Best Aerial Footage of Laser Sailing Ever

Check out this video of the last day of racing at the 14th Caribbean Laser Midwinters in Cabarete, Dominican Republic in January.

I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that this could well be the best aerial video of Laser racing ever made. Plus it totally captures the experience of sailing and racing at Cabarete. Kudos to ALZA Cabarete for a superb job.

My 2-year-old grandson Andrew loves to watch videos of boats.

When I am over at his house he will come up to me with a big grin and say, "Boats. Boats. Boats." This is the sign that he wants Granddad to get out his computer and show him the video in this post of last year's International Moth US Nationals at the Columbia River Gorge.

Next time Andrew asks for "Boats. Boats. Boats" I am going to show him Lasers at Cabarete.

It's never too early to get them hooked on Lasers!

R.I.P Old Friend

 For many years I was "the guy in the green hat."

Then for a few more years I was in my flowery hat phase. For part of that time I was in my flowery hatted bearded marxist phase.

In the last few years I have been "the guy in the orange hat."



It's true. Once I find a sailing hat that fits well, I tend to wear it all the time, year after year, until I lose it or it falls to pieces. I have been wearing my orange hat for…

… sailing with friends in Rhode Island...

….sailing with my granddaughter in Massachusetts...

…breaking Laser masts in the BVI…

…training in Florida...

…and hanging out in beach bars with friends in the Dominican Republic.

A lot of good times and happy memories.

That orange hat has had a long and fulfilling life.

But all good things must come to an end.

On our sailing trip to Menorca last month I noticed that my orange hat was falling to pieces.

It was time to arrange for it to be put to rest.

I've had this hat a long time.

As you can see it commemorated the East End Laser Series. As in East End of Long Island. I never sailed in the East End Laser Series. The hat was given to me by a friend who used to organize the East End Series. Maybe he still does. I guess he must have had some hats left over that year.

And so I had to say a sad goodbye to my orange hat in Menorca.

I did contemplate giving it a Viking funeral but, in the end, I threw it out in the trash.

So now it is rotting away in a landfill in Menorca.

Or perhaps it was incinerated and its ashes are blowing away in the Mediterranean breeze.

Either way I like to think it's a fitting end.



So now I have to choose a new hat for sailing from my vast selection of sailing caps.

Something I will proud to wear for at least 5 or 6 years.

Hmmm!

Cabarete

I've been to the Laser Training Center at Cabarete in the Dominican Republic several times.

Next winter they will have a new coach, Judith Krimski, who writes the Center of Effort blog.

I would really like to go back to Cabarete next winter, maybe with a group of local sailing friends.

Today I came across this photo. It's from a Facebook group set up for Laser sailors who were at Cabarete from 12-15 January this year and it was posted by Kristian Joos.

I have to say it brings back memories of what it is like sailing there. It's a very typical scene.

Hmmm.



All of my posts about Cabarete can be found here.

Go Amy!

Congratulations to Amy Cox of Barbados for winning the Radial fleet at the 2014 Caribbean Laser Midwinters in Cabarete, Dominican Republic this weekend.

I stole the picture of Amy from Scuttlebutt.  Isn't it just the perfect picture to explain why Laser sailing is so much fun and why many more attractive young ladies should participate in our sport?



Also from Scuttlebutt is this picture of a start at the same event, with #187944 Ari Barshi either pulling off a perfect pin-end start or perhaps a perfect OCS. Whatever!

My friend Peter Seidenberg was a very close second to Amy in the Radial fleet. I can't find any photos of him sailing, so I will just have to post this one of him (on the left) eating a hot dog at the Eze Bar on the first day of the regatta.

Isn't it just the perfect picture to explain why eating hot dogs and hanging out at the Eze Bar is so much fun and why many more attractive young ladies should participate in this sport?

Review of 2012

2012 was another funny old year...


In January I went out racing with the Newport Laser Frostbite fleet early in the month and had a very confusing day which I wrote about at Say What You Like About The Deaf. This was also the month that I accidentally got into one of those stupid Internet fights with some hip, young bloggers selected to cover the Volvo Ocean Race in Abu Dhabi. Why do some people not understand my sense of humor? Anyway I forgot about all that nonsense by jetting off to the Laser Center in Cabarete with a bunch of local Laser sailing friends for Just Another Week in Paradise. Aaah! I feel like I may need another Cabarete break soon.

In February I had a day out in Boston and wrote Two Things about the New England Boat Show. And in the depths of the New England winter I was dreaming about the  Top 9 Sailing Destinations on the Planet. Didn't sail a Laser even once. Ugh!

In early March, I went down to Florida with some sailing friends for a 4 day Laser sailing clinic at Kurt and Meka Taulbee's SailFit. We had a blast and I wrote about it at Mashers Gone Wild. In other news I was philosophizing on 7 Reasons Why Human Beings Love The Beach. March must have been comparatively mild because I did go Laser sailing locally three times too.

For reasons that seem to have slipped my memory, I only sailed my Laser once in April, and even that day was a pretty pathetic attempt as I had to invent 30 Reasons Why I Only Sailed 3 Races Today. On the blog we had a group writing project about sailing destinations and, thanks to some inspiration from Anna Railton I wrote the ultimate, definitive Laser Sailing: The Rules.

Early in May I went out for a Tuesday evening sail in somewhat windy conditions and hurt my back so badly that it basically screwed up the rest of my season. I wrote about it at Scary Play and Playing Hurt.  In fact for some crazy reason I was writing posts on the theme of "play" every day in May. Two of my favorites are Playing with Dad and Playing with Grandkids.

In June I eased rather slowly into Laser sailing again, not wanting to make my back injury any worse. You can read about it at Back. We had a group writing project on photography for bloggers which elicited an amazing response. And Tillerwoman and I had A Nice Day Out In Newport watching some chaps in helmets race catamarans.

In July I sailed my Laser nine times but the highlight of the year was definitely the afternoon when I took my granddaughter sailing for the first time. Read about it at Sailing with Grandkids - The Hook and When Daddy Was a Little Boy. I love my grandkids, of course, but I also wrote about another love of mine in A Love Story.


In August I sailed my Laser nine times too, including the three day Buzzards Bay Regatta which (unusually) had great sailing winds every day. I was working pretty hard - see When I'm 64 - but was still nursing my back injury by skipping some of the later races each day. I also wrote a long rambling post about different ways of Learning concluding that my favorite way is the fish and chips and beer method.


