The remnants of Hurricane Irene had swept all the way across the Atlantic after slamming into New England and were rumbling across Ireland while we were there. How on earth can you predict the breeze in a whirling weather mess like that, much less training and a regatta? Our US Sailing team forecaster was using his models, but they were a few hours old by the time we we read the predictions and older than that by the time we were racing. With a low pressure system that crazy, the weather was changing by the minute. Forecasting for as small a time frame as one 15 minute leg in one race was almost impossible for even the best meteorologists.

Good forecasting depends heavily on the sailor’s interpretation of real weather conditions during the day of racing. No forecast is perfect. Last week in Rule #4 we talked about how history can be dangerous. Forecasting weather for meteorologists demands the same type of pattern recognition that sailors use for tactical situations. The sailor must take it upon him or herself to understand why a forecast called for certain conditions and then confirm that those conditions still exist while racing. If the conditions have changed, in all likelihood, the forecast should have changed.

Rule #5: Having the forecast is nice. Knowing how to interpret the forecast is important. Knowing when the forecast is irrelevant and making your own decisions about what will happen based on what you see can be critical. Use the forecast to your advantage, but don’t rely on it too heavily.

Any sailor’s basic forecast will have a standard format including, but not limited to: the expected temperatures for the day, general conditions (sunshine, high clouds, low clouds, scattered rain, rain, t-storms), breeze range in knots (0-5, 5-10, 8-12, 10-15, 12-18, 15-20, 18-25, 25+ etc.), expected breeze direction on the compass (some range like 180-220 or 310-350, etc), tide information and range, expected current direction, and maybe seastate (1-2 foot chop, 4 foot ground swell from 220, etc.). Anybody who has ever looked at the WIND and DIRECTION columns in the forecast and then shut the computer and went sailing? Raise your hands! I know you’re out there. I’ve done that before. We all have.

The best forecasts will have a discussion to augment the data listed above. Meteorologists rely on models to predict what will happen based on historical data that matches up the with patterns they see. The discussion is the forecaster’s opportunity to hedge against the models’ predictions. The discussion is the most important part of the forecast! Often there will be nuggets of information that can help your racing even when the forecast goes bad. We’ve all had a forecast go bad. It happens all the time: The forecast calls for a light northwesterly, and sure enough by 2 o’clock the seabreeze is pumping from the southeast! It’s so easy to blame the forecast for being wrong. But if we had only read between the lines in the forecast, there might have been a hedge against the model’s predictions. Here’s how that might have gone:

ACME Sailor’s Weather Service for Miami, FL:
Morning: 8-12 knots, Direction: 300-340
Afternoon: 3-7 knots, Direction: 310-350
Conditions: High overcast and cool 64F in the morning. Clearing and warmer 74F in the afternoon

If that’s all the information we had, we would expect to see the breeze get lighter and veer to the right over the course of the day’s racing. But without the temperature and cloud forecast, it makes it very difficult to confirm the forecast with the reality that we see on the water. If we get on the water in the morning and the breeze is only 4-10 knots and the sun is already shining and you’re peeling off spray tops in the 75 degree heat, it might be time to ditch the specifics of the forecast but hang onto the concept. The meteorologist might have had a discussion like this:

Forecast confidence is below average. The offshore flow should be the dominant breeze in the morning. If the cloudcover remains, the NW breeze will remain throughout the day, dying to 0-5 knots by dusk. (Hedge: If the sun comes out inland, heating may cause a thermal condition encouraging the SE seabreeze to come in. Indications will be warmer conditions around midday and the appearance of small cumulus clouds across the course area.)

Herein lies the key point that might save a race. If everybody in the fleet read the first part of the forecast and ignored the discussion, they might be expecting the standard Miami northerly: big oscillations and variation in breeze strength generally favoring the left side of the course. But, during the first race, if the heat comes on and the breeze starts to die, its the observant sailors that start looking to the right side of the course over towards Key Biscayne for the seabreeze to start making a serious impact on the race.

There are a thousand examples of forecasts being wrong. But knowing the patterns and applying them yourself is the real trick. When Ian and I looked at the forecast for Dublin during the Europeans on windguru.com we saw some very clear shifts based on the hourly forecasts provided:

If you look closely at the forecast for Sunday September 4th (the top left part of the forecast marked Su 04) it gives the hourly strength (in color-coded knots) and direction (by the arrow). Note also it provides temperature in Celcius, cloud-cover high-level, mid-level, and low-level percentages, and rain in a rate of millimeters per 3 hours.

