Today's Post

Wanted: J/30 Tactician

The choice of a J/30 sail insignia as my "days sailed counter" in the sidebar yesterday reminds me that I meant to tell you the story about my being invited to be a tactician on a J/30 in the class's 2008 North American Championship. Or maybe it wasn't tactician. Maybe it was strategeriser. Is there a difference?

Regular readers of this blog (all three of you) will know that I am about as well qualified for such a role as I am for being John McCain's choice for vice-president, or the US representative in the marathon at the Beijing Olympics. I mean when I look at the picture above the questions that occur to me are...

• Is that a J/30? I stole it off the website for their NAs but I've no idea if it really is one.
  
  
• What are all those people doing? How can it take so many folk to drive one little boat? Don't they get in each other's way?
  
  
• Which one is the tactician? Is it the guy in the snazzy red dungarees bending over? Or the guy in the tasteful yellow pants apparently clapping his hands behind his back? And what is all that about anyway?
  
  
• Why are there three holes in the back of the boat? Won't it leak?
  

Anyway this is how it happened. Back in February, my wife and I were having dinner in Sydney with a fellow US Laser Master sailor and his wife prior to the Laser Masters Worlds in Terrigal. The conversation rambled around various topics as the wine flowed and vast quantities of seafood were consumed. It turned out that my dining companion has a half-share in a J/30 and is planning to do the NAs in Rhode Island this September. I asked polite questions about J/30 sailing trying to sound interested while not displaying my total ignorance of the subject. My friend then had what I can only describe as a brainfart. I think his logic went something like this.

1. We need a tactician, someone with local knowledge of winds and currents in Narragansett Bay.
   
   
2. Tillerman lives in Rhode Island and may have sailed on some parts of Narragansett Bay.
   
   
3. Ergo Tillerman would make a great J/30 tactician.

The invitation was proffered. I humbly explained my total lack of qualifications for the role, not least that I know nothing about sailing a boat with more than one sail, I know even less than nothing about Narragansett Bay winds and tides, and moreover I don't play well with others. There's no me in team.

I wasn't sure how serious the invitation was. After all, this was the same guy whom I was with at one of the "social" evenings at the Laser Masters Worlds in Spain last year when we both bullied various New Zealand sailors into agreeing to host us for a pre-Australia-Worlds Laser training campaign in Kiwi-Land. Nothing came of it, not least I suspect because when I sobered up next morning I couldn't even remember which New Zealanders we had been talking to.

Anyway the topic was not raised again in Terrigal so I assume he also sobered up after our Sydney dinner and made other plans. But perhaps I am missing something? Maybe I should get some big (well bigger) boat experience so if such an invitation comes up again I could legitimately accept it. Maybe sailing in yellow pants with my hands behind my back would be fun?

Mya

Senator Edward Kennedy
sailing his 50' Concordia Schooner, Mya, by himself.

Sir, we wish you fair winds and a following sea.

Narragansett Nonsense

Narragansett Bay
Today in the rain sublime
Thirty and counting

Can I Go Sailing This Weekend?

What would your reaction be if you were rushed to hospital after suffering a seizure and following a battery of tests the doctors diagnosed you as having a malignant brain tumor?

That is what happened to Senator Edward Kennedy this week. The news this afternoon is filled with messages of support and sympathy from everyone in American public life including political leaders from all parties, along with speculation about treatment options and the prognosis for his condition.

And what was the reaction of Ted Kennedy himself? According to this report from CNN he "asked his doctors if he could leave the hospital to participate in a sailing regatta off Cape Cod this weekend."

What a guy!

