FLYING SCOT SOUTHWEST DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP (5/30/10)
at 5.31.2010
by Pam
It was going to be a weekend off for me but a last minute crew call landed me on Tom Miller’s boat. The regatta consisted of only 3 races, all of which were on Sunday. Saturday consisted of launching the boat, waiting around all day for wind that never came, and then retrieving the boat. DCYC’s air conditioning and pool were very much appreciated.
On Saturday, I learned some Sunfish racing techniques from Jeff Linton. Sadly, he confirmed that at my weight, I can’t depower enough to be competitive in high winds. He gave me some very good advice for sailing in high winds and advised that I take advantage of the light wind days and then simply survive and stay on the course in the high winds days. I suppose that holds true for the Laser and Butterfly as well.
Sunday was a quick launch and three quick races. Tom and I were just getting things dialed in by the third race and finished with a close 2nd but our overall finish was just out of the trophies. Tom is a pretty cool skipper.
I have sailed with various Scot skippers and they each seem to have their own techniques and the crewing is different from skipper to skipper. It reminds me of dancing. They say women are better dancers than men because men only have to learn one way to lead but women, on the other hand, have to adjust to the different mens' leads and therefore learn to dance many different ways. Applying that same theory, I’d say that Flying Scot crew are better sailors. The skippers might do well to allow their crew to back-lead from time to time and maybe learn a trick or two. Back-leading is when the woman is actually doing the leading and making the man look good when he really doesn’t have a clue of what he is doing. If I were a Scot skipper, I’d be sending my crew on recon missions with the better skippers to try to learn their go fast tricks. And, if I were one of the better skippers, I'd be tempted to teach roving crew some go slow techniques. But, I'm neither, so the fleet is safe.
On Saturday, I learned some Sunfish racing techniques from Jeff Linton. Sadly, he confirmed that at my weight, I can’t depower enough to be competitive in high winds. He gave me some very good advice for sailing in high winds and advised that I take advantage of the light wind days and then simply survive and stay on the course in the high winds days. I suppose that holds true for the Laser and Butterfly as well.
Sunday was a quick launch and three quick races. Tom and I were just getting things dialed in by the third race and finished with a close 2nd but our overall finish was just out of the trophies. Tom is a pretty cool skipper.
I have sailed with various Scot skippers and they each seem to have their own techniques and the crewing is different from skipper to skipper. It reminds me of dancing. They say women are better dancers than men because men only have to learn one way to lead but women, on the other hand, have to adjust to the different mens' leads and therefore learn to dance many different ways. Applying that same theory, I’d say that Flying Scot crew are better sailors. The skippers might do well to allow their crew to back-lead from time to time and maybe learn a trick or two. Back-leading is when the woman is actually doing the leading and making the man look good when he really doesn’t have a clue of what he is doing. If I were a Scot skipper, I’d be sending my crew on recon missions with the better skippers to try to learn their go fast tricks. And, if I were one of the better skippers, I'd be tempted to teach roving crew some go slow techniques. But, I'm neither, so the fleet is safe.