Our racing started about 11 o’clock, so we had to infer from the forecast what would happen during the day. On Sunday September 4th, it looked as though we would sail out in a light southerly that would quickly build to about 20 knots as the rain started early afternoon.

Now the forecast says that it wouldn’t rain that hard before 13h (1 o’clock), but if we matched the forecast to the reality of what we saw on the course we could get a good idea of how to set the boat up. We knew that when we saw the rain start coming down that we should get set up for breezy conditions. We also knew that as the rain stopped we could watch for the breeze to shift to the west as indicated by the forecast for the next few days. Would it all happen in the same timeframe listed by the windguru forecast? Who knows!?! If we had interpreted it too literally we might have been left scratching our heads because at 13h it hadn’t started raining yet and the breeze was still 8-10 knots from the southwest. We might have been caught with our rig too depowered for the light air conditions. Instead, we stayed ready for light air but kept our eye out for the indications that the breeze might pick up. Sure enough, at 16h (4 o’clock) when rain clouds started sweeping down from the hills of Dun Loaghaire, we knew that we should wait to depower the rig until the rain brought windier conditions.

Its important to have an idea of what the forecaster predicts for a day’s sailing. But its more important to arm yourself with the ability to recognize when the trend is correct and when its incorrect. In my example about Miami, it might be more important to forget about the forecast and just go with what you see on the course. In Dublin we remembered what the forecast said and just delayed its application by an hour or two. Forecasts are just a meteorologists interpretations of the computer models. The sailor always has the advantage of realtime live information to make his or her decisions on the racecourse. Knowing the forecast can only get you so far. Knowing how apply the forecast to the day of sailing can win and lose a sailboat race.

Every day we race sailboats we take with us a foundation of experience unique to each one of us. That’s one of the beautiful things about our sport. Sailors race in small boats by themselves, and small boats with other people, or big boats with tons of other people, and sometimes big boats by themselves. They race on odd little lakes as well as massive expanses of freshwater. They sail on the clear blue of the ocean as well as the nasty culs of the sea. Some race against the tidal currents while others dodge airplane jet outflow. When we travel to some of these spectacular and less-than-so locations around the globe we drag along an ever-growing bundle of experiences that we can then apply to whatever situation we happen upon on a given day. No matter where we are, whether it be the home club where we’ve raced hundreds of races over the decades, or a brand new spot we have experience from which we can detect patterns to help match up with reality and react accordingly. Great sailors learn how to apply their experience to a new location. That’s why some sailors can excel no matter the racing venue. They recognize patterns developed from their own experience and meld them to the forces at work in an unfamiliar location. They use rules of thumb and are keenly aware of the changing dynamics that might demand alterations of their approach to the day’s racing.

But how many times have we been to the regatta and had the locals say: “It’s never like this here!” We had those very words come from the mouths of locals in Fremantle at the 2011 ISAF World Championships after four days of less than 12 knots of breeze from all kinds of funny directions. For the years leading into the event the world was preparing for 18-25 knot seabreezes. Even the weeks leading into the regatta were classic Fremantle Doctor days. Then the regatta started and things were somehow not expected. Sailors might have painted themselves into a corner by preparing only for breezy conditions or bringing sails tailored for breeze. If there had been a local fleet of Starboat sailors, they might have been the toughest in the world in 18 knots or more, but would have been brought back to earth by the variance in conditions.

Rule #4 in our list of 50: History can be dangerous.

Sailors are notoriously superstitious. Maybe not in the same way as they used to be. Modern sailboat racing can barely relate with whaling ships and tales of the kraken, but sailors do have their tendencies to rely on those gems of history. We’ve all heard the comments before a day’s racing:

“You always go right in Long Beach”
or
“The left is always better in Fremantle.”

How many times have we said to ourselves:

“Well, the left won the last race, so maybe we’d better head that way this race because it will probably happen again.”

