Key West Race Week – Part Two
December 21, 2009
Less than a month from now I will be pushing off from the dock at Old Island Harbor Marina on Stock Island. Just off of the Key West’s south shoreline the race committee will be waiting to start the 2010 Key West Race Week.
With only a few short weeks to go, I am continuing to try and get my clients as prepared as I can for what will certainly be an battle; both physically and mentally. Here is the most recent visualization email that I wrote my crew.
Team Willy T -
I shared my first visualization scenario with some of the other coaches and boats that I know are going to be headed to Key West this year. It was great to see the enthusiasm and range of answers. It will be even better to see it played out on the race course in a few weeks. There is snow, piled 20 inches high outside my door right now, so today I hope to have plenty of time to just sit back and think about our racing this January. Fire, cocktail and some racing thoughts.
As I mentioned before I am using past mistakes as the foundation for most of these visualizations. I have been coaching these programs for years now and simply digging into my “gripes” list of what we didn’t do is providing some rich material. I figure we’ll just keep going around the race course in our minds, so in the coming weeks you can expect visualizations in the following order:
Start – Done
First Windward Leg
First Windward Mark
Spinnaker Set and Escape
First Leeward Leg
Leeward Mark/Gate
Second Windward Leg
Second Spinnaker Set and Escape
Finish
Post Race Procedure
10 Minutes to our startVisualization Scenario Number 2 (First windward leg)
Same race/same conditions
We are sailing along on starboard tack about 8 minutes into the first windward leg. Our COMPASS reads 305M. Our boat speed could improve relative to the other boats, but our pointing has been better than those boats to leeward of us, but we don’t really look to be doing as well as the boats on our windward hip – although our speed is still just fine. Should we change our set up? What information can each person (helm, spin trimmer, bow) communicate in this situation to help the boat make the right call? What should the two forward positions be concentrating on?
Of the eight boats that were to leeward of us, six have just tacked and are very likely to closely cross us. In other words, they are just slightly ahead. Two of the eight boat pack are continuing further into the left and the rest of the fleet (six boats) is to our right, apparently even or just behind us. Should we tack? Why or why not? In the event that we decide not to tack, if we are in a close crossing situation with another boat, what should we call them across or make them tack? If we do tack, where should we tack?
This scenario, I call it the first cross, is one that we will likely see every single race. How we handle this situation is often key to salvaging a top half of the fleet rounding from a bottom half of the fleet rounding. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
I have also CC’d the other members of the JWorld Racing Team staff so that they are up to speed on what we are doing. With luck, all of this will make us all more competitive on the race course.
kb
ps – Here are the questions in order.
Should we change our set up?
What information can each person (helm, spin trimmer, bow) communicate in this situation to help the boat make the right call?
What should the two forward positions be concentrating on?
Should we tack?
Why or why not?
In the event that we decide not to tack, if we are in a close crossing situation with another boat, what should we call them across or make them tack?
If we do tack, where should we tack?
Got answers? Want to add your own visualization to the list. Post a comment or send an email!
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