British Grand Prix: Is Formula One turning into the America’s Cup?

Just a quick post.  I’m just watching the coverage of the British Grand Prix, and thinking about the fallout between the FIA and the main Formula One teams.  I’m starting to realise that this may begin to mirror what has happened in the America’s cup.  When teams become more powerful than the event organisers, you have a power struggle which can impact on the entire sport.

With teams controlling so much power over the governing body, you just need a difference in opinion to spark a break down in communications.  Just like the America’s cup, teams should not be able to hold the sport to ransom when things go against them.  However, for this to happen, the governing body HAS to listen to what the teams want, and it is here that I feel the issue is.

I don’t claim to have the answer to this, and if I did I’m sure I’d be a rich man.  However, I do know that the teams and governing bodies seem to forget that the people who matter the most to them are not the sponsors, manufacturers, FIA or team owners, but the people who tune in every weekend to watch the racing.  What they are doing is damaging the sport will driving away fans, and it is this consideration that they should be making.  Instead of arguing amongst themselves, they need to step back and think “the fans want this, so lets do it”.  Both Formula One and the America’s Cup need to stop arguing amongst themselves, and think about the fans.

JP Morgan Round the Island Race: Yacht racing vs. Dinghy Racing

I’ve been throwing skiffs around the race courses of Europe for what feels like years.  We’ve been training from Lymington every weekend, virtually without fail, for the past 4 years.  We’ve been ordered off the water by the Coastguard twice because it was too windy, broken rigs, narrowly missed being run over by charging ferries, and generally made a nuisance of ourselves in the Solent for a fairly long time. Yet, why is it I’ve never taken part in the Round the Island race?  I’ve done a day of Cowes week, once, and that’s it.  I feel like we have done a hell of a lot in Dinghies, but when it comes to Yachts we really haven’t scratched the surface.

I guess some people just get well and truly stuck into dinghies and never branch out.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  I’d far prefer racing a dinghy to a yacht, but I think to count yourself as a proper sailor you need to have spent hours racing both Dinghies and Yachts, and this is one area that I’d like to add to.

If anyone has a place on a Yacht at some point this summer, let us know.  We’re tactically pretty good, Jus drives ships like his hair is on fire and I’m good at getting them going fast.  Just don’t try to get me up the mast, that’s not going to happen.

Light wind racing in Stokes Bay

Back in the 49er, we were always on the light side. Ok, weighing in at 148 kgs wasn’t massively light at all, but we never suffered from our weight when the wind was below 10 knots (unlike other teams).  We’ve always advocated positive thinking in all conditions, but it can be hard to do that when a light team has to fight it out in 20+knots of breeze.  However, when getting set up for a days racing in light winds, we always hit the water with confidence, know that many other teams disliked light breezes and that we had always performed well in them.  In the 800, things have reversed and we have found ourselves wishing for big winds to utilise our boat-handling skills, and not looking forward to the boring light wind races.  So, pulling up to Stokes bay on Saturday we couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that we were in for a light wind event.

After checking out the conditions, we decided that a sea breeze was unlikely (wrong gradient, very stable conditions) and the breeze would be varying from around 5 knots to nothing as the land heated.  Not a fun day to sail, but at least the racing would be interesting. And, man, it was.

In the first race we rounded third and picked to stay in the middle of the course down the run. All was looking good, but thanks to the sea breeze trying to switch on, the prevailing breeze began to die. Boats on the right and left began to leap frog us and we rounded the leeward mark back in 20th. Ouch.  After sailing fast out to the right, we managed to round in 16th and then pull up to 14th by the finish. Not a great start, but we figured everyone would have bad luck in these conditions so it was about minimising any big knock backs.

After an hour break on shore, we launched for race two and three.  With a westerly breeze blowing and a strong tide starting to flood, it looked to be a one sided “head right and hit the shore” day. The startline for the first race of this session was heavily pin end biased, to try to get some of the boats away from the committee boat.  On the one minute gun, we were lined up mid line, away from the big pack of boats at the committee boat end. With good transits and a tide pushing us away from the line, we sheeted in early and hit the line at pace, tacking after 20 seconds to begin to cross the fleet that were struggling to cross the heavily biased line. Heading in shore, we had three boats further in wh started to pull slightly ahead in the slackening tide. With about 10 minutes of straight port tack sailing before the layline, we settled down to sailing fast and high.  We could have footed off to try to get out of the tide a bit quicker, but in the conditions it made sense to protect our height from the guys below us.

