21 October 2009
Lovely Moment
In the morning when the rising sun first reveals the turquoise and purple in the water on the south shore, but it is still slightly translucent.
19 September 2009
Racism: it's not black and white
This is a nice article by Charles Blow of the New York Times: Here We Go Again
In the "political discourse", too many people are focused on blaming everything on racism, or, refusing to acknowledge the role of racism.
Blow writes:
Update: check out Bob Herbert's counterpoint in the same paper:
In the "political discourse", too many people are focused on blaming everything on racism, or, refusing to acknowledge the role of racism.
Blow writes:
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted in January of last year found that 60 percent of whites agree that they underestimate the amount of discrimination that there is against blacks and 59 percent of blacks agree that they overestimate the amount of racism against them. How can we measure truth when everyone’s twisting it? A better question might be how much racial prejudice are people aware of and willing to acknowledge.
An ABC News poll released in January asked, “If you honestly assessed yourself, would you say that you have at least some feelings of racial prejudice?” Thirty-eight percent of blacks answered yes, as did 34 percent of whites.
Update: check out Bob Herbert's counterpoint in the same paper:
Did we really need Jimmy Carter to tell us that racism is one of the driving forces behind the relentless and often scurrilous attacks on President Obama? We didn’t know that? As John McEnroe might say, “You can’t be serious.”
17 September 2009
R.I.P. Keith Young
Keith Young has just passed away.
I knew Keith as a fellow candidate for the UBP, during the slog up to the 2007 election and the time since. I will remember Keith for his warmth, infectious positive attitude, and his low-key but unmistakable passion for making Bermuda better.
In Bermudian politics, which is filled with self-interested egomaniacs and tired old blowhards, Keith stood out for his genuine commitment to his family, his neighborhood, and his Island.
We need more people like Keith, not fewer.
My deepest regrets to his family.
I knew Keith as a fellow candidate for the UBP, during the slog up to the 2007 election and the time since. I will remember Keith for his warmth, infectious positive attitude, and his low-key but unmistakable passion for making Bermuda better.
In Bermudian politics, which is filled with self-interested egomaniacs and tired old blowhards, Keith stood out for his genuine commitment to his family, his neighborhood, and his Island.
We need more people like Keith, not fewer.
My deepest regrets to his family.
10 September 2009
"Bermuda Night Sold Out"
From the PLP Blog, we learn that "Bermuda Night" at Fenway Park in Boston was sold out. That's great news, and it sounds like it was a good event.
But, if you know anything about baseball you'll know that every night is sold out at Fenway park well ahead of the baseball season, regardless of what the event is.
Love the spin ball...
But, if you know anything about baseball you'll know that every night is sold out at Fenway park well ahead of the baseball season, regardless of what the event is.
Love the spin ball...
09 September 2009
505 Worlds Wrap-up: 68 out of 99.
Well, as they say, better late than never. I
To jump to the chase, here are our finishes in the 9 races. Bracketed finishes are discards:
We lost a tie-break for 67th. Full results available here. (sorry for the strange link, I couldn't figure out how to link from the official site as it's a pop-up).
Net-net, it was a grueling, tough regatta that tested us mentally and physically. Although I can't look back and say it was 'fun', like a 'vacation' is 'fun', I have to admit that I achieved my goal of 'mid-fleet', without completely embarrassing myself. And, there were a few hoots and hollers. Importantly, Gareth and I were able to make a strong finish that popped us up into the 60s, and put us ahead of some competitors I was targeting in the boat park -- people about whom I thought 'we can beat them', which is satisfying. That result is in no small part to taking some of Gareth's advice on starting. As someone told me, as is always the case, now we are ready to do a worlds in San Francisco. Maybe next time...
It is over a week and a half since the last race and the last day of the worlds, and it feels like forever. Being back in Bermuda and in the office is a whole different world. Too be honest, it's been a bit of a relief: I get a full lunch every day, I don't have to put on a wetsuit, and my arms are not nearly as tired. Oddly enough, my back seems more sore now!
