Please review and distribute to your teams.
Here are my notes from the SMU clinic. It was a small event with just SMU, Baylor, and some of the Dallas V15 fleet in attendance. A vast majority of the sailors were new or inexperienced racers so these comments are non specific and can apply to everyone. Thanks to Kyle and Anderson and CSC for setting things up, Rachel for running races, and Lauren for getting in a boat with me for a little while. Everyone be safe and have fun in Galveston this weekend. Sincerely, Blake Billman SEISA Graduate Director Starts: - We did the short line for 2 reasons; To force interaction between the boats/make you more comfortable starting in a pack, and to keep people form being complacent on the line. - Basically there was 1 start pattern for everyone. Sit out to the right side of the line and then sail in at some time and either get there by the gun, be late, or be early and just stop and sit there until the gun. This is totally wrong except for some specific situations. You have very little control of your destiny if you attempt to start this way. It's also lazy. Try coming in on port below the line and tacking up into a hole below someone (this is why sitting on starboard is bad). - Starting technique needs to be drastically improved (which can only be achieved through practice). For your own team practices I would only run about 1 race for every 5 or 10 starts. In college sailing starts are almost everything (as in most sports) if you cant get off the line, your chances of doing well decrease dramatically. - Make sure your starting lines are square to the wind or a little pin favored (pin closer to the weather mark by a few feet. This encourages everyone to spread out. - Always use the standard college 3 min sequence, never shorten it. This improves your mental timing so you become less reliant on your watch (even though you should always have it). - When starting short course college races it is better to just get off the line with some speed. Where you are on the line matters less (the only exception is a significant wind shift or puff of wind). Only after you are proficient at getting off the line well (only 1 bad start in 20) can you begin to refine which area of the line you want. This applies at regattas of all levels, if you can do 1 in 20 in practice but not in a regular SESIA event, then work on where on the line you want to be in practice, just get off the line in the SEISA event. - Don't say "I want to start here". Only 1 boat will win the boat or the pin end, but getting off the line with speed in that third of the line is just as good. Winning either end of a starting line is a very low percentage move in a competitive fleet. - In pre-start use all of the line to maneuver and find the best hole - Don't get too far out to either side or downwind from the line (4 boat lengths is max). - Crews and skippers should have a watch and keep track of how much time they have left, any cheap $20 timex works. - You should have some idea of what hole you want to be in and who you want to don't want to start next to. (Start next to people who suck. Don't start next to someone who is better than you, why pick a fight you will loose?) - Think about how long it takes your boat to accelerate in those conditions. For a 420 at the clinic it would take about 12-15 seconds to go from stop to full speed, 8-10 if you're really good. The least a 420 will ever take is 7. - It is better to accelerate on a reach than close hauled, you will have better handling and your sails are more efficient. - Use your weight and sails to head up at the start. Just jamming the tiller over slows you down, smoothly heeling the boat to leeward and trimming in the main as you flatten it again and head up is much much faster. You should not trim in the jib when you pull in the main, it should follow a half second later. The main and jib are like dance partners, the jib always follows what the main is doing. - The first 2 minutes of the race are where you can make the biggest gains and get into a controlling position. Concentrate most at this time. - Don't ever sit in bad air after the start, tack out immediately, just don't foul anyone doing it. Rigging: - If you going to race your boats need to be rigged properly. I know this is difficult for most teams, but its critical for having a good team. - Boat care usually suffers for 2 reasons, money and know how. Taking the time to care for your boats will save money in the long run. Also, you need to budget and plan for projects. - Know how: this is the big one, everyone needs to know how to rig and take care of every boat... This is a huge deal and very very hard to do. Its tough to train people, because teaching people rigging and boat care is tedious and boring. The other thing is if you have never been in a properly rigged boat before, you don't know what your missing and how much speed your giving up. - Correct rigging is 5 things; Cleanliness, ropes, steering, sails, rig. - Cleanliness) your boats need to be clean, inside and out. All the ropes and blocks need to be clean. Everything should be taped (white 3m electrical tape), pins shackles, etc... If your boat is clean, things that are broken or out of place stand out. - Ropes) all the lines on the boat need to be run correctly, thought the correct blocks, with the correct rope, of the correct length, with no stuff you don't need. You cant sail well if you cant adjust your sails easily. - Steering, the tiller/rudder/extension/center board should all move smoothly with no play. Steering should be exact with no friction of movement so you can feel how the boat is sailing. - Sails, sails should cared for very carefully, rolled well, never put up wet, never drug or thrown around. There is a right and wrong way to raise them on your boat (using the correct knots, look at what happened to Lauren and I at the clinic). - Correct rig tension is critical also being able to adjust the rig on the water is just as important and should be practiced. - If you don't know how to properly rig a boat, ask, now. Its easy and will make a world of difference in your sailing. Racing: - We didn't do too much of this at the clinic, but in general I was happy with how everyone looked, especially downwind. - The biggest problems were proper driving technique (hold the tiller and main sheet properly), weight placement for skipper and crew, and sailing in bad air. - We didn't really work on roll tacks or mark roundings, both were pretty ugly. - Pointing needs to be approved, this is 2 fold; proper rigging will help, but skipper concentration makes a difference also. If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to contact me. _________________________________________________ seisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=seisa
