Sailing Event Log: Fleet Racing
Event: ____Yale Women’s______________ Date:_10/17–18/09______ Skipper/Crew: Course: __W4/W3_
A Division__Meghan Pesch/ Alyson Yee___(19th)______________
B Division__Margaret Rew/ Emily Shaw__(16th)_______________ Conditions: Lighter than expected on Saturday, 5-15 out of the North, picking up Sunday to 15-20; flat, shifty, and gusty both days.
Boat Handling / Speed
- – Boat handling and speed were both
inconsistent
- – Transitions were extremely important on
both days, Saturday moving from sitting in to hiking and the adjustment of controls with that, and being able to steer well through gusts on Sunday.
- – It took us a little while to pick up our speed
Starts – The line was pretty short and there was definitely a second row, so it paid to be aggressive and line up a little earlier than normal.
Upwind – There was a somewhat consistent oscillation, so it was important to be aware of the more general trend of the wind shifts, even though gusts came down irregularly.
at the beginning of every race, which made
Done well:
holding a place off the line tough even if
- – We did a good job talking about what we
our start was solid, a little more practice on needed to work on and coaching ourselves
both in between races and on the way to accelerations and trim would have helped.
and from the regatta.
- – We felt confident physically all day, even
once the wind had picked up
- – Though our finishes might be consistent,
we showed moments of brilliance or at least
inconsistency in many of our races.
- – I know that Meghan felt good about her boathandling most of the weekend, and
Emily and I did a good job talking about what needed to be improved and fixing it even though we hadn’t sailed together very
Improvements:
Downwind – Gains were made by setting up
– We never quite got a good grasp of what
for the gate rounding early in the leg because the breeze was doing, and consequently
lacked confidence in the execution of our there was one favored mark most of the day.
plans. The breeze was coming off of both sides in oscillations, and we often got lost in the middle.
- – I found myself spending a lot of time and energy thinking about boatspeed instead of big picture strategy, something that would be improved with more time in the boat.
- – Speed off the line could be improved a lot with acceleration practice, often we found ourselves having to fight back from the
much. very beginning.