In September I sailed the New England Masters at the start of the month, always one of my favorite regattas. But I was "knackered" as we say in real English after only two races on Day 1, (definitely wasn't fit this summer) but I did manage to complete all the races on Day 2. It's sad to say that my 2012 racing season was so messed up by the slow recovery from my early season back problem, that that was the first day at a regatta that I had been able to finish all the races. Oh well, better late than never. Later in the month Tillerwoman and I headed off on a trip to visit family in England and then on to the Mediterranean for some sailing. Somehow I also managed to find the time to write one of those rambling philosophical posts about Sailing and Luck.


We spent the first half of October at one of my favorite places, Minorca Sailing. I raced a lot and won sometimes. I did gazillions of drills and learned a lot from the instructors. Some days I just had a blast on my own. I actually sailed Lasers on 14 consecutive days, sometimes twice a day. I guess my back was finally better? On my return home I sailed in my last regatta of the season, the Fat Boys in Bristol, completed all the races and actually managed to come 3rd and 5th in the final two races. Wow. I finally got back to form just as the season was ending? Such is life.

In November I did a bit of frostbiting at Duxbury and Newport, and finally worked out, after over 30 years, why I still persist in sailing a Laser even though it's hard and I have never been very good at it.

"If it's amazing, it won't be easy. 

If it's easy, it won't be amazing. 

 If it's worth it, you won't give up. 

If you give up, you're not worthy."

 (with apologies to Bob Marley who almost said this.)

December brought some more frostbiting at Newport and then off for ten days at the Bitter End Yacht Club where I received some very sad news.

When I counted up how many days I had sailed a Laser in 2012 I discovered that the total was 64. Not too shabby (but still a long way from my old aspiration to make it to a 100 days one year.) In spite of the back injury leading to an incredibly below average summer of Laser racing and training for me, I made up a lot of days on our trips to the DR, Florida and the BVI, and especially with that 14 days of consecutive Laser sailing in Menorca.

There were some great days of sailing in 2012, but that day in July when I sailed with my granddaughter for the first time was the best of all...

Happy New Year to all my readers.

Web Orgy

On Wednesday evening this week I participated in a Laser racing webinar.

For those not familiar with the term "webinar', it means a web-based seminar. An interactive presentation over the web using videoconferencing.

Tillerwoman wasn't familiar with the word "webinar." One of her most endearing features (especially to someone like me who spent all of his career in technology) is that she is an old-fashioned girl and she is into all the old-fashioned pursuits like gardening and cooking and knitting. She is not into technology. She does not use a computer. She does not have a smartphone. She never (knowingly) uses the Internet.

She seemed to have a lot of trouble with the word "webinar." On Wednesday she kept referring to is as a "webology." As in, "What time is your webology? Will you want dinner before it?"

Then on the following morning as we were driving to Massachusetts to see our grandsons, she asked me out of the blue, "So how was your web orgy last night?"

Web orgy! What is she talking about? What does she think I am doing on my computer down in my basement man cave? Having orgies????

I almost drove the car into the ditch. But just in time to save us, I realized she was talking about the webinar.

Phew!

The Laser webinar was conducted by Javier Borojovich, universally known as Rulo, who is the head coach at the Laser Center at Cabarete in the Dominican Republic. I understand that Rulo will be launching a range of sailing webinars in the near future, but this week's event was a bit of a dry run with a small group of four sailors to test out the concept and fine tune it for future sessions.

The topic was "How to sail your Laser fast upwind" concentrating especially on techniques for strong winds. God knows this is an area I need to improve.

Topics covered included...
•How to improve your hiking technique

•How to steer on the waves

•Torquing and body movements

•How to trim your sail for different wind and waves conditions.
•Sailing high mode vs. Sailing on low mode

Rulo covered all these subjects in depth using bullet point slides, photographs, and a lot of video footage. Most of the videos showed top sailors demonstrating excellent technique, but there were also shots of not-top sailors demonstrating poor technique as a contrast. I kept expecting to see myself in some of the shots in the latter category.

Rulo did an excellent job of pointing out all the finer points of technique and then at the end we could submit our own questions (in a text window) for him to answer.

One of the topics was how to avoid hiking injuries, including my own bête noire, lower back pain. Rulo ran through four things to do to avoid back pain. I now understand that the reason I hurt my back in May last year (and missed out on most of the summer's planned sailing as a result) was that I had been breaking all four of Rulo's rules for avoiding lower back pain.

Hmmm. The webinar was worthwhile just for that.

If you want to know more about Rulo's future plans for webinars, check out Rulo Sailing.

I think I will go and have a web orgy now.

Helle Mardahl - The Orgy - 2009

Allegra LaViola Gallery 

Summer Salon 

 July 16 - September 7, 2009

Why I Sail a Laser

“If she's amazing, she won't be easy. If she's easy, she won't be amazing. 

If she's worth it, you won't give up. If you give up, you're not worthy."

- Bob Marley

Quote and suggestion that it could apply to boats shamelessly stolen from H2uho - Bonehead Moves on the Water. Picture shamelessly stolen from Laser Center, Cabarete. The photo is of a typical situation near the leeward mark during the 5th Caribbean Laser Midwinters Regatta 2007, which was also reported on this blog at Broken Record.

Notes from Cabarete

I took a lot of notes when I attended the clinic at the Laser Center in Cabarete last month. Unfortunately, my handwriting is quite bad and now I can't read most of my notes.  Here are the ones I can decipher...

Mmmmm. Velero breakfast.

Mark vang.

The easiest way to derig a Laser is to take out the whole rig (mast, sail and boom with vang still rigged) and put it into a specially designed rack.

The fish and chips at Jose O'Shea's is a lot better than the bangers and mash at Jose O'Shea's.

Trim, trim, trim, pump, flatten.

An even easier way to derig a Laser is to look old or helpless or tired (or female) until one of the helpful young men working at the Laser Center offers to carry your rig to the specially designed rack.

Shrimp a la Papi is to die for.

High, looser, looser, looser.

It's easier than you think to break your ridiculously expensive carbon fiber tiller extension, even on the land.

Honeys and mamas.

Two up, one forward.

It's easier than you think to buy a new ridiculously expensive carbon fiber tiller extension in Cabarete to replace the one you broke.

No socks.

More duct tape.

