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.

Tuesday Debrief - Racing with George Washington

Here's the Video from Race 1 of Tuesdays practice. A huge thank you to our guests from George Washington University for scrimmaging with us! Overall a really good race - evidence of  "team race at full speed" (boats look flat, fast, plus some good boathandeling), basic plays and concepts.The Red team executes a nice downwind Hi-Lo to come back against a solid 1-2, then converts on a leeward mark trap. 

Red Team: Chris, Max, Alie, John, Sophia, Dae

Blue Team: GW, Mack, Cam, Liza. 

Observations:

0:30 Boat 1 is controlling the race by decidedly winning the boat end.

0:40 ...and uses that control to get their teammate, boat 8 out, before tacking and covering all 3 opponents.

1:20   1 & 8 tack in perfect unison on lay-line - they're fleet racing well together and not covering each other.

1:55 Red Boats 6 & 4 initiate a hi-low chasing strategy:
     
   Hi boats strategy: Cover the 2's air at all costs

   Low Boat Strategy: Fleet race to the mark (straight line in more breeze), convert a pass-back once            you are ahead of the opponent your teammate is covering. 

2:03 Boat 6 jybes a little late (should be jybing with the opponent to better cover them)

2:15...but still gets in a good position to cover.

2:35-2:55 The Hi-Lo works! We see boat 4 pass the blue boat as his teamamte sits on them.

2:57 Boat 4 (now in 2nd i nthe race) cant cross right of the opponent, so he correctly elects to get to the zone first and set a mark trap. To do this, boat 4 does a nice transition to a reach, then enters the zone angled away from the opponent (helps you stay clear ahead).

3:08 Mark trap!

3:50 Boat 6 does a nice job of pushing low.

    Red gets into a nice play 2.


Mistakes:

4:38 Boat 6 ignors her pair! Play 2 zone at risk.

5:13 Boat 9 sails by boat 6 instead of keeping the starboard advantage and trying to make a play on her.

"we're really playing loose with the starboard advantage here!" 

A Conglomerate Debriefing of C420/J24 Midwinters - Arthur Blodgett

One of the great perks of being a one design sailor in Florida is the Midwinters championship season. Competitors from northern regions exhaust serious resources and make these regattas a focal point of their programs - which makes these regattas really competitive! For local sailors, a great experience in your own backyard.
   The past two weekends I watched and coached 9 sailors from St. Thomas Aquinas High School at Club420 Midwinters, and sailed J24 Midwinters as trimmer for my college coach Robby Brown. Here's a somewhat random rendering of what went down and what we learned, plus an afterthought on weather or not each area relates to High School Sailing. Enjoy!

Recap:
   Both 3 day regattas were sailed in enclosed Bays, Jensen Beach and Hillsborough Bay in Tampa. The majority of the races were sailed in over 10 kts, but with a shortened-course-drifter at each regatta. At the C420 Mids 2 boats, Chris Williford/Dae Kelly and Sophia Reineke/Patrick Shannahan were in a position to finish in the top 10 going into Sunday's Gold Fleet racing (the 102 boats were split into 2 fleets). Unfortunately they struggled with Starting and Sophia had a breakdown, dropping several places. Preparation and trap/spin inexperience led to not quite the results we were going for, but it was nevertheless great to see these sailors compete with the best in the C420 Class.

above: Chris and Dae horizon jobbing a race. Below: when did sailing become like short track speed skating? When you race 50 boats that all go equally slow. Mack n' Max are the purple and black kite second from left. Chris and Dae are the middle rasta kite that wins this cluster &*%$ (look for 7211 stopping, going inside and shooting out) Mack and Max are never in clear air and needed to stay low longer before trying to cross under/in front of the fleet. Or just go high on the reaches (worked all regatta).

My J24 team was similarly unprepared, having a 1.5 hour practice on Thursday as our only time in the boat together since last year. Being rough around the edges cost us some points in a couple races, falling for a Jud Smith fake jybe, and getting start-fouled to a 16th left us in 4th overall after 4 races. On Saturday we had better communication in the boat, consistent if unspectacular mid-pin starts, and posted 4 top 4 finishes, putting us in 2nd, 2 points behind current World Champion Will Wells, and 10 pints ahead of 3rd (past world Champ John Mollicon) But on Sunday, the Bay was so smooth birds got a good look at themselves, and racing was (frustratingly for us) canceled.

Applies to High School Sailing Y/N? Yes. Good learning opportunities on mentally and physically enduring a 3 day regatta in the cold (could happen at Mallory/Baker) and sailing in Oscilating Shifts from a strategic and technical standpoint.

