SAIL1DESIGN ICSA TEAM RACE RANKINGS PREVIEW

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sponsored by Atlantis Weathergear

With February now upon us, just a few weeks remain until the spring college sailing season gets underway!  I am sure that college sailors around the country are ready to hit the water again. Though the season has many fleet racing regattas, college sailing tends to switch gears to focus on team racing for much of the spring season. Teams need to rely more on depth and strong leadership to find success on the water in preparation for conference and national championships later in the spring. Our panel of coaches from around the country have reflected on the teams’ performances and key players and have provided an outlook as to who they think will be the strong teams going into the season.

Contributions by Sail1Design TR Panel Ken Legler (Tufts), Bill Healy (Yale), Brendan Healy (Navy), David Elsmo (UWisconsin), Ward Cromwell (College of Charleston), and John Vandemoer (Stanford).

Northern New England (MA, NH, VT, ME) – Ken Legler

While the top two or three NEISA teams are in Southern New England (Yale, Roger and Brown), a couple Northern teams have a shot at team racing nationals.  Let’s skip comparing coaches as all of NEISA’s many top teams have absolutely excellent coaches.

Dartmouth was NEISA’s most improved team last Fall.  After some inconsistent early season finishes, The Big Green came alive with a 2-1-2 at the Hurst, Schell, and Atlantic Coast Champs.  Dartmouth struggled at last year’s team racing New Englands but veteran Sam Williams can now depend on sophomore Matt Wefer and a bunch of others that have figured out college sailing.  Team Racing is another matter but if they improve like they did in dinghies, watch out.

Tufts had a great fall for the first two thirds of the season led by Will Haeger in Sloops, and along with Massimo Soriano in dinghies.  The fall results gave the Jumbos a shot at the upcoming Graham Hall Team Race (at Navy in early March) for a chance to get on pace with the best for the spring.

Harvard lost three great senior skippers to graduation and will rely on last year’s #4, the very talented Brendan Kopp and top women skipper Emily Lambert.  They also have a bunch of good freshmen skippers with high school TR experience but they might not be ready for this level yet.

Boston College also lost their superstars to graduation except they still have Annie Haeger for one more season.  She’ll be leading BC in Women’s, Dinghies and Team Racing with various young and talented teammates in tow. They too will be at the Graham Hall and possibly in the St. Mary’s Team as well for a powerful jump start to their season.

MIT has more depth than Harvard and BC but they haven’t done well in team racing in the past.  Excellent coaching and hard work could change that.  They host TR New England’s but that didn’t help Dartmouth last year as the other teams are too well coached to be disadvantaged is someone else’s pond.

Honorable Mentions - BU is good in FJs and good on the river.  Vermont lost Johnny Norfleet transferring to Hobart.  In his place they have a large sophomore class and even bigger freshmen class.  They will use the spring for much needed experience for a shot at nationals in future years.  Bowdoin has never been a national powerhouse but they’re not bad.  Like Vermont they will be looking to fight their way into New England’s for the experience of competing in the toughest conference team racing champs in the ICSA.

Southern NEISA (RI, CT) – Bill Healy

Roger Williams - The Seahawks are primed to have a great spring season after finishing the fall strong with a win at the ACC’s.   With three strong skippers (Alec Anderson ‘13, Sean Bouchard ‘12 and Will McDonald ’15) and returning All-American Crew Kelley Stannard (who is also a member of the 2011 winning Hinman Team), the Hawks will be tough to beat out at any Team Race Intersectional the spring.  In my mind they are the favorite to win the NE Team Race Championship.

Yale – Led by Senior All-American Skipper Joe Morris the Bulldogs have a good shot at one of the two NEISA slots for Nationals.  Joe has great teammates in the deepest Yale team in a while.  Cam Cullman the 2011 ICSA Singlehanded Champ and underclassmen Chris Segerblom and Freshman Graham Landy will be solid teammates.  The bulldogs have a fantastic list of upperclassmen crews that will only help the Bulldogs this spring season.

Brown – Here is another deep team.  Skippers Colin Smith and Tommy Fink have both put out some great collegiate results so far and Sophomore Tyler Rice is working on his own resume.   The Brown Bears will be well coached under Coach Mollicone and Rabin.  They have fantastic crew including Louisa Chafee ’14 and Ashley Noble ’13.  I would not be surprised to see some of their great Women’s team coming over to help out here and there.

