Radial or Full Rig - Part 1

by Pam

We had a reader who noted Doug's recent decision to never sail a Radial again after getting chicked at the Laser Master Worlds in Oman and asked if Doug would elaborate on the reasons for his decision. Short answer (and I suspect the real answer) is that women don't sail full rigs at the Worlds so he'll never get chicked again. Long answer is more complicated but was also decided by the experience in Oman.

Weight and Rig

Lots of people have written about the recommended weights for the various rig sizes and there are differing opinions. Even Performance Sailcraft Australia and Laser Performance have differing recommendations on their websites.

Source	Standard	Radial	4.7
PSA Brochure	65+ kg 143+ lbs	55-65 kg 121-143 lbs	35-55 kg 77-121 lbs
PSA Pathway	70+ kg 154+ lbs	65-74 kg 143-163 lbs	55-65 kg 121-143 lbs
LP	73-86 kg 160-190 lbs	55-72 kg 121-159 lbs	45-54 kg 100-120 lbs

Decision for Local Fleet Sailing

Doug and I sail at opposite ends of the experience spectrum. He wants to win at the highest level and I just want to use the Laser as a training tool for other boats and to stay fit. Even though we sail at different levels and for different reasons, we often make the same decision for the same reason. From the below average to the highly experienced sailor, regardless of weight, the decision will always come down to the constant: what people in your fleet are sailing vs. the variable: what you can handle comfortably. And what you can handle comfortably will vary depending on the weather at the venues where you sail.

Even though Doug is quite competitive in a full rig, he'd lost enough weight that he had decided to switch to the Radial at World events so that he would be more competitive. However, he still only sailed a full rig for local fleet sailing. In fact, since 2012 he's only sailed a Radial in 4 regattas (2012 US Laser Nationals - 7th out of 46; 2012 Australian Master Nationals - 3rd out of 27; 2012 Brisbane Master Worlds - 4th out of 26; 2013 Oman Master Worlds - 4th out of 23). We both agree he made a mistake in choice of rig in Oman but there were health variables that made it the smarter decision but he also learned some very important lessons which is the basis for returning to a full rig only and he'll elaborate on that in Radial or Full Rig - Part 2

There aren't many (usually any) masters aged women in my district that sail a Laser. Being a light sailor, I should be in a Radial or even a 4.7 but when I do sail a Laser it is almost always in a full rig simply because I would rather start with and compete against people my own age rather than kids (they rarely mix the fleets in our district). I have a better shot at beating a master sailor in a full rig than a kid in a Radial or 4.7. If the wind is light, I have a really good shot at beating a few guys my own age but if the wind is heavy I only have a slim shot at not being blown off the course. In reality, I sail a full rig in light to medium winds and then become a spectator in heavier winds. I could certainly switch to a Radial in heavier winds but that puts me with the kids and I'm not fit enough to go head to head with a kid in wind and certainly don't want to be reminded that I'm no longer a kid. So my experience in a Laser in heavy winds is usually double handed with Doug, which is kind of cool because if I'm tired, he hikes while I drive, and I get one on one coaching and it's a blast.

So, bottom line, whatever rig is best for you will likely get trumped by whatever rig the bulk of the fleet is sailing. If you are fortunate enough to have good fleets for both rigs, then go for the rig that is the most fun (you'll stay with the sport longer).

Decision for World Level Sailing

Below are Doug's weights, rigs, and finishes at various World/National venues after he started keeping track of his weight:

Year	Venue	Conditions	Rig	Weight	Finish
2013	Oman Master Worlds	Light	Radial	168 lbs / 76 kg	4th
2012	Brisbane Master Worlds	Medium	Radial	172 lbs / 78 kg	4th
2012	Brisbane AU Master Nationals	Windy	Radial	172 lbs / 78 kg	3rd
2012	Houston US Nationals	Mixed	Radial	168 lbs / 76 kg	7th
2010	Halifax Master Worlds	Windy	Standard	168 lbs / 76 kg	6th
2008	Sydney Master Worlds	Medium	Standard	190 lbs / 86 kg	12th
2007	Spain Master Worlds	Medium	Standard	186 lbs / 85 kg	9th
2006	Korea Master Worlds	Mixed	Standard	180 lbs / 81 kg	1st
2001	Ireland Master Worlds	Medium	Standard	183 lbs / 83 kg	8th
2000	Cancun Master Worlds	Medium	Standard	183 lbs / 83 kg	3rd
1999	Melbourne Master Worlds	Honking	Standard	182 lbs / 82 kg	3rd
1998	Gorge Master World Games	Honking	Standard	182 lbs / 82 kg	2nd
1997	Chile Master Worlds	Mixed	Standard	185 lbs / 83 kg	1st

Doug has what I would call a very intimate relationship with the full rig but the Radial is an absolute stranger.  He has sailed a full rig thousands of times in just about every condition possible and he knows what subtle boat handling changes to make as the conditions change. He takes advantage of changes that last only seconds and might only move him a few seconds ahead but those add up at the finish line. When it comes to the Radial, he can't feel the boat at all. The subtle things that work in the full rig just don't work in the Radial. At the Brisbane Master Worlds, he was a half a leg ahead in the Radial fleet at one point and still pulling away.  He couldn't repeat that again if he tried because he didn't know what he was doing and why it was working. I had already challenged him on whether he really knew how to sail a Radial since he didn't sail it regularly. There may or may not be a variety of subtle changes that he can make in the Radial that add up at the finish line but without much experience, he's just a very good sailor in a rig he doesn't know. He'll do well but probably won't beat someone with more experience in that rig. In Oman, he watched Vanessa (who constantly smiled back at him) and he matched what he saw her doing and she just kept smiling back at him and going faster.

In Part 2, we'll hear Doug's reasons for changing to a Radial and back to a full rig … so that he'll never get chicked at a Worlds again.

2014 Master Midwinter's

By Doug

Congratulations to Peter Shope who won by beating Scott Ferguson on a tiebreak. Between them, they won 6 of the 8 races sailed. Here's one reason why I could not attend:

If you look closely, you'll see a bunny now lives under my boat. Hopefully, she'll move before Fred's Easter Regatta.

2013 - Those Who Inspired Me

By Doug

Last year I wrote a post about those who inspired me in 2012.  I'm a little late but here are some of the people I found really inspirational in 2013. At the top of my list is Vanessa Dudley who beat me and won a Laser Master Worlds in Oman. She is an awesome sailor and person. And how cool was it for her to show Omani women that they can compete with and even beat the men!

Pam:  Doug said that Mark Bethwaite was helping him fold his sail after the Worlds were over and Doug told Mark he was helping him do something very special.  Mark asked what and Doug said 'this is the last time I'll ever fold a Radial sail.' This inspired Mark because he's looking forward to beating Doug too.

Of course, there was watching Robert Scheidt in Oman win his 9th Worlds. When I first arrived early on the second day, I saw him having breakfast with someone who was attending his first Worlds and was a little shell-shocked by the competitive fleet. Robert is always there to help anyone he can and is an awesome ambassador for our sport.

Another sailor competing in his first Worlds was Blake from Reaching Broadly. It is always great to see new people coming into the sport, especially as a Great Grand Master.  By competing, he also helped establish the first ever Great Grand Master full rig fleet, paving the way for me to follow in his footsteps, as I will no longer be sailing a Radial.

At the beginning of the year I had the pleasure of sailing with John MacCausland when he won the Laser Master Midwinters. He went on to win the Star Worlds. A Masters sailor winning the open Star Worlds. Inspirational!

I was in Canada for the Canadian Masters in the summer and dropped in to see family. I'm inspired by my kid brother, Brian, on the right who had a stroke 5 years ago and still has no feeling on the right side of his body. He has had to relearn how to talk and even walk. This would discourage many people but Brian sees the world very differently - every single day is a gift. A good reminder.