Toward Supercrewing: The more complex the boat, and the higher the level of competition, the more critical the crew becomes to the overall success of the boat. The basic responsibilities of the crew on any boat are: Sail trim, Heel control/weight placement, communication. But look at any of these responsibilities further and they branch out into a plethora of things a crew must do well! In the Club 420, crews had to learn the ins and outs (literally) of trapezing, wire to wire tacks, and how to sit forward in light air - all just to keep the boat flat! Oh, and do that while trimming your sails perfectly, using kinetics at the appropriate time, anticipating boathandeling maneuvers, and keeping your skipper in phase and out of trouble in a 50 boat fleet!
    Some tips for doing all of this well:

* Crews must read sails like a Driver. When trimming the J24 genoa, Robby and I spent most of the upwind legs both looking at the same things - the jib telltales, and the water 0-5 boatlengths to windward. When a puff would hit, I would ease the Genoa - to allow the boat to head up (aka steering with the Jib), but only just enough to get a small flicker on the windward telltale, or a slight bubble in overpowering conditions. As Robby would head up, I had to wind the Genoa back in at exactly the right speed to maintain flow. This was a significantly faster technique than a cleated jib sheet (I never cleated the jib) because instead of stalling in a puff or lift with the stalled jib pushing the bow down, we converted lifts to speed and headed up just as quickly, also maintaining a consistent angle of heel. In the C420, the crew plays the jib a lot less, but needs to read it to know when to move in and out - and read the water for the same info.

* Compartmentalize Communication. Everyone has specific things they need to talk about during each part of the race so we avoid both omission and redundancy. The skipper should talk jib trim to the crew - "ease," "trim!" depending on what groove (pinch/foot) they are trying to sail, and the crew needs to react immediately (always remember to trim smoothly despite the panic in your Drivers voice!). The crew can sometimes remind the driver the state of their trim - "got you eased 4 inches of the spreader" and should notice if the driver is not pointing high enough - "you've got Ups!" But the majority of the sail trim conversation upwind should flow from driver to crew. In the C420 the crew absolutely has to notice and communicate puffs, windshifts, and the angles, speeds and positions of other relevant boats. In the J24 the shift/puff calling was handled by the Tactician, and other that trimming, I focused mainly on watching the corners - telling the skipper when the lead boats on each side were continuing out or tacking back; and weather they looked ahead or behind us. Upwind, the skipper speaks the language of speed, while the crew paints a picture of the course.
    Downwind the roles reverse: the crew must focus on the kite and communicate the pressure they feel in it (head up when it feels too light, down when you have a puff), while the C420 skipper needs to look back to get puffs and a clear lane.

* Have a repeatable Choreography. We do this all the time with roll tacks, but when learning a new boathandleing skill, you need to find the most efficient way to do it, and get it done! I always try to be as smooth as possible, and never clomp my feet on the boat. When swinging into the companionway to trim in light air, or for a 420 crew swinging into the forward leeward box in light air, try to distribute your weight among your arms as well as your legs. Be careful not to touch anything you shouldn't (the vang, boom, or sails). Move without altering your jib trim, but always land in a position to see (possibly with with neck gymnastics) and trim the jib.

* Anticipate maneuvers like sets and douses, so you are calm and ready for them. When things do go wrong know why and problem solve as quickly as possible. Know that you make the boat go fast and have a quiet confidence in your ability to do this!

Applies to High School Sailing Y/N? Absolutely. Top Crew-work is essential to competing on a National level. For further reading on the skipper crew relationship, check out this article by Nikki Bruno. 


Notes on Spinnakers:
  Trimming a spinnaker can be thought of much like trimming a regular sail. The goal is to induce flow over the sail from the luff to the leech. Present a shape too close to paralleling the wind direction and it luffs. Over-trim it and it stalls. The Kite is only complicated because of these variables:

* The Tack (windward bottom corner) moves fore and aft on the axis of the pole.

* The chord depth (curve) of the sail is varied by the overall trim of the sheets (see picture).

The trimmer/crew should therefore:

*Strive to bring the pole back and ease the sheet until we have flow (windward edge of the kite will indicate this by curling in and out).

* ...bearing in mind the kite should be fuller and farther out from the rig in light air (also, through Jybes and when the Genoa is up), pulled back and flattened ("strapped") for area in heavy air.

