Nathan - Helm
Nat - Pit/Tactics
Scott - Foredeck
Bob - Trim 1
Chris - Trim 2
__________________________________
Overall a beautiful sunny, clear and warm december day. We were so lucky to be on the water.
__________________________________
Short notes:
Light air, light current. We played current mainly as the breeze was light but sustained. We went out for the long tack and stayed there as long as possible, minimizing tacks on the upwind and sailing our polars straight to the leeward mark on the way down.
We had a very bad start, fouling two boats and causing us to do our penalty turns. When we were done with our penalty, there was only one boat behind us.
There were some major confusion at the windward mark...(eg identifying the mark! confused a bunch of boats...so we lost some time there sorthing things out)
We then had very good boat speed both upwind and downwind and we picked up half of the fleet.We may have been able to catch up one more boat right on the line. In fact probably more. Looking at the results, some 7 boats were within a minute of each other (and us!) at the finish. So solving our errors could place us in the top 3...
All in all, a good race and a pretty decent performance. I have to admit that I don't race to win just for the sake of winning. If I win because everyone else is awful and I am bad, I would derive no pleasure whatever in it. I race to sail well and better all the time. In this case, I think that we sailed well, and the fact that we caught up with half the fleet despite a really poor start makes me really happy
- and I think that we have in ourselves to sail much better. This slow tacking issue is nagging me...
What we did well:
- PERFECT douses - we held our kite longer than anybody else. Our second leeward mark rounding was text book perfection. A thing of beauty. Scott is the main architect of this although of course it takes the whole team to make it happen. Things were clean and fast and helped gain precious seconds. Ultimately the difference between two boats on the line is down to seconds...so every one of them counts.
- We discussed tactics before the start of the race based on the expected conditions + crew situation (to play to our strength° - when a new situation develop we checked it against our 'plan' and made adjustment as necessary. This is a lot easier than having to rethink the entire plan. So it is going in with a strategy and making tactical adjustments only. Much easier mentally thus freeing up a lot of mental cycles to look around and observe the developments
- Clear and decisive tactical calls (the last one near the finish may have been wrong, hard to tell, the line was not square and we tacked to try to cut it before the next boat up but there was a clear call, a clear driver response and a clear followup action)
- Boat speed - once we got tuned up we were going really really well.
What we can do better:
- Super slow tacks. This was not the regular crew so it is harder. The solution to this is practice practice practice and try with moves that work for the team. Things should just be on autopilot for any kind of wind conditions and head sail combination. We should be able to tack much faster. The skillset of the people on board can make this totally possible. We just need to work better together and individually to make it happen. and practice makes perfect.
- Nat should do her one job and her one job only
- Slow getting up to speed and getting to optimal point after start, after tacks or after sail changes
- we should have adjusted the car positions before the start (not enough time? oversight?)
- crew work for faster tacks
- trim/driving for faster tuneup post maneuvres to get the boat up to speed
- equipment (easier to adjust outhaul for instance)
No comments:
Post a Comment