Another crunch lesson

Hannah & I took out a club boat for Saturday afternoon racing last weekend (30 July). It was not a day I want to remember. 

The first race I had been able to pick up the wind on the north shore, and was able to capitalise on it, and overtook a couple of boats. But my skill was random. 

At the end of the first race, convinced I was on the wrong end of the finish line, I stayed on and discovered unexpected strong winds near the "pin", which helped us overtake the boat in front of us. Well, you have to get lucky sometime!

The second race was a disaster - I crewed for Hannah and plotted a port end start. I misjudged it, and poor Hannah had her first crash. It's always painful when that happens. I felt very upset and annoyed with myself. Hannah was following instructions. It was entirely my fault. It is likely to be costly to repair. 

When we had done our turns we resumed the race, at the back of the fleet. 

The only positive aspect was that we again finished the race on the "pin" end of the finish line, and this time overtook two boats to put us three from last in Hannah's race.  

Confidence shaken, we sat out the final race from the committee boat - trying to anticipate the competitors tactics. 

Next week is Poole Regatta. Will try to put this behind us and enjoy the racing.  

Tides at Tollesbury

The Tollesbury Regatta on 23rd July was an object lesson in how to get things right - sometimes!

There were less than a dozen boats in the fleet, and we ended up last (again!), with me trying to persuade myself that I was at least learning something. 

This was the first time that Hannah & I had sailed together in tidal conditions. Since we were planning to do Poole Round the Island and Poole Regatta in August, this was going to be a "dry run". 

I usually have a "focus area" each time I sail; in this case it was tide predictions. The conditions were such that initially the tide and wind were together. For the first race, we set off along the shallows, where hopefully the tide would be weakest. Seeing "Scoobie Doo" (13316) ahead of us have me confidence that we were doing the right thing, even though our boat speed was not as good. As it happens, James and Richard in "Scoobie Doo" eventually won the regatta. I also checked out our "RaceQs" gps tracker afterwards and was delighted to see how we had tracked to the shallows just where I had wanted. 

But it's all very well knowing the right direction - it does help to be able to make the boat go fast as well ..!

The other challange is that, in sailing at least, you need to see the evidence of your eyes, and not get fixated by your prior opinions.   The final race illustrated this.  

At the start of the final race, there were a gaggle of boats at the final 20 seconds, with a number of boats over. It was a general recall. At the restart, the same thing happened. I was left puzzling about how I managed to time the start, and everyone else was over.  Hours later, talking over the evening meal, the penny dropped - the tide had turned ! My entire tide strategy had been wrong for the last race.  

One-off these days, I might be able to get a handle on this sport. 

Ever felt like giving up?

When I first started this blog, back in 2015, I wanted to be honest.

I had the dream of taking my boat to Open events, then to the Nationals, and finally to the World Championships. Along the way, I anticipated Highs and Lows.

We have one of the Lows at the moment.

The background was the GP14 Masters Championship last weekend (16/17 July).

I had been looking forward to this for some time - it was a chance to race on home waters, against the best that there were. A week or so before, I had finally sorted out the Outhaul in the boom (a tricky task that took lots of fiddling before it was complete), and had the chance to sail with Joel, who made some helpful comments on my sailing approach.

I did not expect to win, but was hoping that myself and Gerry could get a mid-fleet position. We had raced a couple of times beforehand - our tacking had improved, and we were working as a great team.

But it was not to be.

The first race on Saturday we had a good start, and were pushing hard, somewhere in the mid-fleet position. We then had a mix-up with the spinnaker drop, and lost virtually every place we had gained in the rush to fix it. For some reason, Gerry & I seem to have bad luck with spinnakers. We pressed on, but were last in the fleet by the end. That was despite some good tacking and picking up strong pressure on the South shore. It wasn't Gerry's fault: I had to apologise to him for my bad language!

Worse was to come.

