September Winds

Saskachewan Short Course on Redberry lake 2001.  In front is Stephen Huszar, in the background with the disco sail is Ian Elliott... without much leech tension...too sheeted out...  hold on!!

This weekend, we have the final event of the Dick Degner Grand Prix in which you need at lest one Saskatchewan and one Albertan event to be scored (so this is the last chance for Albertans without a Sask event).  The event is called the Saskatchewan Short Course Championship at SSC.  This will also be the 2012 District 5 Championship (District 5 is Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba).  Here is the notice of race, and Here are the SI's.

The Paralympic Final races are tomorrow September 6th.  If anyone finds a way to view them, let us know!  Saskachewan Logan Campbell who has sailed several Saskachewan Short Course Champs is sailing Sonar with skipper Bruce Millar and second Crew Scott Lutes, they are sitting in 8th.  Royal Victoria Yacht Club sailors John McRoberts and Stacie Louttit are sitting in 4th in Skud class.  These two have often joined in on the Junior Race Team's drills at Royal Vic and so I have had the honour of training with them also.  Finally, Gold Medallist Paul Tingley from RNovaScotiaYS is sailing 2.4mR and is sitting in 5th.  Click here for the Paralympic website where you can find results and bios etc.

Bruce, Scott and Logan leading up to the 2012 Paralympics.  Logan is out on the rail.

John and Stacy on Day 3 at the 2012 Paraolympics

Paul Tingley at Sail Melbourne 2009

Back at CYC...

Tuesday Night Laser Race Team at CYC has come to an end with another good showing on Tuesday the 28th of August.  The plan is to continue to have Tuesday night as a group training session, but I will not be coaching, instead I will be out in my Laser training with everyone else.  Yesterday, Tuesday the 4th, we had eight people out in spite of dead calm and five of us went out for a short sail regardless of the lack of breeze.

Thursday Night Racing continues in September with a 6:30pm start to cope with the earlier sunset.

Looking back, Jimmy Buffet Night went off smoothly and CYC Club Championships were wildly shifty.  Ian H managed to beat Mike H with the help of Bill M, whose bullet in one of the final races took away Mike H's tie-breaking bullet leaving Ian with the Championship.  We think that Ian H and Keith H are the first father and son to both have their names on the Club Championship trophy.

Labour Day Long Weekend we had a wild and windy Provincial Championships at Wabamun Sailing Club.  Friday, some sailors came out early and we had a sunny, warm evening with a fine wind of about 8 knots and some good, even boat speed.  Saturday, the first day of the regatta, was very similar to Wabamun Open with a solid breeze and nice waves and Boat speed started to separate sailors in the long races.  Day two brought even more wind, but it was rainy and colder and we were held onshore until the worst of it blew over... or so we thought.  When we came out after lunch it started out in the teens of knots, but by the second race, it blasted up into the 30 knot range as the clouds cleared and the Race Committee clocked a gust at 36 knots.  They shortened the course and we screamed in on a crazy reach.  A few sailors were saying that they might never have gone that fast in a laser before.  Monday, day three, looked like it would be the mildest day for wind, but by the time we got on the race course the wind was in the high teens again and in the second race, as the clouds cleared again, we got some hairy gusts but also some deep lulls.  A coach suggested that the breeze ranged from 24 knots lulling down to 12 knots, but many sailors were saying that the gusts were even stronger than the day before and the Race Committee suggested that it got into the 30's again.

It was an exhausting regatta with all the breeze and although there were only 7 races, the race lengths were consistently in the 55 minute range and so after fierce battles in the first couple of legs, the positions tended to space out at the front of the fleet as boat speed became paramount.  I came out with straight 1st places, Nick H had straight 2nds in spite of returning to the start line for fear of being OCS in at least two races.  Jay F had been a long time out of the Laser, but he still came in with all 3rds except for the first race and the last race where a collision with Phil P caused Jay to retire (if a collision causes injury, you are not exonerated by doing a 720 and must retire).  In 4th place was CYC Youth Race Team coach Luke H, in 5th place was under-sized Ian H and first Master went to Phil P in 6th place.

In the Fireball Fleet only Greg F and Mike L sailed all of the races, although they said that the competition was good when the others braved the elements.  There were 505s and the Catamaran Bladerunner out sailing in some of the big winds, but most exciting was the huge Opti Fleet.  On the first day some of the braver Optis stayed out in the blow and inspired the others to try the big winds (slightly sheltered by the point).  The second day the Optis were better able to handle the wind and more of them came out and on the last day they were pretty well all racing.  Thanks to Newell Sailing Club, Glenmore Sailing Club and Calgary Yacht Club for supporting the Opti fleet as always and for Wabamun Sailing Club and Alberta Sailing Association for supplying Opti Coaches and ASA's MOSS program for providing so many Optis.  A special mention has to go out to Glenmore Sailing School (as opposed to Club) for getting some of their Optis out for the first time (in a long time?  Ever?).  GSS has long been a huge part of sailing in Alberta, but has rarely contributed many Racers to the sport.  I heard that Elisha A and Elliot A played a big part in promoting racing to their sailing school students, so hopefully with this wild Provincial Regatta, another crop of new racers will have been inspired by the sport and will rant to their friends at GSS who didn't make it about how cool it was.