We seemed to have very good speed, and could climb away from most boats when needing too.  In the light stuff, I concentrate on watching the leech, fore and aft trim, gusts and waves, and Jus on tell-tales and heel. Constant feedback is key, and from my time in the 49er I have a pretty good idea what the leech needs to look like, so I was constantly giving updates on sail trim to keep the pace on.

As boats below us began to tack back onto starboard, we began to foot off to make the most of the lift that we were in before having to tack ourselves. Picking our spot, we rolled her back onto starboard (slight roll to leeward to initiate, crew crosses in front of the mast, helm pops battens before crew hits the wire to pull her flat. Very important not to over balance the boat and pull her over to windward) about 25 meters in front of the right hand boats.  We had a nice lead on the fleet out right, and had tacked to consolidate, but now the boats who started right on the pin end were looking better and better, hooking into a nice left hand shift and going bow high on port in the middle of the course.  The tide was obviously more even across the course than we first thought, and heading middle left was beginning to pay. Within 100 meters of the bouy, 3 boats flicked back onto starboard to round just in front of us, with the leader 60 meters ahead and number 3 right on our bow.

We had a fast hoist (the 800 kite is incredibly light compared to the 49er..) and managed to roll the 3rd placed boat immediately.  Down the run, middle looked light so we elected to ignore the leaders gybing off and stayed on starboard heading into the middle of the Solent. Using transits, Jus picked the gybe point and nailed the layline from what must have been half of the length of the course away.  Although we hadn’t pulled up any places, we had gained about 60 meters and rounded nose to tail with #1 and #2.

Starting the second lap, we rounded well and managed to have clear air from the other boats slightly below and in front of us. With the wind in a left phase, we elected to follow the leaders out right. After exchanging a few tacks under the shore, we tacked back with the other two boats and headed for the windward mark.  The vast majority of the fleet had followed us out right, but two boats elected to play the middle.  Within 100 meters of the mark, these boats began to pay, again hooking into a left shift whilst we were struggling to reach the mark in light breeze and a tide hitting us on the starboard beam.  In hindsight, we should have sailed for pace, but we got caught in a pointing mode in light breeze as we struggled to reach the mark, and lost out to two boats coming in from the port layline.  On the run, not much happened, everyone covered everyone else and we crossed the line in 5th.

It was an interesting race.  We had a great start and played it by the book up the beats.  Surprisingly, heading in shore to get out of the tide didn’t work as well as we would have thought, and we lost out to boats on the left on both beats.  Still, we had good boat speed and starts so we were pretty happy.

I’ll write more about the other races in a separate post. Any feedback from anyone, leave a comment.

Getting back on the horse (And training in Stokes Bay)

Yeah I know, my blogging over the last few months has left much to be desired, so I’ve decided to make up for it with a concerted effort over the next few months.  With a number of events in the RS800, I hope to have a fair bit of content to talk about.  The last few months have pretty much just been training, and unlike in the 49er, the 800 doesn’t give you a whole load of stories to tell unless it is really blowing hard. So, to avoid boring you all to death I decided to leave the blogging until we had something to say.

Well, We were meant to race in Weymouth a few weekends ago, but the van decided to break down on the way there, so we retreated to Lymington (after packing the boat up at 11pm on Friday night) to unpack and get two days sailing in. But, with a bit of luck we will be in Stokes bay this weekend for racing so I’ll write an update then.

Training last weekend was good. We took part in Spod’s class association training day on Saturday and then fleet racing on Sunday. The highlight of Saturday was either trying to skewer Spod on the end of our pole when we went for a 20 knot gybe-pop-gybe-drop around his stationary RIB. We mis-judged the second gybe and left it a bit late. Still, we were awarded a score of 10/10 for the bail out, so that was nice. A close second to this was bearing-away in big breeze in the mouth of Portsmouth harbour, diving down a rather large wave (I admit to casually mentioning the F word about 3 times on the way down, it was that big a wave)  before slamming into the one in front. The whole boat stood on it’s nose, but crazily, popped back up without flipping over. Man, if that was the 49er we would have landed somewhere in Berkshire…

AVG, Twitter, Meerkats, and proof that you can only win if you take part..

I’ve always been told, by every sailing coach or rugby coach I’ve ever had the pleasure of being shouted at by, that you can only ever win if you’re in the game. It’s cliched, it’s cringeworthy, and it completely sidesteps the fact that if you’re not in the game then you have a greater chance of keeping your dignity, and also, not dying a horrible and mangled death. Either way, I think the saying still holds true in most things you do. If you don’t take part in any activities then you won’t benefit from them.