These are dangerous statements. Sailboat racing is a game of too many dynamics to fall into the rut that we should always go right in Long Beach. Sure, over the averages of time since before any of us were born (no matter how old you are), if two boats split to opposite sides of the racecourse in Long Beach, CA, the boat on the right might win 70% of the time. The averages are overwhelmingly in favor of one side over the other when the conditions are just right. But, for every two boats that have won on the right in Long Beach, there has been one that won on the left. Was it just an accident? Should we just blindly stumble off to the right and play the odds that we might win? When it comes to local knowledge and more so when it comes to race-to-race decisions, what just happened in the past should often be forgotten.

Take history with a grain of salt. The decision-making process about what to do in the next race should be fresh. It is important to understand what parts of the previous race are applicable to the next and what parts are not. Has the current changed directions or strength? Will the breeze oscillate? Too often sailors see conditions that existed for 10 minutes and believe that as law for the rest of the day. For the most part I argue against splitting tacks before the first race of the day for that reason. Weather and course conditions are often so variable, they can make information five minutes old obsolete. It is absolutely vital in sailboat racing to be aware of conditions as they are changing and not depend on information from conditions in the past. Recognizing the patterns is critical and then correctly reacting is paramount.

The best sailors in the world are aware of what has happened, but most importantly they are constantly aware of the conditions at present. Each decision made on the racecourse should be an assessment of the conditions and positioning at the moment, aware but not dependent on history. They use their unique experience to recognize the patterns as they see them, even in unfamiliar sailing locations. The reasons why some locations are notoriously favored towards one side or the other are usually reasons that can be deduced from observing the situation. It is more important to know why a location has certain tendencies than it is to know what those tendencies are. If we know why, then we can recognize when the patterns match up and when they don’t. In both cases we can take advantage of the situation and not leave it up to the statistical average. Knowing why it favors the right in Long Beach 70% of the time enables us to still have the advantage when the 30% conditions are present. The phrase in investing strategy that anybody can win when the bull market, but the best can win in a bear market holds true in sailboat racing too. Relying on history can be valuable only up to a point, and then it becomes very dangerous. Understanding why historical data happened and then recognizing the patterns instead of relying on that data will improve our chances to succeed on the racecourse.

It all starts with a simple thought: I think we should go to that regatta! Now what? Whether its easy or not, the responsibility for making to the starting line always sits on the sailor’s shoulders. Granted, sailors too young to drive themselves to the event, but each step along the process of getting to the starting line is a learning opportunity. For young sailors these logistical problem-solving skills can build self-reliance and a sense of personal responsibility. We know that once young sailors are on the water, they are teaching themselves valuable lessons while developing character as they interact with their equipment and other sailors in an effort to get around the racecourse. Often overlooked are the opportunities for young sailors to take the administrative efforts into their own hands. The moment a sailor vocalizes to his or her parents or to a coach: “Yes, I want to do that regatta” it seems the common reaction is for the parent or coach to jump into action to make it happen, instead of the sailor. Parents are often so keen to see their young sailors be interested and active in the sport, they actually handicap the sailor’s development in the sport by taking the administrative role out of the sailor’s responsibility. At some point sailors have to make the transition from having his or her parents take care of all the details and have to make plans themselves. This is the most important phase in a sailor’s development in the sport. The classic concepts of homework, attention to detail, and the value of planning are taught every day in school to enable students to transition into the real world with the capacity to administer their own lives. Sailors should be taught those same lessons if they desire to pursue the sport throughout their lives.

Rule #3 is one that I learned at a very young age. Even though I still need a refresher course every once in a while, I will never forget dear old Dad prophesying that ancient truth summed up by the 7P’s (please excuse the PG13 language but it’s the only way I remember it): Rule #3 Prior Proper Planning Prevents a Piss Poor Performance.

