Elise

Monday, June 27, 2011

NOOD mini writeup

Didn't feel too good this weekend - perhaps because it was the first summer race and still a crew that's not 100% used to working together in these conditions. It was still a ton of fun, and if I compare our average performance from a couple of years ago, we are much much better.

When we started, we were pretty much at the bottom of everything, learning to sail the boat well and fast. We now have flashes of genius and moment of mediocrity - our average is definitely up and we now need to work on consistency. After 3 years of campaigning the boat and really only two years of buoy racing and less than a year with this new crew, it really is not that bad.

Conditions were ultra typical of the Bay in summertime
SW - W - NW wind
Saturday 10 to 20
Sunday 15 to 25 (24-25 sustained during the second race of the day)
Nasty little chop that makes you wet and slows you down, but good conditions for the Express 27s and the Moores. They were built for this kind of stuff.

What went well this weekend

Starts were good
Good average boat speed, we managed to keep up w/ top of fleet boats
Good trim downwind
Nice teamwork (pit person jumping to help foredeck person in a pinch for example)
Gybes (except for one where we nearly wrapped up the kite, they were really good and smooth)

What we can do better

Weight was definitely on the light side, but we won't be able to do much about this
Get back into the groove after mark rounding much much faster...
Elise had the offshore lifeline on because of LongPac and we couldn't really hike out upwind which made the above problem even more acute
Maybe lighten up the cooler...and see if each crew can leave spare clothing, etc... in their cars so we can lighten up the boat as much as possible during the race
Tacks (they were slow both days)
Mark rounding: we got every other one really really well, the other ones were not so good, we need to work on speed of execution
Anticipate your needs and the other crew's needs: on several occasions, lines were not ready, or not tight enough, etc...causing problems, thus creating more work for the team and exhausting everyone
Not go too far out on the edge of the course (which we did the first couple of races on Saturday, costing us a lot)

So back to basics: practice practice practice, and we should practice short tacking up the city front and do a lot of mark rounding, arriving at the mark in any position and having to drop the kite from any side (or hoist it from any direction) so we always have full tactical latitude and maneuvres do not get in the way. Would be my lesson. Team is a smart bunch and they are picking up fast.