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50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 #5 - How to read a forecast

January 29th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012.

Last fall, Ian and I headed over to Ireland to race in the Star European championships in Dublin. We knew that September was a bit late in the calendar for European racing. The chances for windy and chilly weather were pretty high. But, part of our planning for the Worlds was to train and race in windy conditions, and Dublin was a great opportunity for that. When we got there here’s what we saw:

The remnants of Hurricane Irene had swept all the way across the Atlantic after slamming into New England and were rumbling across Ireland while we were there. How on earth can you predict the breeze in a whirling weather mess like that, much less training and a regatta? Our US Sailing team forecaster was using his models, but they were a few hours old by the time we we read the predictions and older than that by the time we were racing. With a low pressure system that crazy, the weather was changing by the minute. Forecasting for as small a time frame as one 15 minute leg in one race was almost impossible for even the best meteorologists.

Good forecasting depends heavily on the sailor’s interpretation of real weather conditions during the day of racing. No forecast is perfect. Last week in Rule #4 we talked about how history can be dangerous. Forecasting weather for meteorologists demands the same type of pattern recognition that sailors use for tactical situations. The sailor must take it upon him or herself to understand why a forecast called for certain conditions and then confirm that those conditions still exist while racing. If the conditions have changed, in all likelihood, the forecast should have changed.

Rule #5: Having the forecast is nice. Knowing how to interpret the forecast is important. Knowing when the forecast is irrelevant and making your own decisions about what will happen based on what you see can be critical. Use the forecast to your advantage, but don’t rely on it too heavily.

Any sailor’s basic forecast will have a standard format including, but not limited to: the expected temperatures for the day, general conditions (sunshine, high clouds, low clouds, scattered rain, rain, t-storms), breeze range in knots (0-5, 5-10, 8-12, 10-15, 12-18, 15-20, 18-25, 25+ etc.), expected breeze direction on the compass (some range like 180-220 or 310-350, etc), tide information and range, expected current direction, and maybe seastate (1-2 foot chop, 4 foot ground swell from 220, etc.). Anybody who has ever looked at the WIND and DIRECTION columns in the forecast and then shut the computer and went sailing? Raise your hands! I know you’re out there. I’ve done that before. We all have.

The best forecasts will have a discussion to augment the data listed above. Meteorologists rely on models to predict what will happen based on historical data that matches up the with patterns they see. The discussion is the forecaster’s opportunity to hedge against the models’ predictions. The discussion is the most important part of the forecast! Often there will be nuggets of information that can help your racing even when the forecast goes bad. We’ve all had a forecast go bad. It happens all the time: The forecast calls for a light northwesterly, and sure enough by 2 o’clock the seabreeze is pumping from the southeast! It’s so easy to blame the forecast for being wrong. But if we had only read between the lines in the forecast, there might have been a hedge against the model’s predictions. Here’s how that might have gone:

ACME Sailor’s Weather Service for Miami, FL:
Morning: 8-12 knots, Direction: 300-340
Afternoon: 3-7 knots, Direction: 310-350
Conditions: High overcast and cool 64F in the morning. Clearing and warmer 74F in the afternoon

If that’s all the information we had, we would expect to see the breeze get lighter and veer to the right over the course of the day’s racing. But without the temperature and cloud forecast, it makes it very difficult to confirm the forecast with the reality that we see on the water. If we get on the water in the morning and the breeze is only 4-10 knots and the sun is already shining and you’re peeling off spray tops in the 75 degree heat, it might be time to ditch the specifics of the forecast but hang onto the concept. The meteorologist might have had a discussion like this:

Forecast confidence is below average. The offshore flow should be the dominant breeze in the morning. If the cloudcover remains, the NW breeze will remain throughout the day, dying to 0-5 knots by dusk. (Hedge: If the sun comes out inland, heating may cause a thermal condition encouraging the SE seabreeze to come in. Indications will be warmer conditions around midday and the appearance of small cumulus clouds across the course area.)

Herein lies the key point that might save a race. If everybody in the fleet read the first part of the forecast and ignored the discussion, they might be expecting the standard Miami northerly: big oscillations and variation in breeze strength generally favoring the left side of the course. But, during the first race, if the heat comes on and the breeze starts to die, its the observant sailors that start looking to the right side of the course over towards Key Biscayne for the seabreeze to start making a serious impact on the race.