Connecticut College - The Camels are always aggressive and fast in FJ’s.  The Thames River will be good Practice for the Charles.  Kevin, Martland, Pete Miller and Ben Bainbridge along with the rocket Atlantic Brugman will be hard to catch if you get behind early.  Look for the Camels to be the spoiler at TR NE’s.

Salve Regina – This Newport, RI based team lost some great sailors but they still have senior Peter Pellegrini.  They mainly race in 420’s which will hurt their chances this spring.

MAISA – Brendan Healy

Hobart & William Smith - Deep and experienced, Hobart looks to lead the charge early in the semester as the squad to beat in MAISA led by skippers Austin Anderson, Sam Blouin, and Johnny Norfleet aided by All-American crew Chris Klevan, as well as Bridget Nannig and Julia Oak.

St. Mary’s - Despite the loss of several key players on the Team Race side of things, St. Mary’s looks to come back strong as they always do led by coaches Adam and Bill.  With a relatively deep team, I think we’ll see a lot of playing time from Josh Greenslade, Victor Diaz, and possibly John Wallace as skippers, with Ben Lezin, Kelley Merryman, and Katy Gluskin crewing.

Georgetown - Traditionally a national factor, Georgetown loses their two-time College Sailor of the Year, however with the rumored return of Evan Aras, this team will be right back at the top of the game.  Skippers leading the charge for the Hoyas include Evan Aras (maybe), Chris Barnard, Sydney Bolger, Pete Johns, and Matt Gowell with crews Hillary Kenyon, Kate Kanty, and Rebecca Evans.

Navy - A very young squad that looks to be led by ICSA Match Racing National Champion skipper Jason Carminatti and returning All-American crew Saverio Maldari.  Also look for driving time from Mike Grove, Taylor Vann, and Alex Ramos.  On the crewing side of things, Caroline Lockett, Julie Digiovani, and Jocelynn Knudsen will have an impact on the team.

Old Dominion - A young team that had a great fall, looking to prove themselves this spring.  Look for skipper Dillion Paiva to lead the Monarchs with Brady Stagg, Gavin Rudolph, and Scott Hoffman rounding out the drivers.  As for crews, All-American Emily Reich will contribute greatly to the team, in addition to Chloe Constants and Jill Fattibene.

SUNY - An experienced team that could turn some heads this year headed by the leadership of Coach Russ.  Skippers Sean Murray, Harry Scott, and Randy Hartranft will head up the Privateers along with crews Morgan Keating, Emma Lamontague, and Paige Conlin.

Honorable Mentions - Washington College, Cornell, Fordham University

SAISA – Ward Cromwell

College of Charleston – The Cougars will be returning all but one team member from last year’s 3^rd place team race finish in the Gorge.  Mac Mace and Zeke Horowitz will likely lead the Cougars along with Perry Emsiek ‘12, Alyssa Aitken ‘12, and Cory DeCollibus ’13.  Other team members will likely include Sam Stoke ’12, Ben Spector’12, Brooks Clark, and Jeff Aschieris.

University of Miami – The Hurricanes will be returning their starting skippers David Hernandez ‘12 and Nick Voss ‘12 who will likely pair with Alex Olt ‘12.  David has been pairing regularly with Chelsea Carlson ’13.  Other crew’s will likely include Nicole Popp ’12, Kara Voss ’15, Nikki Bruno’12, and Liam Munzenmaier ‘13

University of South Florida - The Bulls will likely be adding Chris Stocke ‘15 to their team race line up.  Chris is coming off a 2^nd place finish at the ICSA Singlehanded Nationals and will likely be joining his brother Will Stocke ’13 and Sean Ross ’12. Will Stocke has been regularly pairing with Emily Johnson ’13.  Other likely players could include David Harrison ’13, Kaitlin Kramer ’13, Abby Featherstone ’13, Bryan White ’13, and Greg Schreiber ’14.

Honorable Mentions - The Eckerd Tritons, Florida Gators, and Clemson Tigers will be the other SAISA teams to keep an eye out for leading in to Spring Team Race season.

