2010 Singles Nationals

by Pam

It was a long drive back from Colorado and we didn't even bring back the longest distance traveled trophy. Folks from Michigan and Wisconsin also made the trip. The number 2 seemed to be the number that Fleet 20 drew for this regatta. Doug took 2nd overall, I was the 2nd female and Doug won the 2nd race.

Click here for the NBA Write-up and Results

Between no internet service at our hotel and the long drive back, I’m delayed in reporting our experience so I’ll try to tell you stuff no one has written about.

After traveling to various venues, I use to think that White Rock’s facilities were a little on the rustic side but due to the shifty conditions of the lake, we produced very good sailors. Union Sailing Club just moved White Rock down the list several notches. USC is truly rustic with a couple of storage buildings, a port-a-potty, and a converted pontoon boat as a shelter. It’s all a sailor really needs. But USC is so much more too. The view is beautiful, the people are friendly and helpful, the winds on that lake are truly shifty and the fleet seemed to be quite deep with talent. It was shame the wind didn’t cooperate on this particular weekend because I imagine we would have learned even more than we did.

The regatta came down to just three races and it was very much about smart sailing with speed and fitness having little to do with the final outcome. In all the rules training we’ve done at WRBC in the last month, I was completely unprepared for the multi-boat mark roundings. One particular rounding brought the entire fleet together for a 20+ boat rounding at the leeward mark. That was interesting. Rules be damned. The outside boat can’t hear the inside boat and it’s impossible to keep track of where 20+ boats were when you entered the three boat lengths. Still, I learned quite a bit on those mark roundings. I’d like one do over but wouldn’t trade how I fared on another.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, Doug and I were educated on a few things about the way the Dallas fleet sets up their boat. One of the great things about traveling and interacting with other fleets is the opportunity to learn and become truly one design.

First, the Dallas way of setting up the traveler with a rope and block on block, it turns out, isn’t class legal. With a little prompting, we changed our boats over for the race on Sunday which went abandoned but not before we learned that the class legal way is waaay better than the Dallas way. Wire traveler (or next year, a rope with a 4 inch height off the deck) and a single shackle and block is the class legal way and after sailing all day on Saturday fighting with the block to block traveler system in light air, I was overjoyed at the simplicity and efficiency of the single block system. I eased the main sheet in super light air, and holy smokes, it actually went out. I bought a wire traveler from Jim Young that I will eventually put on my boat but Doug temporarily put it on Dave’s boat with shackles and found that it would catch in exactly the right place at exactly the right time and hold his boom exactly where he wanted it to be. Perfection!

Second, we learned that the dagger board goes curved side forward. I’ve heard both ways and I’ve heard it doesn’t matter and I’ve heard it depends on which side is chewed up the most and Doug even sailed with it backwards last year and won so maybe it’s not important but it was nice to hear several of the top sailors insist one way worked better than the other despite it being counter-intuitive. Curved side forward is what I’ll do from now on.

Third, we learned there was elastic in the batten pockets on the sail. I put mine in whichever way I could get them to go in and was informed that I’d missed the elastic which acts as a spring and pushes the batten back and stiffens the leach. Probably most of our experienced sailors know this but I’ve had it wrong since I first got my sail and we checked Amber’s sail and all of hers had missed the elastic as well. Now, we both have stiff leaches.

So, from this regatta, Doug and I learned a lot. We enjoyed meeting folks from other fleets and we enjoyed sailing in a different venue and we were humbled. That’s a good thing. We’ll be better prepared at the next national event.

Thank you Jim Young and Union Sailing Club for putting on a great event. The wind didn’t cooperate but the committee made the most of what they were given and the sailors did the same and although the drive was a bear, it was worth the trip. Hopefully, the economy will improve and more people will travel in the future. It’s good for the class and truly worth the effort.