There are a thousand examples of forecasts being wrong. But knowing the patterns and applying them yourself is the real trick. When Ian and I looked at the forecast for Dublin during the Europeans on windguru.com we saw some very clear shifts based on the hourly forecasts provided:

If you look closely at the forecast for Sunday September 4th (the top left part of the forecast marked Su 04) it gives the hourly strength (in color-coded knots) and direction (by the arrow). Note also it provides temperature in Celcius, cloud-cover high-level, mid-level, and low-level percentages, and rain in a rate of millimeters per 3 hours.

Our racing started about 11 o’clock, so we had to infer from the forecast what would happen during the day. On Sunday September 4th, it looked as though we would sail out in a light southerly that would quickly build to about 20 knots as the rain started early afternoon.

Now the forecast says that it wouldn’t rain that hard before 13h (1 o’clock), but if we matched the forecast to the reality of what we saw on the course we could get a good idea of how to set the boat up. We knew that when we saw the rain start coming down that we should get set up for breezy conditions. We also knew that as the rain stopped we could watch for the breeze to shift to the west as indicated by the forecast for the next few days. Would it all happen in the same timeframe listed by the windguru forecast? Who knows!?! If we had interpreted it too literally we might have been left scratching our heads because at 13h it hadn’t started raining yet and the breeze was still 8-10 knots from the southwest. We might have been caught with our rig too depowered for the light air conditions. Instead, we stayed ready for light air but kept our eye out for the indications that the breeze might pick up. Sure enough, at 16h (4 o’clock) when rain clouds started sweeping down from the hills of Dun Loaghaire, we knew that we should wait to depower the rig until the rain brought windier conditions.

Its important to have an idea of what the forecaster predicts for a day’s sailing. But its more important to arm yourself with the ability to recognize when the trend is correct and when its incorrect. In my example about Miami, it might be more important to forget about the forecast and just go with what you see on the course. In Dublin we remembered what the forecast said and just delayed its application by an hour or two. Forecasts are just a meteorologists interpretations of the computer models. The sailor always has the advantage of realtime live information to make his or her decisions on the racecourse. Knowing the forecast can only get you so far. Knowing how apply the forecast to the day of sailing can win and lose a sailboat race.

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50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 4

January 23rd, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012, Monday Morning Tactician.

29ers at CISA Clinic Racing off Long Beach, CA

Every day we race sailboats we take with us a foundation of experience unique to each one of us. That’s one of the beautiful things about our sport. Sailors race in small boats by themselves, and small boats with other people, or big boats with tons of other people, and sometimes big boats by themselves. They race on odd little lakes as well as massive expanses of freshwater. They sail on the clear blue of the ocean as well as the nasty culs of the sea. Some race against the tidal currents while others dodge airplane jet outflow. When we travel to some of these spectacular and less-than-so locations around the globe we drag along an ever-growing bundle of experiences that we can then apply to whatever situation we happen upon on a given day. No matter where we are, whether it be the home club where we’ve raced hundreds of races over the decades, or a brand new spot we have experience from which we can detect patterns to help match up with reality and react accordingly. Great sailors learn how to apply their experience to a new location. That’s why some sailors can excel no matter the racing venue. They recognize patterns developed from their own experience and meld them to the forces at work in an unfamiliar location. They use rules of thumb and are keenly aware of the changing dynamics that might demand alterations of their approach to the day’s racing.

But how many times have we been to the regatta and had the locals say: “It’s never like this here!” We had those very words come from the mouths of locals in Fremantle at the 2011 ISAF World Championships after four days of less than 12 knots of breeze from all kinds of funny directions. For the years leading into the event the world was preparing for 18-25 knot seabreezes. Even the weeks leading into the regatta were classic Fremantle Doctor days. Then the regatta started and things were somehow not expected. Sailors might have painted themselves into a corner by preparing only for breezy conditions or bringing sails tailored for breeze. If there had been a local fleet of Starboat sailors, they might have been the toughest in the world in 18 knots or more, but would have been brought back to earth by the variance in conditions.

Rule #4 in our list of 50: History can be dangerous.

Sailors are notoriously superstitious. Maybe not in the same way as they used to be. Modern sailboat racing can barely relate with whaling ships and tales of the kraken, but sailors do have their tendencies to rely on those gems of history. We’ve all heard the comments before a day’s racing:

“You always go right in Long Beach”
or
“The left is always better in Fremantle.”

