Last weekend at Hobcaw proved to be a great regatta with many challenges, but also a lot of improvement. With an unexpected Westerly blowing in Saturday, we had plenty of wind and of course, took on sailing in current again. Classic Charleston conditions (as least more than what we are used to) gave us the ability to make a good comparison to our last time sailing in Charleston at James Island. Our personal improvements were huge, and we came in 7th out of 10 boats and even nailed a 4th place finish on Sunday.
We all agree that we felt more comfortable in our roles on the boat and are able to work in sync a little bit more. After shaking off the cobwebs after not sailing for 3 weeks on Saturday, we figured out the course a little bit better and it was awesome to feel like we were truly working as a team. Knowing what to expect from each other and how to help each other helps maneuvers go faster. We definitely still have some work to do, especially in the areas of calling tactics. There were a few times other boats pinched us off pretty badly, and we’re working on understanding how to prevent that from happening.
One of the biggest things that finally sunk in was important constant communication is. Even when we’re feeling frustrated, it’s important to not shut down but to keep talking and working. This was a mistake we had made at James Island. When the wind picks up like it did on Saturday afternoon and tensions are high and decisions have to be made quickly, it can be easy to get flustered. But it’s crazy how much our performance improves when we know what to communicate and when. That finally clicked last weekend and it was awesome. Check out a video of one of our races below! The times to skip ahead to certain parts are listed as well.
Keep reading to see what each of us walked away thinking about:
Darby (skipper):
I feel like we say this every week, but our communication has improved yet again. There was one jybe mark maneuver in particular that stands out as phenomenal crew work. We were able to get the jib up, take down the pole, and douse the shoot like a well-oiled machine; it was so efficient that we were able to beat the boat that rounded on our inside who kept their spinnaker up as we reached to the finish. Something that Wheeler and I are still working out is him communicating to me what he needs me to do when he’s flying the spinnaker, whether it be to head up or fall off, based on the pressure in the spin. Finally, I think Wheeler and I are still having a bit of trouble connecting on the jybes, with his spinnaker flying and my driving. Either he isn’t pulling it back quick enough or I am driving down too much after the boom comes over; either way, our shoot always takes a couple of seconds to fill after the maneuver. I think next time, I’ll try to heat it up to give him more pressure to work with. There were a couple of times this weekend where we all got kind of frustrated, but I made it a point to not shut down and, rather, ask even more questions and get Hannah and Wheeler to tell me where to go while I focused on making us go fast.
Which, speaking of making the boat go fast, there were multiple times this weekend where I felt it. Jordan Wiggins, someone I grew up sailing against, mentioned on Saturday night that we need to play the traveler more in heavy breeze because it is a quick adjustment for when we are overwhelmed with a puff.
Tactically, our starts weren’t that good. I wasn’t being aggressive enough on the line and would end up doing a late boat start, which would put us in dirty air. I think I tend to do that start when the current is a big factor, because I know I can have boat speed, but in reality it does the opposite because I can’t hold a lane. I think I need to be better about picking a spot and holding it, which is what we did on Sunday and the results show it. Going downwind, I’m still trying to determine the extent to which these boats like to sail by the lee. I’ve heard (and seen) that you can really drive them down, but at what point is it slower than jybing over? I know a lot of factors go into that decision, so I think the answer will come with time and keeping my head outside of the boat.
Overall, it was a fun regatta, and it was great seeing faces that I grew up sailing with. I’m hopeful in that I think we’ve pieced together boat handling and crew work for the most part, and this weekend was a good introduction to the team dynamic of making good tactical decisions. Before next time, we ideally will have the boat stuff figured out and we can dedicate more of our attention to going to the correct side of the course. We’ll see!
Wheeler (middle):
Hobcaw was a lot of fun. We enjoyed seeing some familiar faces and hopping in the pool after a long day out on the water. I think the biggest difference I noticed this week was improved communication and chemistry on our boat. Hannah and I seemed to be anticipating Darby’s decisions on the water a lot better. We were able to get things done quicker during mark roundings and transitions. This meant we had more time to look up the course and help Darby make tactical decisions.
Big thanks to all of our readers who emailed us tips about how to prevent the spin halyard from getting fouled. We wrapped the end around the mast and it worked like a charm: no tangles whatsoever!
I love that we are still learning new things at every regatta, and I am proud of the significant strides we have made over the past 2 months. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in 2 weeks at the CYC Open!
Hannah (forward):
I had a lot of fun this weekend and really enjoyed getting to sail in a lot of wind, although it definitely creates a higher stress situation. I played with the wire a lot and I could tell when it helped us power up or down. I got a lot of feedback on some of the issues I had mentioned in our last blog post from Beaufort (thank you SE district members for emailing us!) and tried out wrapping both the spinnaker halyard and topping lift around the mast and it worked like a charm. I had no issues with tangles in the lines at the front of the boat and I could focus on looking backwards and calling tactics more.
One thing I am curious about with the jib is sometimes it makes a “helicopter noise” when the foot flaps back and forth. I discovered that this can be fixed by 3 different things: windward sheeting, pulling on more wire, and sheeting out on the jib. So now I just need to figure out which one of those (or what combination) is best for making us go faster! I used windward sheeting pretty often in 420/FJ sailing in college, but I haven’t used it very much on the Lightning and so I want to maybe utilize that more if it can help us.
Something else that was new this weekend is I started paying more attention to the tactic and communicating our heading since Darby often can’t see it. This helped me understand our position on the course much better and I could help make tactical decisions much better as well.
Overall, it was a great weekend in Charleston and we enjoyed getting to test our tuning again and improved abilities. Thank you to Hobcaw Yacht Club for hosting a wonderful regatta and to Jeff and Amy Woodard for housing us. As mentioned above, thank you to SE district members Bill Sloger, Lenny Krawcheck, and Todd Cox for emailing us after reading our previous blog post with suggestions and pro tips. As always, feel free to reach out if you read this and have any comments or ideas for us (our emails are on the Home page). Next we’ll be at Carolina Yacht Club Regatta July 27-28. Hope to see you there!
You can watch Race 2 below OR click the link to view on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IFlLko2v90Q.
If you don't want to watch the entire race, you can skip ahead to different parts of the race using the jump ahead times in the description on YouTube.
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