*Spinnaker kinetics are more delicate than upwind kinetics because the fabric and thus the shape is more volatile. In J24's much of my trimming was aimed at 'stabilizing' the kite - discouraging the belly from billowing back and forth. However, in the 420 in surfing conditions, the crew pumping the sheet and guy once per wave is critical to catching waves. Crews got a lot of practice pumping without luffing or stalling the kite, and 'body pumping' in concert to turn the boat to a deeper angle on each wave.

Applies to High School Sailing Y/N? Not really - we don't use spinnakers. However, reading a sensitive sail is always good practice as crews do need to ease the Jib to the max and read telltales on a reach.

Team Psychology
    J24 World Champ Luke Lawrence recently explained to me that he likes crewing better than coaching, because "...with coaching, some of your kids win, others loose; with sailing on a team, you have the ability to help everbody win!" Cole Alsop, in his motivational remarks to our C420 group before Sunday, encouraged shipmates to "say something nice or positive to the other person in the boat." While a recent Sailing World article stressed the need for a "Glue guy" on each boat, our J24 was really blessed with at least 3. Mark Leibol our Tactician kept everybody loose by telling inappropriate jokes between each race, while Jim Traum was the consumate teammate, scrubbing the bottom, and going down in the bilge whenever it made the boat go faster. I Speed polished the hull the day before the regatta and wiped the deck and pre-rigged each morning. We each noticed each others contributions and it significantly improved our communication and sense of unity from day 1 to day 2 of the event.
   Its important to note that negative team chemistry is equally possible. When you make you teammate rig the boat because its cold any your feeling lazy, then how can you expect them to trust you and give 100% of themselves the rest of the day on the water? While I don't have a tape recorder in each boat, it seemed that the culture aboard some of the C420 teams was less than synergous. While books and books and audiobooks have been written about the internal mental Zone required to excel in competition (The Inner Game of Tennis, Winning in One Designs, Michael Blackburn's Sailing Mind Skills), what you do externally for your team's psychology is equally important.

Applies to High School Sailing Y/N? Yes.
 

(Lack of) Preparation Looses Sailboat Races

The above picture is of us botching a spinnaker set and nearly snapping the pole, all because the leeward "twing" (works like a guy hook) got accidentally cleated on the upwind leg and I let the kite fill before the guy was hauled in. We also had a beat with terrible roll tacks because I forgot to downsize the Jib sheets (we use 2 sets) when it got lighter. At the C420 Mids, Mack n Max were late to a race because they had to untangle the spinnaker. Acceptable - had it not been the first race of the regatta! Chris and Dae lost 10 boats (and later another ten on light air hull trim + a Yellow flag) with an epic wrap in their kite, which could have been prevented by "running the tape" (working your hand down the green windward edge to take out any twists) between races. In regattas where places come down to a couple points, these mistakes hurt! Take the time to prepare to the best of your abilities - there really can't be any 'down time' at practices or regattas.

Applies to High School Sailing Y/N? Yes!!! The list of things you need to check is shorter, and you can get redress if things out of your control break. However, you also have to check out an entirely new boat each time you go sailing! In SAISA where the equipment sucks, you need to have a checklist - Main Hal? Jib tension? Shrouds Taped? Boat/Tanks Dry? Hiking Strap lines? Tiller universal? Rudder Down Line? Sheets in good shape? Outhaul, Vang Cunningham right? - that you go over every time you step in a new boat. 


Here's to another midwinter's season of getting on the water, breaking things, having fun, and attempting to grow as sailors.

Southpoints 5 St. Thomas Debrief/ Practice Video

This past Saturday the St. Thomas Aquinas team competed in Southpoints regatta at Ransom Everglades school on Biscayne Bay. The varsity team of Chris Williford, Max Gillette, Mack Fox, Dae Kelly, John Monyhan and Brian Buckley placed 4th, while the JV team of James Pulsford, Clyde Wright and Chase Sabadash sailed to 2nd in the JV fleet before taking a penalty due to only having 3 sailors!! Getting a good varsity result in order to qualify for SAISA Districts was a priority, and Brian did a great job staying involved as a sub, despite the wind never building enough for him to sail with Chris. 4th will get us into districts, but not to nationals, and there is much work to be done in the coming weeks of practice!

Conditions:
The breeze began out of the NNW and swung hard right to the NNE through the first A and B sets. The course was quite close to land, and the geographic pattern was that the best breeze on the first beat was best below the Coconut Grove harbor, where there was the most "fetch" (distance) to the windward shore. The puffs were "fanning" - they dropped down on the water from a higher elevation and spread out in a fan-like formation - with different breeze angles within each puff. This is typical of sailing near land. The breeze built to 12-14 kt puffs, but then died for the last 1.5 sets.