In the Opti championship fleet, Tom M from Newell Sailing Club finished first followed by Maren from CYC.  Third was a sailor from Glenmore Sailing Club, but without the posted results I can't recall his name or be sure of his club.  But the results are not as important as fostering a healthy future for our sport!

This is the picture posted on the CYA website for 2012 Sail East and Sail Central

 BUT WAIT!

After D5 Champs this weekend the season is not over, there is the Frostbite Regatta at Glenmore Sailing Club September 14-15, Thursday Night Racing continues through September, there is the Brass Monkey October 13th, and if you feel like travelling, there is Fall Dinghies September 22-23 at Royal Victoria Yacht Club and Pumpkin Bowl at West Vancouver Yacht Club probably the second or third week of October.

Sailing Update: What's next?

Two regattas have gone by since the last post and there are more to come, and very good ones. 

Firstly there was Sailwest at Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.  I have heard that there was good medium strong wind and Alexander Heinzman won handily, however I have not been able to find the results   online.  So if you have them, please comment on the blog and we will get them posted.

This past weekend was the D22 Championships at North Flathead Yacht Club in Montana with a solid 20 boat showing.  Alberta had a good representation with Ian H, Luke H, Nick H, Dave E, Richard Q, Liam Q and Myself, but we were not the only travellers, notably skilled Masters Suzie P and Jim C came all the way from California for this Regatta.  I squeaked out a victory passing Ian H at the end of the last leg of the last race to beat him by one point.  Ian H in turn was ahead of the Great Grand Master Jim C by only one point.  It was a very tight regatta, and extremely well hosted, it was very friendly, comfortable, fun... just excellent.  To read Mike G's writ-up, click here, for results, click here.

This coming weekend is Jimmy Buffet Night and CYC Club Championships.  I have not seen a Notice Of Race for it yet and unfortunately I will not be able to contend as I am teaching a clinic at Glenmore Sailing Club this weekend.  Who will be this year's club champion?

The following weekend  is Labour Day long weekend and the Provincial Championship is being held at Wabamun Sailing Club, so it should be stellar!  This is a good event to test your progress through the year, everyone should come.  Find the Notice of Race here.

Following Provincials is the District 5 Championship at Redberry Lake in Saskatchewan.  This is a short course regatta so 20 races are scheduled.  It is an excellent and unique venue.  I will post the Notice of Race when it becomes available.  Remember that this is the last regatta in the Dick Degner Grand Prix and that you need a Saskatchewan event in order to be scored.  So this should be well attended and very fun.  Being the District 5 Championships, the winner will also receive North American Laser Grand Prix points.

Lastly, notice that the Thursday Night Racing scores have been posted here.  Take a look at who you have to beat and by how much in the upcoming final races.

Happy Sailing!

Upwing Breeze and Waves

How many Laser Sailors does it take to put on a set of numbers?

The Saskatchewan Provincial Laser Championships went well last week with Dave E, CYC Junior Race Team coach Luke H and myself travelling out from CYC.  I edged out Isaac B in light winds by just one point and L-P, the defending Saskatchewan provincial champion came in third after leading on the first day.

For the Laser North American Championships at the Columbia Gorge Racing Association in Cascade Locks, Oragon, Alberta sent David C, Nick H, Braden B, Finn G, Ian H, and myself.  I finished in 17th in Full rig fleet and Ian H finished 32nd in Radial Gold fleet, the rest of the results are here.

Working backwards, we had the Prairie Winds Regatta just before NA's.  I took first, followed by Bill P, who had a very strong regatta, and Lewis O from Saskatchewan in third.  Since this was the Western Canadian Laser Championships, the masters scoring had Bill Plaxton ahead, followed by Doug B scoring a stunning 0 points in the last race (he was ahead by a leg).  Lewis ended in third in the WCLM Champs.  Find the rest of the results here.

Here is some footage from training at the Columbia Gorge before the 2012 North American Laser Championships that might help visualize some of the things that I talk about in sailing wind and waves:

Upcoming, we have the Canadian Master Laser Championships this weekend at Jericho Sailing Centre, followed by Sailwest the next week at RVanYC, and then the next week it is the District 22 Championships at Flathead Lake, Montana (now the PDF is available).  Each of those is linked to their respective Notices Of Race.

Happy sailing!
Ian

Here is the video from the 2012 Wabamun Open that we watched at the ASA debrief.  Nice wind and waves.  I was comfortably in the lead and Peter M came over to film me so I played around in the waves with some excessive steering for the camera.  My comments are included in the video.

Almost a month since the last update.  CYC Sailing School is underway with the new CANSail curriculum and so far feedback and retention are good.  Maura D has headed back to Victoria, we have had more great attendance at Tuesday Night Race Team with as many as 13 people on multiple occasions and a good fleet attending Thursday Night racing as well.  Each time we have hit the number 13 in Race Team attendance we have had a different group of people so if everyone shows up to the same practice, we have the potential for a very impressive group. 