Prior to the second race, we were involved with a boat-on-boat incident with my friends Ricardo and Yasmin. It was just one of those misunderstandings. We agreed that no-one was to blame, and we would cover repair costs of our individual boats. I fully expect to have to spend several hundred pounds on dealing with a 3 inch gash in 13941, which has resulted in a foot long "crazing" of the glass fibre. This will be no trivial job to get repaired.

So the second race started with little enthusiasm on my part.

Then, as we were beating to the windward mark, I pulled in the mainsheet, and the "tails" disconnected with the sheet itself. The result was that I had no mainsheet to use, and we had to retire. A new split tail mainsheet on SpeedSails is near forty pounds.

The next day was worse.

I woke up with a strong headache, back-ache and sickness, having probably got de-hydrated the previous day. I was in no position to sail, so had to withdraw from the championships.

Those of you who have been following this blog will know the time, money and effort I have put into my sailing. I have got myself fit at the gym, consulted sports psychologist, tuned the boat, read books, watched videos, deliberately pushed myself into challenging conditions and tried to learn as much as possible on the water. I always have new objectives in my mind - be it keeping the boat flat, learning to identify wind on the water, or seeing where the pressure is. But I am still at the back of the fleet.

Have you ever felt like giving up entirely?

As I was thinking about this, I saw an article about Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One driver. He went through a difficult period during the last few months, and in this article he has has opened up on the mental affects it had on him.

"When I was younger, if I had a bad race I was so hard on myself," he said. "It was really negative. I remember some races I wouldn't leave my hotel room for three or four days, wouldn't speak to anyone, not being on my phone, I was just trying to get myself out of this dark place that I'd be in.

"Somehow I'd pop out of it and turn it into positive. I think that's what you've got to try and do. You've got to look at the situation, even if its really negative, you've got to try and find the positives from it and leave the negatives behind. Try and learn from it.

Look where I am now, I'm one point behind in the championship. I'm even surprised. I'm like, 'if I had given up at one point'… it just shows you to never ever ever give up no matter what."

I am not  - and never will be - in the same league as a Lewis Hamilton. But what are professional sportsmen, if not people we can look to for inspiration?

Maybe, just maybe, I should press on, and look forward to Tollesbury Open next weekend, with the possibility of Poole in the first week of August.

Keep working to improve

The sports psychologists talk about "marginal gains"; those small subtle changes and improvements that combine to give the difference between winning and loosing.

These days, it's my aim to try to systematically find these and apply them.

One of these aspects came to mind very forcefully a weekend ago. The club organised one of those occasional "fun" type events - a race for GP14 and other two-man dinghies, but with the added twist that only one person was in each boat. What that meant, in practice, was that I was on one occasion holding the tiller extension, Main sheet and Genoa sheet all in the same hand, whilst I had to adjust some other controls on the boat.

A single handed race is always good fun, whether or not you do try launching the spinnaker as well; I didn't, because it was a northerly wind (at least, that is my excuse!). But, for me, the real value was what it taught me about the boat. 

Everyone who races knows that the rudder is just a "brake", to be used with care, and that the boat sails best when flat. For the single-handed race, I had hooked a bungee onto the tiller extension. This mean that I could drop the tiller in order to sail single-handed. But the other effect was that I felt a strong pressure whenever I tried to apply the "brake". It was really striking how much I must have tried to slow down the boat. Lesson one: don't use the rudder too much.

The other aspect that was highlighted to me was how much the boat flies better when it is absolutely flat. During the single handed race, I was the only person on the boat, so the "feedback" was just from the boat itself. It's amazing how much more sensitive you can become if it is just you and the dinghy. Lesson two: keep the boat really flat.

It's great to learn these lessons, but the trick is to put it into practice. We have had a number of "good" races recently :- although the results do not always suggest that. For example, last Saturday, after a really bad start we were at the back of the fleet, and gradually began to pull up to the tail-enders, just by keeping the boat really flat.

So I have learnt a lot, and am looking forward to the next race. Watch this space...

I want to Start To Win

Have you ever noticed how the real experts (in whatever field of expertise you are interested in) always make winning look easy?