We lost some good US Laser sailors like Bob Saltmarsh and John Bentley, both from the New England area. Both were true gentlemen and made North American Laser sailing incredible fun.  They will both be missed. 

I'm inspired by the entire Kiwi AC team. Needing just one more victory, they were more than a kilometer ahead of Oracle in race 13 when the time ran out. We can all learn from their competitive spirit and grace.

I'm inspired by Bruce Kirby and all he continues to try to do for the Laser class despite those who have seemingly forgotten his contributions. If it was not for Bruce, none of the fun and adventures in this blog would ever have taken place.

Here in Dallas, Roger Hansen is an 80-something fellow who still sails single-handed boats. I want to be just like him when I grow up.

I'm most inspired by our readers who leave comments, make suggestions, ask questions, challenge and disagree with me.  All of this makes me a better sailor and brings me even more enjoyment from the thing I love.

Speaking of loves, I'm an constantly inspired by Pam who supports my sailing while at the same time challenging and making me prove everything I think I know.  

Sailing Angles Revisited

By Doug

I subscribe to the online Sail-World newsletter and it had a video of a race from the 18ft Skiff Nationals sailed on Sydney Harbor on January 19, 2014.

Most of the skiff videos focus on these flying machines screaming downwind and they're certainly fun to watch. This race was in a more gentle breeze and I watched it because it brought back great memories of living in Sydney in my 20's. If you're a sailor, there is no place on earth like Sydney Harbor.

The windward mark was tucked away in Watson's Bay so the conditions were quite tricky. Here are the two leaders who we'll call red and grey.

Red and grey are even.

And then something happened that was a repeat of what I saw with the excellent coverage at the London Olympics. I wrote a post about how it was amazing to watch some of the world's best sailors make what to me looked like a really basic mistake: if the boat you're trying to beat gets an inside lift, not tacking immediately is a mistake.

There were lots of comments - some agreeing but most disagreeing - including one from a Laser sailor who was actually competing (he disagreed). Pam even wrote another post that got even more comments that disagreed, none of which I found convincing.

So the inside skiff red gets the inside lift we were all commenting on.

Grey keeps going straight, red gets the inside lift.

I wrote that I would have tacked immediately for a bunch of reasons that included a header on one tack (relative to the other boat) is a lift on the other tack, needing to stay in contact with the other boat, etc.

But a lot of comments to my post said that grey should just keep going and things will even up, grey will 'foot to the next header,' tack, and regain any loss, etc.

Grey does not tack.

Grey either does not see this or decides to keep going.

The changes in these angles don't last long and sure enough, grey gets the same lift within a minute.

Now the wind direction is the same.

In my opinion, it's way too late for grey to tack. So what happens?

Grey tacks.

For me, the result is predictable. Grey hoping for a big header to catch red is rolling the dice with very poor odds. I did not see it in work at the Olympics and it certainly did not work here.

Red is waaaaay ahead.

As they approach the windward mark, red has a solid lead over grey.

Grey "puts it in the bank" by covering.

In my opinion, someone on grey should have kept track of red, seen the inside lift, and immediately called for a tack. Grey would have been a lot closer or even in the lead. But grey did not, and tacking a minute too late cost it a minute at the first mark.

No amount of boatspeed could have given red this lead so quickly. For me in these conditions, angles are better than boatspeed.

Pam:  Doug's recent detached retina and having oil still in his dominant eye has made his vision back to what it has been most of his life. As a result, I've noticed something interesting. Unlike the rest of us, he doesn't have the same variety of 3-D visual inputs. He operates in a stripped down 2-D world where he has developed strategies (rules of thumb) based upon very limited visual input. To him decisions are black and white and simple. To others, it might seems as if he's missing numerous nuances. I look at the above pictures and think about all the visual inputs that aren't captured that he isn't taking into consideration but whether it's live or a picture, his visual input is the same and his decisions are without doubt. I do have to wonder whether the 2-D simplicity has an advantage more often than not.  It's rather hard to test that but his observations are certainly worth noting. 

