Henry
02-03-2010, 09:33 AM
The warm up for the north americans in no way could prepare one for what was to blow in saturday morning. It was awesome. The park at the US Sailing Center was absolutely full of 470's. English was for a time a second language as the best teams from all over the world scurried about putting boats together fresh from their containers. One team spent most of thursday night with drills and 4200 literally rigging the brand new mcKay under the lights, with splicing fids and sewing needles making the final adjustments.
But it was not just the presence of greatness across the lot- it was the old timers and first timers that was amazing. Allison Jolly had unretired Lucky, her 1988 Gold Medal Winning 470. Lucky was joined by many other never seen and not seen lately 470's crewed by folks fresh to the boat. I can not remember any time so many fresh faces in the 470 were in the same place at the same time!
Saturday brought a solid 25 knots and the RC recorded several puffs into the low to mid 30's. Several boats suffered breakdowns and many endured capsizes! The boys I was coaching were having thier second day in the boat, with fridays brief practice in light to no wind. Not suprisingly I got a real good look at the "new to the boat' fleet which was generally on the same leg as the leaders, but well back. A few things impressed me about this part of the fleet. First, no one gave up. The wind and short chop were exciting, but fun would be a stretch. As the boats would round I would pay careful attention to thier setups and boathandling. Allthough rarely pretty each boat had thier rigs basically in the right place and sails were going up and down. Next, when some of the newbies would get off the start and hold thier own on the beat just about everyone got up into the mix during the first two windy days. That's exciting!
In 470 racing it is paramount to get off the line. You have to assume in a competitive fleet that everyone is going the same speed or faster. And in a large fleet that means as soon as you get bounced from the lineup that you have to go find clear air regarless of the phase of the shift. This means you give up a few prescious boatlengths every time you get bouced, and they add up quick when the top half is holding thier lanes. But time and time again i would see a newbie hold on, get a lane, and make it round the first mark in good position!
The regatta saw breezy conditions again sunday, but not quite as much pressure. A solid force 5 breeze made for perfect trapezing! Again the practiced foriegn teams were steady in the breeze. In mixed events the men tend to go a bit better than the women but there were two french teams and two american teams that were constantly finding themselves right up in the mix! The regatta results are online so i won't bother with trying to spell all our overseas visitors names correctly (or at all) cause by spelling is bad enough as it is! But Amanda Clark and Erin Maxwell (sailing with Sarah Chin and Isabelle Kinsolving respectively) were very competitive in the breeze and setting the stage early for a flat out war with the french and danish teams. The US men were not quite as strong as the Europeans but Stu McNay looked very good, and so did quite a few others from race to race.
Monday saw the end of the breeze. The first start was comical. Lets say 18 boats tried to win the pin all at once. Didn't go well. Thank god for general recalls! One might think that the breeze would quickly seperate the top from the bottom but as it turns out it the light and light/medium conditions that are the toughest in the 470. Once you have steady trapeze conditions the boats go very close to the same speed all the time if your setup is in the realm. In the light and LM conditions though there is little feel in the boats, set-up is king, and changing gears is constant and paramount.
All in all very few boats sailed the NA's and then not the OCR's, I think 5 left the kingdom. But all five of you--- there was a TON of excitement and talk about the 470 future in the US and Canada, so watch this site! We all agreed that using the existing site was the way to go, and to help vitalize the class efforts that many have been holding together for decades instead of trying to organize something else. For those of you who had boats and couldn't stay-- we need to use this board to get regatta's going! If your club can make something happen (keep it simple, like one powerboat and 4 marks) then come up with a time that is good for you and let's see what we can do!
For those of you who chartered... DARBY... we are also trying to find a better way to list available boats so you can get in and started.!!!!
I will keep writing and trying to help to make the site more informational and user friendly, but I can do nothing without all of you!
More on how to get into a 470 in another post!
As a wrapup on the NA's- Miami YC did a great job with what they had. In retrospect while the 49er experiment was interesting and proved we could sail on the same trapezoid without cutting 470's in half- I don't think we will see a lot of that in the future. it worked out fine for the 470's because it was our NA's. But the time they had to wait inbetween races was not so good for a boat that basically has two speeds-- oh SHIP! and capsize.
it was awesome to see so many new faces- but the key is take all this interest and go forward, not make this regatta the highlight of your young 470 careers!
To make it work I would like everyone who reads this to post thier own regatta report- how you saw the regatta from YOUR perspective. From top to bottom, if everyone does this we will all learn from each other, and give more experienced teams a chance to answer complicated questions when they are not sailing thier own regatta!