MCSA – David Elsmo

The 2012 MCSA racing season will be highlighted by one of the highest Intersectional attendances in recent memory. Several of the powerhouse schools have figured out that if you want to compete at the highest level, you have to go out and train against the top dogs. In that same breath many teams have sought out coaching to help raise their team's competitive abilities; Minnesota, Purdue, Robert Morris, Northwestern, Wisconsin and more are now actively practicing and traveling with coaches. When looking at team racing in our conference four teams tend to stick out. Northwestern, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin always find themselves competing for qualifying rights.  As always the MCSA is a majority club sport student run conference. Talent tends to manifest itself in unknown places.

Northwestern this spring will lose Geoff Pedrick, one of their top sailors but will be bringing in freshmen Travis Cottle and Ryan Anderson from the East coast.

Wisconsin will be returning at full strength with their entire 2011 8th place National team.

Minnesota - With the loss of Harrison Burton and Brady Solum, Minnesota will have some shoes to fill, but with a huge freshmen class full of talented sailors, you can look for them to be competitive in all respects.

Michigan has struggled to maintain a consistent 3 skipper team but with the leadership of Matt Graham a returning sophomore and a strong junior team, may still have some time to gel.

The University of Milwaukee has had an influx of talent with Ben Otten showing up as a lead skipper, and with a little recruiting you never know what they could do.

NWICSA – John Vandemoer

U. Oregon has been the strongest team in the northwest showing depth in both A and B divisions. This fleet race strength will lead to a strong team race season. Oregon plans to head east to Boston for their spring break, this trip should really help their team make it to the next level.

Western Washington U. has kept pace with oregon and should gets lots of team race help from new coach Blaine Pedlow. Blaine will help Western be organized and keep them moving in the right direction. Look for their conference champs to be a battle between Oregon and Western.

U.  Washington for many years has been the class of the NW but now finds Oregon and Western stepping up their game. Washington will come on strong in their conference as they are a well organized team that loves to team race. They will travel a bunch to CA this spring so that should help. 

Portland State is an up and coming team that gained some momentum from last year’s nationals and they will be competitive with the top teams of their conference.

PCCSC – John Vandemoer

Stanford is returning its three starting skippers from last year and has some good freshman to help challenge the sophomores. This team should take another step this year after making it to the gold round as freshman last year at nationals.

UCSB - the Gauchos have certainly proven they can compete and be really fast. The question for them this year as can they take another step forward in team racing and avoid foul trouble. If they can this team will be a really competitive against Stanford and give them a run for their money.

U Hawaii is always a strong team in conference. They will be fast and aggressive at the conference champs. The question will be is if they have the depth to support sophomore Adam Pokras and make a run at a nationals berth.

USC- The Trojans are always a challenge to beat and really this year it might be the lady Trojans who are tough to beat with Kelsey Rupp and Mallory Schluter coming on strong in fleet racing. The ladies along with Max Hutchinson should be a strong team. Max has been sailing really well this year and they will be a tough out at any team race.

Honorable Mentions - It will be a battle to see who else can rise to the top in the PCCSC. Irvine has had a big graduation year so they are not what they once were but they can certainly make a run. UCLA is another team who is a wait and see with Judge Ryan leaving it will be interesting to see how it goes. CMA could be a contender too.

Stay tuned here for updates and national top 15 Rankings when the season gets going!   

http://www.sail1design.com/rankings/icsa-rankings

“We want occasional reach legs” and “Reaches are parades” are two often heard phrases on Scuttlebutt.  Most reach legs have become parades with few strategical options and as a result most big regattas are all windward-leewards.  It didn’t used to be that way.  Here is what happened.

In the 1960’s many, if not most, one-design races were long modified triangles.  The reaches were so long you couldn’t see the reach mark.  They were physically demanding in breeze and very strategical in variable winds.  In the 1970’s US Sailing (NAYRU then) began emphasizing better race management.  Gold Medalist Bill Bentsen was the race management mentor/guru at the US Sailing Center at Association Island, NY (Lake Ontario) where race management was greatly refined.  Using a combination of Inland Lakes (ILYA) methodology and Bentsen’s creativity, sailing instructions were standardized, starting lines were mobile for wind shifts, and windward legs were optimized.  With the leeward mark a tenth of a mile up from the start, the reach legs became short.  After ten or fifteen years of this reach legs became eliminated as W-L’s became standard.  Gates were introduced (by Paul Elvstrom) improving upon the W-L course.

Gary Bodie, former US Olympic head coach, once said that the demise of one-design racing is partly a result of better race management.  With courses away from land set square to the wind, the fastest win and the slowest give up and disappear.