After my recent success with the lovely people from Marmite (those of you not on my Twitter stream will be pleased to hear that I was sent several tubs of Marmite for some successful Twitter based brown nose-ing… pun fully intended (get over it)) I recently added @officialavgnews to my Twitter profile. This move was to primarily keep abreast of the goings on in the fast paced and exciting world of anti-virus, and to secondly take advantage of their competition to win free anti-Virus for a year if you follow them.

I’ve entered things like this since I was a kid, yet the only thing I ever won was not the Blue Peter mountain bike or huge jar of teeth rotting sweets at the local fair, but a stupid sodding Mickey Mouse toothbrush. When I was 15. Great. Thanks for that one, much appreciated.

Anyway, I was slowly losing hope with humanity, but then…. BOOM… I get a Twitter update that almost floors me. Almost. “You have won a fully paid for version of AVG anti-virus software!” was the message I received. YES! GET IN! I’m finally, FINALLY victorious and will benefit from years of virus free surfing!

Ok, yes I may have gone over the top, but I won something so I don’t care what anyone else thinks. Besides, what can you do? Send me a virus? HA! I don’t think so! Me= fully covered.

Fully covered? That links us nicely into insurance. Man, this post is exciting huh? Anyway, I recently had a thought about the price of pet Meerkats. Ever since Comparethemeerkat.com started advertising with the oh so awesome Aleksandr the Meerkat, I can’t stop talking in pigeon-Russian/English, and describing everything as “simples!”. Therefore, I’m now in the meerkat market for a Meerkat. But alas, they are too expensive now for my modest budget. However, this got me thinking. If only I’d bought several hundred of the furry blighters a few months ago. The average price of a Meerkat has almost quadrupled so I would have been up to my armpits in Meerkat related money. Damn! Business opportunity missed…

Thanks again to AVG for the Anti-virus. I promise to use it to combat viruses and trojans everywhere, for the good of us all.

America’s Cup shenanigans

Is anyone else sick and tired of waiting for Alinghi and BMW Oracle to sort things out in the courts?  They’ve been arguing over the rules for far too long.  I know it goes a lot deeper than this, but I’m starting to think the America’s cup has been flawed since the start.  Basically (very basically), the winning team has the rights to change the rules so long as they have a few sailing clubs to back up their decision.  Alinghi invented a club to allow them to push a set of ridiculous rules through that are unsportsmanlike and completely unfair for the other competitors, and court cases ensued.

I don’t want to discuss why all of this has happened, I quite frankly I don’t really care.  All I know is that it’s about time that Alinghi took a step back and stopped trying to ensure their victory before racing even begins, and start to wonder what state the competition will be like if they do indeed ever get to sail in it again.  If they manage to win the next cup, it’s going to feel so cheap that I imagine not many people would give them credit for the victory.  Is that .worth the time, effort and money? I don’t think so, and I hope they realise this sometime soon.

Oh, and yes, I used the word “shenanigans”.  I’m starting a campaign to bring it back.  I’ve had little success so far…

Downwind laylines – Winning and losing places at the gybe point

The downwind slide in the 49er and other high performance machines (in over 15 knots) is a section of the race course that is far more complex then people first think.  Everything you do, from the bear away at the top mark, hoist, pre-gybe setup, gybe point and final run into the mark are all inherently linked together, much like a an elastic band stretched between the marks.  For you to maintain your position at the bottom mark, or to have the opportunity to sneak a few extra places, you’ll need to get the whole process right, starting at the top mark.  Like the elastic band stretched between the marks, if you pull one part of the band, everything else changes position.  If you delay your gybe point, even by several seconds, your entire downwind leg can be ruined.

Want to drop in the right position? Get planning early..

I’ll just explain.  When it’s breezy, the downwind leg lasts only a few minutes.  With such high boat speed, you want to get to the favoured side of the course as efficiently as possible.  There’s absolutely no time to put in an extra couple of gybes if you gybe too early, and it’s death if you get below the layline and are forced to drop the kite early.  However, it’s easy for me to stress the importance of the gybe point, but in a race if you get your processes wrong further up the course, you won’t have the choice where you gybe as it’s up to the other boats around you, and they don’t play nice.