How many times have we said to ourselves:

“Well, the left won the last race, so maybe we’d better head that way this race because it will probably happen again.”

These are dangerous statements. (more…)

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50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 3

January 15th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012.

With the youth worlds qualifier going on this weekend and the second semester of school starting shortly Rule #3 is opportunely timed as sailors fill up their calendars for 2012. For sailors young and old, planning for regattas is a part of the game. Whether it means finding somebody to help put the Laser on top of the car for a trip across town to interclub racing, or finding somebody to help ratchet a Star trailer in a shipping container for a trip across the world for a major championships, there is some level of advanced planning going on in everybody’s head.

It all starts with a simple thought: I think we should go to that regatta! Now what? Whether its easy or not, the responsibility for making to the starting line always sits on the sailor’s shoulders. Granted, sailors too young to drive themselves to the event, but each step along the process of getting to the starting line is a learning opportunity. For young sailors these logistical problem-solving skills can build self-reliance and a sense of personal responsibility. We know that once young sailors are on the water, they are teaching themselves valuable lessons while developing character as they interact with their equipment and other sailors in an effort to get around the racecourse. Often overlooked are the opportunities for young sailors to take the administrative efforts into their own hands. The moment a sailor vocalizes to his or her parents or to a coach: “Yes, I want to do that regatta” it seems the common reaction is for the parent or coach to jump into action to make it happen, instead of the sailor. Parents are often so keen to see their young sailors be interested and active in the sport, they actually handicap the sailor’s development in the sport by taking the administrative role out of the sailor’s responsibility. At some point sailors have to make the transition from having his or her parents take care of all the details and have to make plans themselves. This is the most important phase in a sailor’s development in the sport. The classic concepts of homework, attention to detail, and the value of planning are taught every day in school to enable students to transition into the real world with the capacity to administer their own lives. Sailors should be taught those same lessons if they desire to pursue the sport throughout their lives.

Rule #3 is one that I learned at a very young age. Even though I still need a refresher course every once in a while, I will never forget dear old Dad prophesying that ancient truth summed up by the 7P’s (please excuse the PG13 language but it’s the only way I remember it): (more…)

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Star Jibs, Mains and Mast for Sale

January 11th, 2012 in General.

Check out the updated FOR SALE link on www.CampbellSailing.com for jibs, mains and masts. Contact me via email at campbellsailing@gmail.com for negotiations and delivery options. Some mains and jibs can be delivered ASAP. All equipment can be delivered for Bacardi Cup in March.

Also check StarClass.org for their classifieds.

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50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Weeks 1 & 2

January 9th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012, General.

I’m going to mix things up a bit this year with the weekly column. If we have classic tactical scenarios from sailing situations I am still going to dissect those as best as possible here, in the meantime I figure 2012 is as good a year as any to start compiling that crucial list of rules to sail by. I’ll do my best to cover the bases from minor to major in no particular order. I guarantee that at some point we’ll all stop and think I’ve broken that rule before and maybe it worked, or maybe it didn’t. Some of the rules might be things we already do. A little reinforcement can go a long way so I hope you stick with me.

My sailing strategy in general is to break down sailboat racing into a series of key decisions for each race. If each decision has multiple choices, then I need to assess and decide which of those choices has the highest percentage of success. At that point, my boat needs to execute the decision as well as possible to assure ourselves the best chance of a good position leading into the next choice in the race. It is easy to get ahead of myself and think Well, if I can just get around this mark inside and then tack on three headers I’ll be in the lead after this next beat. A good plan is only as good as its execution.

Even good plans turn out to be founded on a wrong decision early in the race. It is also important to be able to reassess from any given point on the racecourse and adjust any preconceived notions as to how the race was going. I wrote an article for Sailing World Magazine a couple years ago about “Pressing the Reset Button.” It covered that idea about how sailors need to have a “baseball memory.” Even if you struck out the last time you were up to bat, you need to come up the plate the next time with the intentions of getting a hit. That goes for any decision point in a race: a tack or cross situation, an exit from a leeward mark, or a choice of starting position on the line. At every point we need to at least have the capacity to say to ourselves Is this the high percentage choice at this moment?. This year’s list of 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 will help us to recognize those important points around every race, and then help us make the highest percentage move at each point.

So lets get to our www.CampbellSailing.com 2012 Rule to Sail by Number 1: Have a plan.