Reach legs are attempted now and then and indeed too often are parades.  Bring back the big modified triangle especially in heavy air and while we’re at it, how about a longer point to point race such as the “Round the Island Race.”  Let’s do the math…If we have a one mile beat with a right triangle (45-90-45 degree angles) and the leeward mark is at the start, then the reaches are only .7 miles long.  Now, same windward mark but the leeward mark is one mile downwind.  Increase the reaching angle with an equilateral triangle (60-60-60 angles) and voila, two mile reaches which are no longer parades.  Instead reaches become a test of sailing skill that, like RC’s setting the best angle and length reach legs, is a lost art.

My next regatta is the Snow and Satisfaction at Yale in 420s.  Some of my best memories in the sport are the long high speed surfing and planning reaches on the widest part of Long Island Sound during one of the windiest times of year, November.  It’s been awhile because in recent years the RC has attempted reaches by dragging a gate mark out for short broad reaches instead of the epic modified triangle reaches.  I don’t ski, don’t surf, don’t skate board, but I can still plane a club 420 in the right conditions.

Ken Legler

By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it :

a strong 6 min. interview with Paul Cayard going back in time.  He's relaxed and engaging as he tells some inside stories about his early days in the Cup and later in the Whitbread.

By Airwaves Contributor Ken Legler

Are strategy and tactics not the same?  Strategy is you versus the race course, including wind, current, position of marks, and obstacles. Tactics is you versus the other boats, including maneuvers such as ducking, dipping, lee bow, blanketing, and of course asserting your right-of-way.  Strategy is what you use to get around the race course as fast as possible. Tactics are what you use to pass, or prevent being passed by other boats.  Here are some sound bites, followed by explanations. The general idea is to avoid encounters with the other boats while sticking to your strategy.

Find the line.

Start where the others are not.

When boat A hails starboard to boat B, boats C gains.

Conserve your tacks.

Overlay the windward mark and the traffic to round at high-speed.

Lateral separation is better in the long run.

Round the gate mark with the path of least resistance.

Finding the starting line is an obvious strategical concern but it gets hard in traffic when the pin is obscured. Look often enough to get a glance for that moment it becomes visible as it is not enough to see only the committee boat when determining the exact line.  On your final approach when on starboard, look around your forestay to find the pin and over your right shoulder to find the committee boat. We peripheral vision covering nearly 135° you can almost see both ends at once when you are about two lengths from the line.

Start where the others are not works extremely well in a variable wind. Most boats pile into the temporarily favored end causing horrible starts for each other. In a variable wind the trick is not to start at the favored end but to sail off on the lifted tack. When there is a big right shift before the start, the committee boat gets real crowded.  Most of the boats there will either foul, be fouled, get stuck, get blanketed, or be forced to tack out into the anti-shift, a disaster when the wind shifts back to the left later. You take the easy start down the line on the lifted starboard tack, and when the wind backs left, you are now contesting first place with the lone survivor of the boat end pack. When there is a big left shift before the start, the pin, or “devil's playground” gets really hairy. Try starting mid line with your windward hip clear so you can tack to port on the lifted tack.  In a steady wind you should still look for the least crowded part of the line unless one end is truly biased.  In that case you could slide up towards the favored end until it gets too crowded for comfort. The worst the bias the harder it is to duplicate good starts.

How does boat C gains when boat A hails starboard to boat B? B is distracted at best and needs to sail an alternate route to avoid A. A meanwhile, has to watch B in order to ensure she doesn't hit B.  She might be lee bowed by B as well.  C then, continues to go straight on the fastest course to mark.

Tacking comes at a cost, and with boats that don't tack well, a big cost. Tacking costs more in a dinghy when you are hiking hard then when it is light and roll tacks are more effective. 420s for example, lose so much tacking in winds of 15 knots and above, that many sailors on a short course will try to two-tack the first leg. The same sailors in the same 420s on a light and shifty day might tack many times. Catamarans are notorious for slow tacking since they lose all the speed they build up when going straight.  Good multihull sailors always conserve their tacks. The jib-less Hobie 14 comes to mind as the worst boat to tack. Sailors in this class often try start on port so they will only have to tack once to fetch the windward mark. Even dinghy team racers, hiking hard in Vanguard 15’s, will occasionally try to one-tack the first leg into their starboard rounding crossing ahead of opponents that tacked two or more times.