Oman Open Worlds Videos - Day 7

By Doug

This is the final race and all eyes were on Robert Scheidt (BRA 205239) who was just one point ahead of Olympic silver medalist Pavlos Kontides (CYP 205124). The match racing that many anticipated did not occur and Pavlos was not a factor in this start.

Brett does a great job focusing on Robert who at 0:40 is in a crowd near the pin trying to create some space by working Sam Meech (NZL 196871) above him. This group is being watched closely by a judge boat that is right behind them. It's a great example of how the best Laser sailor ever starts in a crowd.

General recall.

In a previous post, I showed this picture that Brett captured from the final start of the Worlds. It seemed to make the sailors around Robert look slow:

This next video shows that with one minute to go, Robert creates a good hole below him although it did not last. Everyone pulls the trigger at about the same time, it's just that Robert pulls his a fraction of a second sooner. But for me the really interesting part is just after the start when he lets his main out a little to foot and gets speed. Note that the end of his boom goes up instead of out, showing that he did not have lots of vang. You can see the result by looking at the shadow on Robert's sail - it shows just how much faster he was going compared to the boat to windward of him.

Pulling the trigger a fraction of a second early + great boatspeed = a great start. Add to this reading the breeze and shifts better than anyone else, world class downwind speed, and the result was inevitable. Robert wins this race and his 9th Laser worlds.

Thanks again to Brett for these awesome videos.

Fred Schroth's Easter Laser Regatta

by Pam

Fred has been putting on the Easter Laser Regatta in Austin for 30 years. His regatta is sort of like the pulse of Laser District 15 in Texas as to potential participation numbers. It's always the first circuit stop in District 15 and rarely do any of the other other circuit stops match his participation numbers. 

However, Fred isn't the best about posting the results in a timely manner. So we thought we'd help him out with this handy little summary of his participation numbers over the years as well as links to where you can find the results. We couldn't find some of the earlier years' results so if anyone has any information to fill in the blanks, please send it to us and we'll update the chart. 

Fred's website:  http://schrothfiberglass.com/easter.htm

You can find out everything you need to know about this year's 31st Annual Easter Laser Regatta at the above link.  It's always Easter weekend and the local talent is some of the best in Texas.  They don't always travel or do the circuit but they rarely miss Fred's regatta. 

Scott Young is already blogging about getting ready for the Midwinters in Florida. He has no expectations for how he'll finish, but let's face it, an old, fat, rusty, out of shape, Scott Young would easily be in the top 5 but a Scott Young that's training ... look out. 

Annual	Year Results Link	Number of Participants	Full / Radial / 4.7	Winner
1st	1984
2nd	1985	35	35 / 0 / 0	Doug Kern
3rd	1986	39	39 / 0 / 0	Doug Kern
4th	1987	37	37 / 0 / 0	Steve Bourdow
4th	1988	29	29 / 0 / 0	Eric Faust
6th	1989	23	23 / 0 / 0	Chris Junge
7th	1990	21	21 / 0 / 0	Paul Foerster
8th	1991	24	24/ 0 / 0	Paul Foerster
9th	1992	25	25 / 0 / 0	Scott Cheney
10th	1993
11th	1994	32	32 / 0 / 0	Lars Hansen
12th	1995
13th	1996	32	32 / 0 / 0	Doug Peckover
14th	1997	39	28 / 11 / 0	Eric Faust
15th	1998	57	47 / 10 / 0	Doug Peckover
16th	1999
17th	2000
18th	2001	63	47 / 16 / 0	Zach Railey
19th	2002	76	46 / 30 / 0	Eric Faust
20th	2003
21st	2004	54	37 / 17 / 0	Mark Eldred
22nd	2005	53	34 / 19 / 0	Scott Young
23rd	2006	39	27 / 12 / 0	Doug Peckover
24th	2007	41	32 / 9 / 0	Gavin Rudolph
25th	2008	40	40 / 0 / 0	Eric Faust
26th	2009	46	35 / 8 / 3	Scott Young
27th	2010	46	32 / 9 / 5	Scott Young
28th	2011	28	18 / 4 / 6	Scott Young
29th	2012	43	26 / 9 / 8	Doug Kern
30th	2013	45	31 / 10 / 4	Scott Young

