Sticky Fingers

While sailing my Laser on Saturday I wore a pair of regular full finger neoprene sailing gloves but for the first time since last winter my hands were starting to feel cold. So on Sunday it was time to bring out the heavy artillery in my sailing gloves arsenal... my APS Dry Gloves.


These are made from natural latex rubber and have a tapered wrist seal that keeps water from entering the glove. With a polypropylene glove liner inside, these gloves keep my hands perfectly warm and dry in the coldest weather.

Things were fine for the first few races, but then a very strange thing started to happen. My fingers started to stick together! Why was this happening? I've never had this problem before. Is the saltwater attacking the latex and turning the surface into glue? Have the gloves picked up some contaminant? Is it just old age? (The gloves not me.)

And more importantly how can I prevent "sticky finger syndrome" in future. Is the answer here? Or here?

I don't know. Any suggestions?

Snap!

I think I've worked out what I'm doing wrong. Well, at least one of the things I've been doing wrong. All these years I've been sailing at below my true potential because of one simple thing.

It dawned on me when I recalled the other day something I had been told by a sailing coach many years ago. Something about taking snapshots not videos when you are racing. His point was that you need to pay attention to a lot of factors in a race and that you need to keep switching attention among them all, not get focused too long on any one issue.

When I thought back to racing last week I remembered his advice. There was one race where I had a superb start near the favored pin end of the line, heading towards the left side of the course which had previously been the strategically optimal way to go. I was concentrating on my boat speed and the boats around me and not letting the waves slow me down and maintaining a good lane with clear air and feeling good about being the leading boat of all the pack on the left ... And it wasn't until way too late that I looked over my shoulder and saw that stronger wind had filled in from the right side of the course and the boats that had gone right were already 100 yards ahead of me. Aaaagghhh!!!!

Did I look upwind before the start? No.

Did I look around the course after the start? No.

I was just way to focused on boat speed that I forgot about the big picture.

Of course there are a lot of things that a single-handed sailor like me has to be dealing with all the time. Sail trim. Boat trim. Boat balance. What are the boats close to me doing? What are they likely to do? Am I being headed or lifted? What is the wind ahead of me doing? What is the wind on the other side of the course doing? Are the boats on the other side of the course doing better or worse than me? Where am I in relation to the next mark? And so on.

So when I went out to practice on the local reservoir on Saturday I concentrated on using the "snapshot" approach. Switching my attention every few seconds between all the variables. Telltales look OK? Boat flat? What's the wind ahead doing? Where's the next puff? Am I being headed? Big picture wind - where is it strongest?

I'm sure that good sailors do most of this unconsciously. They are constantly receiving and processing this information all the time without having to think about it. But given my tendency to concentrate on one thing and forget everything else I found this snapshot exercise useful.

Then while racing yesterday I tried using the same technique. 2 minute signal - check out the wind. 1 minute signal - check out the wind again. Then once we're racing keep taking the snapshots. Telltales. Snap. Boat trim. Snap. Wind ahead. Snap. Wind over my shoulder. Snap. Wind other side of the course. Snap. Windward mark. Snap. Boats nearby. Snap. Boats other side of the course. Snap.

And it worked. My results were dramatically better than the previous week. I went from about being a third of the way from the bottom of the fleet to being in the top third of the fleet. OK, there's still plenty of room for improvement. But if I hadn't missed that persistent shift on the second beat of the fourth race...

Oh well. There's always next time.

Snap!

Searches

One of the simple pleasures of my life is checking my Site Meter statistics to see what search engine queries are directing new readers to Proper Course. Here are a few examples...

"where do flies go in the winter?"
Search me. You're not going to find the answer here.

"proper porn"
Proper porn? As opposed to what? Improper porn? What is this person thinking?

"jiggly asses"
It's all too clear what this person is thinking. But he won't find what he's seeking here.

"sock burning"
I never cease to marvel at the human mind. Apparently some people wake up on Saturday morning and have an urge to spend the weekend burning some old socks so the first thing they do is go to Google to find the best way to plan their incendiary indulgence.

