IOM Nationals round up

I put a report on the Nationals in Yachts and Yachting

It is hard to put into words how I feel about this weekend. On the one hand I feel great about the outcome of supporting Craig Richards and helping him to achieve a balanced design for the nationals with a lot of two boat sailing. His third place shows that the design is progressing and working. However on the other hand I am really frustrated with my ownsailing ability in a big fleet. On the bright side after a disastrous Saturday I recovered 11 places on Sunday and another place on Monday with the one race that was sailed

The Saturday of the championship was sailed in top end A rig conditions. Racing is fast and furious and you need to start well, be in the right place at the right time, avoid other boats, manoeuvre easily and pick the right wind-shifts. I failed on most of those counts but even worse I had three contacts in three separate races where our boats locked together and in another race, I was disabled in at the windward gate where a boat bore off round the mark on port and sailed into me snapping a bowsie on the jib boom forcing me to retire. In a 5th race where I was 5th in a B heat, ready for a quick promotion back to A, with a straight line drag to the finish, the fin picked up weed, slowed and ended nearly demoted into C heat. These events described took me out of four of the first seven races and dropped me into 27th place overall. I could say I was a victim of circumstance BUT...

The sad fact is on thinking about this, it was all my fault. It did not matter if I was in the right or wrong, I should not have been in these situations in the first place. We all have the equivalent of software in our brains, mine needs a serious upgrade. I am good in light weather but struggle when we get into top end conditions. The other trait is I am too passive on the water and tend to give way too easily. I am good enough to win open meetings and club races but fall to pieces in large competitive fleets.

Breaking everything down.

The rig was good, OK at top end but showed speed in the lighter weather.

I need training in windy weather to learn to control the boat. It's a fact that the majority of training we did in the first quarter was in light weather.

I am not getting into the shift patterns soon enough

Increase level of aggression. I don't mean start ramming people but muscling in on the right position on starts and round marks.

Focus on mindset for big events

Other observations

Brad's boat as well as being well sailed is quick. He works some magic under the transmitter cover. His low mode is fast and I could not see that replicated across the fleet. Most people when they try it, sail low but go no faster. Not only does Brad have the low mode but he uses it intelligently. If his boat is in bad air he will foot off to drive through to leeward. If there is a header coming he will foot off into it and be the first to tack into the new lifting wind, if there is a gust you can see him crack off to accelerate. So the low mode has a double whammy effect. This is something we can all learn from.

So what now

There is work to do. Whenever there is wind, you will find me on the water but for May I am on a break with my better half to sunny Scotland. I suspect we will be chasing the weather so could end up anywhere. C'est la vie.

Good sailing.