Boat Handling

I ended up with stress fractures in my foot after a recent ocean regatta. It isn’t quite clear what caused the injury, but it kept me off the Laser for three weeks in the midst of three regattas I’d been aiming toward this year. Finally this past weekend I was able to sail in the QYC Last Blast Laser regatta. The wind speeds were in the mid twenties with higher gusts and even with the radial I was struggling. It was some of my worst racing this year – a few reflections.

The mid-morning weather forecast wasn’t too encouraging, partly cloudy changing over to showers with thunderstorms predicted for the starting time of the Wednesday evening racing. New England weather is changeable and sure enough the forecast looked slightly better each time I checked in during the day. I finally decided to go out early, when the forecast said the conditions would be good, and spend an hour and a half practicing; then I’d see what things looked like at starting time.

This is New England summertime and a big lull is beginning to settling in. More and more days present the challenge of sailing the Laser with not enough wind. When there is no pressure, any motion in the boat threatens to knock the flow off the sail, but in order to learn to keep moving in these conditions you need to try things and that means moving around.

I’m trying to increase my skills and options around jibes. I’ve put in time swooping from broad reach to broad reach trying to keep up my speed as I transition from one tack to the other. I find myself stalling for a second after the jibe before I shift my weight out far enough to head the boat definitively toward getting the wind back onto the leach. Not a big issue, but an obvious place to practice and one that will give me a confidence boost sailing in a breeze and waves.

Some of you are already nodding your head in agreement that you know what I mean. But if you’re new to Lasers you may not have gotten to the “Aha!” moment yet.

I was out an hour early for the Wednesday night series. I had warmed up and spent some extra time running circles around a leeward mark. The routine began to lift my spirits and I sailed off to an empty patch and began to sail 720’s. A coach looking on might have found something to improve, but I had one of those moments when I began to play “out of my head.”

What in fact is practice? Is it all sailing other than racing? Racing other than important regattas? All sailing and racing until you quit trying to improve?

We talk about practicing to improve our Laser sailing and racing skills, but is racing different than practice? Clearly sailing alone and repeating boat handling or mark rounding drills is what we traditionally think of as practice. It would be hard though, to make a case against competitive racing also being a great practice routine.  Each time I put my Laser in the water, actually each time I visualize sailing or racing, or read a sailing book I improve my responses and or thinking the next time I sail. Which experiences are practice and what should we call the other experiences – real sailing?

The hull shape of the Laser allows the skipper to tip it in ways that keep various quantities of hull surface touching the water; a nice way to reduce drag in light air. But you pay for this flexibility with the varying degrees of stability associated with the different hull positions.

To fine tune your boat-handling technique you need to practice exercises that focus your attention on specific moves. The analogy of developing strength in a specific muscle group is an apt one.

The Laser is a one-design so less rudder clearly doesn’t mean you should cut off some of your rudder. There are other more effective ways to reduce drag. And remember, steering is all about drag.