Sail Melbourne 2010 - Day 4

Sail Melbourne 2010 Day 4 highlights. Great weather, great sailing from Radials, Optis and Laser Full Rigs.

Life Members Day

This was our last Saturday race day for the year. As you can see from the wind data capture, the wind was up on the lake. 20 sailors from the Albert Sailing Club decided to give the conditions a try, with all sailors taking at least one swim during the day.

As for me. I only managed one race for the day, as I received a hit to the head late in race one and decided that it would be better not to continue. Lesson from today was that I should get some head protection in the very near further for days like today. Barring this incident I did have a good day. Speed was good (if you ignore the unscheduled swim activities), with my runs achieving a max speed of 10.73kn, 10.12kn, & 9.76kn. I really enjoyed these periods of peak speed :).

Next race at the club commences 8th of January, 2011, so I will need to look for sailing opportunities between now and the 8th, as I need to keep my practice up for the Australian Laser Master's in Port Stephen's, scheduled for mid Feb, 2011.

Till my next update.

How to repair a Laser dinghy daggerboard and rudder foils

Staying in the Lane-way

Today on the Lake was a great day with a southerly of around 10 to 15 knots. The wind was shifty and you needed to keep on your toes if you wanted to get any advantage over the others. A fantastic example of this was on the numerous reaches from St.Kilda, with a boat not 4 metres away from you gets a nice breeze to get him planing and all you can do is watch, as you are not in the same breeze :(. When the reverse happens it is all good  with the world :).

My lesson from today was when beating up the eastern side of the island, unless I am positive that I am on a lifting tack. I must stay within the lane-way, as this mitigates my risk of potentially losing ground on the others. As I did on my first leg, as I was looking for a lift off the south end of the Island, which did not eventuate.

I am writing this lesson in my blog today, so it can be a reminder for me in the future. I have learnt this lesson in the past, but again I have fallen for trying a high risk option with no benefit on the first leg. The result I ended up at the tail end of the fleet and I spent the rest of the race playing catch up.

Till next time.

Volvo Ocean Race - Online Game

Tonight I found the following link regarding Volvo Ocean Race - Online Game. For me and many Albert Sailing Club sailors the 2008-09 edition provided many hours of fun, competing against some 220,000 players from across the world. Below are to links relating to the 2011-12 online game, which you might be interested in reading.

1. Back in the Game
2. Newsletter Sign-Up

My Summer Sailing Program 2010/2011

The southern hemisphere summer is just just around the corner and so it is time I look at my sailing program. This year I have decided that is it is time to try some Laser sanctioned regatta's. For the past few years I have only fronted to Victorian Laser Masters Regatta and I must say I have enjoyed them. So looking forward to the challenge for this year. Below are the regatta's that I am planning to attend, subject to family or work activities taking a precedence.

• Nov 06-07, Jolly Roger Laser Regatta, PMYC, VIC
• Nov 13-14, VLA Port Phillip Championships, MSC, VIC
• Feb 05-06, VLA Masters Championship & Youth Regatta, MMYC, VIC
• Feb 11-14, Australian Masters Championships, PSSAC, NSW
• Mar 19-20, VLA Championships, MCCRAEYC, VIC

So if anyone else is planning to attend any of these events, I would be interested in hearing from you, as I find it is fun sharing the experience.

race no.3, a lucky first :)

Well after 6 weeks of not sailing. It was clear that all upwind legs, bar the first one have a lot of room for improvement, but overall I am pleased that I managed a first for the day (with a little help from Rod on the last leg).

Leg 01

The screen grab above is of leg 1. I was very pleased with the outcome rounding mark A in second, with a clear break already established from the rest of the fleet. My strategy for this leg was to play the shifts and as you should be able to see from the image above, I managed to achieve my goal throughout this leg, with the exception of deciding to duck under Rod on the second last tack.

Then it was off for a couple of reach/run legs and heading down to the St.Kilda end of the Lake. The diagrams below are of my two upwind legs from St.Kilda. As you should be able to see that I was not picking the lifts very well at all, with Leg 4 being the worst of the two. Rod increasing the gap significantly from me and the rest of the fleet gaining to the extent with Denny in third round mark B with me for the start of Leg 7. My analysis of Leg 4 was that I did an ok job from St.Kilda through the narrows, but once past the narrows I decided to go to the right. Looking at the tack for Leg 4, this is the place I lost a lot of ground to the rest of the fleet.  Leg 7 I did take note of my loss, once past the narrows and made some adjustments, which you should be able to see in the Leg 7 screen grab. I felt that I was able to extend the gap from the chasing fleet and I made some in-roads on Rod's lead.