Stream

Ohmigod what have I done I wrote a post back at the turn of the year saying I was going to sail my Laser 100 days in 2008 and write a post about every day here but it's so hard not so much the actual sailing I still think there's a reasonable chance that I will manage to sail 100 times this year hey Hillary still thinks she's going be the Democratic nominee for president so anything can happen no it's finding something original to write about every sail that's so hard as Edward wrote somewhere on the EVK4 SuperBoatnameBlog a good sail is not necessarily postworthy like last Wednesday I went for a sail by myself on my Laser on the Sakonnet River launching off Fogland Beach and it was cool and soulsailorlike just me and my boat and the water and the wind was cooperating and the sun was out and I cruised up and down and practiced this and that and worked out how to do better one particular maneuver but who is interested in the minutiae of Laser technique other than than that guy in Australia who used to have his own blog but then stopped writing it but he occasionally leaves comments here and I'm pretty sure it was him that sailed up to me between races in Terrigal and stared at my sail number but who knows all these Aussies look the same like superfit and suntanned and look like they sail a Laser 500 days a year and where was I where am I oh yes last Wednesday I guess I could write about the old dude that came up to talk to me while I was rigging and all he told me about what he did in the war but who's interested in that I guess I will be one of those boring old dudes one day you know the ones who just ramble on and on and don't say anything all that interesting but you have to listen out of respect for their age and you never know they may say something worth repeating but they never do...

Caption Contest

I've no idea what these people are doing but this picture is just crying out for a caption...

Go for it.

Learning Experiences Wrap-up

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our group writing project about "learning experiences" in sailing. What I found most gratifying about this exercise was how many writers from whom I hadn't heard before came forward with stories about their learning experiences. Some of you were writers of sailing blogs of which I was previously unaware. Some of you don't have your own blogs but felt inspired to send in a story anyway. Thank you to you all. I've enjoyed hearing from you and hope you will stop by here again and leave comments on my posts and/or participate in future writing projects.

The learning experience stories were...

I See Stupid People by IC

Drive by TK

A Racer's Fact of Life by Wavedancer

Lessons Learned from the Mallory Championships at Elephant Butte by Pat

Humiliation by ISO by Mark

You've got a friend by Carol Anne

Shifting Gears by Manfred Schreiber

So kids, what did we learn today? by Somers Kempe

The Sailor's Prayer and Motivation by Captain JP

Don't Think Twice by Andrew Sadler

Point Nemo by Edward

Adventures in Boating by Robert Hruzek

Helping Hands by Jos M Spijkerman

What I Learned From Running Marathons by Tillerman

And from David Anderson...
We Can Learn
Learning is Gud
Father's Day Sail
Mothra vs. Benicia

Wow, what an amazing diversity of different ways to interpret this theme. Tactics, racing rules, boat-handling, race management, sports psychology, relationships, family, friends, humor, instruction, humiliation... and ocean geography. It's all here. Thank you guys.

Because you all did such a great job on this writing project I'm thinking of making it a monthly event. A discussion that broke out in the comments to one of the above stories gave me an idea on what topic to use for the June group writing project. But please tell me if you have any suggestions too.

Last, but not least... please leave a comment letting us know which learning experience stories you enjoyed the most. I think my personal favorite was I See Stupid People. I may not have chosen to express this lesson in quite the same words that IC did but nevertheless his lesson is very valuable: stay out of trouble with other sailors if you want to do well in the races. I suspect IC is probably the youngest contributor to our project and I enjoyed the outspoken tone, passion, and straight talk that are typical of the young. Some of us old geezers could learn a thing or two about writing (as well as sailing) from him.

What I Learned From Running Marathons

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that I used to describe myself in my profile as a Laser sailor and a marathon runner. That may have been a bit disingenuous. I've never really made a commitment to marathon running as a lifetime pursuit, a part of my identity, in quite the same way as I have with Laser sailing. But I did run three marathons (one each in 2005, 6 and 7), I did complete a defined training program over approx. six months for each event, I did travel to the UK to run the London Marathon in 2007, I did finish all three marathons... and I did learn a couple of things along the way.

I haven't met many other Laser sailors who run marathons. Probably the demands of training at a high level for a marathon and for a major Laser championship are mutually incompatible. There may be another reason. One of the things I learned while training for marathons does have some relevance to sailing, I think; but another thing I learned while running marathons could actually be harming my performance as a racing sailor.

Learning #1: Performance improvement comes slowly and with regular practice. My marathon training program basically involved running four times a week for six months. The duration and intensity of the training increased over the six months and then tapered off in the last couple of weeks. It's amazing what you can train a human body to do with a program like that. At the start I could barely run 3 or 4 miles but by completing the training I managed to develop my body (and my mind) to the point where I could run 26 miles or more several times in training, and was able to complete that distance on race day too.

