race results

We’re at the end of another regatta now, and the results are here.

But one thing that has to be said about sailing is that results on the scoreboard just don’t show the complexity of the racing out on the water. And our last day was a big example of how within the space of 20 minutes, in a race, things can go from back to front and back again.

A bit of background first: we went into this regatta, our second selection regatta for the Asian Games, 5 points behind, as we’d come 5 positions behind our sole competitor at the first trial (Kieler Woche). So we would be looking to put enough boats between us if we were to win on points.

Going into the last day, we were ahead, though I wasn’t sure how much. The goal – just sail our best and race well.

We finished the first race of the day several boats behind – tough, but we had worked our arses off and caught up a great deal from the back of the fleet. Still, it could be down to the last race. And the nature of the game is, you don’t just get on them and cover them all the way because it’s so important to put boats in between.

So we were ahead from the start, we held it off upwind, down the first downwind leg, upwind again we made more distance, and by the reach, we were quite a way ahead with at least 5 boats in between.

And then the breeze disappeared. Shut down completely, and this is the quirky part of racing. These things happen and it seems so unjust, but it’s the name of the game. The breeze filled in from behind, in such an awkward way that us and the pack of boats just in front of us were in dead air while the boats behind started moving!

Ouch, indeed. We did our best to get going, but the last couple of boats snuck in below us and got to the next mark first. So not just us, but the 10 or so boats just ahead were suddenly not looking so flash. We came round onto the downwind, and it was a struggle, just sailing on as much wind as possible. We took the left side, thinking the breeze would fill in from there. And for a while, it was looking good. We were moving, higher but faster than most of the other boats. So down we went … and then three quarters of the way down, the wind did start filling in … from the other side.

Uh-oh. I didn’t exactly have a bird’s eye view of the fleet, but Craig said at one point, the other girls were looking in 10th (massive leap from how they’d rounded the windward mark, 4th last). It wasn’t looking too good … until the wind got to us and we came in from the left corner with good speed, Siobhan on trapeze.

And then here’s the crucial bit: the last leeward mark rounding. For those of you who aren’t familiar with sailing rules, we have a rule going round marks where the boat with inside overlap at a mark can call for room to go round that mark. We were the innermost boat of the 20 or so trying to go round at the same time. We got our inside overlap. Two more boats tried to squeeze in illegally and collided with us, we pushed our way out, and came up onto the final reach ahead, in the clear air lane, and looking really, really good. From a last ten to a top 10-15 spot.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS be in inner position at the mark.

So there was our heart-racing, so-hard-to-be-patient-but-just-had-to-be final leg of the last race, and it ended well for us. Quite a big contrast to the last race of Kiel, where the opposite happened.

Anyway, I guess our adventures will continue now. The final selection decision is up to the SingaporeSailing selection panel and SNOC, but with luck, we’ll get the green light.

Thanks, everyone for reading and for supporting us!

Cold, wet, and windy

It was only going to be cold and wet, but this wouldn’t be Weymouth without the windy, would it?

We launched in something like 2 knots, and came home in 20. Good thing we’ve got good sunnies for the job (yay Oakleys!)

I don’t know how to describe the awesomeness of sailing in 20 knots, with the boat just blasting along, skipping over waves, even launching off a few – that’s an experience good for some screams – and you’re working your arse off but totally enjoying it. There were bullet gusts coming down all day and that made reaching and downwinds a very heart-pounding experience.

So at the end of the day, windy I certainly don’t mind, but Weymouth, if you could do something about the cold and wet, I’d be much obliged!

Happy national day!

Somehow being overseas during National Day makes you feel more patriotic about the day. Here’s my little gift to Singapore:

It’s also the first day of racing. Race management has been pretty prompt, 3 fleets all done and ashore by 4pm.

We haven’t had the bitter cold weather of last year yet – not that I’m complaining! Just hoping it stays this way, just right in a wetsuit.

Registered and ready to go!

It’s three days before the first day of racing and we’ve just completed registration and measurement – all within an hour. This has to be a record! It helps that we only have to bring our sails in to be stamped and that we got it done first thing.

