Rain

Words of Wisdom... and Some Questions

Some words of wisdom from the best book ever written on self-coaching in sailing: Sail, Race and Win by Eric Twiname...

Many people rely on racing as virtually their only way of learning to race more successfully. Yet race experience alone is of limited value. More racing does not necessarily mean better results. Often it brings the opposite...

To improve a technique, tacking for example, you must experiment. Experimenting means that you will be doing some tacks worse than usual... During a race you are reluctant to experiment because... it would be crazy to do something deliberately which you know would make you worse...

Normal race experience on its own tends to confirm you in what you are doing already....

Maximum benefit comes from a broad range of learning methods of which racing is only one.

Twiname goes on to list these other "ways of learning"....

• Observation
• Solo practice
• Crewing
• Physical fitness
• Swapping boats and classes
• Paired practice
• Team and match racing
• Race post mortem
• Reading and seeking advice
• Group coaching
• Mental fitness

What do you think? Is it possible to race too much? Do you agree that racing "tends to confirm you in what you are doing already" (which may not be optimal)? Does it make sense that you could race less and improve faster? Are you using some of Twiname's other "ways of learning"?

Heyitwasgreat

It was the last race of the day and my plan was to go left. It had taken me all afternoon but I had finally realised that it was more than a fluke that the guys on the left were crossing ahead of me in every race.

I started a couple of boat lengths up from the pin which was favored. I'm no big fan of trying to win the pin even in a small fleet. Too many things can go wrong especially for a sailor as uncoordinated and clumsy as me.

So I powered off the line and kept going left as most of the fleet tacked on to port behind me. The boat that did win the pin found a small header and tacked on to port too. I dug into the header further and then tacked.

Two thirds of the way up the beat I was looking good. I was ahead and to leeward of the two boats that were closest to me. If I tacked I could probably cross them, but was it worth doing three more tacks with the windward mark coming up fast?

I should have tacked earlier. Instead I tacked on the starboard tack layline and sailed right into a header. Ugh. The other two boats caught me and we rounded the mark together.

I pulled off one of the best windward mark roundings of my life. Pure chance. But I stayed in the hiking straps and bore away on to a beam reach blowing over the guy who was first at the mark. The wind had gone way left but was still very shifty, so the "run" was a mix of various angles of broad reach. I worked the sail constantly, sheeting in fast on every header and easing fast on every lift. All that pumping and easing worked like a charm and I pulled out a lead of several boat lengths by the time we reached the leeward gate.

I rounded the upwind side of the gate and tacked immediately. The wind had gone so far left that I could lay the finish line. I sailed to the finish on a tight planing reach, laughing and whooping and hollering. I love it when a plan comes together.

OK. OK. It was the only race I won all afternoon, but even so it felt good to finish off the day with a win...

And OK, this wasn't some major regatta. Merely a return visit last Saturday afternoon to the lake where they have this informal racing/practice scene that I described last year in Just Six Laser Dudes Racing Round a Sausage. Not exactly the same six dudes as last year, but five of the six sailors on Saturday were in the top six at last year's regatta here, the one I described in Just One of Those Days, so we were pretty evenly matched.

Heyitwasgreat.

Mommy Boats: The Other Side of the Argument

There has been a whole lot of discussion in the comments to my post calling to Ban Mommy Boats NOW. In the interests of fairness, I am also posting this email from James Barton who seems to know a lot more about the practices at major US Optimist championships than I do...

Tillerman may be being a bit tough on our current crop of Opti sailors.

For those of you who have never been to an Opti Championship, here's how it breaks down: Most big regattas require that every sailor have a coach or a parent on the water, remember these are little kids, often 8 or 9 years old. Most of the kids are members of a Yacht Club Team, or other Racing Team of some sort, that already has a coach. Teams over 9 or 10 sailors sometimes have two coaches. Small teams some times "join forces" as there are two or three races going on at the same time.

I am not aware of anyone at this years team trials who had a private coach, although I have seen it at other regattas. There is absolutely nothing wrong with coaches taking wind readings and passing them along to the team before the start. Although at the Team Trials I have attended, the race committees were very communicative and broadcast all race committee activities on VHF radio for everyone to hear. If you want to know the wind direction at the weather mark, all you had to do was listen to your radio.