So let's see what I can remember -- in our last installment, I left us at the beginning of the second last day: two races & one night to go until the end of the regatta, a Friday and a Saturday.
Friday was forecast to be a light air day, so they pushed the start back to 1:30pm to give the breeze time to come in. It turned out to be a hot, clear day on the beach, an everyone was lounging around, waiting for an AP, and delaying the awful act of putting on the wetsuit in the hot sun. The committee boat was hanging around off the beach, and as they looked like they were ready to go, parts of the fleet started suiting up. Old pros that they are, the RC popped the AP from the committee boat once about 1/3 of the sailors had suited -- those wiley coyotes! If they had raised the AP on shore, they would have to give a 2 hour gap between lowering it and starting the race; by raising it on the water (but while floating off the beach where all the sailors could see it), they only need to give a few minutes. Sure enough, the breeze started filling in verrrrrry slightly, the RC put up the 'Follow Me' flag, and the fleet went into the water for a 45-minute tow out to the course.
Wise skipper that I am, I neglected to tape up the transom flaps before launching. Typical M.O. in SF had been that taping them up was unnecessary, as a) we'd spend most of the time with water sloshing into the boat anyway, and b) we'd be planing most of the time as well. Of course, that was not the case on this day. The end result involved Gareth in a compromising position straddling the bow of the boat while I tried to recycle some used tape to seal up the flaps -- which of course were now wet. Lesson learned...
To be honest, I don't remember most of the race, but here goes. I believe this was the day I said to Gareth, 'If anyone hits the gatekeeper launch, it's going to be us'. Luckily, it wasn't us, but we had an awesome front row start, lots of speed, some space to leeward, etc. One minor problem: the boat to leeward of us was my sailmaker (Ethan Bixby, finished 14), and the boat above us was Mike Martin, you know, they guy who won 6 out of 9 races. Plus he had a 2nd. So, although it was a great start, it ended up being a you-know-what sandwich, with us as the you-know-what. After falling back 15-20 boatlengths, we finally bailed out and tacked to the right about 1/3 of the way up the beat. From that point on, it was simply a question of trying to sail fast, execute maneuvers, and get around the course. This was a 52.
This race had actually had a great moment on the first downwind mark rounding. We came in a massive pack but managed to find a slot inside for the mark to our left, and zoomed around with a great lane while the pack wallowed in a lull. Unfortunately, next time around this was not the case... we touched a boat that had somehow gone from our inside to our outside and then magically appeared right in front of us as i was rounding. I thought they had been gone, but apparently not.... anyway, a few strong words, a 720, and we ended up heading the other way with no wind, no lane, no speed, and very bad karma. Actually, maybe that was another race or rounding -- I can't really separate them all out anymore.
Now on to the last race, on Saturday. I had almost decided to blow off the race, and spend the day being relaxed & derigging early; but, I am glad I did not as it was probably our best race. In keeping with the "let's hit the gatekeeper" starting M.O., we had a great start in just-starting-to-get-windy conditions (of course, after SF, my whole definition of 'windy' has now changed). Funnily enough, it always seems to pick up about 8 knots between your upwind tuning checks and the first gun, leaving you to pull on a lot of strings without getting to try them out. Great suggestion from Gareth: put on the flattening reef. This was good and saved us a lot of grief later.
After the start, we were neck and neck with the boat underneath us for a very long time. However, despite a slight lift, the other boat was better at the speed/point tradeoff, and we were forced out. This time, however, we made it much further, and had much better lanes. After we tacked for a clear lane, we headed right, with the strategy of leading other right boats back. When we finally did this, it was magnificent to be sailing on starboard tack, looking up at the top mark, and not seeing any boats in front of our bow. This was not a sight we enjoyed very often. Sure enough, they did all eventually come charging out of the left, but apparently we rounded the top mark in the 20s. From then on, it was our race to drop places. The usual suspects prevailed: a place or two at the hoist, a slow reach, a missed jibe or bad jibing angle, extra tacks to clear for a lane at the mark, missing a shift, not concentrating, etc. For most of the race (and others) we could count on ok boat speed, probably at the 50th percentile level, meaning I think we were faster than at least half of the boats there (weight & new boat & sails helped). Of course, we didn't have the best height. This meant that with enough runway & assuming we didn't pick the wrong direction too badly, we could pick up a few places upwind if we fell too far back into the pack. However, for this last race, we didn't have it for the last beat - I couldn't quite find the grove steering, with the right balance of being powered up, yet not forced into pinching and having to jerk the tiller around. Anyway it still ended up being our 2nd-best finish, 45th, plus we had the experience of being able to look back at big packs of boats for lots of the race, and actually racing in the pack with boats around us. Exhilarating!
