LASER HELP THE BOTTOM OF THE FLEET.

 From this past weekend there are seven things that the bottom of our fleet needs to work on.

1.      Sail the boat flat when the wind is up.

2.      If you can’t hold it down “super vang”. Two block with the sheet and then pull the vang on as hard as you can.  Now you can ease the sheet out whenever you need to keep the boat flat going up wind.

3.      Get the vang off before the windward mark.

4.       Going downwind sail the fast angles, right or left, depending on which is closer to the leeward mark.  When the wind gets lighter sail a higher angle.  Don’t sail straight downwind except changing right and left, by the lee to broad reach.

5.      Before the three boat length circle and arguments about who is inside at the mark, get the out haul and Cunningham set for up wind.

6.      Leave the centerboard up for one last push down before your turn.

7.      At the mark, enter wide (two boat lengths) and exit close-hauled next to the mark.

If you don’t have time to practice between races, get out early or stay late.  It takes time and practice to remember all the stuff.

LASERS GET THEIR PENCILS OUT.

Reported in the Fall "Laser sailor", Peter Seidenberg at the San Francisco Masters after seven races he felt he was doing poorly.  Problem with the tides.  He studied the tables more closely and made notes on his deck.  Next day, four first and a second.  You need to know what the tide is doing.  

The other notes you might make on the deck are the wind shifts before the race, when you are using a compass.   Don't try to make the notes later-- hard enough to keep your head out of the boat when you are using a compass. Get out early and make your notes and figure an average so you can always tell if you are going right or left.

A lot of good folks don't use a compass.  Ask me about that if you like and we can touch on it.
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LASERS CHECK THE SIGNALS

This is the B flag for the B course.

Yesterday in a light air race, the old guy was carefully picking out the ares of pressure to work toward on the first beat.  He linked up a group of patches leading up to the mark and it looked like the others could not get to it before he did.  Good work!  We will get to that mark before them.  Take another look. They are going around the other windward mark (we have two windward marks to handle major wind shifts).  Oh! Oh!  I am sailing the wrong course.  Ouch!

So now I need to add another note to the "before start list":  1. Check for up wind end of line.  2. Get a range. 3. Time the line.  4. Check for current.  5. CHECK THE COURSE SIGNAL.

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LASER LIST NUMBER TWO FOR 2011.

This is a big boat note.  Well, not this big boat, but look at all those sailors that could be sailing Lasers.

My number two is LASERS SAIL THE WALLY,  JULY 20,  2011.

This is a fine tune for the wind shifts to m ake you just a little faster.

Tomorrow will be my pick for number one.

I bet some of you can pick that one out.

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LASERS SAIL SMART-- GROUP 6

Actually these are not Laser sailors but MC scow sailors at Lake Eustis
Sailing Club in Florida.

What a good looking bunch!

During the past year I used some material from Buddy Melges book "Sailing Smart"

and I group them together.

Lasers Look Out for the Rules... January 6, 2011

Lasers Sail Early ...January 10, 2011

Lasers and the Melges Start ....   January 14, 2011

So here are the scow sailors along with good advice from the son of the MC scow designer,

but that is another story.

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LASERS SLEEP

Well, yes, he doesn't look like he is sleeping.  Looks like cold water. Serious guy with watch on mast and one on his left wrsit.  Vang and "ham" on.  That is Evan Lewis who wrote the article in Spring 2011 Laser Sailor on sleep before sailing.  He tells you all about it, but in brief:

What happens when you sleep?   The brain reorganizes and inproves the recent practiced skills.  The muscles rejuvinate and replace glycogen stores.

Without adequate sleep you will get fatigue, irritability, mood changes, poor concentration and lose of patience.

Adults need 7 to 8 hours sleep.  Young and young adults 8 to 10 hours.

Get in the dark, the quiet, the regular routine, no food or exercise just before bed.   At a regatta, look for a good place to sleep.

Check out Evan's web site for more tips and Laser stuff.... http://www.evenlewis.ca/
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LASERS CHECK WITH ROBERT SCHEIDT

From the 1900 Olympic games, this is the "Lark" an entry in the 0 to 1/2 ton class.  I guess they didn't have any Lasers then.
Before we got to far away from the Buddy Melges advice, I want to record part of an interview with Robert Scheidt from the April 2007 Sailing World.  Dave Reed asks "In the boat park before a day of racing you're said to be very intense and focused, mainly keeping to yourself."

