Excellent weekend at Thornbury SC ....

... my ramblings on which are posted on the Rooster Blog!

Windy Junior Training at Slipper

Today the older Juniors took to the water for some training in a testing force 6.  Some of the adults were out racing and clearly finding the conditions a challenge, I noticed the legend that is training-partner-Claire coming back with a liberal coating of Sweare Deep mud at the top of her 4.7 rig!

Anyway, here is a little vid of the juniors ripping it up in the Little Deep area. 

 

Some highlights:

- Note how controlled Josiah and Finley are in the Teras, whilst beam reaching to the training area.  Nice flat boats and good technique. 
- The Toppers can be a real handful in the stronger winds, and they are difficult to tack in the choppy waters.  But Finley, Amber and Jessica did fantastically well, and at times were outrunning the ribs!
- The Feva is being sailed nice and flat, those guys are hiking to the max.  No lack of effort in that boat, going nicely quick.
- Lots of capsizes, but that's to be expected when sailing in such testing conditions. 

Well done to all those who went out, and thanks to Jemma-the-cameragirl today.  Hopefully we'll get more footage of the other sailors next week!

The first starts for our FNO junior sailors

Every week in the sailing season, our club runs three training sessions for the juniors in the club - Friday Night Oppies (FNO), Sunday Morning Oppies (SMO) and Sunday on the Tides.  Overall there is about 120 juniors in training, and a huge number of volunteers who instruct, provide patrol boat cover, and perform many other jobs to make it happen. 

This year, I'm the SI for FNO fleet, and also instruct the 'Start Racing at Slipper' group.  These are children who have passed their RYA Stage 2 and are looking to get involved in some racing with their peers at the Junior Regatta in a couple of weeks.  This week, we looked at starting, and I promised to put a video of their starts online.  So here is the first one, this is the first ever start for these sailors and they did fantastically well.

After lots of practice, here is the last start of the day.  Check out the competition at the pin end of the line, when Haribo's are involved those sailors are epic.

 

 

This group clearly has talent, when one of them becomes the next Ben Ainslie this footage will be gold dust.

Some thoughts on the RS100

The majority of my time at Minorca Sailing was spent either sailing the RS100 or windsurfing (we had strong winds nearly all week, the windsurfing was excellent).  I'd been thinking about the RS100 as an additional boat to the 300, and thought I might post up a bit of a review.

Positives:
- Really nice boat to hike.  The profile of the sidedecks make straight leg hiking relatively easy and comfortable (compared to the 300 anyway).
- Accessible as a first time single handed asymmetric dinghy.  My baptism was a couple of days of f5, and the boat isn't too much of a handful.  The exception is gybing, it takes a little time to get the process and timing sorted out.  Have to be really careful not to come out too high, the gybing strop helps gybe the main early.
- Beautiful to sail downwind, the boat feels light, balanced and fast.  Easily keeps up with faster boats, and seemed to sail deeper.  Great fun.
- Well thought out and easily adjusted controls.
- Seems to perform well to handicap, but that was on a windward/leeward course.  RTC sailing might well be different, you really need dead downwind legs.

Negatives:
- Not a great boat to sail upwind, felt slow and lethargic (even when permanently footing).  Given that 60% of racing is upwind, this is the one point that I think would stop me buying a 100 - its just not fun beating, as compared to the 300 anyway.
- The boat is underpowered on reaches, until you can fly the kite.  No surprises there.

Not a boat for me for club racing, I'd get too frustrated with the upwind performance.  But if I wanted to do a circuit, then maybe - I imagine the class racing is good. 

I sailed the 300 yesterday for a race around Chichester harbour, finished sailing with a huge smile, I'll be sticking with the 3 for the moment. 

A new boat for the family fleet

Junior training starts at Slipper next week, and the youngest in our family has just got his first boat.

This boat was given to us by some friends at the club, as it needed considerable TLC.  In a windy race, the mast had dislocated from the cup holding it at the foot, and destroyed the front thwart.  The insurance company had written it off as beyond economic repair, but we like recycling old boats and thought we'd have a go at fixing it up.

Like all of these projects, I thought it would take 8 weeks but it ended up taking the best part of a year.  I wanted to learn how to spray gelcoat and refinished the hull and deck as well as fixing the thwart.  And of course the boat needed a new rudder and centreboard.  Looks like new now, but give it 3 weeks and junior training and the insurance company will be writing it off again.

Most of the jobs on the boat weren't really suitable for Oscar to help with (spraying gelcoat isn't nice), but he spent time helping me clean the workshop.  And tracking my progress with to-do lists, there's a budding project manager.

