OCTOBER 18, 2016
THOUGHT FOR DISCUSSION
I was away on vacation this last week so do not have any comments on the action last week. I did get a response from one of our sailors on my previous blog which I would like to share with all of the Catalina crew. If possible, I would like to use this response as a springboard for discussion after our barbecue on Tuesday night.
Hi Barry,
Read your blog for this week and wanted to share a few thoughts.
http://sailingpairadice.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-11-2016-short-colorful-sail.html
It has been interesting to see the evolution of the fleet in the short
time I've participated. It does seem like skills and racing knowledge
have increased quite a bit and I think you should be proud of the work
you have done to increase participation and create a "wonderful vibe" on
Tuesday nights. I've really enjoyed participating.
Skills and rules knowledge have improved in the time I've watched and
the starts have become much more aggressive on occasion.
As I've mentioned in previous mail, I do think setting a fair line would
improve starting skills and result in better starting line behavior.
Most starting line problems get created when the boats haven't really
worked on time and distance to the line or pin ends and unfamiliarity
with barging and luffing and responding rules and then get into improper
situations.
When placed in these kind of improper situations I think the first the
casual response is that since its an informal race lets just keep going.
The next evolution is to keep going but then to decide to retire later
in the race as we saw Pacific Spirit do a few weeks ago.
After that an evolution might be to actually return to the line and
clear it after they've made a mistake in time/distance judgement.
But it make take quite a while for this to work though the entire fleet.
Your blog is a great way to learn about how and why things can go
wrong and how to correct, so it might not take as long as I'm
suggesting. But that would mean that Sailing Pair-A-Dice would have to
be over early some race and talk about returning, but then winning the
race and writing a blog about it. ;-) I think I've seen this already
happen with your continued mention about port tack ducking is really ok
and doesn't cost you that much if done effectively and as a planned
maneuver. The behavior on Tuesday night is so much different than Wed
nights and I think its in large part to your coaching the fleet via your
blog.
I agree that a rabbit start is a poor way to actually building starting
and racing skills. The problem becomes one of asking questions about
how to directly take on some skill building around starting racing.
So we need to build some confidence that returning to start is ok no
matter how costly it might be.
One more suggestion is to also have a gun/horn at the start as well as
doing it at the 5 minute warning. This would help all boats to
uniformly start to head up from reach to pointing angles off the line.
In the heat of battle its easy for boats to jump the gun and start
harding up. This happens in any fleet racing with RC or not. A horn
would help give that audible signal that would hold boats back from
jumping the gun instead of seeing a few boats take off and then join the
party. All this is happening when crews are watching other boats,
getting ready to trim in and control their own boat, and also trying to
watch the clock. On Tuesday nights when sailing short handed I've
found myself seeing other boats take off and saying "I guess the start
happened, so lets go...." There is a lot of sensory overload with many
things going on and that audible horn would help synchronize actions on
all boats.
Next thing would be to work on would be to get more races that have fair
(square to wind/first mark) and shorter start lines that allow all the
boats to get good position on the line and a chance to accelerate off
the line uniformly at the gun. I definitely agree with the idea that
shorting the line with a temp buoy or anchored start boat would also
help in skippers and crews being able to judge the line and time and
distance to the line.
Longer lines make it harder to determine over early unless you are at
one end or the other of the fleet, and shorter the line the more obvious
this becomes to all boats in the fleet until you get down to a line when
all boats can just barely fit into the line and all the boats need to be
right next to each other for a fair start.
dumping a fender/small inflatable bouy/crab pot marker in the water in
the kelp bed near the start mark and leaving there for the season might
not comply with regulations but wouldn't create a hazard to navigation
and would give us an easier line to judge thats a few hundred feet long
instead of a 1/2 mile.
Now that 8-10 or more boats sail each week seems reasonable to rotate
responsibility for setting a line, calling the course and starting the
race. That would also be a good experience for the start boat and crew
to learn a few basic RC duties. I've learned just as much about racing
and starts from observing as a RC member as being on the race course. I
would volunteer as a boat to get this started, and to coach others that
might be interested in occasionally taking on the responsibility in a
regular rotation. It could also just be an option for some races and
the fleet could revert back to current starting setup/rules if there was
not a starting boat for any one evening.
One more thought on improving start skills would be to have "start
clinic Tuesday nights" in these last weeks before DST ends, and in the
spring just after DST starts up. Since we have limited light in Oct and
March we could run these start clinics to get off maybe 5 or 6 starts,
race for a few hundred yards, then return for another round. This
should help people get better judgement on time and distance to the
line, understand maneuvering to good spots on the line and other start
skills to keep them out of getting into trouble, but then figuring out
how to recover and do the right thing if they do get into trouble. The
key in these nights would be to build some confidence in skills and make
these night fun, emphasizing the idea that the start is one of the most
fun, and challenging, and complicated part of racing.
I'd also volunteer to serve as the start boat for these "start clinic
nights."
A chalk talk at the club about different starting strategies and how to
get the best idea about time and distance to the line for different
conditions, situations, and fleet size. These
talks/discussions/debriefs could also be added before or after the
"start clinic nights."
Thanks again for all the great work you have done to make Tuesday nights
a fun and enjoyable time on the water. I've really enjoyed those nights
that I've been able to get out there the last few years.