A student sailor once complained that he laid the weather mark perfectly but got screwed when lee bowed while trying to round.  The resultant loss meant not laying and tacking, then tacking back for traffic, and not laying again. When the smoke cleared he was last. Only the first place boat has the luxury of laying the mark perfectly, all others need to overlay the traffic in order to put the bow down just before rounding. This gives you a little breakaway over the neighbors to the offset mark and then clear air on the run. On the other hand, if you pinch around the first Mark, you might spend the entire run leg defending boats from behind rather than using your strategy to gain on the run.

Speaking of run legs, passing boats in traffic not only gives you false gains but can cost you plenty. When A blankets B and passes B, everyone else gains on A and B. Then B, now mad, luffs up across A’s stern, blankets A, and passes A back. A and B believe they broke even but boat C, with good lateral separation, gains considerably on both.  When A and B observe C coming out ahead, they believe she was lucky, but it was actually A and B's greed that allowed C to get ahead. With lateral separation C is able to play the puffs and carve the waves without other boats or blanket zones getting in the way.

Gate marks were invented by Paul Elvstrom to keep the race close. With a single leeward mark, when two boats are even, one will come away with a two-length lead. With evenly set gate marks, the same two boats should remain even.  As such any boat wishing to minimize their loss at the gate should round the gate mark that offers the path of least resistance. There are exceptions, such as when one side of the next leg is heavily favored or one gate mark is heavily favored. In that case the favored mark should be treated like a single leeward mark.

By Ken Legler, Tufts Sailing Coach. Check out Ken's web page:  http://kenleglersailing.com/

©  Copyright Sail1Design 2011. All rights reserved. Not to be re-printed without express written permission of Sail1Design & Airwaves®

Presented by Mauri Pro Sailing

Skippers are generally considered to be the bigger factor in executing team racing moves and certainly skippers need to know the plays to win.  However, as the competitive level of dinghy team racing has improved in college sailing in the last ten years, crews have taken a far more important role in determining the outcome of many team races.  This has become especially true with the “N” course that emphasizes the run leg.  Because the skippers of both teams know the plays at high levels, it is the crew’s ability to execute those plays faster than the opponents that often determine outcomes.  Here’s how:

Skippers control the back of the boat including tiller, mainsheet and their share of the weight transfers and weight placement.  Meanwhile crews control the front end with jib trim and weight.  Whenever a dinghy is down speed, the crew has greater control over steering with jib trim and weight placement.  The slower the boat is going the more the crew is steering, and in team racing the boat is often going slow in order to hook, or not get hooked by, the other boat.  This is most important pre-start, on the run, and in mark roundings.

Just before the start combatants try to hook their opponent and start close aboard to leeward.  This is most often done by coming from behind and passing to leeward with more speed than the other boat.  The boat ahead tries to prevent this by speeding up just before getting hooked.  To do this crews trim jib and shift weight to windward.  The weight shift kicks the bow down (action-reaction as the crew is forward of the boat’s pivot point centerboard).  If the crew waits to hear the skipper command “Trim and weight up,” it’s too late and the boat is hooked to leeward by the boat that came from behind.  If, however, the crew is watching the boat behind and responds timely to the threat of being hooked, the boat ahead can successfully stay ahead and ultimately be the leeward boat close aboard when heading up to start.  If the crew is really timely at this, the skipper can bait the boat behind into trying until it is too late for any alternative.  This process is called “fishing,” a term coined by former World TR champions Tim Fallon/Karen Renzulli of WHishbone.

Downwind is where the champion dinghy team racing crews are really separated from the passengers.  The game is the win the other boat’s left.  Here’s the basic scenario: Two boats are running on starboard, one right behind the other.  The boat behind jibes to port to get to the left of the other.  The boat ahead jibes to defend but, the jibe is a tiny bit late, opening up a slight gap.  The first boat jibes back to starboard shouting “Starboard.”  The port boat is already in big trouble.  Why was the defending jibe a bit late?  Because the crew waited for the skipper to say “Ready to jibe” or for the short version “Jibing.”   Same scenario except that the crew of the leading boat sees the boat behind jibe to port (to their left side) and initiates their own jibe to port via weight transfer to starboard.  Now the boat behind cannot jibe back to starboard as there is clearly not enough room to do so.  They are stuck on port as windward boat and just far enough behind still such that the leeward port boat has clear air.