If you round the top mark and hoist slightly high, a boat can sneak onto your hip and, if they are worth their salt, will be able to live there to the gybe point, force you over it, gybe late and roll you.  There’s no worse feeling in the world (except for that brief moment when you realise the recipient of that dirty text message you just sent was, in fact, your mother..) than hitting the gybe point at 20 knots and not being able to gybe.  You know that, at this very point, your race is ruined.  If only you planned your run a little better.

Ok, how about if you gybe set to get away from the pack?  Sure, it makes sense to go looking for fresh breeze and a clear gybe point, but you need to think ahead.  If you gybe early, you know there’s going to be a boat gybing with you at some point, so rather than just concentrating on the gybe and hoist, the helm has to be looking around.

What I’m trying to say is that, if you are going to get into a good position at the leeward mark, you need to think about it before you even think about hoisting.  Look at it this way, if you get it wrong at the top mark and a boat looks like pinning you out to a corner, you only have a few hundred metres to get some space to gybe.  You never want to sail downwind defending your position and taking risks, you should be looking to extend, so getting clear water around you is key.

Now, when do you start thinking about this?  From my experience, helm’s have an easy job.  They lie back and hold on to a stick.  But hey, it’s not ANY stick, it’s carbon fibre so it doesn’t weigh too much for them…  Anyway, when you tack onto the layline before the top mark, helm’s have a good few seconds to see where the boats are stacking up on them.  Helms need to answer a few questions before we round the mark (and in my experience, if things are going crazy, it’s best to not discuss it with the crew, any hesitation can cost you.  Two minds are better than one, unless a quick decision is needed):

1: Where’s the wind?  Do I want to go left or right? (basically, do I straight set or gybe)

2: Am I going to have a guy on my hip when we hoist?

3: Am I going to be in a position to roll someone or jump onto their hip?

When you’ve answered these questions, you have a firm basis for the set up.  If you’re straight setting, the helm should be looking backwards for a few seconds to keep in line with the attacking boats behind. If they go low, stay down with them, if they go high, then push the stick.  All you need to do is stay in a position to gybe away when you want to. If you are gybe setting, check to see if other boats are gybing behind you or if the layline is stacked up with sails, ready to cut your wind and ruin your well practiced gybe set.

The moral of the story?  It’s important to realise how important the start of the run is for the end result.  If you plan ahead and give yourself room to pick your key points of maneuver then you’ll get to the bottom mark with room to sail and attack the other guys who have been pressurised into making mistakes.  And always remember, don’t be too aggressive mid run.  If a guy looks like he’ll gybe on you then try to wave him through.  Try to be a nice guy as it will come back to you in another race.  But at the bottom mark, don’t take any hassle, stand your ground, and don’t worry if you ruin someone’s race by making them mess up.  It’s there fault for not planning ahead.

Tiger trophy cancelled

Ah well, we were all ready to hit the road.  The snow had been shovelled away from the van, drysuits were packed, tire chains fitted, snow goggles and skis bought just in case, but in the end Rutland sailing club cancelled the Tiger trophy, and I have to say, we were hugely disappointed.  Or not.

I’ve sailed at the Tiger trophy a few times, once in the 29er and once in the 49er.  Sure, it’s the first big event of the year, and it’s great to catch up with the other sailors, but there’s something that always makes me want to avoid it, not for the sailing or for the competition, but for the place.  Although I’ve sailed there many times, I’m not a huge fan of Rutland.  Sure, the sailing area is great, the club house is nice and the sailors I know are awesome, but after sailing there too many times to count I have very quickly got sick and tired of the welcome, or lack of, from the “gate keepers”.  I’m sick of sitting at the gate’s intercome trying to explain who I am and why I dare to bother them.  It shouldn’t matter that I’m not a member, in fact, they should welcome non-members with open arms.  Furthermore, every single time I’ve been there I’ve been sailing with or coaching a member, but that has never detered them from interogting me at the gates whilst cars behind waited to get in.  They even once told me to turn around and try Grafham water sailing club, and yes, to reverse my van and two 49ers back up the single lane mud track, past the other queing cars to get off their property.  How the hell do they ever get new members if they treat new faces (or new voices thanks to their stupid intercom) like they are dirt?

I have no issue with clubs like Grafham water sailing club having a man on the gates, so long as he is there to tell people where to park and to help out.  It’s a joke when a club is locked down tighter than Alcatraz, just in case a non member dares to trespass.  We’re in a small industry where companies need to welcome every single individual who expresses interest in joining in, or even in having a coffee in their canteen.  I wonder how many prospective sailors have been scared off by Rutland (and other locked down sailing clubs) with their almost xenophobic behavior.

