Friday was our Jr Regatta- Sunfish WP sailors - top three- Lucas Volle (1st) and Maura King! Long Island Sunfish Regatta- PJ PATIN 1st, Rich Chapman (illinois) 2nd, dan Hesse 3rd.
WPSA vs. POWYS- WP took 1st, second and third- lee montes, rayn Messina and Joey Huberman, respectively.
this week is North Americans at Mattituck YC!
well the weather all over the island was cruddy yesterday… there were patches of down pouring rain, and the winds looked to be 15-20 .. BUT you never know when you get to WP… I was there about 4:30pm with Felicity and it was pretty nasty, but as the minutes wore on the wind wasn’t that bad, and the rain had stopped… Ryan showed at about 5pm… then Chris Harris showed for RC… Joey huberman, tom Davison and Conrad Volle Showed… uhhh we got our selves a fleet… I decided to hold team racing instead of 7 person fleet racing (Brendan and Frank showed up last)… The winds proved to not be bad… I would estimate 12-14mph south to SW, and cloudy…. everyone was in control and tom said he couldn’t even fully hike out sometimes…
I had chris set up a modified “digital N” course… this is what they use for team racing in many parts… modified means the start finish line is in the middle of the course… the way it works is that there is TWO marks to windward which are rounded to STARBOARD (the right one is like an offset mark… then we had a downwind leg with two LEEWARD marks, rounded to PORT… the finish upwind… this worked out very well as the off set marks and small race course and SHORT starting line made boat on boat racing very close… we had 3 vs. 3 and the racing was very close… the way team racing scores is that the total scores of your team is added up and if it is less than the other than team, then you win… so if team A gets a 1st, 3rd and last (6) that’s 10 points. TEAM B will then get 2nd, 4th and 5th. that’s 11 points and team A wins…
On land we made up teams to try to get them even as possible,… they were tom davison, conrad volle and myself (lee montes) vs. Ryan Messina, Joey Huberman and Brendan Horn… Frank Minnisale was a little late and joined us after the first race… We won the first race… i think a few of us had to figure that this was not a typical fleet race… we discussed some tactics and winning combinations… and off to the second race which Ryan’s team won… Joey showed he understood some ‘moves’ and helped his team win the next two … i think;) the next race we had Ryan pinned at the start, but Tom Broke his mast and had to retire…. we then took on Frank to get back to 3 v. 3 and sailed the rest of the night… i believe we lost the series 2-3, but it was a tremendous lot of fun and good learning for everyone… we will have another day of team racing in august…. or if the weather is a bit scary and a small amount of sailors go out to sail!
Did you ever drive in a situation where yo had to avoid an collision, but avoided it without any knee jerk reaction? Most likely this was becaus eyou had an idea of what was going to happen before it did… maybe the car in the intersection was creeping up with its wheels turned a certain way, maybe the light was turning from yellow to red and it looked as if the driver was going to try to run the changing yellow light… Well with this anticipation you should be ablke to react and keep your self safe. As with driving on a highway, You need to use your skills in anticipation to avoid collisons and other bad situations to work yourself up the sailing fleet.
One winter day years ago, I was sailing with the JY15 fleet at Snapper Inn. The wind was coming from a direction where the boats always seemed to head for the bulkheads to the left (on starboard), and then had to tack to port to make the mark… well of course the bulkhead was an obstruction and it is proper to call for room at an obstruction [IF YOU ARE ON THE SAME TACK!]… so try to picture this situation… i was sailing into the bulkheaded area and had to tack to port, however to weather of me, and a little further behind, was Andrew Kinsey— we were both on starboard. So I tacked and tried to cross Andrew, and called for obstruction… but at this time I was on port he was still on starboard, he had to do a crash tack, mumbled some words and said “PROTEST”… what? I didn’t understand at the time, I had an obstruction, I thought…. WELL, as I said above, you have to be on te same tack to call for obstruction… if not, then its a PORT/Starboard situation… well I did my penalty, lost a lot of boats and then asked Andrew what happened… He told me about the port starboard etc… but the most important thing I asked him was, “How could I avoid that for the future?” His answer was simple and straight to the point- “You have to ANTICIPATE what would happen.” I asked him in anohter way, “I m supposed to tell the future?” Again he said, “you have to anticipate.” I will never forget that situation… several years later, the winds blew in the same direction, and David Becker was in my old situation and sailing fast… I knew what was going to happen, waited for him to tack, called for my starboard rights, made dave tack back to port, then I tacked on teh layline and eventually won that race… Needless to say, Dave was a bit pissed, said protest to me… but I kept sailing knowing I was right. Henever followed through with the protest, but I brought it up in the bar afterwards and was confident that the prtoest would be foiund in my favor if it went to that…
Other situations will be evident that anticipation will be needed like at MARK ROUNDINGS and CROSSING SITUATIONS. This is when a little knowledge of the rules will help… If you anticipate that you are going to hit a port tack boat and they are going to have to duck you, you are anticipating what the other boat will do… now you have to make a decision on whether to use this information to let her go, or to tack in front/on top/or lee bow her.
