9/25-10/2 ROVING SAILOR REPORT
at 10.03.2009
by Pam
Yeah, that’s right 9/25 to 10/2. I’ve been hot, cold, bruised, sore and wet for over a week and I’m feeling quite old. We started on Friday with boat assembly and practice followed by a J/22 circuit stop at Rush Creek. I had the pleasure of sailing with Ben and Tom Miller. Have you ever sailed with brothers before? And the Miller brothers no less? We were all fairly new to the boat so our performance wasn’t stellar but we certainly had fun and learned a lot.The following week, Ben left his boat and returned to Houston for an offshore race and Tom stepped in at the helm and we were joined by Ken Brown in the middle with me on the bow. Three sailors that have never been on a J/22 before were now learning to sail a J/22 at the North Americans. The boat’s name is Bling and we were bow 45 but we thought about duct taping the name “Bubba” on the side to lower everyone’s expectations a bit.
Bowman’s team was sailing as well and Greta Mittman was their skipper. On day 3, Greta had to leave and Doug was pulled in as a last minute replacement. Sailing was postponed then abandoned that day but I was looking forward to some entertainment because a Flying Scot is as close as he’s ever come to a boat with three sails.
The sailing was the usual stuff … a couple of fronts rolled through so it drifted, it built, it blew, it rained, and it drifted again. There were good legs and there were bad legs and in the end we finished about mid fleet-ish. In the J/22 fleet, a mid fleet finish is a darn fine performance, especially for newbies who were 60 pounds light. Bowman’s team was 120 pounds light and we found ourselves crossing behind them a couple of times (you can imagine Tommy’s reaction). Here are some links to daily videos of the racing and pictures which rival John Noeding’s quality.
Day 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pze_gLb2vjo
Day 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhmOo4paLyc
Day 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAnyDF8GN8
Pictures - http://racebook-us.smugmug.com/J22NAS
So here’s my takeaway on the sailing. First, some of the top contenders were former Butterflyers. That speaks volumes.
Second, the J/22 holds a brief chalk talk where the winners of the day tell everyone what they felt contributed to their success and then they let everyone ask these guys any questions they might have. The interesting thing is that many times, the top guys were doing things completely different. The main purpose of the chalk talk is fleet growth by letting everyone in the fleet know that the guys at the top are accessible and to feel free to ask them questions at any time and to expect an honest and helpful answer. Very similar feel to the Butterfly fleet. On day 2 when it was howling, two of the lighter crews (ours and Bowman’s) were all over Eric Faust asking how to de-power the rig and sails.
As an aside, watching Eric was entertaining. Just like his father, he’s one cool cookie. At the end of day 1, he saunters past us as we’re docking and his boat is all put away and he’s done for the day. At the beginning of day 2, it’s blowing stink and his boat is the only one parked perfectly head to wind at the end of the dock. He casually walks down the dock, and takes his time tuning the rig, setting the sails, stretching, cleaning his sunglasses, while all around him is noise and chaos as everyone is putting up sails at awkward angles and struggling to get out of the harbor.
Third, one of my goals in sailing a dinghy was to learn to be better crew. I feel like I’m accomplishing that goal. I’m keeping track of what the boats around us are doing. Are they lifted or headed, are we pointing with them, do we have the same boat speed, what are they doing differently, backstay tension, traveler up or down, how much vang, cunningham, outhaul. I was feeding this information to Tom and also keeping track of the wind as well as which side of the course the leaders were taking. As for tactics, I’m still learning that part. I’ve sailed with a lot of different skippers and they all seem to do things differently and I try to work with what they are doing but always feel just a little clueless. Conversations with Scott Young make me think that he can almost see a blueprint of the wind on the course. He talks as if it is very precise and he sees and knows exactly what is happening and the only goal is navigating around the obstacles (the competitors) on the course to go where he knows he wants to go. I still have much to learn.
On the humorous side, on day 3, it started out light and races were postponed. Scott Young was in second place by 1 point and was pressing Bob Gough, who was on the race committee, to try to get a race in. At one point, we were talking to Bob asking him if we were going to race and he put his cell phone to his ear and said he was calling God. Tommy told him to tell Kelly we said ‘hi’.
Bowman’s team was sailing as well and Greta Mittman was their skipper. On day 3, Greta had to leave and Doug was pulled in as a last minute replacement. Sailing was postponed then abandoned that day but I was looking forward to some entertainment because a Flying Scot is as close as he’s ever come to a boat with three sails.
The sailing was the usual stuff … a couple of fronts rolled through so it drifted, it built, it blew, it rained, and it drifted again. There were good legs and there were bad legs and in the end we finished about mid fleet-ish. In the J/22 fleet, a mid fleet finish is a darn fine performance, especially for newbies who were 60 pounds light. Bowman’s team was 120 pounds light and we found ourselves crossing behind them a couple of times (you can imagine Tommy’s reaction). Here are some links to daily videos of the racing and pictures which rival John Noeding’s quality.
Day 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pze_gLb2vjo
Day 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhmOo4paLyc
Day 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAnyDF8GN8
Pictures - http://racebook-us.smugmug.com/J22NAS
So here’s my takeaway on the sailing. First, some of the top contenders were former Butterflyers. That speaks volumes.
Second, the J/22 holds a brief chalk talk where the winners of the day tell everyone what they felt contributed to their success and then they let everyone ask these guys any questions they might have. The interesting thing is that many times, the top guys were doing things completely different. The main purpose of the chalk talk is fleet growth by letting everyone in the fleet know that the guys at the top are accessible and to feel free to ask them questions at any time and to expect an honest and helpful answer. Very similar feel to the Butterfly fleet. On day 2 when it was howling, two of the lighter crews (ours and Bowman’s) were all over Eric Faust asking how to de-power the rig and sails.
As an aside, watching Eric was entertaining. Just like his father, he’s one cool cookie. At the end of day 1, he saunters past us as we’re docking and his boat is all put away and he’s done for the day. At the beginning of day 2, it’s blowing stink and his boat is the only one parked perfectly head to wind at the end of the dock. He casually walks down the dock, and takes his time tuning the rig, setting the sails, stretching, cleaning his sunglasses, while all around him is noise and chaos as everyone is putting up sails at awkward angles and struggling to get out of the harbor.
Third, one of my goals in sailing a dinghy was to learn to be better crew. I feel like I’m accomplishing that goal. I’m keeping track of what the boats around us are doing. Are they lifted or headed, are we pointing with them, do we have the same boat speed, what are they doing differently, backstay tension, traveler up or down, how much vang, cunningham, outhaul. I was feeding this information to Tom and also keeping track of the wind as well as which side of the course the leaders were taking. As for tactics, I’m still learning that part. I’ve sailed with a lot of different skippers and they all seem to do things differently and I try to work with what they are doing but always feel just a little clueless. Conversations with Scott Young make me think that he can almost see a blueprint of the wind on the course. He talks as if it is very precise and he sees and knows exactly what is happening and the only goal is navigating around the obstacles (the competitors) on the course to go where he knows he wants to go. I still have much to learn.
On the humorous side, on day 3, it started out light and races were postponed. Scott Young was in second place by 1 point and was pressing Bob Gough, who was on the race committee, to try to get a race in. At one point, we were talking to Bob asking him if we were going to race and he put his cell phone to his ear and said he was calling God. Tommy told him to tell Kelly we said ‘hi’.