The funny thing is, once inside I’ve found the staff of Rutland to be friendly and helpful, I just wish they dropped the intercom and opened themselves up to outsiders.

On a side note, at Oxford sailing club they have on their front doors possibly the most confusing sign I’ve seen.  I don’t have a picture, but I have it memorised:

———————-

Members ONLY!

Visitors welcome..

———————-

Ronston launches new Orbit blocks

I’ve always used Harken on my boats, ever since I can remember. For some reason I’ve always had this idea that Harken are the most reliable blocks out there, although when I think about it I’ve never had any proof for this belief. Maybe it’s just one of those ingrained things that you pick up when you’re a kid and take as Gospel truth without actually considering the facts. Anyway, I know Harken are good so why change?

Well, Ronstan have just launched the next line of their Orbit range of blocks, and quite frankly, I’m impressed. Ronstan have improved the look and solidity of their blocks over the last few years (in comparison to their cheap looking blocks of the late 90’s) so perhaps it’s about time I give them another chance? Anyway, have a look for yourself, and next time you’re in a dinghy store why not give them a spin.

I’ve just had a final thought. LDC offer a package upgrade on all of their RS boats. For £80 or £90 you can upgrade to a full Harken set up which I’ve always done (Over the years I’ve bought a new RS200 and now a new RS800, both with the full Harken package). Ronstan need to approach more manufacturers to offer this service. The word “upgrade” on any price list is always going to make you think that the blocks are better. So surely this is the message they want to be sending. But the question remains, just because it’s an upgrade for more money, are the blocks actually any better on the water? Do we believe what has been ingrained into us, or is this just psychology and manufacturers playing with our brains? Someone needs to run a proper side by side test to once and for all prove which block is best.

Jack Bauer embarks on the longest day of his life.. again

The following blog post takes place between the hours of 16:00 and 17:00 on the day of the California Presidential Primary:

So, it’s not all about sailing.  Yes, surprising as it sounds, I do on the odd occasion talk to people who don’t frequently wear rubber.  I’m not proud of the fact, but in the absence of any decent sail talk I decided to share what I’m doing tonight.  Season seven (sorry, day seven) of 24 starts tonight on Sky, so I thought I’d write a blog post about it.  However, rather than doing the usual blogging thing when it comes to 24 (“OMFG,24 starts TONIGHT! Jack you ROK!!”) I decided to go against the grain and discuss, against popular belief, how badly tonight is going to suck.

Ok, here’s a conversation taken directly (kinda) from a 24 teaser I saw a few days ago:

Jack Bauer:  My name is Jack Bauer, and this is the longest day of my life. Well, the seventh longest day of my life. Well, eighth if you count that thing in Africa.  Well that wasn’t that long, but we bulked it out with adverts.  I’m now rich by the way… Oh, yeah, one more thing, buy a VW Golf.

Ok, I may have used a bit of artistic license there, but that is ESSENTIALLY what is happening.  Two back to back episodes filled to the brim with endless advert breaks, terrorists, clocks ticking down to the end of the hour, blatant product placement, and a nagging, annoying feeling that you’ve seen this all before, and yes,  something will be happening at 07.59am, just like the last time.

With ten minutes to go everyone starts to relax, not realising that on all other days, something always happens at the end of the hour.  Surely you’d get a little suspicious, right?  How about when you’ve just got through 20 hours of hell (with terrosist incidents taking place on the dot every hour), you think everything is wrapped up, all warheads are accounted for, have uttered the killer line “Great job guys!” to the surviving members of CTU, and then BOOM!  Another terrorist incident flairs up.  You’ve got another 4 hours until the end of the day, that’s a total of 24 fve minute advert breaks to fill.  SOMETHING’s going to happen.  Jack, why the hell are you surprised?  You’ve done this 6 times before…  Something ALWAYS happens.

So, prepare for 2 hours (Well, 1 hour of watchable TV, 1 hour of adverts) of predictable, terrorist based “surprises”, annoying ticking clocks, and Jack shouting “God Dammit!” about 10 times.  But on the bright side, by the end of the night we’ll all want to order a Dominoes Pizza, drive a Golf, buy the Ting Ting’s sodding new album (please don’t), shop at Argos, take out a loan and donate to Oxfam.  Great…

I guess 24 has done one good thing for us.  I firmly believe that in America 24 is a strong reason for Barack Obama’s election to be President.  The superb casting of Dennis Haysbert for President Palmer led the way for the ultra cool Obama.  Or at least I like to think so..