Maura D, Finn G, Kelsey S and I travelled to RVanYC Waves on the weekend of the 23rd to 24th.  I finished 6th in laser class (tied for fifth with a Royal Vic athlete that I have been coaching in past years: Max G).  I won the last race which was a thrill finishing a couple of boatlengths in front of Al C,  that was my first bullet at a Waves Regatta.  Maura D finished fifth in the Radial Fleet earning a prize and Finn G put together a strong regatta in the demanding English Bay conditions.  Kelsey S was hired to coach RVicYC Opties and ended up as the most experienced coach on the course helping out with all aspects of the Opti course.  Good to see that Alberta is producing strong Coaches as well as strong athletes!

Last Weekend was the BC Laser Masters Championships on Nicola Lake.  I can't find results for it, but second hand I hear that it was very windy, Al C won again (he also won Waves), Thom S had a spectacular first day and would have had a great regatta if gremlins had not stolen his hull plug.  I believe that not having your hull plug is a right of passage of some sort.  Everyone seems to have a story about sailing without one.

This afternoon was the Commodore's Cup club championships, one single pursuit-style race with a complicated staggered start system designed so that all classes of boats should finish together and so the order of crossing the finish line is the order of results.  This is contrasted with the X-fleet style racing where all boats start together and their times are recorded and a calculation is required to figure out the results. 

In first place was Ian H sailing Laser.  He snagged the victory by a clever move on the last full upwind leg.  From the outset he said that he had promised himself not to sail within 50 metres of the shore.  When he saw Leslie and Steve R sailing shore-wards and myself following them, he recognized that we were all sailing the headed tack and so tacked towards the middle of the lake.  I had a respectable lead on Ian H and had foolishly discounted him.  I considered tacking to cover him, but my eyes were for the leading boat of Leslie and Steve.  They seemed to be sailing well until the shore effect becalmed them and we both got a big header.  I tacked and sailed away from shore on a lifted tack avoiding the worst of the lull and passing Steve and Leslie R.  But upon tacking, I saw that Ian H had stayed in better pressure and had drawn well ahead of me.  I spent the rest of the race chasing Ian H down, but he was sailing very well heading down in the puffs and up in the lulls on the reaches.  In the end Ian H won, I was second and Mike H was third, all three of us in Lasers.

I had an interesting equipment failure on the first leg of the Comodore's Cup race.  The block at the end of my boom came unriveted so that my mainsheet went from the mainsheet block to the middle boom block to the fairleed and then straight down to the traveller block where it ended.  This got rid of all of the mechanical advantage and so it was too difficult to hold the sheet in through the main sheet block.  The way that I jury rigged it was to sheet directly from the main block and make a lot of boom vang adjustments.  Sheeting from the boom meant no ratchet, but it also meant that I did not need to use my arm strength to pull the boom down, so it was easier.  From the boom block, I could sheet the boom in and out, but sheeting it in did not pull the boom down.  This meant that the sail stayed very powered up.  In order to get the boom down and simulate the normal upwind block to block setting, I pulled on a huge amount of boom vang.  Through a lot of sheeting and vang adjustment, I was able to keep my boatspeed competitive and I even wondered if the way it was rigged gave me an advantage on the tight reaches with my overly powered up sail.  The trouble came when I tried to go close hauled.  I kept on oversheeting past the back corner of the boat and stalling out or else footing off too far.  In the end I had raw hands from the lack of mechanical advantage and a new perspective on sail trim, decoupling vang tension from mainsheet trim.  So learn from my mistake and check the rivets on your boom!

Looking forward, we have a new regatta added to our schedule.  I have added it to the excel schedule embedded in the first Laser Salience Blog Post.  The embedded excel sheet now includes D22 Championships at Flathead Lake in Montana, US.  A very scenic and friendly place to sail, well worth the trip.  Here is a link to the North Flathead Lake Yacht Club.  There is a link to the NOR on the website but at the moment it is broken, however the PDF has been circulating widely on Laser mailing lists.  If you need it, ask me or most anyone else who has subscribed to email lists to forward it to you.

While on the topic of NORs, here is another link to the Newell Prairie Wind Regatta NOR.  Also I have been instructed to pass on the message that sailors should come regardless of whether you have been able to book a campsite.  They said that they will make it work.  CYC has prepared special T-shirts... but I won't say any more about that ;)  Another thing about Newell is that Team Sask will be attending.  It is the Dick Degner Grand Prix event that Saskatchewan has chosen to support and it is the Western Canadian Laser Masters Championship.

In order to reciprocate, I would encourage Alberta sailors to go to the Battlefords Sailing Club on Jackfish Lake July 28-29th, here is the NOR.  Or if that doesn't work, go to the Saskatchewan Short Course Championships at Saskatoon Sailing Club on Redberry Lake September 8-9th, 20 races, 10 per day.  Both of these regattas are part of the Dick Degner Grand Prix and you need a Saskatchewan regatta to be scored in this D5 Championship series.

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of the carnage left by the storm that wrecked our middle dock in early June.  The first one shows a very uncommon phenomenon: the prairie tideline!