We’ve been out sailing the last three days and the weather has alternated between bright and sunny and wet and miserable. Is this normal for British summer?

adventures on the first day

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while, but we are here in Weymouth for the Sail for Gold Regatta and it has been a very eventful first day already.

We arrived in two groups: the coaches catching an SQ flight and a train down to Weymouth, while we had Roy pick us up from the airport and drive us and the trailer down).

As we drove out, we were hearing squeaking all the way as we drove round bends. None of the lashings on the trailer were loose, though, so we went on.

An hour from Weymouth, we came round a roundabout (boy, are there a lot of those here), and got a warning horn from a car, accompanied by the driver pointing at our trailer. The squeaking was going like mad then so we pulled over and had a look at the wheel.

The ball bearings were shot, the hubcap had popped out, and we were so not going to make it any further.

We had a pleasant surprise then, though, as the car who had pointed it out to us came back round and stopped to help us. (Well, the driver of the car, I mean.)

And so we got a real taste of English kindness as the man called up friends, helped us to drop off the trailer at a safer place, and so we managed to get on our way and arrive at the hotel in Weymouth at a decent hour for bed.

Still, we have two boats to trail down (back and forth) to the club today, so it looks like a long day on the road – for those who have to drive, at least. (It pays to be short, in this case!)

Also, it’s SIOBHAN’S BIRTHDAY!

on the other side of the regatta

Well, the entire regatta’s come to a close now with the medal races held today (none of us made it in, I’m afraid, so that’s still something to work towards next time!)

Anyway, as luck would have it, after blowing on for five days, the wind would choose today – the day we don’t get to sail – to come in light.

That’s the name of the game, I guess. You just take what you get and deal with it. We watched some of the medal races on TV, namely the 49ers and Laser Radials. Some interesting fighting going on there, very inspirational stuff!

So our final results: 24th. That will be our starting point to build on; our first international regatta together, and hopefully we can improve on that in upcoming events!

The important thing is that we’ve taken away loads of advice to be going on with! As Colin said yesterday, ‘You don’t get to become an experienced sailor without gaining the experience, good or bad.’

Also, you know you’ve had an entire outlook makeover when it’s blowing 15 knots and you’re thinking oh, it’s nice and gentle.

When the wind blows here, it really blows.

Just be glad you’re not this guy.

We learn.

Mmm, I shall not go into the details of racing today. Shan’t bore you. To summarize all i’ve learnt today:

1) Murphy’s Law does exist.
2) If you can’t start the race on time, you aren’t in the race.
3) Look for gusts even when it means turning your head 180degrees while doing everything else at hand. MULTITASK BABY.
4) Never take your wetsuit top off and just wear a spray top with nothing beneath it in Weymouth. When you do that, the sun goes away just to make fun of you.
5) Be thankful you have a coach.

Terence made a salad dressing with hot water, jam and olive oil. Quite nice.

AP over A

There was no racing today. We’re not exactly sure why because the wind was about the same as yesterday. AP over A came up just before 2pm. So we had the afternoon off.

This is inside the mini harbour, which is inside the big harbour. The mini harbour is usually the most peaceful zone. But yesterday and today, it went a bit crazy. Forgive the lopsidedness of the photo. It was so windy I couldn’t really look at the camera when I took the photo.

Oh, we’ve been seeing Giba around quite a lot. Always nice to see him. When the AP flag came up this morning, he cycled up some mountain, south of the club, and back down. Haha. Doing his thing.

Initially, there was AP over all the classes. But I think the boards and 49ers went out to race in the big harbour at around 1pm.

Anyway, we went back early. Brett and I did a bit of shopping for dinner and cooked up a storm. Had dinner and now we’re just getting ready to sleep. Forecast for tmr, 16-20knots. Seems a bit more forgiving.

the sun’ll come out … tomorrow …

I have mixed feelings about that. While this cloud hanging over us is cold and gloomy, a sunny day means lots of mixing to bring the gradient wind from the pressure systems down to the surface … which would mean another twenty knot day.

Needless to say, today’s racing didn’t go too well.

