Welcome to Paradise

I arrived in Nassau this weekend to prepare for the Star Western Hemisphere Championships. Andrew is finishing up the CISA clinic so I picked up a skipper wondering around the parking lot, Paul Cayard. Paul is in town for a few days, and regrettably, cannot race the week, but could not resist a the opportunity for a ride around Montagu Bay.

The conditions were nearly perfect with 15-18 knots out of the east. After a leisurely lunch with Sr. Durwood Knowles we ventured out for an afternoon sail. The boat was chartered and new to both of us and the discussion to fine tune the setup was very educational.

We sailed up wind for an hour trying a few different settings and discussing a rang of subjects. Thoroughly enjoyable but not nearly as fun as the ride back down hill in big waves along side a 100+ foot yacht that slowed down to watch us surf home.

Andrew arrives tomorrow and racing starts Tuesday with the Knowles Series warm up regatta followed by four days of racing for the main event. Rumors are for big breeze and big waves. We expect fun racing here in paradise!

Always have an Exit Strategy

This winter one important area of improvement has been how we exit the weather mark. The major mistake most teams make is they are far too focused on the boats around them and getting the kite set, and not aware of where they are going down the next leg. The problematic strategy of getting the boat set up, then figuring out where we are going, can handcuff you for the whole run if you are not careful.

Like many things in sailing, having a good weather mark rounding is all about preparation. You need to know what the plan is before you round so the tactician can make one simple, all important call: set high, or set low. If the call is set high, the crew needs to be patient making sure that the boats behind have turned down before the set so the team can hold a lane on starboard. If the call is set low, the crew needs to get the kite up right away and be ready for a jibe if needed.

How do you know what the right call is in the chaos that normally accompanies a weather mark rounding? Good preparation. On the last tack into the weather mark the crew should look down wind for the weather mark, generally you should be able to see if it is right or left of head to wind. The skipper should let the crew know if the wind is in right or left phase. These two facts will tell you what the long jibe is.

Second, while on the layline or offset the crew should look for the wind. Is there more pressure on the right or left? Are there any puffs in the next 30 seconds that will help exit the mark? As you pass the weather mark, check for current.

Finally, know your competition. Are the boats around you bunched up or is there a good gap to set? Will the boats around you fight high? Are you overlapped? Putting these simple facts together should tell you how you want to exit the mark, and with a good exit strategy, you will have the jump on your competition.

Some examples:

Star South American Championships – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Back in November at the South American Championships, Andrew Campbell and I rounded the first mark in the top three with a good gap behind us. We set low, sailing a heading half way between the boats ahead of us and VMG. Torben Grael set high behind us, knowing that the current made the downwind leg starboard jibe dominant. We had plenty of clear air at first, but as the boats above us got into the more favorable current we lost our lane, got frustrated, jibed out, and finished 14th.

Etchels Jag Series 1 – Miami, FL
Having learned the lesson, the next opportunity to put it to practice was in the 45 boat Etchels fleet in Miami in December. Being one of the most competitive and evenly matched fleets, everyone gets to the weather mark at the same time. This creates the problem of a high traffic fight for clear lanes, as well as a terrible “cone of death” under the weather mark. Our team had shared the lesson from Rio and we were very patient on the set, reaching high over a large pack of boats and were able to sail away in clear air passing more than a dozen boats in the first part of the run.

Star World Championships – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Back in Rio, Andrew and I were not going to make the same mistakes twice and with the help of coach Ed Adams, knew the current, and wind situations and had a plan for the run long before we got to the weather mark. It was essential to hold on starboard so I, as the crew, looked aft around the offset and did not set the pole until the boat behind us bore away and set. We gave up a little distance, but never got rolled. The patience prevailed and we were always able to pass the boats that were forced to jibe out early.

