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L2K Asymmetric Training Day |
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L2K Asymmetric Training Day – Shustoke S.C. 12 December 2009
The second day of winter training for the Laser 2000 Fleet was held Saturday 12 December. Expectations for the weather were for another gloomy, misty, cold day with little, if any, wind – as had been the case the day before on Friday. Actually, there was a light F1 – 2 breeze from SSW and lifting skies with a temperature hovering around 4 deg to 5 deg C.
Maybe because of the prospective dull weather the fleet turn-out was rather thin – just three boats attended, helmed by Jeremy Batchelor, John Wilkin and Lawrence Dooley and crewed by Rachel French, Bob Heath and David Green. Introductions of coach, Nick Hollis, and participants started the day’s proceedings and then it was down to business.
Consensus of the group was that more boat handling practice would be of most benefit on which to build on future occasions so we started with reinforcing the theory in the classroom (well, wet bar, actually), discussing aspects of being aware of the forces acting on the boat to aid steering and boat balancing through the basic manouevres of tacking and gybing.
Then it was off to the water with Nick taking charge of the video camera in the yellow RIB, ably assisted by Bob Jinks and Tony Lloyd. Our first session consisted of circling around the stationary RIB as close as possible so that Nick could observe our tacking and gybing efforts. Then, a course of windward and leeward marks was set with several tacks and several gybes deliberately throw in by each boat that could be observed and captured on video.
Individual tips were given by Nick to each boat on their technique as well as sail setting and trim. Going to windward, crews were advised to observe the leech of the jib and sheet it so that the leech was in line with the shroud at the spreaders while helms should ease off kicker first and then main sheet tension until the lower main tell-tale was flying for approximately 80% of the time. It had been a pleasant morning’s work with the sun showing through at times and was quite pleasantly warm when it did so, despite cold feet!
Off the water, the analysis of the video could begin. Generally, the boats were tacking and gybing reasonably proficiently, except for Lawrence who had the right idea about the weight transfer initiating the tack but was going about it totally wrong! We were all surprised at the (relatively large) rudder angles induced by the boat turning under heeling (weight transfer) and sail setting alone, with little or no helm input.
With no galley service on offer for lunch due to the SSC children’s Christmas party, we were soon back discussing the afternoon phase which was to focus on race starts. Considerations before the start were reviewed including: time needed to reach the start/race area, wind conditions (strength, direction, expected future strength), knowing the course, knowing the start signals and sequence, checking the line bias, making time to sail the first beat, considering starting tactics, knowing the rules e.g. no water at the committee boat end or pin end – which can give big benefits if called on offending boats not as confident about the rules - and luffing up boats either over the line or into the committee boat.
A short line was set between buoy 7 and a temporary mark, with the RIB sitting beyond the end of the line to witness the goings on. A three minute countdown was used for repeated starts with two boats pre-selected to start on starboard tack and the third, designated the attacking boat, to approach the start on port and find a gap around or between the two starboard boats at the line. The attacking boat was
swapped around so we all had about three goes each. Then we did the same again but this time with the attacking boat also on starboard tack looking for a gap.
The video camera was used again for this exercise and we concluded with a downwind start where John was off to a good start with a well-judged (for once ?) run for the line. With gennaker fully powered up in the light breeze on starboard as he crossed the line, his lead grew impressively. Lawrence was second to cross the line on starboard and gained a little on John who had gybed towards the objective of the slipway but into a lull, while Jeremy was gaining fast on Lawrence but slightly deeper, taking him further away from the slipway. Lawrence held course and waited to gybe for the slipway and while John reached the area of the slip first, he inexplicably overshot and left the door open for Lawrence to land first, thereby claiming victory for the last homeward bound “race” of the afternoon.
After packing away the boats and enjoying a warming shower and getting changed, we viewed the video with interest. John was seen to try some cheeky manoeuvres on the starts for tactical advantage only to end up over the line before the gun! Jeremy was pretty consistent, only occasionally being put off his track by the attacker while Lawrence was seen to be more interested in checking his sails most of the time leaving insufficient time to check on his opponents to be able to defend his start line position usefully.
There were a couple of incidents that called for the interpretation of the rules to be discussed, one in particular relating to leaving adequate room on tacking in front of another boat which led to some confusion about the “clear ahead, clear astern” rule that will need some further clarification from Nick.
All in all, it was another successful and useful day’s training that would have benefitted a wider audience of the L2K fleet so it is hoped that a better turn out can be encouraged to attend the next training day.. Come-on, guys!
Winter Training Day 3 is on Saturday 16th January.
Coach: Stuart Hydon
LCD 13/12/2009
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