Last weekend we went to the Carolina Yacht Club Invitational in Charleston. We had some really great competition and were excited to see 16 Lightnings signed up to sail! The conditions were tough, as they usually are in Charleston. It seems like it would take years to fully master sailing in the Charleston Harbor. We also enjoyed a sweet cocktail party at CYC on Friday night where we got to meet sailors from all over the southeast and feast on some swordfish. CYC really knows how to throw a good party!
Let’s start with the conditions. On Saturday, the wind was coming out of the east/northeast at around 15 knots with gusts to 20. The breeze died off a little bit as the day went on. We were a bit apprehensive about putting the spin up at first, but Elaine Parshall assured us that if we tightened down the twangs on the leeward side and sailed at low angles we would be fine. Low tide was at 10am and high tide was at 4:30pm. Sunday was a bit more moderate with a nice sea breeze out of the east/southeast coming in at around 9 knots with gusts to 15. We felt a lot more comfortable in this type of wind. Low tide Sunday was at 11am and high tide was at 5:30pm. Once again, we found ourselves having trouble factoring in the current to our race routine and tactics. We're slowly but surely starting to figure out Charleston and the layout of the different race courses.
One of the biggest things we have come to realize about the Lightning is that even the smallest issues with your rig can severely affect your race. On Saturday, our vang broke which made getting to the upwind mark somewhat difficult. We weren’t able to hold a lane going upwind which definitely affected our performance. Fortunately, we were able to find the pin we lost on Saturday after racing and fix it in time for Sunday.
Darby:
This weekend presented some challenging races tactically, primarily because we didn’t understand what was happening on the race course. Hannah talks about this a little more, but we didn’t understand why everybody gravitated toward going right throughout the day even though it was shifting left, until we talked to Jeff and Amy Woodard later and they described the layout of the current and little things with the wind based on land formations. I think the frustration of not understanding the racecourse played into our boat handling: we had a couple pretty notable mistakes that played into our poor performance.
Sunday was a lot better, and I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why. I think it’s a combination of understanding the race course better, little to no mistakes, a fixed vang, and just a calmer attitude all together. We had a pretty solid game plan and stuck to that game plan with each race. This showed me that we can do it: we just have to have our head in the race and each perform our roles to the best of our ability. Once we do that and continue our solid communication habits, then we can start competing like we should be.
Wheeler:
I personally thought this was one of the most challenging regattas we have been to. With a fleet full of seasoned Charleston sailors, it can be hard to stand out and move up in the rankings. Saturday was kind of rough between our broken vang and the windy/choppy conditions. Something I personally need to improve upon is not letting a little mistake ruin the entire race. At times, I also got frustrated when the spin set wouldn’t go well and it hourglassed or got caught on the jib. It’s best to just move on when these things happen and keep racing. I just need to keep communicating with Darby and Hannah in order to resolve the problem when these situations arise.
By Sunday, I think we got back in the groove and really sailed well together. We had 2 back to back races where things went nearly flawlessly. We had no issues with spin sets or takedowns, and we had 2 pretty solid starts. We are hoping to get some practice in before our next regatta. When we get on a roll, we really start sailing well and improving; the chemistry is there. Some more practice would really solidify this for us. I’m looking forward to our next regatta at Augusta Sailing Club in September!
Hannah:
I really enjoyed last weekend’s sailing. It took a while to get in the swing of things on Saturday and we had some communication issues. However, I am proud of how we as a team have learned to correct mistakes and move on from them quickly, and that was definitely apparent this past weekend. After a rough first race, we fixed our communication issues for the most part and were able to improve from the 2nd race onward. Tactically, we struggled with the Charleston conditions (no surprise there). Consistently, it looked like there was wind out to the left, so we kept going that direction, only to watch the right pay off for everyone else and the wind never make it down to us on the course. It didn’t make sense and by the end of the day, we were ready to just “follow the locals” although we still didn’t know why they were going up the course the way they were.
Thank you to Jeff and Amy Woodard, our hosts, who talked us through what was going on the water that day in terms of current and wind direction. After hearing their tips and explanations and talking through everything amongst ourselves on Saturday night, Sunday’s racing went wayyyyyy better. We even got “most improved” based on Elaine Parshall’s recap and summary (thanks, Elaine!). It was almost like we needed a regroup and reset which thankfully happened Saturday night. In the future, I would love for us to get more in the habit of doing this: taking time to sit down and seriously think about and talk about what went on that day, what we do and don’t understand, and how explicitly we are going to think differently about tactics the next day. Hopefully, this can eventually become something we do intentionally after every race too.
Thank you to Carolina Yacht Club for a great regatta! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and loved getting to see old friends and meet new ones. As always, let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions for us. Hopefully these blog posts will not be too far behind in the future; non-sailing life is definitely picking up for all of us and that was evident this past weekend. Darby and Hannah got up at 6am both Saturday and Sunday to study (Darby for her summer finals, Hannah for her medical school classes) and Wheeler starts full-time post-grad employment next Monday. Despite all our other commitments, we are excited to continue Lightning Sailing. See us next at the Augusta Regatta Sept. 7-8!