The rest of the day was a blur. Gareth had brought Heinekens out to the race course for a celebratory drink on the way home (props to Gareth), but it was too windy to really enjoy them and actually make any progress to windward. At the beach, we rushed to derig, and I was stressing about getting derigged and the boat cleaned up in time to load the truck with the other East Coast teams. I needn't have worried. Loading the truck was a long painful process that meant most of us were very late for the banquet & prizegiving. In fact, Sarah and I weren't even able to attend as we had to leave the city at 8.30pm to head to the airport, return the rental car, and get organized for our flight.
The boat is now sitting at the American Yacht Club in Rye, NY, thanks to the hospitality of the local fleet, and I am figuring out what to do next.
Thanks for reading,
Doug
To jump to the chase, here are our finishes in the 9 races. Bracketed finishes are discards:
68 9005 BER Douglas De Couto Gareth Williams 67 [99/DNF] 59 77 [99/DNF] 41 79 52 45 total points: 420.00
We lost a tie-break for 67th. Full results available here. (sorry for the strange link, I couldn't figure out how to link from the official site as it's a pop-up).
Net-net, it was a grueling, tough regatta that tested us mentally and physically. Although I can't look back and say it was 'fun', like a 'vacation' is 'fun', I have to admit that I achieved my goal of 'mid-fleet', without completely embarrassing myself. And, there were a few hoots and hollers. Importantly, Gareth and I were able to make a strong finish that popped us up into the 60s, and put us ahead of some competitors I was targeting in the boat park -- people about whom I thought 'we can beat them', which is satisfying. That result is in no small part to taking some of Gareth's advice on starting. As someone told me, as is always the case, now we are ready to do a worlds in San Francisco. Maybe next time...
It is over a week and a half since the last race and the last day of the worlds, and it feels like forever. Being back in Bermuda and in the office is a whole different world. Too be honest, it's been a bit of a relief: I get a full lunch every day, I don't have to put on a wetsuit, and my arms are not nearly as tired. Oddly enough, my back seems more sore now!
So let's see what I can remember -- in our last installment, I left us at the beginning of the second last day: two races & one night to go until the end of the regatta, a Friday and a Saturday.
Friday
Friday was forecast to be a light air day, so they pushed the start back to 1:30pm to give the breeze time to come in. It turned out to be a hot, clear day on the beach, an everyone was lounging around, waiting for an AP, and delaying the awful act of putting on the wetsuit in the hot sun. The committee boat was hanging around off the beach, and as they looked like they were ready to go, parts of the fleet started suiting up. Old pros that they are, the RC popped the AP from the committee boat once about 1/3 of the sailors had suited -- those wiley coyotes! If they had raised the AP on shore, they would have to give a 2 hour gap between lowering it and starting the race; by raising it on the water (but while floating off the beach where all the sailors could see it), they only need to give a few minutes. Sure enough, the breeze started filling in verrrrrry slightly, the RC put up the 'Follow Me' flag, and the fleet went into the water for a 45-minute tow out to the course.
Wise skipper that I am, I neglected to tape up the transom flaps before launching. Typical M.O. in SF had been that taping them up was unnecessary, as a) we'd spend most of the time with water sloshing into the boat anyway, and b) we'd be planing most of the time as well. Of course, that was not the case on this day. The end result involved Gareth in a compromising position straddling the bow of the boat while I tried to recycle some used tape to seal up the flaps -- which of course were now wet. Lesson learned...