These coaches are rarely highly paid and perform a great service to the sport by teaching the kids, respect for the rules, and respect for each other. To think that any of them are teaching the kids to cheat is ridiculous.
JB

Thanks James. Always good to hear well reasoned arguments from both sides of the issue.

I guess I have no real objection to the use of coach boats at Optimist and other junior regattas if, as you imply, all sailors have equal access to support and information from the coaches (which does not seem to have been the case at the event covered at Youth Coaching which triggered this whole current debate.)

I'm still not convinced that it's fair at any regatta for only some sailors to have this advantage. And I am totally against the use of Mommy Boats at events for REAL Laser sailors such as Laser Masters events. Ban Mommy Boats NOW.

Laser Killer?

Regular readers of this blog may be forgiven for thinking that I am a totally rabid, fanatical Laser zealot. It's really not true. Much as I like my Laser, I am realistic enough to know that the Laser will not for ever maintain its position as the most popular, most competitive, most fun single-handed sailing class in the world. Sooner or later a new boat will come along to displace the Laser from that role... the Laser Killer. But what kind of boat will it be? And have we seen it yet?

I'm inclined to think that the Laser Killer will not be one of those high performance trapezing classes such as the Musto Performance Skiff, RS700, Swift Solo or A-Cat. Exciting as those boats look, I feel that they probably demand too high a level of skill, and perhaps are also too expensive, to ever be mass-market boats as the Laser Killer surely will be.

Having had the opportunity at Minorca Sailing a couple of years ago to play around sailing boats with asymmetric spinnakers I do think that the Laser Killer will be an asymmetric single-hander. The spinnakers add a whole new dimension and excitement to downwind sailing from every aspect... boatspeed, excitement, strategy and tactics.

So the Laser Killer will probably be a hiking asymmetric singlehander using modern materials and technology; easy to learn to sail but hard to learn to sail well; robust and easily transportable; not too expensive and marketed worldwide. What will it be?


About ten years ago I saw the MX-Ray at a boat show and thought it might be the Laser Killer. But it never really took off and I don't believe it is manufactured any longer. Anyone know why?

MX-Ray

Some years after that I was writing about the Hoot and wondering whether this was going to be the Laser Killer. But according to the News page on the manufacturer's website they are still tinkering with the design of the prototype and are continuing "to move towards final production." Hmmm. Seems like they were saying much the same three years ago. Not a good sign.

Hoot

Then only last week we heard about the prototype of a new asymmetric single-hander from RS Racing, the much anticipated RS100.

RS100

RS100

The RS100 is from the drawing board of Paul Handley, designer of the very successful smaller boats in the RS line-up, so that's a good sign. Along with RS Racing's long experience as a manufacturer of small racing boats and dealers in twenty countries around the world, there is every chance that the RS100 will be just as successful as their other products. Their aim is to "create a responsive design that will appeal to all good single-handed sailors – giving an achievable challenge and a boat that is suited to most club waters as well as championship courses." Hmmm. Sounds like this could be the Laser Killer.

Apparently RS Racing have invited their dealers from other countries to visit the UK within the next few weeks "to sail the prototypes and give feedback from a truly international perspective." And the plan is to launch the boat on the market early in 2010, for the class to "build globally from the outset", and for the first world championship to be scheduled "in the second year of its life", presumably 2011.

Hmmm. Will the RS100 be the Laser Killer? What do you think?

Thought for the Day

Ban Mommy Boats NOW

There has been a lot of buzz in the sailing blogosphere this week about one of the greatest threats to the spirit of Corinthian sailing... those pesky coach boats, a.k.a. Mommy Boats.

First of all Scuttlebutt drew attention to a problem caused by Mommy Boats at the Optimist Team Trials (which are used to select the US Optimist sailors to be sent to major events around the world each year.) One young man who sailed in the trials, Bradley Adam revealed that "some kids had coaches upwind who radioed back to the starting line what the breeze was doing at the windward mark." Oh come on! That's not fair. It may be strictly legal within the Racing Rules of Sailing (as long as it is done before the prep signal) but the parents who are paying multiple coaches to help their kids with tricks like this are doing everyone a disservice.

Then Earwigoagin wrote a post about the Laser Atlantic Coast Radials and the annoyance caused to many sailors by so many Mommy Boats buzzing about the race course. Jacob D left a comment on this post saying...

I was also disturbed by the last minute instructions to those with coach support. That just isn't right! Isn't there a FAIR SAILING rule (RRS #2)? The SIs should be written in such a way that this isn't possible.