Oman Open Worlds Videos - Day 6

By Doug

This is another good video, this time because of who is in this gold fleet start. We're at the pin and 15 seconds into the video, we have Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED 204567), Emil Cedergardh (SWE 204437), Philipp Buhl (GER 203170), Nick Thompson (GBR 201402), and Kristian (NOR 204758). To give you an idea of the talent, Rutger finished 4th overall, Philipp finished 3, and Nick had 7 top-five finishes but finished 17 (had to count an RET). It ended up being a general recall.

Note that Robert Scheidt chose not to start at this risky end of the line.

Restart, and we're watching another person Brett is coaching. James Espey (IRL 192703) gets sandwiched between David Wright (CAN 199330) and Francesco Marrai (ITA 205243). There's a big gap above Francesco but no one takes it. James survives and pinches off Francesco.

The camera moves up the line and we see Bruno Fontes (BRA 203765) and Tom Burton (AUS 199012) just below Kristian. Both James and Kristian get good starts.

The next start is committee boat favored, and we see Kristian starting with Philipp Buhl, David Wright, Tom Burton, Charlie Buckingham (USA 182345), Nick Thompson, Matthew Wearn (AUS 203770), Sergey Komissarov (RUS 202692), Marco Gallo ITA (196685), and former world champ Gustavo Lima (POR 202210). We hear Brett talk about how starting here is too high a risk. General recall. 

Note again that Robert again was not at this risky end of the line.

Next start, and we start watching James and Kristian line up under Lee Parkhill (CAN 197120). Kristian stays put while James goes further down the line and finds a nice hole that disappears when Joaquin Blanco Albalat (ESP 197295) to leeward pushes out his boom and works the tiller at 0:45 in the video.

This is a is a technique used (invented?) by Ben Ainslie that was considered legal because if tiller does not cross the centerline then technically it's not sculling. Now, it's illegal. There is no judge boat in the immediate area and Blanco gets away with it, although he was yellow flagged for a second time in race 9 and had to retire.

We see hear Brett asking James to squeeze up to close the gap to windward.

We then switch to the right to watch Kristian battling with David Wright with a lot of tiller movement that could have been yellow flagged. Kristian starts with top-five finisher Jesper Stalheim (SWE 204666) right below and is saved by another general recall.

This sequence starts with 1 1/2 minutes to go. We briefly see Robert (BRA 205239) heading further down the line. His starting technique is quite unique because he waits as long as possible to decide where he wants to start. In another start, I saw him standing on his transom, planing on port down the line, looking upwind with less than 2 minutes to go.

At 0.50 we see Tom Burton (AUS 199012) tack twice to close the gap below James. There a judge boat right behind and everyone is well behaved. We can hear Brett talk about a last-minute shift and how James is squeezed and rolled at the same time because of a mistake that he made.

Further to windward, we see Kristian with a good lane and start.

Oman Open Worlds Videos - Day 5

By Doug

There was less wind on day 5 and this was a really interesting start.

Brett is coaching Kristian Ruth (NOR 204758) and focuses on him for the entire sequence. It's committee boat favored and the boats lined up before one minute at the crowded windward end of the line. Kristian is between Tobias Schadewaldt (GER 203739) and Ashley Brunning (AUS 206037).

There's a judge boat watching closely that they would have been aware of, so we get to see the amount of tiller movement before the start and kinetics after the start that the sailors feel are permitted at a world's event. They all pull the trigger with five seconds to go and Ashley was fortunate not to get yellow-flagged at 1:30 in the video.

While the start was clean, none of the boats in this sequence had a good finish in this race.

Happy New Year

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