Speedlinking Saturday

I thought I would share with you today some of the unusual and off-beat items I discovered this week in the bloggy world.

Someone called Doug Dougleson (which might not be his real name) recently started a blog and for some reason put a link on it to Proper Course. He has solved the problem of how to maintain a degree of anonymity in a uniquely bizarre profile. Check out About Me.

Adam Turinas, from Messing About In Sailboats, like many of us sailors in northern regions is clearly suffering from cabin fever. He is reduced to playing a nautical drinking game called You shunk my battleshlip.

JP from London sounds equally desperate. Perhaps inspired by a visit to the London Boat Show he decided to write a boating related piece of fiction entitled Golden Balls and Boats, engineered to include all the top search phrases in Google's Zeitgeist. Absolutely shameless self-promotion and I am sure he has had thousands of new visitors to his blog as a result. I kind of wish I had thought of it first.

Yesterday I wrote about my crap sailing at a regatta earlier this month. So I was amused to find this post about crap surfing at Grandmas Gone Surfing in which Grandma ponders various excuses to end a crap surfing session from "time for tea" to "loss of appendage to shark bite". Classic!

My last link actually isn't about a watery sport at all but is kind of appropriate to my dogged and fatalistic approach to sailing. ProBlogger Darren Rowse wrote an Australia Day post about Australian speed skating icon Steven Bradbury entitled How Steven Bradbury Can Make You a Better Blogger. Bradbury is famous for winning an Olympic gold medal by hanging in there and waiting for others to make mistakes. Apparently he has even entered some Aussie slang dictionaries because "he did a Bradbury" is used to describe events where fortune seems to fall in the lap of someone. But as Darren correctly points out, Bradbury won a medal through twelve years of hard slog and by putting himself in a position to win. An inspiration for all of us whether bloggers or sailors... or both. Maybe in my next regatta I will do a Bradbury?

Broken Record

Runners are always chasing after that elusive "personal best", their best ever record time for a given distance. Well, I certainly set some personal records sailing in the Laser Caribbean Midwinters in Cabarete, Dominican Republic earlier this month. But not of the best kind.

I am pretty sure that at this regatta I broke my own records for...

• Most capsizes in one regatta
• Most DNF's scored in one regatta

Here's how it happened...

Friday. The decision was made that we would sail inside the reef. The guys on the beach helped us launch our Lasers through the shore break and we headed off downwind to the start area near the beach where all the kite surfers play.



Waves and wind seemed much crazier than they had during the clinic but I managed to complete the first 5-lap Windward-Leeward race without capsizing and even managed to lap at least one of the tail-enders. Was feeling kind of smug and self-satisfied and starting to believe that I could handle this stuff.

In the second race a rain squall hit us just after the start. The wind got even stronger but the worst thing was that I could hardly see a thing. It was almost like white-out conditions you can get in the clouds in the mountains. The watchers on the beach only a couple of hundred yards away said that they lost sight of the whole fleet of thirty Lasers. As I came into the windward mark near the port tack layline, the leaders (on starboard tack) were bearing away and catching rides in the waves crossing my course. I could barely see them. I couldn't predict their exact courses on the waves. I was barely in control of my own boat. I somehow managed to dodge through the leading pack when I suddenly glimpsed through the murk a dark head in the water a few yards ahead off my bow. There was a windsurfer down in the water right next to the windward mark. What was he thinking, sailing on our racecourse in those conditions? More by luck than judgment I avoided killing him (wonder what it's like serving a life term in a Dominican prison), executed an ugly tack, wobbled around the windward mark and bore off in the general direction that I guessed the leeward mark might be. Don't ask me what happened next because I couldn't see a damn thing and there were waves as big as houses falling on me from all directions. I seem to remember a lot of swimming and a lot of climbing on to the centerboard.

I arrived at the leeward mark totally exhausted and decided that I should retire before I did some serious damage to myself or someone else. First DNF. But the race committee called off racing for the day after that race.

Saturday. And then things got worse.


Today I capsized twice on the way to the start. So I told myself I had two choices. Chicken out or hang in there. I chose to hang in there.

Every race I was wiping out on every downwind leg. Death rolls. Broaches. Capsizing on gybes. Being rolled over by random waves from unexpected directions. But in each race I kept going until I was too exhausted to do any more capsize recoveries and then I waited by the start area until the next race, had a drink, caught my breath, and watched the leaders' technique as they came into and rounded the leeward mark. Then I would start the next race, struggle up the beat and start the suicidal downwind mayhem all over again.