That seems simple enough, before every regatta we have an idea about the conditions that are likely for the event. Is it going to be windy? Will it be light? Will it be hot? Is there going to be a rainy cold front? All of these things go into a plan for a regatta. Just as we get properly dressed for the regatta (to be continued in rule #10), we should assess the conditions on the course before each race starts. Singlehanded sailors get to talk to themselves, but multiperson boats should have a pre-race discussion that starts like this: Do we like the Right or the Left side of the racecourse? Why? Is there current advantage on one side or the other? Is the starting line favored to one side or the other? What worked out last race or last time we sailed in this condition? Is there something to make it different from last time?

Once you’ve had that type of discussion, the plan should be generalized something like this:

We like the breeze on the left. The committee boat is favored, thus the fleet will probably be stacked up there. We’ll try and start to leeward of the group and lead them left. Then we’ll cross them and center up in the final 1/4 of the leg -or- We’ll hammer the left until it’s nailed shut and try and win from that side.

Regardless, openly discussing the plan does a number of things. It allows your teammates to be on the same page as the tactician or skipper. In example above, the crew knows that it is important to hike hard and keep our lane off the starting line. Clean up and minor details are not as important as keeping the boat going fast towards the left. If the plan were to go right, its important for the crew to know there is an early tack coming after the start. I think you can see where this is going.

Just chatting about the maneuver or giving brief overview of the plan makes everybody think quickly about their individual roles in helping execute that plan. Going into a windward mark it is the tactician or skipper’s job to vocalize the plan for how to exit the mark. There are more than a few choices, but here are three: 1 Straight Set. 2 Gybe Set. or 3. Set and looking to match the boat behind. Just stating the plan is often enough to remind all of your teammates that they have a critical job to play on the upcoming move.

That gives us a great segue to Rule Number 2: Be Flexible

Just as much as it is important to have a plan, it is just as important to Be Flexible. How many times have we had the plan discussed above and then made a mistake. We wanted the left, we didn’t have a great start, we got rolled off the line and we’re in bad air. The tactician or skipper has to be able to reassess at the point. Sometimes quick decisions need to be made, (more…)

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CISA Clinic Applications are OPEN at www.CISASailing.org

January 6th, 2012 in Training, General.

One of my projects the last couple years has been directing the CISA Advanced Racing Clinic for young sailors ages 13-19 who are serious about improving to the top level of junior sailing. The clinic has a tradition of outstanding coaching and an intensive learning environment. It’s a four day clinic consisting of workouts each morning with Annapolis Sailing Fitness trainer Harry Legum followed by a full day usually with two sailing sessions off Long Beach, California, briefings held at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and evening programs bringing the likes of America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race and Olympic veterans to make presentations to the sailors. The final day of the clinic is a one-day regatta where the sailors test their new skills against one another under the careful eye of world class coaching.

This year we’re stepping CISA Clinic up another notch and bringing in top-level talent to tune, train, and race alongside the youth sailors during the clinic portion. The sailors will get the chance to test against and see first hand how the top sailors at the Olympic level train and practice. I’m very excited about this new development as CISA continues to lead the field in youth sailing training. I encourage sailors to take this opportunity and run with it. Get your applications going and in by the end of the month. Whether you are looking to make the jump onto the US Sailing Team or to make a run at your regional championships, this clinic will make a difference in your not only your sailing but in how you approach the game altogether.

We offer six classes, FJ, Club 420, International 420, 29er, Laser and Laser Radial.

The clinic runs April 12-15, 2012.

Applications can be found here.

Deadline is 5pm California time February 1, 2012 – No exceptions.

Doublehanded teams must apply together. If a sailor would like to be considered in multiple classes they must fill out multiple applications.

If you have questions please email: Danielle@odmsail.com

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Star Campaign Final Report: 2011 in Review

December 29th, 2011 in Regattas, General.