As to the boat name, he choose "Toy 2 Many".  "Eggy Chocolate Rampage" was a close second, and I have to say I was disappointed he didn't go with it.  One happy sailor:

An unexpected boat name

Some more unexpected fallout from the curry on Monday. Long time ISO crew Vicky had said that she had been pondering a name for my boat for the last two years, and had finally come up with something suitable.  And applied it when I was out the house earlier in the week.

That's right, 'OCD'.  I discovered the new name when I took the cover off the boat to remove dirty wax on the non-non-slip, and replace with some nice new clean wax - the irony of the new boat name was not lost on me!  I don't expect the foredeck decals to last beyond the weekend, but might sneak some slightly smaller lettering on the transom.

The only problem here is that I haven't had a chance to use my favourite boat name (from an SA thread) - 'Shoot Low, They're Riding Chickens'.  Maybe next time.

Its looking fresh this weekend ....

... for the 300 Winters:

If anyone can advise of a good supplier of Frey Bentos pies in the Hampshire area, I'd be most grateful.

Personal handicaps from the H&H series

There has been talk of personal handicaps at my clubs recently, I thought it would be interesting to look at the recent Hare and Hounds series and derive some PHs from the results.  Here is the method I used :

1.  For each race:
   - Calculate the average corrected time across all competitors
   - Work out the handicap that a competitor would have to use to be corrected to the average time.
2.  Average the personal handicaps across the 12 races in the series, to get a single PH for the series.
3.  Remove competitors who sailed less than 4 races.

And here are the results (crews names omitted to get on one page, sorry crews):

By way of example, if Andy Gould's ISO sailed off 809 - which lets face it is a reasonable handicap for the ISO - he would have finished (on average) mid-fleet for the H&H series. 

Having made these calculations, the question is whether they are actually useful or not.  The only practical use that I can see are :

•  For an individual races, if these personal handicaps were used to calculate results, it would allow sailors to assess whether they had a good race relative to their previous performance.  Not an exact measure as the mix of boats in the fleet changes race by race, but a good indication.  And perhaps encouraging for those who aren't at the top of the results sheet.
• Over time, if an individuals performance improves relative to the fleet, you would expect a decrease in personal handicap.  So for those racing regularly in handicap fleets, it might be a good way to see whether training pays off.

Be interested to hear if other clubs have implemented personal handicap schemes that have worked out.

Another chilly Chiller

The penultimate race in the TISC Chiller series today.  Yesterday we had 10 degrees of warmth and a light breeze, today we had 4 degrees and a reasonable ENE breeze :

Our race started at 10:00, so we had 15-19 knots (f4-5, Cambermet is in the middle of the race course, so a good indicator of actual wind).  One key difference to recent outings in the harbour is that the water state was much calmer - the chop was reasonably well defined and no 'interference pattern' discernable.

We had 12ish boats on the water, and some good performances:

- Mike and Emma had a great race in their ISO, despite giving the fleet a 2 minute head start from the start line (a problem with the spinnaker and missed all the flags).  Their new set of Rooster sails looked really good, especially on the two sail reaches which are not the forte of the boat.  I predict a 2nd place, and well deserved.  Emma looked slightly tired at the end of the race, downwing sailing in chop is hard work for the crew,  esecially on the legs.

- Tim Weedon was out in the RS100 8.4.  Off the start, the reach was too fine for Tim to fly his kite, and he dropped slightly behind.  The second leg was a dead run, and Tim was flying downwind, must have taken 500m+ out of me in my 300.  The 100 looks great fun. I'm off to Minorca in May, hopefully I'll get the chance to try one there.

- Matt (despite being dismissed from the circle of trust) and Gael showed a clean pair of heels and led the race in their 400 until the final 100m or so when they were overhauled by Mike and Emma. 

- Ex-training-partner Claire and Helen looked in fine form in their Laser 4.7s.  The problem with a slower boat is that you end up hiking for longer in a race - those ladies have thighs of steel.

- Great to see the usual suspects in the Laser fleet.  Bryan had a grand start and was first off the line, but fleet stalwarts John and Patrick looked to have put in competitive performances.

Many thanks to RO Dave and those in the patrol boats, without volunteers none of our racing would take place.

2013 Portsmouth Handicap numbers

[Update 04/03:  It has been bought to my attention that if you type "RYA Handicap" into Google, this blog post is third on the list of search results.  I have no idea why.  If you have made it here through that route, please don't expect great insight into the handicap system.  And none of the commentary in the following ramblings are sourced from the RYA, this is just a little blog for the sailors in Emsworth Slipper SC and TISC.  But welcome anyway, your views are giving me all time high stats!] 

The RYA publish revised handicap numbers every year, usually around the time of the Dinghy Show.  This years numbers were published last Friday, here.  There are some interesting changes for our little fleet at Slipper and TISC, which I summarise for the benefit of the esteemed readership.

