TRANSPARENT COACHING 2

by Pam

Wednesday evening we headed to WRBC for some coaching with Catherine. Luigi was there so he joined us. First, we raked Catherine’s mast back. We measured the rake by hoisting a measuring tape with the main halyard and ran it tightly down to the top of the gudgeon on the stern. She started at 236 inches. We then measured one of Bruce’s old boats and got 235. Catherine was already at the top of the ladder on her forestay so we added a shackle and the measurement changed to 234. We figured that was close enough because her boom is really high at the back of the boat. We then moved the side stays down a notch.

Next, we took turns roll tacking in the harbor since Luigi already had his boat rigged and in the water. Bruce has done wonders with that boat. It feels really fast. Catherine and Luigi both managed one or two good roll tacks. At the moment they appear to be going through motions by the numbers rather than by feel. Feeling will come later.

The wind appeared to be building slightly so we all decided to rig and head out for some night sailing, which is Doug’s favorite tool for learning to feel the boat. Doug and I sailed double handed on a Laser. We’re not members anywhere so we use the ramps. You know how slick the ramps are, right? Well, as were launching, Doug does this spectacular pirouette followed by the splits and then lands flat on his back in the water, and somehow makes it look like, ‘yeah, I meant to do that … it’s hot and I needed to cool off.’

We went up the lake and did a few tacks and some straight line sailing. Then the wind died and it was a painful and long sail back. Doug thought this was an excellent opportunity to feel the wind and the boat. He does this amazingly well and even though we were double-handed and sailing back and forth between Catherine and Luigi with ease, they were both struggling to keep their boats moving. Luigi was patient and calm and even enjoyed the sight of a shooting star. Catherine was frustrated and did what I use to do and sometimes still do and fought the boat all the way back to the dock. She wanted to point rather than foot and the boat, therefore, wanted to stall and sail backwards. No matter how many times we told her to bear off and keep the boat moving she was pretty sure we were telling her the wrong thing and grew more frustrated. We’ll be following this painful experience with some chalk talk for a better understanding of why they were struggling. In short, neither has learned to feel the boat or the wind yet and that comes with time and struggling and they both logged some serious time doing just that.