Racing and More (practice) Racing
The day started with a small crisis. I was getting ready to go to the club, when my mobile phone rang. It was Lydia (my girlfriend), stranded 2 tube-stops away from home. She would have to take two busses to get home and she was tired and sleepy from a night-shift. So, I went to pick her up first, drop her off at home and then go to the club. Racing starts at 10 o’ clock, I want to be there at 9. Today I arrived at 9:35. Loads of people racing Lasers and there were not enough club boats. Someone else was supposed to take the one I was having, but he would crew in a Merlin. So, we started rigging the Lasers in a very co-operative manner. Helping each other etc.
Anyway, I arrived at the start line over three minutes late. Not a great race and I didn’t get a finish either because I was told I hadn’t “signed-in” the race sheet. I am sure I did. The main problem was a main-sail wrapped around the mast. No much wind, smaller sail area, you can do the maths. The other problem I had was that because I left home in a hurry I had forgotten my gloves. Pulling ropes and stuff was harder and painful.
For the second race I went early for the starting sequence. While I was heading for the start line I made sure I was on starboard tack but unfortunately I was windward boat too, to someone else and I was squeezed onto the committee boat. In order to avoid a collision either with the other boat or the committee boat I did a 360 degree turn. This way the other boat had moved forward and space was created for me to go behind him and cross the line.
In the beginning I was not doing too bad, but later on I was left behind. There were patches with no wind and wind-shifts that made it quite difficult because my sail didn’t have any tell-tales and I didn’t have a wind indicator either. The other day, someone gave me an idea on a handmade wind indicator. I think I need to build one and I have to make sure that next time I get a sail with tell-tales.
In the afternoon with the new members’ club we did 4 practice races. It was quite good for me because I worked on my start. This time I was not following anyone else, because there wasn’t anyone else that I felt he was that much more experienced than me. I felt that I was within the top 2-3 and gave me more confidence. I think that I have to be more focused on what I do and forget about anyone else on the water. Provided that I have a sailing watch (I already have one), wind indicator and maybe tell-tales, I should be able to sail better. The point I am working on, now, is sail setting. Before I was in the “set it and forget it” mode. Now, I tend to fiddle with the sail setting controls more often and I understand more and more every time.
I hope that quite soon I will be able to set my sails properly and then as someone told me earlier today you only race against two people/boats. The one ahead of you and the one behind you. That way you move up the fleet slowly. At the moment since I am last I need to race only against the person in front of me. This is somewhat easier.
As I said before, there is a Laser Open meeting on June 25th. I hope there is going to be a club boat available for that.