Kingston Happenings

by Pam

The Standard Men's Worlds is over with Nick Thompson winning the event. As he returned to shore there was a whooping and hollering and I turned to see him on the ramp, still sitting in his Laser, both up on the shoulders of the British Sailing Team as they carried him up the ramp to his dolly.  Fun to watch! 

There is such fantastic aerial, video, picture, and twitter coverage that it's a waste of time to try to convey anything that they haven't already beautifully covered.  From the shore, the event seems to be quite well run.  A public announcement system, alerts the shore when the "athletes" are headed in and they man the ramps and do a beautiful job of getting everyone off the water.  They also announce reminders for the athletes to check in upon returning to shore.  All things old Masters (and their shore crew) will really appreciate.

The Masters are beginning to arrive.  Al Clark showed up a couple of days ago with the mobile Royal Vancouver Yacht Club - 12 Lasers, one rib, all the dollies and spars and he also somehow produced a bicycle.  By far, the most impressive transportation on the lot.

Meanwhile, Doug has been training with Mark Bethwaite, putting Mark in the boat Doug will sail for the event but handicapping Mark with a wooden centerboard that Frank Bethwaite refinished for Doug a few decades ago.  Doug asked Mark to teach the boat everything he knows.  So, Mark has made all sorts of suggestions from screws to tell tales to going so far as to buy Doug a replacement hiking strap which Doug somehow failed to noticed was going to be problematic.

I'm always stunned and amazed by Doug's luck.  From having a multi-world champion tune his boat for him to this morning when he'd run out of clean short sleeved t-shirts and put on a long sleeved shirt.  I commented about how he was going to be hot in that and he said he didn't have a choice.  Five minutes after he left the room, he returned to get a jacket and said it was cold outside.  I believe I've heard he term "knocked into phase" which just sums up his life.

Oh, anyone that might be interested in a brand new rolled North sail (no numbers), please let us know.  We ended up with an extra one.  It isn't free, but you won't have to pay Canadian GST.

2015 Standard Laser Worlds - Day 6 Observations

by Pam

There was wind today and they had them out on the water early and got in three races.  The Masters are starting to arrive and are starting to hit the water practicing.  Doug was watching the gold fleet at what he thought was a respectable distance when a judge boat whistled at him, called his sail number and motioned for him to come within hail. To his relief they simply offered him an extra lunch which allowed him to stay on the water all day long. Really good practice.

As luck would have it, Doug just ran into Coach Rulo from the Dominican Republic while he was down cooking his dinner. Rulo is on his way to the Pan Am Games but had some interesting tips to pass on about the misconceptions on the favored side of the course in Kingston. One of his students had an impressive lead and won the 3rd race today in the gold fleet.

I'm so far from the action on the water but here are a couple of glimpses of the on the water action. This is the finish of the 3rd race in the gold fleet.

How Embarrassing!

by Pam

What happens when a hugger meets a cheeker? Oh, the embarrassment! I'm a hugger. If I know someone well, it's a full frontal bear hug and if I know them sort of well, it's a one armed side hug. Doug knows so many Aussies and I'm now getting to know them and when greeting them, I forget that they don't hug but instead do that proper cheek to cheek thing.  

The first time I met Julian Bethwaite, I ended up kissing him square on the mouth. I stood there thinking, I don't think that was supposed to happen but I guess we're friends now. I can't imagine what went through his head except that maybe Doug has a really friendly wife.

Mark Bethwaite has been so much easier. He's usually wet and coming off the water when I first see him and I don't hug wet sailors so the cheek thing comes naturally because that is sort of what I do when Doug is wet and coming off the water.

So, along comes a dry Brett Beyer a couple of days ago and except for a wet Mark, he's the first Aussie I'm greeting in Canada and I just absentmindedly go in for a one armed side hug and he goes in for a proper Aussie cheek kiss thing. Awkwaaard! Doug just stands there and later says that was painful to watch.  