Leg 04

Leg 07

This completed our last trip to St.Kilda.

Now all that was left was three small triangles to complete and I was some 200+ metres still behind Rod. As the course was laid out, this meant that we only had two more upwind legs, as the screen garbs below represent. Leg 10 for me was an improvement on my other upwind legs, minus Leg 1 of course, and I was able to close some of the gap on Rod, while extending my gap on the chasing fleet. At this point I did set myself a goal to at least catch Rod before the end of the race. I must admit that my next two reaching legs and last upwind leg went very well, with me reducing the gap from 200+ metres down to less than 50 metres and a chance to have Rod thinking about having a race on his hands, rather than a cruise to the finish.

Leg 10

Leg 13

The next reaching Leg, I managed to close the gap to an extent that I attempted (unsuccessfully) to achieve an inside overlap at the next mark, so it was now on, one mark to round and then to the finish. On the second last leg I was able to establish an inside overlap on Rod and to my benefit Rod attempted to push me up prior to the mark. The outcome for me was that I was able to come over the top of Rod, to an extent that I clearly rounded the last mark in first place. In the end I was able to maintain my lead to finish in first for Laser Full Rigs division, so I was very pleased with the outcome for the day.

Even with a lucky first, my lesson from the day is to play the shifts and get a better feel of my new boat, as I am know (based on my GPS tracks) I am missing some of the small lifts that always present themselves on the Lake.

I have my first repair job for my new boat....

So, I have my first repair job for my new boat. Replacing the o-rings in the bailer.

Rather than get an o-ring kit from my Laser distributor. I began to look around the Internet to find out the right o-ring diameter, so I could pick up some o-rings from my local hardware store and make the repair ASAP. To my surprise, my research uncovered these stainless steel springs from LaserSmartParts. At first glance, I thought this replacement option for o-rings must be illegal. As it was too good to be true to have a permanent fix for the regular replacement of the Laser bailer o-rings.

On further investigation, I am pleased say the stainless steel springs are now legal replacements for o-rings. As in January 2010, The International Laser Class Association had made the following rule amendment:

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Rule 13.  Self Bailer

A self-bailing device as supplied only by the builder may be added. The bailer may be sealed with tape, filler or glue along its edge where it joins the hull and at the screw hole. Filling the screw hole level with the flat surface of the bailer is permitted. Fairing the flat surface of the bailer to the hull shape or changing the profile of the bailer is not permitted. The drain bung may be removed from the self-bailer, and the self bailer opening pin may be secured to the cockpit floor with self adhesive plastic tape. The builder-supplied o-rings may be substituted with non builder-supplied alternatives provided the basic function of the bailer is unchanged.

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I purchased my stainless steel springs from LaserSmartParts via eBay. The great news is they only cost me $7.20AUD, including shipping from the UK and they arrived at my door within 7 days of ordering. I would recommend this option for anyone who needs to replace bailer o-rings in the future.

2010 Albert Sailing Club Winter Regatta

This is an article that Rod Thoms and I wrote on the Albert Sailing Club Winter Regatta last month, but I thought I would share. Enjoy.

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Albert Sailing Club's annual winter regatta on Albert Park Lake on 19/20 June, was the second event in the VLA Jolly Roger Traveller Series which runs from May to October. The regatta was successful with over 130 monohull dinghies competing in a short race format series which consisted of seven 30 - 40 minute races in three sessions.


The racing was concentrated in the four most active dinghy sailing classes currently racing in Victoria - the Laser, Impulse, Sabre and junior Optimist classes. The largest entry was in the Laser class where there were 38 boats, consisting of 17 standard full rig Lasers, 12 of the mid-size Laser Radials, and 9 Laser 4.7's sailed by teenage sailors. The light Westerly winds had plenty of shifts and changes in wind strength which favoured the more experienced and more alert sailors.

In the standard full rig Laser's there was a close battle all weekend between Sean Bly and Glenn Collings. Glenn lead the fleet after day one, but Sean hit back on day two to win the last three races and take out the class win after a countback. There was good competition in the Grand Masters category with Peter Wright from Albert fifth overall and first in the category.

In Laser Radial's Jeremy O'Connell from Albert Park Yacht Club had a clean sweep with wins in all seven heats. It was good to see Buster Hooper in his Laser Radial in the Saturday session. The Laser 4.7's, had close racing all weekend with four separate race winners. Tom Vincent, from McCrae YC and Albert winter member, sailed the most consistent to finish first overall, with Ben Hartnett (Sorrento SCBC/ Albert SC) and Lachlan Imeneo (McCrae YC) close behind in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Spot prizes of Laser parts were provided for the VLA Travellers Series race by Jolly Roger Sailing Centre, Performance Sailcraft Australia and Zik. The winners of these prizes were : George Andrysik from Albert SC (Laser Standard) ; James Catton from Albert SC (Laser Radial) ; and Natasha Van Rennes from Newhaven YS (Laser 4.7). Full results and a range of photos from the Regatta are available on the home page of albersc.org.au. There are some good shots of individual Laser sailors and Laser fleets.