It's true for businessmen, craftsmen, and for sportsmen, including dinghy racers. I've been watching videos recently of top dinghy sailers. I've also been keeping me eyes on the really good sailers at the front of our club fleet; they all make it look easy. Myself, I'm still habitually at the back of the fleet, and looking for that secret ingredient to help me win. 

I can't claim to have the secret (I'll tell you  when I do...), but I do know that a combination of things will help. Some of these involve "on the water" behaviours (keeping the boat flat, roll tacking etc.) and some of these involve "off the water" preparation (fitness, tactical planning, priority setting etc.). Amoung the latter, I've been re-reading "Start to Win", by Eric Twinham.

There seems to be two elements at least that are key to winning, and neither have got anything to do with how you sail the boat.

The first seems to be attitude, and focus. I must admit that this is probably the area where I am weakest. Unlike many people, I find it really tricky to keep razor-sharp focus on my sailing. That almost trance-like state where you just know what to do next, and everything is a fluid dream.... I have known a few races like that, but not many. I find a similar challenge with my gym sessions - there is a degree of ruthless focus that is needed, to help implement that extra edge.

Of course,  it is no good being focused if you don't actually know what to do - that the tack into clear air is the correct choice. But, on the other hand, I often feel that I know how to race in theory, but struggle to put it into practice. I have some techniques that I want to employ to help build and maintain focus.

The second point that Eric raises is the importance of having a critical attitude. This means having the willingness to objectively understand what you are doing wrong, without "excusing" your mistakes.

A case in point occurred last Tuesday. The wind was fresh, and Maciej had agreed to crew for me. The wind was westerly. We had recognised that the left hand side of the course was stronger, so started left and hugged that southern shore. That way, we were first to the windward mark and led for the first lap. However, on the second lap, we were overtaken. Why?

It would be simplistic to say that we were overtaken by better sailors (which was clearly the case), but my challenge is to understand what made them better. Was it that they had spotted that the wind strength had changed to the middle of the course? Was it more efficient tacking? Was it a more responsive approach to wind shifts on the beat and the run?

My aim is to find out the answers to these questions.

For the record, we ended up in second place, behind Roger Walton and Norman Smith. A successful result, so of course I am very pleased.

But the challenge is, "can I do better?" If I can develop my ability to focus, and my willingness to take a critical attitude, then maybe the answer is "yes".

Watch this blog to find out what happens in future....

Two Opens - two finishes

It's been a while since the last blog. Those of you who know me well will realise that "no news" is typically an indication of "not good news". It has been an interesting time, although I fear that the results are not particularly impressive.

At Leigh on Sea on 7 May, Gerry & I had the first occasion when 13941 was being towed by our brand new Toyota Auris. Unfortunately, there were ongoing problems with the tow bar number plate / light unit. In the end, this was traced down to a poor connection in the extension socket - we needed an extension cable a while ago since the original light unit cable was too short. The net result was that we arrived at Leigh on Sea half an hour later than we had hoped.

Leigh on Sea, near Southend-on-Sea, an interesting place - the tide seems to be miles out of the shore before rushing in over the shallow sand at high tide.  

Gerry did a great job. At the start of the first race we had a problem with our spinnaker halyard, which left us without any spinnaker for the first race. Despite this, we kept in touch with the back of the fleet. 

At the end of the first race, we got some help from the safety boat to retrieve the spinnaker halyard and re-rig. We completed this before the 5 minute gun, so were able to join in race 2. 

During race 2, we discovered that the spinnaker guy was rigged behind the forestay - another fault on my part, and another distraction preventing us focusing on the race. 

The third race was our best (i.e., we had one other boat behind us), but it was strong conditions, and we did not quite get in the groove.

All in all, it was one of those days when the helm (me!)  was not paying enough attention. Speaking a few weeks later to my friend Lesley, she said she found it difficult to judge which side of the course was the favourable one. I agreed - I had been following her at the time !

All good experience. Gerry did well, but was let down by circumstances, plus my lack of focus.