Then to top things off, when we left for Canada my temperature controls had begun to go haywire and I randomly break out into a sweat and then start shivering from cold. Awkward moments, eating, stress and nothing at all seems to set off these sweaty moments. What a perfect time to meet all my Canadian in-laws, eh?  At least I know that no matter what I get wrong, they'll just apologize.

2015 Standard Laser Worlds - Day 5 Observations

by Pam

Day 5 ... no wind.  The young guys sat on shore all day long and when we passed by for dinner at 5:30 pm they were still rigged and waiting for wind ... which never came.

But, three grumpy old men wouldn't let a little thing like the weather keep them on shore ...

Best decision of the day ... no hiking pants!

Today, Day 6, Doug said the wind is up and he's headed out to practice but as I look out the window I do not see a single tree moving even an inch ... I wonder if the old guys saw wind yesterday too when they set out to to go for a drift.

2015 Standard Men's Laser Worlds - Roaming Observer

by Pam

We've arrived in Kingston and training begins.  Once we crossed the border, Doug suddenly became Canadian.  He was overcome with country pride and started using "we" "our" and "us" for all things Canadian. Oh, and he seems to be saying "sorry" alot too.  These are a polite, smiling, happy bunch of people. 

It's day 5 of the open worlds and Doug is off trying to learn everything he can from Mark Bethwaite while I roam around snapping random pictures.

Entry to Portsmouth Olympic Harbor from the water.  The sculpture to the right once held the Olympic torch in the 70's and the building in the background is a prison.  What an odd mix.

Water situation at the regatta

Dolly organization at the regatta

The takeout situation was an impressively smooth operation ... hope the Masters get the same treatment.

Robert Scheidt coming off the water after a horrible day by his standards.  Doug saw him go for a pin start, get jammed out and have to take the sterns of almost the entire fleet.  He isn't the only one having a difficult time.  In the words of Mark Bethwaite ... 'there are lots of fit bodies walking around here with long faces'

Mark and Doug practicing ... they are racing Doug's newish Aussie Laser against his 20+ year old Kiwi Laser.  They decided the main speed difference was attributed to a really old sail.  Today, they try a newer sail ... 

Getting Ready for Kingston - More Starting

By Doug

We've looked at starting with Olympic Gold Medalist Paul Goodison and multiple-class world champion Mark Bethwaite. We now look at someone who has done both - Paul Foerster's Olympic Gold in 470s and world championships in FDs, J22s, and Sunfish.

This was at Rush Creek Yacht Club in Dallas just after one of my vision procedures. I was unable to sail, so I ran a few practice races in the harbor. Paul had recently won the Fish worlds and I was able to video one of his starting techniques. It had three steps: get the big picture, get speed, and then squirt off the line.

It's good to see the jump that Paul has right off the line. This is harder than it looks because a Fish does not have a Laser's rounded hull. Bearing off and then squirting in a Laser should be easier.

Euromasters at Lake Como, Italy

By Doug

When Roberto (ITA) invited me to come to Italy to train with him for the Kingston worlds, I jumped at the chance. I've never made it to a Euromaster event and I found the depth of the field very impressive. There were 70 full-rig sailors from 8 countries with an especially strong team from Spain. Barcelona has a great master's sailing program that included Miguel Noguer and José-Luis Doreste (both Olympic gold medalists) and a very fast Leandro Rosado. All of them came to compete.

Lake Como is interesting because the cold wind from the Alps to the north tries to dominate the prevailing wind from the southwest. The wind can switch from north to south and back again several times a day. There were some tricky shifts at windward marks and it was easy to lose 20 places as I did in one race with a 35º header coming into the mark. This put me back into the 50's, while another shift put me back into the 20's. It was impressive to see how consistent the the top sailors were.

The European masters is a little different because they use your birth year instead of your birth date. Because I turn 65 in November (after Kingston) I was sailing for the first time as a Great Grand Master.

On Friday, the conditions did not cooperate and we did not complete any races.

The first video is from my hat-cam in the third race on Saturday. It's a Sail Pro which takes great HD videos but the sound is muffled. You'll see that this has its advantages.

