Start racing

I have noticed that many who go sailing don't race because they don't know the rules and don't want to get in the way. This is a great shame because I believe that you learn how to sail a boat more effectively by racing it.

The reason is that racing a boat gives you objectives both in terms of where you point the boat and how to control the speed and direction of the boat through steering, trim and sail controls. It thrusts you into collision avoidance decisions requiring quick thinking. It makes you more aware of the sailing conditions, the effect of tide, the importance of boat maintenance, appropriate clothing when on the water and what to do when things go wrong and you need to right a boat or jury rig solutions when equipment fails. All of these are aspects of good seamanship and all who take to the waters should be disciples of seamanship for their own sakes and the safety of others and you never stop learning.


When I first started racing dinghies I knew nothing beyond the basic ideas of steering and simple sail control - pull it in and the boat goes, push the tiller and the boat turns - simple stuff eh?

My first race ended in my self and my crew being picked up out of the river and my boat abandoned to the elements to be recovered by the rescue boat. No harm was done and the important focus was on making sure we were unharmed - hats of to Burnham Sailing Club who back in 1976 took great care of their cadet fleet.

From that time on I began to learn the skills that made me a much better and far more competent helmsman and I am still learning the skills that improve my boat handling, my tactical and strategic skills, and reading the sailing conditions (weather and tide).


So my advice to any reader who would like to have a bash at racing is to read books, ask questions, seek advice but have a go and learn from the experience.


I recently found some Club websites with some 'rules made easy for beginners' ; well work a look:
Burfield SC
and

Burnham Overy Staithe SC


There are some excellent books about too. My favorite is called 'Start to Win' by Eric Twiname which has been out of print for 20 years but is soon to be available again although you can still get copies of the original.


Another I have read and liked is Jim Saltonstall's 'The RYA Book of Race Training'.


There are many others that are probably equally as good.



The following image is a handout I created for the pre-season session of dinghy racing back in March this year:

Boil-in-the-bag - the pros and cons of wetsuits in summer

Over the last few weeks here in the UK we have had the most excellent of weather, plenty of sunshine and a range of sail-able wind strengths. But what to wear in such conditions?

Some go for the shorts and tee shirts - nice and cool but if the wind gets up or there is a sudden rain shower (with squall) then it can become quite chilly with the windchill factor and although not a problem on the smaller inland waterways it can be decidedly dodgy when sailing on the sea as even in the heat of summer the sea temperature close to shore can be quite cold.

One could use a spray top giving protection against windchill but it doesn't help if you end up spending any time in the sea - clearly some form of wetsuit is needed.

So what about the shorty wetsuit? No hitching up of the shorts mid tack, no problems with changeable conditions plus padding against the inevitable bumps you get when sailing - it looks like the best option. But for one thing - the gradual boiling of the body in the hot sun (yes -even in the UK) amplified by the excellent thermal insulation properties of the rubber whose black surface absorbs copious joules of thermal energy. When you finally prize your body out of its clinging grip the sweet fragrance of ones own sweat is released into the cramped atmosphere of the changing rooms adding to the collective concoction of sweat from several sailors making the air almost unbreathable! Added to that is that some of us don't look that hot in rubber !



Whilst others look soooo good they raise our temperatures just looking at them!!!
A capsize seemes a beautiful idea as a welcome relief from the heat! But instead I would wait until I had the boat ashore and then join the group of floating 'boiled in the bag' dinghy sailors wallowing comically like a bunch of seals or walruses in the cool shallows sharing a few moments of heat relief and postmortems on the days sailing before heading for the changing rooms and then the bar.

There is another option, which seems a reasonable idea but requires a further outlay on the sailing gear front! - hiking pants! They come in the form of a half wetsuit providing some protection in the lower half of the body but the upper torso has minimal coverage and with the addition of a spray top adequate protection against the elements can be achived but without boiling the body. Plus you get that extra bonus of being able to hike harder for longer! It might worth the expense.

So do I continue to save up for a new jib or lash out on a pair of hikers? Or both and risk sudden death from the wife? Hey this is the UK so summer will be over in about a week or so - a new jib it is!!!

Time for an update

Masters @ Ogston SC 25th & 26th April

Excellent racing. I got a 4th in one race!! I led the race for the 1st lap all thanks to a massive lift to the 1st mark just after the start. It just goes to show how much a good start matters when racing on confined waters. Overall I finished 20th out of 36 according to the results but on equal points with the 19th place and I think my 4th should actually place me 19th. In this picture we are middle of picture near the far bank.