"I'm a quiet guy and don't like to talk to much before the race. I try to concentrate on the day.  I try to keep my routine before the race: washing the boat, checking the gear and going to the course early to check the conditions.  After each race I relax, have a quick discussion with my coach, and not think too much about the race.  I try to not  bring bad feelings in to the next race or the next day and deal with each race at a time.  If I win the race, OK, but focus on the next race.  If I do badly, I try to forget it."

Anything we have touched on before?
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LASERS SAIL EARLY

Lasers get out and sail early.  Maybe half hour before the scheduled race start.  Yes, you have heard this before but we are reviewing the advice of Buddy Melges via his book "Sailing Smart".

He wants you to get out 30 minutes before the start of the race.
1. Warm up with some tacks and gybes. 
2. Get you sail set up for up wind and down.
3. Check for current at the marks.
4. Check the right and left sides of the course for the best winds.   Do this with another boat, if you can arrange it.  One sail the left side of the course and the other the right.
5. Don't forget to stand up to look for the pressure.   The good sun glasses helps you to see it.
6. Keep track of the starting time and be sure to be back at the committee boat before the start.
7. Yes, I know a lot of good sailors that just arrive before the race and can still win.... but not sailing against Buddy and the better sailors.
8.  You think this is too early, but if it is an important event at a new place the good guys arrive a week or so before to get some local knowledge and familiar with the conditions.
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LASER STUFF 9,8, AND 7.

This picture is not related to my best 10 posts of 2010, but I like it.  Everyone working hard.  Maybe a gate because they are going around to starboard.  Maybe a team race with S and B shirts on.

Picking the best 10 have been tough for me but here are the next three.

9)  LASERS CONSOLIDATE, November 22, 2010.  This is Buddy Melges after getting a short lead looks for the first chance to move over in front of some of the fleet.  Not trying to win the race, but to stay in contention.
8)  LASERS TACK AND GYBE, November 9, 2010.  Buddy Melges takes us on practice sail and starts out with 50 tacks and then 50 gybes.  Wow!  If I did this a couple of times!

7) THE LASER SAILOR AND 10,000 HOURS, October 29, 2010.  This is a look at the time and experience that is necessary to be good at anything.  Another WoW!

So I will leave that for today and try and fit the others in to the next few of days.
Still can't get the link to work.
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LASERS LOOK FOR THE BEST TEN OF THE YEAR.

I am thinking about all the fun we have had this year sailing Lasers and this is a picture of the two most important fellows in our fleet.  They sail regularly, often fight it out for last place and keep smiling.  They are getting faster and faster, but still need to work on keeping the boat flat. If we didn't have them then it would probably be me and then I hope they will be holding the fleet together in several years.

We still have four more posts on Buddy Melges's book "Sailing Smart", but I will hold those off while I tell you about my ten favorites that I have made in the past year.  It was hard for me to get it down to ten, but I want to start with LASER SAIL TO RULE OF THUMB, September 13, 2010.  That was about sailing the long tack first until it wasn't the long tack anymore and then think hard about getting over the other way.  I keep thinking about that now in every race although is nothing really new.

If I knew what I was doing you could click on that capitalized title (Like in Proper Course) and go right to the post.

LASERS CONSOLIDATE

When Buddy Melges works out a little lead toward the left, he will be looking for the first opportunity to tack toward the middle to consolidate what ever lead he has. Maybe a little header. Take as much as you can he says.  Hang with the fleet and somewhere in the middle of the course if you can.  From that position you won't loose to much on big wind shifts.  The goal is to be in the top few boats at the windward mark.
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LASERS SCALLOP TO WINDWARD

After the start, Buddy Melges will scallop to windward.  Head downwind just a bit to gain speed and then with more water moving over keel or board, he heads up a little to pinch to windward.  The boat to leeward will limit how far down he can head to gain speed, but then he pinches up to clear them and to free his wind.  When he has headed down to gain speed, he is footing out away from the boat to windward and then pinches up to deflect air into the wrong side of their sails.

Keep the boat flat and sail fast for that first minute or so after the start to work a clear lane.  Then look for a header or opportunity to tack and consolidate your lead (Oops, that is the next hint.)

Sure, this is old stuff.  Many people will be doing it.  You just need to try to do it better.  Practice??
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THE LASER SAILOR AND 10,000 HOURS

Malcolm Gladwell in this book explores the lives of people like Mozart , the Beatles, Bill Gates, and other really successful people to find that before success, they had put in at least 10,000 hours of practice (or trial) before they got really good at what they were doing.