I figured that at least I was out there playing in the waves and learning something. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right? Afterwards the RC said they had measured 35 knots of wind during a squall on Saturday. I can believe it.

On Saturday night I pumped some of the more successful sailors for information. How do you sail those runs, those beats? How loose is your vang? Do you loosen your outhaul downwind in the strongest winds or just leave it at the upwind settings? I picked up a few tips, especially about surfing upwind on port tack and being very aggressive about bearing away at the windward mark to catch a wave.

Sunday. The advice seemed to work. I started every race. And finished every race. Got some decent starts. In one race I was even in the middle of the fleet ahead of some very good sailors at the halfway mark. (How did that happen?) Only capsized once all day. What a great way to finish off the week. Felt that through my struggles on Friday and Saturday I had actually made some progress in learning how to survive in these waves. Now I just have to learn how to go faster!



Just to put my dismal performance into perspective...

• 19 of the 30 entrants in the regatta scored a DNF or DNS in at least one race.
  
  
• 9 of the 30 failed to complete all the races on Sunday (but I did).
  
  
• When we came to check in our charter boats on Sunday afternoon, at least a third of the fleet had a permanent bend in the upper mast section (typically caused by a downwind capsize when the tip of the mast hits the water at speed).

All photos by Roberto Alvarez and courtesy of caribwind.com

It Depends

Photo by Roberto Alvarez courtesy of caribwind.com

At the four-day clinic prior to the Caribbean Laser Midwinters in Cabarete, Dominican Republic earlier this month, the coach running the clinic, Brett Davis, did a superb job in teaching us and running drills that focused on many aspects of Laser sailing including boat-handling, upwind and downwind boat-speed in waves, tactics, starts, nutrition, physical fitness and even yoga. He answered all our questions and was more than willing to pass on his considerable knowledge about the sport.

But after a couple of days, one of the students on the clinic started to gently chide Brett. "I wish that just for once you would give us a straight answer instead of saying, 'It depends,' every time we ask a question."

I could see this guy's point. The discussions at the clinic had often gone something like this...

---

Student: So Brett, when I get a bad start what should I do? Should I tack and take a few transoms and get over to the right side of the course in clear air? Or Should I keep going to the left?

Brett: Well, it all depends on whether you think the left side of the course is favored.

Student: Hmmm.

---

Student: So Brett, when I'm beating in waves, where is the best place to tack?

Brett: Well I like to tack in the troughs. But what do you do T? (addressing young hotshot sailor).

T: I try and tack going up a wave so that the crest of the wave helps to turn my bow.

Brett: Well I guess it depends on the sort of waves you are sailing in.

Student: Hmmm.

---

Student (after long discussion on S-curving downwind): So Brett should we ride the waves by the lee as long as we can and then head up on to a broad reach? Or should we do lots of tighter S-curves?

Brett: Well, it all depends on the waves...

Student: Hmmm.

---

Of course Brett was right. And the student teasing him was being a bit naive expecting black and white answers to some of these question about more advanced aspects of Lasering technique. When you're just learning to sail things are more definite. Sit here in the boat. Hold the tiller this way. Look that way. Heel the boat this much. But when it gets to technique in waves there is no right and wrong method that works all the time. You have to develop a feel for the waves and learn by trial and error what works in different conditions. And different sailors do have different styles.

Brett answered the challenge to his "It depends" comments directly by telling us that we shouldn't expect to be able to get definite answers to questions about technique for sailing in waves. He said you can't learn this stuff that way. You can't, for example, learn downwind technique in waves by thinking about it; you just have to sail hundreds of miles in a Laser downwind in waves until you develop a feel for it.

I'm sure he's right. Anybody want to volunteer to drive a coach boat for me while I do some downwind sailing off the New Jersey shore next month? No? Can't blame you.

Wave Reflections

Diego Romero sailing in the 2007 Caribbean Midwinters Regatta
Photo by Roberto Alvarez courtesy of caribwind.com

Dear reader, I misled you.

Having read again my post on Waves, and the comments to it, I can understand why I left the impression that my experience sailing in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic a few days ago was one long struggle to cope with the wave conditions. Of course that was not correct. Yes, there were some days when it all seemed a bit beyond me. But there were also days when I enjoyed long exhilarating rides surfing down those monster waves. Days that will rank as some of the best I have ever spent on the water.