At mark roundings it is IMPERATIVE, especially in a pack of boats, to see what will happen before it unfolds… this will help you get around the buoy as fast and unscathed most of the time… communication with that on boat who wants to sneak in but had no overlap is helpful, sometimes putting on the brakes to avoid the pile up sometimes helps…
all this comes with anticipation and repetition…
so next time you come to the race course, try to think 10-20-30 seconds ahead of time and use it to your advantage to get around the course the fastest way possible, and to avoid the driver who wants to speed through that yellow light.
yesterday we had light and lumpy conditions… the breeze was about 7-10 from the SSW. getting off teh line and into clear air was paramount. keeping your boat speed up was a challenge, but Gerry Hesse was able to get going and took two bullets and three thirds. The Light weights did well, but as Gerry Demonstrated, it’s not all about weight. I on the other hand had three OCSs, and sicne everyone was pretty much fast, it was difficult to pass when i eventually caught up…
The breeze seemed to be stronger as you went souht, but also there was more breeze to the right (bill Bettes III would be happy to here im actually saying this) Sp the bottom line was, if you can get in front take it as far as you can, but you should have went with the fleet if they ended up going right for the more velocity….
Today is tuesday and I expect to have two guests if not more coming to sail… Long time Bellport resident, now Georgia resident, Dan Rhode will be coming back to relive the washing machine chop of WP… he should be bringing his daughter, Dana, too… Nick Valente will be here to show us what he has learned sailing for Wando HS in South Carolina… Ted Cremer, who was running the Atlantic Coast Championships for Lasers at Sayville YC, will be sailing… he was pretty bummed about not being able to sail in the near epic conditions, where the last day constant wind speeds of 28 mph. I was sailing in that regatta and DNF’ed the last race… but i didnt feel bad as Christian Cremer and Spencer Olssen led me into the beach as they capsized a few times, too… Ncik Did very well in the Radial and finished just out of the top ten at 13th… out of about 50 boats… so I hope more people start to come out and race and sail as school is starting to wind down….
Well we had a dozen boats on a beautiful Tuesday evening at Wet Pants SA last night… we did two practice starts, a race, two more starts an race, etc… here are some thoughts on yesterday’s starting.
First: the first race or two the pin was definitely NOT favored… the wind was coming from a SW direction (right to left) which was across the course layout… Gerry Hesse told me that the pin was drifting… it was fixed after the second race. One sailor was experimenting with approaching on Port. In one start he was about 30 seconds to the start and about 6 boat lengths to leeward… i explained to him that approaching on Port does not mean to be necessarily CROSSING on port. the final approach is from port, and generally tacking to starboard in to a HOLE, just LEEWARD to a boat or group of boats.
TIMING- also yesterday it seemed as if people were on the line about 30 seconds luffing. This created a situation where there was a front row and 2nd and third rows… so it was important to BE IN THE FRONT ROW at least 30 seconds to go. Earlier in the front row is fine, but you MUST KEEP YOUR HOLE (acceleration lane of water to leeward of you) CLEAR. I noticed one sailor luffing and each time she trimmed in a bit she slid closer to the leeward boat, as the gun went off her speed helped her keep her in the front row, but maybe being too close to the leeward boat kept her from punching out and creating a big lead….
Good starts can really help with winning… Ryan Messina won the last three races. He always set up to leeward of the fleet and got off the line really cleanly. Once in front, he did a good job of keeping his lead and in front of the boat behind him… and in one race where Ted Cremer was gassing him from leeward and I was covering him from windward, he tacked out as soon as he could and got to the right… and if you remember from the beginning of this article the wind was generally coming from right to left… he found some breeze and salvaged his bad start and won that race, too…. so a good start is not only getting off the line, but sailing to where the good air is with the ability to control your own destiny…
Well three Tuesdays came and went with no sailing… last Tuesday we had a mild Nor Easter that rained and blew 20 from the NE. Nasty. But finally I got to go sailing on Thursday. The weather was up to 80 by 1pm and slowly cooled by the early evening. I tried to get a bunch of people to sail, but since it was a Thursday a lot of people had previous engagements…. Dan Hesse and I sailed and spoke on what we needed for our boats to be better… I personally needed a goose neck adjuster, new halyard, bailer o-rings and a new ball, and a tiller extension… we both understood we needed new sails to replace our blanket soft old sails… my sail is from the worlds from 2006… now for some people that is really new… and if you compare this to a world class laser sailor, it would be 4 years too old… as those sails’ life span is measured by the regatta. Some people change a laser sail after every two regattas… Dan needs a new sail as his is older than him, refinish his rudder, where splinters of soft wood are jutting out from the leading edge, a new goose-neck adjuster, too… and some other things….
after sailing Dan said the rudder will be a winter project… i asked dan why not earlier… basically he is busy and we decided that the speed difference would be a bit better, but if you sail thinking about the rudder and not about wind and sailing then the rudder WILL make a negative difference…
Well I learned yesterday that Dan is faster than me in all points of sail, but there is definitely a difference on which tack is faster for him and me… I felt slower on port yesterday which he feels faster… So on our second trip to Buoy 32 i purposely covered him to force him to go to Starboard and tacked on him to slow him down… the one time I let him go further left ( i was on port, which was slower for me yesterday) he make a significant come back up to buoy 32… this was also due to the fact the left side proved to be more favored….