Nice regatta awards. Must win one next time.

Gaaaarrrgh.

Good Day Sunshine x 3

After two cloudy rainy days in Cabarete, on our third day there last month the sun came out and stayed out for most of the rest of the week. Woo hoo!

Day 3 of the clinic was devoted to boat speed upwind and downwind. Aaah Boat Speed. That magic ingredient that is vital to winning races. Some sailors seem to have it. Some don't. What's the secret? God knows I really do need to improve my boat speed.

Rulo talked to us about sail settings, and body movements upwind, and how to use the waves downwind, and upturns, and downturns, and all sorts of other good stuff until my head was spinning. Then it was out on the water for some drills involving long sails upwind and downwind to practice what we had been taught.

It was sunny. The wind was 8-13 knots. We sailed outside of the reef. There were swells you could surf on. What's not to like? This is what you come to Cabarete for. Woo hoo!

We were out for over three hours and my back definitely knew it had been working hard by the time we hit the beach. But a post-sail Banana Mama at the EZE Bar relaxed me wonderfully. And so to dinner with the beautiful Tillerwoman and assorted other sailors at the EZE Bar. Penne Caprese never tasted so good.

The fourth and final day of the clinic was devoted to starts, which god knows I really do need to improve. The winds were fairly light and from the north all day, and we worked on our starting drills just outside the entrance to the reef. The downwind legs of our practice races were painfully slow but I did manage to finish in the top three several times. It was another day of over three hours on the water, which sort of made up for the truncated sessions on the first two days because of the weird wind conditions then. And so to dinner with the beautiful Tillerwoman and assorted other sailors at the EZE Bar. Man, the sea bass was good.

The final day of the week was a regatta which was sailed inside the reef. The conditions were superb - force 4 winds I guess. Because of the relatively constricted sailing area within the reef we sailed 3-lap windward-leeward races with a short reach to finish. 5 races with 1 drop. I surprised myself by getting some great starts but I usually managed to waste them by screwing up the entry to the starboard tack layline, the windward mark rounding and/or the leeward mark rounding all of which were very crowded. Or so it seems now in my memory. On a positive note, in almost every race I was be able to pass one or more boats on the final reach. As I consider myself to be bad at reaches, and we hadn't really worked on reaches at all in the week, that was a pleasant surprise.

The regatta was a helluva lot of fun and a fitting end to the week.

For reasons that are now lost in an alcoholic haze, our little group of sailors from southern New England had decided during the week to call ourselves the Massapoag Mashers and to adopt as our mascot a sausage sailing a Laser. Don't ask. It made sense at the time I am sure. So on our final night in Cabarete I was determined to take the Massapoag Mashers to Jose O'Shea's Irish Pub so that I, for one, could enjoy bangers and mash.

Not the bangers and mash at Jose O'Shea's

That Which Does Not Kill Us...

Last month I spent a week at the Laser Training Center in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic and wrote at Just Another Week in Paradise about the structure of a typical day there. This post is a summary of the the first two days of sailing that week... and one day soon I might get around to writing some more posts about the other three days and what I actually learned during the week.

The first two days of the clinic the weather was cloudy with occasional showers. I see that one website about Cabarete weather is reporting that the winds those two days were Beaufort Force 3, i.e. a gentle breeze of 7-10 knots. All I can say is that it is possible that the breeze averaged over each of those two days was 10 knots. Unfortunately the actual wind varied between 0-2 knots and 20-30 knots and hardly ever anything in between - or so it seems in my memory now.

We sailed inside the reef on those two days and the waves were large and chaotic with occasional breaking waves in the middle of our practice area. It took me a while to remember how to deal with such conditions. (This is a euphemism for "I capsized a lot.") From time to time a squall came through, rain fell, and visibility dropped (especially for this old geezer who was wearing his usual prescription sunglasses that become almost opaque when covered in rain drops). Oh, I almost forgot to mention, in the squalls the wind was really honking  - or blowing bananas off trees as they probably say in the DR. One of the coaches later told me that it was blowing 30 knots in the squalls and the coaches were discussing whether or not to call off our practice, but they reasoned that the worst that could happen was that our capsized Lasers (presumably with us grimly hanging on to them) would be blown on to the beach some distance from the Laser Center and that the beach staff would just have to recover the boats there and haul them back to the center.

Actually, once you got used to it, trying to sail a Laser in those squalls was kind of exciting. I'm sure it was teaching us something. Didn't Nietzsche say, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger?" Although modern psychological research does tend to support the opposite opinion.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. Having "fun" sailing a Laser in 30 knots in crazy waves when I couldn't see where I was going.

So that was all good, but after a squall passed, the winds would drop to almost nothing. Now I don't usually mind lazing around on a sunny afternoon on a lake in a Laser waiting for wind, but in those waves there was no possibility for "lazing around." We were rocking and rolling, and the booms were swinging back and forth, but there wasn't enough wind to actually sail the boat. On the first day we waited and waited out on the water for more wind and some of our number were even starting to get a little seasick. On the second day it was decided to head back to the beach when the wind died, which was a good decision.

The first day was dedicated to working on improving our roundings of windward and leeward marks, which god knows I really do need to improve. (More on that topic if I ever get around to writing about the racing on the last day of the week.) And the second day we worked on improving our tacks and gybes which god knows I also really need to improve. Many useful tips were dispensed and many whistles were blown and many marks were rounded and and many tacks and many gybes were attempted.

I must admit that my mood is very dependent on the weather. Rainy days (but not Mondays) do get me down. And, at times, it was frustrating sailing in those conditions.

I hope Nietzsche was right.

And it did get better on the third day.

Top 9 Sailing Destinations on the Planet

After over thirty years of intensive research I am now ready to reveal my own personal recommendations of the top nine sailing destinations on the planet. As part of the preparation for this post I have sailed various kinds of small boats (but mainly Lasers and Sunfish) on four continents. I have spent many weeks trying out various sailing resorts; I have traveled thousands of miles to race in world championships in exotic locations; and I have competed in regattas in all sorts of places from swanky yacht clubs to empty windswept beaches. These really are the Top Nine. If there is any place better than these nine, then it would have made it a Top Ten list.

First up are the best three places in the world to go to for a small boat sailing vacation.