A last word about the USST teams and coaches- everyone was awesome. The top teams and thier coaches were coming over and helping the new teams as much as they could. What an amazing resource! Thanks in particular to Skip Whyte and kevin Burnham. You guys are incredible, and everyone you help gets better quickly!
But it was not just the presence of greatness across the lot- it was the old timers and first timers that was amazing. Allison Jolly had unretired Lucky, her 1988 Gold Medal Winning 470. Lucky was joined by many other never seen and not seen lately 470's crewed by folks fresh to the boat. I can not remember any time so many fresh faces in the 470 were in the same place at the same time!
Saturday brought a solid 25 knots and the RC recorded several puffs into the low to mid 30's. Several boats suffered breakdowns and many endured capsizes! The boys I was coaching were having thier second day in the boat, with fridays brief practice in light to no wind. Not suprisingly I got a real good look at the "new to the boat' fleet which was generally on the same leg as the leaders, but well back. A few things impressed me about this part of the fleet. First, no one gave up. The wind and short chop were exciting, but fun would be a stretch. As the boats would round I would pay careful attention to thier setups and boathandling. Allthough rarely pretty each boat had thier rigs basically in the right place and sails were going up and down. Next, when some of the newbies would get off the start and hold thier own on the beat just about everyone got up into the mix during the first two windy days. That's exciting!
In 470 racing it is paramount to get off the line. You have to assume in a competitive fleet that everyone is going the same speed or faster. And in a large fleet that means as soon as you get bounced from the lineup that you have to go find clear air regarless of the phase of the shift. This means you give up a few prescious boatlengths every time you get bouced, and they add up quick when the top half is holding thier lanes. But time and time again i would see a newbie hold on, get a lane, and make it round the first mark in good position!
The regatta saw breezy conditions again sunday, but not quite as much pressure. A solid force 5 breeze made for perfect trapezing! Again the practiced foriegn teams were steady in the breeze. In mixed events the men tend to go a bit better than the women but there were two french teams and two american teams that were constantly finding themselves right up in the mix! The regatta results are online so i won't bother with trying to spell all our overseas visitors names correctly (or at all) cause by spelling is bad enough as it is! But Amanda Clark and Erin Maxwell (sailing with Sarah Chin and Isabelle Kinsolving respectively) were very competitive in the breeze and setting the stage early for a flat out war with the french and danish teams. The US men were not quite as strong as the Europeans but Stu McNay looked very good, and so did quite a few others from race to race.
Monday saw the end of the breeze. The first start was comical. Lets say 18 boats tried to win the pin all at once. Didn't go well. Thank god for general recalls! One might think that the breeze would quickly seperate the top from the bottom but as it turns out it the light and light/medium conditions that are the toughest in the 470. Once you have steady trapeze conditions the boats go very close to the same speed all the time if your setup is in the realm. In the light and LM conditions though there is little feel in the boats, set-up is king, and changing gears is constant and paramount.
All in all very few boats sailed the NA's and then not the OCR's, I think 5 left the kingdom. But all five of you--- there was a TON of excitement and talk about the 470 future in the US and Canada, so watch this site! We all agreed that using the existing site was the way to go, and to help vitalize the class efforts that many have been holding together for decades instead of trying to organize something else. For those of you who had boats and couldn't stay-- we need to use this board to get regatta's going! If your club can make something happen (keep it simple, like one powerboat and 4 marks) then come up with a time that is good for you and let's see what we can do!
For those of you who chartered... DARBY... we are also trying to find a better way to list available boats so you can get in and started.!!!!
I will keep writing and trying to help to make the site more informational and user friendly, but I can do nothing without all of you!
More on how to get into a 470 in another post!
As a wrapup on the NA's- Miami YC did a great job with what they had. In retrospect while the 49er experiment was interesting and proved we could sail on the same trapezoid without cutting 470's in half- I don't think we will see a lot of that in the future. it worked out fine for the 470's because it was our NA's. But the time they had to wait inbetween races was not so good for a boat that basically has two speeds-- oh SHIP! and capsize.
it was awesome to see so many new faces- but the key is take all this interest and go forward, not make this regatta the highlight of your young 470 careers!
To make it work I would like everyone who reads this to post thier own regatta report- how you saw the regatta from YOUR perspective. From top to bottom, if everyone does this we will all learn from each other, and give more experienced teams a chance to answer complicated questions when they are not sailing thier own regatta!
A last word about the USST teams and coaches- everyone was awesome. The top teams and thier coaches were coming over and helping the new teams as much as they could. What an amazing resource! Thanks in particular to Skip Whyte and kevin Burnham. You guys are incredible, and everyone you help gets better quickly!