Oct 28 - 29, 2006
505 sailors from Seattle, Portland, Bellingham, and Vancouver got an early Halloween treat October 28th and 29th when the fleet got together for a clinic with expert coach Jay Glaser, who flew up from Long Beach for the event. Saturday morning brought sunny skies, Fall leaves, and brisk temperatures for the dock talk before the eight 505 teams. Jay went over the rabbit starts that the fleet would use to be able to pace each other to windward, then round the meadow point buoy, and then run back down to the mooring buoy (our "J" mark). Rabbit starts, which are always used at the 505 world championship, starts when the "rabbit" rounds the leeward mark and sails close-hauled on port tack, followed by a RIB powerboat. The fleet starts by ducking the powerboat. The challenge is to park close to where you think the rabbit will be, but not too close, because the rabbit has the right of way. With several local boats going to the Worlds in Australia in January, this was an important skill to practice.
Things went smoothly after the first couple starts and Jay and the video boat worked their way among the boats, watching and gathering notes. At the end of each "race" Jay provided feedback, and Paul Von Grey gathered notes on rig settings. On the downwind legs, Jay encouraged sailors to wire reach even in marginally light conditions. He said that even if it at first it is slower than sailing directly downwind, as your skill develops, it will start to become faster, and it is always faster to wire reach back to the center of the course and then run downwind than it is to sit in the boat and reach. During the day the wind built to about 15 knots, providing ideal conditions to put this concept into practice.
Sunday brought another beautiful Fall day, which started with a short chalk talk at CYC, with some input from Carol Buchan, and then a quick return to on the water practice. Bram Dally, whose professional video camera had been used in training 49er campaigns, was by then filled with great shots of each boat. After putting the boats away, the fleet adjourned to John Rahn's house for Lasagna and video review and debrief at CYC, the latter being a 505 tradition. One of the interesting things that Jay said was that it's much easier to judge sail trim on the water, rather than on video, but boathandling issues are easy to spot. At the debrief, each team shared their tuning settings and what changes they had made during the day.
The 505 fleet would like to thank John Rahn for organizing the event, sponsors Glaser Sails, Quantum Sails, Bram Dally, and Chriss Pittack, and Volunteers Paul von Grey, Anne Fitzgerald, Bram Dally, and Chris Pittack.
-- Bruce Vandeventer
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Photos by Ann Fitzgerald, Chris Pittack, and Carol Buchan
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click on a photo for a larger image