The start was tricky because the wind had gone left and the pin was very favored. In fact, tacking at the pin almost put you on the port-tack layline. It was a classic case of how far I go down the line to get a good start vs. how quickly I could tack into clear air. I chose the latter to start mid-line to tack ASAP. My thought was that the tight group at the pin would force some to sail on starboard past the layline ...

This was my best race on Saturday, and learning was more important than not finishing.

This next video is from the first race on Sunday. It was pin favored again and it looked to be really crowded. This time, starting in the middle did not look good, so I decided to start closer to the pin and just see how close I could get ...

Here's what this start looked like from the pin. I'm just to the right of this man's right arm and am almost close hauled. It was very pin-favored ...

The wind died with Alessandro Castelli (ITA) leading nicely, and the race was again abandoned. It's good that my camera does not record sounds well because there was a lot of yelling at the start in Italian, French, German, and Spanish (you can hear some of it if you crank up the volume). People later asked if I had learned any new sailing terms and I said yes, but I'm not sure in what language.

The weather did not cooperate on Sunday and no more races were completed, but I got just what I needed for Kingston - a list of things to work on. Leandro Rosado (ESP) won with with José-Luis Doreste (ESP) right behind. They are awesome sailors, and there were many other excellent sailors who were better at pointing upwind and playing the shifts in wind lanes. With only three races completed, I was unable to drop my 23rd and ended in 11th place overall. You can see the results here starting on page 9.  I was one of 3 GGMs competing in the full rig so I came home with my first win as a GGM. 

It was a superb location with a lot of talent. I am grateful to Christine and Roberto for being such gracious hosts and to all of their friends, as well as all of the excellent sailors who helped make this trip to Italy so awesome. Pam and I will definitely be back.

More photos can be seen here.

A Poet's House

By Doug

Dave alert: don't read this post because it has nothing to do with sailing.

Christine is practicing her English while I practice my French, so some of our conversations are interesting. She asked me if I'd like to visit a "large house" that belonged to a poet, so I said sure.

What happened was so astounding that I'm left with few words in either language.

Every house needs an entrance.

With an amphitheater and a view.

And a courtyard.

And a plane they flew in World War I.

With walkways.

And a boat.

And a personal mausoleum...

...with another view.

And a bigger boat.

And a garden with the bigger boat in the background.

We never did get to see the inside of this poet's large house, so we'll just have to come back. 

Lake Garda

By Doug

I accepted an invitation from Grand Master sailor Roberto (ITA 206202) and his wife Christine to visit northern Italy to train for the Kingston worlds. They live on Lake Garda which was on my bucket list and it has exceeded all of my expectations.

Lake Garda is so long that the conditions are different depending on where you sail. And the strong northerlies from the Italian Alps can change to a southerly as the day gets warmer. The mountains rise 2,000 meters (more than a mile) and it reminds me of the Columbia River Gorge, but on a larger scale. The racing on Saturday was followed on Sunday by coaching by one of Italy's best Laser sailors (thank you Marco).

How good are the conditions? Robert Scheidt is here training for the upcoming Rio Olympics.

How good is the food? Let's just say that this is not where you would come to lose weight.

How good are the local sailors? Very good, and their local knowledge is amazing as they know just what parts of the cliffs to sail beside.

On Thursday we travel to Lake Como for the next circuit event in the Euromasters, and there are about 80 full-rig entries from all over Europe. Should be a blast.

Don't come to Italy to lose weight!

Riva is at the northern end and hosts many major regattas like this right now. I've lived in Canada, Australia, and the US, and their combined ages is less than the age of this town.

Training partners.

Cool northern breeze from the Alps.

When to Tack Revisited... Again

By Doug

A previous post looked at the relative importance of sailing the course, competition, and conditions. Several readers of this blog have told me about a fantastic new site that helps you actually practice when to tack.