The following weekend (14th and 15th May), we were again towing into Essex - this time to the Southern Championships at Stone.  This time, Kevin Laitak had agreed to crew for me. This was the first time that he had crewed in an event outside the Welsh Harp, and he acquitted himself very well.

Bearing in mind the importance of this event, I did my homework this time. The tide was expected to be strong, and my analysis of the wind & tide gave me some ideas before we even started out. I also had the privilege of chatting with Mark Wolf, who has sailed in GP14 Nationals and Worlds events. Mark advised me to set my boat up for speed, rather than just height. He had loads of other advice as well, all of which proved helpful, and gave me confidence. 

The first day involved a very long reach from Stone Sailing Club out to the Blackwater sailing area. 13941 was last to the racing area, because I had to run back and get the Cunningham rope from the car at the last minute - don't rush when trying to rig the boat!  The race officer did not have to delay the race for us, so thanks for his/her kindness in the circumstances. 

Race conditions were force 4, gusting 5, so we needed to keep on our toes. The anti-clockwise triangle-sausage course was the largest Kevin had ever raced on. For the first race, we went left to compensate for the ebbing tide. The second race was at low tide, and the third race needed us to go right as the tide came in. 

All-in-all, we seemed to lack boat speed  - maybe some sharper tacking next time would help - and were at the back of the fleet.  But we were satisfied that out tactics were broadly correct. 

The last race was a bit disappointing; we had a rapid spinnaker drop on the second leg, and got pushed over by a gust. We lost the burgee when the boat turned turtle. I was able to right the boat, but the spinnaker caught in the shrouds and could not be freed. It reminded me of the time in Brixham when we broached near the end of the race. Unfortunately, on this occasion, we had over a lap to go (not just a few yards), so we had no choice but to call in the safety boat and retire. Two race results in the bag. Put down to experience. 

The following day, the weather was very calm, and there was a risk that we would not sail at all. 

In the end, the race officers were able to put together a right-handed triangle-sausage near to the Stone club, so we were able to get in 2 races. In each case, we assessed the tide impact, and were able to keep up with the fleet. Kevin's spinnaker work improved immensely over the weekend. The last race saw us bail out from a bad start, then go up the right hand side of the course, to end up mid-fleet at the first mark. Then on the downwind sausage we had a bit of fun luffing up the GP14 president (well, you have to, don't you.......?? )

But there were mistakes on my part, which meant we were behind everyone at the finish. 

So I had two tiring weekends, ending up at the back of the fleet. It's all very well having good tactics, but without good overall boat speed, you are still at the back.

All in all, I hope I have learnt something. 

I need to get my confidence back. 

So back into the gym, and more time on the water...

Spring Season begins - more work to do

For us, this weekend was the start of the GP14 Open Series, which always starts with the running of the Venetian Trophy at the Welsh Harp.

I think the results were a bit disappointing. Gerry did a great job, particularly with his spinnaker handling, and we had some flashes of excitement, but in the end we were near the bottom of the fleet.

The important thing to remember, for me, is to focus on the process of sailing, and learn from every outing, no matter how good or bad the result is.

We had a reasonable start on the first race, but gradually slid back at each lap. My personal consolation was that at least I beat my friend David Innes - a rare occurrence.

After lunch, feeling more encouraged, we had a very good start at the second race, and were able to keep near "mid fleet", with some good spinnaker work, but ended up 22nd out of 25 boats.

The third race was a very embarrassing start - we managed to ground the centre-board and were stuck (literally) and got off the line significantly later than anyone else. Unfortunately, we were not able to catch up very much. So we ended up near the back again.

Gerry was probably more alert than I was during the races - he called out changes in wind conditions.
I was the one that was not paying enough attention.

Lessons to bear in mind:

• ensure you get a good nights sleep the night before!
• go through the motivational log before sailing each time.
• mentally and physically "warm up", so that you can pay attention and focus during the duration of the race.
• Keep your head out of the boat, and look for wind conditions. 

Have I learnt anything? I think so - here's looking forward to the next race.