Next event was an open meeting at Dabchicks, West Mersea on the river Blackwater - my home waters really. Day 1 was blown off with 25kts plus wind, day 2 was heavy winds and we started in a F5 which jumped up to a F5-6 after the 1st lap - so windy that we had the main spilling almost completely and we could just keep it flat. The reaches where incredibly fast - the wild untamed Goose returned and we struggled to keep the boat upright espeically as the centreplate kept of coming up under the pressure of water. We completed the 1st race and in rising winds and a squall coming our way Jo and I called it a day and retired from the last two races.

The 20th & 21st June saw us racing on home waters at Snettisham in the combined Lionel Wilkinson regatta and the Enterprise Open meeting. Numbers where low but this mostly down to the race times with the Sunday racing not starting til the end of the afternoon when most vistors really want to be packing up to go home. Having said that the racing was excellent with two races each day in very variable wind conditions. The racing was with one fleet with everyone entered into the Lionel Wilkinson event and the Enterprises also using thier relative finishing positions to cound to the Enterprise open result.

We finished 9th inthe handicap points for the Lionel Wilkinson trophy and 2nd in the Enterprise open.

In this picture we are the chasing Enterprise.

Then to finish off this little round up this last weekend we competed in the Inland National Championships at Pennine SC on the Winscar reservoir up in the Derbyshire Hills. The water level was low which reduced the sailing area and the winds were very light and variable making for very testing conditions. I was not so happy with our result but considering it was my first time at this event I guess it was not bad as 29th out of 47. We did get a 17th in one race but I don't think we got one really good start. I really don't know how the top guys do it but they are so consistantly at the top, they just seem to wiggle through and find the wind and the shifts. I cannot blame the boat, even though she was the oldest there, we were clearly quicker than many others so it must be a case of gaining more experiance on these inland waters, something that I will be getting more of later this year - more of that later.

In this picture we are on the extreme left.

Middle Nene SC open meeting

This weekend just gone, Jo and I trailed Goosy over to Middle Nene SC at Thrapston for a coaching day followed by an open meeting the next day.

As usual Mike Macnamara was on good form with some more excellent Coaching. It was good weather but quite windy with some big gusts. We spent more time on the recent rule changes this year and there are some interesting changes, Rule 18 being the one.

One thing that we need to do is to re-establish our routines - we were quite uncoordinated and this showed particularly in our tacking. We were also getting used to using the new fly-away job pole system and we are begining to develop a new procedure for that.

The open meeting was great fun; 20 boats on the start line and not much room. I had big problems trying to find a space in the start line and the best start I got was at the wrong end of the biased line and a bit late but with freedom to tack into clear air so even though I immediatly gave away several boat lengths to the leaders I was ahead of the pack simply because I had clear air and most others were dealing with the dirty air of the leaders. We finished a respectful 7th in that race. Overall we finished 10th with a 7th and 11th to count; our 12th place being our discard. It was a great weekend racing, very tiring, very enjoyable.

This weekend coming we are off to the National Masters Championships at Ogston SC. First time I've done this so it will be interesting.

The SBSC launch supper

The SBSC launch Supper this year was on the Easter Saturday and this year we had a presentation prior to the meal on the topic of 'key points of dinghy racing'.

It took me several days of preparation, building the powerpoint, trawling the internet for images of boats in caught on camera in the throws of various manouvers, clips of film and diagrams.

I had to pitch it at a several levels; for the parents of junior sailors who just want to know what thier kids are going on about; those who are hoping to start racing and what some key pointers on what to do; those who want to move up from being tail-end charlies, to the more experianced club racer.

So I broke it down into the key elements and in the space of an hour we skimmed through it. There were loads of questions, clarifications and pretty much everyone went away with a nugget of knowledge that they hope to make use of. I know I missed out loads of stuff and there are always areas that could be dealt with in more detail but with only an hour you have to make those kind of choices.

It was quite a challange but I was pleased that my first foray into the realm of coaching went so well.

To cap it I found some Rules quiz questions on the web and printed them out for a quiz during the meal which like the food went down well with the highest scoring table winning a bottle of wine.

All in all it was a good evening.

They thought they had silenced him

This is something that wrote on Good Friday. The thoughts came to me during the Good Friday service and I became almost oblivious to the service as I followed my train of thought.
I share it here with anyone who cares to read it.

The image is the 'Piss Christ' by Serrano Andres,(1987) which has caused quite a controversy but I think they guy has managed to capture the scandal of the Cross. Andrew Hudgins wrote a great poem about it whcih I have very helpful.

Stuff for the soul.

..........................................................................................................

