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