The second one tells the tragic tale of a shipwrecked Lego man who was found apparently reaching desperately for land when he met his cruel fate below the tideline.  May he rest in peace.

This weekend was an eventful one with both the Edmonton Yacht Club Intercity Regatta and the CYC Commodore's Cup.  Up at EYC we had a tight regatta with a lot of interesting situations coming out on the race course and the score sheet.  The regatta was not heavily attended, but the numbers were more than made up for by the close competition, the excellent EYC hospitality, food, festivity and weather.

On the first day it was 3-8 knots with big and at times ominous cumulus clouds passing by and affecting the wind.  Generally, when there is a big thunderhead or big thick cloud, there will be a persistent shift towards it.  Also, generally, when there are a lot of small cumulus clouds the wind will oscillate more or less randomly.  However this weekend, the cumulus clouds were quite big and it seemed that this caused a persistent shift in one direction and then that would quit and it would start to oscillate again.  Then a persistent shift would start again (sometimes in the opposite direction) but soon the wind would be back to shifting somewhere around it's mean direction.  The problem with this is that in an oscillating breeze you want to tack on the headers whereas in a persistent breeze, you want to take the headers for a while and then tack later to sail on an inside radius.  So when the header came, it was not clear which strategy to use.  Quick reactions, informed hunches, and managing the fleet where essential.  To make things more interesting in the Full Rig Fleet, Maura D and Finn G put on standard rigs to play in the larger fleet.  Maura started off by showing the Full Rig sailors that Radial sailors are the real deal by winning the first two races.

Saturday AM
               R1  R2  Total
Maura D   1   1      2
Ian H        5   2      7
Ian E        2   5     7
Isaac B     4   3     7


Given the interesting three-way tie for second, lets look at how tie breaking works. 

Ties are broken based on who has the most first place finishes.  After the morning that would be Maura, but she was not tied, she is well ahead of the pack.  Since Ian H, Ian E and Isaac B all have the same number of points we look as who has the most first place finishes, the most second place finishes, thirds and so on until the tie is broken.  That would put Isaac in 4th, but does not separate Ian H and Ian E.  They both have the same number of
                     1st place finishes,    2nds,    3rds,      4ths,      5ths,    etc.
respectively: none,                        one,      none,     none,     one,    none.

So we move on to the next tie breaker: who beat who in the last race.  At lunch, that was Ian H's 2nd beating Ian E's 5th.  Even though Isaac B beat Ian E in the last race, Ian E won the first tie breaker and that put him in second place.  The placing here isn't important other than to show how close the competition was, I am trying to draw attention to how the scoring works rather than who placed where, when.

Another less known point about finishing is that if a race committee is unable to tell which of two or more boats finishes ahead, they can tally up the points from the positions that finished simultaneously and divide them by the number of boats that were tied.  For example if 3rd and 4th had tied they would each receive 3.5 points.  If  20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd all came across the finish line at the exact same time, they would all receive 21.5 points.  Of course this is all very rare and unlikely, but it also tends to come up in come up in x-class fleets when two competitors in different boats end up with the same adjusted time in a race.  More often in one design class, finish recorders are encouraged to take their best guess at which boat finished first based on a consistent sighting across the finish line.

For a more official explanation of these tying riles, take a look at how the Racing Rules of Sailing explains it in Appendix A

 The only way that there could be any remaining ties, mentioned in A8.2 is if rule A7 comes into play:

... Back to the tight racing at EYC...

At the end of Saturday the close results looked like this:

              R1 R2 R3 R4   Total    If we already had a drop (actually awarded on race 5)
Ian E       2  5    2   2        11               6
Bill P      3  8     1   1       13               5
Ian H       5  2    3   4       14               9
Isaac B    4  3    4   3       14             10
Maura D  1  1    6   9       17              8


Six points separated the top five people and Bill P was leading the pack with the anticipated drop.


On Sunday it blew around 15 to 20 knots and Bill P had an equipment failure which didn't help his motivation and he headed in to let the rest of the fleet fight it out in the standings.  The radial sailors stayed in Full Rig and were in for a ride.  The waves were pretty big, sharp and moving significantly slower than downwind laser boat speed.  As Peter McD pointed out at the Wabamun Open, you needed to sail around the big waves and find the flat spots.  Steep waves could give you a good acceleration but unless you had an exit strategy there was often the risk of burying your bow and submarining.  To make matters worse, the wind and waves increased as you got further downwind, so when most sailors arrived at the leeward mark on Starboard tack without having braved the gybe and finally went for it, it was the worst time to execute the gybe.  The steep troughs and strongest wind on the course caused a few yard sale type scenes with numerous boats capsized around the leeward mark as a large puff hit.  A couple sailors even executed "chicken gybes" tacking instead of risking the big gybe.

Nick H and myself put our size to good use and climbed the standings in the heavy wind among a fleet of sailors who were either radial sized or had headed for shore rather than struggle with the demanding conditions.