Why do I bring this up? This weekend was a hard lesson for some sailors to learn at the 2012 ISAF Youth World Qualifier in Long Beach, CA. Sailors arrived at registration and were asked for a number of things. Without these items sailors would be turned away from the regatta:

- Entry fee, plus late fee if after Jan 6.
- Class specific items such as:
- I420 valid measurement certificate
- Class legal sails
- “USA” sail letters in place
- Red rhombus for Girls teams
- a Release of Liability Form
- a Medical Consent/Info Form
- US Sailing Membership
- a valid US Passport
- a Birth Certificate

This is no short list. Some of these details need to be ironed out days or weeks ahead of going to the regatta. Just in the same way that flights need to be booked, charters need to be organized, housing needs to be sorted, maybe a little fundraising needs organizing. Each item is equally critical to getting the sailor to the starting line (Remember, that is our goal right!?!). Often major events have lists like this, but every event is different. Planning to attend the Laser Worlds, for instance, can be a 6-month process ensuring proper qualification regattas are sailed to earn grand prix points or secure a district berth. Making sure the US qualifies to even sail in the Olympic games started at the recent worlds in Perth almost 9 months before the Olympic regatta. Sometimes the process is outlined in a class rules or by-laws document almost always found on the class website. But, ever since the first regatta was ever sailed there has been a Notice of Race, the NOR. These are published months, sometimes years ahead of time to enable sailors to properly prepare for an event. The announcement for this youth worlds qualifier was made last October.

NORs are meant to promote events, to allow sailors to fix any problems well ahead of time that might prevent them from making it to the starting line of the first race of that regatta. They are the often the quickest thing to be overlooked by sailors. I’d be lying if I told you I’ve read every NOR for every regatta I’ve ever sailed. I haven’t. That said, for the important regattas (i.e. the regattas that demand a lot of other time, financial and logistical commitment) the NOR can have nuggets of important information that make the registration process a lot less stressful, and ultimately help performance on the water. One of the major NOR details we dealt with on the 2011 ISAF World Cup circuit was an ever-changing insurance number. Some regattas demanded outside proof 1,000,000USD, others wanted 1,000,000EURO (a very different number), at the Worlds they demanded 10,000,000AUS that had to be purchased from a local vendor. What a hassle! It made me want to start an insurance company, but without the coverage, the registration office would not let us sail. Instead, a little planning ahead meant that we had the documents ready to make the registration teams in Miami, Palma Spain, Hyeres France, Weymouth England, and Fremantle Australia happy. Making it smooth for the registration desk is probably the single best thing you can do for your stress level leading into a regatta. Nobody likes having to stand in line more than once, do paperwork in a rush or try to negotiate in a foreign language to find the nearest fax machine to get some all-important document. Getting in and out of the registration office quickly is the first victory of the regatta in my mind. It let’s me get back on the water faster!

There is another attitude which suffices when it comes to the NOR, Sailing Instruction and other Logistical world of sailing… These details are necessary evils in a process toward the ultimate goal: success on the water. I think the passport and birth certificate rules are a bit strict for a registration process, but we all know why they are necessary for a youth world qualifier. Many times the qualifier is only weeks before the Youth Worlds. There might be a quick turnaround from the qualifier straight to the World Championships. Proof of age and proof of citizenship are two necessary evils in the world of international sailing, just in the same way as drug testing, media relations, physical training, sail testing, mast tuning, diving boat bottoms, fundraising, and hiking hard. These are not always enjoyable, but the fact that we get to go sailboat racing at the end of the day is all the reward I need.

Let me make one more plea for how to approach preparation with youth sailors. Show them where the necessary steps are to prepare for a successful event. Go through it with them, but let them do it. Just in the same way that a parent wouldn’t write their child’s college essay, they shouldn’t be registering them for the Youth Worlds Qualifier. CISA Clinic sailors know my constant phrase demanding “Personal Responsibility.” Sailors arrive on site and are out from the umbrella of anybody else’s support. They are expected to register, show up for meetings, show up for training, and show up for sailing with the right equipment and mindset to improve their sailing. If a sailor asks for help, guidance and assistance are always standingby, but there is nothing more rewarding than seeing sailors enjoy the sport for themselves just as we do ourselves.

More to come from www.CampbellSailing.com

Standby for Rule #4 next Monday: Why History can be Dangerous

Also check StarClass.org for their classifieds.

My sailing strategy in general is to break down sailboat racing into a series of key decisions for each race. If each decision has multiple choices, then I need to assess and decide which of those choices has the highest percentage of success. At that point, my boat needs to execute the decision as well as possible to assure ourselves the best chance of a good position leading into the next choice in the race. It is easy to get ahead of myself and think Well, if I can just get around this mark inside and then tack on three headers I’ll be in the lead after this next beat. A good plan is only as good as its execution.