Then there’s mark roundings.  Crews initiate turns in conjunction with the skipper’s rudder to minimize rudder braking.  Crews also stop the turns with weight.  Crews trim the jib slightly behind the main trim at the leeward mark as the swinging bow sees a more lifted apparent wind than the sliding stern.  Crews trim harder when there is the need to pinch and release the jib when there is need to shoot a mark.  At windward marks, crew bear off with weight to windward and stop bearing of with weight to leeward.  And, as mentioned earlier, crews initiate jibes, a most critical maneuver in team racing on the “N.”

The crew has the role of speed merchant and observation master in between maneuvers but those are the subjects of other articles.

By Ken Legler, Tufts Sailing Coach. Check out Ken's web page:  http://kenleglersailing.com/

©  Copyright Sail1Design 2011. All rights reserved. Not to be re-printed without express written permission of Sail1Design & Airwaves®

Black Flag – Behind the Scenes                    By: Pete Levesque

Brought to you by Mauri Pro Sailing  www.mauriprosailing.com

Typically, when a race committee displays the black flag, sailors will automatically lower their expectations for the next start knowing that they will have to be conservative in the next sequence. In the following article, I’m going to tell you about what is happening on the race committee boat during a black flag sequence so that you can use it to your advantage and have some of your best starts in black flag sequences.

Let’s start with what is causing the black flag. Normally a race committee will display the black flag only when they are convinced that an “I” flag start is not working well enough to keep the fleet behind the line. That means there are too many boats over the line at go for the race committee to keep track of and write them all down. So to keep the number of offending boats down, the race committee raises the penalty for being over. There is no penalty for being over during an “I” flag start that results in a general recall. However, there is a huge penalty for being over during a black flag start whether it results in a general recall or not. Sometimes race committees will run black flag starts and recall them until they have eliminated all aggressive or stupid boats from the start and the rest of the fleet can start civilly.

It is important to know what is happening on the race committee boat during a penalty flag (I, Z or Black) start. At major regattas, race committee boats will be well staffed. There will typically be a PRO who is responsible for overseeing all others onboard. They are the CEO of the race committee and don’t typically have a detail job. There is often a scribe, sometimes two. The job of the scribe is to write down boats that are called over, boats that file protests, boats that have been called clear and boats that have finished. Next you have a person whose job it is to sight the line. They will call the order in which boats finish, and call which boats are over the line under 1 minute. This person will typically talk into a recording device that is used to cross check finish order and boats over early or with what the scribes have written down. At regattas with large fleets there may be two people sighting the line, one or both of which will have binoculars to see sail or bow numbers of far away boats.

Knowing how the person sighting the line does his job is critical to black flag start success. This person has a difficult job to do perfectly because at 1 minute to go there is just a little bit of action close to the line. Just a handful of boats are close to the line and those numbers are probably visible. But, as time ticks down to zero, there are more and more boats closer to the line and numbers become hidden. So the line sight person keeps a running dialogue going into the recording device and the scribes write down numbers they hear. A typical start sequence passage might sound like this:

“1:20 to go and several boats are very close to the line, 13, 27, 51, 34, 28.”

“1 minute to go and boats 13, 27 and 34 are over the line.”

“50 seconds to go, boat 51 is close to the line”

“40 seconds to go, boat 37 is close; so is 88.”

“30 seconds, 37 is definitely over.”

“20 seconds, 43 is close”

“10 seconds 34 is over, 28 is close, 51 was close, 13 was close”

“At go 34, 27 48, are over there are more, check the recording.”

Lots of numbers and very little time. What happens if the scribe writes down 34 when they heard 43? Or if they wrote down 88 when that boat was only “close.” They are scored BFD. It’s nearly impossible for the person sighting the line to get all of the numbers that are over at go so they go back and check the recording and refresh their memory. They might know that there were 6 boats over early but aren’t totally sure which ones. So all of a sudden, some of the boats that were “close” become “over.” When they re-hear their commentary what was unsure becomes fact and boats are scored BFD. Recalling a start and running it over again is an ordeal and often times there are time limits or sunset in play so people want to be sure, or sound sure, so that the start counts.

Knowing now what is happening on the signal boat, how do we use this to our advantage? Re-read the dialogue, with a few exceptions, it actually pretty unclear who was truly over during the last minute. But if any of the boats in the recording are scored BFD, their presence on the recording makes it very difficult for them to win a redress hearing. The trick is to never be on the recording in the first place. During most starts, you want to be front row during the last minute and protect your position as best you can because there is relatively little risk to being on the race committee radar. We know that is not the case with a penalty start so we have to change our behavior.