On the first two days of the clinic it was champagne sailing conditions all the way. Winds of 15 to 20 knots and plenty of waves. Brett Davis, our coach, gave us lots of drills to allow us to gain familiarity with wave sailing both up and down wind and to improve our boat-handling and boat-speed in those conditions. When we set off on a downwind drill and bore away to sailing by the lee on one of those big rollers it was like sliding down the roof of a house. The Laser effectively became a surfboard. Much of the time the sail was backwinded on those rides.

Hmmm, let me see? If the winds were over 15 knots and the speed of the boat on a wave made the sail back then we were going faster than the wind, right? That feels pretty darned fast on a little 14 foot slab of fiberglass.

Eventually the ride would end and it would be time to head up on to a broad reach and try and catch the next wave. Brett had us doing plenty of reaching drills too, mainly racing between the two safety boats and gybing around each one as they were driving slowly downwind. Then on the second day he had us doing a drill he called 1-2-3-Pump where when he blew the whistle we would bear away to sailing by the lee, and then on the next whistle move body weight in, sheet in 1-2-3 times and then a big pump to make the boat head up and start planing on a broad reach without using the tiller. And repeat. Over and over again. Down and surf and up and plane and down and surf and so on and so on.

Man it was fun.

Waves

Photo by Roberto Alvarez courtesy of caribwind.com

One of the main reasons for my trip to Cabarete last week was to gain some experience sailing in waves. Almost all of the sailing that I do at my home clubs and at regattas up and down the East coast is on sheltered waters: inland lakes or protected bays or sounds. The author of Split Tacks, ab, wrote a post a few days ago making the point that sailors like us are at a big disadvantage when it comes to competing at major Laser championships which are usually in more open waters.

I suspect that a lot of Laser sailors spend most of their sailing time on relatively flat water. Rivers, lakes, harbors, protected bays and so on. But when the major championships come around, they are nearly always held in open ocean conditions, with waves. In these regattas, most of the sailors are fit. Most of them can tack and gybe well. Most of them understand tactics and strategy. But the sailors who do well are those who can handle the waves, both upwind and down.

Cabarete did not disappoint. The sailing conditions there were ... "interesting" to say the least.

Cabarete is on the Atlantic Ocean shore of the Dominican Republic and there is a reef no more than a half a mile offshore which has a gap in it through which you can usually sail to the open sea. But on the days of the regatta the waves were not only breaking along the line of the reef but also across the gap in the reef too. This made it impossible to sail through the gap, so we had to sail the regatta inside the reef. You can see the line of surf on the reef in the background in the picture above.

Outside of the reef the waves (I was told) were more regular and predictable; inside the reef there were still sizeable waves but, because of reflections off the reef, they were more chaotic. And in certain places on the race course they were breaking too. The average waves were more or less head on when beating on starboard and so from the side on port tack. Then on two days of racing there were big squalls with heavy rain and even stronger winds going through the race area at times.

So I would be racing in crazy winds and trying to cope with these big waves up or downwind when all of a sudden a huge wave with a breaking crest would come from an unexpected direction. I saw boats picked up by these waves and tossed in the air. One guy even told me he pitchpoled. Dealing with the waves upwind and downwind was a real challenge to me. Brett Davis's advice during the clinic was a great help and I am sure that after five days of struggling with the waves I must have improved a little.

The photo shows 2003 Laser World Champion Gustavo Lima catching a ride downwind on a typical Cabarete wave (if there was such a thing). I'm sure I did the same thing many many times during the week but as far as I know nobody captured it on camera. Hmmm -- I wonder why?

Cabarete

Just returned from a week of Laser sailing at the Laser Center in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. There was a 4-day clinic followed by the 3-day Caribbean Laser Midwinters.

It was an amazing, brilliant, challenging, draining, exhilarating, exhausting, exciting, humbling, inspiring, instructive, rewarding, scary, sunny, rainy, windy, wavy and totally worthwhile experience.

Thanks to Ari Barshi and all his staff at the Laser Center for organizing the week. (Ari was the guy who left a comment on this post about training methods telling us that his personal solution was to hire an elite coach, buy a coach boat and 15 Lasers and open a Laser training center. It certainly seems to be working for him.)

Thanks to Brett Davis for coaching us at the clinic and passing on many words of wisdom.

Thanks to Andres Santana and his race committee team for running the regatta in some wild, windy weather with awesome waves. Even Ari said he was surprised that they had us racing in the extreme conditions on Saturday.

