Sailing Blog
32 Nationals Wrap Up »
August 4, 2010
Ok, I have waited until mid-week to do the 32 Nationals wrap up. I became captivated with 3 hours of the Bachelorette on Monday night, which is 3 hours of my life that I will never get back, and Tuesdays nights are for A-Scow racing on Minnetonka which is a good time, even when spectating.
One theme that stuck out from the 32 Nationals is when to follow your game plan to exacting standards, vs when to have a more general gameplan and the ability follow it loosely. On the first day of the Melges 32 Nationals, it did not take long to figure out that the people who would be atop the leader board (Red and Volpe) would do everything the could to get right, even if it meant having a delayed start and tacking immediatly at the boat. For the Samba on the other hand, we had talked about getting to the right, but started in the middle, played the middle/left up wind and ended up in the middle of the pack at each first weather mark in the first 2 races. By the third race, after watching boats come storming out of the right for 2 races, we finally convinced ourselves that working on the fringes of our gamplan would no longer suffice; we had to start at the boat and get to the right if we wanted a decent finish.
In this case, our gameplan was to get right, but it was kind of a toe-in-the-water type of approach. There are times when sort of following the gameplan will work, and there are times where you have to follow it to a T and the first day at Harbor Springs a perfect example of this. I am a huge fan of taking the conservative route, especially when you have have good boat speed, but again, there are a few times when you need to get aggressive. Sometimes this is dictated by a venue like Lake Garda where you need to get a clean start and sail to the eastern shor in a hurry, or when sailing in the City front in San Francisco to get current relief, and there are other times when you are a few points out of a finishing position headed into the final race. These are times when you need to roll up your shirt sleeves and get it done.
Day 2 did not allow for as much of a “cut and dry” gameplan as we found ourselves prepping to start in a dying easterly. Fresh with the experiences from Day 1 in our minds, we decided to go for the win at the heavily favored pin end. We set up with a nice hole at 45 seconds, defended well and when the gun went we were moving at full speed and rolling the 2 boats between us and the pin. After a nice first beat and rounding the top mark in 4th, we steadily lost boats, rounded the 2nd top mark in 9th and clawed back to pick off 2 more boats on the final run for a finish of 7th. A clear lesson learned in this race was to minimize the maneuvers and keep the speed on. Yes, there were shifts to be played, but the boats that made huge gains were those that extended out of the first bottom mark to the right side, tacked once and kept the pedal to the medal. Gybing is especially a killer in light air and when we did a gybe-set and a 1 gybe run on the last downwind, we were managed to pick off a few boats. Granted, this race was highly variable and it effectively re-started on the 2nd up-wind, but maintaining boatspeed is key in any condition, but even more so in light air when speed trumps angle.
With the “Win the favored end of the line” mentality still in our minds, we headed out for what would be the final race of the event in a westerly breeze after a long lunch break. This breeze would set up very similar to the first 3 races which meant start at the boat, get right and once you are on the right side, go a little further. The only problem was this time, every boat in the entire fleet had the same idea as there was not 1 boat on the leeward 1/3 of the starting line, and those to leeward of the pack at the boat would be the ones to do well since there was a tangle of Melges 32s when the gun went, the Samba being one of them. It is never a good feeling to hear the gun go, watch the boats around you blast off towards the windward mark while you are moving sideways with no fore and aft movement over your foils.
Interestingly enough, regatta winners Volpe with 18 year old helmsman Ryan Devos and tactician Ed Baird knew just when to go for it and when to hold back. The first 3 races when the rest of the fleet was more conservative about hitting the right hard, they took it every time. When the fleet figured it out by race 5, Volpe started to leeward of the pack, tacked and crossed the mess still tangled at the boat. There is something to say about feeling the vibe and aggressiveness of your particular fleet and when to go for it or hold back. There are some who say not to go for the favored end at the begining of the regatta, because all of the competitors are amped to win races…the time to go for it is after lunch when everyone is sleepy.
Days 3 and 4 would not allow for any racing due to lack of breeze and would serve as a contest of who could stave off boredom the best. Harbor Springs is a great, idyllic American town, but it starts to feel really small when you are there for a week with little to do and cannot take advantage of other activities since we were on stand-by for racing. It was a bummer not to get a nice SW 15-18 mph lake breeze since it can be great sailing conditions, and of course we heard from the locals in response to the lack of breeze, “That this never happens here!”
There Melges 32 fleet now heads to San Francisco for the Cal Cup in mid-August which will serve as the 2nd to last event before the World Championships in September. Stay tuned to 42Marine.com for the inside scoop.
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