These two videos are from a recent weekend of a training session completely unplanned due to the weather. Created the opportunity for a heavy wind training session. The background to this was, last Saturday at my local club, unfortunately the weather deteriorated to gale force winds. What that meant was the planned 3rd race day of a 4 race day Winter series was cancelled. Many young and less experienced sailors participate in this regatta and the conditions where just too risky for a large number of sailors with varying ability and experience levels.
However, the older and therefore more experienced (and a great deal less in numbers) ILCA (Laser) fleet, decided to go out for a short training session. The ratio of sailors to coaches and coach boats was 7 sailors to 3 coaches on 3 separate ribs. As safety is our top priority. Our coaches wanted to take advantage of the rare opportunity for us to develop our skills at this top end of weather conditions to learn the differences in boat handling. The wind was over 25 knots….. which is normally the limit where race committees of racing regattas will cancel racing for safety reasons. The aim was to sort of push the boundary up above where most race communities would send us out so that I’m not in full survival mode for these really heavy wind races that are quite rare. That I’m more comfortable racing and still push the boat to be competitive so just seeing how the boat behaves in these conditions getting some new technique from my coaches.
Specifically, the weather was 25 to 30 knots gusting well beyond that when some big storm fronts came through. We were out there to try to get some experience in those conditions at the upper end of our ability. My ability and try and get more comfortable without making any unforced errors. So that if I was put in a situation to race in those conditions I’d be comfortable still trying to push to be competitive and not just hunker down in survival mode.
I thought I handled the conditions well. My coach new I was capable of it, and I knew I was it was just a question of how well I would handle it , if my boat would hold up to it. I was happy with it and now I feel like I could go out in a couple more knots than that in the future and if I was sent out to race in that I’d be able to get my head out of what the conditions were doing to what my competitors and the race course is doing. An intense moment was probably when a 40 knot squall came through but we had 2 coaches out there for 4 boats so I knew I was always going to be close to a coach if I needed a hand.
In these two videos at the start of the session I was being recorded to try and show how well I was doing at keeping the boat flat. Which I’ve been pretty good at recently, it has been a focus point of mine. But my steering is quite off meaning I’m making very big steering adjustments which is slowing me down. Plus I’m making adjustments not quite at the right time so I need to be more proactive with my steering. I need to think ahead rather than reacting to something when it happens. More time in the boat to keep my feel fresh which will come in summer. That was my focus point for these videos. In a ILCA (Laser) boat it is most efficient when it is flat and it handles alot better. Plus the rig loads up alot nicer.
I was both excited and apprehensive to be able to work where on my heavy wind technique. I was trying to push my boundaries in this the most wind I’d ever so far, been capable of sailing in.
I do like sailing in big wind. It would be nice if I had some downwind reaching videos from this day when we got upwind to the heavier wind but I’m sure we’ll get lots more opportunities this year.
Charles Allen Toyn 