But, most of all, thanks of all to all my fellow sailors at the clinic and regatta. They say that to improve you have to test yourself against sailors of a higher standard than yourself and I certainly had that opportunity! And every one of these superb sailors was happy to answer questions, share their knowledge, and help a comparative bozo like myself.

I have an inkling that there were a few bloggable moments that I will want to write about here in the next few days...

Break

Life is good.

My marathon preparation is going well. Just completed the 12th week of the training program and enjoyed a nice and easy 18 mile run yesterday.

The blog is jogging along at a steady pace too. Proper Course had its first day of over 1000 visits this week. And I just completed my first paid writing assignment for a real world sailing magazine -- an opportunity that came my way because of the blog.

Sailing? Ah well. Not so much of the real stuff lately. But in the Tacticat world I'm slowly getting the hang of it, amassed 1000+ points and clawed myself into the top 100 in the rankings. I'm beginning to convince myself that it does teach some useful skills that will translate to real sailing. More on that in another post.

But it's time for a break. A week off from running to use some different muscles. A week off from blogging to do some living and have some experiences worth writing about. And a week off from virtual sailing to do some of the real stuff.

Normal service on this blog will be resumed on or around January 16.

Seventh Annual Weblog Awards

The Seventh Annual Weblog Awards is now open for nominations. I see there is a new category for best sports blog. It would be really cool for the sport if a sailing blog won that award. So check out my list of Top Ten Sailing Blogs and vote for one of those, or for any other sailing blog you prefer.

Dummies

Someone is making fun of me.

Blog Privacy

The upcoming "Washington sex blog" lawsuit is a reminder to all of us that blogging carries certain risks. For those of you who have been living under a stone for the last few months the case concerns a young lady who wrote a blog about her challenging life trying to juggle simultaneous sexual relationships with six different men. All good clean fun you would think. Problem is that one of the gentlemen concerned found out about the blog and wasn't entirely happy about certain details of his recreational preferences being made public. So being American, and a lawyer, he sued.

Those of us interested in the case are not following it because of our perverted interest in the potentially lurid testimony if the case goes to trial. Of course not. Nobody in America is interested in stuff like that. The much more important aspect of the case is that it should help establish whether people who keep blogs are obligated to protect the privacy of the people with whom they interact offline.

Of course I don't expect anyone is going to sue me over what I write in Proper Course. But I do have a concern about how far it is sensible for me to go in writing about other people -- the people I race with, other sailors, my friends, my family.

I don't try to be deliberately offensive but I do understand that some of the incidents I describe may look totally different to another party involved. For example I am sure that the other sailor involved in this mark rounding probably wouldn't agree with my account. Would he be upset if he found out what I wrote about him?

Or the folk I write about may just not appreciate that what they say or do in the context of a casual interaction or a sailboat race ends up on the The Interweb and is accessible to anyone who knows how to use The Google.

Of course I can't avoid writing about other sailors. How could I write about sailboat racing and not do so? So without setting out to define anything as formal as a privacy policy, I have found myself adopting certain practices to protect the innocent and guilty alike...

• I very rarely use the real names of the people I write about. So even if you recognize yourself in one of my posts, your friends at work and the club (or even your family) won't know it's you. Sometimes I make up silly names like Alphonse, Bertie and Cedric in the Mark Rounding post. Sometimes I use initials such as the mysterious "S." who helped me start a Laser fleet a couple of years ago.
  
  
• The only times that I can recall using real names of people I sail with and write about, (a) they were already nationally well known names in the sailing world, and (b) I only wrote good stuff about them like the fact that they were great coaches or that they won a race.
  
  
• I don't even use my own real name though it wouldn't be too hard for anyone to discover it given the two years of clues I have written. And a few people who know me well and have stumbled on the blog have, of course, recognized who the writer is.
  
  
• I don't even mention by name the clubs that I sail at regularly. This may seem like a ridiculous conceit to some folk. But I don't want the other members of my clubs to be worrying that I am spying on them and that anything they do may end up on this blog. You know what they say: what goes on at the yacht club stays at the yacht club. But this almost seems deceitful. After all some of the things that happen at the yacht club will end up in this blog. Would it be fairer if everyone knew of that possibility?

I'm not sure if these informal rules are the right ones. Am I being too cautious or too protective of the privacy of myself and my fellow sailors? I'd be interested to hear your views, especially if you write a blog yourself. How do you strike the right balance on this question?