"silly awards"
Other people wake up on Saturday morning and think that nothing would make their day more complete than giving silly awards to all their friends, and they also turn to Google for ideas.

"church signs quote"
I guess the guy whose job is to put up those inspirational messages on the church sign has to get his ideas online if god isn't providing him with any help today.

"prayers of thanks"
Hope you found what you were looking for father.

"meaning of jimmy buffett southern cross"
Ohmigod. Somebody is looking for meaning in Jimmy Buffet songs. (Actually it wasn't even written by JB but then a lot of people on the internet are a little confused.)

"pain in right shoulder blade and excessive wind"
Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Seriously, it's a bit scary if people are coming here for medical advice.

"squirrel wearing speedos"
What? I think I'm pretty broadminded but some fetishes are way too weird for me to comprehend.

"how to remove nipple rings" Carefully please, very carefully. Ouch.

"sticky toffee pudding"
Does this look like a recipe blog?

"laser sailing training regime"
Sir, you are definitely in the wrong place if you are looking to plan your laser sailing training regime by picking up ideas on this blog.

Who Invented the Wetsuit?

So there I was this afternoon, out sailing my Laser on the lake opposite my home, just chilling out and enjoying a sunny fall afternoon, looking at the patterns of the clouds and the gusts on the water, and contemplating the great mysteries of the universe such as if intelligent design is correct who designed the designer, and why does starboard have right of way over port, and is dark energy the same thing as the cosmological constant, and why am I the only person dumb enough to be out sailing on this lake this afternoon? And then the big big question struck me between the eyes...

Who invented the wetsuit? Yeah. Who first thought of wrapping his body in synthetic spongy rubber so he could immerse himself in freezing cold water for pleasure? Because I owe him a big thank you for making this glorious afternoon of sailing and contemplation possible.

So I sailed back to the dock, packed up my Laser, hauled it back to the house, rushed upstairs to my computer dripping lake water all over the carpet, and excitedly clutched the mouse with soggy hand and heavy anticipation. Wikipedia will have the answer, right?

Well apparently not. Who invented the wetsuit is one of those mysteries lost in the mists of time just like what caused the Cambrian explosion and is Geronimo's skull really used in weird fraternity rituals at Yale University?

Here's what Wikipedia has to say...

It is difficult to credit a single individual for the creation of the modern wetsuit. In 1951, while working for the US Navy, Hugh Bradner had the insight that a thin layer of trapped water could act as an insulator. It was a colleague of Bradner who suggested neoprene as a feasible material. However, Bradner was not overly interested in profiting from his design and never marketed a version to the public; nor did he patent his design. The first written documentation of Bradner's invention was in a letter dated June 21, 1951.

Traditionally, most say it was Jack O'Neill (businessman) who invented the wetsuit and started using neoprene, which he found lining the floor of an airliner. However, this is disputed by some aviation experts because neoprene and other rubbers are not fire retardant; therefore, they would not be found on any passenger aircraft. More importantly, it was not Jack, but his brother, Robert, who created the first designs for the company they later founded. Robert and Jack O'Neill went on to found the successful wetsuit manufacturing company called O'Neill. But Bob and Bill Meistrell, from Manhattan Beach, California claim to have started experimenting with neoprene around 1953. Their company would later be named Body Glove.

So now you know.

Worth Doing Badly

I suspect that almost everyone in the world interested in sailing has by now seen the video of Ham-It-Up! Capri 25 Sailing Round Down, an absolutely hilarious film of a crew at the Capri 25 2006 Nationals demonstrating a broach, an unintentional gybe, a man (actually woman) overboard, and all sorts of other good clean mayhem and total incompetence.

It was featured on Sailing Anarchy and picked up by various sailing blogs. Of course the know-it-all armchair sailors on the Sailing Anarchy Forum were all over it, ranting about the numerous mistakes made by this crew, insulting their intelligence, and making various derogatory comments about the physical attributes of certain crew members. (Since when was there a rule that said that people with over-developed buttocks can't go sailing?)