To be honest, I don't remember most of the race, but here goes. I believe this was the day I said to Gareth, 'If anyone hits the gatekeeper launch, it's going to be us'. Luckily, it wasn't us, but we had an awesome front row start, lots of speed, some space to leeward, etc. One minor problem: the boat to leeward of us was my sailmaker (Ethan Bixby, finished 14), and the boat above us was Mike Martin, you know, they guy who won 6 out of 9 races. Plus he had a 2nd. So, although it was a great start, it ended up being a you-know-what sandwich, with us as the you-know-what. After falling back 15-20 boatlengths, we finally bailed out and tacked to the right about 1/3 of the way up the beat. From that point on, it was simply a question of trying to sail fast, execute maneuvers, and get around the course. This was a 52.
This race had actually had a great moment on the first downwind mark rounding. We came in a massive pack but managed to find a slot inside for the mark to our left, and zoomed around with a great lane while the pack wallowed in a lull. Unfortunately, next time around this was not the case... we touched a boat that had somehow gone from our inside to our outside and then magically appeared right in front of us as i was rounding. I thought they had been gone, but apparently not.... anyway, a few strong words, a 720, and we ended up heading the other way with no wind, no lane, no speed, and very bad karma. Actually, maybe that was another race or rounding -- I can't really separate them all out anymore.
Saturday
Now on to the last race, on Saturday. I had almost decided to blow off the race, and spend the day being relaxed & derigging early; but, I am glad I did not as it was probably our best race. In keeping with the "let's hit the gatekeeper" starting M.O., we had a great start in just-starting-to-get-windy conditions (of course, after SF, my whole definition of 'windy' has now changed). Funnily enough, it always seems to pick up about 8 knots between your upwind tuning checks and the first gun, leaving you to pull on a lot of strings without getting to try them out. Great suggestion from Gareth: put on the flattening reef. This was good and saved us a lot of grief later.
After the start, we were neck and neck with the boat underneath us for a very long time. However, despite a slight lift, the other boat was better at the speed/point tradeoff, and we were forced out. This time, however, we made it much further, and had much better lanes. After we tacked for a clear lane, we headed right, with the strategy of leading other right boats back. When we finally did this, it was magnificent to be sailing on starboard tack, looking up at the top mark, and not seeing any boats in front of our bow. This was not a sight we enjoyed very often. Sure enough, they did all eventually come charging out of the left, but apparently we rounded the top mark in the 20s. From then on, it was our race to drop places. The usual suspects prevailed: a place or two at the hoist, a slow reach, a missed jibe or bad jibing angle, extra tacks to clear for a lane at the mark, missing a shift, not concentrating, etc. For most of the race (and others) we could count on ok boat speed, probably at the 50th percentile level, meaning I think we were faster than at least half of the boats there (weight & new boat & sails helped). Of course, we didn't have the best height. This meant that with enough runway & assuming we didn't pick the wrong direction too badly, we could pick up a few places upwind if we fell too far back into the pack. However, for this last race, we didn't have it for the last beat - I couldn't quite find the grove steering, with the right balance of being powered up, yet not forced into pinching and having to jerk the tiller around. Anyway it still ended up being our 2nd-best finish, 45th, plus we had the experience of being able to look back at big packs of boats for lots of the race, and actually racing in the pack with boats around us. Exhilarating!
The End
The rest of the day was a blur. Gareth had brought Heinekens out to the race course for a celebratory drink on the way home (props to Gareth), but it was too windy to really enjoy them and actually make any progress to windward. At the beach, we rushed to derig, and I was stressing about getting derigged and the boat cleaned up in time to load the truck with the other East Coast teams. I needn't have worried. Loading the truck was a long painful process that meant most of us were very late for the banquet & prizegiving. In fact, Sarah and I weren't even able to attend as we had to leave the city at 8.30pm to head to the airport, return the rental car, and get organized for our flight.
