N 17s and Miami SWC

We nailed four races today with CoCs in all races except race nine. Check the US Sailing site for live tracking and results if you are not already doing so.

ISAF regs will test one's skill and endurance due the strict time targets and axis maintenance.

More rain is forecast for tomorrow.

There has been no time for pics due to being short handed on our mark set boat. The two meter cylinders are a pain in the a$$.

I bet the mixed results may be offering a look at the depth in this class after one year.

Aloha,
Bert

What is CofC? (The only thing I know that as is College of Charleston).

Also, what's up with all the SCPs on day 1?

SCP - Took a scoring penalty under rule 44.3

Results link here

That was my first thought as well. My guess is

change of course.

Very normal to have courses change at the ISAF level of events (Olympics, Worlds and some feeder events). It's often planned and preferred, regardless of whether there is a change in the wind.

For example, a longer initial weather leg is preferred to reduce carnage at the weather mark and ensuing marks, it is then necessary to reduce the course length for the following weather leg(s) to meet the target time.

2 meter cylinders are easy, 8 foot tetrehedrons suck...

Mike

The results are... interesting. Not a great showing by Team USA. A few moments of brilliance, but too many big numbers. <img src="<>/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" />

Mike

Jeff, I met David this morning as they were drifting by. He seems to be a nice kid with his heart in a good place. I understand he did very well - friendly ambassador for the young up and comers.

I heard the National Team will be announced in a couple of weeks.

Jake, we hardly ever get through a day of racing on the gulf coast without several course adjustments to accommodate a shift during a race. The easy way out is to watch the wind shift, laugh, and have another beverage. I was not brought up that way. I noticed at Tradewinds, a couple years ago, that they were enjoying steady breeze driven by a cold front and a tropical tradewind effect. That is really true in Hawaii, but life outside the trades requires attentive course management to maintain a fair and square race course.

In Miami, we performed several

yellow mark

and offset resets due to the time limit as well (+ or - trick) with the same axis (original upwind course heading).

Yesterday we lost one of the Swiss Timing transponders during a reset.

Actually Mike, the new ISAF marks are spheres with an inner bladder and outside skin. They are hard to inflate and deflate and present problems due to weight and complexity of transponder rigging. If they are too soft; they do not want to come in the boat. I can short tow tetras of any size, but these buoys are mean. They are easy to see, but they become a bear in a sea state.

Overall, we had a fine event that was conducted by international race officers with regional, national, and blue collar (like me), club race officers on all the mark boats. The Canadians play a strong role every year.

There were many youth teams present that are setting the stage for a strong USA effort during this quad.

JC and Sarah are stoked about their future in Europe and the SWC regattas forthcoming in 2014.

This regatta proved to be a great evolution for the art of catamaran racing in our nation even though there will be no USA team in the Medal Racing (-:

Headed home tomorrow - B

Bert, I just wanted to thank you and your colleague for volunteering as a race officers for the OCR's....Without folks like yourself, the enormous effort to run a world class event would simply not happen. It's not like this is your yacht club.. The panhandle is a long way from Miami!! Thanks for serving.

I know pikers like myself, count on good luck, and overlook the work of the RC at these things.... asking...

Why do we need all of this staff....Why does it cost so much... Hell we run good races with a bayliner and a zodiac.

The whole point of the Olympic/World cup level of competition is to eliminate luck as much as possible and have sailor skill be the key factor in medals. The sailors are so good AND they are so close in skill that if you don't keep the race course fair.... the changing conditions will favor some in the fleet. So...the term Olympic equipment and Olympic race management mean a lot and are important.

From an observer that used to race quite a bit, point of view, the whole medal races thing seems to add a luck factor that wasn't there before. The need for consistency through out the regatta would be some what reduced wouldn't it?

Also as a sailing bigot i am pleased that the male skippers are at the top, while at the same time disappointed that usa kind of sucks at top level cat racing these days.

Great job Bert! I know a few people who share the privilege of working that event. Takes a great team to pull all of that together.

Thanks for clarifying about those

cylinders

as you first called them. The marks with the telemetry seem like overkill to me, but I understand why they are used. It will be nice when they turn them into fully automated drones someday...

Mike

You are so incredibly out if touch with the state of sailing it amazes me. Maybe this is the reason sailing has had growth problems.

I had assumed that he meant that women were being successful on the front of the boat in light of everyone

naturally

assuming that women would have to helm a N17 in order to have a successful mixed team.

out of touch with your world...very much so.
We have people coming here from around the world all year to kite surf and wind surf. Never have checked the facts about the decline of sailing.
Maybe the decline has something to with the economy, or mass mind programing, or the corporate world moving most of the industry out of the states. Yachting is sort of an upper middle class thing, and that class is getting smaller in the states.
Hobie sailing is being picked back up by other countries now and is having the biggest worlds ever right now. Yet some how 1 guy on the internet rooting for team

guy drivers

is hurting sailing.

