Junior Olympic @ the Corsica River - Race Report - Day 2

Red skies at night, sailor's delight. True enough. It did not fail to disappoint. White caps were all over, faces with mixed emotions - eyes darting with fear, sparkling with excitement, teeth gritted, grunting noises from trying to keep the boat flat. Man.. this is going to be exciting. This is by far, the strongest winds that they have sailed in a race. Going around to make sure they understand how to set up each of their sails, I'm getting excited thinking about how the sailors will react to these winds.

Chris was absolutely squealing with delight. He kept going, "Yeah, this is my wind" but I had to yell at him for him to go onto a close-haul (going upwind) because he kept saying that he needs to conserve his energy. Geez... What energy are you conserving? If you can't sail it right up wind, you are wasting your energy. I'm trying to help you sail the boat right going upwind and set your sail right for going upwind. So quit arguing and get moving! He finally did and true enough, he doesn't quite understand the fundamentals of it. After adjusting the cunningham for the upteempth time, he finally got it. I can only cross my fingers that he will apply it in the race.

Chris - playing it safe sitting in the middle of the boat. Not very fast, but at least he was sailing it by the lee.

Jeff wasn't tacking right when I got to him, he always tuck his leg under his knees which was really bad. What he really need to do, is to put his leg under his hiking strap, so that he can flatten the boat in a more effective way.

Anyway, to the race proper.

It is one big gust, not much of a favoured side, but we still know that the wind likes to clock left, so if I'm a smart sailor, I'll start on the favour end of the start line, work the course on the favoured side, hit a header, and back to the middle line and back out again. It is important to keep to the favoured side as well as the middle, and also, watching out for your closest competition. For eg. If you are tied for 1st place, you only need to beat that one fella. You shouldn't go out on a wild card and go a completely direction than he/she is. You have to follow, or cover the fella. Always stay with your competition. I learnt that the hard way, I thought I was good enough to pick up the wind, but a stray gust came and I went to the right, my competition went to the left and picked it up and pulled half a leg away. I was even leading by 1 point at that time, but lost it all by not sticking with him and lost 1st place overall eventually.

Andrew had a good day out, he was even in 2nd place for the 1st race only loose some going upwind. He had two 4th place finishes out of the 3 races that day. Congrats!

Michael on the other hand did not really have a good day out. Not having enough weight was an issue, but it could be overcome by working harder (Always give it your all, do not conserve your energy, our body have a funny way of finding energy to burn somewhere). You wouldn't know if you will have a good start for the last race anyway, sail each and every race like it matters, and the last.

Matt did good the 6th race only to loose his fundamentals and not put down his daggerboard sailing the last upwind leg. He could have had a proud moment and say that he beat Michael and Andrew, but alas. In his 5th Race, he even pipped no.39 to the gybe mark, but not being very sure of his rules, he allowed no.39 to bully him into doing a 720. Showing lotsa potential in this regatta, he needs to work on being more consistent.

Josh had a good field day, but I did not see him sailing as they only had to do 2 race and they were done by the time I made my way over to their course.

Bryan on the other hand was finding it hard to cope with the heavier wind condition, which was disappointing as I thought he would fare better with the wind to his favour. But I wouldn't blame him as it takes as much skill, if not more to control the optimist in heavier conditions. The usual mistakes were still being made. A mainsheet too loose, not pointing high enough (check your telltales!) , not balancing the boat right and a loose vang.

Matt hiking out hard - one of the mistakes that sailors often make, is when they hike out, they bring the tiller extension with them, bearing the boat away and causing the boat to heel even more! Your ELBOW is extendable! Keep the tiller in the middle! OR let it do what it wants to do, all you have to do is just to pull back so slightly when it flattens out - Hell you can even sail a boat in 20 knots of wind with your fingertips!

Jeff with "THE" look

William working hard as usual

Ok, check this out (above) Andrew's muscles. (below) A female sailor's muscle. 'nuff said.


Willam: I beat ya!

Andrew rounding the mark, it was a nice and tight rounding, but he needed more weight to keep his boat flat to shoot forward after the rounding.

Bryan going downwind