The boat is now sitting at the American Yacht Club in Rye, NY, thanks to the hospitality of the local fleet, and I am figuring out what to do next.
Thanks for reading,
Doug
28 August 2009
"One More Night"
Today is the second last day of the worlds, and we are flying out tomorrow night at midnight. One race today, later start at 1.30pm due to reduced wind, and one race tomorrow.
Yesterday was a light day, with racing not starring until 1.30pm and boats having to be towed out to the starting area-- it's a long tow!
The first race was one of our best, and the second race was one of our worst, full of unforced errors by the skipper (that would be me). Due to the light wind and the fact that our dacron jib has been repaired with a piece of webbing on the leech, we took our new, never-before-used, mylar jib. Very sexy.
Race 1 started in about 10 knots with a 1.5 mile beat. I don't recall what our plan was, but we ended up blowing the start and had to tack and clear to the right, taking a lot of sterns. We must have been sailing pretty well as we ended up lifting above the rabbit. I think we had much improved boatspeed against the fleet, and we were working very hard to keep moving fast without giving up too much leeward distance. Certainly the new jib helped... We rounded in a big middle pack, managed to successfully set the kite & execute our maneuvers, and even could figure out the lifted tack. Short of calling the favored end wrong on the reaching finish & giving up one boat, we had a great race and finished 40th. Imagine if we had a front row start... w.r.t. the finish, we finish through a gate to leeward and then reach on port to the finish. We followed the fleet up to the windward end of the line, but it would have been faster to reach straight to the middle -- less distance & faster speed too.
Gareth and I worked well as a team that race, no doubt the fact that we were not physically at our limits really helped. Gareth was really great at giving info so we could cut through the fleet on port at the start.
For the second race, I managed to blow that start as well. Still setting up too early but not pulling the trigger until it's too late & other boats are giving us bad air. Mike Martin setup to leeward of us, reminds me of the old adage, if you don't know who the marshmallow is, it's you... For those who don't know, the marshmallow is the bad/slow sailor you like to start next to who makes it easy to sail past/over/under/faster than into clear air.
The plan for this race was go right for reduced flood current. In retrospect this was wrong, the play was go for velocity which by now was finally starting to increase, and the pattern is that it gets strongest between Alcatraz & Treasure Island first... that is the left. So we rounded in the bottom third, with a not very great run... In fact there was a huge hole at the leeward gate & I managed to do a very bad mark rounding, forced outside, and giving up 10 boats or so. We did work left here, out of necessity, but that meant we went up the port layline through the boats reaching down. Awesome. Managed to touch a boat at the jibe, so that was a 720. More boats passed. I think we may have salvaged something on the beat, again coming up through the port layline with boats bearing down on us with spinnakers up -- awesome again. This time I miced on the offset mark while setting up controls for the down wind (ram off, trap twings off, vang off, board up a touch), and we touched the offset mark. So... 360, see you other boats later. All the time the breeze was slowly building, and I was getting a little bit tired & making bad decisions. For the last beat, it had filled right in to 15-18, and although I had dropped the rig back a bit on the run in anticipation, it wasn't quite enough. Gareth made the call for us to drop back more, which was a great idea, as we were now zooming along, and this helped us catch some tail-end boats from the right due to good speed.
Unfortunately, with the tide I mis-called the layline for the finish, had to throw in an extra two tacks. Twice. The second time I tacked right in front of a ducking port-tacker and fouled him. This was as he was trying to duck us & cross another starboard tacker, who was fouled. We crossed the line, jibed for the 720, capsized, finished the 720, and refinished, losing about another 6 boats, Total cluster. Total circles that race: 5. Awesome. And, the third boat insisted on protesting the second boat (the one I fouled), so they had to protest us, which meant hanging around at the club until 8pm and missing dinner with our hosts. The protest was thrown out because we did the 720s. Feeling bad about my shitty sailing, I gave the guys I fouled some rum. They are young guys who will know what to do with it.
My one main lesson from that race is to not try to make aggressive shortcuts when the downsides are so big with a large fleet. Instead, focus on getting a good lane for yourself, and setting up well ahead of time for roundings & finished. Net result, 79 or something stupid like that.
