even more important if it is also light wind.

Be more routine about clearing mainsheet in approach to windward mark.

Windward mark bear-aways. Initiate with mainsheet dump, and move weight back, ready to move to leeward.

Downwind wave surfing: initiate the down turn with mainsheet ease. Often this means easing the sheet as soon as you are finishing your up turn. Easing sheet early allows you to move your body more over the centerline of the boat so you are ready to press to leeward as soon as you reach a by-the-lee angle. Finish the down turn with a reverse pump and press to leeward to accelerate down the wave.

Leeward mark rounding tactics: When approaching the mark overlapped outside of another boat, know which way you want to go upwind. If you want to go left, slow down and round behind in a high lane so you pin them from tacking, and you can tack freely. If you want to go right, it can work to force them in to a tight slow rounding while you maintain great speed and round low, blowing through their lee. This can only work if you get up a huge head of steam and are bow forward on them. If you can fake them into doing a defensive, tight, slow rounding, then it is better. Works best if it is very windy or very light so the inside boat stalls. When you are the inside boat, pay attention to what the outside boat is trying to do and don't let them get the advantage.

If you would like to learn more about my Olympic campaign in the Laser Radial, click here:

Laser NA's Wrap Up

The final day of racing started with fog and a southerly in the morning. Local knowledge calls this the 'Catalina Eddy' and indicates that the sea breeze will fill in late or not at all. This proved to be true, and we sailed two races in very light air and some waves. The sea breeze filled in in full force at around 3:30.

I was proud of myself for recognizing that it was a light air day, getting to the edge of the course for clear air would be important, and looking for pressure would be important too. At the top of the first beat, I didn't go far enough though, and lost a lot to boats on my hip that were in better pressure. I took this lesson to heart the rest of the day, often passing boats by sailing on the edge of the fleet. My boat speed was not great however, and I often lost my lane and had to do two extra tacks, or let boats cross me so I could get out to the edge. Another humbling day!

Another thing that I learned about is how wide the upwind laylines are in waves. I was constantly amazed at how much farther I had to sail to get to the layline after I had thought I was on it. In flat water, boats travel basically the direction they are pointing, but in waves - especially skewed ones, you can have a lot of leeway.

My number one resolution for the next few months is to spend more time sailing in ocean waves, in both light and windy conditions.

I ended up in 20th out of 102 boats. Not exactly the performance I was hoping for, top ten would have been more like what I expected. This regatta was a great learning experience. It was an extremely difficult event and just reinforces that I need to spend as much time as I can sailing!