This past weekend at James Island was a good learning experience for us. We came to better understand just how competitive the Lightning class is. The racing was challenging for many reasons, but helped show us a little bit more of what we struggle with as new sailors in this class and in heavier breeze (with the additional challenge of sailing in current).
First off, Saturday morning was our first time rigging the boat by ourselves without the dedicated help of our mentor, Pam Burke. After struggling to figure out the shrouds (the order to put them on, what tension they should be at, etc.), some helpful friends stepped in to help (thank you Elaine Parshall and her crew!). With some guidance (and borrowed tools and tuning guide), we were able to finish rigging. Unfortunately, we still felt slow and not able to point very high on the course. Needless to say, we will be spending a lot of time this week before our next regatta figuring out the tuning a little bit better. We are a fairly light boat and just don’t have the technical knowledge yet of what tension we want for weight, wind and wave conditions, etc. We will also be showing up to Beaufort next weekend with some tools that we have discovered are helpful/necessary for rigging this boat.
Saturday racing was, in a word, frustrating. We all felt like we could have performed better in our individual positions. Sailing in Charleston is a whole different ball game than Lake Lanier, which before this weekend was the only location at which we had sailed in the boat before. We consistently felt like we couldn’t go as fast and couldn’t point as high as the other boats, and even found ourselves looking at other boats not too far above us that were hiking and wondering why we weren’t. We’re certain this has something to do with our rigging and lack of understanding about what to pull on/take off in order to point better and when we are in heavier breeze. Overall, we had more bad spinnaker sets and take-downs than good ones. This was partly due to poor communication. Roundings could have been better as well. We hit the windward mark one time and had to do a 360, something we realized we had never practiced together in the boat before.
Continue reading for what each of us want to improve for next time:
Darby:
Rigging the boat, as mentioned above, was an interesting experience for all of us. I’ve known this boat to be more technical, but I need to get to the point of understanding how to use its tools to our advantage. Getting a thorough understanding of the tuning guide and taking notes on tips that people give us will be a good way to finally figure it out.
I’ve sailed in Charleston a decent amount before, and the topic of conversation is always the current. We launched out of Carolina Yacht Club and were sailing right at the battery, so I could see the current line from the Ashley River on the right side of our course. However, I focused too much on the current: I put playing the shifts (like any normal lake day) on the back burner and really tried to sail where the current would help us. However, I still needed to do what I’m used to doing tactically, like playing the shifts and keeping my bow out on others. I think I mostly got too in my head about the current and had tunnel vision. I’ve come to realize that sailing in current is the same as lake sailing, just with an added factor. You don’t take away what you already know, you add to it.
A positive point is that I felt like we had great starts: good acceleration off the line, good positioning, good timing with the jib/main trim, etc. Holding our lane after the start is where we found difficulty, which I think in part was due to our tuning. All in all, this weekend was rough, but it gives us tangible things that we need to work on, individually and as a team!
Wheeler:
This weekend presented a lot of challenges. We definitely felt slow and I think this was mostly due to the rig tuning. We didn’t tape down our shrouds when traveling which messed up our rig tuning. We quickly tried to tension our rig to the specs in the North Sails guide, but we didn’t follow all the steps. Before the Beaufort regatta, we are planning to run through the entire tuning guide and get our boat rigged to the recommended North Sails specs.
In addition to our rig tuning, I think our mark roundings could use some work. We all know what needs to be done, we just need to communicate better during these times to resolve little issues that account for large losses in position (ie. spin getting caught on the spreaders, pole forward to feed the guy, speed at which to pull down the spin, etc.).
From a tactical perspective, I think it was difficult this past weekend to not follow the fleet. With strong puffs coming in on course left, it was just a natural choice for most of the fleet to go left. For our boat to be successful, we will need to focus on getting good starts and making sure we are keeping up our boat speed up to stay ahead of the competition. We had a couple good starts this past weekend, but just got shut out because we couldn’t keep our boat speed up.
Hannah:
In regards to all the challenges mentioned above (decreased boat speed, not being able to point as high, etc.), my part in that relates to the jib. Darby and I struggled with timing pulling in our sails after tacks, and I still feel like I am not fully knowledgeable about how the wire and cloth help us point or have better boat speed. There were a few times I tried to pull on more wire in an effort to help us point and to get a slight snake between the buttons as I had heard was helpful, but it didn’t seem to be effective. Perhaps this has something to do with adding wire tension in tandem with another control like backstay. I’ve already printed out the tuning guide to read and study this week.
In particular, I could have done better with timing and mark roundings. There were a few roundings where we were late rounding the mark due to me not getting the jib up or the pole up or down fast enough. We seemed to get the spinnaker caught around the spreader more often than at our last regatta, and Wheeler and I need to work on being more in sync and communicating better with getting the spinnaker up and down. For example, most of the time, he takes the halyard out of the hook and pre-feeds the sail while I’m railing on the other end of halyard, but if the sail needs another yank from inside the boat while it's mostly up, I need to be the one to do that since he’s then busy flying the sheet and guy. Additionally, we also seemed to have issues with the spinnaker halyard getting all tangled up and causing a slow spin take down while trying to untangle the knots in the line. I now know that this is something I need to be paying attention to and fixing during the downwind leg, if needed. Overall, all 3 of us needed better communication and planning regarding roundings and what we were doing immediately following the rounding so everyone understands what the plan is and what needs to happen.
On a more positive note, our starts were pretty good and consistent, thanks to good communication and timing. By the end of the day, we had figured out what the locals were doing and trying to follow them up the course. Additionally, this was our first time towing the boat to an away regatta and sailing it in saltwater. And things on that front went pretty well. Some helpful dock hands at Carolina YC helped us with hoisting, and there were no major accidents towing our boat from Atlanta to Charleston. We decided that we like how relatively easy the boat is to pack up and are getting better and quicker at it every time. Unfortunately, we had to head out early on Sunday and miss the last two races due to prior commitments back in Atlanta on Sunday night.
Also, we finally got team shirts! They are for sale on this site on the “Merch” page. We are using all proceeds to support our travel and regatta food expenses this year.
Lastly, we are always looking for advice and help. If you’ve read this and have ideas on what we could improve, please reach out! Our emails are on the Home page or come find us at a regatta. Thank you to Lenny Krawchek and others for coming up to us at this regatta, introducing themselves, and offering help. It means a lot to us to get to meet friendly Lightning sailors who are eager to help out and are happy to see us sailing. Also, I BIG thanks to Jeff and Amy Woodard for providing housing for us and to Martine Zurinskas for cooking us a delicious dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday!
We will be at the Beaufort Regatta next weekend June 22-23 better prepared and ready to improve. Hope to see you there or on the water soon!
