Lessons learned from Midwinters

From Scott, our crew master (edited)

Note from Nat: the good news is most of these mistakes can be avoided and it is absolutely within our reach to fix them - and sail the boat and the team to their full potential.

Another great weather day on the bay, and a disappointing result for Elise (see below)

Mistakes have either big consequences or little ones. There's a natural order in the fleet.  A boat like Witchy Woman is just plain fast.  Great boat with experienced crew and a really good skipper. Other boats beat or lose to the boats near their potential based on mistakes, either theirs or yours.

The Cost of Mistakes

A blown tack can cost three to five boat lengths. Seven or eight of them in a race cost three to five positions. A blown douse costs three to ten boat lengths and potentially several positions at a mark.

Start

Elise's starts have routinely been poor to disastrous at the midwinters. A poor start means that the boat starts behind right off the bat, has bad air behind everyone else so is slow and can't point, strategic plans may go out the window because what the boat does is now more dictated by other boats.

Nat adds: in other words, bad starts are a high cost mistake. Mediocre starts are not as bad. Good starts are awesome. If there is a high risk to getting a bad start by attempting to get a great start, it might be better to have consistent OK starts with a very low risk of mess up. Over time, it should yield greater results. Consistency usually pays off - averaging out fewer mistakes instead of big highs and big lows.

Tactics

Tactics is another area where boats can win big or lose big. Starts and tactics are the areas where you really need to think about risk vs reward.  When we're behind we are also forced to make riskier tactical calls. I think that overall Elise's tactics have been better than average.  We've made some good calls and some bad ones. Yesterday we went too far out to the right on the first beat and apparently lost because we got into the flood. On the last beat to the finish Nathan questioned not covering the boat behind us. We had them by enough not to worry about them and wanted to go to the middle for more current relief and maybe get closer to Wetsu. I think we did put some space between us and the boat behind and gain a bit on Wetsu, but obviously not enough.

Tacks and Gybes

In general our tacks have gotten better.  Our pointing issues also seems to be better to some degree, though I still think the #1 looks funny and we will see what the North guy says. Our gybes were better, though because of the wind yesterday our downwind didn't give us much room for tactics or need for gybes. One of the bad things about Berkeley Circle courses.

Communication

Communication continues to be an issue on the boat.

• The start was apparently a combination of a medium to high risk move combined with a communication failure.
• My perception was that when we were going downwind on the second run behind Wetsu that we wanted to stay higher and maybe faster in hopes of passing them. But it seemed like we didn't commit to that.  We would go a bit higher for a while then go lower and follow them. I could be wrong, but it seemed like that was a lack of commitment and communication thing between Nat and Nathan.

Trimming

When a trimmer releases a line, whether it's during a tack or a douse, they are responsible for not just letting go of it and getting it off the winch, whey are responsible for making sure that it actually runs free.  Grab it and feed it forward, see if it gets hung up and free it, whatever it takes. A stuck line results in a blown tack or douse.  As a trimmer do you understand the difference of what line needs to be blown and run free if we're doing a weather or a leeward douse?

Priorities

As Nat was saying, think about priorities. In each moment be thinking about what you can do to make the boat faster.  Is your weight where it most needs to be at that moment?  Is the sail trim right or is there something I can do to make it better?  Can I get on the rail and then load the winch rather than doing it while standing in the cockpit while the boat is heeled over too far?.  Can I hike a bit harder to make up for the person who is on the low side, or not get off the rail so fast before the boat is actually changing direction during a tack?  Do I know exactly where I'm going to put my feet during the next maneuver?  Am I aware of what lines need to be free so I don't step or sit on them?  Did I remember to pull the winch handle out of the winch when I know we don't need it? Did I remember to put it on where it will next be needed?  Is the foreguy off and the twings on (guy) or off (sheet) as necessary for the next set?  If we are setting the pole is the guy free to run so the pole can go out easily without the foredeck having to call for that?

Much of that doesn't need any talk at all.  We know what has to happen, and everything should have a specific person responsible for making it happen.

Note from Nat: we should be clear on our area of responsibility and just make it happen, and always be thinking ahead for the next maneuvres or need so we can anticipate, be ahead of things, not in catch up mode.

If we do something differently, or if we think the others won't understand our doing, then over communicate. It is better to over communicate something that sounds obvious than risk blowing a maneuver by making assumptions that turn out not to be right.

SAIL #	SKIPPER	BOAT NAME	BOAT MODEL	RATING	FINISH	ELAPSED	CORRECTED	PTS.	COMMENTS	YC
28137	Zachery Anderson	Motorcycle Irene	Ex 27	129	14:27:14	1:37:14	1:33:05	1		RYC
28050	Ray Lotto	El Raton	Ex 27	129	14:28:47	1:38:47	1:34:34	2		StFYC
18364	John Rivlin	Peaches	Ex 27	129	14:28:58	1:38:58	1:34:44	3		STFYC
48	Rachel Fogel	Great White	Ex 27	129	14:30:38	1:40:38	1:36:20	4		BYC
11	Dan Pruzan	Wile E Coyote	Ex 27	129	14:31:41	1:41:41	1:37:20	5		EYC
113	Marcia Schnapp	Libra	Ex 27	129	14:32:26	1:42:26	1:38:04	6
51	M. DeVries/ S. Parker	Freaks on a Leash	Ex 27	129	14:32:36	1:42:36	1:38:13	7		RYC
77	Larry Levit	Strega	Ex 27	129	14:34:39	1:44:39	1:40:11	8		RYC
0	Steven Katzman	Dianne	Ex 27	129	14:34:59	1:44:59	1:40:30	9		LTWYC
18394	Ron Kell	Abigail Morgan	Ex 27	129	14:35:09	1:45:09	1:40:40	10		CYC
29	Ross Groelz	Eagle	Ex 27	129	14:35:18	1:45:18	1:40:48	11
14	Ray Wilson	Luffing Outloud	Ex 27	129	14:35:22	1:45:22	1:40:52	12		LkTah
18070	Peggy Lidster	Opa!	Ex 27	129	14:35:49	1:45:49	1:41:18	13		StFYC
70	Phil Krasner	Wetsu	Ex 27	129	14:36:48	1:46:48	1:42:14	14		RYC
101	Nathalie Criou	Elise	Ex 27	129	14:37:38	1:47:38	1:43:02	15		STFYC
28031	Donald Carroll	Take Five	Ex 27	129	14:39:24	1:49:24	1:44:44	16		SSS