After more than my fair share of overseas Starboat competition, traveling around the country to match-race, or race on the Melges 32 circuit, I lucked into being in the US during the first Log Canoe race of the season hosted by the Miles River Yacht Club on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. For those who haven’t seen Log Canoes in action this will give you some indication: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPFjZlWnGBs

The boats are essentially 100-year-old, 35-foot canoes that have two 50 foot masts and ridiculous amounts of sail area spread among three upwind sails a spinnaker and a “kite,” demanding up to twelve crew that scramble out removable planks in lieu of trapeze wires. They are international canoes x 10! They are constantly unstable, requiring the crew to run in and out of the boards all the time responding to the call “Weight!” every time a puff or lull hits the boat. Maneuvers are a mission. Every tack and gybe means nine people have to slip down their respective boards into the center as the boat heads into the turn. They have to pull the boards out from under the old leeward rail, throw them across to the new side, stuff them under the new leeward rail and start running out to the end without slipping off, dragging a board in the water, or any delay in order for the boat not to teeter over an capsize.

Capsizing is a race-ending situation. The sails have to come off and the masts have to come out while the boat is turned over. Then the boat has to be righted, bailed out and then the masts have to be put up again. It’s a wild scene to say the least!

Eight boats raced this weekend in St. Michaels on the Miles River. Berry Kurland was at the helm of the Silver Heel this weekend with a crew of former Georgetown sailors, and other DC-ites, but otherwise rookies to the Log Canoe circuit. Berry’s grandfather owns the boat and the regular crew handed over the boards to us for the weekend with a snicker, I’m sure, enjoying every moment of our pain and joy learning the ins and outs of the boat. Needless to say we had three wonderful races. The first race on Saturday afternoon was actually going quite well until our fourth gybe got a little squirrely and the boat went on its ear in a hurry! I think only 4 boats finished of the 9 who started. Wipeouts were abundant, keeping the spectators happy. We had an ugly go in the first race Sunday, thanks to very fickle breeze and a couple of unlucky shifts, and were 6th across the line in the 9 boat fleet. But we pulled off four gybes and more than our fair share of tacks on the 6+ mile course, so we’ll call it a moral victory. On the second race Sunday we decided to mix it up a bit and save ourselves a maneuver by starting on port. The long tack up the first beat was port and I was actually surprised more boats didn’t employ the same strategy, but I could not have been happier with my call when the rest of the fleet had to put two tacks in for our one. We rounded third and were fourth across the line. The boats slow down so much during a tack, it is very much like keel boat sailing in the sense that you need to plan your turns out literally minutes ahead to make sure that a) you’re doing the right thing and b) that your entire crew is on the same page. They a ton of fun to sail. What a weekend! We can’t wait to do it again.

There is some video from the 23rd and the Medal Race on this page: http://www.world-of-sailing.info/olympic-classes/star/. Look out for us, we’re black numbers USA-8241

Here is the link to our GPS tracking from last week in Kiel. What a great a feature to be able to playback the entire race! The weather was so uniquely nice in Kiel, you might well have wanted to be there to see it. Congrats to Mark and Mark for a great five race series. Good luck at the Europeans.

Full results here: http://results.regatta-info.de/result_details.php?results=2009-06-24_Star_Wettfahrt_5_Extra.xml

Brad and I could conceivably move from our 9th position at the beginning of the day to as high as 5th if all went just according to the ideal scoreline. We had to depend on too many scenarios to play out to worry about that so our goal was to break out and win the race. We won the startabout two thirds of the way down toward the pin. When the fleet on our hip eventually tacked we consolidated and lifted off the group in a nice lefty while pinching off the boats still to the left of us. Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube, the other American team in the medal race crossed behind us to the left in the last 300 yards of the leg and were able to snag a nice lift into the top. We rounded close behind in second. In an attempt to pass those guys, we gybed away and split from the group, but that turned out to be a loss of about three boats and we spent the rest of the race clawing back to a 3rd in the race. We were happy to find out that the 3rd sent us two spots up the scoreboard to take 7th in the regatta.

What a funny series we’ve had here: Only three days of racing two of which were one-race-days. Brad and I are happy with the finish after so many teens to start the regatta. I’m looking forward to securing a berth to the worlds in Sweden next month and hopefully putting up a decent score there.