I suspect sailing skills are very similar. You can't just listen to a coach, read a book, watch a video... and then go out and execute a new skill perfectly. You can't expect to be able to jump into a boat that demands some athletic ability and race all day with full effort if you haven't prepared physically for it. My guess is that it actually takes constant training several times a week over many years to reach a high level of racing skills in a physically demanding boat. That's why high school and college sailors become so good. They're training almost every afternoon and racing every weekend for the whole season.

It will be interesting to see what my program of 100 days of Laser sailing in one year accomplishes. If the intensity and length of my marathon program have any relevance to sailing I should be shooting for something more like 100 days in 6 months. Maybe next year?

Learning #2: Start slow and finish strong. The most important thing about running a marathon (at least for an aging unfit amateur like me) is not to start too fast. Every book, every website tells you the same thing. Hold back your pace in the first few miles. Save your energy. The last 6 miles are the hardest part of the race and if you start too fast you will "hit the wall" at around the 20-mile mark and the last 6 miles will be agonizing.

After hearing this, reading this, trying (and sometimes failing) to put this into practice, I've learned that it is true the hard way. When facing a long run there's something deep in my brain now that whispers to me, "Go slow. Pace yourself. It's going to be a long day. Save something for the last few miles. Hold back. Take it easy."

Now the length of time it takes me to run a marathon is roughly the same time I will spend on the water on a regatta day. Five hours give or take an hour or so either way. So when sailing out for the first race of a day of Laser racing that little voice is still there whispering its seductive message, "Take it easy. It's going to be a long day. Pace yourself. Don't go all out at the start."

Say what? This is of course exactly the wrong mental preparation for a sailboat race. The most critical parts of any race are the start and the first few minutes after the start. These are the minutes that will determine whether I will be racing with the pack of leaders or trying to avoid being the tail-end charlie. The start is when I need to be at the peak of my mental arousal and the first few minutes after the start are when I need to be working at 110% capacity, hiking as hard as I can, striving desperately to hold my lane and to work out ahead of the boats around me.

I know all that with the conscious, thinking part of my sailing brain. But my marathon running has trained something deep in my head to whisper those dangerous "go slow" messages at the start of every day and the start of every race.

You don't believe me? Hey, you have to admit it's a creative excuse for my normally dismal performance at Laser regattas. "Yeah, I didn't have a great regatta but that's because I'm really a marathon runner."

So what do you think? Have you had experience of cross-training in one sport that may have actually hurt your performance in your primary sport? Or, if nothing else, does one sport give you a great excuse for doing badly in another?

---

I wrote this post for my own Learning Experiences group writing project and also for the challenge from Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings, What I Learned From... Mashing It Up! The point about Robert's challenge was to write a WILF story addressing two or more topics from a list he provided. Well this post is definitely about Recreation, running a marathon is a bit like climbing a Mountain, and both the learnings are all about Time and how to use it.

A Racer's Fact of Life

Thanks to Wavedancer for this Learning Experience...

---

Imagine a just-for-fun club regatta. The sky is dreary, but the rain has stopped and the breeze now ranges from 5 to 15 mph. One Sunfish geezer with only some late-in-life racing experience is challenging four Bytes (an Ian Bruce designed smaller version of the Laser). Bytes and Sunfishes have almost the same Portsmouth handicaps; so the Race Committee relaxes after the start; there is no need to record finishing times.

In the second and third race, Byte #1 beats old Sunfishguy easily. But the fourth race is different. Sunfishguy isn't exactly leading while tacking towards the windward mark, but thanks to Byte #1 capsizing, Sunfishguy unexpectedly finds himself in first place, trying not to do something stupid, like touching the mark.

The downwind leg is next. Byteman has recovered nicely from his swim, but is now some ten boat lengths behind. Sunfishguy has his boat heeled to windward with the sail way up, sitting up front and close to the daggerboard, with his bottom almost dragging in the water. Sunfishguy is sailing straight towards the leeward buoy, focusing on keeping the boat properly heeled without taking a bath to windward. The prior races had shown that a Sunfish sailed this way downwind is marginally faster than a Byte under the prevailing, relatively light, conditions. Sunfishguy thinks he is in good shape. In fact, the Race Committee is cheering him on, perhaps wondering how a back-of-the-fleet guy can be in first place.

