Newsletter - June 2008
3rd in Class, Skandia Cowes Week 2008
Ambition Racing - The Qualifier and Countdown
3rd in Class, Skandia Cowes Week 2008
Skandia Cowes week 2008 saw the Beneteau 40.7 class have their own start for the first time and, with an entry list of 42 boats, it was always going to be an exciting and eventful line up!
I was once again helming ‘Challenger’ under the banner of “Beechwood Homes” and we sailed another consistent series scoring 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to secure 3rd overall with 2 races remaining. Unfortunately the elusive class win still evades us in spite of missing out victory by 1 second in one race after 3 ½ hours of racing. The front of this fleet has always been tight and the racing proved as close as ever.
The basics of success are easy to replicate: have a boat that is fast, sail it well and put it in the right places!
The owner, Gareth, with financial help from Beechwood Homes, continually strives to make sure that Challenger is as competitive and as well prepared as possible. The attention to details in all aspect of preparation ensures the boat is ready, the underwater surface was very well prepared before the week and the hull was cleaned by divers mid-week, the deck layout is well maintained and the rig set and a great set of new Hydes that had only come out of the bag for the Nationals. Everything that could have been done had been done and we knew Challenger was going to be competitive and it was down to us to sail her well.
Five of us had sailed together winning the Nationals at the start of the season so our core nucleus was strong enough to create a framework for strong boat handling and boat speed. This solid structure and understanding of roles made it easier for new crew members to step aboard and sail well. This also created a strong framework for the Beechwood Homes clients to step aboard and be able to contribute straight away.
The final piece of the jigsaw, once you have a crew who can sail the boat fast, and you have a boat that really is fast, is to put the boat in the right places around the race course and our tactician, Peter Robinson, did just that.
Another successful Cowes week and goodbye to Skandia!
SB3 Coaching - Granton
The last weekend of August saw sunshine and steady winds for an SB3 coaching weekend in Granton. We had 3 boats arrive although a 4th was unfortunately unable to make it due to car problems! However, the 3 boats had considerable depth of talent in the crew on board each boat.
The original intention had been to provide some support in maximising long-term training. However, with each boat arriving with a new crew dynamic and a shorter term focus of the Irish Nationals and the fast approaching Worlds I structured the weekend to allow the new crew structure to settle, address some of the big fleet issues (starts and holding lanes off the start) and also introduce some of the concepts that will help them maximise their training in future.
One of the aims was to help the committed crew with a longer-term perspective structure their training time, here are some points and concepts to bear in mind:
Plan Practice time.
As you start looking at the 2009 season & structuring a longer term campaign, ensure that you have planned training included in the time you are committing to your sailing.
Structure your Practice time.
Consider what you are wanting to achieve from each session and structure the time on the water so you are able to achieve the desired results. Appreciate that focus for the sessions will evolve as your campaign progresses, there is a distinct difference in approach and attitude to a session when you are developing to a session when you are preparing to perform.
Performing v’s Developing.
Developing is about changing what you do to make it better in a future performance whilst Performing is all about using what you have at the moment to the best of your ability. Once is about change the other is definitely not about change but applying. Both have a very definite place in your training programme and the differences need to be appreciated for true value to be achieved. At the start of a programme the focus should be on development, lets make changes and give these changes enough time, opportunity and practice to become consolidated into our performance. Once you have established your ‘faster’ skills, and as you approach selected regattas, put your performance under pressure to check you have the consistency and versatility to deliver when required.
“Train to Train”
This also links into the concept of the 3 building blocks of “Train to Train”, “Train to Compete”, “Compete to Win”. As you tune into how to make your practice time more effective, your practice time does become more effective so you become more competitive and this cycle continues.
There is a really positive momentum to the Scottish / Northern SB3 fleet and you can all contribute to maintaining and developing that momentum for your own benefit. There seems to be desire and enthusiasm to train together and get better. Pushing each other to raise your game can be done with or without outside support and has a collective benefit.
The key factors that will make your time on the water successful are clear communication and clear understanding of exactly what you are wanting to achieve from each session, take time before you head out to ensure everyone is clear on what you are going to be doing – once you get out there it becomes a nightmare to communicate efficiently!
Be honest and identify where you are in your training programme and appreciate that individual agenda’s may not fit into individual sessions of a longer term planned programme.
Drills to use as a fleet
The Rabbit start is probably the most useful activity for you to all have in your toolbox, it is the equivalent of a “Gate Start” and it is the easiest way of setting the boats up relative to each other without a start sequence, marks etc….
The Rabbit Start
The structure is simple.
1) The left hand boat slows down and ensures the rest of the fleet are upwind and to their right, they then settle down into a steady PORT TACK close-hauled course.
2) The rest of the fleet ducks the port tack boats transom one at a time, coming up onto a STARBOARD close-hauled tack.
3) Once all the fleet have ducked, the port tack boat then tacks onto starboard and the fleet is lined up.
There are many ways that you can then use the structure you have created on the water:
Working for your Lane
By ducking close to each other and the port tack boat tacking onto starboard as soon as possible you will find yourself in tight lanes, creating the scenario of having to work hard to keep speed and height and keep your lane.
This ‘tight’ formation gives you a chance to experiment with different upwind modes, ie, one boat remains in ‘neutral’ upwind mode, whilst the other changes gear into height mode, or fast forward mode and until one boat breaks clear.
Boat Speed / Tuning
Alternatively, by spreading out as you duck the port tack transom and the port tack boat pausing before they tack onto starboard you will create a more separated structure that is good for looking at boat speed / tuning.