1. Minorca Sailing

RS Vareos at Minorca Sailing

Minorca Sailing operates on Fornells Bay on the Spanish island of Menorca in the Mediterranean. This place is dinghy sailing heaven. You can learn to sail there. (I did.) You can receive expert coaching on any aspect of dinghy sailing. You can race every day. You can sail in Lasers and a vast range of other dinghies including many types of asymmetric boats, from the ever popular Laser 2000s and RS 200s to the more challenging 29erXX and RS 800s. Check out the full list of sailing fleets.

When I die I don't want to go to heaven; I want to go back to Minorca Sailing. That's how good it is.

2. Bitter End Yacht Club

Sunset over North Sound viewed from BEYC

The Bitter End Yacht Club is a laid back water sports resort on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. You can kayak. You can go scuba diving. You can fish. You can snorkel. But for me it's mainly about the sailing. Lasers (of course) and a good range of other boats including Hobie Waves and Getaways. Check out the club fleet.

BEYC is an all-inclusive resort. You live in cabins dotted on the hillside overlooking North Sound. For breakfast I would usually have some healthy fresh tropical fruits and maybe a callaloo omelette with a mimosa, or two. For lunch I would enjoy a healthy salad and maybe some crabcakes with a glass of rum punch, or two. For dinner I would be very unhealthy and eat and drink way too much and maybe, if I drank enough, even dance with the wife to steel band music.

Talking of Tillerwoman... regular readers of this blog will know that she claims not to like sailing. She never goes sailing. But at BEYC she will sail with me. That's how good it is.

3. Laser Training Center at Cabarete.

Caribbean Laser Midwinters at Cabarete in 2008

Cabarete is in the Dominican Republic and is the best place in the world to practice Laser sailing in big waves with expert coaching onsite. OK, I guess you could go windsurfing or kiteboarding too, but I go for Lasers. There are clinics. There are regattas. There is briefing from head coach Rulo before and after sailing, and videos showing how you really sail (as opposed to how you think you sail.) It sounds intense, and it can be at times, but it's also enormous fun.

The top Laser sailors in the world train there, often in January just before going to sail in the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta. Some wag even coined a slogan - Train in the DR. Win the OCR. That's how good it is.

Since 1989 I have been towing either a Laser or Sunfish up and down the eastern parts of the USA and Canada in order to research regatta sailing locations for this blog post. My next three places are absolutely the best places for small boat regattas on the entire east coast.

4. Newport, Rhode Island

Larry Ellison's Newport cottage

Newport had to make the list. I could write about Fort Adams which is going to be the site of one of those snazzy America's Cup World Series events later this year. Or I could mention the New York Yacht Club's Harbor Court clubhouse which hosted a fabulous North American Laser Masters Championship a few years back, memorable (for me) as the one and only time I beat over 100 boats in a race. (No, really, I did.) But the best location for dinghy racing in Newport is somewhere over on the other side of town, so far over it's actually in the next town, Third Beach Newport (not actually in Newport.)

This ain't no swanky yacht club. It ain't no skanky yacht club either. It's a beach with a parking lot and a boat ramp. That's it. But for wind, waves, easy access to the sailing area, ability to park near the boat, and ease of launching - i.e. all the things that are really important for us dinghy sailors - Third Beach Newport is the best there is. It's the home of the legendary New England Laser Masters Regatta. It was the home of the last US Laser and Laser Radial Olympic Trials to be actually held in the US. That's how good it is.

5. Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

Laser US Nationals at Wrightsville Beach in 2005

It's a dirty little secret that most sailing clubs on the east coast of the United States don't actually sail on the Atlantic Ocean; no, they sail on bays, often sheltered by barrier islands. But not the Carolina Yacht Club in Wrightsville Beach NC. When you go there for a major regatta they send you out on the ocean in the big waves. Woo hoo!

I sailed the Laser US Nationals there in 2005. That was the memorable occasion I wrote about in Heavy Air Fear when two of the best Laser Masters sailors in the nation invited me to join a boycott against those scary big waves. That's how good it is.

6. Brant Beach Yacht Club, New Jersey

Sometimes you go to a regatta and everything about the place is just perfect. Brant Beach YC is one of those places. Actually it's the best of those places.

Great location. Great clubhouse (actually two clubhouses.) What seems like hundreds of yards of beachfront for launching boats. Great volunteers.

But above all, the folk at BBYC have totally got their act together in knowing how to run fabulous dinghy regattas. Everything from the race management on the water, to hospitality on the land, the refreshments on and off the water, communications with the sailors... literally everything. They just have their shit together. It was my favorite place to sail when I lived in New Jersey, and even though I don't usually drive far to regattas these days, I'm heading back to BBYC in September for the Laser Masters Nationals. That's how good it is.

Awards winners at 2005 Laser Atlantic Coast Masters at Brant Beach YC

Wait. Who is that skinny guy in the orange T-shirt? The 2005 Laser Atlantic Coast Grandmaster Champion apparently. No wonder he wants to go back to BBYC. Memo to self: take a white shirt to BBYC in September. Just in case.

In the past sixteen years I have had the great pleasure to sail in three Sunfish World Championships and six Laser Masters World Championships. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel all over the world and race against so many awesome sailors from dozens of different countries. It also means I have had the opportunity to visit the following three sailing destinations...

7. Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena

I would never have thought of going to Colombia if I hadn't been invited to sail in the 1997 Sunfish World Championships in Cartagena, and I am so glad I went. Back in the day, Cartagena was one of the main ports used by Spain to ship out all the gold and silver they mined in South America. As such it was a great temptation to all those pesky English captains like Drake and Hawkins who were active in that area doing the usual ravaging and pillaging and generally robbing Spanish gold wherever they could find it. Over time the Spanish spent millions building walls and forts to protect Cartagena from the pesky English (not to mention the nefarious French) and much of those colonial fortifications survive today. Cartagena's walled city and fortress are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and rightly so. Estupendo!

And the sailing was pretty good too.

8. Terrigal, New South Wales

Hmmm!

I love Australia. And there are some gorgeous places to sail there. Sydney Harbor on a weekend is packed with racing sailboats. Fremantle in Western Australia is world famous as a sailing venue (think 1987 America's Cup.) Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide - what's not to like? I haven't sailed in any of those.