ISO : Minus 2 points to 924
At last the RYA have seen the light and started to make a gradual transition to the obvious '900' handicap for the ISO, with a 2 point decrement this year.  The RYA made a last minute statement regarding the ISO (this is obviously from from a credible source in the RYA, and in no way manufactured by me for the purposes of blogging) : "The ISO handicap was on course for a significant reduction this year, but we had reports from a recent TISC race in which an ISO capsized twice in relatively benign conditions, and did some 'wearing round' in previous races.  As a consequence we are limiting the reduction to a mere 2 points for this well known handicap bandit".  So there you have it from the horses mouth, good to see the RYA on top of the detail of the yardstick process.

RS300 : Minus 5 points to 995
The first move in a number of years for the RS300 handicap, dropping five points to 995.  Again the RYA had specific commentary on the 300 : "We have been inundated with requests from certain south coast clubs to reduce the handicap on the RS300.  Whilst there appears to be little data to support such a move, we have had enough of answering the phones about this and have reduced the handicap by 5 points to get everyone off our backs.  We'll try to get it back up to 1000 next year when all the fuss has died down, apologies to all 300 sailors impacted."  We 300 sailors are a relaxed breed, and will adopt the new handicap with the stoicism which typifies the fleet.  A move of 5 points equates to 18 seconds in an hour, I'm not sure that would have changed many results last year.  Its fortunate that I've been capsizing so much, I like to think that in doing so I've made a small contribution to the class by stopping further reduction.

Laser : Plus 2 points to 1087. Radial: Plus 7 points to 1117. 4.7: Plus 5 points to 1180
The Laser family continues its inexorable rise in handicap, but to be honest it seems well justified.  Training partner Claire (or my 'sailing wife' as my real wife puts it) has announced her adoption of the the Radial rig as default choice for the season ahead, and was joyful at the rise in handicap.  It does seem odd that the Radial and Standard handicaps are so close given the relative size of sail, but I guess the statistics inform otherwise.

RS400: Down 1 point to 947
But the 400s should look on the bright side, the 300 handicap was reduced by 5!

In the end, none of this matters - it is the position within class that counts, not a handicap system that does account for wind strength, water state, tidal conditions and course.  That said, I do look forward to the f2 handicap races of the spring and summer, once we get this bout of windy winter races out the way.

A Yuletide Windsurf

 Too windy to go 300ing today, so I thought I'd go windsurfing instead - it has been a while since I've been out on a board, and there was a good breeze running this morning.

High tide was at 10:30, I got to the foreshore at about 09:45 to find none of my windsurfing brethren in attendance.  This was a problem, it is not good practice to go out solo in a force 7, equipment failure would mean that you are in cold water with some distance to get to shore, and potentially no one knows your plight.  Fortunately another three sailors rocked up at 10:00, after prevarication for 5 mins on rig and board sizes we set out.

A bit too much West in the wind to be a classic harbour sailing day, but good fun nevertheless.  Very gusty winds and some fearsome squalls.  As well as hip flexors, I have discovered flexors in my forearms and shins (in many ways, windsurfing is like riding a bike - if you don't go for a while you can remember how to do it, but lose the fitness in key muscles).

I mounted the GoPro to the boom, not great footage as the camera angle was too high and frankly straightline blasting on a windsurfer makes for boring film.  But I attached a couple of clips for those interested.

First a view gybes, the flat water behind Fowley island made for easy gybing just so long as you avoided the grass patches.

A duck gybe and helitack:

And finally a gracefull dismount.  If a trick doesn't work out, the best thing to do is pretend that you were going to stop anyway, in this case to adjust harness lines.

H&H 12 Photos

Many thanks to Noel and Claire Coussens who took some very nice photos of the H&H12 race yesterday.   You can see them all here.  I particularly like the photo for the start of the second race :

We can see the Laser 2000 and Fireball are clearly over the line, they were marked as BFD by the Race Officer.  But closer inspection shows a little naughtyness behind the Laser 2000.  The photo highlights how difficult it is for the race officer to make a judgement on boats that are covered by an early starter, in the split second of the start gun - it took me 5 minutes with a magnifying glass on the 2000's transom to decide who I thought could be over.

Tom Tredray had an excellent start in his Laser, just to windward of the 2000.  He clearly had room to bear away and accelerate, exactly on the line at the gun, and clearly moving at speed. 

Never thought I'd say this, but look at all the room by the hut end of the line!