Etchels FL Stat Championships – Miami, FL
This past weekend the mark roundings were famously congested with some major collisions. Your rounding essentially dictated your entire run as there were very few clear lanes to be found. In the shifty conditions out of the NW on day two, Team Widespread Panic had four very good sets, two high and two low that were the difference between a top 15 finish and a top 30 finish. As the tactician, I was able to find the mark on the last tack, look for wind on the offset and make a clear call to our skipper. Our improvements at the weather mark resulted in Dr. Steve's best finish ever at a Jag Cup Regatta.

Next up is the Bacardi Cup which begins Monday in Miami. Andrew will finish up with Ninkasi on Sunday and jump right into the Star. We are looking forward to a great week!

Off to the Races

(Photo by Fried Elliott - http://www.friedbits.com/)

The 2010 Star World Championships kicked off today with Race 1 inside the bay in Rio de Janeiro.  It only took two attempts to get a clean start right next to the Rio airport with an ebb tide pushing the boats towards the line.  With the committee boat end favored in the current, Andrew and I played it safe, starting one third of the way down the line looking for less confusion and some clear air.  We found neither, but Andrew did a masterful job of managing traffic and working our way to the right to get out of the current.

To say that the tidal flow inside the bay was confusing would be a drastic understatement.  It was easy to be in one knot less current only one hundred feet away from a competitor.  As we approached the mark along the starboard tack layline, we thought we were fetching the mark easily until we saw the lead boat stop in their tracks.  Only 50 feet from the mark there was a tide line with a two know differential.  Needless to say we did not lay the mark, and on our second attempt to round, we were swept into the mark.  (The leaders, and countless others made the same mistake.)  This double oops cost us 20 places according to a friendly spectator.

Both runs were a game of when to jibe and cross the current line.  On the first run we guessed correctly and passed boats, on the second we waited too long and dropped four boats.  The second and third beats were all about finding the current eddy that would give you an upwind advantage.  World Champions, and locals Torben Grael and Alan Adler both showed the fleet where everyone should have been, passing boats on either side of them.

In the end we finished in a tight battle with the Irish, Germans, Argentineans, and Greeks, all shooting towards the line at the same time.  The Greeks we just on our weather hip across the line but we were 12th and they was 16th.  One boat length means al lot at the World Champs! 

Star Worlds 2010 - Rio de Janeiro

Andrew and I have been in Rio this week training for the 2010 Star World Championships, which begins Saturday January 16th with 81 teams, representing 20 Countries. So far the training has been excellent despite the oppressive heat, with local fleet racing this past weekend, and Team USA coach Ed Adams running drills and practice races this week.

We expect this World Championship to be very strong with our competition including: 2009 World Champions George Szabo/Rick Peters (USA), 2008 Olympic Gold Medalists Iain Percy/Andrew Simpson (GBR), ISAF top ranked star team Flávio Marazzi/Enrico de Maria (SWI), and past world champion skippers Xavier Rohart (FRA), Fredrik Loof (SWE), Alan Adler (BRA), Robert Scheidt (BRA), and Ross MacDonald (CAN). Not to mention 5 time Olympic medalist and world champion sailor, Torben Grael who was named Rolex International Sailor of the Year in 2009 after winning the Volvo Ocean Race.

We are not daunted by the level of competition, only driven to show our best stuff and start 2010 off with a bang! Stay tuned this week for more  from HOT sunny Rio de Janeiro.

Has Parity Returned to Star Equipment?

Today was a beautiful day of training on Rio off of Copacabana Beach. We had six boats out for speed testing, amongst them, three world champions, four different boat builders, four sail makers, and in the first lineup over 20 minutes, nobody had a major speed edge. There has been concern over the past few years that the star class has become out of reach for all but the top professionals, but in reality the top professionals gravitate towards the star class because they can showcase their talents against the best.

At dinner the discussion turned to the boat market. In the US alone there are at least six Olympic boats, from three builders, for sale for between $30,000-40,000. In terms of sails, Quantum has been using the same Z4/P2 for the last few Olympics, Ian Percy’s Gold Medal combination is available from North, and there are at least three new sail makers in the mix. There are now boats and masts being built in the US, so now is the time to get in to the best racing around.

Andrew and I are training in Rio for the South American Championships which begin Thursday. Stay tuned for more this week!