Yesterday was a light day, with racing not starring until 1.30pm and boats having to be towed out to the starting area-- it's a long tow!
The first race was one of our best, and the second race was one of our worst, full of unforced errors by the skipper (that would be me). Due to the light wind and the fact that our dacron jib has been repaired with a piece of webbing on the leech, we took our new, never-before-used, mylar jib. Very sexy.
Race 1 started in about 10 knots with a 1.5 mile beat. I don't recall what our plan was, but we ended up blowing the start and had to tack and clear to the right, taking a lot of sterns. We must have been sailing pretty well as we ended up lifting above the rabbit. I think we had much improved boatspeed against the fleet, and we were working very hard to keep moving fast without giving up too much leeward distance. Certainly the new jib helped... We rounded in a big middle pack, managed to successfully set the kite & execute our maneuvers, and even could figure out the lifted tack. Short of calling the favored end wrong on the reaching finish & giving up one boat, we had a great race and finished 40th. Imagine if we had a front row start... w.r.t. the finish, we finish through a gate to leeward and then reach on port to the finish. We followed the fleet up to the windward end of the line, but it would have been faster to reach straight to the middle -- less distance & faster speed too.
Gareth and I worked well as a team that race, no doubt the fact that we were not physically at our limits really helped. Gareth was really great at giving info so we could cut through the fleet on port at the start.
For the second race, I managed to blow that start as well. Still setting up too early but not pulling the trigger until it's too late & other boats are giving us bad air. Mike Martin setup to leeward of us, reminds me of the old adage, if you don't know who the marshmallow is, it's you... For those who don't know, the marshmallow is the bad/slow sailor you like to start next to who makes it easy to sail past/over/under/faster than into clear air.
The plan for this race was go right for reduced flood current. In retrospect this was wrong, the play was go for velocity which by now was finally starting to increase, and the pattern is that it gets strongest between Alcatraz & Treasure Island first... that is the left. So we rounded in the bottom third, with a not very great run... In fact there was a huge hole at the leeward gate & I managed to do a very bad mark rounding, forced outside, and giving up 10 boats or so. We did work left here, out of necessity, but that meant we went up the port layline through the boats reaching down. Awesome. Managed to touch a boat at the jibe, so that was a 720. More boats passed. I think we may have salvaged something on the beat, again coming up through the port layline with boats bearing down on us with spinnakers up -- awesome again. This time I miced on the offset mark while setting up controls for the down wind (ram off, trap twings off, vang off, board up a touch), and we touched the offset mark. So... 360, see you other boats later. All the time the breeze was slowly building, and I was getting a little bit tired & making bad decisions. For the last beat, it had filled right in to 15-18, and although I had dropped the rig back a bit on the run in anticipation, it wasn't quite enough. Gareth made the call for us to drop back more, which was a great idea, as we were now zooming along, and this helped us catch some tail-end boats from the right due to good speed.
Unfortunately, with the tide I mis-called the layline for the finish, had to throw in an extra two tacks. Twice. The second time I tacked right in front of a ducking port-tacker and fouled him. This was as he was trying to duck us & cross another starboard tacker, who was fouled. We crossed the line, jibed for the 720, capsized, finished the 720, and refinished, losing about another 6 boats, Total cluster. Total circles that race: 5. Awesome. And, the third boat insisted on protesting the second boat (the one I fouled), so they had to protest us, which meant hanging around at the club until 8pm and missing dinner with our hosts. The protest was thrown out because we did the 720s. Feeling bad about my shitty sailing, I gave the guys I fouled some rum. They are young guys who will know what to do with it.
My one main lesson from that race is to not try to make aggressive shortcuts when the downsides are so big with a large fleet. Instead, focus on getting a good lane for yourself, and setting up well ahead of time for roundings & finished. Net result, 79 or something stupid like that.
27 August 2009
Worlds Race Day 4: preview
Today is worlds race day 4, the last 2-race day on which to attempt to achieve our goal of finishing both races.