The Chiller series at TISC

Sailing the Chiller series at Thorney Island SC is always great fun.  It is very different to the Hare and Hounds series at Slipper.  The racing has a very relaxed feel, the start line spans the full Thorney channel (and so doesn't have the congested feel of the Slipper start line), and you get to see parts of the harbour that we only usually visit on down harbour races from Slipper.   Tactically it is very different - the tide and back eddies play a big role in getting round the track, and long standing TISC members have a distinct advantage in this respect! 

You can leave boats at TISC for the series free of charge.  Its a great way to start the New Year, Slipper members are welcomed with open arms!  More details below.

Reflections on the Yoke

"Oh no!", said Hugh as we left the mooring at TISC. "I've forgotten the cheeseboard and port". And so the tone was set for the 2012 Yoke race to the Hamble, an annual competition between the cruising fraternity of the Emsworth sailing clubs.  I was fortunate enough to be asked to join Hugh on his yacht Fixation, along with Helen and Claire - all dinghy sailors but with little experience of big boat racing.  I thought a write up of the race may encourage a few more from the dinghy fleet to support this race next year, its great fun and offers something a bit different to our usual round-the-cans racing.

The race started at 10:30 in the Chi Bar beacon area just outside Chichester harbour entrance, with 31 boats on the startline - 16 from Slipper and 15 from ESC (I think).  A wide range of craft, from the diminutive and graceful folkboats, to the 36'+ serious cruisers. And the less luxurious stripped out racing boat - Luna- of Mike Austen.  More on that later.

On reaching the start area we started to look at starting options.  The wind was relatively light, maybe a force 2, and very shifty.  The start line was set and looked to have a slight port bias, we spent a little time finding transits, finding the optimal approach to the line and getting a feel for the tide.  It was clear that the majority of the fleet also fancied the pin end, so we decided to start maybe 25% up.  It was all looking good until the stripped-out-racing-boat-with-a-bucket-for-a-toilet Luna sporting guest tactician Andrew 'Frothy' Gould tacked under us with 2 minutes to go.  At the gun we had speed on the line, but the French boat gradually climbed out from under us, forced us to tack off.  We crossed the fleet on port, found a lane and tacked onto starboard, and settled down for the 3 mile tack to the first mark near the forts.  After 10 minutes or so, the crew decided that a cup of tea was required, and the lovely Helen obliged.

One reflection on the first leg was the sensitivity of the boat with respect to sheet tension.  The wind was variable between 6 and 8 knots true, and the genoa sheet tension and main traveller required continual tweaking to manage the leeches and keep the slot in good shape - the tweaking seemed to make a 10-15% difference in boat speed, so well worth the concentration.

As we approached the forts the wind dropped to nothing, but we could see a windline a few hundred meters away.  All of a sudden we were in a dinghy race, everything moved from the macro level of 3 mile single tack legs to a micro level of needing the right strategy to travel 200 m to get to the windline first.  Luna and Melody had great pointing and speed and showed the fleet the way.  Baby Blue was unfortunate and seemed to get caught in a tidal back eddy on the fort, we sneaked back into the channel to try and pick up tide.  We lost 150m to Luna, and Melody made great gains.

About this point we started discussions about lunch, but decided it was too early.  So we settled for another cup of tea, the wind ahead looked fresh and we wanted full rail weight to be available.  Once we made the windline, the breeze piped up to a nice f3-4, and we were back to continual tweaking to get the most out of the boat.  Boat handling was improving every tack, and we started to look forward to setting up for the first downwind leg in 7 miles time.  In the interim we had a very pleasant lunch of chicken tikka rolls, kindly pre-prepared by Helen.

By the time we had reached the final windward mark, the wind had built to a f4-5 and it was time to get the kite up for the first time.  Fixation has both a symmetric and asymmetric spinnakers, the downwind leg was running dead before the wind so the symmetric kite was selected.  We repeatedly clarified the order of events before the windward mark - clip on the sheets and halyard, pole up and out, hoist the kite, set, furl - and executed flawlessly with Claire on the helm.  We could see Luna about 75m ahead.  Mike has just bought the boat and had yet to fly a spinnaker on her, it took Luna some time to sort it out.  We managed to sneak parallel and inside Luna by the time she had set, and led her into the next mark.  There was a last minute attempt by Luna to get an inside overlap on the buoy, but a brief and conclusive exchange between the crews soon established that Fixation was clear ahead.

A final close reach to the finish saw us finish second boat over the water, and second on handicap.  We were beaten by a very well sailed folkboat, who beat us by 17 seconds over a 3.5 hour race (the folkboats are beautiful and became desirous to a number of us, but having seen the price (£30K) for a second hand boat I don't think we will be getting one any time soon).

We made Hamble marina by 15:00 or so, and spent the rest of the day socialising with other crews.  An excellent dinner at the Waterside Restaurant rounded off the day.

Be great to see more of our dinghy contingent next year!