Sunfishguy is getting closer now to the leeward mark and looking around for Byteman. Oops, almost on his tail and to leeward. Sunfishguy is puzzled at the change of scenery in the last half of the leg. At the two-length circle it looks like Byte #1 has an inside overlap by a foot or so. Sunfishguy's knowledge of the rules stretches no further than the basics, and he sees no way to cut off Byte #1. Byteman draws a tight circle around the mark, and leaves Sunfishguy on the outside. After that, Byteman has no trouble covering Sunfishguy upwind towards the finish line. Sunfishguy has been fooled again, but hopefully he learned something important.

Being on the inside at the leeward mark is such a powerful weapon that Sunfishguy may remember this lesson for some time. He should not have sailed the rhumb line. Rather, he should have gone inside (to the left, but how far?). This might have required a jibe early on and maybe another one later. He might even have gone faster and made up for distance lost; Laser theology states that sailing straight downwind is slow. Does this hold for Sunfish sailors as well? Maybe the Sunfish Bible will have the answer.

---

Wavedancer tells me that he has sailed a Sunfish informally for a number of years, but is now learning to sail a Laser, and sails his Laser more than his Sunfish these days. In the area where he lives there is much more competitive Laser sailing, and it has been fun for him starting with twenty boats rather than five or so. Last year he went to his first Laser Masters event sailing as a Great Grandmaster, which means he is over 65. Hmmm, I think I like this guy. Maybe we will meet up at a Laser Masters regatta some day soon.

Polyphony

She contacted me via email back in November. Right away I could see that she had excellent judgment because she wrote of my blog...

It's such a pleasure to find someone who appreciates the absurd, isn't afraid to recount recent on-the-water humiliation, deeply considers issues of (meta-) pointlessness, and welcomes everyone to contribute to the sailing blogging community. And all while exhibiting a measure of respect for the English language.

And then she mentioned that I had "inspired" her to consider buying a Laser. I never know quite how to feel about it when complete strangers tell me that this blog has triggered them to take a new direction with their sailing... a bit of pride sure, but also some concern that I may have sent someone I don't know down a path which may not be right for them.

Anyway, over the next few months she sent me several more emails... about watching the Laser frostbiting at Newport, and about how she was frostbiting in J24s but was suffering withdrawal symptoms because she needed to drive. She asked questions about how much Lasers capsized and I gave her some advice on choosing the right rig (full, Radial or 4.7) to suit her weight, and on what to wear for winter sailing.

By January she had found a deal on an (almost) brand new Laser and was asking my advice on whether it was a good price, and I gave her tips on what to look for and what extras to buy with the boat. In February she sent me a photo of the shiny new Laser she had bought.

In March she emailed me for advice on who should come out with her on her first sail in a Laser. So naturally, having suckered her into buying a Laser, I offered to go out sailing with her. Hey, if I'm going to make it to 100 days of sailing this year I need every excuse I can find.

More email conversations during April established a mutually convenient date and place in May for me to join her for her first sail in a Laser. Which was why we met in person at Quannapowitt Lake in Massachusetts last weekend.

The wind at the lake on Sunday was gusty and shifty, not exactly ideal for a first sail in a Laser but my new sailing buddy was keen to give it a go. I helped her to rig her Radial, had a brief discussion about sail controls, did a demonstration of how to do the magic hand swap ritual after a tack, and then looking apprehensively at the wind I asked, "So you do know what to do if you capsize, don't you?"


After a little confusion as we launched our boats (hey it's a good idea to practice a capsize drill in shallow water first) we headed out to the windier side of the lake. Hmmm, it really was a bit more gusty for a first sail in a Laser than would be ideal.

She was having fun reaching back and forward and was tacking around OK if a little unconventionally. After a while however three things became apparent...

• Every time she bore away on to a run she death-rolled and capsized to windward.
  
  
• I had no idea how to tell her to avoid the death-rolls as none of the usual causes seemed to apply.
  
  
• She didn't quite have enough upper body-strength to pull her body on to the centerboard after a capsize or enough body-weight to right the boat if she just hung on to the centerboard with her arms.
  

We managed for a while with me helping along every capsize recovery process by sailing to the top of her mast and giving it a bit of a lift. She still seemed quite happy with how things were going. And then after one capsize her boat turtled and her mast stuck hard in the evil, viscous, noxious, muddy bottom of Quannapowitt Lake.