We have one more World Cup event on the schedule: Sail for Gold in September in Weymouth, and with three top sevens in three world cup events, we might have a good shot to be top five at the end of the season.

There should be GPS tracks of our medal race online at the KielerWoche website. I’ll try and get a link up when I get back to the States.

After a long week of waiting for wind we finally got some good sailing in today. Three of the regatta’s four races were completed today in light lumpy conditions. It was very close sailing with hectic mark roundings and a lot of shuffling amongst the teams. Going into the last race we were in 15th and needed a good finish to make the medal race. We had a difficult start but we focused on staying in the pressure and keeping a clean lane with good results - 7th place, moving into the top ten.

Tomorrow we have the medal race which counts double and then back home for July 4th weekend.

Andrew and I were both interviewed by SailTV this evening. We will let you know when it is available online.

Two races scheduled tomorrow. Check the results and see the scene that is Kiel Week at: www.KielerWoche.de

Stay tuned, more to come. 

Also check out out our feeds at:

www.SperryTopsider.com

CampbellNichol2012.blogspot.com

Here’s a link to some great photos and a description of the weekend:

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Barkow-makes-history-at-2009-Ficker-Cup/57887

The game of momentum was the biggest concept that I took away from the weekend. So many of the races were over and done with about 2 minutes to go before the start. Often the first boat up to speed was the boat that won the race, especially in the lighter conditions. In the final race of the regatta, Sally had a better start than us, taking the left and forcing us into traffic, splitting right. By the time we came back to them halfway up the beat, they were 5 lengths ahead thanks to a lefty and more solid pressure. We rounded the windward mark behind and immediately gybed. Instead of conservatively matching us or beating us to the gybe, Sally’s team extended on port toward the starboard layline. The turning point of the race was halfway down the first run when Sally’s boat didn’t pick the layline correctly into the leeward mark. Even with a 5 boatlength lead, the race was immediately in our favor. Here’s why:

When Sally gybed inside of the starboard layline, she was forced to make a crucial decision: 1. Sail normal VMG and risk two quick gybes at the bottom of the leg, or 2. Sail lower than normal and lay the mark at slightly slower speed. She chose to soak low and that bleeding of momentum ultimately cost them the lead one leg later. We crossed her breeze once as she was low and slow already, giving her a touch of bad air, and then gybing on a layline for full speed into the mark. She rounded 4 lengths ahead but did not get up to full speed by the time we got the mark and rolled into a tack. She tacked to cover and we went right back forcing her to make a decision to cover or split. We went tack for tack 5 or 6 times up the beat, each time not letting her get up to full speed before we tacked back out of phase. We were able to put a close duck with Sally’s team about three lengths shy of the starboard tack layline and then got a piece of them on starboard going into the top mark. The race was by no means over, we battled it out, gybing three times and then luffing her before gybing back to the finish line under jib alone to snag a last race victory.

The biggest lesson that I took away from this weekend’s racing, beyond more bow work than I ever knew a tactician had to do… was the effect of consequences of events that happen long before they make an impact. Being downspeed at a leeward mark, if properly antagonized can make a significant impact on the race 6 minutes later at the next mark. One downspeed circle in the pre-start can lose an entire race before it even starts. I’m excited to learn more about the match race game as I get more into it. This regatta turned out to be a great experience in the 37s. Congratulations again to Sally and her team!

PERRY & CAMPBELL TO COACH YOUTH MATCH RACING CAMP

Dave Perry, the current U.S. Match Racing National Champion, and Andrew Campbell, former Youth World Champion, Collegiate Sailor of the Year and Olympian in 2008, will be coaching a Youth Match Racing Camp this summer, at which they will be teaching advanced techniques for racing keelboats and match racing. The Camp, for sailors ages are 15-20, will be hosted by the US Sailing Center of Sheboygan in Wisconsin, in their fleet of Sonars. The dates are July 8-12. Sailors may register individually, or as a team at a discounted rate, at http://sailsheboygan.us/n-2009-youthmatchrace-main.php.