Even good plans turn out to be founded on a wrong decision early in the race. It is also important to be able to reassess from any given point on the racecourse and adjust any preconceived notions as to how the race was going. I wrote an article for Sailing World Magazine a couple years ago about “Pressing the Reset Button.” It covered that idea about how sailors need to have a “baseball memory.” Even if you struck out the last time you were up to bat, you need to come up the plate the next time with the intentions of getting a hit. That goes for any decision point in a race: a tack or cross situation, an exit from a leeward mark, or a choice of starting position on the line. At every point we need to at least have the capacity to say to ourselves Is this the high percentage choice at this moment?. This year’s list of 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 will help us to recognize those important points around every race, and then help us make the highest percentage move at each point.

So lets get to our www.CampbellSailing.com 2012 Rule to Sail by Number 1: Have a plan.

That seems simple enough, before every regatta we have an idea about the conditions that are likely for the event. Is it going to be windy? Will it be light? Will it be hot? Is there going to be a rainy cold front? All of these things go into a plan for a regatta. Just as we get properly dressed for the regatta (to be continued in rule #10), we should assess the conditions on the course before each race starts. Singlehanded sailors get to talk to themselves, but multiperson boats should have a pre-race discussion that starts like this: Do we like the Right or the Left side of the racecourse? Why? Is there current advantage on one side or the other? Is the starting line favored to one side or the other? What worked out last race or last time we sailed in this condition? Is there something to make it different from last time?

Once you’ve had that type of discussion, the plan should be generalized something like this:

We like the breeze on the left. The committee boat is favored, thus the fleet will probably be stacked up there. We’ll try and start to leeward of the group and lead them left. Then we’ll cross them and center up in the final 1/4 of the leg -or- We’ll hammer the left until it’s nailed shut and try and win from that side.

Regardless, openly discussing the plan does a number of things. It allows your teammates to be on the same page as the tactician or skipper. In example above, the crew knows that it is important to hike hard and keep our lane off the starting line. Clean up and minor details are not as important as keeping the boat going fast towards the left. If the plan were to go right, its important for the crew to know there is an early tack coming after the start. I think you can see where this is going.

Just chatting about the maneuver or giving brief overview of the plan makes everybody think quickly about their individual roles in helping execute that plan. Going into a windward mark it is the tactician or skipper’s job to vocalize the plan for how to exit the mark. There are more than a few choices, but here are three: 1 Straight Set. 2 Gybe Set. or 3. Set and looking to match the boat behind. Just stating the plan is often enough to remind all of your teammates that they have a critical job to play on the upcoming move.

That gives us a great segue to Rule Number 2: Be Flexible

Just as much as it is important to have a plan, it is just as important to Be Flexible. How many times have we had the plan discussed above and then made a mistake. We wanted the left, we didn’t have a great start, we got rolled off the line and we’re in bad air. The tactician or skipper has to be able to reassess at the point. Sometimes quick decisions need to be made, but whatever the action don’t keep sailing in bad air just because the plan was to go left. There must be a reason. Isolating the decisions that need to be made can help simplify the situation: 1 We have reasons X, Y, Z why we wanted to go left. 2 Bad air negates X, Y, Z. Conclusion: We need to clear out. Once we complete the clearing maneuver we’re faced with a new set of choices: 1 Should we take a thin lane just to get back left? or 2 Should we continue right until we get a better angle to tack on? I’m a huge proponent of clearing out of a bad situation early. As we’ll see in rule #31, often you have a better set of choices if you clear out early after the start than if you wait in bad air.

Even if we don’t make a mistake we need to be flexible. Lets say we succeeded in getting a good start to leeward of the group, pinched off a few boats to windward and then we see the breeze filling in from the right side of the course. As soon as we see different breeze on the course we need to reassess the decision-making process that put us in the current situation. The information we had before the start may only be 2 minutes old, or less, but still may be useless. See the breeze, assess the fleet, assess the original plan and make sure that the current information negates the old information and change the plan. There are plenty of times to be patient (as we’ll see in Rule #38), but if we estimate that the chances are 75% for the right to win and 25% for the left to win, then we better get moving.