Let’s start from the beginning. We were on the early start today, 11am, so we were at the boat park by half eight, which was when we oh-so-cleverly knocked the rudder over and chipped a bit on the end. Bad, bad timing – because little nicks on the foils do not do well in keep the boat steady when the breeze picks up! Anyway, we went for a quick fix as best as we could, and right now, we have the repair work drying on our front room table.

An announcer over the PA system said before we launched, ‘It’s blowing 24 knots on the Laser course (that’s just one down from ours) and the sea state is calm.’

CALM! Granted, it was relatively flat given the wind strength, but calm is what we see every day in Singapore. Not these rolling waves here!

Then again, he amended pretty quickly, ‘Well, not calm, but nothing to worry about.’

So, about our racing … it was strong enough that we had to dump both sails in a gust upwind, and on the first reach, one big gust sent half the boats carrying spins tipping like dominoes. Pity we messed up a gybe after we overtook them and ended up having a swim, too.

All in all … we finished both races and made it back to shore in one piece. When to top it off, it started to rain on us as we were washing up. Oh, British weather, be more charming, why don’t you?

Anyway, we’re game for another round tomorrow. After all, we have to be out there, even it’s another 20kt day, so we may as well face it with some grit and determination!

A word to the guys back home – you haven’t seen strong until you’ve seen this range of wind!

Race 1 Race 2

Since we got back to shore till now.. wait.. no. Let me correct myself. Since we finished the second race till now, Craig has said “don’t go low on the reach” only about 10,492 times. In different variations. Our fault. Both races today we got ourselves caught in dirty air on the reaches and lost about at least 10 boats on the reach alone.

Ok, rewind.

Forecast for today was 15-18 knots, and it was 15-18 knots and super gusty. My first time racing in cold and strong wind conditions in the 470. It’s damn fun. The sea was quite choppy and wavy today. More than the choppiest sea conditions Singapore can ever have. They wrote “Sea Conditions: Smooth”. Dawn said, “If this is smooth, I don’t even wanna know what’s rough.”

We launched a bit too early because we didn’t know the boys were gonna be recalling and recalling and recalling. So we sat in the cold for about 2 hours. In Singapore I always hope the sun hides behind the clouds. Today, I was close to screaming for the sun to come out behind the clouds. It’s not that bad once racing starts and you’re just focused on the race. (I felt so cold for this guy who was wearing just a lycra. But I think he wasn’t feeling cold.)

We had a rather uneventful first race. Bad start, (damn the recalled one was not too bad actually), pushed to the right side of the course and from there it was just hard to get back up after making a couple of unecessary tacks here and there. Plus a poor reach. Had a chance to catch a couple of boats on the last downwind but we gybed at the wrong times. Lesson learnt. Still, a good race I think. Result: DFL.

Our second start was better. Pin biased and we were at the pin boat. Second boat from the pin end and clear air good start. Hung in there… Then the 6-7 boats right above us gets this weird gust-lift combo that we were just on the edge of but couldn’t get it. So we kept going out to the left, which was the favored side for today(explains why first race went wrong). Waited for the right gust-header combo before tacking in. It came and woo-hoo. Towards the top of the upwind, the wind went a bit weird and we made a couple of tacks to get more air.

And then the reach. Enough said. Craig said he never made the same mistake again since 1953. Was he even born yet.

I still can’t figure out the downwind here. It’s, not like a normal downwind because of the angle of the waves I think. But the last downwind, we finally woke up and decided to do what good sailors have been doing and go broad reach to the right and sort of make a reach back in. We didn’t catch any boats but we did pull like 10 boat lengths away from the boats that rounded the top mark right on our tail. That was the highlight of our day I guess.

I’m damn tired. This totally emphasizes the P=Physique hey? Craig and Dawn’s in charge of dinner tonight and I think they’re cooking pesto pasta, and Shephard’s Pie, and salad with tuna. Can’t wait to eat dinner. Seriously, I don’t know where all the food I’ve been eating goes. My stomach’s a bottomless pit.

470 Women start racing at 11am tmr, and Men at 1pm. Switched over. So we have to be up early. Forecast 20-25 knots. Ha. Haha. It’ll be fun.