Strategy:
The fanning puffs always favor the lee bow boat, so leading back versus hipping up on an opponent/group of opponents was the correct strategy. An important question is always "how much should I dig into a puff/header." And the answer changed throughout the day as well as from the first to second beat. Early and late in the day when it was light, you had to go a couple boat-lengths into a puff or header before tacking, while in more breeze, one needed to tack immediately on a header. The first beat was so close to land that pressure was king; the last beat the pressure was more even and getting on the 'long tack' and playing the angles was key. Chris and Max has a bad first set when they didn't get to the areas of greater pressure in race 1, then sailed the short tack to the right corner in race 2. Mack and Dae had a regatta killing 13th when they sailed a second beat on a significantly worse angle than boats elsewhere on the course -they needed to do a better job of seeing the pressure line, and the angle of the other boats. I believe that the general rule of <7 knots: dig for pressure; >7kts prioritize angle applies pretty universally.

Tactics:
Even with the short first beat, the boats from the favored end could always got across the fleet. We've seen this at past Southpoints as well: strategy is more important than tactics and the good boats will be right in phase with you and with the windshifts. The bad boats aren't even a consideration 10 boatlengths off the line.
    Downwind tactics were a much bigger issue and an area where we saw improvement throughout the event. Basic strategy going into the top mark: if Starboard is lifted, port will be the long/headed jybe; if Starboard is headed, starboard will be the long/headed jybe. That said, jybing immediately around the windward offset is always a really low percentage move on the first leg, because of the "cone of shit air" (my term) caused by the upwind/reaching boats behind you. If you want to jybe, sail a low wing angle for 6-10 boatlengths, then jybe - the "Soak then Jybe" strategy. This works great on most square runs, because the boats behind sail higher angles than they should. Overall, being patient and waiting for a lane to develop works much better in moderate breeze than bouncing around on a reach desperately searching for a lane ("Mack-Pong")! If you must reach, do it to establish the course-left edge of the run, then call proper course on the boats that get overlapped to leeward and sail wing-on wing for the rest of the leg.

Boatspeed:
Chris and Max's speed upwind was excellent, while Mack had some pointing issues that we corrected throughout the day. When you are too far back in the boat, it wants to turn down! Driver technique and the ability to slither in and forward while keeping your shoulders out is critical. Chris and Max's speed was the result of good slither techniqe and sail trim to change gears through the puffs and lulls, as well as great anticipation of these pressure changes. We all know that heeling for the long term is slow, but how many times do we take a few seconds to correct windward or leeward heel in a slight pressure change? Each time we do this, the Centerboard moves and trips the water flow over it. It takes another second for that flow to re-establish, and in the meantime we loose lift. Anticipation + Technique allows you to sail at a consistent, fast angle of heel.
     Downwind Chris and Max found a groove that was also pretty killer for my A driver (Zach Hill) at Nationals, and is undoubtedly the fastest way to sail a 420 in moderate breeze. The elements of that groove:
1. Board up almost all the way.
2. Fairly twisted mainsail - the top batten should be twisted 10-15% past the angle of the boom - crews look at your sail while adjusting the vang!
3. Flatter angle of heel than most boats around you - the helm should feel almost neutral. You know you have too much heel when you have to push too hard on the rudder. The crew should be forward almost to the mast, but may have to put their hip on the leeward tank when sailing with a bigger skipper.
4. Sail a higher angle for flow, then soak lower when you have speed. The jib telltales should point at the jib luff, and it should be difficult to keep the jib full (it may occasionally backwind into the fore-triangle). Skippers raise your arm to open the jib leach when you sail higher, then drop the arm angle when you soak lower. Never go by the lee for more than a couple seconds (its ok if your riding a wave).

In lighter air, when there is just enough wind to go wing on wing you should heel a little more to reduce wetted surface, but I can't stress enough the importance of reducing rudder drag in the 420 when the boat starts to move. Crews need to perfect the vang play downwind - John sailed a set with his sail blown way too open!

Overall, I thought our sailors sailed well, but lacked consistency. The only way to overcome this is through practicing as if its a regatta and minimizing mistakes. Here is some video of our tacks from Tuesday's practice that show great improvement in boathandleing from the fall. However, good enough is not a sufficient goal, so see what you need to do to have more perfect sail trim on the flatten, and more consistent angle of heel out of the tack:

Chris has a funky rudder hitch after tack 2:

Dae's footwork is different on each tack. James (and many other drivers) moves out to windward too much while sliding aft:

Looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow on the Club Lawn!

-Arthur Blodgett