Heavy Air Rudderless!

It's come to my attention from viewing and videoing practice the past few weeks that many of my students are in a dependent relationship with their rudders. They need the rudder to turn and drive the boat, and - most troubling - to keep it going straight! They get so used to yanking on it through turns that they seem not to notice when the boat is not balanced and are content to "sail upwind" with the crew nesting on the centerboard, the mainsheet out, and the tiller cocked 10 degrees to windward! On the start line, crews tended to be similarly stoic, knowing the skipper will just scull the boat to get it out of irons.  The tyranny of the 420's oversized rudder on my sailors was going unchecked!

I decided to do something about it:

Most coaches use rudderless as a light air drill. But I thought about it, and realized the benefits of Heavy Air rudderless are significant: The feedback of what you are doing with weight and sail trim on the boats is immediate, and you absolutely must "balance" the boat, with aggressive hiking. The specifics of how to turn the boat sans rudder are:

Thanks Peter Commette! 

So, to review: 

Trim Main: Turn Up

Trim Jib: Turn Down

Ease Jib: Turn Up

Ease Main: Turn Down

Heel to Leeward: Turn Up

Heel to Windward: Turn Down

Move Forward: Head Up

Move Aft: Turn Down

Torque Forward (I do this all the time, when I feel I need to get out of pinch mode): Turn Down

Torque Aft (I have never done this): Turn Up

All of these rules apply regardless of wether or not the rudder is on, and you should steer in this manner when you DO put the rudder back on, allowing it to simply follow the sailboats path. 

The nuance of this is that for maximum speed, the boat should be heeled just the right amount, or as little as possible for the desired rate of turn. Most of the time when sailors got out of control doing rudderless it was because they OVER-Heeled one way or another and Over-Turned. Similarly, over steering with the sails comes at a cost of loosing flow. Some goals for the next time out:

* Try to practice rudderless as close to normal weight position and normal sail trim as possible. No standing up! 

*Keep the boat flat, using only ~10degrees heel when its time to turn.

*Trim the sail for flow (both driver and crew are looking at their sails!), and only stall the jib and luff the main very slightly to turn down/ stall main and "bubble" the front of the jib slightly to turn up. 

*Anticipate when the boat is going to "over turn" and counteract with a quick "Torque" or heel the opposite way to counteract.

*Talk through all maneuvers and steering between the Driver and Crew. With the rudder gone, the Crew is just as much a Driver as the Driver is - you are equal partners in the steering of the boat! Be sure to communicate what the boat needs!! 

Recent Regattas!

St. Thomas Wins Atlantic Coast Championship! 

Click here for full results. Sailing at Norfolk Yacht and Country Club in coastal Virginia, the STA team of Mack Fox, John Monahan, Max Gillette, Sophia Rienenke and Connor Correll defended their title! The regatta was sailed in FJ's with 22 races being completed in total. The team sat in 2nd at the end of Saturdays racing but rode a 1st place effort in B division by Fox and Monnahan to the overall win. Thanks to guest coach and ODU alum Andrea Luna for working with the team!

                                 

Bad Opening/Closing Sets Drop Aquinas at Charleston Intersectional, SP2

While the STA team was able to sail most of each regatta as a top 2 team, the overall results were victimized by a couple bad races. At SP 2, the hits came early, as the team opened with a 16, 9 across both Divisions. The B division team of Mack Fox and Dae Kelly was able to win 3 of the next  6 races, but could only move the team up to 6th. Our JV team placed first in its division. 

The Charleston Intersectional was a tune up for the Mallory Nationals and many of the top schools from SAISA (as well as a great team from Texas which won the event) turned up to scope out the venue. Through 3 Sets, Aquinas sat in 2nd, within striking distance of the lead. As the sun began to go down over the Charleston skyline, we began to plummet! The starts got bad, the tactics indecisive, and the team dropped to 6th place - 5th after Antilles School lost a protest to which we were not a party. On Sunday, the Student PRO decided that he could not risk the schools equipment in 15-18kt winds, and we were only allowed to sail 1 set in FJ's (the regatta was intended to be run in FJ's and Z420's with both division on the water).

There are no "Throw-outs" - race scores you can discard - in high school sailing. Your bad races count just as much as your good races. No mulligans, oops sorry I messed up, do overs, or re-tests, and the regatta can end at any time...or go on longer than you expect. Its a critical skill to be able to live in the present and focus on executing well in the current race. It's my hope that we learned some of these skills from our mistakes, how to sail - and Coach better at certain points in the regatta, and got a feel for the racecourse at College of Charleston where we hope to compete for a National Championship. 

SP3 Results

SP3 JV Results

Larry White Results 

Aquinas 2nd at SouthPoints 1

The double-handed season got underway this past weekend with the Southpoints 1 Regatta at Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa. Throughout the season, the LYC teams will compete in 7 "Southpoints" Regattas, which cumulatively qualify the Top 7 teams for the District Championship (the top 3-4 teams from the Districts then go to Fleet Race Nationals). Results can be viewed here, and you can follow us at regattas all season long at scores.hssailing.org . 23 Varsity Teams from Florida and 1 from South Carolina completed 10 races total in primarily light and shifty conditions. The Aquinas team of Mack Fox, Dae Kelly, Sophia Rieneke, Cameron Swain, Max Vittemburga, and Clyde Weight led through most of the regatta (Sophia/Clyde started the event with a bullet), but a late-day penalty turn for hitting the starting mark dropped the team to 2nd. Pinecrest attended as well and got some pretty inexperienced sailors through the hurdle of their first regatta, as well as finishing with a nice race in A Division. Overall, i'm happy with Aquinas' sailing relative to the District, but see that we have a long way to go in practice as a team before we start putting up consistently better results!