-Chris
Read your blog for this week and wanted to share a few thoughts.
http://sailingpairadice.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-11-2016-short-colorful-sail.html
It has been interesting to see the evolution of the fleet in the short
time I've participated. It does seem like skills and racing knowledge
have increased quite a bit and I think you should be proud of the work
you have done to increase participation and create a "wonderful vibe" on
Tuesday nights. I've really enjoyed participating.
Skills and rules knowledge have improved in the time I've watched and
the starts have become much more aggressive on occasion.
As I've mentioned in previous mail, I do think setting a fair line would
improve starting skills and result in better starting line behavior.
Most starting line problems get created when the boats haven't really
worked on time and distance to the line or pin ends and unfamiliarity
with barging and luffing and responding rules and then get into improper
situations.
When placed in these kind of improper situations I think the first the
casual response is that since its an informal race lets just keep going.
The next evolution is to keep going but then to decide to retire later
in the race as we saw Pacific Spirit do a few weeks ago.
After that an evolution might be to actually return to the line and
clear it after they've made a mistake in time/distance judgement.
But it make take quite a while for this to work though the entire fleet.
Your blog is a great way to learn about how and why things can go
wrong and how to correct, so it might not take as long as I'm
suggesting. But that would mean that Sailing Pair-A-Dice would have to
be over early some race and talk about returning, but then winning the
race and writing a blog about it. ;-) I think I've seen this already
happen with your continued mention about port tack ducking is really ok
and doesn't cost you that much if done effectively and as a planned
maneuver. The behavior on Tuesday night is so much different than Wed
nights and I think its in large part to your coaching the fleet via your
blog.
I agree that a rabbit start is a poor way to actually building starting
and racing skills. The problem becomes one of asking questions about
how to directly take on some skill building around starting racing.
So we need to build some confidence that returning to start is ok no
matter how costly it might be.
One more suggestion is to also have a gun/horn at the start as well as
doing it at the 5 minute warning. This would help all boats to
uniformly start to head up from reach to pointing angles off the line.
In the heat of battle its easy for boats to jump the gun and start
harding up. This happens in any fleet racing with RC or not. A horn
would help give that audible signal that would hold boats back from
jumping the gun instead of seeing a few boats take off and then join the
party. All this is happening when crews are watching other boats,
getting ready to trim in and control their own boat, and also trying to
watch the clock. On Tuesday nights when sailing short handed I've
found myself seeing other boats take off and saying "I guess the start
happened, so lets go...." There is a lot of sensory overload with many
things going on and that audible horn would help synchronize actions on
all boats.
Next thing would be to work on would be to get more races that have fair
(square to wind/first mark) and shorter start lines that allow all the
boats to get good position on the line and a chance to accelerate off
the line uniformly at the gun. I definitely agree with the idea that
shorting the line with a temp buoy or anchored start boat would also
help in skippers and crews being able to judge the line and time and
distance to the line.
Longer lines make it harder to determine over early unless you are at
one end or the other of the fleet, and shorter the line the more obvious
this becomes to all boats in the fleet until you get down to a line when
all boats can just barely fit into the line and all the boats need to be
right next to each other for a fair start.
dumping a fender/small inflatable bouy/crab pot marker in the water in
the kelp bed near the start mark and leaving there for the season might
not comply with regulations but wouldn't create a hazard to navigation
and would give us an easier line to judge thats a few hundred feet long
instead of a 1/2 mile.
Now that 8-10 or more boats sail each week seems reasonable to rotate
responsibility for setting a line, calling the course and starting the
race. That would also be a good experience for the start boat and crew
to learn a few basic RC duties. I've learned just as much about racing
and starts from observing as a RC member as being on the race course. I
would volunteer as a boat to get this started, and to coach others that
might be interested in occasionally taking on the responsibility in a
regular rotation. It could also just be an option for some races and
the fleet could revert back to current starting setup/rules if there was
not a starting boat for any one evening.
One more thought on improving start skills would be to have "start
clinic Tuesday nights" in these last weeks before DST ends, and in the
spring just after DST starts up. Since we have limited light in Oct and
March we could run these start clinics to get off maybe 5 or 6 starts,
race for a few hundred yards, then return for another round. This
should help people get better judgement on time and distance to the
line, understand maneuvering to good spots on the line and other start
skills to keep them out of getting into trouble, but then figuring out
how to recover and do the right thing if they do get into trouble. The
key in these nights would be to build some confidence in skills and make
these night fun, emphasizing the idea that the start is one of the most
fun, and challenging, and complicated part of racing.
I'd also volunteer to serve as the start boat for these "start clinic
nights."
A chalk talk at the club about different starting strategies and how to
get the best idea about time and distance to the line for different
conditions, situations, and fleet size. These
talks/discussions/debriefs could also be added before or after the
"start clinic nights."
Thanks again for all the great work you have done to make Tuesday nights
a fun and enjoyable time on the water. I've really enjoyed those nights
that I've been able to get out there the last few years.
-Chris
It is coming up on the close of the season, so do whatever you can to make it this Tuesday.
BARBECUE AT THE CLUB AFTER THIS TUESDAY NIGHT RACE. BRING YOUR BEST GRILLING FOOD, THE BAR WILL BE OPEN.
Thank you to everyone for participating in our Catalina Tuesdays.
Barry L.Keeler
Sailing Pair A Dice
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