You're red sailing in actual conditions against black which is "blindly following" the strategy at SailRacer.net. The conditions are real and not computer-generated. Here are two strategies for trying to beat black:

• There's a dotted line between the port and starboard laylines, and it moves back and forth as the wind shifts. Tacking when you cross this line keeps you in the middle of the course, but it means that you're sometimes tacking on a knock to stay in the middle.
• If you ignore these lines and simply tack on a knock, it works well but sometimes pushes you out to a layline too early so you miss playing the shifts later.

The second one has served me well over the years, and I've never tried the first that seems to work surprisingly well. I'll have to try that one too.

But watch out for those persistent shifts, especially at the top of the course! In this example, red got it right, while black is probably paying the price for using its compass too close to the mark:

This is great stuff!

Getting Ready for Kingston - Starting

By Doug

In a previous post, we looked at how Olympic Gold Medalist Paul Goodison starts in a really good fleet. Here's another creative example.

The starting line for the Grand Masters at the 2007 Worlds in Spain was really long. The pin was a yacht with a tall mast and there was a hill in the distance, so line sights were not the problem. What was the problem was the number of boats and the length of the line... it seemed impossible to get the "big picture" with the other boats, where there were holes in the line, etc.

To make things more challenging, the rules stated that if you were over the line in the last 90 seconds, you had to go around the ends, which simply could not be done from most of the line. So competitors had to commit early, line up, be conservative, hope that those around would behave, and then hope for the best.

Mark Bethwaite (AUS) came up with a much better solution. Mark has won a dozen world championships in everything from J24's and Solings to Lasers. With 3 minutes to go, he started 30 meters to windward of the committee boat and sailed parallel to the line on starboard. From there, he was able to see the big picture, where the holes were, and who he wanted to start with.

From there, he would simply sail through the line and grab the position that he liked.

And in spite of intense competition, Mark won another world championship. Here are additional comments from Mark:

The Laser Masters Worlds in Roses Spain in 2007 is a dim memory but my main recollection is that after meticulous training and gear preparation, my sailing bag never made it through Heathrow to Barcelona so I had to scramble for a sail, battens, tiller, control lines, other equipment and even sailing clothes just to get on the water!  I am forever grateful to you, Geoff Lucas, Bruce Martinson and others for assistance.  Winning that regatta after such a disastrous start was a "sweet victory" as politicians are fond of saying!

You are right in your recollection of my starting - I have developed an approach to sailing which I would describe as scripted/unscripted.  An important element of the scripted part is pre regatta training to establish fitness and fast settings with good calibration to be able to replicate them to achieve reliable speed. That then lets you get the head out of the boat to focus on the unscripted bit.  

Applied to the starting situation, the scripted part means getting out early, establishing port and starboard tack mean compass readings and tidal current if any.  Optimising set up by "cranking up" with a less hostile competitor, plus the usual  establishing transits and the favoured end of the line are essential parts of the script.

I like then to relax, stretch in the boat and observe wind, waves and competitors preparations and of course any starts prior to mine.  I start racing mentally at the 5 minute signal - starting the countdown, sailing flat out on port from the Committee Boat, confirming 4 minutes, sailing flat out on starboard to bring me upwind of mid line at 3 minutes.  

My last minute port and starboard readings will confirm or otherwise the favoured end so I then run back across the line (or outside the pin if that end favoured), gybe and approach the fleet on port to keep options open for as long as possible.

The unscripted part starts with looking for lower boat density an acceptable distance from the favoured end, tacking to starboard between 60 and 90 seconds, working through to the front stalls, defending that position against all and sundry and aiming to have room to accelerate just before the gun.  Back to scripted by sailing flat out to hold the lane while remaining aware of the spatial distribution of boats on the race course.

Back to unscripted again - there is no more important tack in the race than the first after the start, whether to consolidate a good start, recover from a bad one or to head towards the next heading shift.  How to determine that next heading shift is a key question I have endeavoured to answer in Chapter 29.4 "Cutting the Corners" that my father Frank asked me to write for Higher Performance Sailing. Of one thing I am sure - my sailing now is less scripted than ever before as we are always dealing with dynamics - ever changing wind and spatial distribution of competitors. A script has no chance of success in this environment and even if the knowns of tide or geography favour one side or the other, how you get there and back to the next mark will always be improved by unscripted responses to real time observations of wind and competitors.