I coached her for a while on various ways to free the mast, all to no avail. I was just about to jump into the water myself to try and free her mast from the mud, when a rescue boat came out from the yacht club and towed her boat out. I jumped in anyway to right her boat.

I thought she would be ready to pack it in now but, no, she wanted to keep going. More wild reaches accompanied by lots of spray and wild whoops. More capsizes. More swimming.

Eventually we called it a day and headed back to the club, where she faced the messy, and ultimately impossible, chore of having to hose the black sticky mud stains off her brand new sail. Nasty stuff this Quannapowitt mud.


I was thinking that if she sticks with Laser sailing after an afternoon like this she will become a true addict. There was some discussion about getting to the gym to deal with that little capsize recovery handicap. I fully expect to see her frostbiting in Newport next winter.

As we were putting her spars away we saw a couple of Force 5's on racks, so I completed her initiation into the community of Laser sailors by teaching her the secret curse that we use to protect our karma against Force 5 sailors.

On Monday she sent me another email, actually forwarding an email she had received from someone who had been watching us from the yacht club...

Yeah, so I hung around for a while until some time after you got the mast out of the mud and were able to unturtle the boat. Looked like you guys were having a blast out there. He he he he ..., being somewhat downwind from you guys, your laughter engulfed the YC grounds such that I was standing by the ramp watching when some guy walked up behind me, watched (and listened) for a minute with me, and said "damn, that girl is having some fun out there".

Damn. I think she was.

Mallory Cup

Oops, I missed yet another story written for our Learning Experiences project, Lessons Learned from the Mallory Championships at Elephant Butte, where Pat reflects on lessons learned from running a men's championship elimination regatta.

Pat asks, "How many things do you think can go wrong in a sailboat race? More than you, as a competitor, might think. And, if we're really, really lucky, some of the mistakes may be small enough that competitors never realize they happened."

Also posted on Desert Sea - New Mexico Sailing are some pictures, a race summary, and lots of data.

Orang Puti: Humiliation by ISO

Today's entry in our Learning Experiences group writing project is from Mark, a Laser sailor in Brunei, who has submitted Humiliation by ISO. The story is about his attempts to sail a boat which has three times as many ropes and lines than a Laser, not to mention three times as many sails.

You've Got a Friend

Check out You've got a friend, an entry in our Learning Experiences group writing project from Carol Anne at Five O'Clock Somewhere. Once again Carol Anne has given us a new way of looking at a familiar topic.

One of the beauties of this whole blogging nonsense is that you can never predict the trajectory of an idea or a story, where it will land, who will read it... IC, a high school sailor from Maine, sent me a story for the group writing project by email which I posted here under the title I See Stupid People. It caught the attention of whoever maintains the website of the Laser Class Association of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory who posted a link to it on their website (in the sidebar on the left) and last night my stats were showing all these hits on IC's story from down under. So now those awesome Aussie Laser sailors are learning something from a kid in Maine.

There are still two days for you to submit your Learning Experiences story. Either post it in your blog or send it to me by email. Who knows... you too could have your 15 minutes of fame in Australia. Full instructions at Learning Experiences.

More Learning Experiences

Two more submissions for our Learning Experiences group writing project today...

Manfred Schreiber from Germany has written a learning experience post on his blog about Shifting Gears particularly in relation to sailing a Foiler Moth.

Somers Kempe of Thinking of Sailing has submitted So kids, what did we learn today? about how he and someone else in his fleet (in Bermuda I believe) really aren't learning from their experiences. The other guy is named Mr. Luff, so you can guess what this is all about.

And here's a recap of all the previous entries...

The Sailor's Prayer and Motivation by Captain JP
I See Stupid People by IC
Drive by TK
Don't Think Twice by Andrew Sadler
Point Nemo by Edward
Adventures in Boating by Robert Hruzek
Helping Hands by Jos M Spijkerman
A whole bunch of posts from David Anderson

The Sailor's Prayer

Another entry in our Learning Experiences group writing project from Captain JP... about how he learned from his mistakes and by being pushed by the competitive spirit of racing, and why he still mutters under his breath The Sailor's Prayer.