Lessons learned from Weymouth

We capped off our summer Star season with the Sail for Gold Regatta on the 2012 Olympic Venue in Weymouth England. While we had high hopes going into the event with an entire season of top 6 finishes and a chance to win the World Cup overall title, yet the result was less than stellar.

So what are the major lessons from our first trip to Weymouth:

1. Settings from one tack to another often needed to be very different, due to confused sea state and proximity to the shoreline. Sometimes port would be straight into 1 meter swell, while starboard was extremely smooth with waves loading and unloading the boat to the point that the crews were in the water very often if the boat wasn’t properly powered at all times.

2. Geography has a major impact on the game. The valleys and cliffs surrounding the sailing area make enormous impact on the shifts and Portland Bill makes a huge impact on the current (it causes a 6 knot run of current at the end of the point during max ebb and max flood, thankfully we don’t have to race out there).

3. Racing inside the breakwater can be scary for the Star boats in heavy air! Not having waves makes it incredible difficult to unload the main for gybes.

4. Everybody has bad races. Recovery wins regattas and the easiest points to pick up in an event are from 50th to 20th. Chipping away when you’re up front as well as when you’re behind is the only way to win long series. When things aren’t going your way, just keep putting in your best effort up until they do.

5. You cannot compete against the best in the world without committing 110%. Andrew and I had a great season with borrowed equipment, little practice, and a shoestring budget. Going forward it is going to take a lot more to win a medal and this regatta was a good wake up call.

So, we finished 16th this week, 7th in the World Cup standings, but are steadily climbing up the World Rankings (27th before the new rankings come out) so this season has turned out to be an incredible learning experience as a new team.

It won’t stop here though. We will ship a boat out of Miami in two weeks to be ready for the South American Championships in November and lead-up to the 2010 Star Worlds in Rio in January.

A Windy Test

Survival was the name of the game for many sailors today as the wind broke the 30 knot barrier in Weymouth. With conditions at the edge of sailable for many boats, the race committee kept the fleets to two courses, each manned with plenty of safety boats.

The Stars were the last to start on the Harbor Course as the dark clouds began to push in from the east and the wind topped out at 38 knots on the lighthouse at the harbor entrance. Andrew and I decided to start safe to leeward of the pack bunched up at the heavily favored boat end of the line. We made it to the weather mark in the top ten, but the boats were so tightly bunched that we had our air stolen and had to bail out, finally rounding in… LAST!

Down wind it was full on and we jibed away from the fleet into clear water as Stars make a huge stern wake in these conditions. By the leeward mark we had clawed back to mid fleet and a good leeward mark rounding put us back in the top ten.

On the second run it was survival conditions, no pole running. Half way down the run a massive puff came down the course causing chaos and taking one rig out. We adjusted our course and caught the puff perfectly, planning down the run, rig pointed skyward.

On the last beat we were able to hold position and then fend off a tight pack of 6 boats close on our stern to finish 7th. An improvement on yesterday but it showed how much work we still have to do in these conditions.

Tomorrow the weather looks to be more like traditional Weymouth; cold, windy, with rain. At least two races scheduled tomorrow with 7 more by the medal race on Saturday.

Welcome to Weymouth

Andrew and I have made our way to Weymouth England for the seventh and final event of the ISAF World Cup season. Weymouth is the site of the 2012 Olympic sailing events and the venue is well on its way to completion. The British National Sailing Center is complete and the athlete village has topped out construction, three years in advance of the games.

The Star Class is stacked this week with the top six finishers from the Beijing, and 13 of the top 20 in the ISAF World Rankings; all here to vie for the overall title and study up on the Olympic venue. This amount of talent would be spectacular in any large fleet, but there are only 20 Star boats registered. This will be a very hotly contested regatta.