At the end of the regatta the top of the standings went as follows:

               R1   R2  R3  R4  R5  R6  R7   Total   Net
Ian E        2    [5]   2    2     1    1     1       14        9
Isaac B    [4]   3    4     3    4     3     3       24      20
Maura D   1    1    6    [9]   3    4      6       30      21
Nick H      not sure            2     2     2       30      22
Ian H        [5]  2    3    4     5     5     4       30      23

Even after seven races it was extremely close from second to fifth and Maura D and Isaac B demonstrated that there is a lot more to heavy wind than being big.  Their sails were as flat as possible and they were often sheeting out two feet from the back corner of the boat in the puffs managing to keep up speed through the chop without stalling out.  Maybe we can have Maura explain how she keeps up her boat speed when she is tremendously overpowered this evening at the Tuesday Night Race Team practice.

One last interesting point about the results is that before the drop, Maura D, Nick H and Ian H all had even scores at 30 points, which would indicate that the three of them were ranked from least consistent to most consistent in the final standings.  At first, this would seem to be a counter intuitive scoring system.  Why then do we have drops if it rewards inconsistency?  But as sailors we already know the answer.  Anything can happen on the race course.  Knowing we have a drop lets us feel more comfortable with taking big risks and so it makes the game more exciting and the competitors more daring.  Maura D was regularly fighting tooth and nail, this regatta, for the coveted (risky) race committee position and she often won it or came out in a good position.  However in Race 4, she got pushed over the line and got so tangled with other boats and the committee boat that it was many seconds before she could even turn around to head back across the start line let alone start catching the fleet.  But drop races let us take this as a calculated risk.  If we are free to take risks in this unpredictable sport of ours, overall, the quality of racing improves when these risks pay-off.

In the radial fleet at EYC Garret T and Hanny B had a good battle for first with Hanny B coming out on top.  The radials started with the Full Rig fleet and got some good practice in, often climbing high up the fleet.

Mike L also came out to EYC in his International Canoe and had a blast.

In other news, we worked on upwind and downwind lanes last Tuesday Night Race Team and had a gorgeous and well-attended day of Thursday Night Racing.  Sunday was the Commodores Cup, but it was blown out!  The race was not held.  I heard that Thom S took out his radial and blasted back and forth and that the wind was up around 30 knots.  Yikes!

The next regattas coming up are the GSC Driftwood Regatta and there are plans in the works for one trailer to RVanYC's Waves Regatta on the same weekend of the 23rd and 24th.

I hope too see lots of you out this evening for Tuesday Night Training and Thursday for racing.
Ian

The 2012 Wabamun Open happened this weekend and it was a regatta to remember.  The typical race went as follows:

-Sun
-Chilly breeze 13-16 knots which felt like 15-20 knots
-3 ft of challenging and irregular chop which felt like 5 foot chop
-45minute to 1 hour and 10 minute races ... where is the windward mark?  Too far upwind to see with the naked eye!
-Oscillating wind
-Punctual race committee
-Good food and wonderful volunteers

The first race was the longest race and it set the tone for tired legs, arms and core muscles.  This regatta reminded the competitors how incredibly physically demanding our sport is.  Everyone who braved it and went out on the water was exhausted but loving the champagne sailing conditions.  Huge long screaming reaches and epic knuckle-biting battles as we tried to take advantagr og the big waves upwind and down (and sometimes the waves took advantage of us).  Wabamun Sailing Club puts on a world class regatta.  On the registration form there is even a spot for you to put your ISAF number.  If Ben Ainslie came to the Wabamun Open he would put GBRCA1, to which I have hyperlinked his ISAF Biog page.  Mike Leigh would put CANML1.  Long courses, great race management and an excellent venue.  Good job WSC.  I am very much looking forward to 2012 provincials at WSC September 1-3.  Here are some pictures of past WSC events...

Wabamun Open 2005

Ian S

Ian E, the background picture to this blog

Ian H and Dave E.  CN Rail and Glenmore Sailboats have both used this picture in advertisements.

Ian E... uh oh!  This is why you should turn onto a hotter reach or further by the lee as soon as you pick up speed down a wave!!

Back at the 2012 Wabamun Open (link to the results page here), in the Laser Full Rig fleet Isaac B was unable to repeat his victory at Icebreaker due to his disadvantage in weight.  He battled valiantly and beat me to a couple marks.  He finishing ahead of Nick H and Dave C in some races, but in the end he finished in fourth place.  The fight for second was hotly contested by Nick and Dave, but finally settled it in the last race with Dave C in second and Nick H in third place overall.  I had good battles with each of Isaac, Nick and Dave, but in each race I ended up ahead and won the regatta.

In the Radial Fleet, Hanny B was consistent in third, Finn G had a strong showing for second place, catching Maura at least twice (there was a disagreement between the recorded results and those remembered by Finn and Maura in Race 6), and Maura came out ahead to win the regatta. 

There was also a Fireball Fleet, and we were introduced to the saying "It is NOT a Francis wind out there" coined by International Judge Steve T at a Fireball World Championships that Hamish F and Francis F attended.  This saying means that it is WINDY.

There was an interesting x-fleet with among other boats, a formula 16 catamaran and some 505s.  There was a strong Opti fleet there with more than half the fleet sailing almost all 14 of their races in spite of the demanding conditions!  Nice work everyone!