We will be Team Racing this week in practice before getting a group ready to attend the Lawrence "Stop calling me Larry" White Intersectional at Coast Guard Academy, CT, on October 17-18.

 - Arthur Blodgett

Sophia Rieneke Qualifies for Cressy Singlehanded Nationals!

Representing St. Thomas of Aquinas at the first of the 4 yearly nationals qualifiers (Singlehanded, Keelboat, Double-handed, Team Racing) Sophia Rieneke qualified for the Cressy National Championship, to be held at Old Dominion University. Sailing in the 42 boat Laser Radial Fleet, Sophia finished 3rd, while STA teammates Connor Correll took 6th, Mack Fox 14th, Anna Weiss 16th, and Max Gillette 21st. Congrats to LYC Laser coaches Chris Dold and Colin Page who prepared the sailors well for this regatta and coached at the event.

Full results can be seen here.

Aquinas 2nd at Baker Team Race Nationals!!

Results/National Recap Here. Aquinas recap to follow!

Recap/Debrief: Aquinas Sails to 2nd at Nationals!

The St. Thomas Raiders scored their best Nationals finish to date, placing 2nd  at the High School Fleet Race Championship for the Mallory Trophy this past weekend. The regatta was hosted by the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, and contested by 20 of the top teams in the country - all of whom had to qualify through District Championships. Sailors got to experience racing in 2 prominent College Dinghies, the FJ and new Z420 - a lighter, sportier version of the traditional Club 420 that debuted in 2013. 18 Races were sailed in each fleet, with St. Thomas's Christopher Williford and Max Gillette taking home the A division title! Congratulations to the sailors who attended - Ali Toppa, Liza Toppa, Sophia Rieneke, Dae Kelly, John Monahan, Brian Buckley, Chirs and Max; as well as the entire Aquinas sailing team - Anna Wies, Calli Lewis, Mack Fox, Cameron Swain, Clyde Wright, Grant Dixon, Chase Sabadash, Connor Correll, and James Pulsford on a great season!

Recap:
Friday, after touristing around Annapolis, we had the opportunity for some on-site practice. Unfortunately, the wind was uncooperative. However, we did get some good practice with boathandeling: here's clips of the sailors honing their craft along the seawall. Obviously these tacks are not legal  - there was no wind - but the techniques were deemed legal by the umpires when used in more wind, and are how one should practice college-prep boathandeling!!

Dae and Chris Z420 Jybes:

Ali and Liza FJ Tacks: 

Sophia and John Z420 Tacks:

     Saturday Racing began in light airs on the Severn River. Despite poor starts, both Chris/Max and Ali/Liza were able to come back in several races by playing the shoreline lifts coming off the  left river bank, as well as sailing to an edge to where there was less adverse current and clear air downwind. When the racing was moved out into Annapolis harbor, the shifts became less predictable, and the team struggled, dropping all the way down to 5th at the end of Saturday's races.

    Sunday brought beautiful early morning fog, but better breeze, which freshened all day as we raced out in the harbor. Ali and John won 2 races, but the team remained inconsistent throughout the morning.

After lunch, with winds in the 12-15 kt range, Chris and Max really turned it on, posting 8 straight top 4 finishes (with no throw out races, consistency is the name of the game!) to take A Division. Sophia and Brian closed out the regatta in B division with consistent results of their own. The course dictated that you dig into a side - to get out of the cone of convergent current around the start line, and to benefit from either big left pressure, or right shoreline lifts. Chris/Max tended to favor the right on the first beat, while Sophia/John/Brian preferred the left, but both were able to round in the top 3 from their respective sides when they executed well. Downwind was all about staying on the headed jibe, while finding lanes down the middle that allowed you to sail the lest distance and stay wing-on-wing. Overall the teams effort sailing in the breeze was phenomenal, and we felt like we had the best boathandleing, and improved to have the best boat speed on the racecourse! After racing Sophia successfully defended herself in an educational protest (our 23 point cushion on 3rd meant we could loose and still be locked in to 2nd), as we wrapped up an exceptional Sunday effort. The season concludes with St. Thomas set to compete in the Baker Team Race Nationals held in Chicago in 2 weeks!

photos courtesy of Arthur Blodgett, Karin Gillette and Tracy Williford

PS. The Navy Says: 

Aquinas Qualifies for Mallory Nationals!

St. Thomas Aquinas sailed to a 3rd place finish this weekend to qualify comfortably for the Mallory Fleet Race National Championships to be sailed at the Naval Academy May 9-10. Results from the qualifier can be viewed here.   Congratulations to the entire team for putting in the preparation and practice effort to make this result possible! Next weekend we will look to go 2 for 2 in terms of national qualifiers; at the SAISA Team Race District Champs for the Toby Baker Trophy.