LSC Crew Notes - August 20, 2003

Information for Crew Involved in Racing with Members of the Lansing Sailing Club.

Five Boats Sail
Five Lightnings were on the water Tuesday evening for practice. Among the sailors were four new crew. We hope they had a good time and will return.

Juniors Excel
There were several milestones passed in yesterday's practice session. In one of them Anna Hamilton with crew members Corey and Heather - junior sailors all - went by themselves on a boat for the first time. Anna and Corey have some experience, but this was Heather's first time. Still, they flew their spinnaker and showed how good they can become with some fast sailing in streches. Anna is trying to put together a junior crew that can race together and she is showing both her sailing and leadership skills in this endeavor.

Kleiman Boat's Name for the Day: "Three Babes in a Boat"
With Lisa Winters at the helm, Lori Katz in the middle and new face Shelly Kindig in the front, the Kleiman boat was dubbed by its crew "Three Babes in a Boat" and they went past several milestones too. Their first milestone was taking the boat by themselves, orienting a new crew member, and showing they are getting to be very accomplished sailors. After a so-so first race, they turned it on and battled with the lead boat right to the end in race two.

The second milestone was backing the trailer down the ramp, getting the boat out of the water and backing it into it's parking space. Those of us who spent hours and hours and hours learning to back a trailer watched with a lot of appreciation while the "Babes" took charge and made it look a lot easier than most of us would have on our first try. It was entertaining too.

Light Air Lessons
In the August 4 Edition of Crew Notes, there were suggestions for light air sailing. While there was a steady breeze all evening yesterday, the wind was fairly light and the sailors had a chance to put some of those ideas to work. Here are some observations of things that worked well in yesterday's conditions.

1. Anna had her boat going very fast at times. She did this by keeping good power in the sails (keeping the sheets eased a little more than usual) and keeping the sails full by not pinching.
2. Lisa, Lori and Shelly excelled in the second race with good speed at the start, staying in clear air and making sure they kept the boat moving.
3. Bob had very good success by avoiding tacking too much. In light air, the Lightning will often almost stop after a tack and always seems to lose a couple of boat lengths to boats that didn't tack - unless the tacker found more wind or was able to sail closer to the mark.
4. Stacy had speed at the starts and was at the favored end of the starting line. This enabled her to immediately tack and cross the fleet. On the downwind legs, she avoided going directly downwind. Higher angles in light air is much faster downwind.

Downwind Tactics Duel Between "Babes" and "Booty"
Race two included a classic example of downwind tactics opportunities and challenges. Lisa, Lori and Shelly were "Three Babes in a Boat" following "Moody's Booty" and positioned slightly behind and to leeward (not quite an overlap). Both boats were on starboard gybe. The "Booty" crew couldn't gybe and cross in front - so "Babes" could push them out past the layline to the finish. "Booty" gybed but continued to be forced away from the finish line because "Babes" was still on Starboard. The challenge now for "Babes" is to exercise starboard rights, keeping "Booty" out to the right, and then to execute a gybe back to the finish with "Booty" behind her. "Booty" has the challenge to not get pushed so far that she can't maintain a strong leeward position on "Babes" after "Babes" gybes to the finish. The outcome in this case favored "Booty" because "Babes" had difficulty with their gybe and was well positioned to take advantage. This was very exciting racing to watch - just wish we had a video with us to capture the situation so everyone could better see the opportunities and challenges from each boat's point of view.

Practice Tuesdays
Don't forget that we continue to practice on Tuesdays from 6 PM to sundown. The goal is to to provide a structured opportunity for crew and skippers to expand their sailing skills. It is helpful to email Pat Dolan, LSC's Crew Coordinator ahead of time to let him know you are coming. This will help assure sufficient boats will be available to accommodate those participating. You can just show up - but no guarantees on whether there will be a spot for you. Only lightning and very high winds keep us off the water. Assume we are practicing. If weather conditions are really bad, we have plenty of video to watch and "chalk talks" ready.