Day 3 of racing

Well my discussion with Mark about starting technique, phenomena that happen on the starting line with the fleet, and removing doubt in order to improve confidence and remove hesitation was super helpful. We had 5 starts on day 3 (3 of which were recalls since we only had 2 races). In every start I strove to know exactly where I was on the line. We actually had line sights since the breeze was farther left that the other days, but I also tried using the arm sight tool, and was aware of where the line sag would be and when a bulge was happening. Bottom line, I felt confident that I knew how far back I was from the line and when I could pull the trigger. Now I just need to keep practicing that and I really want to try the arm sight thing when we don't have a line sight.

My good starts eventually turned in to poor results - primarily due to being slow on the runs - but to race with a good lane for most of the first beat was really cool. My speed in the first race was good. We had enough wind to be fully hiking with a combination of chop and swell. I even ducked the race leader - Evi Van Acker from Belguim - about 3/4 of the way up the beat. Unfortunately, the wind from the right that I tacked in under the lay line petered out near the top and boats farther right and left came in ahead of me. Still mid fleet I was really happy with that upwind, only to lose a couple on the reach, and lose the entire fleet on the downwind. It was a tough condition, one that I have sailed in at 3rd beach a lot, but have still been struggling with. Swell and chop, with enough pressure that you can catch waves, but they are very hard to catch. I struggle with accelerating the boat enough to catch the first one. Feeling waves roll under you when you feel pressure in your sail that should be enough to get you on a wave is frustrating! Marks advice: get going by the lee, do a little press to accelerate, and take it down a little, then turn back to hard by the lee as you get pushed by the wave. This first wave is helping to accelerate you so that your next press by the lee can help you catch the next wave. Going straight by the lee will never get you up to speed enough to catch the wave in this condition, so you have to use a previous wave combined with a turn to really accelerate the boat and then do your flatten-by-the-lee-to-catch-the-wave move. Something new for me - I was trying to accelerate in a straight line, not catching waves.

In race 2 the wind started to die and I started losing on boat speed about half way up the 1st beat. The mixed up chop and swell was still big, but there was very little pressure in the rig and we were all sitting in. This is a really tough condition. It sounds like sailors were using a variety of different sail set ups for this condition. Again on the downwind I was slow. This was a different condition though. No wave catching. Lots of leftover slop with very little wind. Marks advice - super loose vang (like so loose that it bounces slack while you are sailing) so you can over trim the mainsheet but still have by the lee flow. Don't rock, just keep the rig as still and steady as you can to maintain flow over the sail.

We had a 'reserve' day today, no sailing. A group of us took a boat ride out to some little volcanic islands and swam around a coral reef with fish and sea turtles. It was pretty awesome.

Tomorrow we will be divided into Gold and Silver fleets. I'm at the bottom of  silver fleet - which much less than where I had set my goals. So I am readjusting my expectations. It is obvious that the fleet as a whole has improved tremendously over the past few years. In my fleet is Annalise Murphy, heavy air superstar who won 4 races in a row at the Olympics, past world champion Kristal Weir, Canadians Isabella Berthold and Claire Merry, and Suzannah Pyatt from NZ - all top sailors.

My goal with the rest of the regatta is to learn as much as I can, and to execute what I already know. One thing in particular I will be focusing on is sailing confidently and decisively.

Day 2-3

See Mom I am wearing my sunscreen.
Okay, so Day 2 went a little better in some respects, although this experience is extremely humbling.

I have been working hard to improve my weaknesses, but with my limited budget, the improvements come slower than for the athletes who don't have to work and get to train full time with coaches and training partners. I am incredibly lucky to be here competing and learning as much as I can.

Once again, I struggled with starts. This is a major difficult problem for me. We actually had 4 starts in two races, because each race we had one recalled start before re-starting the race. Each time I had a good start in the start that was recalled, and hesitated in the start with the black flag up. My mantra for today is to turn the 'hesitater' off! I am not naturally a quick reflex type of person. Something weird happens during the starting sequence, and my mind say "Wait, stop, hold the phone, this is something new, let me stop and think about it!" and the wheels start turning. This is the exact opposite of how I should act on the starting line! Today my goal is to turn off the hesitater.