Each mark around the course is a good time to be flexible about your plans to. Sailboat racing is as much freeform as it is scientific. As much as we would like to break it down into recognizable patterns, no race, no situation, no wave is exactly the same. It is important to recognized the situation as matching a pattern we’ve seen before, but just as quickly recognize that it doesn’t match up any more and change the approach.

One of my projects the last couple years has been directing the CISA Advanced Racing Clinic for young sailors ages 13-19 who are serious about improving to the top level of junior sailing. The clinic has a tradition of outstanding coaching and an intensive learning environment. It’s a four day clinic consisting of workouts each morning with Annapolis Sailing Fitness trainer Harry Legum followed by a full day usually with two sailing sessions off Long Beach, California, briefings held at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and evening programs bringing the likes of America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race and Olympic veterans to make presentations to the sailors. The final day of the clinic is a one-day regatta where the sailors test their new skills against one another under the careful eye of world class coaching.

This year we’re stepping CISA Clinic up another notch and bringing in top-level talent to tune, train, and race alongside the youth sailors during the clinic portion. The sailors will get the chance to test against and see first hand how the top sailors at the Olympic level train and practice. I’m very excited about this new development as CISA continues to lead the field in youth sailing training. I encourage sailors to take this opportunity and run with it. Get your applications going and in by the end of the month. Whether you are looking to make the jump onto the US Sailing Team or to make a run at your regional championships, this clinic will make a difference in your not only your sailing but in how you approach the game altogether.

We offer six classes, FJ, Club 420, International 420, 29er, Laser and Laser Radial.

The clinic runs April 12-15, 2012.

Applications can be found here.

Deadline is 5pm California time February 1, 2012 – No exceptions.

Doublehanded teams must apply together. If a sailor would like to be considered in multiple classes they must fill out multiple applications.

If you have questions please email: Danielle@odmsail.com

Ian and I spent more than 110 days on the water together in the Star and close to 100 more each racing with other boats. In the last year alone we traveled to Miami four times for three training camps and two regattas; Miami OCR and Bacardi Cup. We made four trips to and from Europe: to Palma, Spain; to Hyeres, France; to Weymouth, England; and to Dublin, Ireland. We went to Fremantle, Australia before Thanksgiving to get ready for the Worlds in Australia. That’s about 60,000 air miles each for the Olympic circuit alone.

We fundraised hard to travel and race as well as commission a new boat from P Star in Michigan in August 2010 to prepare us for the final stretch of the effort. This year we budgeted and spent more than $120,000, half of which needed to be fundraised outside of the USOC direct athlete funding. We had four donors of five figures this year and close to a hundred others ranging from $25 to $5,000. Each of them has played a critical role in our success. The CISA Foundation and the San Diego Yacht Club Sailing Foundation were each outstanding partners in helping facilitate those donations. The Annapolis Yacht Club Sailing foundation of Ian’s home club were also very supportive in 2011.

The support of a number of key sponsors, both monetarily and through product assistance, also helped us keep our budget within reason. Sperry Top-Sider has supported our team above and beyond their commitment to the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics and we’ve enjoyed working together on product development of their new GripX3 hiking boots and deckshoes. North Sails One Design was a major factor in our success, helping us develop sails that we knew could perform at the highest level through the range of conditions. When we needed specific sails for specific locations, they had the insight to help us develop sails that would give us a shot to win. Kaenon Polarized has been keeping my eyes protected and helping me see the breeze on the water since I first joined the US team in 2001. Harken was instrumental in rigging our new boat last year, continued it’s support, and developed products that kept us on the racecourse instead at the dock doing boatwork. McLube not only provided us with spray dry lubricant, but was also very helpful in minimizing the time we spent diving the bottom of the boat thanks to their newly developed HullKote Speed Polish.

I began racing with Ian Coleman in early 2011 and our World Ranking climbed from finishes consistently in the top 10 to a strong 4th as we headed down to the Worlds this past month. I would be remiss if I didn’t give thanks to the hard work of Brad Nichol, my crew in the first few years of my star sailing, and Magnus Liljedahl, who helped me get serious attention from the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics in 2009 and 2010 when I jumped into the Star class out of the Laser.