How do we change our behavior? A port tack approach where you steal somebody else’s hole is a good way to not get noticed. Hang back in the second row, roaming for a hole rather than being on the line early and protecting one. Stay outside of the committee boat as long as possible since they aren’t looking that direction at all. The earlier you show up in the front row, the more you risk being seen and being on the race committee radar.

Showing up on the race committee radar isn’t limited to where you put your boat. One summer I thought it would be cool to have the sail number 0; I was OCS more that summer than any other in my life.  Do nothing to stand out, no fancy numbers, no clothes that stand out, sail a white boat whenever possible.  It’s easy for the race committee to just remember the 1 red boat was over, or the kids wearying neon green were over.

When the race committee flies the black flag, that doesn’t mean have a bad start 1 boat length behind the line simply out of fear. It means they can’t keep track of all of the offenders so they have made offending more costly. Make it hard for them to keep track of you too or at all. Now that you know what is happening on the race committee boat use it to your advantage.

The RAD was designed to fill a void in most Junior Sailing Programs between Opti and C420.  Many programs were having a hard time with keeping and engaging kids that were either becoming too big, getting lonely, getting bored or just didnt want to skipper an Opti.  Historically,  Sailing programs had three boats to transition to as the kids developed first an Opti, Sabat, Pram or Dyer Dow; then the first crewed boats ( Blue Jays) simple and affordable, then the premium race boats with everything now the C420. 

We needed to fill a this gap and many clubs have tried, but in a terrible economy and no clear momentum for any one class, we decided to use our older C420s and get 2 to 3 kids sailing them no trapeze and without spinnakers (although instructors have let the kids try it all for fun challenges).  The Main Sail design is about 28% smaller, had a loose foot for easier rigging and launching, and didnt use a full length batten to help in depowering.  We decided to keep the existing Jib design as to not create another purchase requirement. 

Performance

The design was tested and showed great handling by light crews (150lbs) in 15 knots and in light winds heavier crews (3 kids 240lbs) was still very responsive.

The main concern, after the ability to handle a breeze, was the balance of the boat.  The good news was that the standard Jib didnt over-power the boat or drive it off the wind. Its pointing characteristics were marginally effected and noticeable by only the most experienced C420 sailors.  We did experiment with raking the mast back a bit and that worked well but felt it almost wasnt needed.

The Program

            While several Yacht Clubs have been working with the sail, St Francis, Barrington &  Sail Newport. Edgartown went into full swing and had and Opti program for 8-to 11 year olds and the a choice of continuing on to Race Team in Optis or going into the RAD program for 12 to 14 year olds and finally transition to C420 for the duration.  We believe that the RAD can include 11 year olds as well in the future.

Results

The Kids loved the boat!  Almost all wanted to get back out and sail more.  Many of the Opti kids who opted not to sail the RAD were asking to go into the RAD program.  Light weather and Heavy air alike Big smiles were seen across all kids.  Parents throughout the season kept coming in and saying how much their kids just loved sailing now.

We also had the kids rotate skipper and crew positions throughout the sessions to get the experience of working as a team and understanding the roles on a boat.  While we did play with the trapeze and the kids did like this option, recommend that at this stage keep it simple and focus on the sailing.  The whole program seems to be the perfect next step out of Optis.

Edgartown Yacht Club Race Week.

We had a start at Edgartown Race Week which was a tremendous success.  Seven boats were registered and sailed in 15 to 20 knots the first day, down to virtually no wind the second day and the final day moderate breeze in 5 to 12 knots.   Good progress in the boat was shown by all teams  Capsizes were at a minimum even in the heavy breezes.  Many clubs have inquired and are looking into the design for next season. 

The Future

We expect a few more clubs will launch a program in the coming season and that many more will experiment with the Sails.  We think that The RAD is not only great for Jr Sailing, but for the club budgets, and most importantly for the kids who love the new challenge.   It is a brilliant way to use the older C420s and continue building on the success of this boat to develop skilled, well rounded and happy sailors. 

For further information on the Edgartown YC program please call

For information on  purchasing or trialing the sail please contact

http://www.intensitysails.com

Roland A. Van der Meer
Ph: 650 325 9600 x314

www.fusecapital.com