Thanks to ASA's coaching staff for supporting the regatta for free!  They helped with the Opties and supporting fleets on the big course as well.  Peter M got some great footage of the Lasers and Radials and ran a great video debrief Saturday Night.  If I can get ahold of some of the footage I would lake to do another blog video with it soon.

Don't miss today's Tuesday Night Race Team practice and make plans to come out to the EYC Intercity Regatta next week.

Happy Training (and cross training... nobody, myself included, was fit enough for the 2012 Wabamun Open Regatta lets get running and hitting the gym.  With their permission, I will try to post Erin F's and Hannah M's workout for some inspiration)

Ian

Icebreaker has come and gone and it was an excellent regatta, well attended, with great social activities and catering and wild wind directions that kept competitors on their toes.  A west wind made for a shifty off-shore breeze the cats paw type puffs that would land with baffling irregularity mixing up the placings and capsizing whoever was unprepared.  Krzysztof M confirmed everyone's suspicions when he proclaimed that the shifts were impossible to predict.  Reacting quickly to surprises, changing gears and ability to recover from bad situations were the order of the day, making strong mental game of focus and emotional control invaluable. 

In the Full Rig fleet, Ian H started strong with a bullet in the first race, but at lunch Simon S was in the lead.  By the end of the first day, I had taken the lead on a tie breaker with Issac B.  In the Radial fleet Maura D and Leslie R were in a fierce battle for first with Leslie R ending up in the lead at the end of the day by one point.

That evening there was a very nice catering job, tasty dinner and a great atmosphere at the club with wine tasting, a Bocce Ball tournament, slack lining and a music trivia/dance contest.  The Bocce Ball tournament had as a prize free entrance into next year's Icebreaker regatta.  Phil P put his landscaping expertise to good use and with a long lob backspin throw, he was unstoppable, running away with the final game leaving me scoreless.  In the Music contest mediocre trivia knowledge was made up for by fancy dance moves as the DJs pushed sailors to hit the dance floor with style.

Icebreaker Bocce Ball Champion Phil P looking in good position at the 2010 Laser Midwinters West Regatta

Sunday brought similar conditions with slightly more wind in the morning, but the wind diminished and became even less stable as the day went on.  Issac B showed impressive consistency with finishes of 1, 1, 3 to take over the lead and win the regatta by seven points.  Issac B was unable to attend awards because of his long drive back up to Fort McMurrey.  He said that his drive down took 8 and a half hours!  Thanks for coming down!  I wasn't able to seriously challenge Isaac B on Sunday, ending up in second place after getting stuck in a hole in the second race and then spinning as I joined the many people who fowled starboard tackers at the windward mark this regatta.  Krzysztof M looked to be in great shape, Sunday, with a second in the first race of the day and a bullet in the last race, but he too had a rough second race and having already used up his drop race, he ended up one point shy of third place.  Nick H and Simon S had strong showings on Sunday and both ended up a point ahead of Krzysztof M, tying for third place.  Simon S won the tie breaker and took the bronze.

There was other action in the full-rig fleet, however.  In Sunday's second race, Dave E was having his best race of the regatta, speeding downwind on the second last leg of the race, when a puff caught him at the apex of his turn to leeward, at about the position shown in the thumbnail of the Capsize Recovery video in the last blog post.  His leg was caught under the hiking strap as the boat accelerated into a death roll and Dave E was caught hard on his rib by the gunwale or the edge of the cockpit as he stretched upward to save from dumping.  Ian H, following close behind, saw the expression of pain on Dave E's face and asked if he was okay.  Dave E immediately knew that the overly painful impact was not okay and Ian H gave up his position near the front of the pack to see to Dave E's safety.  In the end, at the hospital in Strathmore, an x-ray showed that Dave E had a cracked rib.  In the regatta, Ian H was given redress under Rule 1.1 and 62.1 (c) and received a score of 4 points, his position when he stopped racing to help.

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At the awards, Ian H was also recognized for his sportsmanship.  Thanks Ian H for being there when needed and for setting a great example of safety and sportsmanship.

In the radial fleet, Maura D had a very strong day and finished the regatta with a good lead.  Finn G also had a strong day and snuck past Leslie R by one point for second place, leaving the Masters World Champion in third.

There were also several other fleets, but I have already gone on long enough and this blog is focusing on the Laser fleet, but thanks to all who came out, many opties, young sailors, older sailors, multi-hull, doublehanded and larger crews as well as a strong showing of, paraolympic and mobility classes.

It was an exciting and eventful regatta with great energy that will poor over into CYC's season and the rest of the regatta season.  Upcoming events include:

WSC Open regatta          June 2nd, 3rd  (the second Albertan Dick Degner Grand Prix event)
EYC Intercity Regatta    June 9th, 10th
GSC Driftwood Regatta June 16th, 17th

See the calendar in the first blog post below for more detail.

I would like to gauge interest in a Waterton Wind Clinic, SALSA style.  One date suggested is July 7th and 8th, the weekend before Newell.  Contact me!