We race two races a day Monday through Friday with the medal race on Saturday. Follow along at http://www.sailracer.co.uk/events/18401/ and see our daily updates at http://www.campbellnichol2012.blogspot.com/

Coming Home

This week was “Star Week” at the Lake Sunapee Yacht Club in New Hampshire, kicking off with the Jr. Western Hemisphere Championships, followed by the Sunapee Open, and culminating with the 12th District Championships. I was happy to find the time to make it home for the Open and take the helm against friends who had traveled from Annapolis, Michigan, Toronto, and other points north.

Growing up on Lake Sunapee was a special experience where I was exposed to an enthusiastic group of sailors who happened to comprise the largest inland fleet of Olympic Class Star boats in the world during the 1980’s. Lake Sunapee is surrounded by mountains - known for its fickle winds, and is certainly a difficult place to sail. Growing up I use to find the highest vantage point possible and watch the puffs fill across the lake, bend around points, and die out under the hills.

The light shifty winds on Sunapee taught me patience, perseverance, and above all, no matter what happens, you always have a shot a coming back. This was demonstrated on Saturday in the second race when my crew John Corrigan and I had a beautiful start, two boats down from the pin, and lead the fleet towards the weather mark. A few boats tacked out behind us as we continued straight towards the mark and fell into a gaping hole (area with no wind). John calmly gave me the play by play as the rest of the fleet sailed around us on both sides. We did everything we could to keep the boat moving and made it to the weather mark in 14th. Seemingly out of contention with the leaders minutes ahead, we methodically plotted our course downwind connecting the dots with puffs barely visible on the water.

By the time we reached the leeward mark we were just boat lengths behind the lead boat in a cluster of five trying to sneak around the bottom mark. The wind held steady for the second lap and we were able to hold a 6th place finish for the race, our second of the day. The 6, 6 score line put us in 5th for the day only 2 points out of 3rd.

Sunday brought a second day of beautifully sunny skies, but unfortunately, no wind. The competitors stayed on shore and enjoyed the mountain views form the club and floating in the lake as no wind ever materialized. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, as much about seeing friends and enjoying a beautiful place as it was about the racing.

Next up Andrew Campbell and I head to Weymouth England, host of the 2012 Olympic sailing events, for the final leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Andrew and I are 3 points out of the overall lead after six events and hope to move up with another solid result.

Thank you to all the LSYC members who put on a great regatta each year and helped me get my boat to the lake, and ready to race. Also to MacDesigns Inc. for providing the beautiful decals for the regatta.

Youth and Enthusiasm in the Star Class

by Lynn Fitzpatrick, World Regattas

Varberg, Sweden - There are plenty of young teams at the Star World Championships who are in their mid-late 20's and early 30's who can never be ruled out of being in contention for a top 10 finish. Peter O'Leary and Tim Goodbody (IRL) are now 26, John Gimson and Ed Greig (GBR) and most of the strong German teams fall into the same category. Even 25-year-old Andrew Campbell, the USA's 2008 Olympic Laser representative has qualified for USSTAG in the Star. He is sailing with the legendary Star crew and Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion in the Star, 55-year-old Magnus Liljedahl. Of course, there is always a place for strong, physically fit and enthusiastic crew. Portuguese Star sailor, Afonso Domingos is sailing with 21-year-old Frederico Melo, who raced in the Finn Gold Cup in Denmark. Campbell is currently the youngest skipper and Melo is currently the youngest crew in the top 10 at the 2009 Star World Championship.

Whether they are confident of their Star sailing abilities or not, juniors can join the class. First time experiences are often as crew, but some hop in and take the helm. One of the next events on the Star Class calendar that includes over 220 organized regattas annually is the Western Hemisphere Youth Championship in Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire on August 14th. It is open to any skipper who has not reached his or her 25th birthday prior to the first race, and there is no - no limit the age of the crew. Past events have been great opportunities for the likes of Brad Nichol, current member of US Team Alpha Graphics to learn from accomplished New England sailors. At this stage in his life, the regatta represents an opportunity for those with accomplished Star careers to give back to the class and to scout for talent. The Lake Sunapee Open follows the Western Hemisphere Youth Championship on August 15 - 16 and Star sailors of all ages are welcome to attend.