After a good morning discussion with coach Mark Littlejohn, I have a better understanding of why I hesitate and how to fix it. Basically, I have doubt about how far back from the line I am, and to eliminate the hesitating, I have to eliminate the doubt. I learned a tool that Marit uses for knowing how far back from the line you are when there are no line sights. It involves pre-race homework. You sit on the line near where you plan to start and use one arm to sight down the line at the pin, then turn and use the same arm to sight down the line at the boat. You should feel your arm turn 180 degrees. Then drift back a boat length and do it again, your arm should turn less than 180. Do this a couple times and you can get a sense of how far back you are at different angles. The next thing is to recognize the line sag phenomenon and how it works on a black flag - which is something I forgot about yesterday. Mark drew me a picture with a great explanation of the line sag shape, and now I know exactly where I was in that sag yesterday. I played the 'beat your neighbor' game well yesterday, but didn't realize that me and my neighbors were all well behind the line.

Here is the picture:

Happy to explain this better later, right now have to get ready to sail. Our start is at 1pm today. Still processing a lot of what I just learned about confidence and doubt and decision making. Focus today is on having confidence in what I know, and forget about what I don't know.

day 2 morning

We are postponed on shore with no wind. It is very still compared to yesterday morning. Here is the link for a video about the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t0D8mHWW1Y

Prepping for Day 2's racing

Looks like we will have the same light sea breeze again today. Yesterday we were postponed for a while to wait for the sea breeze to fill in. We raced in 6 knots building to 11 I would guess with chop that was kind of mixed up from all the boats. 

Hope Peter doesn't mind I am sharing his long-distance coaching advice for today. Its good advice!

Day 1

What can I say. I had two bad starts today, and in this fleet, coming back from that was next to impossible. My boat speed needs to be better, yes, but the most important thing is to get two good starts every day!

So, to break it down to the details, I think that my pre-start set up is okay, and my general plan for where to start. Its usually in the last 30 to 5 seconds that something goes wrong.

Race 1: I found myself getting a little to close to the boat to leeward late in the sequence, (need to do a better job staying to weather in my 'hole') so I backed up so I could sheet in and sail back into the same hole with flow and speed. I messed up the timing of this move and did it too late (I think anything less than 20 seconds is too late). As I went to trim in to sail back into my hole, I realized that I was going to be late, so I immediately tacked and ducked a few boats.

Well, I should have done a better job of staying to windward in the hole I was in, but the next thing was to recognize the problem earlier and back up with 40 or 30 seconds to go instead. Another options at 30 or 40 seconds would have been to back up, tack, and tack back into the same hole.

The bail out at the start at least gave me a lane heading right, which was part of my plan, and I managed to cross a couple boats on that upwind, but the next major mistake was hitting the lay line too early, which caused me to lose the boats that I had gained. With the density of our fleet (the leaders weren't that far ahead of the the stragglers at the first mark, so the entire fleet was rounding close together) the wind on the lay line is so turbulent that to actually lay the mark you have to over stand quite a bit, very expensive.

Race 2: I did a great job building a hole to leeward and was primed for a good acceleration, but I pulled the trigger just a fraction of a second too late, and got shot out the back. Although I worked hard to stay in pressure, on the lifted tack, and actually managed to find lanes to do this, I could not claw my way back.

Tomorrow: focus on building a good hole on the starting line, and pulling the trigger at the right time.

Geography

This is where we are, sailing on the Gulf of Oman:

Finally we are ready to race

The practice days are funny because every sailor is on their own schedule with their coaches. Some head out early and do their own thing, but eventually there is a big international group of sailors just doing races that are run by some coaches. Usually they are 2 or 3 minute starts between two buoys and a windward-leeward finishing by rounding the left gate mark (that was the starting line). In between races everyone is milling around, there are almost as many coaches in powerboats as there are sailors.

I sailed two coach-run practices races today and then the official practice race which was run by the race committee with a real 5 minute starting sequence and the pyramid buoys we will be using during racing the rest of the week. My starts were okay, but not great and I usually had to tack out after a while and duck a few boats. I don't think my upwind speed was very good, some situations would have worked out better had I been faster, particularly right after the start. My downwind speed seems pretty fast however, and I was able to pass a few boats on the downwind legs. This has been a weakness of mine, so hopefully I can continue sailing fast downwind!

Pics from todays practice race are here:
http://www.laserradialworldchampionship.com/media-zone/

Team USA at the opening ceremonies:
Christine Neville, Erika Reineke, Haddon Hughes, Paige Railey