This takes me back to the statement above about how time in the boat establishes the virtuous circle of reliable speed, more time to get the head out of the boat, earlier and better analysis of the wind and competitor environment, better real time decision making and better boat positioning on the course.

Mark is fast in all conditions and I have had the pleasure of sailing Lasers with him for 40 years now. We'll be training together the week before the Kingston Master Worlds.

For those travelling by air, a word of advice: like Mark, I too have arrived at a Worlds with no sailing gear. Plan ahead and put your sailing essentials in your carry-on luggage.

Paul Goodison has won Olympic Gold and Mark has won worlds in multiple classes. The next starting expert we'll look at has done both.

When to Slow Down

By Doug

We had a local Laser event last weekend and something interesting happened in one of the races. I was on a run chasing a really fast, talented 17-year old sailor who was just in front. Each time I tried to go left he defended by going further. With the rest of the fleet catching us, I decided to go to his right and we pulled even. Then, about 20 boat lengths from the mark, I slowly pulled in my main sheet to slow down.

The plan was to have him edge ahead and then dig in quickly five boat lengths from the mark, get inside, and get buoy room. But the plan did not work because he saw me pulling my main sheet and said "that's something I've never seen before" and pulled in his main sheet to also slow down.

Hence, this blog post. With all of the emphasis in our sport with going faster, why would anyone want to actually slow down?

The idea was first described to me in 1971 by Frank Bethwaite who was a big fan of Manfred Curry. Frank thought that Manfred's work was the biggest contribution to sailing in the previous 50 years - something that can be said about Frank's work today. One of Manfred's few inventions that did not catch on was actually a brake for slowing down:

Not very subtle, but there are definitely times you want to slow down. In fact, in the last race I made a bonehead mistake that was very costly.

I'm one point behind this 17-year old who is leading the event, and I'm leading the race at the first weather mark. It's tight and there are two boats on my hip:

Sure enough, we're headed and I cannot make the mark. So, what do I do? I jibe around, get enough speed to tack inside the next boat on the layline, fouled him, and then had to do my circles. Pretty stupid, but I was still ahead of the quick teenager. But in doing my circles, I tipped, had trouble getting up again, and found myself in last place.

What should I have done?

I should have slowed and stopped by pushing out my boom. After the two passed, I could have put in two quick tacks and rounded in third place. But to do this, I had to realize earlier that making the mark was a low percentage move. Sailing more conservatively is much better than hoping that things would somehow work out. I got greedy, which rarely works with mark roundings, and it cost me the event.

Here's another example. Green and red are even and red looks like it can get inside green at the mark. If red is skilled and it's windy, it's almost impossible for green to defend against this:

Unless green slows down so that red does not have the chance to get inside:

Green cannot do this within three boat lengths because it has to make a seaworthy rounding. But anticipating red's move further away gives green a safe rounding, and then the option of tacking if it wants or just continuing to cover red.

Slowing down is counterintuitive and definitely works  when you need it. In the first and third above examples, it works best when you disguise what you're doing - something that Manfred Curry clearly did not do!

A Gentleman's Game?

Holly Crap! I'm In Front... Now What?

By Doug

Apologies for the delay - had the flu.

I wrote a post about how really good sailors can take the lead at the end of a windward leg by playing a persistent shift. And sometimes a middle or back-of-the-fleet sailor will just happen to get it right, and take the accidental lead.

Several readers asked an interesting question - how does this person hold on when they're not used to leading the fleet - when they're being chased by really good sailors.

Here's what happened to me once: I found myself on the top reach just in front of a fellow who later won the North American's. He screamed and yelled at me, I got rattled, and he passed me.

That's the bad news. The good news is that in all of my years of sailing, this has only happened to me the one time. The people at the front of the fleet are smart, friendly, helpful, and understanding that you might be way out of your league.

Experienced sailors in the front row know that it's better to cooperate to get away from the pack than to start messing with each other. It's not in any rule book, but you'll find it on most race courses.