Two weeks before the Regatta there was a well attended VLA coaching session on Albert Park Lake at Albert Sailing Club. Sixteen boats, with half of these from the host club, sailed in a full day session in moderate South West winds. Ricky Ironmonger took the Laser 4.7's group, and Glenn Collings the Laser Standard/ Laser Radial group. The focus was on tacking, sailing upwind, and starting. The VLA training sessions continue monthly - see the VLA coaching calendar for dates and details.

The third event in the VLA Jolly Roger Traveller Series will be at 1pm on Sunday July 18 at Elwood Sailing Club. The Albert Sailing Club winter sailing season continues weekly till mid September, with details and dates on albertsc.org.au.

My New Laser

A photo from last Saturday. Thanks to Leisa Hartnett for the photo. You can see some more of Leisa's images at sailingshack.com

Second Outing in the new Boat

Yesterday was my second outing in my new (read as "second-hand") Laser. I am very pleased with a 3rd and for all bar the last 10 minutes of the race I was mixing it up the the two front runners.

Reviewing my race on TrackTacker I believe I have been able to pin point my key mistakes. Referring to the diagram above, point 1 circled is the place I managed to loose 100+ meters on the front runners, with my VMG for the leg reducing to 2.27 knots vs ~3 knots for all other upwind legs. Basically for me, after 75 minutes of sailing I lost the opportunity to challenge for first or second place in the last lap (another 10 minutes of sailing). My focus quickly changed to protecting 3rd, as Ken had been tracking me all day and the gap had reduced between use by the end of this leg.

My analysis of the situation was that I was faced with two problems:

1. The breeze had significantly eased between the circled area and mark A, and
2. I had a Solo and Sabre pinning me to the Island side for this leg, based on position relative to me.

Lessons learned for me from this situation is to observe boats in other classes around me earlier, rather than solely focusing on the leaders and pressure zones on the lake. I believe if I had observed what the other class boats had been doing prior to or at Point 2, I would have mitigated the loss of the breeze easing. In hindsight, I should continued the port tack closer to the edged of the lake, which would have provide me options to pass the Solo and Sabre to the right side, which in all the past legs was working for me.

We will see next time when I am in this situation, if I have learnt from my past mistakes.

Like To Improve You’re Sailing?

Well, late last year I came across a new website called www.tacktracker.com. It is run by an Australian company that has constructed a software application that allows you to analysis your own races via a GPS logger in the luxury of your own home and easily sharing your tracks with others who raced that day.  After looking at how the software worked with the publicly available races. I decided to invest in the racing software + the GPS logger + a water proof pouch.

So far I have been pleased with my purchase, as it has been a great tool to review my own race, put notes in regarding conditions, note what was happening to you at the time, etc. Even if it is your own track you have loaded I have found that you can compare your approach to similar legs to see which one was quicker and why.

The real power of the software comes into play when you start to load multiple tracks, as seen in the screen shot below. Luke on several occasions has been kind enough to send me his track data so I can see what is happening between our boats. One thing that I have picked up is that Luke picks lifts better and more consistently as 9 times out of 10 his upwind legs are quicker. On the other legs the time is much closer with me having a better chance in closing the gap.

Now you might wonder to yourself that all this data looks good, but how long does it take to load? Well the answer is no long at all. For example the screen shot included is of Summer Series Race 4. If anyone remembers the course was 3 large and 3 small triangles. This equates to 20 legs in total. All I needed to do was transfer the data captured from the GPS logger into TackTracker (30 seconds). Create an Event and type in the course marks i.e.( C B A C B A C B A C D A C D A C D A G) ( 2 minutes). Then place marks on the graphic screen, so one placement are required for the A, B, C, D & G marks (2 minutes). Then finally place your start and finish lines (2 minutes). Once this is done the software automatically calculates all legs and the data associated, so you can start analysing straight away. So in less than 10 minutes you have your race broken down into legs and ready to share with others.

The TackTracker software has a nice feature, instead of sending emails with data to your fellow competitors. All you need to do is click on the Share button and your track is stored in the TackTracker site and is downloadable to others who share their tracks and are in the same race location as you are.

Finally, I would recommend this software as I believe that it is helping me with my sailing and it is also good to see your own race warts and all. If this article entices you to invest, then please let me know so we can share our experience/knowledge.