The strange thing about Olympic campaigns is that nobody tells you how to end them. I’ve been lucky enough to both win and lose an Olympic campaign. Both endings have similar reality: “What are we going to do now?” That’s the last step in a process that started many years ago. A lot has changed since 2001 when I was a seventeen-year-old kid on the US Sailing Team for the first time. Ten years in the Laser and the Star have shaped my sailing career in ways I never could have imagined. Its hard to believe that this was my fourth Olympic trials since 2000 in San Francisco bay. In the most recent case, we had a very competitive trials with three strong teams that each could have won the Olympic berth if they had a great regatta this past month in Fremantle. Only the Star and the Laser really had that depth on the American team this year. We prepared as well as anybody could have for our trials:

Ian and I spent more than 110 days on the water together in the Star and close to 100 more each racing with other boats. In the last year alone we traveled to Miami four times for three training camps and two regattas; Miami OCR and Bacardi Cup. We made four trips to and from Europe: to Palma, Spain; to Hyeres, France; to Weymouth, England; and to Dublin, Ireland. We went to Fremantle, Australia before Thanksgiving to get ready for the Worlds in Australia. That’s about 60,000 air miles each for the Olympic circuit alone.

We fundraised hard to travel and race as well as commission a new boat from P Star in Michigan in August 2010 to prepare us for the final stretch of the effort. This year we budgeted and spent more than $120,000, half of which needed to be fundraised outside of the USOC direct athlete funding. We had four donors of five figures this year and close to a hundred others ranging from $25 to $5,000. Each of them has played a critical role in our success. The CISA Foundation and the San Diego Yacht Club Sailing Foundation were each outstanding partners in helping facilitate those donations. The Annapolis Yacht Club Sailing foundation of Ian’s home club were also very supportive in 2011.

The support of a number of key sponsors, both monetarily and through product assistance, also helped us keep our budget within reason. Sperry Top-Sider has supported our team above and beyond their commitment to the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics and we’ve enjoyed working together on product development of their new GripX3 hiking boots and deckshoes. North Sails One Design was a major factor in our success, helping us develop sails that we knew could perform at the highest level through the range of conditions. When we needed specific sails for specific locations, they had the insight to help us develop sails that would give us a shot to win. Kaenon Polarized has been keeping my eyes protected and helping me see the breeze on the water since I first joined the US team in 2001. Harken was instrumental in rigging our new boat last year, continued it’s support, and developed products that kept us on the racecourse instead at the dock doing boatwork. McLube not only provided us with spray dry lubricant, but was also very helpful in minimizing the time we spent diving the bottom of the boat thanks to their newly developed HullKote Speed Polish.

I began racing with Ian Coleman in early 2011 and our World Ranking climbed from finishes consistently in the top 10 to a strong 4th as we headed down to the Worlds this past month. I would be remiss if I didn’t give thanks to the hard work of Brad Nichol, my crew in the first few years of my star sailing, and Magnus Liljedahl, who helped me get serious attention from the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics in 2009 and 2010 when I jumped into the Star class out of the Laser.

Mark Ivey helped us come a long way in the first two years of the US Star Team’s campaign, coaching us to 1st and 5th place finishes at the worlds in 2009 and Leandro Spina helped us continue on a consistent track of improvement in the third year of this quadrennium. Our time in Miami this winter helped Ian and I break down our maneuvering to a point where we never got one wrong in the final few events of the season. Our speed tuning and testing as a team were the reason we had four US teams ranked in the top 20 in the world in 2011.

We spent countless hours in the gym with Harry Legum at Annapolis Sailing Fitness, with the Georgetown University Varsity Strength and Conditioning staff, and with Chris Herrera in Miami at Bow Down Training. I can’t speak for Ian, but I know he put on 15 pounds and improved his fitness immensely from our March testing to our October testing, which both took place at the USOTC in Colorado Springs. After losing nearly 20 pounds to get down to 165lbs for my Olympic regatta in Beijing in 2008, I carefully put 30lbs back on to transition into the Star.

In the end it came down to two regattas in Weymouth and Fremantle this year. We knew the system and the consequences. We felt like we had a strong chance in the big breeze. The tuning leading into the regatta had been improving our 15-25 knot sailing. Our final few months of training prepared us well for that condition. At no point did we think we had given away our speed in sub-15 knot conditions. In Fremantle, we ended up having a few key situations that would have drastically changed how our final result turned out. The breeze shifted wrong for us a few times in ways that made us scratch our heads. I always preach making high percentage decisions on the racecourse and this regatta ended up being one where the other percentage worked out a few times too often. Things did not go our way. Looking back on it, I would race the regatta the same way again if we were staring anew. I think 8 times out of 10 we would be top ten at big events. At 8 big regattas out of 10 we were top 10 this year and beat our tough US competitors. Unfortunately the 2 out of 10 events that we needed to, we didn’t. I don’t think it was nerves or pressure, it was just the way the cards were dealt. We approached those two events with the same intensity and focus that we had all season. The success of our season gives me confidence that we approached those two events correctly. I am glad that we were able to perform well enough to qualify the country for the Olympics, any of three American teams could have done that. There are some strong teams from other countires still looking to secure their country’s berth. I want to congratulate Brian and Mark for the outstanding regatta they had in Fremantle. I hope that is indicative of how they can perform at the Olympics.