Regatta season has started!
Ian

Here is a video to inspire you to be patient and never give up as the boat goes over.  Steer with the heel of your boat and get your weight on the inside of the turn... or float your weight in the water!

Last Night's Thursday Night Racing was an interesting series of weather conditions as a big rain cloud approached with strong wind, passed with rain and continued on its way leaving us with light wind.  I came out ahead in the races tonight choosing the pin and the left side of the course for the most part.  The oscillations were wild but it seemed to me that the median was coming out of the left.  Mike H joined us tonight and came in second until the cold got the better of him.  Mike W took his place in the last race as the wind lightened.

Don't miss CYC's Icebreaker Regatta this weekend, the second of the Dick Degner Grand Prix Series.  The Notice of Race is posted here, come out tonight (Friday May 25th) for registration from 7pm to 9pm.  Otherwise registration is 8am to 9am Saturday morning, May 26th.  But I would recommend coming out tonight.  We are expecting at least two excellent sailors to be coming out this evening after long absences (Krzysztof M, Dave B...) and they will be looking for training partners to help knock off the rust.  I'll be out, join us!  Also I have heard rumours of aperitifs and wine. 

In other news, the CYC Laser Race Team has managed to get a discount on a monthly gym memberships to the gym at the Chestermere Rec Centre.  So if you can build in a workout to your trips to Chestermere Lake or if you live nearbyse enough, join up!

Speaking of fitness, plans are being made for Laser North American Championships at the Columbia Gorge Racing Association in Cascade Locks, Oregon.  Here is a link to the Notice of Race.  There are also some cool camps and events leading up to it, but if you want to leave the day before and get back the day after, I currently have carpool spots.  Royal Victoria Yacht Club has rented a house, which I expect will fill up quickly.  I would recommend this as an event to gear your fitness training towards because it is a warm and windy venue.  But your upwind grinds are well rewarded by long down wind blasts because the Hood River flows Up Wind! 

Having plugged the North American Champs, I will remind you of Newel's Prairie Wind Regatta the weekend before with a training day on Friday.  Lake Newel is one of Alberta's best sailing venues and the club is situated in a Provincial Park so book your campsite early.  This is the Western Canadian Laser Masters Championship and a regatta of the Dick Degner D5 Series.  Find the Notice of Race here.

I know of at least one trailer leaving straight from Newel to CGRA North Americans if you are looking for the full deal.

See you on the water this weekend for the Icebreaker  Windfinder is currently predicting sun and 7 knots for Saturday.  15 degrees and 6 knots for Sunday.
Ian

Light Wind Laser Overhand Gybes

The gybing video is uploaded and ready for viewing at last!

Thursday night we had about 16 boats out for three races in a nice light, shifty South wind.  Robin S. stepped up and won the first race after no practice in the boat for over a year, go figure.  I won the second race squeaking past a very fast Mike W. on the last upwind leg.  In the last race my father Dave E was first across the line to showing Robin that his training and time on the water actually do improve results.

A right-biased line with shifts coming more often than not from the right made for a competitive (pushy) start line.  So competitive, in fact, that in the last race the race committee put up the X Flag (individual recall flag) for the entire fleet except for two boats.  When the individual recall flag is up on a normal P Flag start, it indicates that at least one boat was On Course Side (OCS).  So everyone has to guess whether they were the ones who were over and decide whether they should go back and start again.  If the race committee is not sure who was over the line and who was clear, they can put up the First Substitute Flag (general recall flag) to indicate that there has been an error in the starting procedure and the starting sequence can be restarted.  If, however the race committee is certain that all boats are OCS at the start, they can put up the X Flag and penalize every boat that does not come back to restart.

(Check out rules 26, 29.1 and 29.2 in The Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012, or download it from ISAF here.)

In Race 3 all but two boats were OCS, so those boats and the boats that went back to restart would be the only boats to be scored with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.  The rest would be left with fleet scores.  I say 'would be' because when we came in I found out from the race officers that the first of the Thursday Night Twilight series will not be counted towards the series.  They are also sending a strong message by counting nearly everyone OCS instead of letting us off with a general recall.

Join us next Thursday for the first Thursday Night Racing that will count for points in the series!
Also come out for this weekend's Saturday and Sunday Training Camp and of course Tuesday Night Race Team so that you are primed and excited for the upcoming Icebreaker Regatta.

Ian

Dave Tulk on a screaming broad reach after a squall hit during his lesson.

We had an excellent Tuesday Night Race Team Practice with Maura Dewey joining us for the first time this season to share her expertise and keep a good coach-to-athlete ratio as our group grows.  On the first Tuesday we had 9 lasers show up, the second Tuesday we had 10 Lasers and this past Tuesday we had 13 and we were missing some regulars!

I missed my goal of getting the blog published before Tuesday practice, because of a series of problems with uploading this week's YouTube video.  It was not relevant to this week's theme of down-speed boat handling skills, but it was coming in reply to requests for a video similar to the tacking video that provides a skill breakdown for gybing.  After another failed attempt at uploading, it will have to come later as a separate blog post.

Today, Thursday, May 17th, we have the first Thursday Night Racing.  Maura and I will both be racing so come out and challenge the coaches!