But I did sail in the 2008 Laser Masters Worlds in Terrigal. Terrigal is a beach town about 60 miles north of Sydney. The "clubhouse" for the regatta was actually a rugby club and the boat park was the rugby field. We stayed in an apartment close to the rugby club and there were plenty of little restaurants within walking distance for post-race refreshments. The regatta had a bit of everything. Light winds and big waves. Sunny days and rainy days. I managed to discover totally new ways of screwing up Laser races including getting another boat's sheet wrapped round my neck. I achieved the dubious distinction of being the first USA sailor across the finish line in what must have been the longest Laser World Championship race in the history of the planet. Ace!

In spite of all that it was enormous fun. Perhaps it was the Aussie hospitality and good humor. Perhaps it was the chance to be sailing in the sunshine on the Pacific Ocean during the northern hemisphere winter. Whatever. It really was that good.

9. Roses, Catalonia

Roses - Ciutadella (Foto: Wikimedia Commons, 2006)

Roses is a charming, historic, Spanish town on the Mediterranean about 100 miles east of Barcelona and quite close to the French border. It was the home of the 2007 Laser Masters Worlds, a major milestone in my sailing career as the only world championship ever in which I managed to finish in the top half of the fleet (just) and thereby was able to claim that that I had (briefly) emerged from the depths of perennial no-hoper to the giddy heights of semi-respectable mediocrity.

If that weren't enough, Tillerwoman and I found it a delightful place to stay. Wandering the winding back alleys of Roses most nights to find yet another charming little restaurant. The regatta party at the impressive Ciutadella, another one of those forts built by the Spanish to defend against their pesky neighbors. The trip on the lay day to the sleepy little fishing village of Cadaqués, a favorite haunt of Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. A day exploring Barcelona on the way home. Fantástico.

I heard a rumor that the European Laser Masters are going to be in Roses this year. I might just have to go back for that. It's that good.

OK. That's my top nine. Of course you will disagree. You know some way better places to sail, I am sure. Why not tell us in the comments?

Just Another Week in Paradise

A couple of weeks ago I spent a rewarding (and exhausting) five days working on my Laser skills at the Laser Training Center in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic. The week was billed as a "Pre Brisbane Master Worlds Clinic" but of the eighteen sailors on the course, only a handful of us were planning to go the Master Worlds in Australia. In fact I'm not going to the Master Worlds this year myself. (More on why not in another post perhaps.)

There were a bunch of us from southern New England most of whom who had conspired to go together, several other Masters sailors I had met before, and some whom I hadn't met before including a couple of guys from Europe and two from Japan. No doubt informed of the reputation of Cabarete for big waves and heavy winds, almost half the group had chosen to sail Radial rigs, or were switching between Radial and Full rigs depending on the conditions. A healthy sign I thought. There was only one female sailor. Why is that? Don't women sailors know that Laser Radial sailing is an Olympic sport for women and that Laser sailing is the best way to meet gazillions of tall, fit, handsome, charming men? Come on girls.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. The Cabarete Pre Brisbane Laser Master Worlds Clinic Mainly For People Who Weren't Going To The Worlds.

It was a lively and convivial bunch. Our core group from New England dined together every night often with many of the other sailors too. There are a dozen or so low-priced friendly restaurants only a few minutes walk along the beach from the Laser Training Center, and many hours were also spent hanging out in the legendary EZE Bar right in front of the Laser Training Center enjoying their excellent healthy meals and healthy fruit smoothies and not so healthy extensive cocktail menu. The camaraderie of the whole group was one of the most enjoyable things about the whole vacation clinic.

The fifth and final day of the vacation clinic was a regatta (more on that in another post perhaps). The format for the first four days went roughly like this...

8-8:30 - roll out of bed in my hotel and wander down to the restaurant for a healthy meal of fruit and yoghurt etc. with other sailors and the beautiful Tillerwoman.

9:30-10:00 - stroll along the beach to the Laser Training Center and rig up a Laser.

10:30 - 12ish - listen to head coach Rulo explain the drills he planned for the day and his instruction on various aspects of Laser sailing and watch video of us not sailing Lasers properly from the day before and of good Laser sailors sailing properly. (More on what I learned about the finer points of Laser sailing in another post perhaps.)

12ish - 12:30ish - change into sailing clothes and eat healthy snacks and drink healthy sailing drinks possibly including a healthy fruit smoothie from the EZE Bar.

12:30ish - launch. Launching at Cabarete is more adventurous than at most locations because there is quite a significant shore break in which the waves could easily grab hold of a Laser and smash it into the beach or onto the sailor or both causing permanent damage to aforementioned Laser and sailor. Thankfully this never happens because of the very helpful young men from the Laser Training Center who hold the boats through the shore break until the moment when they tell you to jump on to the boat and when they throw you and the boat over the last breaking wave into the only slightly less hairy waves beyond the break.

12:30ish - 3:30ish depending on the wind conditions, and stamina or otherwise of the sailors, perform drills and drills and more drills and even more drills to refine our Laser skills while the coaches make videos of us to show all the Laser sailors later how awful our Laser sailing techniques really are. (More about the "interesting" weather conditions we experienced in another post perhaps.)

3:30ish - return to beach where the helpful young men helped us to navigate the shore break again without smashing up our Lasers or ourselves or both. Rinse boat. Derig. Change into something more comfortable. Consume our favorite post-sailing drinks and food possibly including a healthy fruit smoothie from the EZE Bar or more likely unhealthy beer or girlie rum drinks from the EZE Bar.

4ish until Rulo runs out of things to say or the sailors' rumbling stomachs say it's time for dinner-ish - debrief from Rulo about the drills and how terrible we all were, illustrated with many video clips proving what crappy Laser sailors we really are, thereby motivating all of us to start thinking about when we can get back to Cabarete for another vacation clinic.

(I hope you know that I'm only joking about Rulo and those videos. He really is a very supportive and helpful and positive coach - even to a crappy Laser sailor like me.)

5:30ish - return to hotel and shower and change into something even more comfortable possibly with palm trees or turtles or big fish on it.

7:00ish - stroll back to the EZE Bar and start evening festivities. And that's all I'm going to say about that. What happens in Cabarete stays in Cabarete.

Pas de Pain aujourd'hui

Regular readers of this blog will know that Pain and Rum are two recurring themes.

I have always felt that Laser sailing and Pain and Rum go together like... well like fish and chips and mushy peas or.... trucks and beer and Jesus in country songs... or ... those three little dots in a row that are littered at random all over this post.

