-Unfortunately we are now missing 4 skippers. I may edit/amend practice and just do boat handling. Stand by.

-Please record your boats total crew weight tomorrow with me before sailing…. I will have a sheet in the sailing shed. A scale is in there as well if you do not know how much you weigh.

-Pull mast out of boat 12.

-We will focus on fleet racing boat handling, tactics and speed this week, maybe with a few TR drills in there.

Today:

• LOTS OF PRACTICE STARTS. Line size/favored end will all change, and some starts will be i-flag starts. Be aware! Think of the last fleet race regatta you sailed. How many races were there, how many general recalls, and in all those starts, how many of yours were either acceptable or very good? At the MDISA Qualifier, we had 32 total races, so that’s about 35 starts for our team including general recalls. That’s a lot. Starting in Competitive Fleets: Work with your crew on timing, starting line favor/first beat analysis/then come up with a plan, and execute it.
  • Practice starts with X-ray flag and not necessarily any hailing. Make sure you re-start if you are over early. After general recall always an i-flag rule (without the flag).
  • Study the course and starting line. I will watch for teams that are interested in working hard on each practice start.
  • Grade each of your practice starts on
    • clear lane
    • able to execute plan
    • chances of a top 3  at weather mark based on start
  • Before you go out, identify your starting weakness(es) if you have them. Discuss them with your partner and go out and work to improve.
  • Skills:
    • holding a spot on the line without drifting too much to leeward or downwind. Harder in breeze/chop. If you are out early, line up next to the speed marker and try to stay there a long as you can. Use sail trim, non-illegal steering and weight trim.
    • Acceleration from zero. Vital skill
    • Constant starting line analysis & Ability to evolve starting plan during the sequence… when to use “start where others are not”, know when to bail on a losing set up (critical skill)
• I will let a few of the practice starts go… that is you will race to the weather mark and back (finish through the starting line).