This weekend May 19th and 20th is the third and final May Training Weekend before the Icebreaker starts off Alberta's Regatta season.  Once again the Saturday coaching roster will be John R, Krsysztof M and Ian E and Sunday Krsysztof and myself will be doing the coaching.

In Saskatchewan this weekend, the Dick Degner Grand Prix starts off with the exciting Wascana Short Course on Wascana Lake, directly outside of the Legislature in Regina.  In the past, I have been to Wascana Short Course  and there was good wind and an audience of park bench sitters and Saturday walkers with "wow sailing is cool" expressions on their faces.  The next day there was an article about the regatta in the Regina Newspaper.  So if you aren't soaking up the training time on Chestermere, you had better be racking up Dick Degner Grand Prix points in Regina.

I hope I see you on the water!
Ian

Thanks to Krsysztof for coming down from Edmonton and coaching this weekend.  We had a wide variety of conditions and got a lot of good boat handling work done.  Look forward to John R. coming out to coach Saturday of next weekend!!

I have two things to share with you today, the first is a movie that I made about the rules behind Tacking, specifically Rule 13 and Rule 20.  The Racing Rules of Sailing are available for free in PDF from on the ISAF website.  If you want the CYA prescriptions, you need to buy one of those little coiled red and blue books.

I would recommend picking up an illustrated book that spells out the Racing Rules of Sailing and they should be cheaper because we are right at the end of a quadrennial so the rules are due for an update.  Reading these books is a good way to get a good feeling for what the rules are in all sorts of situations, although they do not always explain how the RRS leads to this knowledge.  My intent with this video is go get right down to the RRS to see exactly why the rules mean what they do.  As a result this movie can be a bit wordy and technical at times, so again, bring your questions to practice and challenge yourself to take a deeper look at how the RRS work.  Once you start to understand why the rules work the way they do and you can refer to the rule book to clarify technical rule questions instead of having to ask a judge or a coach, it is incredibly empowering and it will improve your sailing because of your increased confidence.

The theme of Tuesday's Race Team Practice will be Mark Rounding, but I didn't have access to enough good mark rounding footage to make another detailed skill breakdown like I did with Tacking, so I thought that I would use this week's movie to finish up Tacking.




Correction:

I have so far found one problem with the movie, please comment if you find any others.  I mentioned that a continuing obstruction is the same thing as an obstruction that can only be passed on one side.  It is possible that a continuing obstruction could only be passed on one side, but that does not make the statement true.  Especially since for example the Sailing Instructions might specify that a big government buoy must be passed on a certain side.  That buoy could be an obstruction but is not a continuing obstruction.

The second thing that I wanted to share was a fitness routine that has trickled down through Royal Victoria Yacht Club from their 470 National Team Athletes.  I am not advocating that we all stop out routines and try this one, but I was asked to post it and if it motivates you to start working out, then go for it!  This document was written for people who already understand the workout and the nick names for the exercises involved, so talk to me if you would like it explained.

In future I will try to get these blogs published before Tuesday Night Race Team!  I am still working out the kinks of video editing as you will see in my first production, but I think that there is plenty of good content in this, the first video for the CYC Laser Race Team.  The content is quite advanced, so don't feel bad if not everything is accessible.  Please bring your questions to practice.  My intent was to broadcast the details that I would never be able to get to in a briefing of debrief of a reasonable length and to and draw a picture of a refined skill that we will work towards.

Enjoy!  Please share your comments, record questions or insights in your LOG BOOK to share at the next Race Team event.


Housekeeping:

• One use of this blog could be to post comments about which day you will be sailing in a given week so that we can coordinate our water sessions.

• Video-supported private lessons are available, talk to me for details. 

• Thursday Night Racing has not yet started this week, but I will start the rumour that there will be a few people out training independently this Thursday none the less.  Post your intent to sail!

• How is your dry-land training going?  What are your plans to move forward on cardio, core, strength and flexibility?  I am due for another workout.  If you need another reason to stay fit and eat healthily, make Race Team that reason and peer pressure other Race Team Members to partake.

I am creating this blog primarily for the 2012 season of the Calgary Yacht Club's Laser Racing Team.

To the right is a picture of CYC's brand spankin' new clubhouse, which is an exceptional venue with lots of space and lots of potential. We will put it to great use this season for certain.

At the Laser Night at the CYC this past Friday I passed around a season schedule of regattas and training.  The schedule below is an updated version to include THIS TUESDAY, MAY 1st as the first Tuesday Night Race Team and to include the Masters Canadian Laser Championships at Jericho Sailing Centre in Vancouver.  This is still a working document, so if you have input about the schedule priorities or I am missing events, please let me know.  Apparently Google will check in every five minutes (overkill?) to see if I have updated the document that it is based upon.


So if you are excited about Laser sailing this year and you want a very qualified coach with Laser expertise to help you reach your next level, make sure to join the CYC Laser Race Team and consider signing up for (very) reasonably priced private or small group lessons.

Also, please help spread the word about this because I keep finding people who are interested but don't know about the CYC Laser Race Team.

The sky is the limit for fun training opportunities!
Waterton camp, anyone?