Let me take one moment to thank my wife Jacqueline for her unrivaled support, keeping me focused on what I needed to do to win and helping me have a ton of fun during the process. My entire family has been unbelievably supportive not only in their time and advice. They have all been a sounding board for ideas and have also watched from the wings as sailing has taken me places in the sport that they knew I could go and beyond. They are an inspiration to my sailing. Thanks to them, I have a complete understanding of how to approach and win at the top end of the sport, but also know how to have fun on the water with the people I love most. Sailing with my family is an experience unlike any other, just ask anybody who’s done it! They keep the pressure on while racing and smile about it afterwards. I can’t thank them enough for showing me the way the sport should be played.

So that leaves us with what?… The Star Class at the moment has been removed from the 2016 Olympic class list. It’s hard to believe that I’ve spent 10 years on the Olympic sailing circuit when I wasn’t going to school. The next step for now will be committing myself to professional sailing and coaching. I am looking forward to continuing to coach and sail on the match racing circuit and big boat circuits. Hopefully there is more small boat sailing in the future as well.

When I first started this weblog it was meant as a point of contact for my family, friends and donors. I could give them updates on my sailing and they could live my journey with me as I traveled around the world racing Lasers and more boats than I can think of off the top of my head. I briefly had a Monday Morning Tactician column that would break down racing situations for readers to digest and discuss, and hopefully develop a new perspective on tactical sailboat racing. This weblog has surprised me, to say the least. I’ve been invited to help with rules committees, write articles and talk at yacht clubs and clinics based solely on ideas that I’ve written about here. How lucky I am to be given the opportunity to give back to the sport I love. We’ve had as many as 5,000 views a week and averaged close to 2,000 during regattas. It still shocks me to see 500 viewers on an off-sailing week, and inspires me to get going and put something new and valid up on the website. I wish there was a way that I could repay all of your support and attention. I will do my best to refresh this website to talk about any sailing that I am doing in the future. Likewise I will be making an effort to re-start the Monday Morning Tactician column to hopefully provoke some more discussions about tactical sailboat racing and anything else that comes to mind about our great game.

Please check back, because there will be more to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.

Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing

Thanks to our sponsors:

McLube

New England Ropes

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14th at 2011 Star Worlds - Final Update to Come

December 18th, 2011 in Regattas.

Friday finally had a decent and steady seabreeze fill across Gage Roads and onto the Star course. Ian and I needed a couple miracles to make a push into the top ten and make any last shot at the Olympic berth. We had a good day, all things considered. But not good enough to break into the top 10 overall. We sailed most of both races in the top 15 fighting our way into the top ten in the first race briefly but finishing 13th. In race two we were in good shape coming into the first weather mark, approaching from the starboard layline, but got mauled by the crowd charging in from the left. Three boats tacked too close to us at the weather mark instead of ducking and crashed us up into the Japanese team to windward of us cracking our starboard transom. Then, as we were stalled trying to keep our rig off the boats to leeward, our teammates Andy Horton and John von Schwartz crash-tacked into our port rail about a foot from the transom giving us a 5 inch gash on the port transom. We were in no danger, but the boat was no longer in perfect condition, nor were we in the same position as we had entered the weather mark. We fought to get back into the top 20 and finished 18th. Honestly the holing put an exclamation point on a really tough week of sailing. Nothing really went our way and we never quite got into the groove we knew we had if the conditions had been a little steadier. As all sailors know, sometimes its your week and other times its not. This was not our week. I must congratulate Mark and Brian for sailing a fantastic series and showing the world that they are capable sailors to represent the US on the water in the Star class. It has been a tough season racing with George Szabo and Mark Strube, Andy Horton, Rick Merriman, John von Schwartz, Phil Trinter and James Lyne, under the watchful eyes of coach Leandro Spina. I am confident that all those sailors and Ian and myself have competed with a mutual respect for each other and competitive spirit that has made the US team one to be taken very seriously on the racecourse.