Indeed they should Jacob D. We should either prohibit coach boats in the Sailing Instructions or, even better, classes should decide to ban the pestilence altogether from their regattas. According to Scuttlebutt (again), the Star class recently voted to address this issue by prohibiting "all contact between athletes and coaches after leaving the harbor until the end of the last day race of the day." Right on!

And check out what Susie Pegel said about REAL Laser sailors this week.

A REAL Laser sailor is someone who drives their own boat to a regatta and sails the event unaided by coaches or support boats.

Enough is enough. I'm mad as hell about Mommy Boats and I'm not going to take it any more. So please urge regatta organizers to use their regatta SIs to ban coaches providing unfair assistance to the select few who feel the need win so badly that they will resort to such dubious measures. And please campaign within your class association to persuade your class to adopt a rule banning communication between coaches and sailors from the time the sailors leave the dock until the time the last race of the day is finished.

I know this is going to be a tough fight. There is a whole generation of young sailors who don't know how to race without their Mommies or their surrogate Mommies helping them. There are a whole bunch of guys and gals making money by "coaching" at regattas. (But please don't misunderstand me. I'm not against coaches earning a living by training sailors outside of regattas. I just don't want you making the game unfair during regattas.)

And fellow Laser Master sailors... can't we at least agree to ban the use of Mommy Boats at Laser Masters regattas? Do we want to be "REAL Laser sailors" like Susie Pegel or to be more like the spoiled rich kids at those youth regattas?

So join the campaign. Let's Ban Mommy Boats NOW.

Update: to be fair, check out also The Other Side of the Argument.

A Cat

Another in the series of "photos of cool single-handed sailboats that I am either too clumsy or too cheap to sail." This one was stolen from the Hall Spars & Rigging Facebook page and shows Ben Hall at the A Cat Intergalactic Championships in Islamorada, FL.

Dolphin Play Bubble Rings

For an explanation of what you see in the video check out Mystery of the Silver Rings.

Susie Pegel - A REAL Laser Sailor

Susie Pegel had a letter published in Scuttlebutt yesterday saying she had come across the topic on-line, "7 reasons to hate Laser sailors." Hmmm. I wonder where that came from originally?

She went on to say that it all depends on defining what is a REAL Laser sailor. She suggests...

1. A REAL Laser sailor is someone that has been sailing and racing a Laser since the early '70s and is still at it today.
   
   
2. A REAL Laser sailor is someone who has always had a Laser even while campaigning a different type of boat.
   
   
3. A REAL Laser sailor is someone who has upgraded their equipment and techniques and has stayed active in the class.
   
   
4. A REAL Laser sailor is someone who drives their own boat to a regatta and sails the event unaided by coaches or support boats.
   
   
5. A REAL Laser sailor keeps at it because he/she loves the boat, the fellowship and the freedom of NO CREWS.
   
   
6. A REAL Laser sailor is someone like Dick Tillman, not Brodie Cobb.
   
   
7. If you want to see REAL Laser sailors in action, go to a Laser Master's regatta!

Well said Susie. I like that concept.

I guess I only qualify as a REAL Laser sailor on 6 of your 7 criteria (assuming you will allow me that, at least in personal behavior if not in skill, I am more like Dick Tillman than Brodie Cobb.) I fail the first test in that I didn't get into Lasers until the early 80's. Hope that's not a problem.

For those who don't know her, Susie is certainly a REAL Laser sailor. I'm pretty sure that she passes all 7 of her own tests and, more impressively, is also the only woman ever to have won a Laser North American Championship. Not Radial NAs. Not Womens NAs. An Open Laser NAs against all-comers. You can check it out in the archives.

1980 Laser North Americans

1. Susan Pegel
2. Russel Coutts
3. Andy Pimental
4. Svend Neilson
5. Andy Roy

Yup. She even had to beat some kid called Russel Coutts. And she still races in major Laser events, especially Masters regattas, and regularly beats most of the men. Most recently she placed 27th out of 95 in the 2009 Laser Masters North Americans.

Susie Pegel is a REAL Laser sailor.

OK, OK. I know that photo at the top of the post shows her helming a Star (in which she has also had a distinguished career.) But check out Rule #2 for REAL Laser sailors. Anyway I couldn't find a picture of her in a Laser.