Brad Funk told me years ago that if it's not hurting you're not hiking hard enough. And I warped my sons' minds at an impressionable age by telling them that Laser sailing is mainly about pain. After a few hours of hard Laser sailing at a regatta or a clinic (like the one in Cabarete last week) I am usually aching in my back, my arms, my shoulders... well, pretty much all over.

If you happen to be sailing in the Caribbean then the best medication for Laser sailing pain is, of course... rum. The last time I was at a clinic and a regatta in Cabarete under the tutelage of Head Torture Master Rulo I was self-medicating with rum every evening.

But something changed. Last week there was no pain... and consequently no need for rum. (Although I do confess to consuming some of those girlie mixed rum drinks at the EZE Bar, purely to be sociable of course.)

What was different? Could it be that I am physically fitter than I used to be? I have been working out with weights a couple of days a week in my basement for the last few months. Trying to get some minimum level of muscle tone in my back, my arms, my shoulders... all those bits that usually hurt after Laser sailing. I have been steadily progressing to heavier and heavier weights but it hasn't been particularly intense... could it have actually worked?

6 Reasons I Need This Gadget

As I was closing out my account at the shop at the Laser Training Center in Cabarete on Saturday, feeling mentally and physically exhausted after four days of Laser training and a one day regatta, my head still spinning with all the tips on the finer points of Laser sailing I had picked up over the week from head coach Rulo and assistant coach Colin, I noticed that one of the European sailors who had been on the clinic, actually one of the best sailors there last week, was buying one of those nifty Sail Pro onboard video cameras and a carbon rod for stern mounting it on his Laser. Hmmm. So that's what the good guys are buying these days to get even more gooder, I thought.

I didn't buy one for myself. I thought it might be ridiculously expensive. I thought it was probably only worthwhile for the really good guys looking to be even more gooderer. But since returning home I'm not so sure. I've been doing a bit of research online and am beginning to think I should treat myself to this camera. Here are Six Reasons Why Tillerman Needs a Sail Pro Video Camera.

1. I do a lot of training by myself. With this camera I could record my own clumsy attempts at Laser boat-handling and compare it with video of how the experts do the same maneuvers from the Advanced Laser Boat Handling DVD made by my friends in Cabarete, spot the differences, and then work on them.

2. I learned last week that sometimes a video is the only way to convince yourself that you are making mistakes in your boat handling. I thought I was doing some things right, only to be quickly disabused of that notion when Rulo showed me (and all the other students on the clinic) video of exactly what I was doing wrong.

3. According to the Laser Training Center website, this onboard camera package was actually developed by Rulo after he became frustrated with the performance of 26 other different cameras. It certainly sounds as if he has come across most of the potential issues with such cameras and found solutions for them.

4. There is a stern mount that is custom designed to fit the Laser.

5. The examples in the videos (like the one below) certainly suggest that it gives an excellent view of all the actions of the Laser sailor, better than you would even see from a video taken from a coach boat.



6. I could always post a bit of video of my own sailing on the blog one day if I can't think of anything else to write about.

The price is $380. About two thirds of the price of a new class-legal Laser sail. Or, I am somewhat ashamed to admit, only about twice my total tab at the EZE Bar in Cabarete last week.

But is there anything else that I can buy that will cost less than $400 which would help me to improve my Laser sailing as much or more than this camera would?

Are Laser Sailors Crazy?

I might be crazier than I had imagined.

Last week I was at the Laser Training Center in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic attending a 4-day Laser racing clinic followed by a 1-day regatta. There were about 18 sailors on the clinic, mainly from the USA but also from Europe and Japan, including a bunch of us from southern New England who already knew each other. We sailed every day in all sorts of winds and wave conditions. We listened to instruction on the finer points of Laser sailing from head coach Rulo. We watched videos of us Laser sailing and videos of good sailors Laser sailing. We discussed sailing over breakfast. We discussed sailing over dinner. Speaking purely for myself I also dreamed about sailing. I didn't wear socks or long pants all week.

The picture above is of me, surfing down a wave, crossing the finish line of the final race on Saturday. I do recall that I was whooping, "Woo hoo!" in celebration of completing a fantastic week of sailing in warm weather and warm water. In January! Woo hoo!

In the few hours of free time last week when I was not sailing or learning about sailing or talking about sailing or dreaming about sailing, I read a book. The book was not about sailing; it was about madness.

The book was The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. Among other things the book explores the theory that many important CEOs and politicians are actually psychopaths.

The book also takes aim at the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association which attempts to list every known mental disorder. The first edition of DSM was only 65 pages long, but the latest edition is 943 pages long and lists 374 different mental disorders. Of course the drug companies love this. The more disorders there are, the more opportunity there is to market drugs to "treat" all these disorders. But it is certainly questionable whether the DSM now labels as mental disorders many ordinary behaviors which are perhaps only slightly unusual or a little difficult for others to deal with.

In The Psychopath Test Ronson describes how he got hold of a copy of DSM and was quickly able to diagnose himself with 12 different mental disorders. There was Arithmetic Learning Disorder (sums are hard for him) and Parent-Child Relational Problem (tense homework situation with his mother brought on by sums being hard) and Caffeine Induced Disorder (feeling jittery after drinking coffee) and so on and so on. Ronson concluded that he was much crazier than he had previously imagined.

I haven't seen the DSM but I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is a mental disorder called Irrational Exuberant Vocalization Disorder (IEVD). This is characterized by spontaneous utterances of incoherent and meaningless whoops and squeals, sometimes accompanied by tics such as pumping one fist in the air. If there was a video, and not a still shot, of me crossing the finish line in that race on Saturday you would clearly see and hear that I am suffering from IEVD. I might be crazy after all.

On the plane ride back from the Dominican Republic on Sunday afternoon I began to realize that IEVD might be much more common than I had imagined. From time to time the quiet atmosphere of the darkened airplane cabin would be punctuated with infantile squeals of glee emanating from otherwise apparently normal American male adults. It seemed like half the men on the plane had IEVD. I saw a man across the aisle in front of me pumping both fists in the air and heard him emit a few screams of "woo hoo" after which he was blathering "yes yes yes" and drooling a little.

What on earth was going on? I got up to walk to the bathroom at the back of the plane and on my return I noticed that most of the seat-back TV screens were tuned to some channel which was showing that weird American game where men in tight pants bend over with their bums in their air and then run into each other and fall over when the pretty white boy throws a pointy object away. It seemed that all the IEVD sufferers were watching this channel. How odd!

