Saturday at Fort Worth Boat Club we were greeted with drifting conditions with occassional puffs to low single-digit strength. One race was completed with TAMUG starting at the boat and wanting the right. Scott was driving with Andrew and Brad doing the middle and bow respectively. Scott did a super job of keeping the boat moving (as he did in all the races that he steered) and TAMUG found themselves in first place by halfway up the beat. Unfortunately, due to impatience on Andrew's part, we did two short tacks and paid the price, ending in second place out of the five schools competing (TAMUG, TAMU, USA, UT, Tulane). This race took 80 minutes, with a limit of 90 mins allowed for the race. 1st place USA, 2nd place TAMUG.
That was the only completed race on Saturday.
Sunday morning we awoke to a puffy and shifty 8-12 knots and were excited at the opportunity to compete. The average breeze, as mentioned, was moderate/light however there were puffs that rolled down parts of the race course that were of strong double digit strength - enough velocity that the backstay was sometimes applied to its maximum extent and the main traveller eased significantly. TAMUG had excellent speed the whole regatta and sailed away with the first race on Sunday (race 2).
Coach informed the crew that we were consistently keeping the boat flat/steady in the changing breeze conditions whilst other teams were often showing the upper sections of their keel/hull joint.
Races 3 and 4 were much the same as race 2 with one notable exception: Listen up TAMUG sailors and really hear this...
In one of these races (3 or 4) TAMUG was over early and couldn't hear our number hailed - we heard the others but not ours. After considerable delay we returned and restarted, only to find ourselves 20+ boatlengths back from the fleet. Now this is what is important: TAMUG determined that we didn't belong anywhere other than the front of the pack and determined we wouldn't stay there. As per the whole regatta, the crew and skipper kept their heads out of the boat and ping-ponged their way up the beat, sailing their own race and aggressively working shifts and puffs and as per our mindset we rounded the top mark in 1st place with a multi-boat length lead.
We must believe (because it is true and we have shown it often over the last few years) that not only can we "hang" with other good sailing schools, we can and do beat them!
After race 4 of 5 TAMUG had won the regatta.
In the concept of TEAM, Scott was replaced as helmsman by Hugh. What a difficult position to come on board; TAMUG had won the last 3 races "going away". It was at this juncture that the breeze we had experienced and gotten into phase with changed. Velocity was down and there was what appeared to be a persistent shift to the right of approx 30 degrees. Prior to that it was acting as an oscillating shift pattern with the larger shifts being 'righties'. To compound the stress on Hugh, the boat we were to sail for the last race was considered a "dog" by the other teams and the race committee because it had finished last in every race but one where it finished second last!
Hugh, like Scott, did an awesome job of sailing the boat faster than the competitors, and whilst conscious that we definitely didn't want to be anywhere near being in a protestable incident for the last race, Hugh did a great job of mixing it up with our competitors on the approach to the top mark. Result, TAMUG rounds the top mark in second (1 boat length back). Prior to rounding we had determined we needed to jibe ASAP in order to first to what appeared to be a nice puff on the right and once we were in it we jibed back to starboard. At that time we were even with the other boat but with consdiderable inside advantage. TAMUG rounded the bottom mark in first and then Hugh really let the horses loose and TAMUG stretched to their greatest margin of victory of the regatta.
Special thanks to Coach for his time away from his family, to the Hugh's family for their hospitality, and to Brad's mum for catering for us.
Lessons learned/reinstilled:
TAMUG should fear no one!!!!!!! (everyone is beatable)
Keep heads out of the boat
Sail as efficiently as possible (do the basics right - i.e. shifts, puffs, coarse management)
Good starts with clean air and a lane are always important.
Work REALLY hard to hold your lane off the start (stay in the front row)
If things aren't going great then find a way to rectify it
BELIEVE
Coach also evaluated our starts as being graded as a 70%. He also said that if we excluded one start where we were one boatlength late (but still closest to the line) the rank would have been considerably higher and perfectly acceptable.
Here is a summary of the distance from the line at the gun - in no particular order:
1/4 boatlength; 2 feet; on the line; 1 boatlength, over early.
TAMUG will be going to ICSA NA's in California on the 19th of this month. It is my intention to have the OTHER teams there intimidated by our performance.
Andrew
OCRE '06