One has to wonder about the motivation of Mr Hammett in making this video available to the world. Is he proud that his team survived these events with nothing worse than wounded pride? Or is it some twisted form of self-deprecating humor (an art form that is occasionally attempted by the writer of this blog)?

Personally I like to think that the video is a celebration of G.K.Chesterton's famous paradox: If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. Most of us that love sailing know what that means. I know that I am not immune from making a few mistakes every time I set foot on a boat. I know I sail badly (or at least far from perfectly) but I still think it's worth doing.

And some of us are not afraid to tell the world about our botched up sailing attempts. Two of my favorite sailing bloggers, Carol Anne at Five O'Clock Somewhere and Edward at EVK4 Bloglet, write blogs that are so fascinating partly because they do not shy away from sharing with us their bad sailing experiences as well as their good days. Bravo to both of you. (But I'd love to see the videos too!)

But what about you? Would you go sailing today if your own inexperience, or unfamiliarity with the boat, or crew shortcomings, or weather conditions mean that you are probably likely to sail less than perfectly? Do you challenge yourself to try new things in sailing, knowing that at least initially you will be making plenty of mistakes?

In other words... is sailing so worth doing that it's worth doing badly?

Mystery Object

It's made from carbon fiber with a matte finish. It's lightweight, stiff and strong. It's ultra-low profile design is cut out underneath at one end and it has a 6" curved titanium wear plate. What is it?

Here's a clue. There's not much you can do within class rules to upgrade the equipment on a Laser but one item that is almost unrestricted is the tiller.

Yes my friend, today's mystery object is the Acme Carbon Black Diamond Laser Tiller, apparently the weapon of choice for all serious Laser sailors, at least in North America. There she is. What a jewel!



So, you may well ask, what's the big deal about having an "ultra-low profile" tiller? I couldn't explain it better than to quote the words of one of Acme's competitors, Rooster Sailing who also sell a carbon tiller for Lasers...

The big problem for Laser Sailors is - to get the maximum power out of the rig in medium winds, they need to get maximum leach tension on the sail. This is achieved by using the mainsheet to tension the leach alone. Kicker tension simply reduces the leach tension as the boom is also a pusher into the mast (bending it) as well as a ‘puller’ down’.

So the obvious answer is to use the mainsheet. However, in marginal hiking conditions the mainsheet keeps pulling the boom into the middle of the boat, due to its action from the ratchet block and traveler system which encourages the boom into the centre of the boat (the natural highest place). Some sailors find it easier to just use kicker to keep the boom on the corner, but unfortunately they loose pointing ability and speed due to the lack of leach tension. In an ideal world the traveler should be higher at the edges thus allowing the boom to want to stay outboard. Unfortunately the Laser tiller gets in the way. The higher the tiller the higher the traveler in the middle. So that is why top Laser sailors spend silly amounts of money on a carbon tiller so that it can be as low as possible and still stiff enough not to bang on the traveler cleat.

The other more obvious advantage of a very low profile tiller is that with minimal friction from the traveler line, you have a much better feel for the helm in light winds. Having used the Black Diamond tiller for some time now I have nothing but praise for it. It certainly keeps all the promises that are made for it and it is superior to any other tiller I have used.

The area I still want to experiment with is tiller extensions. Acme make two carbon tiller extensions, the Fatso and Fatso Junior. (What marketing genius came up with those terms?) They are both all carbon construction with a surface that gives excellent grip and both have a comfortable oval cross-section. The only difference is that the Fatso is, well, fatter than the Fatso Junior. Duh.

I'm not sure which one will suit me best. On the one hand I feel that the larger cross-section version may be more comfortable for long days on the water. I did have a tendency in the past to suffer from cramps in my hands when Lasering and thought that one of the causes might be holding a very slim tiller extension. On the other hand, a smaller cross-section extension should be somewhat easier when trying to use the tiller hand with the sheet hand for rapid sheeting such as at leeward mark roundings.