Space is limited but still available. The focus of the Camp will be on correct keelboat sail trim and boat handling, including spinnaker work, team communication, rules knowledge, and techniques for winning in Match Racing. Teams are traveling from St. Thomas USVI, San Diego, Chicago and Detroit. \

Perry says: “I am committed to helping raise the level of match racing in the U.S., and that means exposing youth sailors to the advanced techniques for sailing keelboats and match racing as soon as possible. A camp like this provides an extraordinary opportunity to give talented youth sailors some great information and one-on-one feedback. The Sonar is a great boat to be doing this in; and having the opportunity to be coached by Andrew Campbell as well makes this Camp an amazing opportunity for young U.S. sailors who aspire to be great competitors. College or college bound sailors especially will benefit profoundly from this Camp.”

What a week it turned out to be in Holland! The sun was out and the breeze was on for the last four days of the regatta, a phenomenon that does not often happen in northern Europe. We were treated to some great racing from the Dutch organizers and race committees who are legendary for running on-time races and never letting a boat over early slip past them.

Sunday’s medal race was no different. We watched the Finn and Men’s 470 races from the coach boat, but the course was set up less than 100 yards from the shoreline, so a crowd of locals and sailors alike stood and watched the action. The courses were windward-leeward three times around the smaller than average track for a target time of around 30 minutes, instead of the regular hour and fifteen minute races we had been having all week. The intensity ramps up for these short sprints and you would be amazed at the stuff that happens. We were cheering on the radials during their race on Saturday night and Paige Railey flipped near the top mark after leading the first leg, then the local dutch girl behind her sailed to the finish after only two laps while the fleet rounded the marks to head upwind for the last lap. Ed Wright from England in the Finn class re-started after being over the line and even with the light air, he battled back to be second in the race. His competition Giles Scott was top 5 most of the way around the course and was given a rule 42 penalty near the finish.

Our race was no exception to the fact that wild things can happen. The breeze came up in a big way before our race building to 15 knots and paralleling the Medemblik shoreline only a few hundred feet to the left. Brad and I wanted to start to windward of the group and lined up a bit too early for the committee boat end. Hamish Pepper from New Zealand stuck us head-to-wind for the final thirty seconds or so and pushed us to where we thought we were probably over the line. When we got up to speed and the gun went, we heard the X-flag go up and immediately turned back to clear ourselves. We cleared and the flag still did not go down, meaning somebody else in the fleet was over. At the time we didn’t know it was our American cohorts Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube, but the photos don’t lie:
After clearing ourselves we had to fight to get back into the race. Luckily, there are enough mark roundings during these short races that boats ahead go slow quite often. We knew we had to finish right next to the Croatian boat to beat them overall, and Mark was winning the race so we couldn’t worry about him. We finally caught the fleet at the second leeward marks. The German team tied for the lead rounded just ahead of us on starboard. They didn’t see us so close behind and tacked to port fouling us and were forced to take a penalty after some coaxing from the jury. We were able to catch our New Zealander buddies from the start because Hamish and Craig had broken their jib downhaul and couldn’t get proper jib trim. That left only one boat between us and the Croatians. Regatta leaders Robert Schiedt and Bruno Prada were the only boat to the left, and would prove to be a tough boat to catch on the final run to the finish. Instead of putting out effort into catching Robert and Bruno, we hounded the Croatian team to ensure that the Brazilians passed them. By covering the breeze of the Croatians, Robert was able to sail right around them to take fourth in the race leaving us to take 6th right behind the Croatians and defend our position in the standings. When we crossed the finish line and saw Mark’s number on the board we knew that we had moved up the leaderboard to take 5th overall in the regatta! After clawing back from being on the course side of the line at the start, we couldn’t have been happier with the result and it just goes to show that you can never give up in tough situations. We really did create our own luck in this week’s medal race.

Next on the agenda for Brad and me is to plan out and go to Kiel regatta in the star boat. This transition into the new class has gone much better than either of us could have imagined. I had high expectations, and am very pleased with how the progress is going. We need to sort out some upwind boatspeed, our downwind speed is where we’re really making our gains. But without help from some continued and new sponsorships, we wouldn’t be able to continue. With support from US Sailing Team Alphagraphics and our continued relationships with Sperry Top-sider, Kaenon Polarized and now Z-blok, as well as a number of private donors, we have been able to make a strong push into a new realm in the sport.

Full results at: deltalloydregatta.org

You can follow the medal race track here taken from the GPS systems on board for the final day.

Photos and more from: deltalloydregatta.org/2009