One of the key points of two boat tuning is to ensure that you know who is the ‘base’ boat. There is not much point in going out if you are both tweaking things together. Take it in turns and with a systematic approach. One boat is the reference boat whilst the other makes one adjustment at a time, waiting until the adjustment and boat has settled before identifying whether it has had a beneficial or negative impact on your relative speeds. This is difficult to measure sometime if the wind is at all unstable or shifty.
Tacking
Once you are all settled down, the right hand boat flips off onto port and the rest of the fleet follow as quickly as possible, again settle down before the left hand boat tacks back onto Port.
As a guideline, sail the drill until it’s logical conclusion. This may be until one boat has broken clear ahead, or break off early and start again if the fleet has not racked up correctly.
Between you, you have a great opportunity to co-operate and support each other in putting together some great campaigns in a great boat and in a great fleet!
Good luck!
On Deck Race Training Week
The Solent based charter company On Deck asked me to deliver a race training week onboard their 40.7 for a mixture of their staff and clients. This was a great opportunity to go into detail about structuring a campaign and creating success. However, with 30+ knots blowing across the Solent for the majority of the week the chance of damage to boat and crew outweighed the learning opportunity on most of the days so more time was spent understanding the principles rather than applying them in practice.
But the week proved to be a success as all involved went away with a clearer understanding of what contributes to success and two of the group made immediate improvements up their fleet immediately upon their return to club racing!
… we raced “at Poole Yacht Club last night and came first over the line and second on handicap out of 12 boats in Class 3. I have been racing in this Class for two seasons and this is by far the best result I have ever achieved, as some of the top racers in our Club and indeed the South Coast are in this fleet.
We were able to apply many aspects learnt from our course and indeed feel we have yet to fully implement a number of the elements into our racing. We were able to increase our boat speed, race in clean air and keep boat speed in the tacks. For the first time I had a course strategy and followed it along with a start which left most of the fleet for dead. Our race was but no means faultless but if anything this is even more heartening as we only flew the kite for half the downwind leg as it was not even rigged due to an engine fault getting to the start. The best part of the race was overtaking the leader to leeward on the final beat home - they were overpowered and sailing with weather helm and we were better trimmed and flatter.
Cannot thank you enough for helping me to enjoy the last evening race of this season and for establishing that it was not my boat that was uncompetitive. I was considering selling my boat before this race as I felt she was not competitive enough in our club or at Cowes or Round The Island but now I am going to persevere.”
Course overview:
We started by creating a list of the component parts that contribute to performing and ‘winning’, which we were then able to bracket into separate categories. Using these categories we were able to look in more detail about how we can control these component parts and create them in our performance and we created a starting point of “doing the basics right”.
As we looked into boat handling we identified and recognized the importance of each individual crewmember contributing to the overall performance and how much each individual has to contribute to the ‘team’. Looking closer into how each individual can contribute, manage and understand their contribution we looked at their individual Roles and Responsibilities and took these into the different manoeuvres needed around the racecourse starting with the simple manoeuvres and working through into the more complex, layers of manoeuvre.
We were also able to go into a ‘pre-regatta’ routine in some detail and highlight how collecting information enables you to make more accurate and confident decisions when formulating a strategy and when applying this in boat on boat tactics.
Please contact me for information about running this training with your crew on board your own boat, or contact On Deck direct to book onto the race training as an individual.
Click here to e-mail me an organise Race Training with your own crew.
Click here for the On Deck website and to book onto their Race Training Course.
Ambition Racing - The Qualifier and countdown.
October 12th and the start of the Portimao Global Ocean Challenge is approaching rapidly and it is incredible to reflect on Ambition Racing and the progress Jeremy and Victoria have made in the past year. They are an inspiration and should be an example to all of us. When the Global Challenge went out of business and their ambition of racing around the world vanished they did not give up but strove to find another way to make it happen. They had more hurdles in the way than most but, here, with less than a month to go to the start their dream is not only going to come true when they cross the start line and set off, but they have already been living out their ambition, focusing on it, making it happen for over a year.
Remember they had limited sailing experience a year ago, which was mainly concentrated on a 74ft, heavy displacement boat with a crew of 20 or so, they had no preparation for racing a Class 40, double handed around the world…
The initial training days were in Laser 200's and the dinghy proved to be a handful for them to get the hang of! But after much swimming, much application and I'm sure a lot of frustration, they were able to start sailing upwind and downwind in pretty good shape and at least well enough for us to make a transition up a size into the Cork 1720 sportsboat. A 3rd place in the Garmin Hamble Winter Series and 2nd in the Warshash Spring Series recognized the time and effort they had put in so far and the progress that had clearly been made. And then came May and the arrival of 'Mowgli' and full time sailing for them both. The training continued and the structure to date paid dividends as their continued determination, focus and application led to longer offshore passages, cumulating in setting off on their qualifying passage at the beginning of August.
The 1,700nm in a storm bound Atlantic, the constant 25 - 45 knots of wind, the problems with the generator, all prove that they are now ready to take on the world.
Sunday 10th Aug: "Hell of a night, like living your worst nightmare - helming 2 hours at a time, waves crashing relentlessly, up to 40 knots. J recorded 17.8 knts, I recorded 14.8 knts and just held to the tiller for dear life the rest of the time. Dolphins popped up to say hello in a moment of tears after the wave hit me from behind and nearly took my arm off. Took away some of the pain. Absolutely everything and everywhere soaked."
Think of them as they race around the world, they deserve all our support for having the strength to fulfill their ambitions.
Please e-mail pip@ambitionracing.com to receive regular updates on their progress.
Or click here to go the the Ambition Racing Website