They thought they had silenced him. The city authorities had finally had enough and had done for him. No more of his pointed teaching, his critical commentary on their leadership, no more of his extravagant claims and outrageous prophecies, no more of his ‘so called miracles’, no more disturbance of the peace and the normal pattern of life.

They though they had silenced him. Arrested and tried, whipped and executed naked as an outcast and a criminal, they thought they had robed him of dignity, of respect, of a following. They thought they had silenced his voice, forever.

They thought they had silenced him. By their judgement and violence, by the full weight of the law, twisted to make it fit, just like the thorns they twisted to make a crown to adorn his head. They had no idea how fitting a crown it made for this king, a king like no earthly king.

They thought they had silenced him. But through all this rage, this wicked act, this venom and malice, scorn and hatred, he spoke. This king of grace reached through it all and embraced a broken humanity; this king of mercy forgave the sins of many; this king of love suffered all the abuse of humanity and kissed those who hated him; Kissed a fallen world through a bloody cross.

They thought they had silenced him. But this love cannot be silenced; It cannot be killed; It can never be silenced. It stands like a rock in the raging sea of human sin and depravity and all who tire of this world’s sin, who long to be rid of their own guilt; who seek sanctuary cling to this rock and find salvation, peace and find themselves.

They thought they had silenced him. But he speaks and is speaking still. Can you hear him?
He calls your name.

Tim Coleman
10th April 2009

The Great Exhibition and another reason to lose weight

So I've been to the Dinghy Exhibition at Alexandra Palace. I took my two daughters and Ben, a young friend, and we spent pretty much all day there. I saw loads of boats, loads of gear, visited the Enterprise Association stand, met loads of old friends, listened to an RYA coach explaining how I can 'go faster without spending a penny' and bought myself a new spray top. A good day was had by all in all.

Jo, my youngest daughter and also my crew, responded to the plea from the Enterprise association for young people to be on the stand. She spent from 10am to gone 12pm explaining and demonstrating the new 'Flyaway jib-stick'. It's a good job we tried it on Goosy just before the end of the last season so she did at least have some awareness of how it works and what the advantages are.

One of the good things about the exhibition is that you have the chance of looking at a load of gear and investigate, and try on, to determine the best gear for you - and buy whatever it is, sometimes cheaper than you might through the more usual channels. For me the downside was finding out the hard way why it is not good to put on weight - it means you have to get the XXL size. Trying the XL size spraytop is just plain embarrassing and having to ask if they have any XXLs and owning up to the fact that basically I'm just too dam fat is even worse - like what buisness have I got even thinking I can do this sport!!!

There are all kinds of really good reasons for getting your weight down closer to your ideal level and the bookshelves of bookshops groan under the sheer volume of books telling you how to do it But being motivated to do it is another thing altogether. Just facing the fact of your weight problem is bad enough - you already feel like a failure - but how can you beat a problem if you don't acknowledge that it's there? You can't so you just have to face it and work out how to overcome it and I suspect that it is mostly in the head.

I don't like the idea of these fancy diets, you might lose weight but unless you have a change of lifestyle you are doomed to put it all back on again. I much prefer the idea that you make changes that lead to a healthier and fitter life and part of that is understanding how you got to be where you are, what is going on in the head.

One thing I am trying, and it is a small thing, is no longer taking sugar in my tea. I don't know if it will really help but I figure its a step in the right direction.

Next on the list is to reduce food intake and do more exercise. This is the tough bit. I already spend too long sitting still and studying and nibbling food is all too easy. So I need to work out a strategy to accomplish this. Ideas and suggestions are invited. The good thing is that once the sailing season starts I will invariable lose weight through the summer but this time I want to keep it that way through the winter.

getting ready

Like some kind of hibernating creature my sailing alter ego is surfacing slowly from its winter sleep. Thoughts of sailing are stirring the mind to think of boat work, of varnishing and painting, fitting out the old girl for another season on the high sees of Norfolk. Already the cheque is in the post to renew club membership and another to enter for the 60th Anniversary North West Norfolk Sailing Association regatta that is already up to 50 boats (the limit is set for 65 at Hunstanton SC). Next week is the dinghy Exhibition and my daughters and a friend and I are going to be there next Saturday.

The old Girl (Wild Goose or Goosey Loosey as she is affectionately called) has already a good coat of varnish on the cockpit surfaces; the decks will be done last but next is to prepare and paint the hull. Meanwhile I have been working on the clubs new website and preparing for the Launch supper evening where we are going to do a coaching workshop session, looking at the essential principle of sailing and racing a dinghy. All good fun. can't wait to get on the water. I'm aiming for 18th April, a coaching event at Middle Nene SC.