10,000 hours is what?  It is an 8 hour day, 5 days a week for almost 5 years with no time off for Christmas or sickness.

Now that is his 10,000 hour rule. That is the minimum that great performance needs.

He thinks no one is just born with the talent.

You have to pay your dues.

So how much sailing

practice and regatta

sailing will you

be doing this

week, month,

or year?

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LASERS SAIL BY THE LEE

But not with the Spinnaker up.

Remember, sailing downwind in lighter wind.  Weight forward with radical heel to get the sail up into more wind and reduce the wetted surface.

 Think about transitions.  Avoid straight downwind. 

If you have some waves catching up to you, then dive into the deepest hole in front of you, pump the sheet and angle down the side of the wave to stay with it.

If you are sailing faster than the waves are moving, going around the big ones.

If you are not leading, what are the folks ahead of you doing?

Look behind.  Maybe you want to keep your wind clear. 

Look behind for more pressure that you might want to move to.

Wind increasing -- be a little more conservative.  Practice, maybe doesn't make perfect, but it helps.
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LASER SAILORS LOOK AROUND

John Bertrand stands up to look around.  Find the pressure.  Plan the course.  You can see things better standing.  John is sailing in England on big water and has his compass handy.  That takes a lot of experience to be able to sail the boat, keep track of the other players, and not be looking at the compass all the time.
There are two guys ahead of him today-- and I wonder if they are "compass guys"?
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LASERS SAIL TO RULE OF THUMB.

Lasers and the Rule of Thumb.


The Last “Speed and Smarts” by Dave Dellenbaugh was on the “rule thumb” helps. He gave a list.

Rule of thumb is an old English expression perhaps to Judge Roger Thumb’s rules or the measurement of small distances with the last section of your thumb–about an inch. Now just the quick easy answer.

Most of the rules refer in some fashion to playing the shifts of wind direction. My most important one being “foot to the headers” which gets you some separation as well as on the best wind angle. The one I had not thought about before was “if you are going slow, change something.”

Actually David picks “sail the longest tack first” as the most useful and puts a new twist to it.

As you sail the longest tack and approach the the lay line, that tack gets shorter and the other longer. Now he applies that rule again, and sails the new longer tack. OK, that brings in the other rules of thumb, stay out of the corners and delay going to the lay line.

Nice job, David.
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LASER SAILORS MAKE NOTES.

Hold onto the sheet!  How did this ever happen?

We learn from our mistakes, but how are we going to keep track and remember all of them?


1. You can keep thinking about them.

2. Write them down.

3. Get out and sail, so you can collect more.

4. If you have a coach, he is probably making a list.



“Smart Laser Sailors Keep Record” September 22, 2009 has check off list of many of the things you might or should check in each race. But at least keep a written note about the big mistakes.



5. Then you need to put the big mistakes together so you can review them.

6. Review them often.

7. Some will need practice. (Like leeward mark roundings. Or 720's)

8. Maybe organize into “Do This” and “Don’t Do This”.

9. Review and visualize.

10. If all that is too much work, just forget it –let us go racing just to be sailing with the other folks. Most of us are doing it just to have FUN.
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SAIL A LASER BETTER

Tom Slingsby wins in England and tells us how to do it!   The 22nd place in the Olympics in China gave him the instruction.  You learn more from your bad races than you do from the ones you win.  Now all you have to do is remember not to do all those dumb things....It probably could be a long list.
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LASERS NEED TO HYDRATE

Laser sailors need to drink plenty of water.  Sometimes we just need a place to rest.

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DELLENGAUGH TALKS TO LASERS

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In the December Speed and Smarts Dave Dellenbaugh tells how he sailed away with the Thistle Championship.
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Startegizing, starting, boat prep, tactical moves, and speed testing.
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Working for speed 1) New Sails. 2) Get the mast straight. 3) Clean the hull.
4) Speed test with a friend. Mark the fast points. (2010 rules allow Laser to mark up mast, booms and hull for fast points. Not sails yet.)5) Get everything as light as you can.
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Avoid breakdowns.. Check all you lines and equiment and replace if warn.
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Starting avoid the crowded ends. Get line of sight and be near the line.
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Sail fast up the middle and work the shifts.
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If you are fast it will make everything else look good.
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Suprise anyone??
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Subscribe at www.speedandsmarts.com if you want to read all 16 pages.
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