it was nice to sail for a few hours and do some one on one sparring, especially downwind… the winds were moderate 10-12mph from the WSW with nice 1-2 foot waves so surfing was possible…
Upwind it was strong enough to hike a bit, but easy enough to really think about adjusting little things on the boat, sitting in different positions, seeing different heeling and sheeting angles…
all in all we figured out we were a bit out of sailing shape, but it could have hurt to go out and shake off some of the rust…
If you ever get a chance to go out with another boat of similar speed, take a while to do a little tuning up, and make notes on what was working and what wasn’t…
Hi We sailed last night, Tuesday for the first time this season. It was a great night and only four of us sailed. I believe the threatening weather and the relatively early start of the year threw off a lot of sailors… I will make some notes here that I feel may be of value, especially to those who are new or working there way up their way up the fleet.
Yesterday was shifty from the north. In general, there is a saying, “if you are sailing somewhere that looks like a beach, sail to the beach.” Also at WP, if its out of the north (wind coming off the shore) sail to the shore. And is it was dying, learn from the light air days and SAIL FOR PRESSURE. The more wind one has, especially in a light day, can mean several boat lengths gained in a matter of seconds.
Jim Ryan, Race Officer and Judge, has a rule of thumb for dinghy starts- “when the sounds get closer, get closer to the line.” For a sunfish, this means you might want to be near the line at 30 seconds and trimming in and sailing by 10 or seven seconds. If you wait until the “gun”, meaning 0 seconds, to trim in and get going you WILL be rolled (passed) and spit out the back… and the back of the fleet has BAD AIR.
When Reaching, keep your air clear, and make sure you defend your lead at the end of the race…. what I am saying, is that on a reach most people follow and don’t gain or lose too much, UNLESS you can steal someones air, then the one who got robbed falls behind due to bad air. But early on in the race you may not want to get involved with a boat on boat fight… HOWEVER, at the end you have to protect you lead (as long as you don’t let several others pass you on another part of the race course.) Rule of thumb: When in front of someone (especially in the last leg) keep in front or in between the boat you are beating and the finish line.
PAY ATTENTION: it was shifty, now going up wind, you can see the sail luff dramatically when you get “headed”… however on a reach or downwind, it’s harder to see the shifts… but you must KEEP your sail PRESSURED up… in other words, sail like you are flying a kite… if the kite loses air, you’ll feel less pressure in the main sheet and at this point you will be slower than someone who has pressure. SUNFISH TIP, some people like to hold the sheet from in front of the block, they may get a better feel for the pressure.
Never give up… keep in the race, especially when it gets shifty. This weekend I was Match Racing at the Dinghy Shop in Vanguard 15s… Marguarite Koehler was kicking our butts (I was sailing with Eileen Korinek) and in a match race it’s WIN or LOSE… so when we found ourselves about 100 yards in back of them, and all they had to do was round a leeward mark, it was all over…. EXCEPT they hit the beach with their centerboard and completely stopped! So we made a nice smooth rounding, laughed ( we did the same thing in an earlier flight) and won that race… maybe the PRESSURE of us not giving up forced them to make that mistake?
One last thought; make sure you rig your boat right… everyone who has sailed a Fish has put the rudder assembly on over the traveler and don’t find out until the main sheet is all tangled up and you cant steer the boat… so take your time, set the boat up right on shore so you don’t feel the pressure of haveing to re-rig your boat on teh water with those whistles getting closer and closer…
See you on the water…
well Its almost here already… our first sailing day of the year… Tuesday MAY 4th (thats in like two weeks)… we’ll start at 6PM… i dont even know if we’ll have a guys bathroom, cause its being rebuilt… but who cares, we can use the ladies room… if you have any questions please refer to the Racing Instructions….
this year, 2010, will mark a huge year for Sunfish Sailing on Long Island. There are several regattas throughout the Long Island that will attract the top sailors from around the region. Also the North American Sunfish Championships will be held out East a short drive in Mattituck.
In July- The Long Island Sunfish Championships will be held at Wet Pants Sailing Association. And next door at Sayville Yacht Club will host the very First Sunfish Youth World Championships.
Mattituck Yacht Club will celebrate its 100th year anniversary with the hugely popular Sunfish Derby, attracting over 80 sailors annually… this will kick off the North American Junior Championships and Open North American Championships that same week. This NAs will attract people from all over the United States and possible other countries. I expect the attendance to reach close to 100 boats.
In August- there is the 40th anniversary of the Longest Sunfish Race around Shelter Island. This regatta is the “NYC Marathon” of Sunfish Regattas, where a large fleet of sailors compete in an over four hour race. That same weekend, will be the Aspatuck Team Race held on Tiana Bay.
In September- the popular Fall Series Held in Westhampton YS will kick off its 6 Sunday series. And the growing Frostbiting Series at Seacliff Yacht Club sails every Sunday as the weather gets cooler…
For more information continue to check out the class website, www.sunfishclass.org and look for the schedule updates.