Anyway, I need to get hold of a copy of DSM to see if I am really crazy. Perhaps all Laser sailors are crazy?

Bookends

Photo by jonrawlinson on flickr

This week my old friends in the sailing blogosphere have been acting... well, like old men.

O Docker was moved to such a state of apoplexy by the achievements of a group of talented young people that he spluttered the blasphemous question, "Is blogging dead?"

Joe Rouse seems to have been visiting the wayback files and sounds like my mother-in-law when he asks "Computers, Are They The Wave Of The Future?"

And Yarg has apparently spent all the winter in his basement pursuing such rewarding pastimes as sanding and varnishing shovel and rake handles while listening to 70's music. Sheesh!

It's time for an intervention. Really people, you need to get out on a boat some time in the near future. Yarg and I and some other sailing buddies are jetting away next week to the Dominican Republic for some serious Laser action in Cabarete. Joe and O, you need to get your butts off that park bench and do something similar.

Looking Back at the Noughties

Leaving aside the question as to whether 2010 is the first year of a new decade or the last year of an old one, I thought it would be fun to look back on the highs (such as they are) of my sailing life over the last ten years... the decade of the "noughties".

2000 was a year of many highlights.

My first Laser Masters Worlds... in Cancun, Mexico in March. Glorious weather. Sailing right off the beach in front of the hotel. Sunburned knees (resolved to buy longer hiking pants). Won an argument about signal flags with Russell Coutts' brother.

The Sunfish 50th anniversary celebrations in Newport in September. Nearly killed in a lightning storm on Saturday. Awesome race round Jamestown Island on Sunday.

But perhaps the highlight of the year was a Laser regatta on a little puddle in Pennsylvania (Marsh Creek) which I came so close to winning. It was mine to win or lose going into the final race. Did I choke? Or was it the thumb cramps that did me in? I ended up tied for first place but lost it on the tiebreaker.

2001. Who will ever forget this year? Our little town in New Jersey lost two of its citizens on September 11, both of them as it happens parents of kids in our junior sailing program.

I sailed my Laser at CORK, did Laser frostbiting almost every Sunday in the fall, and took my bride to the Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI in December. But perhaps the most memorable regatta was the New England Sunfish Masters at Sprite Island YC on the weekend after September 11. There was an a capella choir singing God Bless America on the beach before we sailed, and at the skippers' meeting we observed a moment of silence to remember good friends who would sail with us no more.

2002. February saw me hitting the road to sail two Laser Masters regattas in Florida with a few days in between at Rick White's place in the Florida Keys. After a summer of racing Sunfish and Lasers up and down the east coast it was the Laser Masters Worlds in Hyannis in September, and then back to frostbiting at Cedar Point YC in Connecticut in the fall. Highlight of the year: winning the Ironman award at CPYC for being stubborn enough (or dumb enough) to sail more frostbite races than any other fleet member that season.

2003. This year I shifted my home sailing base to a different New Jersey lake, Spruce Run, the home of Hunterdon Sailing Club and won their club handicap regatta, the Commodore's Cup, and later in the year traveled to Spain to sail in the Laser Masters Worlds in Cadiz.

But perhaps the highlight of the year was the opportunity to take on the job of head sailing instructor at Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club in New Jersey. I had a wonderful (and exhausting) summer teaching a great bunch of kids to sail in Optimists and Laser.

2004. Won the HSC Commodore's Cup again and their Open Fleet series. Qualified as a US Sailing Level 2 Coach. Ran the Lake Hopatcong YC junior sailing program again. Skied a lot. Did a lot of frostbite sailing. Trained for a marathon. Phew. Where did I find the energy?

2005. Started a sailing blog. Wonder what happened to it?

Ran my first marathon, attended a Rick White sailing seminar in the Florida Keys, sailed in the Laser US Nationals in Wrightsville Beach and the US Laser Masters in Annapolis and the Laser Atlantic Coasts in Brant Beach, started a Laser fleet and a new Laser regatta at Hunterdon SC, and taught the kids sailing at Lake Hopatcong again. Was First Grandmaster in the Atlantic Coasts and won the HSC Laser Regatta. Phew again.

There is absolutely no doubt about the highlight of the year: Sunday 27 November 2005, the day I became a grandfather. It changed my life.

2006. Ran another marathon and sold my Sunfish (the end of an era.) Most of my Laser sailing this year was club sailing with HSC in the summer and frostbiting at CPYC in the spring and fall.

Highlight of the year was a return to where I had learned to sail about 25 years before, the trip in October to Minorca Sailing in the Med. I did a lot of Lasering but also took some classes in sailing other types of dinghies and even learned to windsurf!

2007. In January I took my first trip to Cabarete in the Dominican Republic for a Laser clinic and the Caribbean Midwinters. In April I ran the London Marathon and in May we moved into our new home in Rhode Island. The summer was a blur of Laser regattas around southern New England including the Laser North Americans in Hyannis. Then off to Roses in Spain for another Laser Masters Worlds.

A great year of sailing but perhaps the highlight was finally, finally, finally achieving my ambition of finishing in the top half of the fleet at a Laser Masters Worlds. Semi-respectable mediocrity at last.

2008. Another trip to Cabarete in January, training with Kurt Taulbee in Florida in March, winning a Laser regatta in Massachusetts in July, and welcoming my first grandson to the world a week later. What a year.

I sailed my Laser on 94 days in 2008 but the sailing highlight of the year has to be the trip to Australia in February for the Laser Masters Worlds in Terrigal, just up the coast from Sydney. My results weren't anything to write home about but, in the middle of the racing on the last day I reflected on my blessings...

• I'm in Australia in the middle of the northern hemisphere winter.
  
  
• The sun is shining and the sky is blue without a cloud in sight.
  
  
• I'm sailing on the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific! (For a kid who grew up in a grimy working class town in middle England, the idea that one day I would sail on the Pacific Ocean was about as likely as that I would land on the moon.)
  
  
• The wind is perfect, the waves are challenging but manageable. Champagne sailing conditions.
  
  
• I have my health and fitness and can still play this game even at my age.
  
  
• I'm surrounded by the best bunch of guys on the planet, the other globe-trotting Laser grandmaster zealots.