So, you'll hear things like "nice going" and "let's get ahead of the pack."

As an inexperienced sailor, you actually have two advantages:

• Many middle-of-the-fleet sailors have good speed but get bad starts. They end up sailing the first leg in bad air and they never recover. But put this person in the lead on a reach with clear air and they are often really quick. It's not unusual to see them continue to do well and even win some races.
• You get to watch and copy the best sailors. You cannot read their minds or tactics, but you can see where they're sitting, how their controls are set up, how they play the pressure, etc. I learned how not to do this in race 3 at the Capetown Worlds and how to do this properly next year at the Chilean Worlds.

So when you're in the lead, watch, learn, and enjoy. As Pam likes to say, weather conditions are always better at the front of the fleet.

What Game Are You Learning To Play?

by Pam

I have always rejected the 'time on the water' teaching, believing that spending time perfecting a bad habit would just make me really good at being bad. I wanted to learn perfect technique first and then spend time practicing that. Was it really necessary to re-invent the wheel and go through the time and frustration of learning what does and doesn’t work? I'm now questioning my rejection of the 'time on the water' teaching.

At the Laser Masters Worlds this past September in France, I got to be a fly on the wall and watch the interaction of the sailors and listen to the chatter. There was so much talent there and everyone had an opinion. All this free advice was being given and yet many of the top sailors didn't appear to be paying attention or listening to each other.

I listened with interest to the advice of Steve Cockerill of Rooster Sailing as he described the choice between the full rig or Radial. Steve chose correctly for the conditions and went with the Radial and won his division. Al Clark, like Doug, chose a full rig and joked with Doug about how they chose the wrong rig but at least Al hadn't done it two years in a row. Brett Beyer won his division with all firsts and I listened as he talked about going head to head with Al Clark, knowing he couldn't beat Al on boat speed in the light conditions and had strategically split from him when Al didn't have to time react and follow. We spent time talking with multiple sailors who won their divisions. And many more who were former world champions. With 500 sailors there, it was a Who's Who type of event.

I can't recall specific examples or conversations but over and over again, I was struck with the impression of being surrounded by what felt like a humble arrogance. Confidence might be a better word. At that level, the guys don't learn much from each other. They talk at each other and share their experience about what is working but they aren't seeking advice from others or listening to it. They've learned there is more than one way to do the same thing. They've perfected their own techniques and they sail their own race. They know their competition's strengths and weaknesses and they sail tactically against them but they make no attempt to copy the techniques of others. I had never really been around so much confidence after racing. It was a real treat.

The Final Beat is an entertaining blog and an excellent resource for pointing a sailor to the best information and expert advice for a sailor to get better, quicker. I've often pointed out something on the blog to Doug and asked if he'd tried that. The answer is usually no. When various high level sailors have talked about technique, I've asked Doug if he has tried that. The answer is usually no.

What I didn't understand is that Doug's answer isn't arrogance. The response to most of my "have you ever tried …" questions is something along the lines of 'he's a better sailor than me in those conditions and he gets to practice in those conditions all the time and I'll never be able to beat him by trying to copy him.' Similarly, Brett Beyer would never attempt to copy Al Clark's techniques either. Training with them at the venue before the event is a different matter.

The learning process (or should I say training process) is more tactical. It's a matter of learning the strengths and weaknesses of their competition and then matching it against their own and finding a way to use it against them. That's a totally different game than I've been playing. Doug calls it sailing the course vs the competition. He decided long ago that he would rarely be the fastest around the course and there was a higher percentage of success in sailing strategically against his competition.

Long before Doug arrives at an event, he knows who will be competing, who is good in light, medium, or heavy conditions, who chokes, who pulls rabbits out of hats, who has been on the water the most, who is winning, and he usually has a pretty good guess of who will win the event. He is always gathering information about his competition, even during fun weekend sailing. His mind is always geared toward observing and finding the strengths and weaknesses.

Definitely a different game than I play. I just show up and hope for the best.