Parents and sailors,
Thanks for a great weekend of sailing… Fairhope is an awesome place to sail and Gulf Coasts will definitely be on our dance card in the future.
This is a two part debrief, one for the parents and one for the sailors…
A few quick take aways…
Having the Team’s boats parked & rigged together was great, we should always try to make this happen… love it and love the team vibe of working together!
Food is our Fuel, with long days on the water, we need to upgrade our fuel to something that’s going to provide hours of energy, with protein, some carbs and some fiber. We can never rely on the regatta-supplied to sustain our athletes. Part of what we need to practice is how to fuel ourselves for a long day on the water, and bring those bars, snacks with us. We need to pack good and tasty energy-sustaining snacks… the Club lunches had a cookie the size of Grace’s face! That much sugar will blow anyone’s concentration.
Pre-event practice…. Even though I was late arriving, and we made some great effort getting out on water, ideally we make more of this as a standard and fly/drive in the day before to get a full day in…
Sails, the J sail is nice out of the bag, but does not age well. Leeches looked shrunk (maybe too long in the hot van?). To make the jump to the top level we have to Look at our sails critically and reassess their condition after each event. Three sails per year should cover the top contenders. A good schedule for replacing could be:
Three New Sails a year, depending on conditions (a windy event could put a new sail into tier 3 regatta status)
1. For Team Trials, Spring International Events, then save for USODA Nationals
2. For Summer International Events (Euros, NA’s)/save for ACC’s in the fall
3. For Midwinters, Orange bowl/winter sailing
If one event is windy, then you might be adding one more sail… use the last sail as practice sail.
Winter Sailing: Looking back at this winter I think we have to look at our winter sailing options, ideally we sail Orange Bowl, Jan Team Race@ Hilton Head, First weekend of Feb practice in Florida, Valentines Day @St. Pete, Jenson Bch Spring Fling and then Gulf Coast Champs…I really like Gulf Coast as it is an easy regatta to win and do well and leave Fla feeling good..
Improve our stamina, strength and fitness! The sailors know now that it is harder to sail and Opti in 5-8 kts than over 20. Opti sailors need strength and stamina to hold uncomfortable squatting positions in light air, with explosive muscle power to rip off excellent roll tacks. In wind they are quickly spent…… we need to come up with a good year round fitness program and follow it. (jay included)
Our CYC team has a great camaraderie – they all seem to have a great time together, but sometimes struggle when it is time to refocus and work… Focus is another point we should work on…
Hope this all helps…
Sailors!
Great event this weekend, while the results were not what we all wanted, hopefully we can get better at every event and learn…and next year run away with the Gulf Coast!
Pre event
I’m so proud of you all and glad our Team has a great time together, yet only one of you had a notebook. Focus was strained at times…
Food, skip the pre-race doughnut… even Michael Phelps saved those to the end! Lets make sure we start off healthy and find some better fuel for our racers; protein from eggs, even protein shakes, fruit, whole grains.
Develop a regatta food-fuel plan, we’ve learned regatta supplied lunches not reliably good. But no one really had a plan to eat during the day and what to eat….or drink! Have a water with a squirt top so you can sail & drink. Add some gatorade to water to give you some electrolytes. Pack your food for the day and label the bag so the coach can give it to you right away… and keep a snack (or 2) in your boat for fast access.
Coach boat etiquette… I am not a fan of sailors on my boat… I don’t go on yours, why should you be allowed on mine?
I learned a long time ago, when sailors are on my boat, their game-brain turns off a bit and it takes time to get it back… Once a coach talks to you and gives you pointers, it is time to test and see what is going on… put the coach’s comments into play, eat a bit, come back to the coach with a question and give up the food bag… the 5 minutes before the next start are yours, look at the line, sail the line and look up wind… maybe take a quick pee!
Pre-race plan, test…not only your speed which we did a good job of… but what side works… sail the start line at least 10 times… put your plan together then make sure you know what your back up is…
Starts…
I will try and share some videos but here are some good diagrams of what I was talking about in debriefs:
TIGHT RIGHT WIDE LEFT!
That leverage thing I kept talking about:
Pretty huge when you look at what young Grace had here for Leverage
While she did not round in the top 10 she was nearly top 20… if she just held on at the top and not got into a tacking duel with herself… BUT why did it work? Front coming in from New Orleans caused a bit of pressure on the right! Remember the weather we talked about in the am!
Why did the left pay? Lee shore effect!
Wind wants to come off the land at right angles to the land… pretty cool… so we always had a bit of a shift on the Fairhope side of the race area.
Current:
Current
We had a lot of wind driven current… meaning water flow was moving hard with the wind… at the weather mark it paid to either come in on port or over stand a bit…
We had a lot of wind driven current… meaning water flow was moving hard with the wind… at the weather mark it paid to either come in on port or over stand a bit…
Look at the clouds!
Overall great weekend… I know there is a lot more to cover here but this is a good start for your notebooks…
I will try and get the photos and some of the video on that U Tube thing… not the most technical…
Thanks for welcoming me back to “Charlies Angels” now Evan’s Angels!
You have come a LONG WAY BABY!!!
Jay Kehoe