2009. The last year of the noughties. I didn't sail much this year. Almost gave up sailing in fact. There's no doubt that the sailing highlight of the year was the trip to Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI in December. Lasering, snorkeling, rum, kayaking, cat sailing, rum, hiking, swimming, yoga, more rum... and the highlight of that trip was... well, I haven't written that post yet. Maybe tomorrow.

How were the noughties for you?

Bumps

So I thought I knew how to do a roll tack in a Laser. You just roll the boat to windward before the tack, cross the boat, and then flatten it after the tack to accelerate on the new tack. What could be easier? For years I was doing these sorta kinda OK roll tacks, throwing the body to windward to start the roll, and hoping everything else would follow.

However when I watched a true expert do a roll tack I sometimes suspected that my roll tacks weren't quite right but I never did figure out why. The first inkling of what was wrong came at the clinic in Cabarete a couple of years ago when coach Brett Davis talked to us about such radical (to us) ideas as maximizing distance to windward in the tack, keeping the sail drawing all the time, not doing a "pre-heel", and not forcing the boat to roll to heel to windward with an aggressive body movement. Brett's advice was simply to let the boat come up into the wind while maintaining your body in its normal upwind position, and then as the boat comes through head to wind just letting the roll happen naturally.

Points of clarification...

• If Brett is reading this... sorry if I mis-stated what you said. Hey, it was two years ago and my memory isn't what it used to be.
  
  
• I said "us" rather than "me" in the above paragraph because there was at least one Laser sailing god there who also found some of Brett's advice to be new information to him. Hey, I'm not the only old geezer Laser sailor who was never taught how to do a roll tack properly.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes, let the good times roll. No, that's not right. Let the roll happen; don't force it.

So I tried to change my roll tack approach. At the Sailfit clinic last year Kurt Taulbee reinforced the same points, along with some other tweaks to my roll tack technique which would only confuse this post if I tried to cover them too. Another day perhaps.

So what I discovered was that that this "just sit still and let the roll happen" worked fine above a certain wind speed. Once the wind caught the other side of the sail it induced the roll and Bob's Your Uncle. Is that an expression familiar to anyone outside the UK? Never mind. You get the point. (Actually Bob is my uncle. I had two Uncle Bobs in fact. Both deceased now.)

Where was I? Where am I ? Where is this post going?

Anyway, the problem I discovered with this "wait for it" roll tack method is that in very light winds the roll didn't happen. So then I ended crossing the boat with my hand pulling on the old leeward rail trying to induce a roll that I knew was too late and all wrong and it felt ugly but hey what the hell I have to make the boat heel somehow so that I can then flatten it and get some kind of acceleration on the new tack.

Are you still there? Does this make any sense?

Anyway, at the Sailfit clinic last week coach Kurt Taulbee spotted my problem and explained that if the boat isn't rolling then I need to do a "shoulder bump". A "what"? Kurt explained that a shoulder bump is a sharp backward (outboard) movement of the shoulders to induce the roll, after which of course you have to move your body across the boat in the opposite direction to which you just "bumped". Hmmm.

So I tried doing some "shoulder bumps". But Kurt explained I was doing them too early. I'm supposed to wait until the boat reaches head to wind and the sail is no longer drawing and then do a quick "bump" to pump the sail and induce the roll and then cross the boat.

Point of clarification: if Kurt is reading this... sorry if I mis-stated what you said. Hey, it was two weeks ago and my hearing isn't what it used to be.

Anyway, I tried. But the habits of 25 years are hard to break. The problem is that my brain knows that the boat will roll on top of me if there were only a couple more knots of wind so it's counter-intuitive to make it roll harder especially as I then have to move my aching old body back inboard in the opposite direction from the "shoulder bump".

But I'll get there. I will.

New objective for solo practice session this summer: master the shoulder bump.

Is this post more or less wonkish than Tuesday's?

Hello? Anybody there?

Last Chance

Sun Jan 13

Last race of the 2008 Laser Caribbean Midwinters at Cabarete. Last chance to be a hero. Or, more realistically, last chance to finish somewhere other than the tail end of the fleet.

The wind is just right for me. Strong enough that my height and weight (post-two-month-inactivity-and-Xmas 10-pound-weight-gain weight) should give me the ability to grind down the little guys upwind. Not so strong that I'm going to lose it downwind.

One of my friends sails by before the start and shouts something about leaving it all out there on the course, no point in saving anything for tomorrow. Yeah baby.

No more timid starts. No more half-hearted hiking. No more Mr Nice Guy at mark roundings. This is it. Game on.

I ace a great start... front row, mid-line, heading left. (Yeah left, I do learn from my mistakes eventually.) One of the best sailors from the clinic is to leeward of me but I hike hard and focus on boatspeed and hold my lane for the first couple of minutes until I detect a small header and tack.

Hmmm. Maybe I haven't totally forgotten how to sail this beast.

I work the left side of the course, make sure I'm always sailing in clear air, rig powered up as much as I can handle, hiking my socks off... and I'm around mid-fleet at the first mark. Best beat this regatta.

Yeah baby. Now I remember why I love this sport.

I'm working the waves downwind, getting some good rides, no thoughts of capsizes, execute a nice smooth leeward mark rounding ahead of people I've been behind all week, and I'm off upwind again, looking good.

Middle of the beat I'm on a convergence course with one of the other fast sailors from the clinic. He tries to lay a leebow on me but isn't quite ahead enough to make it work. We're bow to bow. I hike superhard for 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds. My quads are screaming but I'm edging ahead. Yeah, now he's in my bad air and he has to tack away. Ha. This is what it's all about. Meet the best man-to-man and grind him down. Take that dude!

Now I'm on the left of the course next to the guy who almost won race 1. All the way up the second half of the beat I'm hanging in there with him. Hmmm, maybe I'm not as slow as I thought.

Smooth bear away at the mark and catch the first wave. This is how I should have been sailing all week. One boat passes me on the run. (Hey he's always giving me good advice in the comments here so that's OK.) Even so, I finish in the middle of the fleet, way better than I've done in any other race this regatta.

Well, it took me all week but I finally found my groove. Nothing better than finishing a regatta with your best race. Maybe I won't give up Laser sailing after all.

Learnings

1. With the right attitude I can make a great start.
   
   
2. If I hike hard I can hang in there with the best.
   
   
3. Staying close to the leading pack is better odds than banging the other corner.
   
   
4. Now I need to work out why I wasn't sailing like this all week.
   
   
5. Then I need to work out how to move even further up the fleet.