Thanks to the generosity of Alex Maas at Acme Inc. I now have samples of both extensions as well as the tiller so will be able to try them both during the frostbite season. I'll write another post on my experiences later in the winter.

The Pessimist and the Optimist

Sunday was a miserable day. It was raining. It was dull. I was terrible. When I did get a good start on the left the wind filled in from the right. When I got clear air off the start line everyone else outpointed me and I was soon in the toilet. The waves kept slowing me down. I totally misjudged the adverse tide at the windward mark a couple of times. I'm totally out of practice in sailing in a fleet this large and the competition is way too tough for me. I totally suck. Anybody want to by a second-hand Laser cheap?

Sunday was a magnificent day. Sure it rained a bit, but only in the last race. In spite of not having sailed against such tough competition since July I was getting pretty good starts. However I was not very good at observing and predicting what the wind was going to do next, which is something I can work on in practice sessions and through mental preparation. It was interesting sailing in strong current again after sailing on lakes all summer and I'll soon be judging the laylines in tide a lot better. The waves were big enough early in the day to catch some nice rides downwind and I was slowly getting back the hang of how to deal with them upwind. I noticed I wasn't pointing as well as the rest of the fleet but one of the top sailors pointed out to me afterwards what I was doing wrong: I need to sail absolutely flat in these conditions -- something else to practice. What a great day, a real learning experience and some good input on things I need to work on. And my finishes did improve in every race. Think I need to buy another Laser so I can leave one boat at the club and keep one at home for practice. Can't wait for next Sunday.

Garbology 101

I like to think that I take pretty good care of the marine environment when I'm sailing. But as I'm never out for more than a few hours in my Laser it's pretty easy to follow the rule of taking back to shore any waste materials from my snacks or drinks. (Ummm - except of course the occasional need to water the fishes).

But ocean going ships obviously have a whole different set of issues with which to deal. Check out his article on Garbology 101 written by Mary Ann, aboard the Esperanza, the largest vessel in the Greenpeace fleet. I guess being Greenpeace they have to make sure they are ultra politically correct when it comes to dumping stuff over the side, but if you are as ignorant of such matters as myself you might be surprised as what materials they do toss.

London Marathon

London, here we come! On Friday I sent in my entry for the 2007 Flora London Marathon to Marathon Tours and Travel along with a hefty deposit check. So now I'm committed.

I have to confess I've been vacillating for the last couple of weeks about whether to run this marathon or not. The only way to be sure of getting an entry, indeed by now the only way to enter at all, is to sign up for a package including hotel and air travel with the tour company. And it seemed like an expensive commitment, especially if by any chance I injured myself while training or for any other reason wasn't in shape to run a marathon next April.

I'm already four weeks into my training program and definitely want to aim to run an April marathon. Looking around on various websites I found that the New Jersey Marathon in Long Branch is the week after London. So after discussion with Tillerwoman we decided to drop the idea of doing London and planned on doing New Jersey instead. Hey, we live so close to Long Branch that we wouldn't even need a hotel. Just show up on the day and run.

But then I had second thoughts again. Does that make it third thoughts?

Two laps around some Jersey shore town?

Or London? Cutty Sark, Tower of London, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Cleopatra's Needle, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace... one of the great city marathons of the world.

So eventually I decided to go for the big one. If I'm going to put in all the effort to train for a marathon, the actual race had better be a truly memorable experience. And as an aging baby boomer, I don't know how many more years are left in these old legs so I had better grab the chance while I can.

So on Friday I called up the tour company, confirmed they still have guaranteed places available in the race, and sent them my deposit. I'm on my way.

I called up my mother in England this morning and told her my decision. The plan is to visit her and my mother-in-law in the week before the race, and then for Tillerwoman and me to spend four nights in London over the race weekend. Mum kept going on and on about how far it is to run and I had to keep explaining that it's no further than the two marathons I've already completed.

In the end I just had to tell her... "I have to do it while I'm still young!"

Sit Further Forward

Sit further forward ...