Mark Ivey helped us come a long way in the first two years of the US Star Team’s campaign, coaching us to 1st and 5th place finishes at the worlds in 2009 and Leandro Spina helped us continue on a consistent track of improvement in the third year of this quadrennium. Our time in Miami this winter helped Ian and I break down our maneuvering to a point where we never got one wrong in the final few events of the season. Our speed tuning and testing as a team were the reason we had four US teams ranked in the top 20 in the world in 2011.

We spent countless hours in the gym with Harry Legum at Annapolis Sailing Fitness, with the Georgetown University Varsity Strength and Conditioning staff, and with Chris Herrera in Miami at Bow Down Training. I can’t speak for Ian, but I know he put on 15 pounds and improved his fitness immensely from our March testing to our October testing, which both took place at the USOTC in Colorado Springs. After losing nearly 20 pounds to get down to 165lbs for my Olympic regatta in Beijing in 2008, I carefully put 30lbs back on to transition into the Star.

In the end it came down to two regattas in Weymouth and Fremantle this year. We knew the system and the consequences. We felt like we had a strong chance in the big breeze. The tuning leading into the regatta had been improving our 15-25 knot sailing. Our final few months of training prepared us well for that condition. At no point did we think we had given away our speed in sub-15 knot conditions. In Fremantle, we ended up having a few key situations that would have drastically changed how our final result turned out. The breeze shifted wrong for us a few times in ways that made us scratch our heads. I always preach making high percentage decisions on the racecourse and this regatta ended up being one where the other percentage worked out a few times too often. Things did not go our way. Looking back on it, I would race the regatta the same way again if we were staring anew. I think 8 times out of 10 we would be top ten at big events. At 8 big regattas out of 10 we were top 10 this year and beat our tough US competitors. Unfortunately the 2 out of 10 events that we needed to, we didn’t. I don’t think it was nerves or pressure, it was just the way the cards were dealt. We approached those two events with the same intensity and focus that we had all season. The success of our season gives me confidence that we approached those two events correctly. I am glad that we were able to perform well enough to qualify the country for the Olympics, any of three American teams could have done that. There are some strong teams from other countires still looking to secure their country’s berth. I want to congratulate Brian and Mark for the outstanding regatta they had in Fremantle. I hope that is indicative of how they can perform at the Olympics.

Let me take one moment to thank my wife Jacqueline for her unrivaled support, keeping me focused on what I needed to do to win and helping me have a ton of fun during the process. My entire family has been unbelievably supportive not only in their time and advice. They have all been a sounding board for ideas and have also watched from the wings as sailing has taken me places in the sport that they knew I could go and beyond. They are an inspiration to my sailing. Thanks to them, I have a complete understanding of how to approach and win at the top end of the sport, but also know how to have fun on the water with the people I love most. Sailing with my family is an experience unlike any other, just ask anybody who’s done it! They keep the pressure on while racing and smile about it afterwards. I can’t thank them enough for showing me the way the sport should be played.

So that leaves us with what?… The Star Class at the moment has been removed from the 2016 Olympic class list. It’s hard to believe that I’ve spent 10 years on the Olympic sailing circuit when I wasn’t going to school. The next step for now will be committing myself to professional sailing and coaching. I am looking forward to continuing to coach and sail on the match racing circuit and big boat circuits. Hopefully there is more small boat sailing in the future as well.

When I first started this weblog it was meant as a point of contact for my family, friends and donors. I could give them updates on my sailing and they could live my journey with me as I traveled around the world racing Lasers and more boats than I can think of off the top of my head. I briefly had a Monday Morning Tactician column that would break down racing situations for readers to digest and discuss, and hopefully develop a new perspective on tactical sailboat racing. This weblog has surprised me, to say the least. I’ve been invited to help with rules committees, write articles and talk at yacht clubs and clinics based solely on ideas that I’ve written about here. How lucky I am to be given the opportunity to give back to the sport I love. We’ve had as many as 5,000 views a week and averaged close to 2,000 during regattas. It still shocks me to see 500 viewers on an off-sailing week, and inspires me to get going and put something new and valid up on the website. I wish there was a way that I could repay all of your support and attention. I will do my best to refresh this website to talk about any sailing that I am doing in the future. Likewise I will be making an effort to re-start the Monday Morning Tactician column to hopefully provoke some more discussions about tactical sailboat racing and anything else that comes to mind about our great game.

Please check back, because there will be more to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.

Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing

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New England Ropes

Friday finally had a decent and steady seabreeze fill across Gage Roads and onto the Star course. Ian and I needed a couple miracles to make a push into the top ten and make any last shot at the Olympic berth. We had a good day, all things considered. But not good enough to break into the top 10 overall. We sailed most of both races in the top 15 fighting our way into the top ten in the first race briefly but finishing 13th. In race two we were in good shape coming into the first weather mark, approaching from the starboard layline, but got mauled by the crowd charging in from the left. Three boats tacked too close to us at the weather mark instead of ducking and crashed us up into the Japanese team to windward of us cracking our starboard transom. Then, as we were stalled trying to keep our rig off the boats to leeward, our teammates Andy Horton and John von Schwartz crash-tacked into our port rail about a foot from the transom giving us a 5 inch gash on the port transom. We were in no danger, but the boat was no longer in perfect condition, nor were we in the same position as we had entered the weather mark. We fought to get back into the top 20 and finished 18th. Honestly the holing put an exclamation point on a really tough week of sailing. Nothing really went our way and we never quite got into the groove we knew we had if the conditions had been a little steadier. As all sailors know, sometimes its your week and other times its not. This was not our week. I must congratulate Mark and Brian for sailing a fantastic series and showing the world that they are capable sailors to represent the US on the water in the Star class. It has been a tough season racing with George Szabo and Mark Strube, Andy Horton, Rick Merriman, John von Schwartz, Phil Trinter and James Lyne, under the watchful eyes of coach Leandro Spina. I am confident that all those sailors and Ian and myself have competed with a mutual respect for each other and competitive spirit that has made the US team one to be taken very seriously on the racecourse.

I will have a final report on this week as we travel back to the US before the Christmas holiday at
www.campbellsailing.com”>www.CampbellSailing.com.

Results: http://www.perth2011.com/competition/PERTH2011/SAM007000/results

Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing

Thanks to our sponsors:

McLube

New England Ropes

Ian and I are left scratching our heads after some races. Yesterday we sailed a great first race in what seemed to be a building seabreeze. Finally the sun was shining and the Southwesterly was filling in across Gage Roads. We had a good start on the left end of the line and pressed into the left. It didn’t pay off like we wanted it to, but enough that we could round with the top group of 10 or 11 boats. We made a few gains here and there in the oscillating breeze, until the final run. We split to the course left of the group and watched helplessly as the wind started to die and shift left. This would normally be a big gain to boats in our position as we would just get headed into the finish line and reach over boats on the right that now were tight reaching to the finish. Instead 10 boats surged in the last fingers of the seabreeze towards the finish as we wallowed in the first part of the conversion zone as the easterly filled back in. We finished 20th. The scores don’t even do justice for the frustration and elation going on around the course. The leaders had sailed tight reached into the finish. We were lucky to finish with any breeze and then watched the back end of the fleet sit becalmed in 3 foot chop with their sails slapping them in the face as they drifted across the line. Remember, this race had been started in 12 knots of an apparently building seabreeze.

We sat for about an hour as the sky went overcast and the face of the day changed drastically. Our race committee moved about a half mile closer to shore to try and get set up better in the new breeze that was slowly filling from about 70 degrees left of the first race. After two general recalls, we finally got off under the threat of a black flag. Ian and I paced into the left figuring that the shoreline would be spilling off lefty puffs. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The first shift off the line was a lefty. We took that for a short while, but were quickly pushed back toward the left as a long right hand shift pulsed in to finish the leg. It was ugly, but we stayed committed to the left considering that the day had been crazy already. For that commitment we paid dearly and rounded about 35th. Luckily there is lots of room to play with downwind shifts in the back of the pack and we did our best to slice and dice down the first run, got into a few nice righties on the second beat and rounded in the mid twenties at the next windward mark. We set low behind a nice group of boats and finished overlapped with the 10-14 place boats to take a hard-fought 15th.

Heading into Thursday’s lay-day, that’s where we sit: 17th overall, in a three way tie for 15th. Somehow we’re only 12 points out of medal race contention. That will be our goal for Friday. We need to find a way to redeem ourselves after a ghastly week of sailing. Redemption Day is Friday.

Results and other information can be found at Perth2011.com.

More to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.

Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing

Thanks to our sponsors:

McLube

New England Ropes