The idea that men wouldn't be able to captain a cat in the olympics bothered me a little, and now i see man captains do have a shot and will prolly win the medals.
Also what Jake said. Women are strong enough to run the front sails contrary to early speculation. Also to be fair there are many women skippers that win against men. Maybe one will win a gold, but i am hoping that driving racing cats is one thing that men can do better. Kind of like wave sailing on windsurfers. We have so few things that we are better at i am grasping at straws here.

Dude...SMH. I'm sorry I defended you with an alternate interpretation. My last hope is that this is an attempt at humor.

? The dude pays the opposite sex a compliment and he's catching flack for it...

That was a compliment? I feel sorry for your wife.

maybe it's just a bad job of explaining his point <img src="<>/smirk.gif" alt="smirk" title="smirk" height="15" width="15" />

Jake sees the good in everyone <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" /> We could all learn from that...

Rainbows and unicorns... Like Ron Burgundy

Girls are good, girls are very good but what's wrong with having some stuff just for guys?

They had stuff for guys, and that stuff got kicked out of the Olympics. Apparently this is what the powers that be had to do to get ANY stuff back in the Olympics. It is what it is, and if we wanted a cat back in...this was how it had to be done. Others here know the details far better than me.

The problem with men on cats had nothing to do with men, or cats. It was an easy target with little political support. There are a million interpretations of this situation, and how we've arrived at the current state, but that's what started it all.

The real question is, how do we dramatically improve those rather dismal Miami results to have any shot at a medal in Rio?

Mike

So what your suggesting is there are no women rooting for women skippers just because they are women, and if they were they are out of touch? LOL!

JC and Sarah did OK, even winning a race. Plus they won the event before against some of the same field...maybe peaked a little earlier? I'm not sure if Robbie and Catherine are in it to win it or? My personal notes:

1) The results are disappointing, considering this is the U.S.A's home territory, I expected stronger finishes from all our teams

2) Clearly the Italians, Australians and British have strong teams. I think that is one key ingredient we are lacking

3) Our teams NEED to be training in Europe. I wouldn't even bother playing this game if you don't have the financial resources for a 2 or even 3 boat campaign, with 1 boat in Europe and another in the U.S to use when qualifying for the U.S team. We saw a similar smack down at Nacra 17 Worlds this past summer. Most of our sailors just don't have the big competitive fleet experience of the Euro's. Take a look at Luke Ramsay's results; he's training with our team in Miami, but AFAIK also owns a second boat in Europe. Further, this was a light air event. What happens when the breeze gets cranked on for the teams that train more in the light (cough cough U.S.A) than the heavy??

I do think JC and Sarah realize #3, and are attempting to raise capital for a 2nd boat to be left in Europe. IMO, they are our best chance for this quad, but there is plenty of work to do.

And you did bring up a good point. Some women are strong enough to handle the job of N17 crew.
i did point out it's a bigoted comment. sort of half joking, but i think you will find there are plenty of olympic records held by men. There is a female saying: men are idiots and i do fall into that category. Prolly being good at sports doesn't mean men should run the world though.

Again, there was the initial reaction that women would be driving the N17s at the next oylmics meaning men would need to wait a dozen years for a shot at winning a gold in cats at an olympics.
It now looks like both men and women are getting a shot, but it would be more fair to the women to have their own division.

No one doubts that athletic performance is fundamentally tied to one's intrinsic biology determined by your genes. Obviously men and woman differ with X an Y chromosomes making up the 23rd pair. So, their athletic performance will differ. We ARE egalitarian... we support Mens and Woman's events...

OPEN multihull with the right equipment would be egalitarian, eg. sailors are sailors...

Mixed Multihull with the right equipment is political...eg what sex is driving... what sex is crewing....what about muslim countries... Gee, what other Olympic events (that are not performance art) are mixed.... Settling for Mixed multihull was a short sighted mistake!

The bottom line, the OCR's prove that the intrinsic US Sailing tradition is simply not strong enough or deep enough in the new high performance disciplines to get you up to world class performance standards quickly ...
20's in the 49FX and Teens in the N17s
US Olympic understood that it could be an 8 year effort to get there. AND... It's not going to be easy!

I suspect we would be much more enthusiastic about the future if we saw 20 junior teams at F16 youth champs and another 40 youth teams around the country trying to get to youth champs or ISAF world selection events.. ditto for 29ners!

I knew a few that were strong enough to handle crew on an N20 when it's honking... Gina, Kathy, Laura, Laurie, the list goes on....

The reality is regardless of gender to make it in an olympic sailing event you have to be supremely fit.....any of the sailors would knock spots off the fitness of any of us forum posters regardless of their sex......I have very close contact with all the GBR teams and I do know how many hours a day they spend in the gym on fitness and strength.......the girls level of fitness makes me ashamed of my physical ability.......any one who questions their fitness and physical aptitude really have no f**king idea.....

And to that note, the Brits seem to have the recruitment and development program figured out pretty well also.

Long Live Eddie the Eagle (who was, in his defense, a pretty decent skier)