In the six summers I spent teaching kids to sail in Optimists and Sunfish I must have spoken or shouted that phrase (or words to that effect) hundreds of times.

Most kids, when they are learning to sail, seem to want to sit as far back in the boat as they can, even right alongside the tiller in an Optimist, and hang on to the tiller for dear life. I guess it's a natural reaction. It must feel a bit more scary, less in control, to hold the end of the tiller extension instead of the tiller and to sit much closer to the bow of the boat. But being the big bad evil sailing instructor who believes that it's much easier to learn good habits than to break old ones, I always endeavored to teach my kids right from day one to sit well forward in their sailing dinghy. Unless you're planing or taking waves over the bow, it's faster.

Sit further forward...

So it was something of a surprise to hear the same words directed at myself while in the Laser class at Minorca Sailing a few weeks back. We were sailing upwind in a fairly light wind, not hiking conditions, and I was sitting at the front of the cockpit. Honest. But I had forgotten that in such conditions I should have had my weight even further forward in a Laser.

Oh, I know in the really light stuff you need to get your weight forward and lift the transom out of the water. On all those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer that I've spent racing -- correction: drifting in -- my Laser on New Jersey lakes in 0-2 knots of wind, I'm as adept at anyone at climbing up in front of the mainsheet and squatting in some painful contortion just behind the mast.

But this situation in Menorca was in a somewhat stronger wind. Butt on the side deck kind of wind. And my instructor, Comet, was telling me to move my weight up alongside the centerboard, not just to the front of the cockpit.

On checking Comet's tip in my home sailing library I see that Ben Ainslie offers much the same advice in The Laser Campaign Manual: "Sit as far forward as possible (front leg in front of the mainsheet)." And in Ben Tan's Complete Introduction to Laser Racing, Rod Dawson in the chapter on Straight-line Speed advises us to "keep the bodyweight forward, next to the centreboard, to lift the transom above the water level,thereby reducing drag" when beating in lighter winds.

So how did I develop this bad habit of sitting just behind the centerboard of the Laser when beating in light winds? It's sailing that damn Sunfish, I'm sure. The Sunfish guru of gurus, Derek Fries in his book Successful Sunfish Racing specifically advises the Sunfish skipper to "situate himself even with the forward edge of the cockpit. There is no reason to sit any further forward". Ahah. That's it. All those years of sailing the Sunfish taught me a bad habit for Laser sailing.

So in my practice sessions since returning from Menorca I've been working on developing the correct style for sailing a Laser upwind in lighter winds. On some sessions I've sailed for a while with my weight up by the centerboard and then moved back to my old position. It certainly feels different. Hard to put into words but the correct technique has a more locked-in-the-groove smooth balanced feel to it. Fast. (I hope.)

This was the one of the things I was looking for when I had the chance to observe some top-notch Laser sailors last Sunday. I was admiring the leader of one race who was sailing upwind, sitting well forward, and also leaning his body towards the bow too. He looked smooth and fast, and it was easy to see that the knuckle of his bow was slicing into the water and the transom was lifted clear of the water.

By contrast another very good sailor a couple of places behind him was sitting a little back in the cockpit and leaning backwards. His bow was actually lifted up above the surface of the water. I couldn't understand why such an excellent sailor was using this style. Did this usually work for him? Everyone's different, it seems.

There's a tiny little problem with moving your weight forward of the front of the cockpit on a Laser. The deck cleat for the mainsheet. It is in exactly the wrong place. Sit forward and that cleat is going to be sticking into a part of your anatomy that shouldn't have foreign objects poked into it. Not too bad if you are wearing a couple of layers of neoprene. But definitely disconcerting if you are only wearing a swimsuit. But you have to do it. I know of at least one Laser sailor who has removed his deck cleats to avoid this... ahem... sensitive issue.

Thanks to the three Laser sailors who commented on my previous post about Laser technique. Would like to hear from any other Laser freaks if you agree with this stuff (or even if you don't) or have any other tips on light wind beating.