I will have a final report on this week as we travel back to the US before the Christmas holiday at
www.campbellsailing.com”>www.CampbellSailing.com.

Results: http://www.perth2011.com/competition/PERTH2011/SAM007000/results

Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing

Thanks to our sponsors:

McLube

New England Ropes

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The Fremantle Doctor is a not a real Doctor…

December 14th, 2011 in Regattas.

Ian and I talked on the way in from yesterday’s racing and commented about how differently we had pictured the regatta going than it has to this point. We’ve had a few glaring mistakes and more than our fair share of bad luck. The reality is that sometimes it’s your week and sometimes its not. At the European Championships this fall our friends Diego and Enrico from Italy, the current World Ranked #1 team, had the sailing gods seemingly guiding them to the perfect regatta. They were in the right places at the right times. This week, in very similar conditions, they are struggling to find their way into the top 10. While other boats can’t seem to find their way out of it.

Ian and I are left scratching our heads after some races. Yesterday we sailed a great first race in what seemed to be a building seabreeze. Finally the sun was shining and the Southwesterly was filling in across Gage Roads. We had a good start on the left end of the line and pressed into the left. It didn’t pay off like we wanted it to, but enough that we could round with the top group of 10 or 11 boats. We made a few gains here and there in the oscillating breeze, until the final run. We split to the course left of the group and watched helplessly as the wind started to die and shift left. This would normally be a big gain to boats in our position as we would just get headed into the finish line and reach over boats on the right that now were tight reaching to the finish. Instead 10 boats surged in the last fingers of the seabreeze towards the finish as we wallowed in the first part of the conversion zone as the easterly filled back in. We finished 20th. The scores don’t even do justice for the frustration and elation going on around the course. The leaders had sailed tight reached into the finish. We were lucky to finish with any breeze and then watched the back end of the fleet sit becalmed in 3 foot chop with their sails slapping them in the face as they drifted across the line. Remember, this race had been started in 12 knots of an apparently building seabreeze.

We sat for about an hour as the sky went overcast and the face of the day changed drastically. Our race committee moved about a half mile closer to shore to try and get set up better in the new breeze that was slowly filling from about 70 degrees left of the first race. After two general recalls, we finally got off under the threat of a black flag. Ian and I paced into the left figuring that the shoreline would be spilling off lefty puffs. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The first shift off the line was a lefty. We took that for a short while, but were quickly pushed back toward the left as a long right hand shift pulsed in to finish the leg. It was ugly, but we stayed committed to the left considering that the day had been crazy already. For that commitment we paid dearly and rounded about 35th. Luckily there is lots of room to play with downwind shifts in the back of the pack and we did our best to slice and dice down the first run, got into a few nice righties on the second beat and rounded in the mid twenties at the next windward mark. We set low behind a nice group of boats and finished overlapped with the 10-14 place boats to take a hard-fought 15th.

Heading into Thursday’s lay-day, that’s where we sit: 17th overall, in a three way tie for 15th. Somehow we’re only 12 points out of medal race contention. That will be our goal for Friday. We need to find a way to redeem ourselves after a ghastly week of sailing. Redemption Day is Friday.

Results and other information can be found at Perth2011.com.

More to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.

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Tuesday

December 13th, 2011 in General.

We threatened to have a good day yesterday but suffered a setback at the first mark of the day. We had succeeded on getting to the favored left side of the course but failed to get a safe lane on the port approach to the weather mark. I risked tacking shy of a group and trying to lay the mark but instead of rounding top ten we were forced to bail out and rounded in the mid twenties. We came back well but not well enough to 19th in race five.Â
The second race of the day was very similar. We were top ten around the top and finished 7th after racing around the track in 15-18 knots of southeasterly breeze.Â
Four races remain before the medal race. Ian and I are 12 points out of 8th place so we are very much in the game with a couple good races today. It will take a miracle to win this Olympic trials this week, but we’re going to keep showing up and keep the pressure on.Â
Anybody looking at the scores see that the regatta leaders have dropped out of the event after taking a second yellow flag umpire penalty and then apparently are withdrawing due to injury. This after watching Ben Ainslie flame out on the final day of the Finn worlds last week makes for some interesting boatpark chatter. We’ll see how it all falls out.Â
Results: www.Perth2011.com

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