Yesterday was the lay-day, where all we did was relax & rest, didn't even look at the boat. Sarah and I planned to head out over the Golden Gate bridge & see some natural beauty, etc., so long as it wasn't windy & it was warm.
However, the day was a lot like our sailing days: we got around the corner from where we are staying and clutch failed on the 20-year old Jeep we are borrowing. Can't blame the truck, we've been driving it pretty hard over the hills the past 10 days. So... the first half of our day off was spent hanging out with the tow-truck driver, a very nice guy who gave us a guided tour of the city.
Eventually we rented a new car (silver Dodge Charger, now we ride in super-style), and made it out to Sausalito for a relaxed lunch, followed by a walk in the Muir Woods. Stunning redwoods, I recommend it if you ever get the chance & desire to commune with nature a bit. We topped the day off with drunks & burgers at the St. Francis with my shore team who were doing the Wednesday night racing there.
What's on for today? According to Sailflow, not too much wind until later in the day, so we will likely have problems with boat speed & will need to work hard to keep the boat moving & pointing. It actually helps to have other boats around as they 'keep us honest' & motivated.
Other issue is the start. Early on I was setting up to early & being jammed up above the gate launch, with much maneuvering to try & slip in behind. Recently I have been setting up with a good hole, but not going early enough & boats are swooping down over the top of me. I think I need to punch out more and reach down under the gate launch to achieve max speed.
We will also seek continuous improvement on downwind crew work -- we are finally getting the kite up quickly thanks to new halyard setup (5th time lucky), and I will work on steering & keeping the boat stable during hoists, jibes, and douses.
I've learned to put more board up & let off a lot more vang on the downwind to avoid being overpowered & to stay in control. But, I feel I may be doing too much of it as we are not as powered up as much of the time as I would like. Like everything else, not too much, not too little, juuuuust right!
That leaves tactics & strategy -- going the right way -- which we have undoubtedly not been paying attention to here. Maybe if it's less crazy today I will get some of the numbers to make sense.
Wish us luck!
Yesterday was the lay-day, where all we did was relax & rest, didn't even look at the boat. Sarah and I planned to head out over the Golden Gate bridge & see some natural beauty, etc., so long as it wasn't windy & it was warm.
However, the day was a lot like our sailing days: we got around the corner from where we are staying and clutch failed on the 20-year old Jeep we are borrowing. Can't blame the truck, we've been driving it pretty hard over the hills the past 10 days. So... the first half of our day off was spent hanging out with the tow-truck driver, a very nice guy who gave us a guided tour of the city.
Eventually we rented a new car (silver Dodge Charger, now we ride in super-style), and made it out to Sausalito for a relaxed lunch, followed by a walk in the Muir Woods. Stunning redwoods, I recommend it if you ever get the chance & desire to commune with nature a bit. We topped the day off with drunks & burgers at the St. Francis with my shore team who were doing the Wednesday night racing there.
What's on for today? According to Sailflow, not too much wind until later in the day, so we will likely have problems with boat speed & will need to work hard to keep the boat moving & pointing. It actually helps to have other boats around as they 'keep us honest' & motivated.
Other issue is the start. Early on I was setting up to early & being jammed up above the gate launch, with much maneuvering to try & slip in behind. Recently I have been setting up with a good hole, but not going early enough & boats are swooping down over the top of me. I think I need to punch out more and reach down under the gate launch to achieve max speed.
We will also seek continuous improvement on downwind crew work -- we are finally getting the kite up quickly thanks to new halyard setup (5th time lucky), and I will work on steering & keeping the boat stable during hoists, jibes, and douses.
I've learned to put more board up & let off a lot more vang on the downwind to avoid being overpowered & to stay in control. But, I feel I may be doing too much of it as we are not as powered up as much of the time as I would like. Like everything else, not too much, not too little, juuuuust right!
That leaves tactics & strategy -- going the right way -- which we have undoubtedly not been paying attention to here. Maybe if it's less crazy today I will get some of the numbers to make sense.
Wish us luck!
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